Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 449: The Storm is Over and the Birthday Comes
Magistrate Shen left the palace in high spirits, and immediately returned to the Wanping County Office to investigate the case vigorously. When Fourth Master Wang started to complain, he immediately blocked his mouth and beat the once powerful tyrant in South City with a small board. On the same day, he dispatched three groups of yamen runners to rescue the men and women who had not yet been sold from a certain nest.
Because of this thunderous action, County Magistrate Shen immediately gained the name of Shen Qingtian among the victims. Only he knew that the accurate sources of information and the witnesses and evidences that he voluntarily provided all came from those vibrant folk groups in the outer city. As for the three words "Iron Clothes Gang", the official would naturally never admit it.
The four words "forming cliques" are a taboo in the government. But since it is beneficial to him, he certainly will not refuse such help. As for some people who spread rumors in his ears that the Iron Clothes Gang is the subordinates of a follower of Zhang Shou, a doctor of the Imperial College, he turned a deaf ear to them, and even severely reprimanded an old servant who had followed him for many years.
Zhang Shou had only been in the capital for less than a year, how could he have such ability? It was more likely that Zhang Shou was just helping the emperor to take the blame.
Within one day, under the quick disposal of County Magistrate Shen, all of Fourth Master Wang's followers, power, and assets were uprooted, and a power vacuum immediately appeared in the South City - or the Outer City.
However, even those who were salivating over the opportunity could only wait and see, not dare to cross the line. After all, the bigwigs in the court were still watching the situation, so who would dare to rashly reach out at this time?
The local tyrants in Nancheng who dared not to take action soon felt lucky for their choice. Because in the Wanping County Court, they arrested a large number of Wang Siye and his men on charges of kidnapping and trafficking, and then interrogated and dealt with them one by one. Many of them were sentenced to death with a wait-and-see attitude. Now that all the verdicts have been sent to the Dali Temple at the fastest speed, the Wang family's territory has a new owner.
It was not what people speculated in the dark. The person who, Zhang Shou, the doctor of the Imperial College, decided to make a fortune before his marriage and who personally led people to take over these industries in an orderly manner in the evening, turned out to be Wan Yuanbao, the richest man in Beijing!
And what was later reported about Wan Yuanbao's words after he took over was even more jaw-dropping.
"Wang Si and his followers committed heinous crimes. Most of their land and property were obtained illegally and should have been confiscated. However, County Master Shen made a report. Since the censor has personally questioned this matter in the court, please ask the emperor to personally take care of the aftermath. Rather than confiscating the land and then letting the Ministry of Revenue sell it, which may not fetch a good price, it is better to give it directly to me, who at least has a reputation for fairness."
"Since County Master Shen trusts me so much, I will ask the students of the Jiuzhang Hall of the Imperial College to estimate the price, and then pay the corresponding money. County Master Shen of Wanping County will compensate the victims. It just so happens that I copied a book from the Wang family that recorded the looting and selling of slaves, forced buying and selling, seizing of property, murder and injury, etc. County Master Shen is also a smart person, and he will not be blackmailed by the unruly people."
When hearing this, many people were depressed. People have always said that when a family falls, the court will be well fed, and corrupt officials will run their business for a lifetime, but in the end, they will have nothing left. However, this is a great opportunity for many dignitaries to take advantage of the opportunity to make money, because what is the use of the court holding the property that has been confiscated? In the end, it will still be sold!
As for those wealthy businessmen who have committed crimes, there is no need to mention it. Once they fall, it will be a feast for division.
At this time, those with strong backgrounds only need to spend one-fifth or even one-tenth of the price to get the luxurious manor houses and shops that made a fortune every day. As for beautiful concubines and handsome servants, they can have everything. But this time, just because a stupid censor said a few wrong words in the court, Shen Xianzun guessed the emperor's intention, and the emperor actually intervened!
Back then, Wan Yuanbao suddenly fought back from being the eldest son of the original wife who was suppressed by his stepmother, and not only did he kick out the greedy stepmother, but his stepmother's family, which was originally considered a wealthy family in Beijing, also fell into ruin. No one knew the background of this guy who rose to prominence in Beijing like a miracle and remained standing after becoming the richest man.
Seeing that the person had close contacts with Weinan Bo Zhang Kang, those smart people once thought that perhaps this person was supported by Weinan Bo Zhang Kang, but now, many people have a terrible guess.
Wan Yuanbao couldn't be the emperor's man, could he? Could Zhang Shou be blamed for the incident that happened under Xinglong Tea House? Or maybe the director's man was originally the emperor, and if there was no Zhang Shou, there would be Li Shou... Of course, because Zhang Shou never concealed that he was a foodie, the probability of him appearing in Xinglong Tea House was very high, and the probability of him bumping into some guys was even higher.
Otherwise, how could this be explained? In just a moment, Wang Siye, the tyrant of Nancheng, was thrown on the street like a dead dog? The famous young bodyguard beside Zhang Shou was still following him at that time!
When Zhang Shou learned that the family business of the Fourth Master Wang had changed its name to Wan, he was really surprised. He had clearly asked Zhu Ying to go to the emperor to lobby, meaning to let the South City Army go for the time being, and then to deal with it all after the storm died down. But who would have thought that the emperor only listened to half of it, and only turned hostile when someone made trouble at the court meeting, but afterwards he actually did this!
What he didn't expect was that the next day, a certain official from the Ministry of Works submitted a long memorial on the affairs of Cangzhou. It was unknown whether the Tongzhengsi was too lazy to keep it secret or what, but this memorial of several thousand words was copied out.
In addition, from the fact that this Gongbu Yuwailang was a student of Jiang Gelao in the past, to his resume of serving as an official for several years, to his amazing operation of dividing Hejian Prefecture into Hejian Prefecture and Cangzhou Prefecture... Anyway, all kinds of news were flying around, shaking the officialdom. Especially the Cangzhou port construction issue, which was still in the discussion stage, was suddenly exposed so directly that Fourth Master Hua didn't even care about the imperial kitchen.
At this point, even Zhang Shou didn't quite understand what the emperor was thinking . However, the method of diverting attention he suggested was just a sudden inspiration. He didn't want to shoulder such an inappropriate burden as personally selecting the imperial chef. Later, because the controversy over the dethronement of the empress was also related to him, he suggested making a bigger splash in selecting the imperial chef. Now that the emperor had other ideas, he couldn't do anything about it.
Maybe the emperor wanted those people to shift their attention from the dethronement of the empress, the harem, and the appointment of the crown prince to the affairs of the court? As long as the emperor was not afraid of taking the blame, what else was he afraid of?
Since he had visited the Xinglong Tea House and had caused a big incident, Zhang Shou had been in seclusion for the past three days when the outside world was in turmoil. He also used the power of the remaining students to work together to finish the questions for the second recruitment of Jiuzhangtang in one go, and then asked Liu to deliver them directly to Song Tuiguan of Shuntian Prefecture.
When Ah Liu came back from Shuntian Prefecture, he said with a strange look on his face, "Master, Magistrate Song said thank you for not passing the blame to them."
Zhang Shou knew without thinking that Song Tuiguan and Lin Laohu must be feeling like they had survived a calamity at this moment. He secretly sighed that sending a group of prisoners to the Wanping County Court that day was a mistake. Of course, he never expected that Duke Qin Zhangchuan of Shuntian Prefecture did not need to pay much attention to this matter. Magistrate Shen of Wanping County, who was always rumored to be weak, suddenly became powerful.
"As long as Magistrate Song and Tiger Lin have no objections." Zhang Shou laughed, then stretched and said, "Since the exam questions will be posted everywhere soon, and the rest of the people have gone to Wan Yuanbao to 'help' with the price checking, I am the only teacher left in the first term of Jiuzhang Hall. Now I can really relax and have a good birthday."
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Ah Liu staring at him intently, and he immediately became confused. As a result, the next sentence Ah Liu said made him laugh.
"Master, what birthday gift are you going to give Miss?"
"Isn't this a secret? What's the point of telling it out?"
Zhang Shou looked like he was being naughty again, then he chuckled and said, "Anyway, I've been prepared for a long time, so don't ask me any more questions. Anyway, I won't treat my future daughter-in-law, your future mistress, badly. If you have time to care about me, can't you think about your own big things?"
"You hang out outside all day long, and even have time to subdue a vibrant social group like the Iron Shirt Gang, but why don't you take a few more glances at those young ladies? Do you really want me to match you up in the future?" He thought he had been sincere enough, but Ah Liu's nonchalant answer choked him.
"I'm not as good-looking as you, young master." Ah Liu looked at Zhang Shou's dull expression and said seriously, "So I can't marry a wife as beautiful as the eldest lady."
Zhang Shou couldn't believe his ears. Could it be that, like Zhang Chen, Ah Liu also wanted to marry a beautiful woman who was so beautiful that she could make fishes sink to the depths and geese fall to the ground? Although Zhu Ying was indeed beautiful, there were many beauties among the common people. You have to know which of the four great beauties, Wang Zhaojun, Xi Shi, Diao Chan, and Yang Yuhuan, was born into a noble family? Many beauties were just held back by their birth.
While he was daydreaming, Ah Liu suddenly became talkative again: "Beauty loves talented men, beauty loves emperors, beauty loves heroes, beauty loves gentlemen... Oh, beauty may also love monks... But no matter what, beauty will not like a fool like me. In this case, I'd rather be alone. A madman is also alone."
Zhang Shou was finally speechless about Ah Liu's well-reasoned reasoning, but he was seriously thinking in his heart whether he should really find a way to draw people's attention to those beauties hidden among the people - maybe not only could he solve Ah Liu's lifelong event, but also Zhang Chen's lifelong event that had been delayed until now without a result.
Of course, I have to tell Zhu Ying, to prevent this young lady from getting the wrong idea if she hears the news...
Even though he thought so, Zhang Shou would never reveal a single word to Ah Liu. He doubted that if he said one more word, he would be pissed off by this guy. So, based on the principle of out of sight, out of mind, he simply sent Ah Liu to deliver another copy of the previous test paper to Ge Yong. As for why he didn't go himself...
He suspected that Ge Yong would give him a good lesson as soon as they met! You know, his teacher always disliked him for not doing his job properly. This time he went to Nancheng to eat and caused such a huge disturbance. It would be strange if Master Ge didn't get angry!
After Ah Liu left, Zhang Shou quietly went to the underground stone chamber and witnessed the result of Guan Qiu's latest revision plan. He then came out satisfied and went to see Wu again. He told the mother who had raised him for many years about a memorial he had submitted before. When Wu heard that the proposal to establish a family temple had been submitted to the emperor, she was suddenly happy and worried.
He was happy that Zhang Shou had done it without a word after he told him about it that day. He was worried that now all kinds of big and small things in the capital were crowded together, and Zhang Shou's move would give those who were looking for loopholes to exploit an excuse to take advantage of the situation.
Wu was not a person with strong ideas. Although she was worried, Zhang Shou persuaded her with a few words and finally changed her worries into joy. She immediately went to the small Buddhist temple at the back to worship Buddha and pray for blessings for a smooth journey. In this regard, Zhang Shou, who could only say that he would worship when he was in a good mood and was not even a shallow believer, had no choice but to obey when he was dragged in.
However, when he thought about the Buddha statue, which was arranged by Zhu Ying and brought back from the temple in person with Wu, he felt deeply that no matter how willful Zhu Ying was, as long as she was willing to be sensible, no future daughter-in-law could compare to her.
Time passed so quickly, and in a blink of an eye it was the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, which was also the birthday of Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying.
According to what Zhang Shou had told Lu Sanlang before, this day was also the first preliminary day of the Imperial Chef Selection Competition, which had been warming up for many days. In the past few days, due to the unexpected fall of Wang Siye, the bully of South City, the food exhibition, which was originally just a small and lively event on the first day of warm-up, attracted thousands of customers every day, and the newly renovated Xinglong Teahouse was even more difficult to book.
To this end, under Lu Sanlang's suggestion, the wealthy merchants from Suzhou, Yangzhou, Shandong and other guilds accepted his reasonable suggestion after discovering that their original small stalls were already crowded with people. They urgently hired people and built several bamboo houses nearby in just a few days. Then several other guilds followed suit.
As other restaurants in the capital joined in the fun, bamboo houses were scattered around Xinglong Tea House. At first glance, it seemed as if you had returned to the countryside. At this time, Lu Sanlang proposed a strategy of serving small portions of exquisite dishes at low prices. For a while, diners who were originally hesitant because of the price issue followed suit. After calculating the expenses and income of each guild hall, they actually made a small profit.
Now, all the guilds and merchants who had originally thought they would lose money were delighted. And every chef became more confident in his cooking skills. On that day, when carriages and horses kept stopping at Xinglong Teahouse and countless people came and went, and the waiters hurried in to tell them their names one by one, they became even more energetic while busying themselves in front of the stove.
Especially when they heard that Ge Yong, Qi Jingshan, Chu Ying and other senior officials had come one after another, and that the prefects of Shuntian Prefecture, Duke of Qin Zhang Chuan and Duke of Zhao Zhu Jing, and the Earl of Weinan Zhang Kang had come in person as judges, many chefs were excited. Just when a bunch of people were preparing to show off their culinary skills today, there was another round of noise outside.
"Princess Yongping is here, and she said she's going to celebrate her birthday at Xinglong Tea House today!"
