Early Tang Dynasty: forge ahead

Chapter 484: Too Bad
Wan Guojun was very respectful and convinced of the mysterious man in the house. After leaving the side courtyard, he announced the other party's intentions one by one.

Cui Zhe, the Secretary of Taicang Office of Sinong Temple, returned to the Mansion of Duke Jiang with a heavy heart. Looking at the magnificent gate, this young man from the Cui family of Qinghe had a sad face. He stayed outside the house for a while before he walked up and knocked on the door.

The person who opened the door was a sturdy middle-aged man. When he saw Cui Zhe outside the mansion, his eyes were filled with contempt, but he said, "The eldest son is back. My master was just talking about the eldest son. It seems that the youngest son only got a D grade in the monthly exam and was angry in the hall. She was just asking the eldest son why he hadn't come back yet, and asked him to see her as soon as he came back!"

Cui Zhe looked a little embarrassed when he heard the harsh name and commanding tone.

Generally speaking, men work outside and women work inside.

The head of a family is called Langzhu, the male in the family is called Langjun, and the female in the family is called Da Niangzi.

Here, Cui Zhe is only called Da Langjun.

The reason is simple: Cui Zhe is a son-in-law.

Although Cui Zhe was a descendant of the Qinghe Cui family, he belonged to a branch within a branch.

It is true that the Five Surnames and Seven Famous Families are of high status, but the Five Surnames have flourished for hundreds of years and have been deliberately targeted by the court, so the official resources they can obtain are limited. Generally speaking, only the children of the family's direct bloodline can obtain sufficient resources. Except for the extremely talented people, most of the other collateral members can only rely on the family to find a way to make a living.

Cui Zhe lost his father at an early age, and was left alone and helpless. He had learned all his life but had no place to apply his knowledge. His mother was ill, but he had no money to see a doctor.

It happened that the Duke of Jiang's mansion was recruiting a son-in-law, and they took a liking to this rich and noble young man, so they sent someone to propose marriage.

In order to raise medical expenses for his mother, Cui Zhao became the son-in-law of the Duke of Jiang.

As a son-in-law, he could not become the head of the family, so he was just called Da Langjun.

The owner the middle-aged doorman was talking about was Jing, the mistress of Duke Jiang’s Mansion.

Cui Zhu gritted his teeth and walked towards the hall. Before he even got there, he heard a shrewish woman cursing:

"Ding? I, your mother, would not have gotten a D even if I closed my eyes... Your father is incompetent and useless. He worked hard for you to run the family business and hired the best teachers for you. He bought you the most expensive equipment, and yet you got a D. Are you worthy of me? For whom did I work so hard?"

"Zhou Yi is just a poor boy from Jiangnan, but he always gets A's in the monthly exams. Can't you learn from him?"

"Mother doesn't ask you to get A grades every time to show off your abilities, but you should at least get C grades once in a while."

"Don't be like your incompetent father. I spent 500,000 yuan to buy him a fifth-rank official position, but he got worse and worse as he lived. Over the years, he even regressed two ranks."

"With five hundred thousand dollars, even if I raised a pig, I wouldn't raise it like this."

……

Jing was anxious and angry, and started yelling at her son.

Jing's grandfather was Jing Junhong, a native of Taiping County, Jiangzhou, from a family of officials. He first served in the Sui Dynasty, successively serving as the governor of Binzhou, the governor of Xijing, and the minister of internal history. He joined forces with the Minister of Punishment Wei Xuan, the General of the Left Guard Yin Shishi and other famous officials to resist Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang. During the Yining period, he surrendered to Li Yuan and was awarded the title of General of the Cavalry and the title of Marquis of Qianchang County. When Emperor Gaozu of Tang ascended the throne, he was awarded the title of General of the Left Tunwei, in charge of the guard of Xuanwu Gate, the gate of Taiji Palace in Chang'an, and was given the title of General of the Cloud Banner.

Faced with the dispute over the crown prince position between Crown Prince Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin, Jing Junhong stood on Li Shimin's side without hesitation.

During the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Donggong Feng Li and Xie Shufang led their troops to attack Xuanwu Gate with the intention of rescuing Li Jiancheng.

Jing Junhong stepped forward to fight, buying time for Li Shimin, and died in battle outside Xuanwu Gate.

Jing Junhong was one of the most important generals of Li Shimin's party who died in the coup. After Li Shimin ascended the throne, remembering Jing Junhong's life-saving grace, he posthumously awarded him high titles such as Minister of War and Duke of Jiang, and gave him the posthumous title of "Zhong", and allowed the title to be passed down to his descendants.

Jing Junhong had only one son, named Jing Wen.

Jingshi was the only daughter of Jingwen. Because of her father, Jingwen was awarded the title of Lord at the age of 16 and held an important position. However, as the saying goes, "A blessing in disguise", Jingwen was too flamboyant and had an accident while hunting with a falcon, and was unable to be rescued.

Only the daughter of the Jing family...

Jingwen did not want the achievements his father had earned with his life to benefit his uncles and aunts with whom he had a bad relationship, so he adopted the method of recruiting a son-in-law to maintain the bloodline.

At that time, there was a custom of marrying women from the five surnames, so Jingwen wanted to marry a man from the five surnames.

Although this is not easy, with the resources of the Duke of Jiang's Mansion, it is still possible to achieve the goal.

This is how Cui Zhao married into the Duke of Jiang's mansion.

Cui Zhu was a man of the Five Surnames, elegant in conversation and talented, and Jing was also a noble lady who was loved by everyone...

At the beginning, the couple lived in harmony and were in love with each other.

But life is not just about flowers and moonlight, there is also the daily necessities of life.

When the couple was living a sweet life and had a son, Jing Wen died of illness.

The burden of life also fell on Jing.

The Duke of Jiang's Mansion owns a large area of ​​land and a fiefdom...

These fields and fiefs needed to be managed, but Cui Zhao, as a son-in-law, had neither the qualifications nor the ability to manage them.

Jing had to shoulder the huge family business alone. Unexpectedly, Jing was gifted and became more and more successful at it. She managed the land and fiefdom of the Duke of Jiang's Mansion in an orderly manner, and the family wealth increased several times.

As a result, Jing gained confidence, became more and more powerful, and became more and more disgusted with Cui Zhao.

In the end, she could no longer tolerate her husband's mediocrity, so she took out 500,000 yuan and bought a fifth-rank official position, the Taicang Office Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, for Cui Zhe from Li Yifu.

Cui Zhao also embarked on an official career because of this, but after a few years, he was demoted by Li Yifu.

Cui Zhu's bribery of an official position was exposed. Jing Shi made many arrangements, and because Cui Zhu was indeed talented and performed well during his tenure, he was punished slightly and severely, and demoted to the position of Taicang Office Secretary, a reduction of two levels.

Cui Zhao was outside the palace listening to his wife's scolding. His face turned blue and red, and he almost vomited blood out of shame.

But Cui Zhu knew clearly that he was in this situation because he was a gigolo, so he did not dare to go in to argue and just walked out in anger with his sleeves swung.

After leaving the Duke of Jiang's mansion, Cui Zha walked alone on the street, with the words constantly popping up in his mind:
"With five hundred thousand dollars, even if I raised a pig, I wouldn't raise it like this."

"With five hundred thousand dollars, even if I raised a pig, I wouldn't raise it like this."

After more than ten years of husband and wife relationship, am I worse than a pig?

Cui Zhe's eyes were red, and his expression was a little crazy. He gnashed his teeth and said, "How can I, a son of the Qinghe Cui family, be humiliated like this? Bitch, you just wait. When I become successful, I will avenge you for today's humiliation."

He thought about the reminder he received today, and thought to himself that he couldn't go on like this. If he didn't make an effort to follow the dragon, he would be stepped on by that bitch all his life and would never be able to turn things around in his lifetime.

It’s better to take a gamble.

Instead of waiting for a reward, it’s better to give it a try.
-
Chen's house.

Chen Qingsi met with Yin Ming, the bad leader of Chang'an County, in the reception room, and Zhou Kui was also there to accompany him.

Because of his relationship with Chen Qingsi, Yin Ming gained a lot of benefits, including participating in the security issues in Chang'an during the Fengshan ceremony, which made him overshadow the Wannian County Bad Leader who had a similar status.

Yin Ming received the news in advance and cleaned up the Tibetan spies in Chang'an. He also performed extremely well and was commended by the court.

Yin Ming gained a lot of benefits by following Chen Qingsi.

Chen Qingsi would also often assign some tasks to Yin Ming. This is how relationships between people work. First, they interact with each other based on interests, then they help each other. In the process of mutual assistance and mutual benefit, relationships become intertwined, forming a trustworthy community of interests and further deepening the relationship between each other.

Now Yin Ming has started doing some private things for Chen Qingsi.

For example, investigating the mysterious power behind Empress Wu.

Chen Qingsi did not forget the unknown power controlled by Empress Wu, but the other party was hiding too deeply and its strength was not visible. Chang'an was the political center of the Tang Dynasty, with three provinces, six ministries, twenty-four departments, one platform, nine temples and five prisons, plus various powerful second generations who held honorary titles, and tens of thousands of officials of all sizes.

Although Chen Qingsi has been trying to find them out, it is not easy to find a few rats among their group of people.

Especially the quiet mice...

But now is an opportunity.

Chen Qingsi knew how important he was to Empress Wu. The other party had always regarded him as a potential enemy, both from the current perspective and in the future.

He had repeatedly put obstacles in the way of Empress Wu. With Empress Wu's political acumen, even if she could not find evidence that it was him, she would still suspect him.

People like her don't care about evidence or not, suspicion is enough.

It was only because she herself lacked strength and had too many enemies that she was able to maintain a superficial balance.

Moreover, Empress Wu now pinned her future on the crown prince, and what she hated most was a minister who was too powerful. Regardless of whether this minister would eventually become a powerful official, what she needed was for the crown prince to rely on her as a mother, rather than the ministers below.

No matter what, Empress Wu would never like Chen Qingsi.

As for Zhang Wenguan, this is even more so.

Zhang Wenguan was a staunch princeling, and it could be said that Li Hong was taught by him.

Zhang Wenguan was a slightly pedantic scholar who valued people's livelihood over conquest. Li Hong, who was benevolent and Confucian, was exactly the ideal sage king in his heart. Zhang Wenguan's attitude towards Empress Wu's pretentious behavior was even worse. He could not influence Li Zhi's decision, so he repeatedly told Li Hong about the harm of foreign relatives.

Compared to himself, Zhang Wenguan is the real threat.

Now that she was fighting with Zhang Wenguan, it was a great thing for Empress Wu.

It would be best if both sides could be defeated, but if that is not possible, killing one of them would also be considered as eliminating a major trouble.

Chen Qingsi has been suppressing his people recently, telling them not to provoke Zhang Wenguan. This is to give face to Emperor Li Zhi, and also to lure out the rat.

Seeing that Chen Qingsi did not take action, Zhang Wenguan also maintained a certain degree of restraint.

This is how the officialdom is. It is extremely rare to see a life-and-death fight.

Most of the time, you restrain yourself and I restrain myself, and we endure it. We both lower our heads and big things become small things and small things become nothing, and we just let it go.

Chen Qingsi knew clearly that if Zhang Wenguan did not change his political views and was still determined to suppress the martial spirit of the Tang Dynasty, the two would fight sooner or later.

This is also the reason why Chen Qingsi is not afraid of offending Zhang Wenguan. When he was debating with Zhang Wenguan in the East Palace, he knew that the two of them could not agree at all.

But it would be a good thing if we could lure out the rat hiding in the dark before the battle with Zhang Wenguan.

"Cui Zhe? Who is he? Is he a descendant of the Five Surnames?"

Chen Qingsi thought for a moment and had no memory of this person.

If it is a descendant of the five surnames, it would be a troublesome matter.

Empress Wu had many enemies, and Chen Qingsi also had many enemies.

Among them were the Kanto samurai.

If this matter is related to the Kanto samurai, then it is possible that he is not a rat hiding in the dark.

After all, the Guandong samurai also wanted to see him and Zhang Wenguan fighting each other.

Needless to say, he dealt a fatal blow to the cultural field controlled by the Kanto samurai.

Zhang Wenguan and the Guandong samurai were also on the opposite side...

The samurai in Kanto are all bastards, and they are the best at enduring.

If this emperor does not favor them, they will wait for the next emperor, or support the next one.

Li Zhi was on guard against this, and the staff of the Eastern Palace of Crown Prince Li Hong was isolated from the Guandong nobles...

The Eastern Palace staff was headed by Zhang Wenguan and Dai Zhide. If Zhang Wenguan fell, they would be able to take advantage of the situation.

Yin Ming said: "He is indeed a descendant of the Five Surnames, born in the Cui family of Qinghe, and is now married into the mansion of the Duke of Jiang. He is currently serving as the deputy director of the Taicang Office of the Sinong Temple."

Chen Qingsi was stunned after hearing this and said, "Qinghe Cui family? Marry into the family? Can Cui Zhu endure this humiliation?"

In this era, a son-in-law is a different kind of domestic slave, and his role is just a tool for labor and reproduction. He is not respected as a son-in-law by his wife's family.

Can the Cui family endure this?

Yin Ming said: "The situation in the Duke of Jiang's Mansion is different!"

As he spoke, he told Chen Qingsi in detail the information he had obtained.

The bad guys under Yin Ming include all kinds of people, and they are extremely good at gathering information.

Cui Zhu's resume, even which courtesan in Pingkangfang he liked and how long he had been in love with her, could be found out. This naturally included the fact that Jing spent 500,000 yuan to buy Cui Zhu a fifth-rank official position, and then demoted him to the seventh rank.

Chen Qingsi's eyes were burning, this news was too important.

Chen Qingsi will never forget the relationship between Li Yifu and Empress Wu...

Cui Zhu rose to power by buying an official position, which was a big stain and could not be tolerated by most people.

If one wants to survive in the government, relying on those who sell them official titles is the only option.

There is a high probability that Cui Zhu was Li Yifu's man. Now that Li Yifu is dead, Cui Zhu has switched to serving Empress Wu and is also being cleaned up.

Chen Qingsi's eyes sparkled: "Tell me in detail, how did you find him?"

Yin Ming said: "My lord, please let us watch out for those who spread rumors. Cui Zha has said different things on different occasions. Sometimes he supports my lord, and sometimes he supports Zhang Wenguan. He is definitely not a good person."

Chen Qingsi was a little confused. This kind of instigation was harmless. Although it could create an atmosphere of panic, it could not serve as a fuse.

Chen Qingsi has always been concerned about the power behind Queen Wu, because enemies in the dark are the most terrifying, because you never know when they will give you a fatal blow.

This "fatal blow" was too weak.

(End of this chapter)