However, Shen Mo didn't have time to spend time on him for a small person like this. As soon as Liu Kongmu came in, Shen Mo asked him if there were any people in Tongzhou who needed to visit him.

After hearing Shen Mo's question, Liu Kongmu immediately bowed respectfully and replied:

"The terrain under our Tongzhou government is narrow and only two counties, but there are no great scholars or other figures. There is only one old man Zhao Ge, a court official who has been retiring for many years. If Shen Zhizhou is free, he will visit him to avoid losing his etiquette."

After hearing his words, Shen Mo nodded immediately. He asked him about the residence and situation of the old man Zhao, and waved his hand to let him go down.

Shen Mo asked this question just now very appropriately. In fact, the first thing that the new local officials in the Song Dynasty did when they took office was to go to visit the local wealthy families immediately.

If there are any Confucian scholars under your own rule, high-ranking officials who retired, or if the local officials don’t go to visit after a few days of taking office, that would be rude.

In fact, it is not just a matter of etiquette, but people like these are often people with many disciples and people who hold the folk praise of local officials.

Moreover, the children and students of those senior officials who retired and returned home are still very powerful in the court. To be honest, people like this are often people who cannot afford to be offended by a local official.

Even in the Dream of Red Mansions, Jia Yucun, the first thing he did when he took office was to study it carefully to avoid invading the local wealthy families. It can be seen that for a thousand years, the way of becoming an official has never changed.

...

According to Confucius, the retired and retired Mr. Zhao is 87 years old this year. He has been retiring and returning home for 12 years.

The old man's name is Zhao Shanxuan, who once served as the prefect of Lin'an. Later, he retired as a cabinet minister. This old disciple of Zhao Ge Lao was spread all over the world, so he had a high prestige in the local area.

So after Shen Mo rested for a night, he took two entourages to visit Mr. Zhao early the next morning.

This time he went there, he also brought some gifts with him, nothing more than the four treasures of study such as Hubi. It is now the first time we met. When both sides didn't know each other, these things were also very appropriate gifts.

Shen Mo was wearing casual clothes and did not ride in the prefect's sedan chair. Instead, he walked along the streets of Tongzhou and walked towards Zhaoge's hometown.

After arriving at the Ge Lao's house, Shen Mo realized that the Zhao Mansion's house was extremely luxurious!

There was a huge screen wall at the door, almost three meters long. Shen Mo knew when he looked at the patterns on it. This was the decent gift given by the royal family when Zhao Ge Lao retired.

In ancient times, all the standards of homes were under strict control of the ranks, and no one dared to surpass them.

There are many door nails, one more animal on the eaves, one less animal on the eaves, and even the length, width, height and length of the screen wall, and the standard of stone lions at the door, all have certain rules. If it is a little bit different, it is the crime of usurpation.

After Shen Mo explained his purpose to the door, the servant who was guarding the door asked him to sit on a bench in the aisle inside the door. Then the servant went into the mansion to report back.

To be honest, if ordinary squire heard that the Zhizhou Lord came, the middle door must have been wide open and he would have come out with a pissing out.

But it seems that the servant of Mr. Zhao's house was not very surprised by his visit to the state official. Instead, he casually let him sit on the bench and wait in the aisle.

You can know from this little thing. Even the servants of this family know that a magistrate is nothing to them.

Shen Mo did not have any official airs, so he sat calmly in the shade, waiting for the servants inside to come in to report the news.

Shen Mo guessed that the time had passed for a long time and the servant had not seen it yet. He thought to himself: "Looking at this, this mansion has at least seven places to enter the yard so deep!"

If it is a seven-entry yard, it will be about the length of two football fields. It will take a long time to go back and forth in the back house.

Just as Shen Mo thought of this, he heard footsteps in the house, and a man who looked like a steward came out with his servants.

Shen Mo didn't get up, but sat there and looked up at the manager.

I saw that the man's head was almost bald, with only a few strands of hair falling from the top of his head, and a bun the size of a pinball was combed.

The man had two drooping eyebrows on his face, a pair of bitch eyes, a pointed chin, and a full face full of pleats. He was wearing a long brown silk dress with a ball of patterns that were less than ten thousand words on it - this dress looked very much like a shroud.

After the manager came up, he stood two or three feet away in front of Shen Mo. Then he saw him smiling and said to Shen Mo without a smile: "The Master of the Pavilion has not been lying high this morning, probably because he is not feeling hesitant. Should the magistrate wait or another day?"

The manager in front of Shen Mo was really knowledgeable about what he said just now.

If a young man like Shen Mo is a little state official, and this cabinet master can follow his wishes if he doesn't see him. But this manager asked Shen Mo to choose whether to wait here or come back another day? What does this mean?

Judging from the words of the manager, Mr. Zhao from their mansion had not gotten up yet when he went to bed this morning. The manager did not even report to Mr. Zhao, the new state official, to Shen Mo, to visit him, but asked him directly if he wanted to wait!

In other words, this guy just wanted to see if Shen Mo had the patience and scheming and his attitude was submissive enough!

The most important thing is that this sentence was actually said by a manager of the Zhao family!

From this we can imagine how powerful this Mr. Zhao is. How arrogant his whole family is!

...

However, at this time, Shen Mo stood up and glanced at the manager lightly.

When the bitch-eyed manager walked up to him and before he could speak, Shen Mo saw something in him.

It was a waist card carved with bamboo roots, grinding to the point of being smooth. On it, the two words "Zhao Mansion" are engraved exactly!
Chapter completed!