Zhang Guowei, the new tool man mentioned in Shen Shu's mouth, is actually a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty in history, a native of Dongyang, Jinhua.

At the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, although he was still in the sixth department in Nanjing.

But more than a year later, when Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the Ministry of War, and a group of other people, because after Hong Chengchou's defeat in Songshan, he secretly sought peace with the Qing army for the emperor, but the incident was attacked by Yanguan, which led Chongzhen to kill Chen Xinjia to thank Yanguan.

Then it was Zhang Guowei's turn to be ordered to take over Chen Xinjia's military department secretary from Nanjing to Beijing - by that time, in fact, the military department secretary was already a very hot potato.

People who are a little wise enough to protect themselves are unwilling to be this kind of official position that will be asked by the emperor to shirk their responsibilities for a year and a half at most. Zhang Guowei still dared to go, which shows loyalty.

(Note: There is one thing to say, if Chongzhen had not killed Chen Xinjia because of secret discussions and leaks, with Chen Xinjia's temper of daring to take matters into account, maybe two years later, he would dare to persuade the emperor to abandon the capital and flee to Nanjing.)

But Chen Xinjia was killed, and the last minister who dared to take the initiative was gone, and the rest were even more frightened. From this point of view, Chongzhen's killing of Chen Xinjia is a bit of suicide in disguise, and he has cut off his own way to flee south in the future. ）

However, in history, Zhang Guowei later took over as the secretary of the military department, and he did not work for long, until April of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, when the Qing troops entered the customs and the eight general troops of the North Zhili were all defeated, Zhang Guowei took responsibility for this matter, and was sent back to Nanjing by the demoted official to urge the South Zhili to pay taxes and grains. Until the fall of the regime of King Lu of Southern Minglu, Zhang Guowei threw himself into the lake and was martyred.

These details, Shen Shuren could not be clear in the history books in his previous life, after all, there were so many loyal ministers in the late Ming Dynasty. Shen Shuren's understanding of him is also at the level of "this person dares to take over Chen Xinjia's class, and in the end, he committed suicide and martyrdom in the end".

In this world now, there are not many allies who can be used.

is a bit of integrity, if you are willing to go to the capital to be ordered in danger, and you can also do some money and food, and build practice, then you are already considered to be one of the top 10% of good people in Wenchen, and you really have no conditions to pick and choose.

Therefore, this opportunity to rise more than a year in advance and go to Beijing to be a big official, let him be cheap.

……

After listening to his son's explanation of how to pull a faction to fight a faction and mediate the implementation of the reform after the New Year, he explained it separately.

Shen Tingyang can be regarded as a stone in his heart, and Xu is even more satisfied, knowing that his husband will most likely be able to return to Nanjing to be an official in the future, and he no longer has to worry about staying in Beijing, and he will accompany the king like a tiger.

She can also be at ease not to follow her husband back to Beijing after the New Year, so she will take care of the family affairs in her hometown in Suzhou, and watch the pregnant "daughter-in-law" Dong Xiaowan (no name).

Scholars all over the world seek official positions in order to grasp power, life and death, but the Shen family doesn't really care about real power.

All they want is a noble status, and it's better to be more leisurely on errands, so as to protect the family business and not take too many extra risks.

Who made the Shen family's wealth enough to make them officials, and never expected to make money by being officials.

Such a special situation makes the yamen of Nanjing Liubu, which is regarded by outsiders as a loser in political struggle, very popular in the eyes of the Shen family.

In the following days, the family lived an ordinary life.

With the sound of firecrackers, the chapter of history has officially turned to the fourteenth year of Chongzhen.

On Chinese New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, the family did not go anywhere, so they had a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner together and listened to the songs of the opera team raised by the family.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it was a day to go back to his parents' home to visit relatives. Shen Shuren has not yet married a wife and has not decided to marry, so he continues to stay at home and not move around, so as not to be misunderstood.

Dong Xiaowan's body is inconvenient, so she has been recuperating there, and recently only Chen Yuanyuan is left to accompany Shen Shuren every day.

However, in the past few days of the Chinese New Year, Chen Yuanyuan has also reached the inconvenient days of every month, and Shen Shuren is just idle, and he should be addicted to wine every day, so he can't help but be a little disappointed.

I had to call the personal maids who originally followed him to play dominoes to pass the time.

Chen Yuanyuan felt guilty in his heart, thinking that when he returned to Huangzhou after the New Year, she would be the only one to accompany the young master, so he took the opportunity to probe: "Son, Xiaowan won't go back to Huangzhou this year, or you will bring another sister."

You are the prefect of the imperial court at a young age, and you can't lose your family system. Only take me one, and wait for the day when my body is inconvenient, do you still hold it back, and outsiders also laugh at the jealousy of the slave family. Alas, when the son marries a wife, I don't have to worry about this. ”

She knows her position very well, and is still just a ransomed maid. So in my heart, I actually look forward to Shen Shuren marrying a wife as soon as possible, and I am not jealous of this at all-

It's not that Chen Yuanyuan is generous, but she knows very well that it's a win-win situation. If the son has a wife, she can also be promoted to a concubine smoothly. The women of the Ming Dynasty didn't really want much in their hearts.

Shen Shuren has his own plan for this, and he can only comfort: "I'm sorry for you, I have the confidence to be promoted quickly in the past two years, and every time the relatives delay for half a year, maybe the official rank will be promoted again."

When the position is humble, the woman you can marry may not be noble and virtuous, so why not wait and see. I'm a big man, and I'm afraid that I won't be able to marry a wife if I miss the age! Isn't it good to spoil you alone during this time? ”

Chen Yuanyuan was moved and guilty in his heart, so he had to think about a little way, and used some special means to serve his husband when he was physically inconvenient, and helped Shen Shuren solve it for a few days.

……

Addicted to wine for more than ten days, it seems that the Lantern Festival is approaching.

These days, Chen Yuanyuan also looks like a bit of a hostess, at least she can help the young master Zhang Luo pack up the gifts.

When I go to Nanjing, there are many people who want to win over and give gifts, and it will be very cumbersome to usher in officialdom. Shen Shuren himself didn't want to worry about how many gifts an official should give and how much he could entrust, these were all the worries of the mistress of the family in previous years.

Fortunately, Chen Yuanyuan sang songs in the Qing Dynasty for two years, and he also saw a lot of officialdom and courtesy. Now he was arrested by the old lady Xu to make up for the evil, and after learning the unspoken rules of gift-giving, he finally grinded the gun in the battle and was not happy.

However, after this incident, she also became more and more worried in her heart and felt a lot of pressure.

On the day of the Lantern Festival, the Shen family set up wine and sang songs to admire the moon as usual.

also invited a lot of local officials in Suzhou, which can be regarded as saying goodbye to local officialdom friends and accepting the practice of others.

Shen Shuren has been poor for a long time, and he is still a little unaccustomed to seeing officials such as Zhang Xuezeng, the prefect of Suzhou, Cao Zhende, the Yamen of the river channel, and other officials come to visit, and they are very modest to salute according to last year's custom.

But those people are also human spirits, how dare they stand on his cheap.

Although Zhang Xuezeng is a first-class prefect of the upper class, he is a fourth-class prefect, and when he accompanies Shen Shuren to drink tea, he only dares to call him a "foolish brother and virtuous brother", anyway, everyone is a prefect, only whether they are old or young, regardless of rank.

Cao Zhende, who used to be Shen Shuren's direct boss, can only hold official salutes in front of Shen Shuren.

Seventeen months ago, Shen Shuren was still a small eight-rank warden under him. Fourteen months ago, he was promoted to the rank of Seven-Rank Ambassador.

But in the last fourteen months, Shen Shuren soared by one level on average every five months, and he overtook Cao Zhende's head.

During the New Year's greetings, Cao Zhende desperately looked for an opportunity to explain to Shen Shuren, saying that the previous grievances between the two families were all instructed by Zhu Dadian, and he was also controlled by Zhu Dadian at that time, so he had no way to refuse.

Now that he has switched to Shi Kefa Shi Futai, he will definitely listen to the command of the Shen family in the local affairs in the future.

What can Shen Shuren do? Stretch out your hand and don't hit the smiling person, not to mention that Cao Zhende is just Zhu Dadian's tool man, and he won't be angry with the tool.

Therefore, at most, he will say a few words similar to the effect of "I still like your original unruly appearance, you recover" to dilute the other party's nervousness.

After returning to his hometown with his clothes, Shen Shuren took the beautiful woman and set sail to Nanjing to carry out the follow-up deeds.