As the minister of Sanpin, the early dynasty still has to go, Zhang Wen has to go to the imperial gate every morning to stand for a while, waiting for the eunuch inside to pass the decree that the morning dynasty will be canceled today, and then disperse with the ministers. Such a decree will be held every day, rain or shine.

Zhang Wen is a bit stressed now, but in fact, the pace of life is not fast, and there are no tedious things to do every day. He rarely went to the Imperial Palace, because although he held the official title of Imperial History of the Imperial Palace, he had just returned from the local government, and each person was responsible for the affairs of the yamen, so it was obviously not good for him to intervene at this time.

After the morning court, there is basically nothing to do during the day, but for dinner, I have to go to a restaurant to attend a banquet, and all the officials present are Jinshi officials from Suzhou and Hangzhou Academy. At this time, it is useful to reach out to your colleagues and increase your network, maybe when it will be useful. Most of these officials are petty officials, including officials of the six ministries of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and officials of various yamen. On the surface, it is a fellow villagers' association, because the Suzhou and Hangzhou Academy is in the south of the Yangtze River, and the scholars received are also people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

For a big man like Zhang Wen, it is good for officials to make friends, so Zhang Wen is very respectful at the wine table. After drinking, someone wanted to find a girl to accompany Zhang Wen, but Zhang Wen refused.

When I came out of the restaurant, it was already completely dark, and I am afraid that it was the second watch, and some shops on the street were closed. Zhang Wen ordered people to go quickly, and hurried home, it was too late to walk on the street. Zhang Wen's home is in Qingshi Hutong, which is an old house, and the place is not very good, but Zhang Wen has not bothered to change places, in fact, he doesn't want to change places, just wait for the situation to stabilize and expand.

The light in Qingshi Hutong is a little dark at night, and there are only a few ordinary people next to it, and at this time the doors have long been closed and there is no light. People are more economical, they go to bed early at night, save lamp oil, and they prefer to get up early in the morning.

Zhang Wen had just entered the bluestone alley in the sedan chair, and suddenly the sedan chair stopped, and he heard Xuanyue's voice outside the sedan chair: "What person, stop!" ”

only heard a clang, as if the iron chain fell to the ground, Zhang Wen opened the sedan curtain and was taken aback. The sedan chair was surrounded by Zhang Wen's guards, with lanterns, so he could see the woman who fell next to the sedan chair. Zhang Wen was surprised not that a woman had fallen here, but that the woman was disheveled and had chains on her hands and feet.

Could it be that she escaped from the women's prison? Zhang Wen's first thought was this, but after a closer look, the woman's body was very clean, the clothes were also very good and clean, and the messy clothes were only like this because her hands and feet were locked and she struggled to move.

At this time, I saw three or two people on each side of the alley walking over with lanterns, and the guards around Zhang Wen immediately became nervous and drew their weapons one after another. Zhang Wen glanced at the woman on the ground, her hands and feet were locked, she shouldn't be much of a threat to herself, after all, Zhang Wen has to practice every morning, and it's not just a person who can do anything to him, there are so many guards around him, they are all masters.

The people on both sides of the alley gradually approached, and when they saw the bright sword next to the sedan chair, they immediately stopped. At this time, an old man said: "Your Excellency, don't be nervous, there is no malice in despicable people, this woman is from the house...... Slave maid, I'll leave when I get someone, and I ask your Excellency to make it convenient. ”

Xuan Yue glanced at the woman on the ground, and was about to arrest someone, when the woman suddenly looked at Zhang and asked, "Don't, I don't want to go back, I don't want to go back, can you save me......"

The old man said again just now: "If you go back with the old man, the people in the family will not harm you, they will treat you well, don't be embarrassed here, go with the old man!" ”

The woman shook her head: "I don't want to be locked in the house, I don't want to ......"

Zhang Wen glanced at the woman and asked, "How could her hands and feet be tied?" ”

"It's not the old man's lock...... Ah, aren't you Master Zhang? ”

Does this man know himself? Zhang Wen took a step forward, looked through the light, and also recognized the person, the old man seemed to be an official of the household department, Zhang Wen had seen two faces when he walked around the yamen of the ministry, but he couldn't remember what his name was, and he couldn't remember what kind of official he was, anyway, he was not a big official.

Zhang asked, "Are you ......?"

The old man made a gesture and bowed: "Xia Guan is Fang Minzhong, the head of the household department, Lord Zhang is a noble person, and he has seen Lord Zhang before." ”

Zhang Wen pretended to be suddenly enlightened: "Oh, I remembered, it turned out to be Lord Fang." "The head of the household? It seems that they are all new people from the eunuch party, because the previous group of people has been cleared out of the court.

Fang Minzhong pointed to the woman on the ground and said, "Disturb Lord Zhang, I'm sorry for the lower officials, can the lower officials take her away?" ”

The woman listened to the conversation between the two and hurriedly said, "I'm not a slave, Fang Minzhong is my father!" Lord Zhang, save me, I don't want to go back! ”

Fang Minzhong was so angry that his beard turned up, and he pointed at the woman with anger on his face and scolded: "Shameful thing! Why didn't the old man strangle you to death in the first place! ”

When Zhang Wen heard that this woman was actually the daughter of a member of the eunuch party, he immediately felt that it was very useful, at this time, Zhang Wen Group and Wei Zhongxian had openly stood on the opposite side, and they both wanted to put their opponents to death, where could they take care of the question of whether to give face or not. Zhang Wen immediately said: "Lord Fang, at the feet of the Son of Heaven, everything must be done according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, are you treating your daughter like this, or is it the official's doing?" ”

Fang Minzhong roared angrily: "My Minzhong's daughter, who cares!" Come on, take her back to the old man! ”

The two housekeepers came over with lanterns, and immediately the guards who asked Zhang Wen stopped them, pointed a knife at them and said coldly: "Don't be afraid of death, come up and try!" ”

Fang Minzhong glared at Zhang and asked, "...... What do you want? She is the daughter of an old man, why are you detaining her! ”

Zhang Wen snorted and said coldly: "Because I am an official of the Ming Dynasty, and because she is a citizen of the Ming Dynasty, she has been treated unfairly." Someone is coming, take this woman back to the house for temporary care, and report to the governor's office immediately! ”

Zhang Wen got into the sedan chair and prepared to go home. A head of the household department, if he wants to stop me, he doesn't weigh himself.

When he returned home, Zhang asked someone to remove the woman's chains, and ordered Xuanyue to ask her what had happened. As for reporting to the governor's office, now that all the yamen have long since dispersed, and there have been no fatalities, it is estimated that there will be no response until tomorrow at the earliest.

Zhang Wen ate some lotus seed soup for supper and sobered up, and after a long time, Xuanyue came to Zhang Wen's room. Xuan Yue asked, "My lord, it's no good to keep this woman." ”

Zhang Wen shook his head and sneered: "Fang Minzhong is Wei Zhongxian's person, his daughter and family ugliness are in my hands, so you can't be in a hurry?" Fang Minzhong will definitely hold the silver and ask Wei Zhongxian for help. This kind of thing is a trivial matter at all, whether Wei Zhongxian wants to plant it back, or if he wants to settle the matter, it is not a big deal, and the most he can do without evidence is to deduct a basin, which makes people unhappy. I'm just using this to test Wei Zhongxian......"

"Now Fang Minzhong's daughter is in my hands, and she has been left at home for one night. If Wei Zhongxian just wants to go straight with me, he will definitely ask someone to frame me for slandering my innocence, robbing the wife and daughter of the official eunuch, and so on. If he really does this, I am really relieved, he is ruining my reputation, and naturally he will not think of promoting me to be in charge of the overall situation. I'll just be happy to watch and wait for the rest of the story. ”

"If Wei Zhongxian wants to use the trick of retreating to advance, he will try to create momentum for me to ascend to the throne, such a bad thing must not be planted on me now, he will calm down the matter and suppress this matter first."

Zhang Wen looked up at the bright moon outside the window and muttered: "When a leaf falls and the sky falls, the overall situation will always be reflected in small things." ”

After hearing this, Xuan Yue suddenly realized: "The owner is far-sighted and does not remember the gains and losses of the false name in front of him, which makes his subordinates admire, and his subordinates know what to do." Tomorrow, when the government comes to raise people, the subordinates will hand over Fang Suwan and do whatever they want. ”

Zhang Wen nodded, sighed again, and said: "When a person reaches a certain position, any move may cause others to become victims. This Fang Suwan may become a victim. ”

Xuan Yue said coldly: "What is there to sympathize with a woman who seduces her brother and does such a lewd thing?" ”

Zhang Wen turned around and said: "What the superiors preach is just to control the people and maintain stability, and it is not necessarily the truth!" What is good and what is evil; What is good and what is evil? You first check whether Fang Suwan is really Fang Minzhong's daughter, if she is telling the truth, do you think she is good or evil? If she really thinks that she is happy to abuse herself like this, it is her business, and people can't help but want to make themselves better? What do you think? ”

Zhang Wen thinks that tears should be the expression of true feelings, so he already believes half of Fang Suwan in his heart, but he will not completely trust a stranger, after all, everyone in this world has it, and there will be disguised tears.

Zhang Wen asked Xuanyue to send a thicker quilt over the bed, so that she could take care of her for one night, he wanted to say a few words of comfort to her, but when he thought that this woman might really die, it was in vain to say anything.

The next day, it was neither the official of Shuntianfu nor the criminal department who came to mention people, but people from Dongchang. Zhang Wen understood that Wei Zhongxian had been alarmed. The people in Dongchang said: This matter has already involved officials, and the Shuntian Mansion can't manage it, and it's not good to let the people in the Criminal Department manage it, so it should be handed over to Dongchang Jinyiwei to deal with.

It is the same for everyone to hand it over, and Zhang Wen didn't want to calculate a household head Fang Minzhong, so he handed him over. Zhang Wenting felt sad for Fang Minzhong, the eldest husband can't be without power for a day, the smaller the energy, the more helpless he is.

The people from Dongchang put Fang Suwan into a carriage and took him away, and when he walked out of the alley, he met Fang Minzhong. Fang Minzhong is a lot older, his hair is gray, and when he encounters such an emergency, his head is estimated to be much whiter, his eyes are bloodshot, and he probably hasn't slept all night. This matter is related to the reputation and interests of the entire Fang family, and Fang Minzhong must be extremely worried.

When Fang Minzhong saw the carriage coming, he hurriedly took out a silver ticket and stuffed it into the hand of the eunuch who took the lead. The eunuch rode his horse, looked at the silver ticket in his hand, hurriedly turned over from the horse, and said, "Yo, Lord Fang, what are you doing here?" ”

Fang Minzhong said in a low voice: "Have you already brought it out?" Don't bother your father-in-law, hand it over to the lower officials, and the lower officials will discipline themselves, and they won't let her come out and be embarrassed in the future! ”

The eunuch looked embarrassed, handed over the silver ticket for a short distance with a painful and painful face, and said: "Our family is ordered to do things, and our family really dare not accept this." ”

The water that was spilled was naturally not good to take it back, so Fang Minzhong excused himself: "Give tea to my father-in-law." The eunuch quickly hid the silver ticket into his sleeve, and still said with an embarrassed face: "Ling Qianjin was locked up in his own house for one night by Zhang Wen, and he still has to watch the dog beating...... Oh, our family is saying that Lord Fang can swallow this breath, and Duke Wei can't swallow this breath either, so that Qianjin's reputation is in vain for Zhang Wen to be abused? We'll have to find an explanation for you! ”

Fang Minzhong cried and said with a sad face: "The ugliness of the family should not be publicized, the lower officials feel that there is no need to make a fuss about this matter, everyone knows it, Zhang Wen just hand it over." The father-in-law will hand over the little girl to the lower officials...... Lower official, this is kneeling down for you......"

The eunuch hurriedly supported Fang Minzhong: "I can't help it, I can't help it, you are a lot older, our family can't afford it, and you have to lose your life." This matter, our family is also ordered to do things, if you really want to order your daughter to go back earlier, you have to plead with Father-in-law Wei, otherwise our family will release people privately, and we won't be able to pay the difference when we go back, you also have to understand our family's difficulties. ”

Fang Minzhong nodded dejectedly: "Then please take care of the little girl a little bit." ”

The eunuch said: "Don't worry, let's just send it to Dongchang to ask about the matter, point out Zhang Wen's bad behavior, and release him after recording a confession." There are eunuchs in the East Factory, what are you worried about? The lady in the palace is Bingqing Yujie, we have also waited, you can rest easy, and you will never treat her badly. ”

Fang Minzhong wiped his sweat and said, "Then there is Gonggong Lao, and the next official will go to beg Gonggong Wei." ”

"Yes, you are not old and confused, you understand the reason, and you have to ask Father-in-law Wei to be successful."