Coincidentally, on the morning of Wu Chaoyue's wedding on the fifth day of the ninth month, the holy decree of Emperor Xianfeng was sent to Shanghai, in which Emperor Xianfeng was very satisfied with Wu Chaoyue's recovery of the state as scheduled, and fulfilled his promise to treat Wu Lao comprador leniently, and decided to demote Wu Lao comprador to Songjiang Mansion Tongzhi from Wupin, so that Wu Lao comprador would still serve as the superintendent of Jiang Customs. At the same time, Emperor Xianfeng also praised Wu Chaoyue, who was injured in the siege battle, and comforted him with kind words, so that Wu Chaoyue could recuperate from his injuries with peace of mind and recuperate, so that he could work better and harder for the wild boar skin family in the future.

This decree is of course good news for the ancestors of the Wu family who have been worried for a long time, and at the same time, the messenger who sent the holy decree happened to be Su Shun's sworn friend Jing Shou, and he barely got along well with Wu Chaoyue. So even though he was going to visit the church in the afternoon to get married, Wu Chaoyue still took time out of his busy schedule and set up a banquet to entertain Jing Shou.

Jing Shou also knew how to be measured, and knew that Wu Chaoyue was going to visit the church in the afternoon for fear of mistaking Wu Chaoyue's affairs, so he didn't pour Wu Chaoyue's wine as before, but just had a few drinks with Wu Chaoyue casually, and also chatted about things in the court by the way. As a result, when talking about Emperor Xianfeng's leniency to Wu Lao's comprador this time, Jing Shou also told Wu Chaoyue the truth, saying: "Weiting, Master Wu is really lucky this time. ”

"Originally, many courtiers thought that Mr. Wu and your ancestors and grandsons were officials in the same province, and they also set up their garrisons in Shanghai, so it was inevitable that they would be suspicious of being under the melon fields and plums, although they did not write to ask the emperor to punish Mr. Wu seriously, but they also proposed to transfer Mr. Wu out of Songjiang and separate him from you. The emperor was also tempted to transfer Mr. Wu to Fujian to serve as an official in order to cover up the courtiers. ”

"Brother Jing, why did the emperor change his mind again and let my grandfather continue to stay in Shanghai?" Wu Chaoyue hurriedly asked.

"Master Wu's luck is good." Jing Shou smiled and said: "It happened that on the day that Yizhitai reported the victory for your red flag, there was also a red flag in Hubei, and your teacher Zeng Guofan led the Hunan regiment to practice the recovery of Wuchang, and the day of the attack on Wuchang City happened to be the same day as your attack on Suzhou, both on August 13. The master was overjoyed when he saw it, and said that the recovery of two important towns in one day was a great omen for the Qing Dynasty to pacify the long-haired bandits, and it was a rare happy event, so he ignored the opposition of the ministers, and gave Boss Wu extra grace, so that Boss Wu could continue to stay in Shanghai to serve, and it was also convenient for you, a capable minister of the Qing Dynasty, to serve his elderly grandfather, and he could be loyal and filial. ”

Suddenly realized, fortunately the comprador grandfather's luck is indeed good, but the ungrateful Wu Chaoyue was jealous - Wuchang is the future industrial base and logistics base that Wu Chaoyue has long been eyeing for, and it is also Wu Chaoyue's most optimistic starting place. Secretly jealous, Wu Chaoyue simply asked Jing Shou again: "Brother Jing Shou, since my mentor has made such a great achievement, what reward did the emperor give him?" ”

"The master was very happy at that time, and let Lord Zeng act as the governor of Hubei with one mouth."

Jing Shou's answer almost didn't make Wu Chaoyue stare out of his eyes, but fortunately, after Jing Shou took a sip of wine, he said: "But it's a pity, because of Qi Liaozao's resolute opposition from Qi Zhongtang, the master took back his life again, and only returned Lord Zeng's title of military squire." ”

Wu Chaoyue, who was extremely jealous of the position of governor of Hubei, quietly breathed a sigh of relief, and asked with great curiosity: "Brother Jingshou, if I remember correctly, Qi Zhongtang has always had a very good relationship with my teacher, Lord Zeng?" I remember that Shaoquan once said that in the first year of Xianfeng, the teacher wrote to the emperor to state the cheats, and the disrespectful words made the emperor very dissatisfied, and the emperor was furious and wanted to punish him. Now that the teacher has made great contributions, and the emperor has asked him to act as the governor of Hubei, how can Qi Zhongtang stand up and resolutely oppose it? ”

"Qi Zhongtang has always had this temper, not about things and not about people." Jing Shou explained casually: "Qi Zhongtang thinks that Zeng Daren Ding is worried at home, has no official and no right to live in the township, just like the people in the countryside, but tens of thousands of villagers responded, and took the initiative to donate money and food without wanting to reciprocate. The emperor felt justified when he heard this, so he ignored the opposition of hundreds of officials, and withdrew the order to let Lord Zeng act as the governor of Hubei. ”

Wu Chaoyue was silent, not only a little sad about the death of a rabbit and a fox, knowing that sooner or later he would be suspicious and wary of the Manchu court like Zeng Guofan, but also somewhat admiring the vicious vision of the old fox Qi Liaozao, and he could see at a glance that Zeng Guofan would sooner or later become a warlord in troubled times, and encouraging Zeng Guofan's behavior would only be the way to make trouble. - Of course, admiration is admiration, people like Qi Liaozao, Wu Chaoyue still hopes that the less the better.

Jing Shou was very interested in talking, and took the initiative to say: "By the way, when Qi Zhongtang was opposing the reuse of Lord Zeng, he also gave the example of Comfort Pavilion and praised Comfort Pavilion for its prudence and stability. Said that you should go back to your hometown to handle the regimental training, do not be greedy for more than you want, blindly only train elite soldiers, not only add burden to the imperial court and the country, but also act cautiously and never exceed your authority, you can get along with most of your colleagues, and the cooperation with all friendly forces is also quite tacit. ”

The traitor seemed to be loyal enough to make an old fox like Qi Liaozao look away, Wu Chaoyue was of course quite proud, and hurriedly asked: "Brother Jingshou, what was the emperor's reaction at that time." ”

"Of course, the master is Longyan Dayue." Jing Shou said with a smile: "The master also said in public, if it weren't for the comfort pavilion, your age is too young, the master really wants you to patrol a province and be a feudal official, which not only encourages the regimental training from all over the country to follow your example, but also allows you to show your strength, share more worries for the master, and make more contributions to the imperial court." ”

Although it is only half a grade away from the post of governor of the second grade, Wu Chaoyue is also very clear, with his age and qualifications, if he wants to take a step forward, he will definitely be difficult for a thousand years, and he is not surprised that he can't go for three years or two years, and now Su Shun's sworn friend Jing Shou actually said that Emperor Xianfeng already has this plan, Wu Chaoyue is of course ecstatic in his heart, and subconsciously gave birth to such an arrogant idea - can he get the position of governor of Hubei in a short period of time?

Having this thought, Wu Chaoyue was not polite, and immediately salivated and asked Jing Shou: "Brother Jing Shou, junior brother ask one more question, in your opinion, is it possible for the emperor to make me the governor of Hubei?" ”

He glanced at Wu Chaoyue in amazement, and saw that Wu Chaoyue's thin face was smiling relaxed, but his eyes were very serious, and Jing Shou said: "Weiting, are you eyeing the position of the governor of Hubei?" ”

"It's that everyone is self-motivated, and among the officials of the Manchu Dynasty, how many people don't want their official position to be as high as possible?" Wu Chaoyue asked unceremoniously, and said: "Besides, for the imperial court, it is more beneficial to put me in Hubei to pacify the long-haired bandits." There are already two ministers of the Qincha and Yi Zhitai and Xu Futai on the Jiangsu side, which is enough to deal with the long hair of Jiangning and Zhenjiang. ”

"But the strength of the official army in Hubei is very weak, if I am sent to Hubei, not only can I strengthen the strength of the official army in Hubei, and do not give the bandits the opportunity to continue to spread westward, I can also control the upper reaches of the Yangtze River for the imperial court, wait for the opportunity to go down the river, and clean up the long hair of Anhui."

Jing Shou stuck out his tongue when he heard this, he was not only surprised by Wu Chaoyue's ambition, but also admired Wu Chaoyue's courage and appetite even more - he dared to aim at the throne of the feudal official before he was twenty years old. After sticking out his tongue, Jing Shou could only say this: "Weiting, if you only talk about merit, it is enough for you to be a governor." But your age is still too young, and your qualifications are too shallow, I'm afraid it will be difficult to make the master make up his mind. But don't worry, I will report your thoughts to Su Zhongtang, and if you have the opportunity to serve the emperor alone, I will also speak for you in front of the master. ”

Wu Chaoyue hurriedly thanked him, and took out a lot of silver to thank Jing Shou for the good news sent by the comprador grandfather, Jing Shou pretended to excuse himself a few times and accepted it unceremoniously, and finally hurriedly sent someone to purchase gifts, and took the old Wu family's silver to buy gifts to Wu Chaoyue's wedding.

After making up his mind to launch a sprint to the position of the governor of Hubei, when he was free to prepare to marry Yang Yuru, Wu Chaoyue also knew how much money Wu Lao comprador had squandered for his marriage. As for the other pomp and circumstance, there is no need to mention how extravagant it is, how extravagant it is, the street where Lao Wu's family lives and even the trees are all wrapped in red cloth, and large strings of firecrackers are piled up, and the sound of firecrackers when lit is denser than the gunfire during the Shanghai War. At the same time, Shanghai's Green Battalion and Wu Jun Lian Yong also followed the light, and there was a supply of good wine and meat for three whole days, and they ate a bunch of Qiu Ba's mouths full of oil, and they also kept praying for God's blessing to let Wu Chaoyue get married a few more times, so that they could follow more light.

The wedding scene was even more lively, all the officials and gentry in the Songjiang area were all present in person, and the local officials of several surrounding state capitals also sent representatives to come to congratulate with heavy gifts, and the foreigners with a bit of identity in the concession came to two hundred people, many of which priests also asked Wu Chaoyue and Yang Yuru to marry with Western etiquette, and finally Wu Chaoyue really asked Martin to preside, so that Yang Yuru covered with a red scarf and held hands with himself, and said to each other in the goodwill laughter of many guests. As a result, this kind of marriage etiquette that combines Chinese and Western walls has also appeared in newspapers in the concession, Hong Kong and overseas, and has become an example for many young intellectuals and many comprador children to follow, and at the same time, it has also let more foreigners know that there is such a living treasure freak as Wu Chaoyue in China.

The most sacred and painful moment is, of course, when entering the cave room, after being drunk by the guests into the cave room, the red lid was lifted, and Yang Yuru's little basket under the red lid was full of shyness and extremely moving, but Wu Chaoyue hesitated to start regardless of her age. In the end, Wu Chaoyue could only come up with the last method to throw the silver yuan decision.

The result of throwing the silver round is that God wants Wu Chaoyue to be a living widower for a period of time, and Wu Chaoyue has already resigned himself to being ready to endure a period of hormonal pondering, but when he saw Yang Yuru's cheeks flush and put a piece of white cloth on the bed, Wu Chaoyue, who was surging with blood, changed his mind again, and couldn't bear to press Yang Yuru on the bed and roll the sheets legally............

"Xianggong, you light, don't ...... so hard, it hurts."

Wu Chaoyue, who insisted on training with Lian Yong, had quite good physical fitness, and Yang Yuru couldn't get out of bed at ten o'clock in the morning the next day, and finally barely got up with the help of Wu Chaoyue, after all, Yang Yuru, who was still young, had difficulty moving all day. Seeing this scene, Wu Chaoyue was quite guilty, but the old comprador couple Wu couldn't even close their mouths with a smile, and they asked people to prepare sour plum soup for Yang Yuru on the same day, dreaming that they would hug their great-grandson in the second year, and give the old Wu family a succession.

After getting married, Wu Chaoyue still didn't have much time to enjoy the honeymoon, in addition to having to find time to answer the weird questions raised by Lao Baoling, Wu Chaoyue also had to care about the Suzhou battlefield, comfort the wounded soldiers and comfort the families of the fallen soldiers, in addition, he had to do his duty to deal with the official affairs of the envoy, and he was so busy that his feet did not touch the ground, not to mention to appease the two side rooms of Feng Wanzhen and Fu Shanxiang, who were destined to be injured, that is, he didn't have much time to accompany his newlywed wife.

In the end, it was only after Lao Bao Ling, Bur Bulon and others led the combined fleet to set off for the north, Wu Chaoyue took a little time to find his comprador grandfather and had a deep conversation, asking the comprador grandfather to take out a lot of silver to carry out the position of governor of Hubei for himself. As a result, what made Wu Chaoyue cry and laugh was that although Wu Lao comprador hoped that his baby grandson would go further in his career, he didn't look down on the position of governor of Hubei at all, and he directly scolded Wu Chaoyue.

"Confused! Don't you know what the situation is in Hubei now? Even if you really become the governor of Hubei, how much oil and water can you fish? Even if you are a Cantonese and can't be the governor of Guangdong, at least you have to find a province that is a little richer and a little more peaceful to be the governor, right? Zhejiang and Fujian are good places, even Shandong is much stronger than Hubei, at least there are gold mines in Zhaoyuan and Jiaozhou Bay to make a fortune! You can seek official positions in other provinces, but Hubei is definitely not good, not only is it completely ruined by long hair, but most of the provinces are making trouble with long hair, and it is not safe to go to it, and it is a problem whether the money spent can be recovered! ”

After rolling his eyes and listening to the comprador grandfather's officialdom business, Wu Chaoyue first sighed helplessly, and then he talked bitterly to the comprador grandfather, saying that he didn't just want to waste the comprador grandfather's money and didn't want to get it back, but that he was too young and too young to be too young and too young to seek the governor's official position in Shandong, Fujian and Zhejiang, which were Taiping provinces.

At the same time, Wu Chaoyue was also very unfilial to intimidate the comprador grandfather, saying that now is the best opportunity for his promotion and fortune, if he does not seize this opportunity to be promoted quickly, and run out of the quagmire of the melee in Jiangsu, then he will only have two ends in the future, one is to be dragged by Xiang Rong or Qi Shan to the bitter sea on the battlefield of Ningzhen in every possible way to suffer and suffer, and the credit for beating people in vain and dying in vain will make Qi Shan or Xiang Rong choose. The second fate is that once Changmao is pacified, he has no place to use, and it is more difficult to get promoted to become rich than to ascend to the sky, the capital invested is more, the possibility of recovering the capital is smaller, and the risk is greater - in peacetime, the Manchu court's tolerance for corruption is definitely not as great as in troubled times!

Not to mention, Wu Chaoyue's intimidation really played a role, he felt that the words of the baby grandson were quite reasonable, and he hoped that the baby grandson would further get ahead, and finally the confidence in the military ability of the baby grandson that had been gradually established. Old comprador Wu thought about it for a long time, and finally decided to make a risky deal, nodded and said: "Okay, since you have made up your mind, then grandpa will not stop you, 500,000 taels of silver are at your disposal, and you can do it yourself." But the old man has something to say first, if you get things done, when you take office as the governor of Hubei, you must at least give the old man seventy percent of the money back! Otherwise, our Wu family will lose too much! ”

"Grandpa, don't worry, definitely, definitely, I am your grandson, I can't learn your other strengths, but I still learned a little bit of the ability to make money."

Wu Chaoyue promised to be extremely beautiful, but he was a little guilty in his heart, and said secretly: "Grandpa, I'm sorry, after I really became the governor of Hubei, in order to build factories for industry and expand group training, I will definitely have to continue to reach out to you to ask for silver." So, when you are in the customs, it's better to help me be more corrupt. ”

…………

It's time to take a look at the situation on the side of Wu Chaoyue's unlucky teacher Zeng Guofan, it is no coincidence that the book is not written, just on the day of the fifth day of the ninth month, Wu Chaoyue ruined Yang Yuru with a black conscience, and the holy decree of Emperor Xianfeng to reward Zeng Guofan's military department with the title of squire also happened to be sent into Wuchang City and sent to the long-awaited Zeng Guofan.

In all fairness, although the title of squire of the military department is not bad, at least it restores Zeng Guofan's official position, so that Zeng Guofan has the qualifications to sit on an equal footing with the governors of various provinces and show off his might in front of the officials of the state capital and county, but for the current Zeng Guofan, this reward is far from enough, and it will not play any role at all!

The reason is also very simple, there is no local real power in his hands, Zeng Guofan has no way to make money from the local government to feed the Hunan army, and if he wants military expenses, he can only rely on the battlefield to capture and continue to apportionment to the local gentry, and the source is not only unstable but also very offensive. So after listening to the holy decree of Emperor Xianfeng, Zeng Guofan was full of smiles and joy in front of outsiders, and returned to the camp of the army in front of Zeng Guoquan and Zeng Guohua and other brothers, but Zeng Guofan dropped the tea bowl and roared: "It's hard work!" All the hard work in vain! If I don't have a local job, what will I use to raise money to raise the army, and what will I use to encourage soldiers to work hard to kill thieves?! ”

"Brother, you were already a soldier before Ding Wei, why is the court using you again now, or do you want to hang a false title of a soldier waiter?" Zeng Guohua asked puzzledly, and said: "Now that the governor of Huguang and the governor of Hubei are vacant together, and Wuchang City is taken by you, how can one of the governors and governors be yours, right?" ”

"How do I know?!"

For the time being, Zeng Guofan, who didn't know that it was Qi Liaozao's ghost, was full of iron, and after thinking for a while, Zeng Guofan said: "It is estimated that it is still silver, and now if you want to be promoted and want to grasp real power, you will definitely not be able to do it without silver!" Second brother, how much silver do we have at our disposal now? ”

"Thirty thousand taels at most." Zeng Guohuang, the second eldest of the Zeng family, replied.

"Too little." Zeng Guofan, who knew the situation in the capital, still had an extremely ugly face, but after thinking about it again, Zeng Guofan still said: "No matter what, you have to give it a try, second brother, you are familiar with the situation in the capital, take the 30,000 taels of silver to the capital, and see if you can move the position of governor of Huguang or governor of Hubei for me." ”

"Brother, it's definitely not enough, right?" Zeng Guohuang said worriedly: "Although you have a lot of old things in the capital, and it is convenient to do things, but with only 30,000 taels of silver, it is impossible to reach the official position of governor?" ”

"You go first, I'll find a way to get another 120,000 taels of silver for you!" Directly to the capital to hand over to you! Zeng Guofan waved his hand and ordered.

"Brother, in a hurry, you got so much silver there?" Zeng Guoquan asked suspiciously.

Zeng Guofan smiled reluctantly and said, "Forget that I have a very rich and filial student?" If my teacher speaks, he won't not borrow it, right? In order to donate a four-grade Dao platform, his grandfather spent a full 450,000 taels of silver before and after! 120,000 taels of silver, for his family, is just a small matter. ”

Note: In the thirtieth year of Daoguang, Wild Boar Pi VIII ordered the dismissal of the governor of the same city, so that the governor was also in charge of the governor's affairs, and the governor of Hubei was once canceled. Later, in order to suppress the Taiping Rebellion, Wild Boar Pi IX resumed his post as governor of Hubei, and was still stationed in Wuchang. (To be continued.) )