During the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, five kilometers south of the city of Kaifeng Province, there lived two brothers of the Shi family, the elder brother Shi Guanfu, who was a tailor, who earned a lot of silver because of his skill; he married his wife Liu Shi, who was beautiful as a flower, and had a son, named Jin Bao. The younger brother is called Shi Madu, who has been doing business in Yangzhou for many years, has wealth and appearance, and has long passed the year of weak crown, but somehow, he has not been married.
One year, the Lantern Festival, the city put on a lot of flower lanterns, lively and extraordinary. Liu Shi couldn't bear the loneliness, so he reported to his mother-in-law that he wanted to go out to be lively. The mother-in-law was not at ease, and specially sent a lady to Meixiang, and the old servant Zhang Yuangong accompanied her. Shi Jinbao was already five years old at the time, basically understood personnel affairs, and when he heard that his mother was going to the street to see the lantern festival, he also shouted to go. Liu Shi loved this only son, and was afraid that strangers would abduct Shi Jinbao, so he let Zhang Yuangong carry him on his back all the time.
After the four of them left the division compound, they went straight to the most prosperous place in the city. Only to see the street lights, traffic, not lively. Unexpectedly, when the four of them went to the outside of Aoshan Temple, a strong wind suddenly broke out in the sky, blowing down the huge treasure shelf lamp. The people who watched the bustle were deeply afraid that the lampstand would fall down and smash themselves, and one by two they would run around like birds and beasts scattered. Mei Xiang and Zhang Yuan's legs were sharp and fast, and they disappeared in the blink of an eye.
And Liu Shi rarely went out and did not recognize the road, so after running blindly on the street for a while, she actually got lost. Just when she felt helpless, a dozen servants suddenly carried flower lanterns and surrounded a man in Chinese clothes. This man was none other than Emperor Renzong's relative, King Zhao. This King Zhao was very, but whenever he saw a beautiful woman, he would try to get his hands on it. Seeing Liu Standing in front of him now, how could he let her fly away?
Therefore, King Zhao smiled badly and asked Liu Shi, "Little Lady, are you a woman of the He family?" Why are you here in the middle of the night? Liu Shi saw that King Zhao's eyes were squinting, and he did not have good intentions, so he bluffed him, "Concubine is a Tokyo native, and she came here with my husband to see the lamp, and she did not think that a strange wind blew and blew down the lamp of the Treasure Shelf." My husband may have been frightened and ran not far away, and in a moment he should come back, and the concubine is waiting for him here. ”
"Oh, that's right!" King Zhao nodded unhappily, and sent two people around to find Liu's so-called husband. Liu Shi was a little flustered, and several times he tried to choose a path to escape, but he was blocked by King Zhao. Soon, the two minions sent out to find someone came back to report that there was no one around. King Zhao took the opportunity to say to Liu Shi, "Your xianggong should have gone home, it was so late, it was not safe outside, the little lady could enter the house with me." When dawn the next day comes, I'll send someone to take you home. ”
Liu Shi had no choice but to follow King Zhao back to the Zhao mansion. King Zhao directly led Liu Shi into his bedroom, and then suddenly grabbed her hand and said, "Little Lady, you look so good!" The king has never seen such a good-looking person as you, so it is better that you be in my house from now on, and be my concubine, and I will guarantee you endless glory and wealth in the future. ”
"No, sir, the concubine already has a husband." Liu Shi desperately tried to hit the wall several times, but he didn't have the courage; most importantly, he thought that there was a young son in the family, if she died like this, what would the son do? In desperation, Liu Shi had to endure humiliation and secretly agreed.
It is said that Mei Xiang and Zhang Yuangong did not find Liu Shi on the street, so they had to take Shi Jinbao with them and return to the Shi Mansion with sorrow. When The old lady saw that Liu Shi was not returning, Shi Jinbao cried unceasingly, so she asked Mei Xiang and Zhang Yuangong why this was. The two of them covered their sleeves and sobbed, telling the truth. After hearing this, the old lady and the officer sighed, of course, the person was gone, and it was necessary to find it, so the master family spent a lot of silver and inquired about the whereabouts of Liu Shi.
Unconsciously, Liu Shi had lived in the Zhao King's Mansion for more than a month. During this month, King Zhao put Liu under house arrest like a prisoner. The purpose was simple, that is, she was afraid that she would sneak out of the Zhao family compound. Liu Shi missed her family and washed her face with tears all day, but unfortunately she was locked up in a high-walled compound, and she could only be in a hurry. One morning when she got up early in the morning, Liu Shi found that a very beautiful Chinese dress given to her by King Zhao had been bitten by a rat, so she had a clever move and said to King Zhao, "Great King, the beautiful dress you gave me was bitten by a rat last night, I want to find a tailor to repair it, can you help me find a tailor to come in and see?" ”
"It's just a piece of clothing, and if it's broken, it's broken!" The king will give you one more. King Zhao was a little dismissive. Liu Shi said, "No, this is the first gift you gave me, I must cherish it, you will find me a tailor." ”
"Hahaha, I didn't expect the little lady to like the gift I gave you so much?" Well, I'll send someone to find a tailor. King Zhao nodded happily in agreement. Liu Shi was overjoyed, she knew that she was going to see his husband! As long as I saw him, I had hope to escape from this demon cave. At that time, there were also many tailors in Kaifeng City, so why did Liu Shi conclude that King Zhao would send someone to find her man? The reason was very simple, at that time in Kaifeng, only the division officer was subject to one person who had the technology to repair the costume.
Sure enough, it wasn't long before the division officer was brought to Liu Shi. Liu Shi did not hold back, hugged the division officer and cried bitterly. Shi Guan was only then able to realize that his wife had been captured by this King of Zhao as a concubine, and immediately hugged Liu Shi and cried bitterly. The cry alarmed King Zhao, who saw that Liu Shi was actually hugging and hugging a tailor, and suddenly felt that he was wearing a green hat, so without saying a word, he drew his sabre and went forward to kill the division officer.
After killing this boy, he did not understand the hatred, and the grumpy King zhao actually sent five hundred executioners to the shi's house to kill people and vent his anger. The poor master's family of more than ten people suddenly became the ghosts under the sword. Fortunately, at the time of the incident, Shi Jinbao was hungry and clamored to eat hair cakes, so Old Lady Shi ordered Zhang Yuangong to take him out to buy hair cakes. Therefore, Zhang Yuangong and Shi Jinbao escaped this fate. After Zhang Yuangong saw that King Zhao's men had killed people, he moved away the Shi family's family wealth and set fire to the Shi family compound, and he expected that if he did not take the little master to escape, he would inevitably be doomed. So soon, he took Shi Jinbao to Yangzhou to find Shi Erlang.
It is said that the executioner returned to the Zhao king's mansion and reported what he had done to the queen of Zhao, and the king of Zhao said in his heart, "I heard that there is another shi erlang in the Shi family doing business in Yangzhou, if he is not killed, he will run to Bao Zheng to file a complaint, and the king will not still cause a commotion?" After much thought, King Zhao decided to send sun Wenyi, the overseer, to Yangzhou to extinguish his mouth.
Zhang Yuan expected that King Zhao would send people to intercept and kill his master and servant on the road, so he did not dare to take the official road and could only take a small road to Yangzhou. When he arrived outside Shi Erlang's mansion, Shi Erlang had already heard the bad news at home, so he hurriedly took the paper and went to Kaifeng Mansion to find Lord Bao to complain about his grievances. Sun Wenyi seemed to have expected that going to Yangzhou to arrest people would be empty, so he specially ordered people to wait outside Kaifeng Province, waiting for the second master to come. Shi Erlang did not notice, and before he could reach the gate of Kaifeng Province, he was beaten to death by the four famous soldiers who had already ambushed here, and then stuffed it into the sack and brought it to Sun Wenyi.
Sun Wenyi was worried about provoking the fire, so he ordered the boy to be packed into a bamboo basket, covered with yellow cabbage leaves, and then thrown into the big river outside the city to feed the fish. When these four people left the city, they met Bao Gong's team returning from outside. Bao Gong had already discovered that these four people were behaving strangely, so he asked Zhang Long and Zhao Hu to go and find out. The two stopped the four soldiers, and soon found shi Erlang's body from the basket, and took the four men down on the spot.
The four of them were also afraid of death, and they quickly confessed that sun Wenyi, the overseer, had let them do it. Bao Gong immediately ordered Zhan Zhao to capture Sun Wenyi and take him to Kaifeng Province for questioning. Sun Wenyi had the Support of King Zhao to support him, and he did not say the reason for harming Shi Erlang. Just at this time, Shi Erlang woke up, and it turned out that he had only been knocked unconscious. He met Bao Gong and knew that there was a place for the Shi family's grievances to be complained about, so he told everything about the fact that King Zhao had sent someone to destroy the Shi family and burn the Shi family compound. Of course, Shi Erlang did not know that everything was caused by the Liu clan, so he could not explain to Bao Gong some of the plots that occurred in the Zhao King's Mansion.
Bao Gong did not expect that King Zhao was so depressed and mad, so angry that he wanted Zhan Zhao to directly ask for his dog's life. However, everything must have a proof, especially the iron-faced selfless Bao Gong, in order to find evidence that King Zhao killed people and destroyed his mouth, Bao Gong tried his best and finally came up with a brilliant plan ——
On the second day, when bao gong deliberately did not go to the court, he specially wrote a letter and handed it to his wife, asking her to transfer it to Emperor Renzong. The content of the letter is that Bao Gong complained that he had an incurable disease and would be separated from the world in a few days. He was worried that after his death, no capable person would be able to hold the position of Kaifeng Fuyin, so he specially recommended the wise King Zhao to come here.
Emperor Renzong did not know that this was a trick played by Bao Gong, and after some sadness, Wu Zi actually approved Bao Gong's fold. King Zhao did not expect that Bao Gong was going to report to the prefecture, and he did not expect that he would recommend himself to be the governor of Kaifeng Province, so he took a large army to Kaifeng Province that afternoon to take up his post. Unfortunately, he was too happy too soon, and he did not expect that he would fall into Bao Gong's heavenly net. As soon as he arrived at Kaifeng Province, Zhan Zhao took him down.
At this time, King Zhao still died and did not admit guilt, and Bao Gong was not polite with him, first bringing out Sun Wenyi and other cadres of witnesses, and then using a large punishment against King Zhao. King Zhao could not bear this crime, so he had to tell the truth about the forcible occupation of the Liu clan, the killing of Shi's family, and the forcible appropriation of his family wealth. At this time, King Zhao naively thought that he was a relative of Emperor Renzong, and Bao Gong did not dare to behead him at all. Who knows, after Bao Gong waited for him to sign the painting and detained him, he directly executed the King of Zhao in the palace.
In the end, Shi Madu was acquitted, and Liu returned to shi's family to keep filial piety for her husband and mother-in-law, while raising her son to grow up. All of Zhao Wang's family members were reduced to civilians, and half of their family wealth was confiscated, and half of their family was given to the Shi family as compensation. Shi Madu gave 100 taels of gold to Zhang Yuangong to reward his loyalty to the Shi family. It is said that Emperor Renzong later learned that Bao Gong pretended to be ill and died in order to kill the lawless King of Zhao, and naturally forgave him for the old man's family.
In this case, Bao Gong had courage and strategy, was fair and honest, and was not afraid of power, and was really a qingtian grand master who was rare in a thousand years. Emperor Renzong cherished such a virtuous man as Bao Gong and did not favor selfish feelings, which was also rare and precious at that time. Zhang Yuangong's loyalty to the Savior deserves praise. Poor Shi's family actually buried their lives because of a Liu family, which was really unjust. Although this Liu Clan was a little involuntary and sympathetic, if she hadn't shouted and gone to the street to watch the liveliness, I'm afraid she wouldn't have given birth to these things in the back. There must be something hateful about the poor.
This article is based on the "Bao Gong Case"