How to make a famous minister

Chapter 25 Wei Gongsheng Temple

After Fan Jingwen found out about the Jiansheng Temple, he hurried into Wuqiao County. The family servants from his hometown were waiting by the roadside, holding on to the coffin and weeping bitterly, before entering Wuqiao County.

The first few generations of the Fan family were born in a county magistrate, and the subsequent generations were all unborn students. It was not until Fan Yongnian passed the Jinshi examination and became an official that he was considered an official family.So the old house of the Fan family in Hebei was not big, it was just a small courtyard with a second entrance, without even a garden, and it was renovated later, so it was not so cramped.

In the old house, Fan Xuanchao met Fan Jingwen's sister and his own aunt—Fan Jingsi for the first time.When he was young, he was praised by Fan Jingwen for his literary talent, but he was not as good as Fan Jingsi. In addition, Zhang once said that Fan Jingsi was a well-known talented woman, and her poetry was no worse than that of Xie Daoyun, who was not like catkins blown by the wind.

Fan Xuanchao has always been curious, until today he saw it.

Fan Jingsi was thin and dressed in filial piety. She was not an ethereal fairy like Sister Lin, and her eyebrows were not the popular willow-leaf eyebrows, but sharp straight eyebrows, but those eyes were red and swollen, very sad, which diluted her sharpness .Fan Jingsi seemed to have been crying for a long time, but when she saw her mother's coffin, she threw herself on it and cried loudly, almost fainting.

Fan Jingwen persuaded and comforted Fan Jingsi, and Fan Jingsi calmed down a little.

Fan Jingwen introduced Fan Jingsi to Fan Xuanchao, Fan Xuanchao met Li, and Fan Jingsi asked a little boy who was not much different from Fan Xuanlang to come forward, "This is your cousin Sun Xi, he is six years old this year."

Wang Sunxi greeted him respectfully, he could see the strict family tradition at a young age, and Fan Xuanchao returned the salute, which was regarded as a formal acquaintance.

After Ma's burial, Fan Jingwen will also live here for three years. Although he asked Fan Xuanchao to come back to visit his hometown, he didn't want him to accompany him to observe filial piety, so Fan Jingwen asked Fan Jingsi to take care of him, which is considered familiar with his hometown.

Fan Jingsi and her husband Wang Shide loved each other very much, but God failed as people wished. Wang Shide died of illness last year.Losing two close relatives in one year, Fan Jingsi's grief can be imagined, but every time Fan Xuanchao sees her, although he seldom smiles, he does things in an orderly manner with a peaceful expression.

Fan Jingsi now puts more energy into sorting out the manuscripts of her late husband besides raising her son to become a talent.There is a lotus flower in front of Wang Shide's study, so the poem is named "Poetry Grass of Lotus Fragrance Pavilion".

Before she got married, Fan Jingsi liked Fan Xuanchao very much. Fan Jingsi was the old daughter of Fan Yongnian and Ma Shi.The Zhang family married into the Fan family the second year after she was born. Before Fan Xuanchao, Fan Jingwen and the Zhang family loved her as a daughter.Fan Xuanchao was only seven years younger than her, and Fan Jingsi treated him more like a sibling than a nephew.

Fan Xuanchao loves children by nature, and he has the physique of a king of children. Within two days, Wang Sunxi clings to Fan Xuanchao all the time.

Fan Jingsi smiled and said, "Sun Xi doesn't like to associate with other people. You can make him like you in such a short period of time, it can be seen that there is fate."

Fan Xuanchao touched his head and said with a smile: "Blood relationship, Sun Xi is my cousin, of course we are close."

"By the way," Fan Xuanchao said seriously, "Before I came to Wuqiao County, I heard that there was a shrine built for Wei Zhongxian. Where is that? Can I go and see it?"

Fan Jingsi asked: "What are you doing there? I heard that the Shengci Temple is about to be built, and the place has been surrounded by people. If anyone approaches, they will be chased away, and they will even be beaten with a whip."

Fan Xuanchao didn't expect that group of people to be so lawless, so he asked: "Why did those salt merchants build a shrine for Wei Zhongxian? I only heard some rumors, do you know, aunt?"

Fan Jingsi sighed, "I know, my father-in-law works as a clerk in the county government, and everyone knows about it."

It turned out that last year a man named Zhao Bairong came to investigate Yanhu, and Yanhu heard that he was a new celebrity around Wei Zhongxian, so he invited him to a restaurant every day and night, and gave him all kinds of rich gifts.This Zhao Bairong did not refuse anyone who came, and accepted everything. It didn't take long to find out that the salt households in Wuqiao County were all well-behaved and good businessmen, with no bad debts or any secrets.

The salt households in Wuqiao County were overjoyed when they saw this, and gave another 300 taels of tea fruit money to the Supervisor of Rites.Maybe Zhao Bairong felt that he had already asked for enough before, and if he accepted the money, he would touch the line. In addition, although he didn't find out what happened to them, if Yanhu communicated with businessmen from other places, I knew they definitely gave too much.

So Zhao Bairong rejected the 300 taels of tea and fruit money offered by the salt households.The salt households took the opportunity to say: "Although the adults are sympathetic to us and don't want tea, fruit and silver, but the salt they got in the past two years has become less and less. I hope that after the adults go back, they don't expect anything else, just want to bring the salt back to its original state." To some extent. The little people have nothing to repay, but they can only enshrine the longevity tablet of the grandfather in each family, and burn incense all day long, wishing the grandfather a blessing like the East China Sea every day, and a longevity longer than the South Mountain."

Zhao Bairong rolled his eyes, realized that this was a good opportunity to show his courtesy to Wei Zhongxian, and said: "Your households set up longevity cards, do you want Grandpa Wei to come to your house to enjoy them? Let me tell you, the best way is Wouldn't it be better for you to build a living shrine on the plains of Wuqiao County for all generations to look up to?"

The Yanhu people were dumbfounded. They said that they just made a casual statement about erecting the Longevity Card, but they didn't expect Zhao Bairong to ask them to build a Shrine of Life.The money for building the Shengsheng Temple is much more than the money for setting up the Longevity Card in your own home!Even if you don't talk about money, who in the world doesn't know that Wei Zhongxian is greedy and treacherous?If the Wuqiao salt merchants were the first to build him a shrine—yes, Wei Zhongxian would be happy to give them a lot of wealth, but what about after that?

The most important thing for a businessman is reputation, and reputation is money. If things go on like this, who would want to do business with him?

But Zhao Bairong's words have come to this point, he stared at, who can say "We were just joking to tease you just now", so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and nodded: "My lord is right, let's invite Feng Shui Sir, come to see the land and start working on another day."

After Zhao Bairong went back, he told Wei Zhongxian that Wei Zhongxian did not expect that someone would build him a ancestral hall. It’s a good thing. It’s not easy for them, and they all say that the salt households are making huge profits, but there are also some things that are not easy to do, so you can send their salt back as before.”

The salt trigger is enough, all the salt merchants look at me, I look at you, so I gritted my teeth and asked Mr. Feng Shui to look at Feng Shui, and began to build a shrine.

They dragged on and failed to lay the foundation, Wei Zhongxian was actually more serious than them, and sent a young eunuch to look at them, seeing that they hadn't laid the foundation well, he was a little angry.The little eunuch got 300 taels of tea money from the Yanhus, and desperately spoke good words to them. When Wei Zhongxian calmed down, he allocated 1000 taels himself to let the Yanhus build the shrine quickly.

Fan Xuanchao said with a smile: "This is the first time I've heard that someone allocated money to build a shrine for himself."

Fan Jingsi sighed, "Even if Wei Zhongxian allocates 1000 taels, what's the use? A ancestral temple must be magnificent and beautiful, and it will cost at least ten thousand gold to build it. No salt merchant Although rich, Wuqiao County is small. Where can they get rich? Several salt merchants don’t know how much they spent to build this shrine. Although there is too much salt, it is worse now than before. After the Shengci is built, the blood will return slowly."

Fan Xuanchao was thoughtful, feeling that the matter of the Shengci would not end here.There is a domino effect. If someone knows that building a ancestral temple will have such great benefits, the small business of salt merchants in Wuqiao County will not be built.But there are so many wealthy households in Ming Dynasty, there is always someone who can build them.And what they want is more than just a little salt?

As many ancestral halls of Wei Zhongxian are built on the mountains and rivers of the Ming Dynasty, there are as many places where there are corpses everywhere.

Looking from a distance, Fan Xuanchao saw that the Shengci Temple was close to mountains and rivers, and it was already [-]% seen. The main hall has been completed, the gate is being built, and there are all kinds of exquisitely crafted carved railings and paintings.

There was a hot construction site, sweating workers carried stones on their backs, carving or chiseling, and even supervisors held whips beside them, and those who moved slowly were whipped hard.

Fan Xuanchao watched from a distance, tried to step forward several times to stop him, but finally sighed, turned his horse's head, and went back.

When they arrived at the thatched cottage where Fan Jingwen lived, Fan Xuanchao told all about what he had seen and heard.Fan Jingwen looked up to the sky and sighed, "If I hadn't returned to Wuqiao, I wouldn't have known that Wei Zhongxian had become so arrogant. I only lament that I am so soft-spoken. If I had retired from the position of a senior official above the third rank, Ding You would be able to write to the court even now. Now only I can entrust Xuanzai and Ruyu to you."

Xuanzai is Dong Qichang's name, and Ruyu is Ni Yuanlu's name.

Fan Xuanchao persuaded him: "Mr. Sibai and Mr. Hongbao are recharging their energy now, so why do you drag them in? It's better to give it to someone who can really deliver it directly to Tianting."

"Although your uncle is an extremely human minister, he can't fight against the emperor's favored minister over and over again, otherwise the accumulation of small things will be a disaster." Fan Jingwen thought more than Fan Xuanchao, "He can't fight now if he doesn't fight and ignore it." Stay safe."