Liu Jun is a person who likes to be lively, but he doesn't like some of it. When he raised his glass and toasted to another gentleman who had come to toast, he knew he didn't like the excitement of the occasion.

Turning back to sit back in the chair, his table was all from the Liu family, with Mrs. Liu in the main seat, followed by Liu Chengtang. Below is Liu Chengyou of Dafang, and Liu Chengxi's stepson Liu Yi. Liu Yi is a thin middle-aged man, he is the son of Liu Chengtang, and he passed on to Liu Chengxi, the eldest house. Before him, Liu Chengtang had already succeeded his second son Liu Zuo to Liu Chengxi, and later Liu Chengxi died, so he succeeded his third son Liu Yi to Liu Chengxi.

It's just that Liu Chengxi has been dead for many years, and Liu Yi is also old, but he still has no children. Although he had several children, none of his sons grew up. It is precisely because of this that Liu Chengqi plans to pass on one of Liu Qiao's sons to Liu Yi to succeed the eldest family of the great sect. Previously, Liu Chengqi refused to let Liu Jun return to the sect, and it was precisely because Liu Jun was Liu Chengxi's half-brother that he was worried that he might be succeeded by Liu Yi after returning to the sect, and then there might be a dispute over the Liu family's hereditary brocade clothes and thousands of households in the future.

Liu Chengqi has eight brothers, and only Chengqi and Chengtang are still alive, both of whom are the sons of Liu Shouji. And Liu Chengyou, who is of the same generation, is the son of Liu Shouyou, and Liu Xiu's father Liu Chengye is also Liu Shouyou's son.

Speaking of which, Liu Jun belongs to the Changfang branch, and is closer to Liu Chengyou and Liu Yi, who succeeded Liu Chengxi.

Liu Jun found that there was a strange place in Liu's house, some of the houses were sparse, and some were extremely prosperous. For example, in the long house of the great sect, Liu Chengxi had no children, and succeeded two nephews and heirs one after another, but Liu Zhuo died before him, leaving no son and a half. The second stepson, Liu Yi, has a lot of children, but only his daughter supports him, and none of his sons have grown up.

The same is true of Liu Chengyou of the big house. There is only one son.

At the beginning, Liu Shouji gave birth to eight sons at once, and each of the eight sons gave birth to several sons. However, with the return of Liu Jun's family, the situation on the side of the big house has also changed greatly, it turned out that there has been no one after the herringbone, and now there are three more Liu Zhao, Liu Jun and Liu Jian all of a sudden.

Liu Jun sat on the chair, drinking a glass of Chinese wine with the uncles of the Liu family, and everyone was in harmony on the surface. But Liu Jun saw that not everyone was really happy about the arrival of their family.

Liu Jian, the third master of the second room, felt sorry for his 20,000 taels of silver, and his third aunt's brother was also killed by Liu Jun, which also made him lose a lot of money. In addition, Liu Chengtang's family is not too welcome to Liu Jun's family, Liu Chengtang has succeeded two sons to Liu Chengxi to inherit the long house, now Liu Yi has no children, no heirs to the long house, Liu Chengtang hopes that he will pick another one from his eldest son Liu Shen's son to inherit Liu Yi.

Liu Yi is the heir Liu Chengxi, and he is also the heir of the eldest family. This is the real Wanguan family property, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is not an exaggeration to say millions, to be a stepson to Liu Yi, that is, to inherit Liu Shouyou's property. even controlled the public property of the Liu family. It turned out that Liu Chengtang just wanted to fight with Liu Chengqi for this right of succession, and now that Liu Jun's family has returned to the sect, the threat is obviously greater than that of Liu Chengqi.

It was Liu Chengqi who surprised Liu Jun today. This time, they invited Liu Jun's family to return to the sect very highly. It's such a big move.

The hall of the Liu family was steaming hot, filled with the fragrance of wine and meat. On one side of the hall, there is even a group of invited musicians who are playing the piano to help the music. The music was accompanied by the staggering, the cups and plates became more and more wretched, and under the noise of drunken conversations, Liu Jun was a little dizzy.

The banquet held to celebrate Liu Jun's family's recognition of their ancestors and their return to their ancestors has been held for more than 500 tables and has been going on for more than two hours. As long as those who come, whether they are relatives or friends, or whether they give gifts or not, as long as they come, they can have enough eight people to eat the banquet.

From the inner hall of the Liu family's main house to the various courtyards outside, and finally on the road outside, the flowing water banquet is table after table, and it is very lively.

It is rare for the nearby neighbors to encounter such a good thing, regardless of men, women and children, they all rushed to eat and feast, and the Liu family even prepared tens of thousands of copper coins to take out and throw them, which attracted those neighbors and people to scramble for grabbing.

Liu Jun's amount of alcohol is average, not outstanding, and people keep coming to toast today, and he drank a lot.

Liu Jun was a little drunk all afternoon, but in the evening, although the scale of the banquet was not as large as at noon, more heavyweight guests came.

Liu Jun blushed, the wine had not yet dissipated, and the Liu family stood in front of the gate to welcome the arrival of the distinguished guests.

There are a lot of people who come, and they are all of extraordinary status.

The first is the in-laws of the Liu family, the Mei Li Wednesday family of the four major clans in Macheng, the front is Mei Zhihuan, riding a white horse, he is followed by two horses, both are young sons, one of them Liu Jun is an acquaintance, it is Mei Qing when the general came to the aid of Huang An.

She is still dressed in men's clothes today, but she did not wear armor, and changed into a moon white Confucian robe, and now in the Ming Dynasty, the once strict clothing system has long been chaotic, and it is common for women to dress up as men, and even women wear Confucian clothes, and no one has studied it deeply.

Mei Qing jumped off the horse neatly, and then stepped forward to help Mei Zhihuan dismount. Although Mei Zhihuan is not old, his body bones are obviously not as good as when Liu Jun saw him last time, his steps are a little vain, and even his face is not very good.

Then Li Changgeng also arrived on horseback, followed by a group of children of the Li family, and then the Zhou family, the Dong family, the Qiu family and other major wealthy families arrived.

When the first batch of people arrived, Liu Jun stepped forward to greet him and greeted Mei Zhihuan and Li Changgeng and others. These two people Liu Jun are very respectful, and they have helped him tremendously.

Mei Zhihuan patted Liu Jun's hand, "Good boy, you know that gold can shine anywhere, and it is beautiful." Now the Golden Palace is famous, and the world is famous. ”

"It's all up to Mei Gong's support."

Li Changgeng also patted Liu Jun with satisfaction, "Do a good job, if there is anything you need to help, even if you talk to us old bones, there is no ambiguity in what you can help." ”

When Mei and Li greeted Liu Chengqi, Liu Jun had the opportunity to talk to Mei Qing.

"See you again." Liu Jun smiled at Mei Qingdao.

Mei Qing smiled and nodded, "Congratulations to Brother Jiye for being promoted to guerrilla general." ”

At this time, the handsome young man next to Mei Qing smiled and said, "I have long admired Brother Liu's name." ”

Mei Qing introduced to Liu Jun on the side, "This is my eldest brother Mei Lian." ”

Liu Jun has heard of Mei Lian's name, Mei Zhihuan's only son, who has the title of Jinyi Guard's commander, of course, this is only an honorary title obtained by Yinyin. Those who can't actually serve as directors are the same as Liu Jun's bureau commanders, but they are only given titles, which is equivalent to enjoying this official rank and treatment, but has no actual director power. This is just the same as the cabinet scholar will add the title of six ministers as usual, the governor will add the title of secretary of the military department as usual, and the governor will add the title of squire.

But even so, Mei Lian can still enjoy the treatment of the fourth grade at a young age, which is quite good. Of course. Compared with Liu Jun now, he still has a lot of gaps.

"Liu Jun Liu Jiye, I have long heard of Brother Mei's name, Brother Mei is good at poetry, proficient in easy learning, quite good."

"Actually, I'm just a sick man, and I can't do anything else, so I can only study, but I envy Brother Liu. Ride a horse and fight a sword to win fame. Mei Lian said with some sighs. Then he smiled, "I'm going over to say hello to the master, let Brother Qing talk to you, I think he admires you very much." I've listened to him talk about you a lot during this time. ”

"Brother! ~”

Mei Qing didn't expect to be betrayed directly by her eldest brother, she was a little angry, and her face turned red.

"Don't bother you to catch up, I'll go first. By the way, I have good news for my brother. Today's public series is also coming back from Nanjing, but after hearing your good news, your brother Tai rushed back to congratulate you. ”

I heard that Li Chunjiang is also coming. Liu Jun is indeed very happy.

"You've been busy all this time, haven't you?" After Mei Lian left, Mei Qing was still a little unnatural.

"It's really busy, I've been recruiting troops lately, all kinds of chores, and I'm too busy to sleep."

The two asked and answered, and then suddenly became cold again. I didn't know what to say for a while, the key was that Mei Lian ruined the atmosphere just now.

"Today is actually a good opportunity." After a long time, Mei Qing spoke again.

"What?" Liu Jun didn't understand it for a while.

"Before I came, I heard my father and Li Shibo talking, and they didn't just come this time to celebrate your return to the Liu family. They have already contacted a number of gentlemen and merchants, and this time they want to take this opportunity to hold a banquet for you to raise some military salaries for you. Mei Qing explained to Liu Jun, "Although you are now promoted to guerrilla general, the number of soldiers and horses has also expanded to a battalion of 3,000 people. But you have always known about the affairs of the imperial court, arrears of wages are common, not to mention that they are all a radish and a pit, and the place of the salary has already been determined. Now that you have set up a new battalion, even if you have the appreciation of the emperor and Premier Xiong and others, it is still difficult to get this food and salary. ”

Although Mei Qing is said to be a woman, she is actually clear about the affairs of these courts. A new camp leader like Liu Jun wants to rely on the imperial court to support his salary, which is tantamount to a fool's dream, and in the end he has to rely on the local government to find a way. If there is a way, of course, you can get some money, and if you deduct a little more, you owe a little, and you can barely survive.

If there is no way, you can only be in arrears, and if you can't figure it out, either the soldiers will last up plundering the place, or the sergeants will mutiny.

Liu Jun is for Mei Zhihuan, Li Changgeng and others, that is their proud disciple and the township party, and now they can be regarded as relatives, so they don't want to see Liu Jun fall into that kind of predicament in the end. What's more, Liu Jun's previous battle saved two counties at once, if Liu Jun hadn't defended the tiger head fort, Macheng might have been robbed by bandits last time.

Supporting Liu Jun is also protecting himself, Mei Zhihuan, Li Changgeng and others still have a very clear vision. Taking this opportunity, they took the initiative to help Liu Jun organize and raise salaries.

"Your soldiers do not oppress the township, and they can fight well, everyone supports you, and you guard the township, which is also a matter of mutual benefit." Mei Qing said with a smile.

Although this is the case, in the current situation, many squires are dead, preferring to bury the silver in the cellar rather than use it to support the court and support the official army. Thinking that in history, Chongzhen's treasury had no money to support the front line to fight, so he asked Wu Qinghou to borrow money, but Wu Qinghou immediately pulled a lot of furniture from his house to the street and sold it on the street, making the capital raise his eyes, and disgraced the royal face of the entire court, and wanted to force the emperor to withdraw his life and not ask him to borrow money.

And now Liu Jun has not taken the initiative to speak, Mei Zhihuan, Li Changgeng and others took the initiative to help Liu Jun organize and raise salaries, such a contrast is too great, which makes Liu Jun really moved.

In fact, there are still many people of insight in the Ming Dynasty, but unfortunately there are too few such people, and good officials like Mei Zhihuan and Li Changgeng have been repeatedly driven home by eunuchs such as Wei Zhongxian and Wen Tiren. (To be continued......)