The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Today is the 15th, a holiday.

Wei Guangde slumped down on a chair in the lobby as soon as he got up early in the morning. He drank too much in the past two days, and now he feels dizzy.

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

Although the quality of vegetables and meat is guaranteed these days and is absolutely green and pollution-free, the taste is not satisfactory.

Although it has been many years since Wei Guangde arrived in the Ming Dynasty, he still 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, meat, etc. to make sauces. The main ingredients are dried meat, fruits, vegetables, etc., in addition to pepper, cinnamon, ginger, Onions, polygonum, mustard and other spices.

For Wei Guangde, the taste used to be quite strong, but now the food is suddenly gone without chili pepper, MSG and other condiments, which is quite unaccustomed.

But there was nothing he could do. He had never seen Chili Pepper before. He had also compared it with others, but no one had seen it.

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

I vaguely remember that many domestic plants are varieties introduced from overseas. In fact, they have not existed in China since ancient times.

As for MSG, forget it. He only heard that it was chemically synthesized. He had no idea how it was made.

In fact, for many people, when they see that shiny thing, it 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.

Regarding his eating habits, 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.

Zhang Ji always calls Wei Guangde "Master" when he is outside, and only calls him "Master" when he enters the house.

"what's up?"

Wei Guangde probably drank too much in the past two days and was not in good spirits, so he asked casually.

"The master sent a letter and sent Zhao Hu and the others here, saying that they would protect you and help you look after your home and hospital."

Zhang Ji entered the room and saw Wei Guangde and said hurriedly.

"They're coming?"

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

"How did they find this place?"

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

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

But few people go out these days. How did they find these people? Can they ask for directions?

"The Jiujiang Guild Hall they went to first, the owner of the Guild Hall sent a boy to bring them over."

Zhang Ji answered hurriedly.

"Give the boy a reward and tell them to come in."

At this time, Wei Guangde had not yet gone to arrange for servants. The banquet was held two days ago by a chef hired from a nearby restaurant at a high price, and even two waiters were temporarily hired.

With the arrival of Zhao Hu and the others, six or seven people moved into Wei Guangde's courtyard, all of them gentlemen.

It turned out that Wei Guangde, the old man who came to visit the house, had sent away his money, leaving only a group of people from Bengshan Castle at home, so that he felt relieved.

Dad has arranged the guards, but this time he didn't find anyone to take care of Wei Guangde's daily life. Zhang Ji alone can't do it. He will have to find a dental shop to buy a few people back to boil water, cook and clean. Those rough guys The man is not that material.

After receiving Zhao Hu and others, Zhang Ji took them down to settle down. There were many empty houses in the front yard. If they needed anything, they could just go to the streets and buy it.

Wei Guangde sat alone in the lobby and looked at the letter his father asked them to bring. He looked at the content. He should have arranged for someone to come to Beijing after reading the Tang newspaper. The letter he wrote should still be on the way, but they didn't receive it.

Collect letters carefully. Unlike later generations, the value of a family letter in this era cannot be understood by later generations.

In the era when Wei Guangde came through, mobile phones and the Internet were already popular. Even if you wanted to see relatives thousands of miles away, it was really simple. Whether it was a call or video, you only needed to move your fingers.

But here, letters are all the things I miss. When I feel homesick, I read the letters I saved to relieve my homesickness.

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

Regarding the longing for his family in his previous life, Wei Guangde can only place his thoughts on his family in this life. There is really nothing he can do.

After getting up, Wei Guangde took the letter from home and returned to his bedroom. He opened a box on the bedside and took out a small box with two letters neatly placed inside.

When Wei Guangde saw people coming from his hometown this year, he felt homesick. Instead of putting the letter in his hand, he took out the other letters inside, sat aside, opened them one by one, and read them again.

After reading the letter, Wei Guangde put the letter away without finishing it, and carefully put the letter back into the box. However, the moment he closed the lid of the box, his hand stopped.

Thinking of the last words in the previous letter, Wei Guangde felt puzzled. After such a long time, his father still had no idea which girl to arrange for him.

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

Time passed day by day, and in the blink of an eye it was more than a month later.

During this period, Wei Guangde took the time to go to the Yachang near Nanxunfang and bought two cooks and two maids, and also bought two servants to take charge of cleaning. Now his Wei Mansion is somewhat decent.

Surprisingly, Wei Guangde received another letter from Jiujiang.

After receiving the last letter from home, 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 to receive a reply from home, but this time the letter was not sent by a businessman traveling between the capital and Jiujiang, but by a captain of his father's servant 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 of the eldest son of Duke Wei in Nanjing. The main reason for coming to the capital this time is to get acquainted with him."

"The villain Xu Huai has met Mr. Wei."

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

"No need to be polite, please sit down."

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

Naturally, there is no need for his own servants to arrange for him to sit down, but the person who comes with him is from the Duke of Wei's house, which means that he is the Duke of Wei, and this face must be given.

He is just a seventh-grade sesame official. In front of a super-grade prince like Wei Guogong, who is hereditary and irreplaceable, he actually means nothing.

"I don't know Xu"

When Wei Guangde said this, he was a little stuck and didn't know how to address the other person.

Let's talk about the young master, the other party is just a long-term attendant in the Duke of Wei's mansion, not even a steward.

"Master Wei, just call me Xu Huai."

At this time, Xu Huai cleverly intervened to relieve Wei Guangde's temporary embarrassment.

"I wonder if you are here this time. Do you have any orders from me?"

Wei Guangde knew about the connection between Jiujiang Wei's Zhang family and Nanjing's Wei Guogong's house, and subconsciously thought that the other party might know that he was an official in the Hanlin Academy in Beijing. He was very leisurely anyway, so he wanted to find something for himself.

As long as Wei Guogong's instructions were not treasonous, Wei Guangde really didn't have the courage to refuse.

After all, you have to rely on others to take care of your own family.

Hereditary military positions sound nice to say, but there are so many people with hereditary official positions, and how many people can get actual positions.

There's no one up there, so you can only stare from the side, watching others eat up and wipe away the oil and water.

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

Xu Huai said quickly.

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

Soon, Wei Guangde felt slightly surprised.

When I returned to Jiujiang after the provincial examination, I had heard about the eldest son of the Xu family. I knew that he had been to Jiujiang Mansion, met his father, and drank the celebration wine he had tried at home, but I didn’t expect that he would The marriage mentioned in my father's last letter turned out to be a girl from the Xu family.

When he arrived at the Duke of Wei's house, he said that the girl seemed wrong, she should be the daughter of a daughter.

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

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

Wei Guangde ignored Xu Huai, but looked at the letter and began to think about it in his mind.

The whole marriage process seemed to have been agreed after he took the exam, but after the results of the palace exam came out, something seemed to have changed in the Duke of Wei's house. Although it didn't have much impact in the end, it was enough to make Wei Guangde realize a lot of things.

I'm afraid there are other things in the Duke of Wei's house that haven't been revealed. Dad doesn't know about it, or he has guessed it but can't explain it clearly.

And now the people from the Xu family are sitting below. Are they here to uncover the mystery for themselves or what?

Wei Guangde was not sure for a moment and hesitated a little.

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

Xu Bangrui.

Wei Guangde kept this name in his heart and knew about the affairs in Duke Wei's house. He was probably related to Xu Bangrui.

Judging from the content at the beginning of the letter, it seems that he is the promoter of this matter and should not be holding back.

I really think there is only one thing, and that is someone in the Xu family threatening Xu Bangrui. That person seems to be opposed to his marriage to Xu Jianglan.

Wei Guangde blinked, a little confused, and could only sigh secretly that intrigues within these big families might be common, unlike theirs, which was a small family and had nothing to fight for.

"Xu Huai, I have read the letter. I wonder who your master is?"

Although Wei Guangde concluded that Xu Huai should be Xu Bangrui's person, that is, his future uncle's subordinate, he still had to pretend to be confused and ask the last question.

"The villain has been following the eldest son since he was a child. Speaking of which, he is no stranger to Mr. Wei. My son is Xu Bangrui."

Then Xu Huai quickly told what happened in the Duke of Wei's house.

As expected, the two brothers were fighting overtly and covertly to inherit the title.

However, what was slightly different from what Wei Guangde thought was that he soon realized that it was not only the two brothers who were going to die, but even the contemporary Wei Guogong Xu Pengju rolled up his sleeves and died.

It is obvious that this is to help the younger son suppress Xu Bangrui, the eldest son of the concubine.

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

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

Xu Huai heard Wei Guangde's question and nodded in reply.

"call"

Wei Guangde now understands that this is what happened.

They have already taken the upper hand in the official arena. Although there are problems with the imperial edict, it has been sent out after all and is still valid until the court takes it back.

For future generations, when the first wife dies, it is not the Duke of Wei’s sole responsibility to make him the first wife. He can make whoever he likes?

In fact, this view is wrong, at least not in this era.

In fact, there is a slight difference between "taking a wife" and "taking a concubine" from the word "marry" and "taking a concubine".

The wife was married by three matchmakers and six betrothal matchmakers. She is the master.

And the concubine used "na" to enter the house, which means she bought it with money.

There are also clear records in ancient books that "concubines are lowly people" and "concubines are bought and sold". Concubines are actually high-level slaves and objects.

Because of the humbleness of concubines, in ancient times, even if the wife was abandoned or died, the lord would marry a new wife instead of straightening the concubine at home. Before the Song Dynasty, those who straightened the concubine would be exiled, fined, and punished with a rod. Still going to jail.

This kind of system also gradually formed. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the emperor's power declined and etiquette collapsed.

"Zuo Zhuan" records such a story: "There was a girl in the Song Dynasty who was red and hairy. She abandoned it under the embankment. The charioteer of Song Ping's father-in-law and his concubine saw her and took her, so she was named abandoned. She was long and beautiful. She accepted her and gave birth to a son. He was called Zuo. Later, the officials of the Song Dynasty slandered the prince and killed him. First, the official Hua Yuan went to Jin, Hua Ruo went to Lu, Hua Chen went to Chen, and Hua Hebi went to Wei."

It was precisely because of so many violations of etiquette and law during the Spring and Autumn Period that the princes' alliance attempted to restore the social order of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and specifically made "no concubines as wives" one of the agreements of the alliance.

By the Ming Dynasty, although there were no official regulations prohibiting concubines being straightened, the practice of straightening concubines appeared among the people and aristocrats, but it was rare, especially among 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 arrogant. No matter what path he took to accomplish this matter, as long as the lid was lifted, he would face the verbal and written criticism of the entire court.

Although the "Da Ming Code" does not prohibit concubines from being rehabilitated, such behavior runs counter to the current mainstream values, so they will definitely be criticized and even have their imperial edicts revoked.

However, this trouble for the future father-in-law is really nothing. The most important thing is that the elder brother-in-law's current situation is a bit embarrassing.

What does the Zheng family mean now that they have a royal decree?

Is Xu Bangning the second son of a concubine or the legitimate son?

Wei Guangde unconsciously glanced at Xu Huai in front of him, and he understood what Xu Bangrui meant.