Chapter 1181: Madam Baolinghou, the Shi family was not wrongly raided

Early in the morning.

Su Mingzhe came to visit the Shi family.

The two marquises of the Shi family.

This is the residence of Lord Bowling.

When Mrs. Baolinghou learned that Su Mingzhe had arrived, she quickly sent someone to welcome him into the backyard.

Su Mingzhe followed the maid into the backyard and saw a group of maids and old women surrounding a familiar-looking noblewoman. He knelt down and said,
"Nephew Baoyu pays his respects to his aunt!"

Mrs. Baolinghou followed her husband to Chang'an City to celebrate Lady Jia's birthday, so she was very familiar with Su Mingzhe's original self.

At this moment, seeing Su Mingzhe kowtow to her as soon as they met, she was happy in her heart, but it was not easy for her to help him up herself, so she could only let a few maids help Su Mingzhe up:
"How come you're so alienated from your aunt after only not seeing her for two years?"

"Aunt, Baoyu was ignorant before, but now he has grown up, and this etiquette cannot be abolished!"

After Su Mingzhe stood up, he chatted and laughed for a while.

When he saw that the only person to receive him was Mrs. Baolinghou, he could not help but ask in surprise:

"Aunt, isn't my elder brother Deng at home?"

When Mrs. Baolinghou heard Su Mingzhe mention her son, she immediately said unhappily:
"Don't worry about your elder brother Deng. He has become a bookworm from studying so much. He is almost twenty years old and he has not even passed the examination to become a scholar. I am so mad at him!"

Because the Daqing Dynasty implemented the system of inheriting titles by downgrading their ranks.

Today, Bowling Marquis Shi Nai is already the fourth generation.

Seeing that Marquis Baoling had done nothing and had offended Emperor Longqing, Crown Prince Shi Deng was unable to inherit the title.

Mrs. Baolinghou was so anxious that she got angry and couldn't sleep all night.

Now that the number one scholar, who was the incarnation of Wenquxing, had arrived, Mrs. Baolinghou wanted to have her son come over to get some of the "literary atmosphere". However, her son actually said that he did not want to skip classes and go home, and insisted on coming after the class was over.

Su Mingzhe chatted with this aunt for a while.

Suddenly a girl rushed over, and before she came up to him, she had already started shouting "I love you, brother!"

"This damn girl has no rules. If your cousin sees her, he will be laughed to death!"

Mrs. Baolinghou just scolded her own son in front of Su Mingzhe, and now she started scolding her niece. It seems that she also has a bad temper.

Su Mingzhe quickly pleaded for Shi Xiangyun.

When Shi Xiangyun was a child in Chang'an City, she lived in Rongguo Mansion for most of her time and had a close relationship with Su Mingzhe.

Su Mingzhe has always been very caring towards this cousin.

After the Peiyuan Pill was developed last year, more than a dozen boxes were sent to Jinling. In addition to being given to some old relatives, two boxes were given specifically to Shi Xiangyun.

"Baoyu, this girl doesn't know any rules. As her brother, you can't spoil her like this anymore! Otherwise, how will she get married in the future?"

Mrs. Baolinghou knew Su Mingzhe's current status, so she couldn't help but give him face. However, she continued to nag him endlessly:

"This girl is not good at studying, nor is she good at needlework. I have taught her so many times, but she has never remembered a word..."

Su Mingzhe listened for a while and felt that Mrs. Baolinghou was quite resentful, but he could only smile and say:
"Aunt, please don't blame Yun'er. She is still young. When she grows up, she will understand naturally!"

Shi Xiangyun was a fearless person, except for being afraid of being scolded by her aunt. So when she heard her second brother arguing for her, she felt warm in her heart. She simply hid behind her second brother and pulled his sleeves to study him.

A short while later.

A young man walked in from outside, bowed to Madam Baoling and greeted her first, then bowed to Su Mingzhe and said:
"I guess this must be Brother Bao. I saw him once a few years ago. He was still young then, but now he is taller than me. If he were to meet me on the street, I'm afraid I wouldn't recognize him!"

"Brother Deng doesn't recognize me, but I recognize Brother Deng!"

Su Mingzhe had an impression of this cousin in his memory, and he immediately bowed and saluted.

When Shi Deng saw it, he quickly avoided it and said with a shameful look on his face:

"No, no, Brother Bao, you are already the top scholar, but I am not even a scholar. I cannot accept this gift, I cannot accept it!"

"Brother Deng, this is a brotherly gift between us relatives. You can accept it!"

After Su Mingzhe finished speaking, he grabbed Sten's arm and asked him to sit down and receive a salute.

Grandmother Jia came from the Shi family. She was the aunt of Baoling Hou and the great-aunt of Shi Deng.

In terms of seniority, Su Mingzhe and Shi Deng are very close cousins, so there is nothing wrong with this gift.

Sten accepted the salute helplessly and quickly asked Su Mingzhe to sit down again.

On the other side, when Mrs. Baolinghou saw her son coming back from school, she made an excuse that she was sleepy and asked her son to take Su Mingzhe to the flower hall in front for a banquet.

The banquet had been prepared long ago. In addition to Shi Deng, many other peers of the Shi family also came.

The two large round tables were immediately filled.

As the saying goes, a person's character can be seen from his drinking habits.

Su Mingzhe had drunk together with his peers from the Xue family, Xue Pan, Zhen family, Jia family, and Wang family.

Now when I drink with the historians and compare them, I immediately find that the other families are just spoiled brats who are hopeless and hopeless.

However, most of the children of historians are well-versed in classics, knowledgeable in books, and well-mannered, and are well-educated.

After the banquet, it was already dusk.

Su Mingzhe was about to say goodbye and leave, but was stopped by Sten:

"Brother Bao, you can't leave. My mother has already arranged a place for you to live. If you leave, I'm afraid you will be scolded!"

Seeing that he couldn't refuse, Su Mingzhe could only accept the offer with a wry smile.

This is really true, drinking one meal after another.

Afterwards, in the guest room courtyard, Su Mingzhe, accompanied by Shi Deng, drank until midnight before being escorted to the guest room by two maids.

Sleep until dawn.

Su Mingzhe realized something was wrong before he even got up.

A strange place, a strange woman.

"Master Bao is awake?"

When the two ladies who were serving the emperor saw Su Mingzhe open his eyes, they immediately sat up with their bodies bent, suppressed their shyness, and asked:
"Second Master, do you want to get up now?"

"Not yet."

Su Mingzhe looked at the two little beauties, whose eyes still had traces of tears that had long dried.

He lifted the quilt again and looked at the two bloodstains on the bed sheet. He immediately recalled that last night, he bullied these two little beauties as if they were his maids.

After feeling guilty for a while, Su Mingzhe asked:

"What are your names? Who asked you to serve me?"

"Your servant Chunxiang (Xiaxiang) was sent by the Madam."

Although the two girls were not sisters, they had been well trained and answered in unison.

Su Mingzhe felt a little relieved when he heard that it was sent by Mrs. Baolinghou, and then asked the two girls about their family situation.

This question is very serious.

When the two women briefly explained the situation, Su Mingzhe immediately thought of the plot in the book.

Why did Emperor Longqing, after he had plundered the Zhen family, immediately rush to plunder the Shi family?

The reason why Emperor Longqing raided the Zhen family was because the Zhen family controlled the Jiangning Weaving Bureau.

The Jiangning Weaving Bureau sent more than 10 million taels of silver to the Ministry of Internal Affairs every year. Even if the Zhen family only kept 10%, the surplus over hundreds of years would make the Zhen family's ancestral property exceed hundreds of millions of taels of silver.

And the historians are also extremely remarkable.

This is how historians are described in the Huguanfu.

"The Afang Palace, three hundred miles long, cannot accommodate even one historian from Jinling."

Su Mingzhe originally thought that this sentence simply meant that the Shi family’s mansion was larger, or that there were many clan members.

As a result, Chunxiang and Xiaxiang told Su Mingzhe that the Shi family had a total of 18 branches and more than 300 members in the genealogy.

It is these more than 300 members of the Shi family who own 60,000 hectares of fertile land, equivalent to 6 million mu.

In order to cultivate these six million acres of fertile land, Shijia had more than 100,000 tenants and farmhands.

As the number of tenants and farmhands increased, the number of maids and servants in the Shi family also increased.

As far as the two maids knew, there were more than 1,500 servants and maids in the Baoling Marquis's mansion alone.

After Su Mingzhe heard this, his teeth began to sour:
"The Rongguo Mansion, which is home to four princes and eight dukes, has only three or four hundred servants, maids, and nannies, which is not even a fraction of the Baoling Marquis Mansion. No wonder Emperor Longqing raided the Shi family after raiding the Zhen family!"

"After the Jia family was raided, and after being persuaded by the ministers, Emperor Longqing generously returned the Rongguo Mansion to Jia Zheng."

"So, the Jia family was emptied by the servants, but everyone in the Jia family escaped!"

(End of this chapter)