Rise From the Humble

The afternoon was relatively leisurely, playing with Li Shu and feeding the fat pigs. Unconsciously, the sun slowly set in the west.

When it was almost time to prepare dinner, Li Shu, a naughty girl, went to show off to her mother, Mrs. Chen. A spoiled young lady rushed to pick vegetables, wash and cut vegetables. She worked diligently and neatly, and Mrs. Chen couldn't help but praise her again and again. Praise, as for Zhu Pingan carrying two buckets of water to the kitchen and carrying firewood twice, Chen ignored him.

Mother, do you only have Li Shu in your eyes? My son is a man who collects water and firewood. In the past, he would be praised for doing this kind of work.

Is it that hard to get a compliment?

In order to show off his face in front of Mrs. Chen, Zhu Pingan took the firewood and sat in front of the stove to light the fire, but he still failed.

"Why are you joining in the fun? Get out quickly." Mrs. Chen saw Zhu Pingan preparing to light a fire and drove Zhu Pingan out without saying a word.

"Gentleman, you are far away from the kitchen~~ You should go and study hard." Li Shu had a linen apron hanging around her neck, holding washed vegetables in her hand, standing at the door of the kitchen and watching her mother, Mrs. Chen, drive her out. Zhu Ping'an, who was in the kitchen, squinted his big watery eyes and spoke in a long voice, full of pride.

A gentleman is far away from the kitchen? !

Seeing Li Shu's proud look, Zhu Ping'an couldn't help but shook his head and said leisurely, "You said it wrong."

"What's wrong?" Li Shu pursed her lips, "A gentleman should cook far away."

"A gentleman stays away from the kitchen. This sentence does not mean that a gentleman who does great things should stay away from the kitchen. You have misunderstood Mencius." Zhu Pingan looked at Li Shu and shook his head.

In fact, it is estimated that most people have misunderstood Mencius's sentence "a gentleman should stay away from the kitchen" like Li Shu. In fact, Mencius did not mean that a gentleman should stay away from the kitchen. The kitchen is a woman's world. This is not the case.

"Why not?" Li Shu expressed doubts about what Zhu Ping'an said. She had heard this statement for a long time, so how could it be wrong?

"This sentence of Mencius must be read in its entirety, 'A gentleman's attitude toward animals is that when he sees them alive, he cannot bear to see them die; when he hears their sounds, he cannot bear to eat their flesh. This is why a gentleman is far away from the kitchen.' When they are alive, you cannot bear to see them die; when you hear their voices, you cannot bear to eat their flesh. Therefore, a gentleman always stays away from the kitchen."

"To put it simply, the saying that a gentleman stays away from the kitchen just means that God has a good nature and a gentleman cannot bear to kill. It does not mean that a gentleman does not stay in the kitchen."

When Zhu Ping'an said these words, he kept looking at Li Shu, which seemed like nothing, but his eyes were like a teacher looking at an ignorant child, which made Li Shu's teeth itch.

"You..." Li Shu puffed up her mouth, a little stumped.

Seeing that Li Shu had suffered a loss, her mother, Mrs. Chen, stepped forward to stand up for her good daughter-in-law. She looked at Zhu Pingan funny, holding a rolling pin in her hand and asking as if she wanted to clean it up, "Mencius said Doesn’t count, does what the mother just said count?”

"Calculate"

Zhu Ping'an was immediately defeated as soon as Chen asked the question, which made Li Shu cover her mouth and laugh.

Unable to get his hands on it in the kitchen, Zhu Ping'an went back to the room, took out the two brushes his father had made, blanched them slightly with hot water, and then put one of them away. He took out a piece of rice paper and spread it on the table, grinded the ink, dipped the brush in the ink, and wrote eight words on the rice paper: Thieves comb the grate of soldiers, kill good people and take merit.

During the morning banquet with the magistrate of Huaining, the magistrate of Huaining told Zhu Pingan the recent events in court, including the memorial that Zhu Pingan presented before leaving. Zhu Ping'an didn't expect that his memorial would cause such a big commotion. It was a coincidence that it happened to coincide with two memorials to impeach Yan Song. In addition, I didn't expect that Zhao Daying of the Hundred Households who killed good people and took credit was actually promoted by Yan Song. It is said that he had already taken refuge with Yan Shifan and became a disciple of the Yan family.

Of course, even if I knew about his relationship with Yan Song at the time, I would have impeached him. If such people are delayed for one day, the people will suffer one more day. When an official does not make decisions for the people, it is better to go home and sell sweet potatoes. Therefore, Zhu Pingan did not regret it at all.

The magistrate of Huaining showed Zhu Pingan an issue of the Di newspaper at the banquet. It was urgently sent from the capital. The Di newspaper mentioned that Zhu Pingan should go to the Ministry of Punishments to file a complaint.

The magistrate of Huaining County is probably considered a neutral faction. He is neither a strict party nor an anti-strict party. He just wants to live out his term safely and not go out on business. Zhu Ping'an was from Huaining, and he won the top prize, which was an important political achievement for the magistrate of Huaining, so he still had a good impression of Zhu Ping'an.

The county magistrate of Huaining even mentioned Zhu Ping'an and suggested that Zhu Ping'an might as well get involved with Zhao Wenhua. Zhao Wenhua briefly served as the academic advisor of Nanzhili, and he happened to be in the position during Zhu Ping'an's election. After all, Zhao Wenhua also He is Zhu Ping'an's teacher. With this relationship, it is not unexpected for Zhu Ping'an to join Zhao Wenhua's relationship.

In addition, Zhao Wenhua's reputation for being greedy for money is not a hidden thing in the political circles of Southern Zhili or the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the most important point is the relationship between Zhao Wenhua and Yan Song. Yan Song is Zhao Wenhua's adoptive father. This relationship is much more solid than that of Zhao Daying. If Zhao Wenhua was willing to say a few words for Zhu Pingan in front of Yan Song, this matter would not be a big deal. No matter what, it's easy to solve.

Because of this, the magistrate of Huaining suggested Zhu Ping'an to explore Zhao Wenhua's connections.

However, Zhu Ping'an was not prepared to have a relationship. He was not afraid of shadows. He had not done anything bad, so why worry about going to the Ministry of Punishment to express his feelings. Moreover, he was well-prepared at the beginning. His impeachment of Zhao Daying was not just a moment of enthusiasm. He had also thought deeply and made preparations.

Killing good people and claiming merit is not uncommon in history, and it was most common in the late Ming Dynasty. Many made troubles to the Ministry of Punishment, and even to the imperial court. Zhu Pingan has seen many such examples in modern times and learned a lot from them on how to deal with such things.

Therefore, Zhu Ping'an is not worried about today's situation.

Does it matter? Do you like to kneel at the Ministry of Criminal Justice to appeal for grievances? Feel confident, right? Let me tell the Ministry of Criminal Affairs, right?

Hehe, we'll see.

Zhu Ping'an sat at the table and slowly went through the examples in his mind of those who killed good people and took advantage of merit, and wrote down some of the key points on the manuscript paper. Especially those cases during the Chongzhen period were somewhat different from the current situation. It is similar and has great reference significance. Zhu Pingan focused on the analysis and recorded it.

By the time dinner was ready, Zhu Ping'an had written down three pages of rice paper and was ready to go to the Ministry of Punishment to tell his story.