April.

Nanjing, Jiangnan Hall.

This is two years ago Xujiazhuang set up on Xuanwu Street in Nanjing, a commercial hall mainly used for commercial operations and logistics transit.

Qian Chengzhi served as the resident president of the merchant hall, and played an important role in assisting and liaising with the operation of the merchant hall - in fact, he did less and saw more, and the real power was not controlled by him.

As an important staff member of Xujiazhuang, why didn't Qian Chengzhi stay in Harbour City, but went to Nanjing to serve as the president of a small merchant hall, what happened to him?

Naturally, it is crowded.

was dissatisfied and excluded by many high-level leaders of Xujiazhuang, so that Qian Chengzhi could not stay in Harbour City, so he had to ask for release, and in October last year, he came to Jiangnan Hall to take up a less important position.

It can be said that the identity of one of the important staff members of Xu Jiazhuang Keqing and Xu Yuan, the owner of the village, is very far away, and he was knocked down from the mortal world at once.

But this can't blame anyone in Xu Jiazhuang, Xu Yuan also gave him enough attention and courtesy, and gave him the opportunity to participate in major decisions again and again.

However, Qian Chengzhi himself is not angry.

It was his own awkward personality that caused all this, and no one was to blame.

Among the three people who privately called the 'Three Heroes of Zeshe', Fang Yizhi, Sun Lin and his Qian Chengzhi, Fang Yizhi decisively joined Xujiazhuang, but he adhered to the ideal of Kuang Fu Sheji, and now he is reused by the emperor, and his status in the emperor's heart is not weaker than that of the cabinet bachelor, and he has not lost the trust of Xujiazhuang, which is the best one for development.

Friend Sun Lin, like him, also struggled for a very long time, and even returned to his hometown Tongcheng, intending to train a strong army in the model of the Xu family, but ended in failure, and found that he could not correct the many ills in the Ming army, and finally gave up, and returned to Xujiazhuang, joined the Xu family army as an ordinary soldier, because of his outstanding performance, he is now the position of platoon commander, although it is not high, but the future is bright.

Only he Qian Chengzhi has never been able to integrate into Xujiazhuang, or he can't accept the concepts of Xujiazhuang's expansion and plunder, the law of the jungle, etc., and has repeatedly advocated benevolence and righteousness, to have a benevolent heart, and not to be too cruel, and other suggestions, which finally exhausted the patience of Xujiazhuang's senior management for him, making him completely reduced to a marginal person.

Xu Yuan, the owner of the village, is very tolerant of him, but he also thinks that he knows that his mentality is in his bones, and he will not change unless he encounters a major setback, and it is a good thing to let him experience outside, as long as he figures it out and understands it, he will be of great use in the future.

Then it's been half a year.

Qian Chengzhi, who has served as the president of the Jiangnan Hall for so long, has he realized now?

How could it be so fast.

On the contrary, it is in the midst of considerable depression and gap.

The downgrading of living conditions is secondary, mainly in terms of interpersonal communication, in this huge Nanjing, few people are willing to deal with him.

There are many flower boats on the Qinhuai River, and they are busy every night, but none of the talented women on the flower boats invite him, even if he is not short of money.

The local literary event was held one after another, each of which was lively and the whole city paid attention, but he never received a single invitation, even though he was quite poetic.

Blocked.

Qian Chengzhi knew that this was called a ban, just because he was a guest secretary of Xujiazhuang, so he was banned by the local literary circle and the local gentry class, even if Qian Chengzhi wanted to take the initiative to show favor and actively integrate into some local circles, but he was also coldly rejected, and even ridiculed and ridiculed, which made him feel very embarrassed.

It also made Qian Chengzhi realize that he is now in a state of not being up or down, not being treated by Xu Jiazhuang at the top, and not being able to return to the past state of life at the bottom, and not being able to live a comfortable life as a literati and artist, just like a clown, who is not accepted and recognized over there.

I can only fall into loneliness and pain.

Of course, in the past six months, Qian Chengzhi has not failed to the extent that no one has taken care of him.

He still made three friends who were very close to him.

They are Chen Zhenhui in Yixing, Xia Yunyi in Songjiang, and Huang Zongxi in Yuyao, Zhejiang.

These three people are all enlightened and virtuous people, and they did not reject and discriminate against him because he joined Xu Jiazhuang, but took the initiative to visit him, not afraid of external pressure, and communicated with him many times, which made Qian Chengzhi very moved and led them to be confidants.

But even these few friends did not approve of what Xu Jiazhuang had done, and they were criticized and dissatisfied, asking Qian Chengzhi to adhere to the righteousness of the sage, and must not fall into depravity and sinking, and join the same stream, and asked him to advise the owner of Xu Zhuang more, so that he can change his evil and return to the right as soon as possible, and not create more misery.

Qian Chengzhi smiled bitterly and said yes again and again, so he had to agree.

Some time ago, Yixing Chen Zhenhui visited him many times, invited him to join the Restoration Society, and also strongly encouraged Qian Chengzhi to leave Xujiazhuang, asking him to publicly publicize Xujiazhuang's crimes, and then cut off the righteousness with Xujiazhuang, and since then cut off the knife.

The 3,000 students of the Restoration Society will cheer for him and support him, which will not only greatly improve the prestige of the Restoration Society, but also re-accept the Jiangnan literary circle and the Jiangnan gentry, and even increase his prestige and become the most popular heroes.

For Chen Zhenhui's suggestion and demagogy.

Qian Chengzhi refused without thinking about it, and said, "Brother Dingsheng, you don't have to say it anymore!" Although I didn't shave my hair, I just changed the clothes of Xujiazhuang, but I am already a part of Xujiazhuang, there is no possibility of betrayal, and I will not do anything to devour the lord. ”

Although Qian Chengzhi is a bit naïve in some aspects, he is definitely not stupid! Knowing what the consequences of biting back once he cut off with Xujiazhuang, he received the salary from Xujiazhuang, ate Xujiazhuang's meals for more than two years, and knew a lot of Xujiazhuang's secrets, and he had long been tied to the ship of Xujiazhuang, if he dared to betray, the end would be absolutely very miserable.

"Brother Phantom Light, you are too pedantic, Xu Jiazhuang and other forces that do not cultivate virtue and provoke the anger of the heavens and people will sooner or later kill themselves......

Chen Zhenhui persuaded him again, and seeing that he was unmoved, he found that he was bored, and since then, the number of visits to him has greatly decreased.

Qian Chengzhi fell into a more lonely state, so he had to close the door and study mathematics, physics, chemistry and other studies.

In recent times, though.

To be precise, since April 10, Xujiazhuang's recruitment announcements have been posted all over the 14 prefectures of Nanzhili.

The Jiangnan Hall where Qian Chengzhi is located suddenly became crowded and busy.

Every day, more than a dozen or dozens of people come to visit and even give generous gifts.

And everyone who came to visit him was not a lonely and unknown person, but a very famous figure in the Jiangnan literary circle or the Jiangnan gentry group.

Such as Zhang Pu, the leader of the Restoration Society.

Yang Tingshu, a core member of the Restoration Society.

There is Mr. Lou Shan Wu Yingji.

There are celebrities Gu Gao, Mao Xiang, Chen Dingsheng, etc.

Later, even Xu Renjue, the nephew of Wei Guogong, Zhang Guobi, the son of Baoguogong, and Zhao Zhilong, the son of Scarlet Chengbo, all came to visit, causing the shock of Nanjing City.

By the way, what's going on?

Qian Chengzhi lay flat during this time, gave up his plan to make friends, and studied mathematics, physics and chemistry behind closed doors every day, and didn't do anything, why are there so many literati and celebrities, and the sons and daughters of nobles take the initiative to visit him, and his attitude is very enthusiastic.

Even those famous prostitutes and talented women on the Qinhuai River flower boat, these young ladies, are also abnormal, sending people to send hundreds of invitations, inviting him to participate in the poetry meeting, enjoy the song and dance, the attitude is enthusiastic, gentle and ambiguous, so that Qian Cheng's heart is moved, after all, he is a young man in his early twenties, and his age of blood and strength is strong, how can he not yearn for some talented and beautiful women, chanting poems and the scene of wind and snow.

However, he refused these invitations for the time being, and had to deal with the endless stream of literati and nobles who came to the door.

And the reason why they came to the door one after another is also very simple, that is, the gentry and nobles in Jiangnan are panicked, afraid, unable to sit still, and must take some public relations actions to relieve anxiety.

"The First Minister of the Ming Dynasty"

So the words that have resounded in Qian Chengzhi's ears in the past few days are:

"Why did Xujiazhuang expand its army again? Jiangnan is so peaceful, why did Xujiazhuang recruit so many soldiers? ”

"We don't dare to be hostile to Xujiazhuang anymore, and the Xu family army of more than 10,000 people is enough to dominate the world, why do we want to expand the army to the terrifying number of 50,000?"

"Brother Phantom Light, I heard that the salary of joining the Xu family army is extremely high, the monthly salary of an ordinary soldier is 20 taels, what is the monthly salary of 50,000 troops? That's a million taels! The salary of a single year is 12 million, which is terrible, too amazing, the imperial court's military expenditure is less than half of this expenditure, what a luxury and waste? How good would it be to save so much money? How much can you save in 10 or 20 years a year? Life is not like this, although Xujiazhuang is rich in the world, if it is extravagant and wasteful everywhere, even if there are mountains of gold and silver, it will not be able to stop it. ”

"What does Xu Jiazhuang want to do, is it going to expand the manor again and infringe on the interests of the Jiangnan gentry? We are down-to-earth and have not made any hostile moves against Xujiazhuang, why are we still so aggressive? Do you have to push us into a corner? ”

"Cooperation, we are willing to cooperate with Xujiazhuang, there will be no more hostility to Xujiazhuang in the future, just maintain the status quo, how about neither side advancing or retreating?"

"It's better to cancel the expansion of the army, this is a useless move to waste money and food, and it will only increase contradictions and suspicions."

"Doesn't Xu Jiazhuang just want to make money, okay! We are willing to open up all areas of cooperation, allow Xujiazhuang goods to enter and exit freely, increase the number of wholesale, and let Xujiazhuang make more money? Stop staring at our wretched land. ”

"Please tell the owner of the village, stop persecuting us! Rabbits will bite when they are in a hurry, so why bother to be aggressive? The owner of Xu Zhuang claims to be from the Huaxia tribe and has the same blood as us, in this case, how about giving us a way to live? ”

"Brother Phantom Light, you see how these two beauties are, if Brother Phantom Light can persuade Xu Jiazhuang for us a few words, these two beauties will stay by Brother Phantom Light and serve."

"Brother Phantom Light, please accept the three thousand taels of silver, don't be too little......"

“……”

All of the above.

It's the magical encounter of Qian Chengzhi these days.

Of course, Qian Chengzhi also appeased these worried and frightened voices, saying that the expansion of Xujiazhuang was just a routine operation, an established plan, and had nothing to do with the Jiangnan gentry, and there was no plan to expand the manor for the time being, so there was no need to worry, but it did not have any effect of relieving anxiety.

As for bribes such as beauties and silver, Qian Cheng politely refused, and if he failed to refuse, he would hand over all of them to the public treasury to avoid being identified as corruption.

Besides.

Qian Chengzhi also realized, it can be said that he felt it personally, and suddenly realized!

You must know that before the expansion of Xujiazhuang, the Jiangnan Hall was full of people, and the literati and celebrities, gentry and nobles in Jiangnan, and even the talented young ladies in the Qinhuai River flower boat, all ignored him, was indifferent, and suffered from cold reception and ridicule, and finally made a few friends and wanted to pit him.

What now?

He obviously didn't do anything.

It was Xujiazhuang who expanded his army.

Look at these flattering smiling faces, look at the invitations to these literary and poetry clubs, and look at the beauties and belongings that the nobles forcibly stuffed.

Qian Chengzhi also realized that he had to agree with what the owner said: When you are strong, everyone smiles at you; When you are weak, the whole world is your enemy!

In the past, Qian Chengzhi found it difficult to agree with this sentence, and felt that it was extreme and vulgar, but now he has to accept it.