Shen family.
Shen Yiyuan and shopkeeper Wu went to the door to personally greet Chang Baiye and Hou Qianqian. After saying a few words of greetings, they invited them into the house. Many people outside the door saw this scene, some people left in a hurry, and more people were guessing:
The first merchant from Huizhou hosted a banquet with the first merchant from Shanxi. Why?
On the second-floor restaurant across the river, Zhou Chen, Lin Wenheng, Huang Bengu and others were guarding an empty table. The shop boy came to see it several times, but they didn't realize it and just ordered a bottle of wine and chatted there.
Zhou Chen squinted his eyes and watched Chang Baiye walk into the Shen family, and said to Lin Wenheng and others: "Look, I said that with Shen Xiude here, Shen Yiyuan will never give up such a big fat piece of meat in the Western Regions."
Lin Wenhengzi took a sip of wine: "It's just Shen Yiyuan inviting someone to have a meal. How can you be sure that it is related to the Western Region?"
Lin Xian also nodded in agreement: "Businessmen invite businessmen to dinner, and in this twelfth lunar month, it is normal to visit relatives and friends. By the way, you brought us here and only ordered a bottle of wine, just for See Shen Yiyuan treat Chang Baiye to dinner?"
Huang Bengu and Wu Qian looked at Zhou Chen in silence.
Zhou Chen suppressed his smile and said slowly: "I invite you to come here today. There is indeed something big that I need to talk to you about. It's a big, big thing."
Lin Wenheng: "Yeah."
Wu Qian: "Oh."
Lin Xian: "Okay."
Huang Bengu: "I know."
Zhou Chen looked at his four friends and wondered if he was acting too calm and careless. I have something big to say...
Lin Wenheng understood and quickly asked: "But which princess has fallen in love with you?"
"That's not true."
"Then which princess do you like?"
"Whatever, I'm talking about business!"
Zhou Chen was unhappy.
Huang Bengu waved his hand and stopped Wu Qian and Lin Xian who wanted to speak: "Brother Zhou specially chose a restaurant not far from the home of Shen Yiyuan, a Huizhou merchant, to treat us, and he only invited us a bottle of wine. I guess it has a profound meaning. .”
Zhou Chen looked at Huang Bengu and was very excited: he is indeed his good brother.
Huang Bengu slowly took out a stack of treasure notes from his sleeve, put it on the table, and pushed it towards Zhou Chen's surprised eyes: "If you are in trouble, we will not care about you. Everyone has difficulties. It wasn’t the time when…”
"I see."
Lin Wenheng suddenly realized that Wu Qian and Lin Xian quickly took the money to show their support.
Zhou Chen was speechless, stood up, pointed to the wine on the table seriously and said: "This pot of wine is the farewell wine, the farewell wine. Brother Lin, Brother Huang, Brother Wu, Brother Lin, I, Zhou Chen, have decided to leave. The capital."
Lin Wenheng remained expressionless: "Yeah."
Wu Qian said lightly: "Oh."
Lin Xian nodded: "Okay."
Huang Bengu took back his money: "I understand."
Zhou Chen was completely depressed. Why, isn't such a big thing shocking enough for you?
Or is it that he treats them as friends too much, but they don't treat him as a friend, and they don't care whether he stays or goes?
Seeing Zhou Chen sitting down slumped, Lin Xian, Wu Qian, and Lin Wenheng burst into laughter. Even Huang Bengu couldn't help laughing. Lin Wenheng said to the disappointed Zhou Chen: "This pot of wine is not the wine that Zhou Chen used to say goodbye to the four of us."
Wu Qian joked: "What do you guys think about all day long? Do you really think we don't know? Don't forget that we are from business schools. We have done countless market surveys on who and what kind of business, who and where. I don’t dare to say that I’m close to ten, but it’s not a problem to say three to four out of ten. As for someone like you who knows the basics, haha..."
Huang Bengu nodded and said: "We have guessed your thoughts a long time ago. You want to go to the Western Regions, right?"
"You all know?"
Zhou Chen was very surprised. Looking at the few people who nodded, he was a little moved. He thought that his thoughts were well hidden and did not show many traces, but he still couldn't hide his intentions from them.
Huang Bengu said with a smile: "Since the news came out from the imperial court that they were planning to seize the Western Regions, you have been collecting information about the Western Regions everywhere, and even went to the Qintian Prison. Why, you learned a few words of Chagatai there, and then you were ready to go to the Western Regions. Become a camel?"
Wu Qian poured a glass of wine: "Let me say that before this, he was just doing market research and marketing preparations. But after the victory in Qamdo, Brother Zhou really started to take action."
Lin Xian looked at Zhou Chen seriously: "The victory of Qamdo is a huge sign. It means that the Western Regions will return to the Central Plains Dynasty again after the Han and Tang Dynasties. Our Ming Dynasty can also have the bright moon of the Han Dynasty and the style of the Tang Dynasty. ! Such an earth-shattering event that changes history. If we don’t participate in it and leave our names in the annals of history, wouldn’t we regret it for the rest of our lives?”
"us?"
Zhou Chen looked at Lin Xian and others in surprise.
Lin Wenheng said: "What, you want to be the best in the Western Region and steal the show? We still don't agree. We are no match for you in terms of academic performance, but in the Western Region, haha, it depends on each person's ability."
Zhou Chen still couldn't react: "What on earth do you mean?"
Huang Bengu wanted to reach out and take away the money bag that was in the way on the table, but Lin Wenheng slapped him away. He said painfully: "What else can it mean? At present, the imperial court's governance of the Western Regions will never be a policy of restraint. There will no longer be any chieftains, leaders, or kings, and there will be official officials there."
"Even if the imperial court appoints people who belong to the Western Regions, they will be promoted and leave within a few years. You don't know how big the Western Regions are, and how many officials and local officials there are. You tell me, we don't know about this trip to the Western Regions. Go, who is going?”
Zhou Chen was silent.
Who goes to the Western Regions?
Going to the Western Regions sounds aspirational and exciting, but the problem is that when they are actually asked to go to the Western Regions, their heads can shake like a rattle.
Many people yearn for the Western Regions, but few people are really willing to go there, especially officials who have some foundation in the court. They are the group of people who least want to go to the Western Regions.
If you ask them to go to the Western Regions and work for nine or twelve years, you will be a sixth-grade chief officer and you can be promoted to a third-grade minister when you come back.
They will definitely refuse.
Going to the Western Regions, are you kidding me? Did you know that three thousand miles away are all areas for distribution? You asked me to go eight thousand miles away, ten thousand miles away, get out, get out quickly.
I have worked hard to gain qualifications in the capital. As long as I don't cause big trouble, the big bosses in front of me will die a lot, and I will fall down a lot. Sooner or later, I will have a chance to get ahead. In ten years, I may not be able to become a minister, so why go to that ghost place in the Western Regions?
Going to the Western Regions sounds nice now, and the various policies are inspiring, but what if a person goes to the Western Regions and is forgotten by the court...
After all, it is such a long distance, and it takes half a year, months, or even years for a normal document or ordinary news to come and go before it has the opportunity to "appear" on the emperor's desk. It is probably because the matter is so small that the cabinet is not Too lazy to pass it up...
How nice it is to be in the capital, no matter how bad you are, you can still look familiar...
Zhou Chen heard that the imperial court was in trouble when selecting officials from the Western Regions. The reason was that officials declined too many requests.
The reason for the older man is easy to find: Your Majesty, you see that the old minister is no longer able to walk safely. Can he go thousands of miles away?
Young and strong officials also have methods: diarrhea, injury from a fall, bitten by a dog... In short, either I am injured or I am sick. Your Majesty, please bear with me...
I don’t know if there is a plague in the court. I heard that many officials have fallen ill. People at the medical school should be very interested in studying with them...
Officials with established foundations, backers, and qualifications all want to stay in the capital and work, and no one can lobby them. In this case, who goes to the Western Regions?
Zhou Chen stood up and shouted: I'm going!
The wine is full and the food is coming.
Huang Bengu said to Zhou Chen who came out of a daze: "We don't know much about the specific situation within the imperial court, but we can be sure that the number of officials is definitely not enough. Since some people don't want to go or dare not go, then we young people What are we afraid of? When the imperial court offered to immigrate 500,000 people, we were so scared, thinking that the imperial court would harm countless people if they acted recklessly. But in reality, the imperial court did what it said, and they really sent the people safely to the place of immigration."
"Since the imperial court can escort half a million people to move thousands of miles smoothly, why can't it escort a few hundred people to move thousands of miles? At worst, we take our relatives to the Western Regions for ten years. With our wisdom, we can't build the Western Regions into a prosperous place in ten years. Land? Hasn’t the knowledge I learned in the Imperial College these years been put to use?”
Business school, the way to do business and drive business.
The Western Regions and the Silk Road were dominated by commerce.
Zhou Chen picked up the wine glass and said solemnly: "You are my close friends! Come on, let's have a drink!"
Huang Bengu and others raised their glasses and drank together.
A businessman has the sense of smell of a businessman, and a scholar has the consciousness of a scholar. But some officials in the court had no sense of smell or awareness, which made Zhu Yunwen very distressed.
It has been a month since the victory of Qamdo was announced, and Zhu Di had already sent the preliminary idea of a garrison to the capital. But within the court, the candidates for the chief envoy had not been selected, not to mention political participation, prefect, county magistrate, officials, etc. , these officials also had no whereabouts.
It's not that there are no candidates in the imperial court, it's that the imperial court has chosen them and they should not be accepted. It is impossible for the imperial court to force officials to go to the Western Regions for this kind of thing. If they are full of resentment and act haphazardly in a place where the sky is high and the emperor is far away, it will be detrimental to the long-term if they really cause trouble.
On this day, Zhu Yunwen was discussing with Xie Jin, Yu Xin, and Yang Shiqi about the candidates for the Western Region Chief Envoy. A chamberlain came to report: "Your Majesty, the Imperial College Secretary Ye Hu is here to see you."
Zhu Yunwen was puzzled for a moment and then let him enter the palace.
Holding a stack of documents in both hands, Hu Hui saluted and shouted: "The Imperial College students Zhou Chen, Lin Wenheng, Huang Bengu, Wu Qian, and Lin Xian jointly submitted a letter, willing to go to the Western Regions! Under his leadership, there are another hundred Twenty-seven students in prison signed the petition."
Zhu Yunwen's eyes lit up and he quickly ordered someone to get the document. After reading it, he felt very good and said repeatedly: "Okay, very good. Xie Jin, copy this document to the officials and let them see it. This is what I want." The country needs talented people!”
