Eight years ago, Yan Song, then the Minister of Rites, received Jiajing's order to recruit young girls into the palace and handed the matter over to his son Yan Shifan.
Jiajing recruited girls between the ages of eleven and fifteen, and they wanted to be virgins.
Some Taoist priest told him that using the sunflower water of virgins under fifteen years old to make elixir into "red lead elixir" can prolong life and strengthen the body.
This damn statement actually tempted Jiajing, who was devoted to cultivating Taoism, and he asked for a beautiful girl.
The reason is very simple. Red lead itself is a bit disgusting. If those girls look too crooked, the psychological impact on Jiajing will be even greater.
Jiajing recruited girls into the palace for the purpose of cultivating Taoism, but in the hands of Yan Shifan, it turned into an extremely profitable business.
Yan Shifan assigned work to local officials at all levels who were attached to the Yan family.
Let people make a list of the rich people in each state, and then make a list of those who have beautiful girls between the ages of eleven and fifteen at home. Those whose names are on both lists become fat pigs to be slaughtered. .
There is no airtight wall in the world, and the rich naturally have their own channels for information. They know that their daughters entering the palace will not have the opportunity to become female officials and concubines, but to become medicine scum.
So they spent a large amount of money to visit the officials in charge of the matter, which probably meant "there is no grass anywhere in the world, please look elsewhere."
After collecting the money, naturally you can no longer take away other people's daughters. You must have integrity in doing business. So after the rich people have paid their money, those girls will naturally leave the poor people's homes.
Qiaoqiao's family is not very poor. Qiaoqiao's father is still a scholar, but he can't afford that much money. But there was no need for his family to panic.
Because Qiaoqiao's sister was only ten years old at the time and did not meet the qualifications. When the population was being checked that day, it was Xiao Wannian who led the team to Qiaoqiao's home.
As the deputy Qianhu of Jin Yiwei, this kind of errand did not require him to leave the capital. However, Jiajing attached great importance to the recruitment of young girls, and specifically gave Yan Song the right to temporarily recruit Jin Yiwei to prevent local troubles, and to prevent local officials from showing favoritism and secretly hiding beautiful girls.
This is not Jiajing's unfounded worries. Throughout the dynasties, as long as the emperor recruited beautiful women, it was almost always a good opportunity for local officials to take concubines. As for the means, they were countless.
At that time, the Yan Party was in full swing and was acting under Jiajing's order. The commander, Lu Bing, did not dare to neglect and sent almost all his personnel out to assist. Xiao Wannian was assigned here.
When he told the family in the book that their eldest daughter was under eleven years old and was not included in the draft, the family was very happy.
They saluted Xiao Wannian and the government officials, poured them tea, and gave each of the government officials ten copper coins.
Qiaoqiao, only two years old, was hugged by her sister and giggled happily. She was so cute.
Xiao Wannian has a nine-year-old son, his wife has passed away, and even the sparrows in the house are male, so he especially likes Qiaoqiao and even hugged and teased him for a while.
But because the daughters of wealthy families had paid to redeem themselves, there were not enough people, so the magistrate relaxed the conditions.
As long as they are beautiful, they are all big or small. Anyway, these days, the household registration information is all in the county and there is no Internet.
Sister Qiaoqiao is very beautiful. You can tell this by looking at Qiao Niang. Her daughter has inherited her appearance. But the Qiaoqiao family would definitely not do it. Her father went to court to complain, saying that his daughter was not old enough.
As a result, the magistrate pointed to the tampered household registration book and said that he was causing trouble and disobeying the decree.
In order to kill as a warning to others, and to silence the Qiaoqiao family, the magistrate ordered people to serve him with big sticks. He also imitated the posture of the eunuchs in the palace, put his two toes together, and looked like an angry old lady.
This was a popular code word, just like the finger pointing down in the Colosseum in ancient Rome, which allowed the government officials to beat the person to death directly.
When Xiao Wannian, who was maintaining law and order at the recruitment site, arrived at the county government office, Qiaoqiao's father had been beaten to death, and the charge given by the county magistrate was resisting the decree.
Resistance to the decree will involve the whole family. If the man dies, the woman will be sold into slavery or sent to the Jiaofang Bureau.
Xiao Wannian is not a simple and kind-hearted person. It is impossible for such a person to be the deputy of a thousand households. Although there is a reason why he saved Lu Bing on the battlefield, his mind and skills are not bad either.
He also knew that Yan Shifan was in charge of the recruitment of girls this time, so he watched with cold eyes from the beginning and only acted as a mascot to shock the scene.
He said to the magistrate: "I know this family. The girl is just ten years old. Please show me your favor." As a member of the Qianhu family, he thought it was not difficult to be so polite to a magistrate. Although he couldn't save Qiaoqiao's father, he could still save the family.
Ke Zhixian smiled and told him: "Sir, if it's someone else's family, that's fine. Someone named this girl. Don't worry, she won't enter the palace. If her life is good, she can be the concubine of the elder in the future. !”
Xiao Wannian was stunned. His first reaction was Yan Song. Although Yan Song was not the chief minister at that time, he had already joined the cabinet.
But he immediately rejected it. Yan Song did many evil things, but he was not lewd. The one who was lecherous was his son. At that time, people said that Yan Shifan would join the cabinet sooner or later, and they all secretly called him Mr. Xiaoge.
Xiao Wannian was silent. With his ability, it was no problem to suppress the county magistrate, but if Yan Shifan really fell in love with this girl, he would not be able to protect her at all.
Just when he hesitated, he rushed to the hall to collect his father's body. Sister Qiaoqiao, who had already seen a glimmer of hope, finally despaired. She took advantage of the yamen officer's unpreparedness, rushed over and killed her father.
The hard-heartedness that Xiao Wannian had cultivated for many years was broken.
Xiao Wannian grabbed the tampered book, arrested the magistrate on the spot, took him back to the capital, and threw him into the imperial prison.
It is the prerogative of Jinyiwei to arrest first and report later. He has the evidence in hand and is convinced that he can deliver justice. Even if he can't touch Yan Shifan, he can still deal with this magistrate! Even if he deceives himself about justice, he still has to give an account of himself!
However, three days later, the magistrate was released, and Lu Bing told him not to cause trouble anymore.
Although Nazhi County was insignificant, Yan Shifan was worried that leaking the news would cause an uproar among the people in the court, which would be detrimental to Jiajing and Yan Dang. What's more, the girl Yan Shifan asked directly from the county magistrate to help him do things. If he doesn't protect her, the Yan Party will lose its prestige!
Since the magistrate is not guilty, then the Qiaoqiao family is guilty. This is a black and white matter. Qiao Niang held Qiao Qiao in her arms and was sold as a slave by the court.
On the platform of the Sin Slave House, a group of people lined up, wearing iron shackles on their feet, and were surrounded by a group of people making comments.
Qiaoqiao huddled in Qiao Niang's arms, too scared to cry.
An ordinary sin slave can have at most twelve taels. Because Qiaoniang is beautiful, many officials and wealthy gentry are willing to pay a lot of money to buy her. The final bidding price reached one hundred and eighty taels of silver!
While everyone was vying to buy it, Xiao Wannian raised his hand: "I'll pay one hundred and ninety taels."
There were angry voices among the auctioneers, but after seeing Xiao Wannian's Jinyiwei Qianhu uniform, most people gave up.
Qiao Niang recognized Xiao Wannian, a blush appeared on her pale face, and a glimmer of hope appeared in her desperate eyes.
The person from the Sin Slave House smiled and shouted apologetically: "Is there anyone else who bids?"
A clan dignitary raised his hand: "I will pay two hundred taels!"
He tilted his head and looked at Xiao Wannian. No matter how fierce the Jin Yiwei was, he would not dare to embarrass the clan without the emperor's order. If the clan is not an official, as long as there is no rebellion, no one can touch it.
Xiao Wannian has no money, this is all his savings.
After he bought the small courtyard with his salary and silver reward over the years, his wife became ill and spent a lot of money, but she was not cured in the end. This was all he had left.
The hope in Qiao Niang's eyes disappeared. Both sides of the Sin Slave were unwilling to offend, so they waited three more breaths.
The clan was anxious and waved his hand dissatisfied, asking his servants to fetch him.
"He paid two hundred and ten taels."
Xiao Wannian turned around in astonishment. Lu Bing stood behind him, his expression calm and calm, and he put a hand on Xiao Wannian's shoulder.
Anyone who is not blind knows what this gesture means: I support him today, who wouldn’t agree?
No one is dissatisfied. Jin Yiwei is Jin Yiwei, and Lu Bing is Lu Bing. It is not just as simple as the commander of Jin Yiwei.
Xiao Wannian took the two of them home. Lu Bing sighed, but he didn't expect that this sigh was too early.
The county magistrate hated Xiao Wannian deeply. When he heard that Xiao Wannian had bought Qiaoniang and his daughter, he immediately obtained some black material and claimed that Qiaoqiao's family had been guilty of insulting Wanzai in court and should not be sold and should be sent to the church. Si is a prostitute.
In short, you make me lose face, and I make you feel disgusted. The woman you want to hold in my arms, I will bring you into the Jiaofang Department and let everyone hold her in your arms.
It's a pity that the county magistrate didn't do this secret enough, and the local postmaster found out about it. And this Yi Cheng's other identity is Jin Yiwei, who was once a subordinate of Xiao Wannian.
That night, the magistrate died, and the black materials were burned. No one saw who did it.
But people would guess, especially Yan Shifan, that he had a very smart mind, which may have surpassed all his contemporaries.
So Yan Shifan invited Lu Bing for tea and asked a question: "What would you do if your dog killed my dog?"
Lu Bing answered this way: "I have many dogs in my family, but there is only one that saved my life."
Yan Shifan questioned: "Dogs are dogs, and they should save human lives. Does it make any difference if a dog saves a human life? Do people still need to be grateful to dogs?"
Lu Bing said calmly: "A dog that has saved a person will be loyal to that person. This kind of dog is rare. If you don't believe me, you can ask Banzai."
Yan Shifan stopped talking. In order to keep Xiao Wannian, Lu Bing would rather treat himself as a dog. Everyone knows that in the eighteenth year of Jiajing, there was a fire in the palace, and it was Lu Bingfen who carried him out of Jiajing regardless of his own safety.
He compared himself to the dog that saved Jiajing's life. One was to explain what happened to Xiao Wannian, and the other was to demonstrate against Yan Shifan. Let him understand his identity and status.
Seeing that Yan Shifan stopped talking, Lu Bing smiled instead and said sincerely: "If your dog also saved your life, I will kill my dog to apologize to you."
Yan Shifan smiled: "That's not true, it's just an ordinary dog, but it's my dog after all."
Lu Bing replied: "How about being kicked out of the house and turned into a wild dog? I owe Brother Shi a favor for this matter."
Lu Bing's favor was very valuable, so Yan Shifan accepted it. At the same time, the two of them established the rule of "if you don't move, I won't help."
The next day, Xiao Wannian resigned and became a commoner. Xiao Feng also changed from a second-generation official to a second-generation civilian. After Xiao Wannian's death, Xiao Feng became a soft rice man.
As a result, today, this lazy old man became Cangjie's apprentice, Jiajing's junior brother, Wenxuan Zhenren.
Yan Shifan looked at his father and said calmly: "This is the hatred between our two families."
Yan Song thought for a while: "Although Xiao Wannian lost his official position, you didn't take action directly, so this grudge is not insoluble. Now that Xiao Feng is rising, and with Lu Bing's support, can he turn the conflict into friendship?"
Yan Shifan closed his folding fan and sighed: "After Xiao Wannian lost his official position, he still couldn't find anything to do, and Lu Bing couldn't help him. He eventually died of poverty and illness. Does my father know why he couldn't find anything to do? I I didn't take action, but he was forced to death by me, so I may not be able to hide this from Xiao Feng."
Yan Song was silent for a while, then sneered: "Then trample him to death. A young boy still wants to reach the sky in one step?"
