<!¡ª¡ª> ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ Hu Xiao doesn¡¯t trust these ¡°low status¡± people who were once the descendants of officials. ¡°I don¡¯t believe in their abilities, nor do I believe in their position. Therefore, after returning to Huo Zhengyuan's temporary residence, Hu Xiao did not show up directly. Instead, he hid in a corner and watched Huo Zhengyuan's wonderful performance with cold eyes. " Huo Zhengyuan's expression was full of compassion. After hearing the excited shouts of the "low-class" people, he kept shaking his head and sighing, as if he was feeling sad. Then, Huo Zhengyuan stepped forward and personally helped up a young man with facial injuries and an embarrassing appearance. After taking a closer look, he asked: "You are Tang Cheng, the grandson of Tang Zhen, the former Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing, right? Your grandfather and I were friends in the same ranking. He was the fourth in the second class, and I was the second in the first class. Such a close friendship Alas! Old Tang was a loyal ally of the crown prince, Grand Master Wang Baoren. It is such a pity that you were betrayed ruthlessly by Wang Baoren in the end and your family was ruined! And how innocent it is that a promising official like you has now become a humble servant!" Then, Huo Zhengyuan helped him again! He picked up the other young man next to Tang Cheng. After taking a closer look, he nodded slowly and said: "You are Ding Wenbo, the youngest son of Ding Qingming, the former minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Justice. I remember you too! Ding Shilang and I were both in the Imperial Academy. When I was working in the hospital, I was often taken care of by him I remember that nineteen years ago, I attended your birthday party and hugged you personally! " "And you, Meng Haoxuan, right I heard that you are a former Nanjing inspector? Nephew of Yuan Yushi Meng, although I have never met you before, when I was an official in Hubei with Yushi Meng, we hit it off and talked very happily with him, and regarded him as a confidant in life" Next, Huo Zhengyuan identified the origins of the young men and women in front of him one by one. Huo Zhengyuan is extremely talented. He was already on the gold medal list in his early twenties. Although he is not yet old enough to know his destiny, he has been in the official career for nearly thirty years. In addition, he has a worldly and smooth personality, and he will never compete with others. People are enemies from the front, so they are considered popular. " In this way, most of the prominent figures in the temple have had friendship with Huo Zhengyuan. Even if there is no alliance of interests or deep friendship, they have met and drank with Huo Zhengyuan. The young men and women he summoned at this time were all descendants of some important figures in the Nanjing officialdom not long ago, so Huo Zhengyuan quickly developed a half-hearted relationship with them, and suddenly became their family friends and elders. , quickly shortened the relationship, and also gave these young men and women who had been reduced to low status for a short time a lot of trust in Huo Zhengyuan. In this way, after lifting everyone up with his own hands, Huo Zhengyuan shook his head and sighed: "Look at you, you were all young ladies from high families in the past, and you were all my old friends, but now you have all been reduced to low status. It's really shocking. I can't bear it Well, speaking of it, you are also unlucky. Let me tell you the truth in private Your father and grandfather did not make any big mistakes, but they just happened to catch up with the central government's efforts to clean up Nanjing's officialdom. , so trivial things in daily life must be dealt with severely and punished severely. In the past, the most common crime was dismissal from office, but you have suffered the disaster of confiscating your home, derogating, and seizing your citizenship. Ever since I heard about your miserable situation, I have always wanted to do it! I will help you to get rid of your lowly status, but our government has strict laws and regulations. It is not easy to change your status and change your household registration. You must find a good reason And now, the emperor has paid off and finally allowed me to find a way to change my household registration. This is an excellent opportunity! As long as you seize this opportunity properly, let alone get rid of your humble status, it is not impossible to regain your former status!" Hearing what Huo Zhengyuan said, dozens of young men and women became even more excited! They were very emotional and expressed their firm attitude without any hesitation. Among these young men and women, the first was Tang Zhen, the grandson of Tang Zhen, the former Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing. He was also the first to shout at this time. He glared and gritted his teeth and shouted in a low voice: "Master Huo, is there anything we need to do?" , Just give your orders! As you said, we will not hesitate even if we risk our lives!" As Tang Cheng finished speaking, many lowly people behind him nodded excitedly and echoed loudly. ??Obviously, Tang Cheng is a smart man. He neither inquired in detail about the reasons for the matter, nor sought any commitment, nor took the opportunity to bargain. He just asked Huo Zhengyuan to directly hand over the task. Because Tang Cheng knew very well that they were no longer the noble sons of officials who were favored by everyone, but were ordinary people with low status who could be despised by everyone. Huo Zhengyuan was their only hope to escape from the low status. , they had no room for bargaining in front of Huo Zhengyuan, so the only thing they could do was to try their best to please Huo Zhengyuan, hoping that??Zhengyuan will keep its promise in the future. Hearing Tang Cheng's statement, Huo Zhengyuan nodded with satisfaction and looked at Tang Cheng carefully again. Since Tang Zhen was dismissed from office and his house was confiscated, Tang Chengcheng was reduced to a lowly status and became a "servant" in Nanjing, that is, a shared slave of Nanjing officials. If an official is temporarily short of servants at home, he can borrow them from the Nanjing Rites Yamen The servants in the next life will serve for a few days, so after Tang Cheng became a servant in the world, he was naturally in a very bad situation. Before being reduced to a lowly status, Tang Chengcheng was a pure playboy. Relying on the power of his grandfather Tang Zhen, he was always domineering and had a shallow and ignorant personality. He offended many people, but those people were afraid of Tang Cheng's family background. In the past, I dared not speak out when I was angry, but I wanted to stay with a smiling face. Under such circumstances, after Tang Cheng became a humble servant, one can imagine how miserable his situation was. His former enemies took the opportunity to retaliate, add insult to injury, and retaliate against him a hundred times a thousand times. If it weren't for Tang Cheng There were also several beautiful sisters who became geishas and dancers and then used their bodies to please some Nanjing officials and asked these Nanjing officials for occasional protection. Perhaps Tang Cheng had been tortured to death by his former enemies. But even so, Tang Cheng's situation is still extremely bad. He is only in his early twenties this year, and it has only been half a year since he was reduced to a lowly status. However, he is already stooped and skinny, his face is pale and shriveled, and the purple scar at the corner of his mouth is extremely eye-catching. , obviously he was severely beaten again not long ago, and he can no longer find the glory and pride he once had. However, there are also advantages to such a bad situation, that is, Tang Cheng's playboy character has completely changed. Not only has he not completely collapsed, but he has become more tenacious, tolerant, and more extreme and sinister. Huo Zhengyuan could clearly feel that when Tang Cheng stood in front of him, although he looked humble and cautious on the surface, there was some fierce emotion deep in his eyes, which seemed to be hatred, resentment, and ambition. , is constantly brewing and stirring, which is faintly frightening. After realizing this, Huo Zhengyuan nodded lightly and secretly thought in his heart: "No wonder Tang Cheng, at such a young age, can become the leader of this group of lowly people! I originally thought that he could He became the leader just because his beautiful sisters were willing to be humble and please some officials in charge, allowing him to be secretly protected. But now it seems that the more important reason is because Tang Cheng is unwilling to accept his fate than the others! People's hearts are as hopeless and self-defeating, but this Tang Cheng feels like he has made a great breakthrough! It's just the resentment he vaguely reveals makes people a little uneasy" While thinking in this way, Huo Zhengyuan remained calm on the surface. He just patted Tang Cheng on the shoulder and said, "I was conducting a private visit in Nanjing incognito during this period, but I accidentally discovered a shocking incident! There was a ruthless gangster named Jiang Xiao, he should have been convicted and beheaded by the court many years ago, but for some reason he is still alive in the world. Now he is operating secretly in Nanjing. It seems that he has become a dead soldier secretly cultivated by a senior court official. So, I want to make a plan now! Capture this gangster, and then you can follow the clues to find out who is secretly raising dead soldiers, and what is his intention in secretly raising dead soldiers! Since you are all officials, you will naturally understand the seriousness of such a crime. ! I still don¡¯t know who is secretly raising dead soldiers. In order to avoid alerting others, I don¡¯t dare to use any government power at will, and I can¡¯t even recruit people publicly, so I thought of you all as low-ranking people! People are willing to look up to you, and if you come forward to deal with those dead soldiers, they will not arouse the other party's vigilance. After the incident is completed, I will also ask the court for your merits, so that you can get rewards and completely break away from your humble status!" "Listen! After Huo Zhengyuan's explanation, Tang Cheng and others were shocked. But at the same time, they are increasingly excited and eager to try. Just as Huo Zhengyuan said, they all come from official families. They all understand the seriousness of the crime of secretly harboring death row prisoners and secretly raising dead soldiers. They also fully understand the high risks of such a task. But because of this, as long as they In the end, they completed the task assigned by Huo Zhengyuan and found out the truth. The court would certainly not hesitate to reward them, and there was every chance that they would be freed from their lowly status and return to their normal status as common people. These people used to be pampered young ladies. In the past six months or so, they have been humiliated and tortured by being in a lowly status. They are like living in hell on earth. Therefore, as long as they have the opportunity to escape from the lowly status, they are willing to take any risks. , pay any price! Thinking of this, Tang Cheng was still the first to express his position. After taking a deep breath, he nodded firmly and emphasized again: "Whatever you want, Bachelor Huo, just do it! We people have lost everything." , there is only one stupid life left, and from now on this stupid lifeYour life is at your disposal! " Huo Zhengyuan nodded and asked: "I summoned you to meet today on the grounds of hosting a banquet to entertain guests. However, in order to prevent alerting all parties, I only summoned more than twenty of you, and there was no I want to inquire about your specific situation in detail, so now I want to know, if you fully mobilize, how many people can you mobilize at most? " Tang Cheng thought carefully, then discussed a few words in a low voice with Ding Wenbo and Meng Haoxuan beside him, and finally replied: "In the past year, Nanjing officialdom has been repeatedly purged by the court. More than 30 court officials have been involved. Being convicted of a serious crime, our relatives of the guilty subjects were also implicated and reduced to low status one after another. There are more than 700 people in total! Among them, there were about 200 young and middle-aged men. However, after this period of humiliation and torture, many of them were tortured to death or died of illness and exhaustion. Many others chose to commit suicide because they could not bear the humiliation, but only There are only 70 people left alive, so although we have been hugging each other for warmth because of similar situations, and we are barely united, we can only gather 150 people at most, and these 150 people Although everyone is willing to sacrifice their lives for you, among them, only forty or fifty people are left who have practiced martial arts. " After hearing this, Huo Zhengyuan couldn't help but look disappointed and murmured: "According to my estimate, the number of the opponent's death warrior organization is about two hundred, and they are all skilled in martial arts and well-trained. They can be said to be powerful, so just With this small number of manpower, even if everyone dares to fight hard, I am afraid that they are no match at all" As he murmured to himself, Huo Zhengyuan felt a little regretful, thinking that his plan was taken for granted, and the effect of these cheap tricks was far less than expected. It was simply not enough to compete with the dead soldiers organization under the command of the Seventh Prince Zhu Hejian. Seeing the change in Huo Zhengyuan's expression, Tang Cheng panicked, fearing that he would miss this opportunity to reverse his fate, and immediately started thinking about countermeasures. After more than half a year of various trainings, he has indeed gained a lot of insight and wisdom. Therefore, after thinking for a moment, Tang Cheng suddenly suggested: "Master Huo, if you want to recruit a group of people to work hard, you will not be able to do it." If you don¡¯t want to alert others, it doesn¡¯t have to be limited to people like us! There are about 10,000 untouchables in Nanjing. Those of us are from wealthy families and have been reduced to untouchable status for a short time. We have not yet completely accepted our fate and are willing to risk our lives to escape from untouchable status. Presumably, this is also the case for University Scholar Huo This is why you are willing to reuse us, but the rest of the bastards may not all be numb and resigned! Take the nine-surname fishermen as an example. They are all descendants of Chen Youliang and his supporters. After the Holy Ancestor took over the country, he demoted them to low-class fishermen, allowing them to make a living fishing for generations and levying heavy taxes on them. , and are never allowed to go ashore, they can only settle down and live on fishing boats. They are not allowed to marry good people, nor can they take part in the imperial examinations. Such a fate is certainly tragic, but among the various low-income families, fishermen with nine surnames cannot go ashore. They suffer relatively little humiliation. They can survive as long as they hide in fishing boats, so they also have the strength and courage to work hard, and they are all good at using harpoons and fishing nets There are also craftsmen in Nanjing City, although they are not in humble status. Among them, but they are also in a bad situation, because craftsmen and lowly people are generally not allowed to leave their citizenship for generations. They can only build various utensils for the court day and night but cannot receive compensation. Therefore, as long as they find opportunities to leave their craftsmanship, they dare to Work hard, especially those who are blacksmiths. All of them are not short of brute force, good at using hammers, and can also provide us with some weapons" After hearing Tang Cheng's suggestion, Ding beside him Wenbo's eyes lit up and he drew inferences: "There are also those Nanjing military households who have actually become serfs and servants of the Nanjing generals. They also have resentments. If Academician Huo is willing to promise to help them get rid of their status as military households, , this junior is also sure to encourage some military households to serve you! " Then, Meng Haoxuan on the other side said: "I hope that Academician Huo knows that because my father was quite popular when he was an official, there are several powerful officials in Nanjing who are my father's predecessors. After becoming a humble family, these old friends immediately lost contact with the younger generation's family. However, as long as Academician Huo can provide the younger generation with some money, the younger generation is still sure to persuade them to act secretly. Even if it cannot drive them to work hard, it can still provide information and convenience. ¡¡± ¡°In this way, as Tang Cheng, Ding Wenbo, and Meng Haoxuan expressed their opinions one after another, the young men and women from lowly backgrounds behind them also acted actively, put forward suggestions one after another, and tried their best to play their respective roles, for fear of being Huo Zhengyuan will think they are useless. "Yes! right! The junior also has several family friends in Nanjing. Although the contact has been completely cut off now, as long as the name of Bachelor Huo can be used, coupled with the junior's contact and persuasion, they can still be secretly driven to serve! " "I also hope that Master Huo will be successful."?, before the boy was reduced to a lowly status, he often drank and had fun with several arresters from the Nanjing government. Those people were all snobs. Since the juniors were reduced to a lowly status, they have made trouble one after another, but they also all They are the kind of people who see money. With only a few dozen taels of silver, the boy is sure to bribe them" "One of the hundreds of Nanjing defenders is a distant relative of the younger generation's family. Although the younger generation's family has been reduced to After becoming a lowly citizen, he has been avoiding the younger generation's family, but as long as he has the support of Academician Huo, the younger generation will have full confidence in persuading him to cooperate" After hearing the suggestions from these people, Huo Zhengyuan was stunned at first, and then He fell into deep thought again. Huo Zhengyuan suddenly realized that he seemed to have underestimated the role of these lowly people. Although these people were all lowly people now, they were all young ladies from official families not long ago. Therefore, as long as they were given. If they have certain resources, they can regain their family's previous connections. The so-called "connections" are essentially a mutually beneficial relationship that needs to be maintained with strength. When you have a certain amount of strength, you can send various gifts to the other party. When you are down and lose your strength, you will no longer have any benefits to give to the other person, and the other party will give it to you. After all, you will only lose money, and your former "connections" will be far away from you. However, when you regain a certain strength, you can easily regain your "connections". But the current situation. Next, as long as Huo Zhengyuan is willing to provide a certain degree of support to these lowly people in front of them and allow them to restore their previous connections with their families to a certain extent, they can obviously play a greater role! At the same time, using the lowly status of these people can also play a greater role! Being able to summon and encourage some craftsmen, military households, and fishermen with nine surnames to join their plan without attracting attention is undoubtedly a clever move. Relatively speaking, it is just to get these lowly people to work with Zhu Hejian's subordinates. The dead man was fighting in the wrong place, and was overqualifying himself. And while Huo Zhengyuan was thoughtful, Zhao Mansion's aide Guo Min, who was standing not far away and watching this scene, couldn't help but look faint. Change.?¡?¡?¡?<!¡ª¡ª>