novelAbuy Chapter 101 Honghu Tower
Chapter 101 Honghu Tower
Chapter 101 Honghu Tower
On the last day of March, a large number of people suddenly arrived outside Honghu Tower, east of Wuling Bridge in Taicang.
Li Liu squatted at the bridgehead, cracking pine nuts as he observed.
Honghulou was a well-known restaurant in Taicang City, specializing in Northern cuisine. It also featured female singers performing songs, so many officials came here to welcome and send off guests, and over time it gained fame.
However, business has been rather slow lately. I heard that Prime Minister Tuotuo has implemented new policies, sending a bunch of censors to search everywhere, and officials from the Anti-Corruption Bureau in Jiangnan are also conducting investigations in various prefectures and counties.
In short, things are getting too tense, and officials are starting to keep a low profile, waiting for the storm to pass.
With the absence of these officials indulging in food, drink, and entertainment, Honghulou's business has become much quieter. Now, it's mostly businessmen hosting banquets there, and it's no longer as prosperous as it used to be.
After squatting for a while, Li Liu's legs were almost numb when he finally saw a carriage stop.
"Big brother."
"Brother Shao."
"Brother Shao".
"Brother Shao."
Several well-dressed but thuggish-looking men approached, using a jumble of names, but their attitudes were all very respectful.
Soon, "Brother Shao," dressed in a royal blue suit, wearing a straw hat and leather boots, got out of the car. He was accompanied by two burly men, one tall and one short, who were looking around with their hands on the hilts of their knives.
Damn it! This guy's really something.
Li Liu kept munching on pine nuts, inwardly cursing that Sun Chuan hadn't told the truth.
With just the few men they left in Liujiagang, they probably wouldn't be able to capture Shao Shuyi, or even get close to him.
"Yu She, you've worked hard. We still need you to organize this banquet." The voice came from the other end.
Li Liu stood up, lightly stomped his foot, and took a few steps forward imperceptibly.
Two men chatting under a tree glanced over. One of them had a bulging waist with half a sharp blade sticking out, which looked like a pig-slaughtering knife.
The other person couldn't see where the weapon was hidden, but his eyes were sharp, and when he saw Li Liu, he didn't look away for a long time.
Li Liu froze, pretending to look for work, and glanced around.
Just then, two more people entered through the door.
"Official Qi, Second Son."
"I am truly surprised that Shao She is so young." The old man, addressed as "Master Qi," smiled and cupped his hands in greeting.
"Brother Shao, how have you been lately?" "Erlang" asked excitedly. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Master Qi, Erlang, please come in quickly."
"Of course, of course. Truly, heroes emerge from among the young. I've lived forty years in vain, and this is the first time I've seen such talent. I wonder if he's married yet?"
The sound gradually faded into the distance.
A group of people entered Honghu Tower in a noisy manner, leaving only a few people squatting at the entrance, eating pine nuts like Li Liu.
Li Liu subconsciously wanted to go into Honghu Tower to take a look, but today, in order to avoid being noticed, he wore clothes with a lot of patches. If he swaggered in like this, he was afraid he would be caught, so he gave up.
Moreover, he felt that if he continued to monitor them like this, they might be discovered, and then he wouldn't be able to escape.
So Li Liu stopped eating the pine nuts, pretended to walk around for a while, then slowly moved away from Honghu Tower and disappeared around the street corner.
He felt he needed to return to Taizhou as soon as possible.
The idea of capturing Shao Shuyi, binding him in the wilderness, torturing him, and forcing him to reveal the whereabouts of the goods is laughable and utterly impossible.
Rather than doing that, it would be more reliable to lure Sun Chuan out and make that old man sell his land and lose money.
******
Inside the Honghu Tower, everyone took their seats according to rank, chatting and laughing.
Yu Yuan paced back and forth, constantly confirming with the restaurant staff which dishes were ready and which dishes to serve first, keeping himself very busy.
There was no other way; his elder brother, Yu Chu, was also there.
"What? Brother Yu is a translator? He can become an official now, right?" As soon as everyone sat down, Qi Le, an official in the state government office who was a "scribe," looked at Yu Chu with envy.
"The appointment of officials in the Grand Canal Bureau follows the same system as the Six Ministries' appointments. Only those who pass three examinations (without any mistakes within 90 months) can be appointed to the eighth rank," Yu Chu shook his head and smiled.
"Those were officials with connections," Qi Le said enviously. "The prefectural judge, Xue Qian, was not as good as a translator or interpreter. After passing three examinations, he became a prefect, but that was just an outsider. Little did he know..."
Qi Le leaned closer to Yu Chu and asked in a low voice, "Brother Yu, how many times have you taken the exams?"
"The second test was just enough, but the third test was not enough," Yu Chu replied.
"I can be appointed as a ninth-rank inspector now," Qi Le exclaimed, slapping his thigh.
Shao Shuyi sat to the side listening without showing any emotion, because this touched on a blind spot in his knowledge.
"Brother Qi is mistaken," Yu Chu sighed. "Nowadays, there are countless officials waiting to take office; becoming an official is not that easy."
Qi Le sighed. He had been a clerk in the state government office for more than ten years. He had long since passed the three examinations, but he still could not be promoted to the position of clerk and become a clerk who received a salary.
In other words, he was still in the "probationary official" group, a forty-year-old probationary official, and it was impossible to be promoted after the age of forty-five, there was an age limit.
Now, whenever he sees a large number of young probationary clerks in the government office, such as children of clerks and young men with connections, he feels very ashamed.
Yu Chu looks to be under thirty and still has a chance, not to mention that he has a salary while I don't.
"Master Yu, just now Master Qi mentioned—" Seeing that the two had temporarily stopped talking, Shao Shuyi asked tentatively.
Yu Chu waved his hand and said, "If you are to be promoted within the Grand Canal Administration, you need the approval of the official in charge. If you are to be transferred to a local area, you also need to be selected by the prefecture or state level."
For example, if the chief inspector of the patrol office is a clerk, interpreter, or translator in the province, the central government, or the central government, he can take up the post within ten months of his term.
The clerks and officials of the Six Ministries, the Regional Administration, the Provincial Administration, and other similar positions can be appointed in fifteen months;
Six volumes of historical and interpretive works were translated, taking ten months;
The envoys of the provinces, prefectures, and administrative offices served for fifteen months;
The six ministries reported to the emperor, and the process took twenty months.
The translators and interpreters of the Grand Canal Bureau followed the system of official appointments in the Six Ministries. For example, I served as a probationary clerk for ten years, diligently studying Mongolian and Persian scripts. I passed the two interpreter examinations and was qualified to serve as the chief inspector of a prefecture, county, or circuit more than three years ago. But how could I, without power or influence, possibly be appointed to such a position?
"Can you pay with money?" Shao Shuyi asked.
Yu Chu glanced at him and said, "Even if you have money, you still need connections."
Shao Shuyi understood.
"It must have cost a fortune," Qi Le said from the side. "Someone changed his age the other day, and when we were chatting, we calculated it for him. It cost over ten thousand ingots in total—"
Shao Shuyi was extremely surprised. Upon further inquiry, he learned that there were officials at the level of the Six Ministries in Dadu. Qi Le dared not reveal their specific names. He asked his mother for an official title, but someone told him that he was born posthumously and had changed his age in order to become an official, resulting in him being born two years after his father's death.
The official was greatly alarmed. The memorial had already been submitted, and this would surely implicate his mother in infidelity. So he pleaded with each level of government office, from the bottom up, to retrieve the records and change the age back. In total, it cost more than ten thousand ingots. This was also one of the main sources of income for trainee officials like Qi Le who did not receive a salary.
"So, how much does it cost to be transferred to the position of patrol inspector?" Shao Shuyi asked again.
"Inspecting isn't difficult," Qi Le said. "In the old days, some people paid 500 shi of grain to be an inspector, which was profitable. Nowadays, it doesn't cost that much money. It's too hard work. In the desolate wilderness, 300 shi is more than enough."
As he said this, Qi Le glanced at his nephew and said, "Second Brother only spent three ingots of paper money, but the patrol inspector is, after all, a ninth-rank official, which is different."
Once Shao Shuyi understood, he didn't ask any more questions.
Yu Chu quietly tugged at his sleeve.
Shao Shuyi laughed and said, "Enough talk, the food is here."
Lamb head sashimi, turmeric tendon, braised pig's trotters, and roasted yellow chicken—all hearty dishes, plus Araji wine. After a few rounds of drinks, the atmosphere gradually became lively.
"Shao She, Erlang's family has had a tough time. He was able to become an archer this time entirely thanks to you." Qi Le's face was flushed as he pointed at his nephew and said, "In this world, it's all about you helping me and me helping you. If he achieves great things in the future, he'll have to come back and thank you."
"That's too much, that's too much," Shao Shuyi laughed. "We're all brothers, if I don't help Erlang, am I supposed to help an outsider? Come, have some wine."
"Okay, okay." Qi Le picked up the wine bowl and drank it all in one gulp.
"Shao She is so young and promising. If you have any questions in the future, feel free to come to me." Qi Le added, "Although my skills are limited, I have trained several young clerks in the Household Revenue Department, so I can still handle some minor matters."
Shao Shuyi glanced at Qi Erlang.
Qi Erlang blushed and lowered his head to eat.
Yesterday, when Brother Shao came to invite his uncle and nephew to a banquet, perhaps to save face, he lavishly praised his cousin. He said that after the tax registers of the township and suburbs were handed in, they could "wash away the documents," that is, use a kind of medicine to wash away the red bars representing tax payments, so that the officials could not tell at all, and then they would find that person to collect taxes again.
Their household registration officer, Hu, secretly made several official seals. His uncle, who was senior, could borrow them.
As such.
Looking back now, it seems a bit childish. Qi Erlang blushed deeply and almost covered his face with his sleeve.
Shao Shuyi chuckled inwardly, then placed a bowl of tender carp soup in front of Qi Le and said with a smile, "I will naturally trouble you, Master Qi, in the future."
After saying that, he glanced around.
Today, all the core members are here, such as Kong Tie, Liang Tai, Yu Yuan, Wu Heizi, Gao Daqiang, and even Li Fu has been brought along—Cheng Ji didn't want to come to this kind of occasion.
Apart from Yu Yuan, the others all came from humble backgrounds. Although they had changed into decent new clothes and groomed their beards, hair, and eyebrows, making them look presentable, their words and actions were quite incongruous, giving them a thuggish and ridiculous appearance.
Shao Shuyi's gaze lingered on Wu Heizi for a moment, then he said, "Sir Qi, do you know what the minimum age is required for a trainee clerk in the yamen?"
Qi Le, his eyes glazed with drunkenness, said, "Years ago, an imperial inspector submitted a memorial, pointing out that many officials and clerks in the prefectures and counties, though they had attended school in their youth, abandoned their studies after the age of ten and instead began writing in the gates of the government offices." "How old do you think that was?"
So, a ten-year-old can already be an apprentice in the government office? That's outrageous. Shao Shuyi turned his gaze away from Wu Heizi and continued to urge him to drink.
Wu Heizi, however, became excited.
The second son started his formal education at the age of five. Although he hadn't studied seriously for many days and had only followed a few teachers intermittently, they all said that the child was talented. Now, at only nine years old, he has become a disciple of Master Sun, who has returned from Dadu, and is studying diligently.
If I could enter the government office as a trainee clerk in the future, that would be the best thing ever.
Brother Shao is a truly generous man; he always thinks of his brothers.
Wu Heizi picked up his wine bowl, raised it to Shao Shuyi from afar, and drank it all in one gulp.
Shao Shuyi raised his wine bowl in return, a knowing smile on his face.
Today's dinner party was quite expensive, but I got to know many more people, so overall it was a win-win situation.
The story of Zheng Sanshe marrying off his maidservant awakened him.
You have to walk on two legs in everything you do. If you rely too much on one side, you will be constrained.
He comes from a humble background and has few connections, so every opportunity is precious and he must seize it firmly.
Qi Le was just a clerk in the yamen, but he was the only official in the state government that he could currently get in touch with.
Furthermore, Yu Chu's acceptance of the banquet indicates that the relationship between the two parties has deepened, which is a good thing.
If I don't have connections, I'll create them and spend money to make up for it.
Based on this idea, the next step is to make money.