Reincarnated vassal system

On the day when Shang Zhi left, Gu Huai did not go to see him off, but just entrusted the secret guard to send him a cup of fine wine without any message, as if the two were just casual acquaintances.Turning around, he went up as usual, nodded, and dealt with his colleagues and superiors.

It was You Wu who reminded Gu Huai that there was a secret guard sent by Shang Zhi by his side. After hearing this, Gu Huai’s expression did not change at all, which made You Wu a little frightened. Seeing that Gu Huai was still sorting out the memorial as usual, You Wu couldn’t help it. Some doubted whether Gu Huai, who went all over the street yesterday to find a glass of fine wine as a farewell gift, was the same person as the unresponsive Gu Huai today.

"Little Gu Huai?" You Wu struggled for a long time, but still asked, "Aren't you going to send Xiao Shangzhi off?"

Gu Huai paused when approving the memorial, "We will meet again in the future."

"We will meet again in the future." In front of the east gate of Huajing, Shang Zhi was riding his beloved horse, with neat soldiers lined up behind him.In his arms was a wine cup that was very warm in the hot summer sun, covering his heart made his whole body burn, but he never let go.

The horn of departure finally sounded. Emperor Jianyuan stood on the city wall and watched him go. The small figure gradually drifted away, but he never looked back.

We will meet again someday.

Inside the General Administration Department, the Langhao pen in Gu Huai's hand suddenly snapped and broke into two sections.He frowned and looked at the golden ink splashed by the broken brush, feeling inexplicably agitated in his heart.

Trying to calm down the restlessness in his heart, he took a deep breath, looked at the gold powder in the inkstone that had been spilled, and called his master helplessly, "Master Zhang, please go to experience the history of the department and invite a copy." Gold powder, say I don’t have any in this house.”

Gu Huai was upset today, so he took over and wrote the emperor's instructions that had been sent to all states and counties. This job is usually in charge of the Zhongshu Department below. It is mainly responsible for copying multiple copies of the emperor's hadith. It has always been written with ink developed from gold powder.As Gu Huai is a dignified and right-handed official, he naturally does not need to handle these miscellaneous tasks. Therefore, there is not much gold and ink stock in his study, and all of them are gone after a sprinkling.

The master's surname was Zhang, and he was an old man in the General Administration Department. His eyes flickered when he heard Gu Huai's words, but he walked out without saying anything.

During the waiting time, Gu Huai had nothing to do, so he picked up the gold powder scattered on the table one by one. The powder stuck to his fingertips, and Gu Huai couldn't help being startled by the tactile sensation—it was real gold with a high purity!He made a rough estimate, and he knew that there was more than one or two [Note] on the dish of gold powder that was spilled.

A thought quickly flashed through his mind, but in the blink of an eye, Gu Huai could no longer catch that thought.At this moment, Master Zhang knocked on the door and entered.

"My lord, the Department of Experience has informed that there is a shortage of gold powder shares, and it is being submitted to the Internal Affairs Bureau, which has not yet been approved."

The implication is that there is no gold powder in the experience department.Gu Huai always felt that something was wrong, "How much gold powder is approved by the Internal Affairs Bureau every month?"

Master Zhang replied, "In accordance with the old rules, gold powder is five taels a month, and additional batches will be added according to the actual amount required for the drafting of edicts every month."

January [-]... Gu Huai looked at the gold powder on the table. At first he thought it was just some gold powder, and it wouldn't be a pity to accidentally spill it, but now he knows that these are real gold and silver. Looking at it with a single eye, this is simply reckless ah!

Regardless of Gu Huai's background, in the Dashang Dynasty, his monthly salary of a fourth-rank official was 24 shi, which was less than three taels of gold.He just spilled all his ten days' salary!

Almost subconsciously, Gu Huai, a poor descendant of the Hou family, waved his hand to let Master Zhang leave first, and when Master Zhang left the house, he immediately and carefully gathered up the spilled gold powder.With a rough weight, he realized the cunning of the Secretary of General Administration in the application for the amount of gold powder.

Logically speaking, these gold powders are used to sprinkle a little into the inkstone, so that when the ink is grinded, the gold powder will seep into the ink. The dignity of the emperor's hadith.But according to this way of writing, the consumption of gold powder should be very small.

Gu Huai checked the work files of the Secretary of General Administration in recent years. There are not many documents such as mansion newspapers that need to be copied every month. At least it is far from enough to use such a large amount of gold powder. After many years, he is responsible for storing gold powder The experience department should have a lot of gold powder in stock, and it shouldn't be in a state of no stock waiting for approval from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

So, who touched the gold powder of the Secretary of General Administration?

He raised the corners of his lips with great interest, and directly poured the gold powder in his hand into the small dish that originally contained the gold powder, and then put it back to the original place, then left the room calmly, and went straight to the experience department.

There was only one experienced person in the experience department, and when Gu Huai passed by, he only saw the thin figure of that person's back. He frowned, feeling like he had known him before.Before thinking too much, he raised his sleeve and knocked on the door.

The back of the experienced person paused slightly, turned around slowly, and saw Gu Huai obviously startled, "Fifth brother?"

Gu Huai was also startled, "Brother?"

This person is actually Gu He, the son of Aunt Du, Gu Shi'an's concubine, who grew up in Gu Huai's generation, and is the eldest grandson of the Duke of Wei's mansion.

Gu Huai never expected that Gu He would be here to see him. In fact, he had never paid attention to where his concubine brother was looking for a job.When they met for the first time, both of them were quite uncomfortable and embarrassed.

In the end, it was Gu Huai who broke the embarrassing atmosphere first. Although he had not been an official for a long time, after tossing around several government offices, Gu Huai was considered half an official fox. It was not difficult to get over this kind of situation.After a short while, he smiled, "Brother, long time no see, I miss you very much."

Gu He looked dull, and he was stunned for a while when he heard Gu Huai's words, before he said slowly, "Long time no see."

It seems that the two are brothers in the same line, but Gu Huai's relationship with this concubine is not as close as his relationship with several friends.Although they both live together in the East Garden of Duke Wei's Mansion, the two may not see each other all year round, but they still have a basic understanding of Gu Huai's elder brother.He thought about what to do later, but the smile on his face didn't change at all.

"Brother, I came here today to ask you something important." Gu Huai knew that Gu He was a dull-tempered person, so he didn't go round and round and went straight to the point. A detailed list of things you need."

Gu He nodded slowly when he heard the words, and then walked to the side of the mahogany bookshelf to search, but after about a stick of incense, Gu He put a stack of directories in front of Gu Huai, "These."

In front of him was a stack of catalogs half the height of a person. Even Gu Huai, who had read countless tomes, turned pale. He frowned, looked at Gu He, and suddenly had an idea. "Brother, can you help me select the part about the amount of gold powder used for transcription." He thought for a while, "Especially in years when the amount of gold powder suddenly changed greatly..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Gu He directly pulled out the upper part, "Three years ago, after the gold powder stored in the company ran out in an instant, the amount of gold powder applied to the Ministry of Internal Affairs also increased sharply."

Sure enough, as he thought!Gu Huai's eyes lit up, and he opened the list that Gu He had drawn out. As expected, it was recorded in detail that since three years ago, the amount of gold powder consumption has increased rapidly. Even the gold dust accumulated by the company over the years was quickly consumed.And the amount of gold powder applied to the Ministry of Internal Affairs continued to rise, and two years ago, the amount of gold powder approved every month reached 50 taels!

If 50 taels of gold powder is not low in purity, if it is sent to a gold shop outside, at least it can be melted into more than 45 taels of gold ingots.In today's Dashang Dynasty, where a commoner's family can live for a year with two taels of silver, what a huge number this is!

Gu Huai's expression gradually became more serious. After he noticed this loophole just now, he thought about the possibility of being used by someone who wanted to make money, but he didn't want this person to borrow the courage from the sky and dare to greedy so much money!Moreover, such a large amount of gold powder has been granted uninterruptedly for more than two years. How could the Ministry of Internal Affairs approve it?

Could it be possible... Gu Huai suddenly thought of a person, if it was that person... He opened the record of gold powder applications, except for the fixed quota that was sent to the Tongzheng Envoy, the Left and Right Tongzheng, and the Left and Right Senate Offices every month. Except for the gold powder, the rest were applied by the Zhongshu Department under the name of the Secretary of General Administration.

There are dozens of people from Zhongshushe in the Zhongshu department, and the copying of the sacred scriptures has always been in charge of this department. It is normal that most of the gold powder is consumed, but... Gu Huai drew a finger under the applicant's name, Then he looked at Gu He, "The Zhongshu Sheren applied for gold powder, why did he sign it?"

Gu He stepped forward to take a look, and saw the word "Gu Yu" written on it impressively.

Gu Yu is the counselor of the left. Although the Zhongshu Division is affiliated to the Secretary of General Administration, it has its own set of administrative arrangements. It is reasonable that the Secretary of General Administration did not send officials to supervise it.Then it is subtle that Gu Yu's name appeared on it at this time.

Gu He pursed his lips, thought for a while, and said slowly, "In the name of Gu Yu, please ask for several times the gold powder."

Gu Huai nodded clearly, it matched what he thought.There is Concubine Hui in the palace, so the House of Internal Affairs will naturally not disrespect the concubine's nephew, not to mention 50 taels of gold powder a month. The internal supervisor can also scrape off a layer of oil and water from it.

Gu Huai hugged the directory into his arms, and smiled at Gu He, "Thank you, brother."

As he spoke, he was about to leave, but was stopped by Gu He. "Fifth brother, my mother... I was really sorry last time!" After he finished speaking, he quickly lowered his head, as if the words just now did not come from his mouth.

Hearing this, Gu Huai was taken aback for a moment, then he smiled slightly, turned and left the experience department without saying anything.

Gu Yu, his grandfather was a Duke of the First Grade, and he held the position of Minister of the Ministry of War; his father was the Minister of the Ministry of Households, and was also a wealthy man; I don't know how rich it is, his mother has a royal order, and she also has a sister who is a noble concubine.No matter how you look at it, Gu Yu with such a background doesn't seem to be short of money.

To be honest, the people in the General Administration Department are basically not short of money. After all, those who can enter the General Administration Department basically exchange money for their future, and they will not easily ruin their future for money.Fifty taels of gold a month is indeed a lot of money, but it is nothing to a person who comes out of a rich family like the Tongzhengshi.

So, why did Gu Yu go after this money?This was blatantly digging money from the emperor's inner treasury. Even when Concubine Hui was in favor, if this kind of thing was exposed, he would not get well.

What's more, now... Gu Huai raised the corners of his lips, and went to the Chinese Book Department with the directory in his arms.

Compared with the Secretary of General Administration, those in the Zhongshu Department are the poorest group of people in the imperial court.

Zhongshu Department, there are [-] people from Zhongshushe, the rank is not high, they are all from the seventh rank, but this government office can be regarded as a central organization, and it does not do any other work on weekdays, it is ghostwriting for the emperor, and the undertaking business includes Write edicts for the emperor that the emperor is too lazy to write, copy instructions for the emperor that need to be copied in multiple copies, and help to copy gift lists and write Spring Festival couplets during New Years and festivals.The salary is not high, and it is enough to support myself and bring a girl, and whoever has a baby has to find a way to earn extra money.

When it comes to the general source of people in Zhongshushe, we have to say that in the past, those Jinshi at the end of the second list and the same Jinshi at the third list, especially those who have no money and connections, can't even be separated from the Imperial Academy. Once they are named on the gold list, they are unemployed youth Those who have no way out are despised by the court and are not assigned to Bao.At this time, those Jinshi who have worked hard to practice Taige style will come to the fore. They can usually enter the Chinese Book Department with good and beautiful official fonts. Although the salary is not good, at least they have something to eat.

The Zhongshu Department is in a courtyard inside the Tongzhengsi Yamen, when Gu Huai passed by, it was already noon, it was time for everyone to go out to eat, and there happened to be only one or two people left inside.Outside the door, Gu Huai saw that the two of them seemed to be playing with a bundle of thin bamboo brushes, which seemed to be carefully broken one by one, and then carefully put back together, showing an intact appearance.

"What are you doing?"

A strange voice suddenly appeared behind him, and the two Zhongshushe people in the study were shocked, and the brushes they just fiddled with were scattered all over the ground in an instant.The two of them didn't bother to pick up the scattered brushes, and turned around hastily. Gu Huai who appeared in front of them was a complete stranger to them. "Who are you?"

Gu Huai's eyes quickly flicked over the two of them - the cuffs of the official uniform were severely worn out, his complexion was pale, his eyes were dark, and his cheeks were sunken. This is the standard appearance of a poor family with insufficient food and clothing. This can probably be judged, Gu Yu Greedy gold powder, at least the two people in front of them didn't benefit from it or get a lot of benefits.

The brain was working quickly, and Gu Huai took the directory in his hand tightly into his arms, with an embarrassed expression on his face, "...I, I'm looking for Mr. Gu...Is he there? I I need his help with something..."

When the two saw Gu Huai's appearance, the vigilant expressions on their faces relaxed a lot.One of them saw Gu Huai's really ashamed look, and patted him on the shoulder very considerately, "You have also encountered difficulties, right? Well, it's right to come to Mr. Gu, he is the most kind to poor talents like us. .”

Another person also echoed, "Yeah, if it wasn't for Mr. Gu, I don't know if I would be able to pay back the money... Hey, little brother, how much do you owe?"

It has to be said that Gu Huai's appearance between a youth and a teenager is very bluffing.Gu Huai bit his lower lip tightly, and said in response to their words, "...the number is a bit big..."

As soon as he finished speaking, You Wu's ridicule sounded in his mind, "Oh my god, little Gu Huai, you're acting pitiful... oh! oh... I laughed so hard!"

Gu Huai: ...Hehe, I don't want to talk to people with low smiles.

The person from Zhongshushe looked at Gu Huai's tense and dazed expression with some sympathy, "Come on, little brother, come in and sit, I'll help you think about it." He thoughtfully moved a blank sheet for Gu Huai chair, while the other bent down to pick up the scattered brushes one by one. "Little brother, this is your fault. If you are not restrained, you will naturally owe a lot. Although Ruyi Gambling is a good place to win money, sometimes you are really unlucky, and you have to pay a lot of money." of."

Ruyi Casino?Gu Huai lowered his eyes, "...It was really itchy for a while, and I accidentally lost my fortune. After thinking about it, only Mr. Gu can help me, so I found this place... The two big brothers must help me Brother!"

"Naturally, it's all coming here, alas." The person from Zhongshushe said with a tone of vicissitudes of time, "Don't be afraid, we only need to pay a small interest to borrow money from Mr. Gu, and Mr. Gu can still get us some money in the future." A good job in the Zhongshu Department." He lowered his voice as he said, "Master Gu can find a couple of gold powders from the top every month, we will quietly dip some and go back, and the accumulated wealth will be quite a fortune."

At this time, another person also came over and said in a very small voice, "Little brother, you are young, what should you do with this debt-ridden future? We are kind, and I will tell you quietly." He weighed the bundle in his hand brush.Everything was broken and fiddled with a little bit, "We have to go to the palace to copy the gift list for the Queen Mother's birthday banquet in a few days, this is a good opportunity to make a fortune, just this—" He took out a pen to demonstrate to Gu Huai looked, "I'll teach you, when the time comes, you'll take this pen and dip it into the plate containing the gold powder. Hey, the pen is broken. Then, put the pen dipped in gold powder in your sleeve... "

He continued triumphantly, "We used this trick last year, but we found several taels of gold powder! It all depends on Mr. Gu's ingenious plan!" He also mentioned Gu Huai, "You have to beg Mr. Gu, Let him find a way for you to enter the Chinese Book Department, so as to catch up with the great opportunity of the Empress Dowager's birthday!"

"What chance?" There was another voice suddenly coming from outside the door, Gu Huai was slightly startled, and a smile full of unknown meaning appeared on his face.