prosperous age

Chapter 246 Chapter 245

Today is the fifteenth, a holiday.

Wei Guangde slumped on the armchair in the lobby after waking up early in the morning. He drank a lot in the past two days, and now he feels dizzy.

There was a cup of strong tea next to him, Wei Guangde's tea drinking has changed in the past two days, he put more tea leaves, the light tea he used to drink before is tasteless now.

Although the quality of vegetables and meat is guaranteed this year, absolutely green and pollution-free, but the taste is not satisfactory.

Although Wei Guangde has been in the Ming Dynasty for many years, he really has nothing to do with the condiments of this era.

These days, in addition to salt, the condiments used in cooking are plums and wine. In addition, people use fish and meat to make seasoning sauce. Onion, Polygonum, mustard and other spices.

For Wei Guangde, the taste was relatively strong in the past, but now there are no condiments such as chili and monosodium glutamate, which is quite uncomfortable.

But there is no way, he has never seen the chili pepper, and he has compared it with others, but no one has seen it.

In this regard, Wei Guangde concluded that this thing is probably still overseas, and has not been introduced in China.

I vaguely remember that many plants in China are imported from overseas, but they did not exist in China since ancient times.

As for the monosodium glutamate, forget it, I only heard that it is chemically synthesized, and he has no impression of how to make it.

In fact, for many people, seeing that shiny thing looks like a chemical product. In fact, it is a brewing product like soy sauce and vinegar, which can increase people's appetite and improve the body's absorption of various other foods. It has a certain nourishing effect on the human body.

As far as his eating habits are concerned, it seems that only tea has not changed, and it still tastes the same.

"Master, Master."

At this time, Zhang Ji ran in from outside the house.

When outside, Zhang Ji always called Wei Guangde Master, and only when he entered the house did he call him Young Master.

"what's up?"

Wei Guangde may have drunk too much these two days, and his energy is not very good, so he asked casually.

"Master sent a letter and sent Zhao Hu and the others over to protect you and look after the nursing home for you."

When Zhang Ji entered the room and saw Wei Guangde, he said hastily.

"Are they coming?"

After Wei Guangde was slightly surprised, he understood that Li San was alone before, but now that he bought a house in the capital, he sent a few servants to take care of it.

"How did they find it here?"

But immediately, Wei Guangde said to Zhang Ji with a question mark on his face.

Hearing Zhang Ji talking about Zhao Hu and the others, Wei Guangde probably guessed who they were. They must be the guards he sent to him during the last time the Japanese pirates were suppressed.

However, there are few people going out these days, how did these people find them, can they come here if they ask for directions?

"They went to the Jiujiang Guild Hall first, and the owner of the Guild Hall sent a servant to bring them here."

Zhang Ji answered hastily.

"Give the boy a reward and let them come in."

At this time, Wei Guangde hadn't gone to Zhang Luo to buy servants. The banquet was held two days ago by a chef hired from a nearby restaurant at a high price. He even hired two waiters temporarily.

With the arrival of Zhao Hu and the others, six or seven people lived in Wei Guangde's yard, all gentlemen.

It turned out that Wei Guangde, the old man who came to see the house, sent the money away, and only a group of people from Bengshanbao were left at home, so he felt relieved.

Dad arranged the guards, but this time no one was found to take care of Wei Guangde's food and daily life, and Zhang Ji alone would not be enough. Later, he would go to the dental shop to buy some people to come back, boil water, cook and clean up. Men are not that material.

They received Zhao Hu and others, and asked Zhang Ji to take them down to settle down. There are many empty houses in the front yard, so they can go to the street to buy what they need.

Sitting alone in the lobby, Wei Guangde looked at the letter that his father told them to bring, and looked at the content. This should have been arranged for someone to come to Beijing after reading the Tang newspaper. The letter he wrote should still be on the way, and they haven't received it.

Collect letters carefully, unlike later generations, the value of a family letter in this year is beyond the comprehension of future generations.

In the era when Wei Guangde came through, mobile phones and the Internet were already popular. Even if you want to see relatives who are thousands of miles away, it is really easy to be honest. Whether it is a call or a video, you only need to move your fingers.

But here, the letter is the thing to put all the missing. If you are homesick, you can look through the saved letters to ease the feeling of homesickness.

Therefore, he carefully collected and stored every letter he received from home, not daring to be sloppy.

Regarding the longing for his family in his previous life, Wei Guangde can only entrust his longing to his family in this life, there is really nothing he can do.

Getting up, Wei Guangde returned to his bedroom with the family letter, opened a box next to the bed, and took out one of the small boxes. The two letters inside were neatly placed inside.

Seeing people from his hometown this year, Wei Guangde's homesickness burst out. He didn't put the letter in his hand, but took out the other letters in it, sat aside, opened them one by one, and read them again.

After reading the letter, Wei Guangde put away the letter again, and carefully put the letter back into the box, but the moment he closed the lid of the box, his hand stopped.

Thinking of what was said at the end of the previous letter, Wei Guangde wondered, after such a long time, his father has no famous words about which girl he arranged for him.

Smacking his lips, he closed the lid and put it back in the box.

Time passed day by day, and it was more than a month later.

During this period of time, Wei Guangde took the time to go to the dental shop near Nanxunfang to buy two cooks and two maids, and two servants to take care of the sweeping. Now his Wei Mansion looks a little decent.

Unexpectedly, Wei Guangde received another letter from Jiujiang.

After receiving a letter from his family last time, Wei Guangde felt that he had nothing to say for the time being. The letter he sent before had already said everything he wanted to say.

It was normal for the family to reply to the letter, but this time the letter was not sent by a businessman traveling between the capital and Jiujiang, but a small captain of his father's family team, and with him was a young man dressed as a scholar whom Wei Guangde didn't know.

After seeing the ceremony, the servant handed Wei Meng's letter to Wei Guangde, and introduced the person behind him to Wei Guangde.

"Young master, this is Xu Huai, the eldest son's long follower of Duke Wei's mansion in Nanjing. He came to the capital this time mainly to get acquainted."

"Xu Huai, the villain, has met Mr. Wei."

The person dressed as a scholar also saluted Wei Guangde at this time.

"You don't have to be polite, please sit down."

Wei Guangde quickly stopped him from saluting, and pointed to the empty seat beside him.

Naturally, the servant of his own family didn't need to arrange for him to sit down, but the person who came with him was from Wei Guogong's mansion, which represented Wei Guogong, and this face must be given.

He is only a seventh-rank sesame official, in front of Wei Guogong, a hereditary and super-rank man, he is actually nothing.

"I don't know Xu"

Wei Guangde was a bit stuck just now when he said this, and he didn't know how to address the other party for a while.

Let's talk about the son, the other party is just a long-term follower of Wei Guogong's mansion, not even a steward.

"Master Wei, just call me Xu Huai."

At this time, Xu Huai interjected cleverly to ease Wei Guangde's short-term embarrassment.

"I don't know if you came here this time, did the lord have any orders?"

Wei Guangde still knew about the connection between the Zhang family of Jiujiangwei and Duke Wei's mansion in Nanjing, and subconsciously thought that the other party might know that he was an official in the Imperial Academy in the capital, and he was free anyway, so he wanted to find something for himself.

Wei Guangde really doesn't have the courage to refuse Wei Guogong's order, as long as it is not outrageous.

After all, in my own home, I still have to rely on others to take care of me.

Hereditary military positions, it sounds nice to say, there are more people with hereditary official positions, and how many people can get real jobs.

There is no one on it, so you can only stare at the side, watching others eat up the oil and water.

"Master Wei will know the details after reading Mr. Wei's family letter."

That Xu Huai said quickly.

Wei Guangde frowned slightly when he heard the words, glanced at the servant standing aside, picked up the family letter on the table without saying a word, carefully tore open the seal and took out the letter paper to read.

Soon, Wei Guangde was slightly surprised.

When I returned to Jiujiang after the provincial examination, I heard about this eldest son of the Xu family. I knew that he had been to Jiujiang Mansion, met his father, and drank the celebration wine he passed the examination at home. The marriage mentioned in my father's last letter was actually a girl from the Xu family.

It landed on Wei Guogong's mansion, saying that the girl seemed wrong, it should be a daughter.

The letter contains a lot of content, and the amount of information is a bit large. It details the ins and outs of Xu Bangrui and Wei Meng's marriage between the two families, and even mentioned some time points.

Obviously, Dad had already thought of a lot when he wrote this letter, so the content of the letter was extremely detailed.

Wei Guangde ignored Xu Huai, but looked at the letter paper and began to deliberate in his heart.

The whole process of getting married seemed to be agreed upon after he took the test, but after the results of the palace test came out, there seemed to be a little change in Wei Guogong's mansion. Although it didn't affect much in the end, it was enough to make Wei Guangde realize a lot of things.

There may be other things that have not been revealed in Wei Guogong's mansion, and the old man doesn't know, or he guessed it but it's hard to say.

And now the members of the Xu family are sitting below, are they here to uncover the mystery for themselves or what?
Wei Guangde was not sure for a while, he hesitated.

Sure enough, the letter later introduced the information about Xu Jianglan, the daughter of the Xu family who was engaged to him, and he was Xu Bangrui's younger sister.

Xu Bangrui.

Wei Guangde kept this name in his heart, knowing the affairs of Wei Guogong's mansion, he probably has something to do with Xu Bangrui.

Judging from the content at the beginning of the letter, he seems to be the promoter of this matter, and he shouldn't be held back.

I really think there is only one, that is, someone from the Xu family threatened Xu Bangrui, and that person seemed to be opposing his marriage with Xu Jianglan.

Wei Guangde blinked, a little confused, he could only sigh secretly that intrigue among these big families might be very common, unlike their small families, there is nothing to argue about.

"Xu Huai, believe me, I have read it, I don't know who your master is"

Although Wei Guangde concluded that Xu Huai should belong to Xu Bangrui, that is, his future uncle's subordinate, he still had to pretend to be puzzled and ask a question.

"The villain has been with the eldest son since he was a child. Speaking of which, he is not an outsider with Mr. Wei. My son is Xu Bangrui."

Then Xu Huai quickly told the story of Duke Wei's mansion.

Sure enough, it was the two brothers who were fighting openly and secretly for the inheritance of the title.

However, what Wei Guangde thought was slightly different, he soon realized that the two brothers were not the only ones who would end up, even Xu Pengju, the contemporary Duke of Wei, rolled up his sleeves and ended up.

Obviously, this is to help the youngest son suppress Xu Bangrui, the eldest son.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde suddenly remembered the imperial document issued by the imperial court a month ago, and asked eagerly, "Is Xu Bangning's mother the Zheng family?"

"Exactly, it's just that Mrs. Zheng is just the concubine of the father-in-law, not a concubine at all. She is completely deceiving the imperial court's orders."

Xu Huai answered Wei Guangde's question with a nod.

"call"

Wei Guangde figured it out now, that's what happened.

He has already taken the lead in the official aspect. Although there is a problem with the order, it has been issued after all, and it is still valid until the imperial court takes it back.

For future generations, when the main wife is dead, it is not Wei Guogong's business to choose who is the main wife. He can make whoever he likes?
In fact, this view is wrong, at least not in this era.

"Marry a wife" and "take a concubine", in fact, you can see a slight difference from the word "marry" and "na".

The wife is the one who is being married by three matchmakers and six hired matchmakers, and she is the master.

And concubines use "na" to enter the door, that is, they are bought with money.

There are also clear records in ancient books, "Concubines are lowly streams", "Concubines are in business", and concubines are actually high-level slaves and maidservants, just items.

Because of the lowliness of the concubine, even if the wife was abandoned or died in ancient times, the lord would remarry a wife instead of righting the concubine's room in the family. Before the Song Dynasty, the concubine's room was exiled, fined and punished. Also go to jail.

Such a system was also gradually formed. Before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the emperor's power declined and the etiquette collapsed.

There is such a story recorded in "Zuo Zhuan": "In Song Dynasty, there was a girl with red hair and red hair. She was abandoned under the embankment. Song Pinggong, mother and concubine's royal guards saw her and received her, because the name was abandoned. She was long and beautiful. She accepted Pinggong and gave birth to children Said Zuo. Later Song Dynasty minister Yi Li slandered the crown prince Cuo and killed him. First, the doctor Hua Yuan fled to Jin, Hua Qiang fled to Lu, Hua Chen fled to Chen, and Hua Hebi fled to Wei."

It is precisely because of so many violations of etiquette and law during the Spring and Autumn Period that the vassal alliance attempted to restore the social order of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and specifically included "no concubine as a wife" as one of the agreements of the alliance.

In the Ming Dynasty, although there were no official regulations prohibiting concubines from being righted, whether it was among the common people or the nobles, it was rare for concubines to be righted, especially for those with status.

At this time, Wei Guangde was quickly analyzing the pros and cons of this matter in his mind. Wei Guogong was a bit of a lunatic. No matter what way he got this thing done, as long as the cover was lifted, he would face the criticism of the civil and military courts.

Although the "Law of the Great Ming Dynasty" does not prohibit concubines from supporting the righteous, such behavior runs counter to the current mainstream values, so they will definitely be criticized, and even be ordered to recover.

However, this little trouble for the future father-in-law is really nothing, the most important thing is that the current situation of the uncle is a bit embarrassing.

What is the current Zheng family after he has the imperial order?
Is Xu Bangning the second son of the concubine or the first son?
Wei Guangde unconsciously glanced at Xu Huai in front of him, he understood what Xu Bangrui meant.

(End of this chapter)