Let's talk about Xue Caishen. He quickly eliminated the remaining toxins in his body by drinking milk. After a day and a night, he woke up.
After waking up, he asked about the situation and found out that Qin Feng saved his life and helped find the poisoner. Xue Caishen was very grateful and immediately invited Qin Feng. He wanted to thank this lifesaver!
"Junior Qin Feng, I would like to pay my respects to Senior Xue and wish him good health!"
"I don't dare to take it seriously. Mr. Qin saved my life. I should have taken the initiative to thank you. However, I am weak and unable to move. Please don't blame me... Jin Yu, please take a seat and serve tea to Mr. Qin!"
"Yes, father...Brother Feng, drink tea!"
After arriving at the dormitory, Qin Feng cupped his hands and bowed deeply, his attitude was extremely sincere, not to blame anything else, but to thank Xue Caishen for having a benevolent heart and giving porridge to a large number of hungry people, so he deserved this gift!
Xue Caishen had difficulty moving, so he had to ask Xue Jinyu to return the gift. He asked Qin Feng to sit down and brought him a cup of Longjing tea... Speaking of which, having the daughter-in-law of the Xue family serve the tea herself was an extremely rare treat!
"Before, in Lianglang Mountain, sand bandits besieged the Xue family's caravan. It was Mr. Qin who saved Jin Yu's life. Now he has saved my life, two lives before and after. For such a great kindness, the Xue family should repay him generously... …Steward Sun, bring the things up!”
"promise!"
Manager Sun came in, followed by eight servants, carrying four golden nanmu boxes. After opening them, they were filled with boat-shaped gold ingots, totaling ten thousand taels, which were discounted to one hundred thousand taels of silver.
The Xue family had previously posted a notice that anyone who could save Xue Caishen's life should be rewarded with five thousand taels of gold. However, Xue Caishen believed that Qin Feng's kindness to the Xue family was too great, so he doubled the reward!
A full ten thousand taels of gold is enough to make a person rich, live a good life with fine clothes and fine food, and have slaves and maids. Who can resist such a huge temptation?
"Haha, this junior is rescuing people out of righteousness. He is not interested in gold and silver. Please take it back, senior!"
"Alas, in life, integrity comes first. The Xue family cannot break one's word, and I cannot refuse to repay a favor. Please accept it, Mr. Qin!"
"No, definitely don't!"
…
"Young Master Qin refuses to accept his resignation. I guess he is a man with lofty ideals and does not like gold, silver and common things. In this case, how about I meet some friends in the officialdom who can smoothen the relationship and help Young Master Qin spread his wings and fly thousands of miles?"
Seeing that Qin Feng was not greedy for money, Xue Caishen decided to repay his kindness in another way. The words "Spread your wings and fly thousands of miles" are very implicit. The translation is: Mr. Qin, I will pay for you to buy an official position!
That's right, buying an official position was nothing new in the Ming Dynasty.
During the Zhengde and Jiajing periods, in order to make money, the imperial court secretly issued a decree that ordinary people could become casual officials by paying two hundred taels of silver: a false title without specific positions.
Although informal officials have no real power, they are still officials after all. For a time, businessmen, local tyrants, and bullies paid money to buy officials, and then walked around in official uniforms, creating a mess!
During the Wanli and Apocalypse periods, the level of corruption was even higher. No matter who they were, as long as they were willing to spend money, they could buy the status of a Imperial Academy student, and then take part in the imperial examination, or directly report to the Ministry of Civil Affairs and get a real-power official position.
It is easier for people like Qin Feng who have hereditary official positions to be promoted. As long as they are willing to spend money and have the connections of the Xue family, they can get official positions such as Deputy Qianhu, Qianhu... and even Commander of the Guard. Can get it.
I have to admit that being an official is much more tempting than getting rich, but Qin Feng still shakes his head and refuses.
If you want to be an official, you can work hard. Today is a troubled world, and there are so many opportunities. As long as you have a good brain and a strong fist, you will definitely be able to sit in a high-ranking official position and ride a good horse in the future!
As for the bought official, he doesn't show his toughness in front of him and is embarrassed to say hello to his neighbors when he goes out, so he doesn't want it.
Next, Xue Caishen made several offers to repay his gratitude: such as an inexhaustible mine, several priceless rare treasures, twenty Jiangnan singers with excellent sex and art... all of them were rejected.
This is not the way to go. Qin Feng proposed a compromise. He accepted the 10,000 taels of gold, but asked the Xue family to exchange it for grain to help the hungry people... In addition, he also needed 4,000 taels of grain, so he could use the market price. purchase.
As soon as the suggestion came out, Xue Caishen was stunned. He looked up and down, left and right, looked at Qin Feng several times, and finally nodded in approval.
"The Xue family should do their best to help the hungry people. As for the food Mr. Qin needs, I will immediately arrange for transportation and it will be delivered to Qianhu in the north of the town within half a month!"
"That's it, thank you very much, senior!"
…
After talking about food, they then talked about poisoning. In response, Xue Caishen sighed and looked sad.
Over the years, I have taken good care of my clansmen for the sake of blood and family ties, and I have given them an unknown amount of money. Unexpectedly, I have raised a group of white-eyed wolves who cannot be fed enough. As soon as I fall, these clansmen will try to rob them. Family property, just thinking about it makes people feel chilly.
It seems that the way we treat these tribesmen must change in the future. We cannot just give them blindly, but we must let them learn to support themselves.
As for the poisoned nephew, it chilled me even more. My blood relative wanted to kill me!
"Dad, what are you going to do with Xue Yulin?"
"What do you think?"
"In my opinion, Xue Yulin committed a heinous crime by poisoning his elders. He should follow the family law and beat him to death with sticks in front of all the clan members as a warning to others!"
"No, Xue Yulin's crime is indeed unpardonable, but if we beat him to death, our hands will be stained with blood. It will inevitably attract all kinds of criticism, saying that we ignore blood and family ties... Besides, the family scandal cannot be made public. We have to think about the Xue family's face. ah!"
"Then what should we do? We can't let him continue to cause harm to the Xue family, right?"
"Jinyu, my father is getting old and I can't protect you forever. You should learn to think and make your own decisions about some things!"
Xue Caishen had a complicated look on his face. His precious daughter was smart and talented in business, but unfortunately she was not deeply involved in the world and her ability to handle affairs was very poor.
Of course, this is not the daughter's fault. It would be strange for a seventeen-year-old girl to be cunning!
But I am nearly sixty years old, and I am afraid that I will not be able to hold on for a few more years. Once I collapse, what will happen to Bao'er's daughter... I must train her more in the future to make her mature faster, or find a girl for her. A reliable and capable protector!
On the other side, Xue Jinyu was thinking hard, but could not think of a proper solution, so she could only look at Qin Feng with pleading eyes!
Qin Feng could withstand everything except the woman's plea, and he couldn't say anything clearly, so he had to dip his fingers in tea and write the word 'monk' on the table!
Become a monk and become a monk!
Xue Jinyu's eyes lit up, and on the other side, Xue Caishen nodded frequently. This was indeed a good idea.
For one thing, letting Xue Yulin become a monk can prevent him from doing bad things again!
Secondly, Xue Yulin was a typical drunkard and womanizer. He was asked to eat fast and chant Buddha's name every day without even seeing the shadow of a woman. For him, it was simply worse than death. It was the greatest punishment.
Thirdly, by not killing Xue Yulin, you can avoid the bad reputation of killing blood relatives, and you will also gain a reputation as a broad-minded person who repays evil with kindness, which will be beneficial to the Xue family and his daughter!
Kill three birds with one stone, what a really good idea!
After a little reflection, Xue Caishen made a decision and sent Xue Yulin to become a monk in Ganzhou, which was the western border of the Ming Dynasty. It was sparsely populated, far away from prosperity, full of grasslands and beautiful scenery, very suitable for monk practice... (A moment of silence for Xue Yulin) One hour)
Next, they talked about the mastermind behind the scenes. Who is this person... Xue Jinyu had to think about this question.
Xue Jinyu couldn't think of anything and continued to look at Qin Feng with pleading eyes. The latter had no choice but to dip his fingers in tea and wrote two words on the table - profit!
What happened to the Xue family this time is definitely related to the word 'profit', and there is an unchanging rule in the battle of interests: whoever benefits the most will be the most suspicious!
Just think about it, if Xue Caishen really dies, the Xue family is torn apart, and the Qin merchants in the Suide area are leaderless... Whoever can get the greatest benefits will be able to reveal the mastermind behind the scenes.
"Damn it, it's him!"
Xue Jinyu pondered for a moment, her almond-shaped eyes widened, and finally figured out the answer. Looking at her father and Qin Feng, they both looked like they had pearls of wisdom in their hands. It was obvious that they had already guessed the answer.
This situation made Miss Xue extremely depressed. It turned out that among the three people present, she was the stupidest!
"Dad, the man named Fan is so insidious. He uses such vicious tricks to harm people and pretends to be a good person in front of me. Let's go to him to settle the score and let him know that the Xue family is not someone to be bullied... Humph!"
"The account must be settled, but now is not the time!"
Xue Caishen shook his head. After he woke up, he immediately understood that this matter must be caused by the eight Shanxi merchants secretly.
In the past ten years, relying on the smuggling business, the strength of the Shanxi Merchant Group has skyrocketed, and they even wanted to drag the Qin Merchant Group into the water, but they met with their own firm opposition.
The eight major Shanxi merchants harbored a grudge, so they secretly plotted the murder... But they knew it was their fault, but they couldn't settle the score with them, let alone break up with them, at least not now.
The reason is simple: once they break up, it will trigger a fierce conflict between the two major business groups of Qin and Jin. In normal times, the Qin and merchants would naturally not be afraid. But now that there are civil uprisings in the northwest, the situation has turned into a mess.
Once a trade war breaks out, trade routes are blocked, and food cannot be transported in, the unlucky people will definitely be the common people. I don’t know how many people will starve to death... If the common people all starve to death, how will the Qin merchants survive?
For the sake of the overall situation, we can't break up with the eight Shanxi merchants just yet, but we can't just show no sign either.
"Jin Yu, please immediately send someone to deliver a tea set to Ninth Young Master Fan Renjie!"
"A tea set?"
Xue Jinyu's eyes circled, not understanding what this meant... On the other side, Qin Feng secretly raised his thumb, Xue Caishen is really smart!
Giving a tea set has two meanings:
One is to tell Fan Renjie that the Xue family already knows about the fact that you secretly instigated Xue Yulin to poison the purple clay pot. Please stop doing such dirty things in the future!
Secondly, the Chinese nation has always had the habit of serving tea to guests. This is a warning to Fan Renjie to leave Suide City as soon as possible, otherwise I will be rude to you.
In this way, he can not only drive away Fan Renjie, but also avoid directly breaking up with the eight major Shanxi merchants and causing a business war. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone... No wonder Xue Caishen can become one of the three major Qin merchants. He is really scheming!
