The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

Chapter 71: Two Assistant Prefectural Magistrates Fighting on the Dining Table, Double Marquis in the Baoling Mansion Gate One

Three days passed in a flash.

On February 12, Sun Shaozong thought that the toughest moment was the get-together of the same year party being held at night. Unexpectedly, he had encountered an embarrassment in advance when he arrived at Jia Zheng’s banquet at noon.

At that time, a total of four people gathered in Rongxi hall, including Jia Zheng, Jia Yucun, Sun Shaozong, and Fu Shi, Jia Zheng's favorite pupil. This time, Jia Zheng hosted a banquet to introduce Fu Shi to the two.

According to Jia Zheng, Fu Shi originally served as the Minister of the six-graded government in Guanglu. Because he was rated as a top-ranking official by the Capital of the regular assessment of the Capital officials last year, he would now be promoted to the Central Judicial Office, where he would also serve as a six-graded Assistant Prefectural Magistrate, in charge of the money, grain and taxes in the office.

Hearing this introduction, Sun Shaozong knew that Jia Yucun had come to give a helping hand.

He should know that although the Assistant Prefectural Magistrate of the Central Judicial Office was not as noble as the court officials, it was an important node connecting the preceding and the following. At present, two of the three Assistant Prefectural Magistrates were connected with Jia Yucun. He’s afraid that from now on, the Governor of Prefecture Han was going to have trouble sleeping and eating.

Jia Yucun thought the same way. His face was full of spring breeze and contentment, sweeping away the haze that failed to flaunt his strength in front of the Emperor.

Jia Yucun wanted to recruit people with talent, while Fu Shi intends to get favor from others. Therefore, after a few cups of yellow rice wine, the two had already become brothers, and with the help of alcohol, they chanted some sour toast poems, singing one by one, which was very lively.

Jia Zheng was originally a lover of making poems, and it was effortless to get involved in them.

But how does Sun Shaozong know any poetry?

Sitting solely at the banquet was embarrassing!

If he was a reckless man, he may not be aware of it, but how delicate was Sun Shaozong?

Just looking on coldly for a while, he saw that Fu Shi was quite hostile toward him. He took the initiative to mention poetry on purpose. To put it bluntly, he just didn't want to play with an uneducated man like Sun Shaozong.

If he was alone in being hostile, it wouldn't have left Sun Shaozong to be treated in the cold.

However, Jia Yucun may also want to take the opportunity to teach Sun Shaozong a lesson so that he can know the pain of being alone.

With these two people controlling the topic, even if Jia Zheng wanted to take care of Sun Shaozong's face, he was unable to find a chance.

In this way, Sun Shaozong sat alone for a long time, thinking about what reason he should use to get away, but he saw Zhou Rui, the housekeeper of the Rongguo Mansion, rush in and bow to report, "Old Second Master, Marquis Zhongjing, and his wife came to visit the Old Lady, and the Old Master happened to be away from home, you..."

Hearing that Shi Ding, the Marquis of Zhongjing, was here, Jia Zheng hurriedly finds an excuse for the people at the table and hurries to Jia's mother's side.

As soon as the master left, leaving Jia Yucun and Fu Shi there, it was hard to continue the topic about some sour poetry of romantic scenes.

Therefore, Jia Yucun took advantage of the situation and said, "A double Marquis like Baoling Mansion can be called an “abnormal number” these years."

Fu Shi also smiled and echoed, "Their contribution of leading the division to attack the country is naturally not comparable to others. If the head of Secretariat Shi had not died of an unfortunate illness in Korea, there would be another King with a different surname in the Zhou Dynasty."

The Marquis Baoling Mansion they were talking about was the Old Lady's parent’s family before she got married to the Jia family. They were originally the Marquis of the founding country, and their status was far inferior to that of the Ning and Rong Families.

But now, Jia She, the Eldest Master of the Rongguo Mansion, was only a first-class General, while the Baoling Mansion already had a double Marquis. In addition to the Marquis Baoling Mansion handed down by their ancestors, there was also a title of Zhongjing Marquis, which has become a rare exception in the court.

Speaking of the origin of the historian, a double Marquis, it has something to do with the Sun Family.

About sixteen years ago, the Emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty at that time, now the Supreme Emperor, angrily sent 200,000 troops to invade Korea because of its repeated violations of the border and the plundering of the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

At that time, Sun Shaozong's big brother was appointed as the leader of the army because of his bravery. He thought he could make contributions and expand his ambitions. Who knew that this war was a disastrous defeat for the entire army, and 200,000 troops had to escape to the Yalu River with only a mere 30,000 people?

Sun Shaozong's big brother was lucky and was mixed in with these 30,000 people. Luckily, he escaped the pursuit of the Korean people, but he couldn't escape the anger of the Emperor. He was ordered to commit suicide by the Yalu River to appease public indignation.

The Sun Family had also fallen into decay due to this matter and even had to rely on their relatives and friends to make a living.

Five years later, the Great Zhou Dynasty launched another campaign against Korea, and this time it was Shi Jue, the eldest son of the Marquis Baoling Mansion, who commanded the army.

Under the wise command of Shi Jue, Korea was defeated again and again, first losing the Capital of their country, and then even the King's entire family was killed by his generals, who presented his head to the Great Zhou Dynasty as a gift.

According to the meaning of the title “Supreme Emperor” originally, he wanted to completely wipe out Korea and directly divide it into prefectures and counties of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Unfortunately, just as the troops of the Great Zhou Dynasty were advancing vigorously, Shi Jue suddenly contracted the epidemic and was unable to continue commanding the war for the time being.

Thus, the Imperial Court had to accept the alternative condition of letting Korea surrender to establish a Korean vassal state and be submitted to the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Almost at the same time that North Korea was founded, Shi Jue also died of illness in a foreign country.

According to the credit he received during his lifetime, he may be a little reluctant to be crowned as a King of a state, but a Duke could easily be granted.

However, Shi Jue only had a daughter named Xiangyun under his name, which put the Imperial Court in a difficult position.

Not knowing what to do, Shi Jue's two younger brothers, Shi Nai and Shi Ding, gnawed their teeth and donated all their family property to the Imperial Court to comfort the soldiers who died in the war.

In this way, the Imperial Court simply goes along with it. Firstly, they let the Second Master, Shi Nai, take over the title of Marquis Baoling, and then granted the Third Master, Shi Ding, the title of Marquis Zhongjing, which was to repay Shi Jue's credit.

After that, the Supreme Emperor realized that he had fully fulfilled the merits and virtues and took a trip around Mount Tai. He gave the throne to Emperor Guangde once he came back.

Sun Shaozong has nothing to do with it. Listening to Jia Yucun and Fu Shi discussing the past of the Shi Mansion, he heard a clear voice outside the door, "Which is Sun Shengtao's youngest son?"

With that, he saw a short and strong man step into the Rongxi hall. With a casual sweep of his eyes, he fell on Sun Shaozong.

Seeing this posture, Sun Shaozong knew that it was Marquis Zhongjing, Shi Ding. He hurriedly got up and saluted, "Greetings to the Marquis."

Jia Yucun and Fu Shi also hurriedly got up to greet him.

Shi Ding ignored the others, looked up and down at Sun Shaozong, and said, "It's worthy of you to be the descendant of Sun Shengtao. This figure is indeed the material for charging and shattering enemy positions! I've heard all about your case-solving stories recently, and now I have finally seen you in person!"

At this time, Jia Zheng also followed in from the outside, laughed while holding his beard, and said, "They are all family members. Don't be constrained. Sit down and talk."

While they were talking, a servant quickly placed another chair between Jia Yucun and Jia Zheng.

That Shi Ding was not polite either. He sat up with a golden blade, leaned forward, and asked curiously, "What are you talking about just now? Is it that you are discussing the recent strange case of the dismembering of the corpse? I heard that the murderer broke into Rong Guo's Mansion and injured Brother Qin, but I didn’t know what was the sequence of events?"

He opened his mouth and asked about the case, which was exactly what Sun Shaozong wanted. He immediately brought the details of the body dismemberment case together. Jia Zheng and Shi Ding, who only listened to it, were amazed.

After all, Jia Yucun has seen the report file, and he could still have a few words next to it.

However, Fu Shi was like hearing the book of heaven. Even if he tried to talk occasionally, he would be deliberately ignored by Sun Shaozong.

In the end, he could only shut up and sit there quietly for more than half an hour. He had cursed Sun Shaozong hundreds of times, but he had completely forgotten that it was him who had started the secret war first.