The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 716

In reality, the Wei family didn't need Wang Zhi to lift a finger.

The prefect of Huizhou came to greet Wang Zhi and wash away the dust of his journey. He was naturally aware of the past grievances between the Wang and Wei families, and he also knew why Wang Zhi and his son had left their hometown.

After Wang Zhi took his leave from the official post station and the prefect of Huizhou, the prefect of Huizhou turned his attention to the magistrate of Shexian County.

"Lord Chen, you must be aware of the feud between the Wei family and Lord Wang. Lord Wang has made great contributions by guarding Japan for the Ming Dynasty. We cannot let Lord Wang feel disheartened."

The Huizhou prefect's words were a warning to the Shexian magistrate. The Huizhou prefect, and most of the officials present, knew very well that a merchant like Wei Zhengxian, if not the top one in Shexian, was certainly among the top ten.

Shexian is a small place, and there are very few families with assets exceeding 100,000 taels of silver. For someone like Wei Zhengxian to earn so much money in Shexian, he must have paid a lot of tribute to the county magistrate.

The officials present were well aware of this.

However, in officialdom, there are priorities in many matters. You can take the money, but you can't afford to offend a high-ranking official like Wang Zhi for the sake of a businessman, especially since such an official is highly valued by the emperor.

Although Wang Zhi had no official influence over them, whether or not they dealt with the Wei family wouldn't have much of an impact.

But all of this was based on the premise that Jiajing did not give any special instructions.

The current situation is that Jiajing issued a special decree for Wang Zhi, which made the prefect of Huizhou and others realize that if they want their careers to go smoothly in the future, they must handle the affairs of this Lord Wang well.

Otherwise, I'm afraid I'll have no hope of promotion.

After all, there are so many officials in the court, and countless officials may spend their entire lives working in the provinces. Many officials are even forgotten by the bigwigs in the court, or never even come into the emperor's sight.

Now that they've finally caught Jiajing's eye because of Wang Zhi, it would be incredibly foolish of them not to seize this opportunity to make a good impression.

Especially the prefect of Huizhou, who had been the prefect of Huizhou for several years and had always wanted to be promoted, but he had no backing to move up any further. How easy would it be to move up any further?

Now that he finally had the opportunity to come into the emperor's sight, the prefect of Huizhou was determined not to allow anyone to ruin his plans, which is why he specifically warned the magistrate of Shexian County.

Unlike many county magistrates and prefects, there were too many county magistrates in the Ming Dynasty. Many of them simply started to slack off, focusing on making money whenever possible, and had given up hope of promotion.

The magistrate of Shexian County understood perfectly what he meant when he heard this.

"Rest assured, sir, I will take men to the Wei family to arrest them. Wei Zhengxian is a bully who preys on men and women, and the eldest son of the Wei family is no better. He accidentally killed someone a few years ago. At that time, I did not give them a heavy sentence because of the need to maintain stability in Shexian County. As long as the family brings up the old matter again, the case can be retried."

The county magistrate spoke to the prefect in a low voice.

This was the end of the story, and it could be considered the Shexian magistrate's pledge of allegiance to the Huizhou prefect. It was essentially telling the prefect that the Wei family had many problems and that there was every reason to arrest them, but they had already settled things with money. As for who they had settled things with money, that was obvious.

The county magistrate, upon hearing the prefect's order, was willing to expose his own wounds in order to cooperate with the prefect. How could the prefect not consider him one of his own? Once the prefect is promoted in the future, he will surely promote the county magistrate of Shexian County as well.

This is political wisdom.

Upon hearing this, the prefect nodded noncommittally.

Seeing the prefect nod, the magistrate felt reassured and immediately led his yamen runners straight to the Wei family's residence.

Upon receiving the news, Wei Shu'er rushed home.