In the Xu family house of Tai'an Mansion, Shandong, Xu Wen and more than a dozen friends who have known each other for more than a year are eating and drinking and listening to the play, hugging the beauty of Flower Street left and right, and everyone is vying to flatter him during the banquet.

Xu Wen, who was drunk, seemed to be very moved, drunken shouted that he wanted to share the blessings with all the brothers, and then waved his hand to order someone to take out hundreds of ingots of treasure money.

Since he was sent to Shandong by his two uncles last year, Xu Wen initially lived a boring life in a sullen manner, and he rebelled several times, not only did he make the heroes of Jingnan collectively despise his character, but also offended the entire family because he shot Xu Huizu with his own hands, so that all the nobles in the capital regarded him as a plague god.

What's more, Zhu Gaochi thinks that Xu Wen is capricious and does not cultivate his personal morality, and once said in person that he could not be allowed to be an official, which can be regarded as a complete ruin. This is also why Xu Wenken ran to Shandong in a gloomy manner, just because there was no place in the capital.

However, his family treated him well, not only the third uncle gave his grange to his nephew, Xu Qingtang and his wife also sent 30,000 taels of silver, Xu Hao sent a canal fleet, Mu Ningxue purchased a house in Tai'an City and renovated it, and the couple spent no less than 50,000 taels of silver for this.

Geng has always been not good at business, and now she is bent on guarding against Lamei, and she does not let her get involved in trading.

What's more, Xu Wen is used to machismo, and when he first arrived in Tai'an, he bought a few shops and recruited some experienced guys. There is a ready-made fleet of ships responsible for purchasing goods from the north and south or transporting supplies on behalf of merchants, and it is not worrying that business will be prosperous.

Originally, most of the family members who had always followed Xu Wen were scattered and scattered, and there were only a few left. First, in order to keep someone to serve his mother, and secondly, who is willing to leave the capital and settle in Shandong? Sanlai felt that he had a bad reputation, and Xu Wen didn't want to bring too many people here, so there were only seven or eight people in the family who followed him.

Even so, Xu Wen still strictly forbade mentioning the Xu family in Jinling, and was bent on establishing himself in Shandong. Therefore, the people in Tai'an City only knew that the rich Xu family had moved in, and it was said that his father had been the commander of the capital or something. I don't know anything else.

Gradually, life went by, and it didn't take long for Xu Wen, who was bold, to gather a group of so-called friends. It is no less than the past in the capital. This made Xu Wen quickly become unhappy, and handed over the business to the people below to worry about, he called friends all day long, hunting, gambling money, eating, drinking, laughing, and so on.

The problem is that newcomers are not familiar with the place. Spend money lavishly, show off your wealth and meet too many people who don't know the details. It is often not a good thing, and there is no doubt that the means of self-protection will be coveted by bad actors.

In Qingzhou, not far from Tai'an Mansion, there lives Zhu Rong, the king of Qi, among the talented sons of the former emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, he is one of the few who does not learn and has no skills, and he did many bad things in the fief in his early years, and he is ambitious, otherwise he would not have found an excuse by Zhu Yunwen to be degraded to a commoner.

Now there is only one honest Chu king Zhu Zhen alive above the king of Qi, and in addition to this, he is the most respected king of Qi. This gave hope to Zhu Rong, who had the ambition to compete for the throne.

King Qi, who had probably experienced the Battle of Jingjing, also dreamed of learning the same way and reproducing the scene of the fourth brother Zhu Di's achievement of hegemony. Return to the fiefdom and secretly prepare for rebellion, once you encounter an opportunity, you can raise troops into Beijing in the name of revenge for Emperor Jianwen.

However, the primary condition for rebellion is to have money, and only with money can you build weapons and recruit soldiers, and the Qi Wangfu has land and mineral veins in its name, but because the population of Shandong has decreased sharply after the war, the annual income is far worse than in previous years.

Zhu Rong carefully studied the process of the fourth brother's army, and also learned to recruit dead soldiers to train assassins, and hired some inhuman warlocks on the rivers and lakes, unlike Zhu Di to publicize the destiny of heaven, but let these people cast spells to curse Emperor Hongxi, if you can use spells or assassination and other means to get rid of Zhu Gaochi, then the crown prince is young, and King Qi, as the highest-ranking vassal king in today's clan, will have a great future when the time comes.

Nothing can be done without money, running Qingzhou needs to build a strong city to protect itself, expand the number of guards, Zhu Rong without the permission of the imperial court, increase the taxes of the people and occupy the forests and lakes in the country, etc., do everything to make money.

But Zhu Rong didn't dare to be too blatant, in order to collect money, he pondered all day long about attacking the rich and rich people, and it happened that in the past few days, he has received news that the imperial court has taken action against the old ministers, even if Zhu Gaochi has repeatedly issued orders not to implicate others, how can Zhu Rong take the edict in his eyes?

Under the instruction of the King of Qi, the commander Chai Zhi quickly listed a group of rebels against the party, and there was a little resentment in the officialdom, all of which were written on the list, and then followed the old and old and fastidious interrogations all night, according to which they were traced to the local rich families, so that the rich people could spend money to buy their lives.

Ning Wangfu, Zhu Rong asked with a smile: "There is a Tai'an Prefecture Xu Gongzi here, I seem to have heard of this person's name, is there a current official in his family?" ”

Commander Chai Zhi said respectfully: "I heard that Xu Gongzi's deceased father was a governor for several years, and he died a few years ago, and his family moved to Tai'an to settle down. ”

Zhu Yu said: "Since people's fathers have passed away for many years, what excuse should I use to take people? ”

Chai Zhihe said with a smile: "This is simple, just use Xu Gongzi as an excuse to harbor a traitor and get people to Qingzhou Prison." ”

Seeing his henchmen go away, Zhu Yu muttered, "Why is the surname Xu again?" It seems that the Xu family has never heard of a clansman in Shandong, so it seems that I am too worried. ”

A few days later, the Qi royal palace issued a fire ticket to arrest the rebels, sent the royal palace guards to arrest the people, and instructed the civil and military officials of Tai'an Mansion to send officials to assist in the arrest.

Because of the rebellion, the case was in a hurry, and local officials did not dare to slack off. On this day, Xu Wen was inviting friends to play with all kinds of chrysanthemums at home, and suddenly the housekeeper ran and said: "The lord of the state and the guard of the camp have brought many people to visit the uncle. ”

Xu Wen was stunned at first, and hurriedly changed his clothes, while ordering the preparation of tea, and then instructed the kitchen to prepare a banquet. As soon as the others walked outside the second gate, they saw more than a dozen civil and military officials walking into the gate proudly.

The garrison saw Xu Wen at a glance, pointed at him and shouted, "It's him." Take it! ”

The officials rushed forward, blocked Xu Wen's mouth without saying a word, put on the big lock and turned around and swarmed away. Poor Xu Wen was confused and didn't figure out what was going on, this scene frightened those friends and family members.

This incident immediately caused a sensation before and after, some friends were afraid of being implicated, and they packed up their things and hurriedly went out to avoid trouble, and some friends sent people to inquire about what was going on, and there were also those who couldn't eat the Xu family's oil and water, and they were secretly happy.

Geng has been worrying day and night lately. Just received a letter that his mother's family was almost wiped out, the Geng family lost power, although there is still the Xu family to count on, but Xu Wen is a commoner no matter what he says. Violating the king's law must also be punished, but he was so frightened that he was frightened, and he hurriedly sent someone to the state to inquire.

In the evening, the family rushed back to report: "The uncle is a person surnamed Wu who harbored the Qingzhou rebellion case, and he will be sent to Qingzhou Mansion for trial tomorrow." ”

Geng hurriedly asked, "Where is your uncle now?" ”

Because of a dry family, they were all sent to the countryside. This steward Wen Fu is a local. I don't know the details of the old lady Lu Dao, and said: "The uncle is already in prison, and the little ones don't dare to ask, this is still a letter from someone who knows each other in the state." ”

Geng almost fainted, worried about something, what he was most afraid of was the rebellion case and the life lawsuit, what was the use of moving out of his house?

Lamei also panicked, even if she sent someone to the capital at this pass, she was afraid that it would be too late. Once Xu Wen pleads guilty in court, then everything will be over! Could it be that Xu Hao could still ask for forgiveness from His Majesty?

For a while, Geng Shi burst into tears, and Lamei stood stunned. My brain went blank, and I was stunned by the sudden catastrophe.

The housekeeper said: "It's useless for the wife to cry, it's better to invite the friends that the uncle has made every day to discuss overnight to see if they have a way to save them." ”

The Geng family, who had no master of the six gods, hurriedly sent people to invite them separately, and Lamei calmed down and wrote a letter to send her henchmen to Beijing. Who knew that these friends learned that it was a treachery, and they were half scared to death, half of them said that they were afraid that they would not come, and half said that they were not at home.

On the fourth watch, someone finally came, it was Wang Ruyu, the maiden nephew of Mrs. Wang, and Xu Wen were cousins.

This Wang Ruyu is sixteen years old this year, and his father died depressed on the way to Liaodong after his grandfather Wang Bi committed suicide, and his mother died a few years later.

During the Jianwen period, the Wang family was amnesty, and Wang Ruyu, who was a teenager at the time, took refuge with his relatives and took refuge with his aunt, and this year he heard that his cousin was doing well in Tai'an, and he came to Shandong.

Geng Shi saw him come and deliberately cried loudly, Lamei also wiped her tears, Wang Ruyu said: "It's all cousins who have met fox friends day by day, but they have alienated their own brothers, and as a result, such a catastrophe has come out." Sister-in-law, don't worry, he went to prison with his front foot, and I went around the state yamen with my back foot. It turned out that the Qi Wangfu was investigating the case of rebellion, and found out that his cousin harbored the traitor Wu Kang, and ordered Tai'an officials to arrest him and escort him to Qingzhou. ”

Geng shouted: "Your brother has never left anyone surnamed Wu to live at home, where do you start with this?" ”

Wang Ruyu sighed: "He plays money and eats wine every day, not in Zhang San's house, but in Li Si's house, who doesn't know anyone in Sanshan and Wuyue?" Now being implicated is a great disaster, this matter is very important, the past of my family is vividly remembered, I consulted several officials, all said that the rebellion case is not done well is to destroy the clan, and the punishment is a trivial matter. ”

Geng Shi was shocked and said, "How is it possible? Don't forget the title of the Xu family. ”

Wang Ruyu sighed: "Isn't there still one less person whose family has been raided and exterminated? Besides, my cousin and Xu Hao are not brothers, this generation has already split up, if the saint insists on doing business, I am afraid that he will not be able to help. ”

"So what to do?" Geng Shi was suddenly a little dumbfounded, "Could it be that we all have to die in Shandong?" ”

"Don't worry." Wang Ruyu said calmly: "This case can actually be big or small, I will go to the yamen now, the previous guarantor revealed his tone, saying that it costs three or five thousand taels of silver, up and down, maybe he can buy a cousin's life, and at worst, he can delay it for a month before he can solve it." I gave three hundred taels on the spot, and then I went to the prison to see my cousin, who was afraid that my sister-in-law would panic, and asked me to come and show me, saying that I should not be stingy with money, and the top priority was to save people first. ”

Geng Shi said anxiously: "Then you hurry up and do it, but how can you have all this cash at home?" ”

Wang Ruyu said: "My cousin also said that the two stores in the city will first make up the cash silver, which is enough to stabilize the yamen, I will rush back at this moment, and I will exchange the silver with them tomorrow, sister-in-law, don't worry." ”

After hearing this, Geng sighed at Lamei, and said with a wry smile: "This world has really changed, who dared to have such a big appetite in the early years, it was three or five thousand taels of real money." ”

Lamei persuaded: "Stay in the green mountains, don't worry about no firewood, this kind of thing is not easy for our women to come forward, so let my cousin bother to do everything, and thank you again when you save your brother." ”

After speaking, Lamei turned her back to Geng and Wang Ruyu and winked tacitly, daring to love Lamei's debauchery, she had already had a leg with her cousin who was like a treasure. (To be continued......)