The largest wealthy family in Xuzhuang, Hengli Town was the Zhao family, whose ancestors passed the second place in the Chenghua period. During the Wanli and Tianqi periods, the Zhao family produced two Jinshis, a father and son, which was a legend. In the Jiashen year, the Zhao family took the initiative to shave their hair and wear braids, and helped the Qing army arrest anti-Qing righteous men in Kunshan and Jiading. Therefore, after the Zhao family regained their capital in Dingwu, their lives became difficult.

Last year, the Zhao family was the first to pay off the debt. The taxes for 34 years from the first year of Chongzhen to the present were recovered, which emptied most of the Zhao family's family. The former head of the family Zhao Ruiping was locked by the county and was taken to Nandu for "Tonglu". It was said that Zhao Ruiping committed suicide by biting his tongue because he could not bear the punishment. However, the Zhao family has not received any notice from the government so far, nor has he seen Zhao Ruiping's body, so whether the old head is dead or alive, it has become the biggest unsolved case of the Zhao family.

The Zhao family was owed, and the head of the family was not aware of life or death. The Zhao family lost overnight. Half of the Zhao family's land was replenished as a year-old tax and received the official position, and the remaining half was forcibly sold by the government at a low price to the former tenants. The mansion had a hundred and ten people of all ages, and life was very difficult.

Now the Zhao family is in charge of Zhao Ruiping's eldest son Zhao Xiangwei. He has the fame of a scholar, but he was just given a scholar before the New Year. Zhao Xiangwei went to the county to argue with the school officials, but the school officials said it was the meaning of the mansion. Who told your father Zhao Ruiping to be a captive back then? Now he is resistant to taxes. The school officials said that it is only a good luck to remove your scholar's fame. It is important to know that there are hundreds of juren in Songjiang who were exiled to Annan.

The school official asked Zhao Xiangwei to stay home honestly and never come to the county again. This time the court was really moved. The second place, Tanhualang was removed. It would be better if you, a little scholar, don't have the fame and reputation. You must never be unlucky and cause trouble for the Zhao family.

Zhao Xiangwei was willing to be willing to do so because his innocent family property was taken away, his father was imprisoned, and his fame was removed from his fame. However, the government was only followed by the orders of the King of Qi. The soldiers who were owed were all like wolves and tigers, and no one dared to make a decision for him. In desperation, Zhao Xiangwei could only go home and wait for news. He didn't expect anything else, but he hoped that the government could release his father back. With his father, the tenants in the family used to be able to ride onto the Zhao family even if they had divided the land of his family.

However, half a year passed, but my father had no news, and there were many rumors. Zhao Xiangwei didn't know how to deal with it. Just after the Zhengdan period, a distant relative of Suzhou Prefecture came to tell Zhao Xiangwei that his father Zhao Ruiping had actually died in the prison in Nandu. The reason why the government did not inform the Zhao family was that there were too many people who died in prison, so the government could not pay attention to it at all, or they were unwilling to pay attention to it at all.

The news of his father's death completely defeated Zhao Xiangwei, and he had no hope. The distant relative told him that the Taiping Army was acting against the enemy in Jiangnan and persecuting gentry and scholars, which had long caused resentment from heaven. Although the current calmness is now, in fact, in Jiangnan secretly, all those with some knowledge and backbone are secretly connected, and they waited for the opportunity to unite to drive away the Taiping bandits.

Zhao Xiangwei wanted to avenge his father, but he was not brainless. He was very suspicious about what he said, because the old saying goes, "Scholars rebelled and failed for ten years." Nowadays, the military and political power in Jiangnan is controlled by the Taiping Army. These tigers and wolves from Lingnan were killed from the crowd of dead people. How could they accomplish anything just by spontaneous gentry rebelling? At this time, the distant relative did not hide it from Zhao Xiangwei, saying that although the Qing Dynasty retreated to the north, he never forgot to recover Jiangnan. What a smart person Zhao Xiangwei was. When he heard this, he realized that his distant relative, who had never been to the family before, was probably a detailed work by Manzhou people.

The distant relatives made Zhao Xiangwei. The reason why the Zhao family suffered the disaster now was completely revenge by the Taiping Army, because the Zhao family helped the Qing Dynasty back then. Therefore, if the Zhao family wanted to return to the past and regain its own property and land, they had to help the Qing Dynasty counterattack Jiangnan. Otherwise, the Taiping Army would never have a chance to make a breakthrough in the Taiping Army. He clearly told Zhao Xiangwei that there was a new regulation in the Taiping Army that no descendants were allowed to take the imperial examination if they involved the "Tonglu Case". This means that even if Zhao Xiangwei did not want to return home, did not want to avenge his father, and just wanted to be a submissive citizen of the Ming Dynasty. From now on, the Zhao family would not think about anything else to "glory the family and glorious ancestors".

The road to the imperial examination is even more serious than killing parents!

After a long night of suffering, Zhao Xiangwei finally made a decision that he was afraid of, that is, to work with his distant relatives, serve the Qing Dynasty, and use his lifelong efforts to fight with the hundreds of people from the Zhao family and the Taiping Army to the end.

The next day of the Lantern Festival, the distant relative brought a great man from Manzhou to the Zhao family. From then on, the Zhao family became a secret contact point for Manzhou's meticulous work in Hengli. No one in the outside world knew about this. Zhao Xiangwei did not even dare to tell the news that his father Zhao Ruiping was dead, except for revealing it to his two younger brothers.

It was just late that day, and Zhao Xiangwei went to a yard on the east side of the mansion alone that he had not lived in for several years.

There was someone in the yard, which was the big man in Manchuria that Zhao Xiangwei mentioned. This man was the Zhao family who came to the Zhao family last night. Zhao Xiangwei didn't know his name, but only knew that his distant relative called this man "My Lord Mingzhu".

Lord Mingzhu was the "Brother Nalan" who was caught by Yu Baien in Huating Xilin Temple. He was from the Huangqi Banner of Manzhou Province. His grandfather was once the commander of Yehe's tribe, and his aunt was Meng Guzhezhe, who was appointed as a concubine by Emperor Taizu of Qing Nurhaci. This Meng Guzhezhe was the biological mother of Emperor Taizong of Qing. In other words, Hong Tai and Mingzhu's father were his own cousins. Mingzhu himself also married the daughter of Prince Ying Ajige as his wife. In terms of seniority, he was the uncle of Emperor Kangxi who ascended the throne in Beijing.

Mingzhu sneaked to Jiangnan in July last year at the order of Emperor Shunzhi. In the past few months, he has been in Songjiang and Suzhou, and has contacted many gentry landlords who were dissatisfied with the Taiping Army. Some gentry gentry who fled to the north and also worked to assist Mingzhu. Even under Mingzhu's organization, these gentry landlords who fled to the north also organized a group training group training, preparing to cooperate with the Qing army to fight back to their hometown when the Jiangnan chaos occurred. Mingzhu gave this group training a very appropriate name "Returning Homes Group".

When Zhao Xiangwei arrived outside the yard, two black shadows approached. When he saw it was him, the black shadow quickly flashed into the dark corner. Zhao Xiangwei was not surprised by this. He knew that these two were guards who had always protected Lord Mingzhu closely. He heard that these two guards were third-class guards in the Qing Palace, and Lord Mingzhu himself was first-class guards.

First-class guards were an incredible official position in the Qing Dynasty. Although they were guards, once they were released, they would be great men who could become governors in the country. Lord Mingzhu is only in his twenties now and is young and promising. If he made great contributions in Jiangnan this time, he might become an important official in the court after he went back.

Zhao Xiangwei had no doubt that the Qing Dynasty could cross the river again. Lord Mingzhu explained it to him clearly, and he also understood that in the past year, although the Taiping Army defeated the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty on the battlefield, it was lost. In order to extort money, the Taiping Army's actions were similar to the Li Zicheng bandits back then. Since ancient times, gentry has been the foundation of rule and the core of rule. He has not heard of offending gentry, and can still sit firmly if he loses his heart.

Those who win the hearts of the people will win the world!

The thief scholar acted against the enemy. The gentry in Jiangnan dared to be angry but dared not speak out. One day, they would rise up and attack, so that the thief scholar would not die well!

Thinking of Lord Mingzhu's guidance to him and thinking about how heavy pillars of Manzhou he would hold after the Qing Dynasty restored the unification of the world in the future, Zhao Xiangwei couldn't help but feel excited. He gently pushed open the gate and came to Lord Mingzhu who was flipping through the "Southern Tang Book".

Nalan Mingzhu likes to collect ancient books and is a rare collection of books among the powerful people of the Eight Banners of Manchu. During this time, he did not forget to collect ancient books. The book "Southern Tang Book" in his hand was bought by him at a high price. There was also half of the copy of "Southern Tang Book" he copied. The font was correct and the text was flowing. It looked good at first glance. Zhao Xiangwei noticed that the copy of Master Mingzhu had the three words "Xueyanzhai" printed on it, and thought that this might be the engraving of Master Mingzhu.

"sit."

Nalan Mingzhu put down the "Southern Tang Book" and nodded to Zhao Xiangwei with a smile. He was very satisfied with Zhao Xiangwei. In the past few months, Zhao Xiangwei not only provided him with a place to settle down and contact, but also helped him collect a lot of information about the Taiping Army garrison in Songjiang, which were all very useful.

Seeing that Zhao Xiangwei's face was a little hesitant, Mingzhu asked him, "Is there anything wrong?"

Zhao Xiangwei hesitated for a moment and hesitated: "The bamboo poles that the adults want to buy are already complete, but I don't know when the adults will use them?"

"No hurry, even if everything is ready, I still need the east wind." Mingzhu smiled and shook her head.

"But I don't know when the east wind will be there?"

Zhao Xiangwei was eager to know when the grand occasion of the Jiangnan gentry taking action that Lord Mingzhu had mentioned before would come. He could no longer hold back his excitement and wanted to join this big event as soon as possible.

Mingzhu glanced at Zhao Xiangwei, smiled slightly, and did not answer him, but chanted a poem softly.

"The east wind blooms at night, thousands of flowers and trees blow down, and the stars are like rain. The fragrance of BMW carvings is everywhere. The sound of phoenix flutes moves, the light of jade pot turns, and fish and dragons dance overnight. The moths and willows are golden, and the smiles are filled with the faint fragrance. I look for him in the crowd for thousands of times, but when I look back, the man is in the dim light."

This is Xin Qiji's "Qingyu Case". Zhao Xiangwei did not understand why Lord Mingzhu recited this poem, and he couldn't understand it. Mingzhu didn't explain it to him, but he just smiled and his face was full of magic, which made Zhao Xiangwei admire him as a god.

"I understand your thoughts. Don't worry, that day will eventually come." Mingzhu stood up, patted Zhao Xiangwei on the shoulder, looked at the stars in the north, and said lightly: "I am very dedicated. I will not let your Zhao family down, and the Qing Dynasty will not let your Zhao family down."

"Thank you sir!"
Chapter completed!