Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 435 Borrowing Silver
"Hongji! Hongji!"

Li Hongji came back to his senses and looked up blankly.

Sitting opposite him was his good friend Wen Xinghu. They were both postmen at the Yinchuan Post Station and had a good relationship.

"Looking at the state you're in now, are you just going to sit there and wait for death? Now that this has happened, it won't help. You have to find a way to solve it!" Wen Xinghu advised Li Hongji anxiously.

Li Hongji smiled bitterly and shook his head, "How to solve it? This is no small matter. It's all my fault. If I hadn't been too drunk, this wouldn't have happened. Now the official documents are lost. If they are investigated, I will definitely not be able to be a postman. I might even have to go to jail or be exiled..."

Just yesterday, Li Hongji went to deliver an official document. This was a very common job for a postman, and it was not the first time that Li Hongji had done this kind of work. He just had to deliver the official document to the yamen within the specified time, and then have the other party sign for it and return to the post station to register.

But who could have thought that such a simple thing would go wrong? On his way to deliver official documents yesterday, Li Hongji happened to meet a fellow villager whom he hadn't seen for many days. In his joy, they went to a roadside tavern to have a drink. Li Hongji drank too much and after he finished drinking, he continued on his way, staggering on his horse. When he arrived at the place, he touched his waist and found that the bamboo tube containing documents was missing. Li Hongji was sobered up all of a sudden.

The loss of official documents is no trivial matter. As the person responsible, Li Hongji must be held accountable, and this responsibility is not small.

If the official document is an important one, the person who receives it will miss out on important things if he doesn't receive it. Even if it is an ordinary document, it is not much better. There are records of the delivery of official documents, and the source can be found out through investigation. If the matter is investigated, Li Hongji will be in trouble.

Li Hongji's family was not well off. He was poor since childhood and his family could not afford to support him. So his family sent him to a temple to become a monk. Later, he herded sheep for others. This experience was somewhat similar to that of Zhu Yuanzhang.

When he was a teenager, Li Hongji's mother died, and then his father also passed away. Li Hongji left his hometown alone and came to Yinchuan. With the help of friends, he got a job as a postman at the Yinchuan Post Station, where he worked for several years. As his work and life became stable, Li Hongji also started a family in the local area, married a beautiful woman, and lived a happy life.

If nothing unexpected happened, Li Hongji's life would probably be no different from that of other people. The job of a postman was not bad. He had no problem supporting himself and his wife. He could save some money after paying the monthly expenses. Moreover, the post station often made extra income. Although it was not much, it was not small either. After accumulating some money over a few years and buying a few acres of land, his life would naturally get better.

But who would have thought that when Li Hongji was full of hope for his future life, the official document was lost. After discovering the document was lost, Li Hongji went back to look for it, and even imagined that he could find the lost document along the way he came. However, the facts gave him a hard blow. He did not see the lost document at all, and he did not know who picked it up.

Li Hongji was distraught and had no choice. He knew very well that he could not hide the matter forever. There was a time limit for delivering official documents. If they were not delivered within a few days and no receipt was given, he would be in big trouble.

Li Hongji had already thought of the worst possible outcome. According to the law, if he was held responsible, he would lose his job and might even be sued. Just when he had started to look forward to life, something like this happened. It was hard for Li Hongji to accept it.

"You have to find a way no matter what. What will you do if you lose your job or even get sued? What about your sister-in-law at home? Although we postmen are not officials, not even clerks, it is at least a serious job!" Wen Xinghu continued to persuade Li Hongji when he saw his dejected look.

"Old Wen, how could I not know this? But what can you ask me to do now?" Li Hongji sighed and shook his head.

"Hongji, don't worry, I have a solution." Wen Xinghu thought for a while and said.

Li Hongji was stunned and asked him what he could do. Wen Xinghu told Li Hongji that it was easy to solve the problem. According to his experience, the documents delivered by the post station were generally not important documents, but ordinary documents at most.

The official document that Li Hongji lost was sent out by Yinchuan Prefecture. As the saying goes, the person who tied the bell must be found to untie it. The only way now is to ask someone to find the clerk of the yamen who originally issued the official document, and ask the other party to help rewrite the same official document, and then give it to Li Hongji after stamping it, and use this document to replace the previously lost document. In this way, the matter can be concealed.

"This...can this work?" Li Hongji asked with wide eyes.

"Why not?" Wen Xinghu lowered his voice and said, "Do you really think that the official documents were written by the master? There are so many things in this government office. Ordinary official documents are usually written by clerks or secretaries from the lower rooms, and then printed and sent out for the master. You have not been a postman for a long time, so it is natural that you don't know these things. I have been doing this for many years and have seen with my own eyes how official documents are produced."

"There is such a thing?" Li Hongji instantly perked up when he heard it. His previous dejection disappeared in an instant. He hurriedly asked how to deal with this matter and whether it could be done. As long as this matter was covered up, Wen Xinghu would be his, Li Hongji's benefactor in the future, and he would not hesitate to die even if he had to go through fire and water.

Wen Xinghu told Li Hongji that it might not be possible to find an ordinary clerk for the sake of safety, after all, they were not sure which room the document came from. To be safe, it would be best to find the master's advisor directly. As long as the master nodded and agreed, there would be no problem. But it was not so easy to get the master's agreement. As the saying goes, a horse cannot grow fat without night grass. How could the master help him with this matter if he didn't want to see the benefits? So he had to pay him money. He had to use the money to get through the links, and then it would be possible for the master to help him.

"Silver? How much?" Li Hongji asked hurriedly.

Wen Xinghu stretched out his hand to gesture, and Li Hongji immediately breathed a sigh of relief: "Ten taels? I have this!"

"Ten taels? Hongji, you're still drunk. How can you ask the master's advisor to help you with just ten taels of silver? I'm talking about a hundred taels! At least a hundred taels!"

"what!"

Li Hongji was stunned instantly. One hundred taels? Where could he get such a large sum of money?

The silver he had saved from working and being a postman in the past two years was less than forty taels. He spent twenty taels on his wedding at the end of last year, and after adding the money he gave to his wife as a dowry, he only had a dozen taels left after all the calculations.

As a postman, he only gets 12 dan of salary a year without food or drink, and the extra income is limited. One hundred taels of silver? Even if he were sold, it wouldn't be worth that much. How could he get it?
"How much can you take now?" Wen Xinghu asked.

Li Hongji calculated and said through gritted teeth: "It's only a little over ten taels. I don't know if I can get the money from my wife. You also know your sister-in-law's temper. If you want to take the money from her..."

"That's all!" Wen Xinghu interrupted Li Hongji and said, "I can lend you some to make up to 20 taels. You still need 80 taels. I'll take you to borrow some from Mr. Wen, and then you can make up to 100 taels."

"Mr. Wen, will this work?" Mr. Wen was a well-known figure in Yinchuan City. A juren was already an official. Moreover, Yinchuan was located in the northwest, and the imperial examinations were naturally not as prosperous as those in the south of the Yangtze River. It was amazing for such a place to produce a juren.

Wen Juren had a lot of assets, not only fields and land, but also many businesses. He was a wealthy man in Yinchuan. Not to mention the mere 80 taels of silver, he could even take out 800 taels or even more. But Li Hongji was just a small postman, and he had never had any friendship with Wen Juren. If he went directly to his house to ask for money, would Wen Juren be willing to lend him money?

"Don't worry about this. Don't forget that my surname is also Wen. According to seniority, Mr. Wen has to call me uncle." Wen Xinghu patted his chest and said with a smile. Li Hongji was overjoyed when he heard this. He quickly bowed to Wen Xinghu to thank him and asked when he could go to borrow the money.

Wen Xinghu did not delay and said that they should go right away without further delay. He pulled Li Hongji up and took him to Mr. Wen's residence. They arrived there after a while.

Wen Xinghu was indeed from the Wen family, and was of the same clan as Wen Juren. However, what he had just said about Wen Juren calling him his uncle was actually just a compliment. Although it was true in terms of clan seniority, Wen Juren's family was a wealthy family, and it was not something Wen Xinghu could easily compare to. However, after they had stated their identities, the Wen family servants were quite polite to them, and invited them in, and even served them tea.

After a while, they met Mr. Wen. When Mr. Wen saw Wen Xinghu, he smiled and asked him what he was doing there. Wen Xinghu did not show off. He pulled Li Hongji up, saluted Mr. Wen, and then told him the purpose of their visit.

Of course, Wen Xinghu did not say the reason for borrowing money. He just said that his brother Li Hongji's family was in urgent need of money. He and Li Hongji had a good relationship. They were both postmen at the post station and had legitimate jobs and income, so he came to ask Wen Juren for help.

After hearing this, Mr. Wen thought for a while and felt that eighty taels of silver was not a lot, and Li Hongji was a postman. Although the postman was not a high-ranking job, it was indeed a serious job. Moreover, as a local tyrant, he was also clear about the income of the postmen. Although the salary was low, the extra income was not small. It would not be a big deal to lend out the eighty taels of silver. In addition, he had Wen Xinghu, a member of the same clan, as a guarantor, so it would not be a big deal to lend him some face.

Immediately, Wen Juren readily agreed to lend the money, which made Li Hongji overjoyed. He didn't expect that the matter could be solved so easily. Next, the two wrote a promissory note, which stated the interest, etc. Wen Juren asked someone to get 80 taels of silver and gave it to Li Hongji. After Li Hongji received it, he thanked him repeatedly and then left the Wen Mansion with Wen Xinghu.

After borrowing the silver, the two of them gathered the remaining twenty taels and then used their connections to contact the master's legal advisor. After finally meeting the legal advisor, the legal advisor listened to the other party's request and saw the silver the other party had taken out and readily agreed.

After receiving the money and doing the work, the lawyer re-issued a document and gave it to Li Hongji. When the document reached Li Hongji's hands, the stone in Li Hongji's heart finally fell. The matter was finally covered up. Once the document was delivered and he got the receipt, he would consider his task completed.

(End of this chapter)