"The slave asked Gui Zhongtang for peace. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ”

"Please, Nakado."

"Gui Zhongtang, why are you going back just after the dispersal of the dynasty? Don't have any official business to do? ”

"It's done, I'm bored in the palace, go back and be comfortable."

Answering the question very depressed, Gui Liang, a member of the Great Qing Dynasty and a scholar of Dongge University, walked straight to Donghua Gate with a somewhat unkind expression, and did not bother to deal with the civil and military officials who came forward to salute him, and when he accidentally looked in the direction of the military aircraft department, Gui Liang Gui Zhongtang's eyes were still full of envy and jealousy, and his mood became more and more depressed.

It's no wonder that our Gui Zhongtang is in a bad mood, you are a first-class university scholar known as Zhongtang, or the father-in-law of Prince Gong, the sixth brother of Emperor Xianfeng, but the real power in our Gui Zhongtang is very pitiful, in addition to being able to appear in front of hundreds of officials every day, basically can't find anything important to do, and the degree of leisure is almost straight to those idle princes in the capital who carry cages and birds all day long, and Beile Beizi who eats and drinks and waits for death.

Gui Zhongtang is not afraid of idleness, and he doesn't want to let himself be so tired that he can't even sleep with a beautiful concubine, Gui Zhongtang is afraid that he has no money and no silver, and he is used to living a pampered life. However, it is a pity that there is no power in his hands, and he is destined to have no money in his pocket, since he was promoted to a scholar of Dongge University, in addition to being able to receive a pitiful amount of silver every year, Gui Zhongtang can only rely on the meager rent of the Huangzhuang in exchange for marrying his daughter to make a living, and it is not enough to feed a family of more than 300 people, so poor that he simply wants to turn a copper plate into two petals.

Gui Zhongtang also misses the glorious years when he worked in the place, at that time, Gui Zhongtang was simply sitting in the sea of gold and silver, there were tens of thousands of taels of silver a year, as well as the savings of taxes, the filial piety of subordinates, the worship of scholars, as long as the heart was a little ruthless, you can also collect money to do things, sell official beards, buy shares in firms, embezzlement and collect money, in short, as long as Gui Zhongtang is willing, some people are scrambling to send silver to Gui Zhongtang to send beauties, whether to accept it depends on Gui Zhongtang's mood.

The big mansion in the capital, the more than a dozen wives and concubines in the house, countless antiques, calligraphy and paintings, rare treasures, silk and satin, as well as the Zhuangzi garden outside the city, the self-raised opera troupe, the excellent eagle dog and the good horse, all kinds of expensive things, all earned by Gui Zhongtang when he was a magistrate.

Recalling the happy days when he served as the local governor, Gui Zhongtang couldn't help but have a wry smile on the corner of his mouth, and he hated his son-in-law Devil Liu's head in the water, in order to offend Emperor Xianfeng for his dead ghost mother, he was secretly demoted by Mingsheng, and just after three years in the governor of Zhili, he was immediately transferred back to the capital and sent into the East Pavilion where birds don't shit as a bullshit Zhongtang scholar, the name of the official position is good, but the real power to make money is gone.

"I was careless in choosing a son-in-law."

After quietly lamenting these words, Gui Liang couldn't help but think of some recent rumors in the imperial court, saying that his son-in-law Guizi Liu, because he strongly advocated promoting peace with war before the Dagukou War, had been forgiven and partially trusted by Emperor Xianfeng, and he was expected to return to office. There is also the fact that Emperor Xianfeng is considering appointing himself to replace the seriously ill Huashana as the governor of Huguang, and there are also many people in the Military Aircraft Department and the Sixth Central Department who are promoting this matter, although it has not yet been finalized, but the source of this rumor is very reliable - it is a direct news from the Military Aircraft Department.

"I hope these are true, and I also hope that the old man will hurry up and say that he is sick and begging, I heard that Hubei is now governed quite well by Wu Chaoyue, and the tax money and grain are already the first of the provinces in the Central Plains, and if he can really become the governor of Huguang, the old man will no longer have to worry about the gambling debts and prostitution debts of the three evil animals and their sons.

"Alas, the family is unfortunate, the old man is wise, how can he give birth to children and grandchildren who are as stupid as pigs and dogs? One is more muddy than the other can't hold up the wall? The only son who is angry, why did he die early at the age of twenty-two?! ”

Returned home with a heavy heart, to Gui Zhongtang's surprise, his baby son Yanhu didn't go to the Bada Hutong to eat, drink, prostitute and gamble, and was honestly sitting in the hall.

In his heart, he blamed his children and grandchildren for not succeeding, and he was also very disappointed in this little son, Gui Zhongtang of course didn't have a good face for Yan Hu, he snorted and answered, and then walked to the back hall to change clothes, but Yan Hu suddenly asked: "Ama, are you going to Huguang to be the governor?" ”

"What?" Gui Zhongtang was stunned, and subconsciously blurted out, "Who did you listen to?" ”

"I didn't hear it, I guessed it." Yan Hu said with excitement and excitement on his face: "Just now, Wu Chaoyue, the governor of Hubei, suddenly sent someone to send a letter, and also sent a generous gift, the letter was full of words about your ass, and also mentioned in a roundabout way that you were going to Huguang to take over as governor, so the child guessed that you might have to go to Huguang to take office." ”

"Wu Chaoyue sent a letter to the old man and gave a gift, and he also patted my ass? Where is the letter? What about the messenger? Gui Zhongtang hurriedly asked.

"The messenger has gone down to rest, and here the letter is."

While Yan Hu replied, he took out a letter from his sleeve that had been opened, Gui Zhongtang was furious when he saw it, and asked, "Who told you to open it?" A letter written by the governor of a province to his father, do you dare to open it privately? ”

"Amma, it's not time for you to be the governor of Yungui and the governor of Zhili, and you are not an official oracle, so take it apart and see what it is? The child is curious, for no reason, how could the governor of Hubei write a letter to you and give you a gift? ”

The baby son's straightforward rhetorical question made Gui Zhongtang very speechless, but fortunately, this matter is not important, Gui Zhongtang, who was anxious to know the more important situation, ignored the baby son anymore, and just quickly took out the letterhead and took a closer look - and then, Gui Zhongtang began to snicker in his heart.

Wu Chaoyue's letter is actually not nutritious, in addition to catching up with Gui Zhongtang, who had met on the battlefield in Tianjin, and then there is nonsense such as greetings, there are only two points of real content, one is to inquire about whether Gui Liang wants to take office in Huguang, and express his willingness to get along with Gui Liang in advance.

The second point is relatively important, Wu Chaoyue took the initiative to mention the last time he went to the capital to meet with Devil Six, and regretted refusing Devil Six's invitation to stay overnight, and asked Gui Liang to replace himself with Devil Six, begging for Devil Six's forgiveness, and also hoped that Gui Zhongtang would not have any estrangement with himself because of this matter.

After reading Wu Chaoyue's letter, Gui Zhongtang was ecstatic and began to analyze the intention of Wu Chaoyue's move, feeling that Wu Chaoyue was likely to have accepted defeat by doing so, knowing that Emperor Xianfeng would never hand over the most powerful Huguang army in the Central Plains to the Han commander, and also knew that Gui Zhongtang was likely to return to the Jianghu Governor Huguang, so he took the lead to curry favor with himself, so as to facilitate friendly relations in Huguang in the future and avoid the common situation of discord in the Manchu officialdom.

"Amma, why don't you speak? Is it true that Wu Chaoyue's letter hinted that you are going to Huguang to take office? ”

Gui Liang quickly calculated in his heart, but his baby son Yanhu was noisy beside him, and he couldn't wait to fantasize about a bright future, and said: "Huguang is a little poor, but as long as you can have local real power, it is better than being a poor Beijing official in the capital." Amma, if the imperial court really lets you release the governor of Huguang, you must bring the child with you, the child has long been tired of staying in the capital, and he has long wanted to go out to relax...... ”

"Shut up! Before the eight characters were skimmed, they began to make up their minds and wanted to use Lao Tzu's reputation to make money again?! ”

Gui Liang couldn't listen to the scolding, and after careful calculation, Gui Liang made up his mind, hurriedly took Wu Chaoyue's letter out, and went to King Gong's Mansion to meet Devil Six in the name of visiting his daughter, and Gui Liang's baby son Yanhu also began to ask fox friends about Huguang's situation without mentioning it.

Gradually regain the Xianfeng Emperor's devil six, which has made up for the lack of the Mongolian capital with the red flag, and is presiding over the renovation of the barracks with the red flag, busy until the evening returned home, waiting for an afternoon Gui Liang hurriedly stepped forward to kowtow to his son-in-law, and asked to talk to the devil six alone, the devil six knew that there must be something important, so he led Gui Liang into the back hall to talk alone.

Then, of course, Gui Liang immediately handed over Wu Chaoyue's letter to Devil Zi Liu, and cautiously asked his son-in-law to verify his release of the governor of Huguang. As a result, Gui Liang was overjoyed by Devil Six's answer, and replied calmly: "There is this matter, I have accurate information from the inner court, and the imperial brother is indeed considering letting your father-in-law become the governor of Huguang, and Bai Ye and they are also trying their best to promote this matter, so if the governor of Huguang is really vacant, Lao Taishan, you have great hopes." ”

"Virtuous son-in-law, then why didn't you give me a voice earlier, so that I could make some preparations earlier?" Gui Liang asked in ecstasy.

"I'm just afraid that you will prepare early, so I haven't dared to tell you the news!"

Devil Six replied angrily: "What kind of kindness do you think Bai Ye and them support you?" They did this in order to suppress Wu Chaoyue, the most powerful foreign aid in Sushun's local governorship, and did not give Wu Chaoyue the opportunity to take over as the governor of Huguang on the spot! ”

"If you don't take the initiative to jump out to fight, and you don't take the initiative to join forces with Bai Ye's party, Su Shun won't do anything to you, because he knows very well that you didn't deliberately go against him and become a stumbling block for his henchman Wu to surpass the throne, it was someone else who borrowed your knife, and it was also because the emperor was interested in you that he pushed you to the cusp!"

"But if you dare to take the initiative to fight, or even dare to join forces with Bai Ye's party, Su Shun will definitely retaliate! Don't you know how small Su Shun's heart is? is also a university scholar, can you beat him?! ”

Gui Liang woke up, rejoicing in his luck, but also glad that he had calmed down before, even if he heard the rumors that Bai Ye and others were supporting him, he didn't rush out to pull the hatred of Su Shun's party, and he escaped by luck. And after rejoicing, Gui Liang hurriedly asked again: "Virtuous son-in-law, the matter has not been decided yet, why did Wu Chaoyue write such a letter to the old man?" Could it be that the old man's supervision of Huguang has been nine times out of ten? ”

"Possibly." Devil Ziliu nodded and said: "You and I know the temper of the imperial brother, and he has always used the Han people without believing in them. I estimated that Su Shun's side had already admitted it, and I knew that Wu Chaoyue couldn't push it up and decided to give up, so Wu Chaoyue wrote such a letter to you, laying a good foundation in advance, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the official document. ”

After listening to Devil Six's analysis, Gui Liang was of course even more overjoyed and overjoyed. The devil over there sneered and said: "This kid is really careful, knowing that he refused the king's grace last time, the king must be unhappy, and take the initiative to break the matter and apologize first, lest your father-in-law take out your anger for me and deliberately slap his elbow in Huguang." ”

"Weiting is too careful, who are you, son-in-law, the old man still doesn't know?" Gui Liang smiled and said: "The old man knows that he is capable, if he can really supervise Huguang this time, he will definitely treat him like Hua Shana, and he will not be stupid like an official and force him to the point that he must live and die." ”

The devil smiled and smiled, the smile was quite strange, and he said in his heart that it is okay for you Wu Chaoyue to admit your mistakes, but if you want this king to really forgive you, you can only roll off the thief ship of Su Shun for this king and come to this king's ship to be a slave. And after thinking about it again, Devil Six simply picked up the brush and wrote a letter to Wu Chaoyue in his own handwriting, magnanimously courting Wu Chaoyue, preparing to appease Wu Chaoyue first, and use Wu Chaoyue's power to help Gui Liang gain a firm foothold in Huguang first, and then think about other things.

The letter was written quickly, and the devil Liu handed it to Gui Liang, asking Gui Liang to write a letter to send to Wu Chaoyue together, and explained that the purpose was to appease Wu Chaoyue, Gui Liang also knew very well that if he wanted to sit firmly in Huguang, he must rely on Wu Chaoyue's full support, so he hurriedly thanked his baby son-in-law, and reached out to receive the letter. However, when Gui Liang came across the letter, Devil Six changed his mind, snatched the letter, and said, "No! I can't write to Wu Chaoyue! ”

"Why?" Gui Liang asked in surprise.

"Because of the royal brother." The devil said in a gloomy voice: "The prince's friendship with foreign ministers has always been a taboo in the imperial court, and I once angered the imperial brother because of the title of the queen mother, so that the imperial brother suspected that I had different intentions, which will make the imperial brother finally change his attitude towards me, if he knows what I have with the local governor, the consequences will be unimaginable." ”

Gui Liang nodded hurriedly, knowing that at this juncture, Emperor Xianfeng could no longer be allowed to have any unhappiness with the devil six. The devil six over there thought about it for a while, and immediately said: "In this way, you told Wu Chaoyue in the reply letter, and said that you had already mentioned that incident to me, but I had already forgotten about it." In addition, give Wu Chaoyue a more elegant gift, and he will understand what I mean. ”

Gui Liang agreed, and at the invitation of the devil six, they had dinner together and then said goodbye and returned home, the devil six personally sent Gui Liang out of the gate, and looked at the night sky of the capital that was already dark, and snorted coldly in his heart, "Su Shun, dog slave, what if you insult and look down on our banner people, it is not that you can't change the imperial brother's suspicion of the Han people?" Wait, sooner or later, I will find your new account and old account to settle together! Don't think that this king doesn't know, depriving this king of his real power by kicking him out of the military aircraft is your slander in front of the imperial brother! ”

…………

Let's take a look at Gui Liang's situation, after returning to his home happily, Gui Liang was very surprised to see that his three baby sons Yanxi, Yanqi and Yanhu, who basically lived in the Bada Hutong, were all at home for the first time, and they came up together to say goodbye as soon as they met.

"It's rare, the sun is coming out of the west today, or has the Nine Cities Patrol sealed all the eight alleys, can the three of you all be at home?"

Gui Zhongtang's cynicism failed to have any effect, and the three precious sons didn't take Gui Zhongtang's stubble, but just shouted: "Amma, we have heard the news, Bai Zhongtang and they are really strongly recommending you to take over as the governor of Huguang, and the emperor also means this!" ”

"Congratulations to Amma, congratulations to Amma! We inquired clearly, Hubei is not the same as before, the tax money and grain are the first in the Central Plains, and what are the Hankou tariffs, the nine provinces passing the road, and even the silver yuan of the Qing Dynasty is minted in Hubei! Amma, if you go to Hubei to take office, you must bring us all with you! ”

"Amma, there is good news, I heard that Wu Chaoyue has money in that kid's family, and he is generous, Amma, when you take office in Hubei, you can wait for the gold and silver to be sent to the door!" Hahahaha! ”

"Shut up the old man! Before the old man officially took office, he began to pay for the idea of silver, like what words? Listen to the old man, when the old man takes you to Hubei, you have to give the old man a little restraint, stop eating, drinking, prostituting and gambling all day long, and spend all day drinking! Otherwise, let the old man stay in the capital, and he is not allowed to go! ”

At the same time as agreeing, the three precious sons hurriedly served Gui Zhongtang, knocking on the legs, hammering the hammerback, and trying to please Gui Zhongtang to go to Hubei Lawlessness together. While Gui Zhongtang snorted proudly, he remembered the important event of writing a reply letter to Wu Chaoyue, and hurriedly wrote a reply letter according to the meaning of the devil six, sealed it and handed it to the eldest son Yanxi, and instructed: "Give this letter to the messenger sent by Wu Chaoyue, let him take it back, and also, take the old man's snuff bottle "Hu Ji Eighteen Beats" as a return gift, and let the messenger take it back and hand it over to Wu Chaoyue." ”

"Eighteen Beats of Hu Ji?" Yanxi was stunned and said, "Father, that's your beloved thing, why are you willing to give it away?" ”

"Wu Chaoyue offended your brother-in-law Prince Gong, and sent someone to send a letter and gift in advance, just because he was afraid that the old man would hate the past and find him trouble." Gui Liang explained casually: "So the old man has to give him something good to make him feel at ease." ”

Yanxi suddenly realized, and hurriedly acted according to Amma's instructions, Yanxi pondered in his heart again: "The old man is also stupid, if you want Wu Chaoyue to feel at ease, wouldn't it be better to ask your brother-in-law to directly take out something to reward him?" That set of Gu Yuexuan's "Eighteen Beats of Hu Ji" can be sold for 3,000 taels of silver in the glaze factory, which is enough for Lao Tzu to be free in Bada Hutong for two or three months, and Lao Tzu is distressed when he sends it out. ”

"By the way, just transfer the word that my brother-in-law gave me to Wu Chaoyue, the word is my brother-in-law's handwriting, just say that my brother-in-law rewarded Wu Chaoyue, Wu Chaoyue must like it when he sees it. The old man's set of "Hu Ji Eighteen Beats", Lao Tzu accepted it for Wu Chaoyue. (To be continued.) )