Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 330: Shameless Realm
Mr. Qi and Mr. Jiang, who arrived first, looked at the table close to the wall and had no urge to go over early to sit down. They even regretted why they didn't pretend to be sick and miss the party. However, this was just a thought, because not long after, they waited for the other four representatives who were invited today, and no one was absent.
Young Master Jiang heaved a sigh of relief when he saw these four people. Except for him, the acting head of the Jiang family who came here on behalf of his father, the rest were the real heads of the family - the old men were older and older. Obviously, with the imperial envoy in front, no one dared to pretend to be sick or even injured, and pushed other unimportant people in the family to the front.
When greeting each other, the four who came later saw clearly that the table was set up in such a strange place, but everyone turned a blind eye and continued to chat and laugh. Compared with what Qi Yuanwai said to Jiang Da Shao, the others did not say a word about whether they knew about the incident in the morning, and some even praised Jiang Da Shao.
If it were in the past, Young Master Jiang would have been carried away by success when he heard others praising his nephew for being better than his father and his young phoenix having a clearer voice than the old one. But now he knew that these old foxes were fooling him. He hated them for a moment and made up his mind to rely more on Mr. Qi, who kept the secret but at least revealed some information about him.
Just when they were chatting about everything but not the business, they suddenly heard a cold voice: "Everyone, my general and Dr. Zhang are here."
Hearing this, Young Master Jiang was stunned. The general was of course General Zhu Tingfang, who had shown off his power to others as soon as he arrived yesterday, but who was this Dr. Zhang? He stepped back knowingly, but he didn't expect that before he could move, the others had already moved behind him, even Mr. Qi.
At this moment, he was immediately furious. You guys who are older than me, have more experience than me... and have more prosperous family businesses than my family, all hide behind a young man like me, do you have any shame? But before he could curse out loud, his arm was grabbed by Mr. Qi, and then he heard Mr. Qi's earnest voice.
"My dear nephew, this position originally belonged to your father, so don't refuse it. He was the leader when we made the alliance. Don't worry, the imperial envoy will not make things difficult for you because you are young. Besides, your sister is married to the Hua family, the richest family in Suzhou. The Hua family is a major weaving family in Jiangnan every year. They will not make things difficult for you."
Bullshit! My sister is the young lady of the Hua family, but the daughter of the Hua family is not my wife! It would be strange if the Hua family would help me!
Young Master Jiang was so angry that his face turned blue. But at this moment, those old foxes had already stood behind him, pushing him to the front, and the people over there were almost there, so he could only curse these irresponsible guys in his heart, while taking two steps forward to greet them with fear and trepidation.
Although he donated money to become a student of the Imperial Academy, he had no real academic achievement. In the past, when he went in and out of the Changlu County Office to see the County Magistrate Xu Cheng, he certainly did not have to kneel. Later, when he met the eldest prince, his father came in person. He did not know how his father saluted, so he did not dare to have any arrogant thoughts at this time. When he saw that the other person's feet were still seven or eight steps away, his knees went weak and he knelt down.
That's an imperial envoy! Even if Taizu had simplified the occasions where kneeling was required, the situation was different this time... If those old men behind him refused to kneel, then they could just go ahead and do it. He wouldn't accompany them!
However, as soon as Young Master Jiang knelt down and lowered his head, he saw from the corner of his eye that the old men behind him also knelt down. Thinking about these guys who usually stomped their feet and shook the city three times, they were so servile, he couldn't help but curse them in his heart for bullying the weak and fearing the strong, but then he quickly retracted this reverie.
"Student Jiang Siyuan pays his respects to the Imperial Envoy." Since he had no idea who the other person was, Young Master Jiang simply adopted this vague title. At the same time, he was very proud that he was a student of the Imperial Academy, so he could call himself that.
However, when he heard the voices behind him calling themselves old, he couldn't help but twitch his mouth slightly. His father was the youngest among the group of people, and the three brothers were not talented, but the later ones were different. Their sons, nephews, or the children of the side branches who were supported by their families, at least they were officials, so many of them were granted titles or even imperial titles.
If it weren't for the fact that they had trapped the eldest prince and provoked the Cangzhou uprising, these guys would actually be very confident in front of the imperial officials who were two or three levels higher...
When Zhang Shou heard the uneven greetings, he could not help but exchange glances with Zhu Tingfang. He did not think that respect meant submission, nor did he think that rebelliousness meant refusal. Seeing the group being lowered, he could not help but think that perhaps many people were used to looking down at the back of others' heads, so they could no longer see the expression on the face lying on the ground.
Seeing that Zhang Shou didn't speak, Zhu Tingfang spoke first, "Everyone, get up. The emperor sent Doctor Zhang from the Imperial College to inquire about your workshop. Today I am just a guest."
Young Master Jiang was a little confused. He could understand that the workshop had caused a civil uprising in Cangzhou, which had alarmed the emperor. But since they had already sent a royal relative like Zhu Tingfang, why did they send another doctor from the Imperial Academy? How could such a bookworm know what a workshop was like... No, no, no, had anyone ever seen spinning and weaving?
Confused , he simply kept silent, but raised his head. He had never seen Zhu Tingfang before, but when he saw the handsome young man with a scar on his face, he was sure that it was General Mingwei. But when his eyes swept over the other person, he was stunned.
He was a handsome and elegant young man, who looked to be a few years younger than him. Although he was not as imposing as Zhu Tingfang, when his eyes met the person's, he couldn't help but lower his head immediately, and then he couldn't help but start to criticize wildly in his heart.
That was the Doctor Zhang of the Imperial College mentioned by Zhu Tingfang? No way? What a joke! To be a doctor of the Imperial College, one must be a scholar , or at least a person who excelled in the imperial examinations and had a great reputation. Generally speaking, it was not unusual for middle-aged and elderly people in their forties or fifties to be such a person, but it was unusual for young people in their twenties or thirties to be such a person! And they were so outstanding!
After his father donated a place to him, he even went to the Imperial Academy to spend two days there, knowing the style of study there. Even though he looked like a gentle and refined young man, those students would never obey his orders!
Thinking this in his heart, Young Master Jiang forgot to look at other people's faces - compared to him, when Zhu Tingfang introduced Zhang Shou, several old men including Mr. Qi were all calm. Obviously, unlike the fledgling Young Master Jiang, they already knew the other party's identity. And they knew more than just Zhang Shou.
Therefore, when Young Master Jiang was distracted, Mr. Qi and others had already introduced themselves respectfully and invited Zhu Tingfang and Zhang Shou to the table. When Young Master Jiang came to his senses, he found that there was only one seat left at the open-air banquet next to the outer wall of the prison.
That seat was just below Zhang Shou, the doctor of the Imperial College. As for Qi Yuanwai, who had agreed to stick together with him, he was sitting on the other side of the empty seat and was winking at him.
Seeing this, he could only curse inwardly, smile apologetically, and quickly walk to the table . As soon as he sat down, he heard Mr. Qi cough hard, then stood up, picked up the pot and filled his glass, and then handed the glass to him.
At this time, Mr. Qi spoke up, "My dear nephew, you are here today on behalf of your father. Why don't you take this opportunity to toast Dr. Zhang? The new textile machine that we just installed in our workshop was made based on his drawings."
Young Master Jiang's hands trembled, and he almost spilled half of the wine. He knew it was impolite, but he couldn't help but stare at Zhang Shou with wide eyes. He was a doctor of the Imperial College at such a young age, and he could also make something that could increase the efficiency of spinning several times?
But after taking a few more glances, he immediately came to his senses and quickly stood up with his glasses in both hands: "I am an ignorant student. I just found out that you, Dr. Zhang, are such an amazing person! This is a great thing that saves manpower. I'll toast to you!"
Seeing Young Master Jiang raise his head and drink the wine first as a sign of respect, Zhang Shou thought of his father who had tried to commit suicide over a disagreement, and felt that these father and son were not alike at all.
Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that everyone else was looking at how he would respond. Zhu Tingfang didn't say anything, so Zhang Shou raised the wine glass in front of him and took a sip casually.
"It is true that the new spinning machines save manpower, but they save so much manpower that you only care about suppressing the price of cotton yarn, forcing the original spinning machine owners to spend more than they earn. After discovering that the price of cotton has risen, they are unwilling to spin yarn and even fire the spinners in the workshops, engaging in the highly profitable business of hoarding cotton. In this way, I may not have done a good thing."
Zhang Shou paused and saw that Young Master Jiang's face had become quite ugly. Although the other old men's smiles were extremely forced, no one spoke to explain, let alone beg for mercy. So he casually mentioned another thing.
"And your workshop, which is guarded by an iron general, is left empty without anyone guarding it. I took a look around when I first arrived today, but I found that it seemed like robbers had broken into it. It was a mess from inside to outside."
"How ridiculous!" Before Young Master Jiang could react, Mr. Qi had already slammed the table and stood up, saying righteously, "Those rioters are simply lawless. Not only do they hate the eldest prince, so they attacked the palace in a rebellious way, but they also hate us and destroyed the workshop!"
At this point, the gray-haired old man was already heartbroken: "The eldest prince is young and inexperienced, and it was the first time for us to see such a highly efficient new spinning machine, so we were confused and made a mistake just now. But those rioters should never have occupied the palace, held the eldest prince hostage, and destroyed the workshop and machines. They are simply unforgivable and extremely evil!"
Zhang Shou laughed and said, "Oh, I just said that it seemed that a robber had broken in. Do you know who it was?"
Qi Yuanwai seemed to have not heard the distrust in Zhang Shou's words at all. He laughed dryly and said, "Who else could it be except those rioters?"
"Who else could it be? Haha, it's quite a coincidence. One of my right-hand men noticed that the signs of destruction were very fresh, as if it happened today, so I asked him to go to each workshop to check. Unexpectedly, the blind cat met a dead mouse and actually caught a group of people who were wreaking havoc. After catching them and bringing them back, thanks to General Zhu's swift and decisive actions, he pried open those mouths."
Young Master Jiang had been feeling suspicious when Mr. Qi made such a solemn promise just now, so he couldn't help asking, "Are they not rioters? Then who would be instructing them?"
Qi Yuanwai almost wanted to sew up the mouth of this naive boy with needle and thread, but since there was no other way, he had to bite the bullet and say, "If it wasn't those rioters, there must be some unruly people who were jealous of these new spinning machines in the workshop..."
"Either rioters or unruly people? But what General Zhu asked was exactly the opposite of your inference." Zhang Shou played with the small and exquisite wine glass in his hand, but did not take another sip. Instead, he said leisurely, "The people who destroyed those spinning machines claimed to have received 100 strings of money from several famous wealthy families in Cangzhou City. These famous wealthy families... weren't you?"
Zhang Shou threw the wine glass in his hand to the ground. Jiang Da Shao, who was standing next to him, was inevitably splashed with wine. What was even more confusing than this predicament was his mood at the moment.
Hiring people to smash your own machines? What's the point? Is it because you have too much money?
Also, the action of smashing a cup is really too terrifying, not to mention that there is a county jail next to it. Will another hundred swordsmen and axemen rush out next... No, no, no, a hundred sharp cavalry battalions, catch them all and throw them into the jail?
While Young Master Jiang was frantically thinking about it, the five old men, including Mr. Qi, all changed color. It was originally just a helpless move, but now that it has been discovered, they have to revise their original plan of losing a layer of skin. If losing one layer of skin is not enough... then is losing two layers enough?
Mr. Qi, who had just been talking about rioters and troublemakers, knelt down immediately, and moved his chair away and knelt down on the ground. But he didn't even have a chance to speak. He saw that the seemingly gentle and elegant doctor Zhang Shou, after smashing his own cup, actually picked up the empty wine glass of Mr. Jiang, laughed, and smashed it hard on the ground again.
"Didn't you hear clearly what the eldest prince said in public before? He said that he was deceived by Xu Cheng and black-hearted people like you, and those rioters you mentioned just used some tricks to get an audience with him. It's not like they captured the palace or held him hostage. On the contrary, Xu Cheng called him a fake in order to silence him!"
"Xu Cheng, who called a horse a zebra, is now in prison , but is there anyone who wants to emulate him?"
Hearing this, Young Master Jiang suddenly answered loudly, "Doctor Zhang, I had no idea that the spinning machine was destroyed in the workshop! As a student of the Imperial College, a teacher is a father for life. I will do whatever you say, Doctor Zhang!"
