During the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, in Zhou Village of Huaiyang Prefecture, there was a merchant named Wang Ju. This Wang Ju's father died when he was very young, and his mother took him to remarry, and his stepfather was very cold to him.
In order to please his stepfather, his mother didn't care much about him. So he went out to work hard at the age of 14, trying to support himself by himself.
Ever since he was able to make money, this king has never returned home. Without his father, he naturally has no home of his own, and he is separated from his mother, and he is not very good to himself, and no one cares about him at all if he can't go back.
Wang Ju first learned to do small business with his fellow villagers, and put some small items to sell in the countryside. He is not afraid of hardship, and is willing to walk long distances to sell goods in remote places, so he can always earn some money to come back.
Later, he relied on frugality and used the accumulated money as the capital, bought a very small shop in Wuhu, and slowly expanded on this basis. Under the age of 30, Wang Ju already has a lot of wealth, and he is also a well-known businessman in Wuhu.
However, Wang Ju is kind-hearted after all, he still misses his mother, and always thinks that one day he can go back to his hometown to see his mother, and then marry a wife to live a stable life. It just so happened that the Chamber of Commerce introduced a person to come over and wanted to buy his shop.
Wang Ju thought about it, why don't I sell the shop and go home and have a look. If you can, stay in your hometown to serve your mother and provide for her in old age. If not, I'll have the money anyway. Where to do business is not to do business, just find a place to settle down, he talked carefully with the boy for a few days, agreed on a suitable **, and sold the shop.
With the money from the sale of the shop, Wang Ju hired a boat to prepare to return to his hometown by boat. On the day of departure, Wang Ju walked up the river embankment with a burden on his back, and saw a butcher preparing to kill a dog. The butcher tied the dog with a rope and held up a knife to kill. The dog didn't look big, whimpering, and barking miserably.
When Wang Ju passed by, he saw that the dog's eyes were particularly sad. Then there were two big dogs standing beside the butcher, and the two big dogs were lying on the ground, turning their heads away from the little dogs. Wang Ju remembered his life experience. When he was a child, his stepfather beat him, and his mother also twisted her head and didn't look at him.
He couldn't help but feel compassion and took out the money to buy the puppy. All the money Wang Ju had been exchanged for silver tickets, and he only carried some scattered copper coins. When he gave the butcher money, he turned around and took a silver ticket out of his bosom on his back, and then turned around and handed it to the butcher.
He felt that the action of taking out the money was quite secret, but he did not want to be seen by the boatman he had hired. This boatman was a habitual thief in the rivers and lakes, and as soon as he saw that Wang Ju was rich, he began to have bad intentions, and secretly observed Wang Ju's every move, and the boat walked on the water for a few days, and stopped at the Huaiyang wharf for one night.
The next day he began to walk to the village of Zhou, and when he was resting at the shore in the evening, the boatman took an opportunity to drive the boat into a field of reeds, and then drew his knife from the pile of goods, intending to kill Wang Ju and steal his money.
On the way, he was a little seasick, so he wrapped himself in a piece of felt, and lay down in the cabin, his head was dizzy, and suddenly he saw that the boatman was going to kill him, and he was frightened into a cold sweat, and his head suddenly became clear.
He knew in his heart that it was useless to beg for mercy at this time, the robber wanted money, and he was afraid that the bitter master would report to the official after he escaped, so he had to kill people. So he calmly took out all the money, and told the boatman that I hadn't seen my mother for more than ten years.
Now I can't escape death anyway, please give me a whole corpse, let me float down the river, and float back to my hometown in the river, so that my ghost can see my mother's face.
Although this boatman is ruthless, when he sees Wang Ju so filial, he also has some admiration in his heart. So he took the knife, stretched out his hand and dragged Wang Ju, and threw a piece of the felt into the river. Wang Ju wrapped himself in felt and sank to the bottom of the river, he didn't know how to water, how could he save himself?
In his heart, he was really desperate for his fate, so he didn't struggle anymore. But he also bought a dog, and as soon as the dog saw that his master had been thrown into the river, he immediately jumped down with him, and then bit the felt tightly with his mouth, and floated in the river with Wang Ju.
The place where the robber threw Wang Ju was a reed bush, and when the robber saw that Wang Ju had not struggled and had been floating in the river, he felt that he was going to die, and he didn't care, so he turned around and drove away. The dog bit the felt and floated down the water to a shoal.
It was already late at night after going ashore, and there was no one on the shore, so the dog desperately dragged Wang Ju ashore, and then barked loudly. A boatman got up in the middle of the night to pee, and when he heard the dog barking, he came to check on it, and found Wang Ju at the water's edge, and when he found out that he was still alive, he quickly rescued him on the boat.
When Wang Ju woke up, he told the boatman what had happened to him, and begged the boatman to take him back to Wuhu. He has a lot of connections in Wuhu, and he can make a comeback, and he hired a boat in Wuhu, so I think the robber will probably sail back to Wuhu.
Because of choking on water, this Wang Ju has been coughing constantly. When he was sick, the boatman saw that he was pitiful, negotiated the price with him, and agreed to send him back to Wuhu first, and then pay the boat money when he borrowed the money. After a few days, Wang Ju finally recovered a little, and was able to stand up and walk around, and he found that his dog was gone.
When he was in the water, he knew that the dog had been biting the felt, and that it was the dog that had dragged him to the shore, but then he had been so drowsy that he didn't pay attention to where the dog had gone. When I asked the boatman, he said he didn't know and didn't pay attention.
Wang Ju was very annoyed, but he couldn't help it, after returning to Wuhu, he first borrowed some money from a friend to thank the boatman, and guarded near the dock for seven or eight days, but he could not find any trace of the thief ship.
On this day, Wang Ju had a friend who wanted to go out to buy goods, and when he passed by Huaiyang, he said that he would simply take you and send you back to Zhoucun. Wang Ju followed his friend on the boat and drove all the way to Huaiyang Wharf. By stopping the boat to rest, the two went ashore to walk around and eat something.
At this time, Wang Ju suddenly saw his dog lying on his stomach by the horse's head, and he hurried to call it, and as soon as the dog heard Wang Ju's voice, he immediately ran over and howled urgently and heavily. Wang Ju wanted to hug the dog, but the dog turned his head and ran to the other side.
Wang Ju and his friends chased after the dog, and saw the dog run to another boat and bite the calf of one of the people on the boat. No matter how much the man kicked, the dog just wouldn't let go. Wang Ju ran over to see that the person who had been bitten was the robber who robbed him of his money and killed him.
It turned out that the robber had been at Huaiyang Wharf and had not returned to Wuhu, no wonder Wang Ju had waited so long. Wang Ju and his friends shouted loudly, attracting officers and soldiers patrolling nearby, and tied up the robber. The officers and men searched the ship, and not only found Wang Ju's money, but also found many other valuable things.
There are other cases, and the owners of these things have already been killed. After interrogation, the government found out the ins and outs of the matter, and returned Wang Ju's money to him.
The county magistrate knew that Wang Ju was rescued by a dog, so he specially ordered someone to make a small bronze plaque, and asked Wang Ju to hang the plaque on the dog's neck, and the bronze medal was engraved with the word righteous dog.