Of course, the wedding ceremony is not the temple ceremony, but it is similar in nature. It is also the ancestral temple of the Gao family. However, the Gao family's ancestral temple is in Xinzheng, so they can only put up the ancestors' memorial tablets and offer sacrifices at a distance. There are many rules in it, but it is not worth detailing. Let's talk about it.
As for paying homage to the aunt, that is, the young couple first paid homage to Gao Cai and his wife at Baiyu Tower, and then went to Cheng Guogong Nanhu Villa to meet Huang Chengzu. It was also a routine matter and was not mentioned.
After this trip, the wedding matters have been settled in nine out of ten, and Gao Jingshi can wait to receive the gifts when he returns to Baiyu Tower.
With his high and pragmatic connections and status, after this wedding was organized, the gift list was piled on six large desks, and the total number of various gifts was divided into categories, totaling more than 2,000 pieces, and this is not counting gold and silver. Commonplace.
With so many gifts, it is certainly impossible for Gao Pragmatic himself to count them one by one. This is all the business of Gao Mo, the great butler. He just looked at the first batch of gifts - to be precise, the most important batch. gifts given by people.
The number one gift list cannot be anyone else's, it is the congratulatory gift from the current emperor, the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun.
There were three congratulatory gifts from the emperor: a piece of "Annan Dingbei" by Chen Han, two sets of gold-inlaid jade chopsticks, and a Hotan white jade statue of Guanyin sending his son.
Needless to say, the golden inlaid jade chopsticks are jade chopsticks inlaid with gold. Like the statue of Guanyin, it means "having a son early". The most valuable thing here is definitely the jade statue that is one foot and four inches high. Guanyin, but the most noble one is Chen Han written by the emperor.
Gao Pragmatic has surpassed many of the Emperor's Chen Hans. This Chen Han's is the most elaborate and can be hung in the main hall. The only trouble is that Gao Pragmatic lives now in the White Jade Tower, and the decoration in the White Jade Tower is a typical French palace decoration. It was a bit strange for Emperor Chen Han to enter. So after thinking about it, he decided to ask his father Gao Cai to take it back to Xinzheng, frame it carefully and hang it in the main hall of Longwen Yayuan.
After the emperor's congratulatory gifts, there were the congratulatory gifts from the two queen mothers and the king and empress. However, their congratulatory gifts themselves were not important. What was important was their status, so there is no need to say more.
Further down are the congratulatory gifts from King Lu and several eldest princesses. This is rather strange, because generally speaking, King Lu cannot give congratulatory gifts to the ministers of the dynasty casually. As for the two eldest princesses, although there is no such restriction, But in the past, the eldest princesses were usually more willing to be cautious and self-restrained, and would not interfere with the human relations between the ministers of the DPRK and China.
Of course, these two eldest princesses have some relationship with Gao Pangshi, so it’s not a big deal to send a congratulatory gift. The key lies in Prince Lu’s actions—Prince Lu’s palace has been dragging its feet for so long to repair it. He had already given two python robes as gifts last time. This time, he ignored the feudal king's taboo and sent a wedding gift again. Even a fool would not believe it if he said it didn't have deep meaning.
Thinking about this matter, Gao Pragmatic has a headache. He is not a stingy person. If he wants to spend money to eliminate disasters now, or if he gives a sum of money to King Lu, there will be no other adverse consequences besides making the emperor and the queen mother happy. Then he wouldn't mind paying 200,000 or 300,000 taels, even if this amount of money is definitely a huge amount of money for the private sector, it doesn't matter.
But the problem is that spending this money will definitely have negative consequences, and the impact will be very bad. There are a lot of people in the court waiting for him to make a mistake!
"Spending huge sums of money to marry the feudal king shows your disloyalty!" - Who can bear this?
However, King Lu dared to do this, which in itself means that there must be someone behind him, otherwise how could he dare? I just don't know whether the person behind him is the emperor or the empress dowager, or both, so there is no way to ignore it.
Gao pragmatically looked at the gift lists casually. The items were all relatively ordinary, and they were all the kind that would not be caught by the official, so he did not look at them any more.
Next came the congratulatory gifts from the nobles, and the gifts on the gift list began to become more diverse and their value increased sharply. All kinds of gold, pearls, and jades were just ordinary items, but the important thing was that there were many unique, rare, and rare books handed down from generation to generation, all of which were written by literati. It is a rare and valuable gift among guests. Put these things together, it is enough to open an exhibition, but the specific value is completely impossible to measure.
Even a person like Gao Chou, who came from a family of high-ranking officials, could not help but tremble with his hands after seeing so many elegant things. Gao Pragmatic was repeatedly told to keep them properly and not to be careless in the slightest. Gao Pragmatic agreed with a smile. He didn't seem to care much about it. Zhang was afraid that he would take it lightly, so she explained it to Gao Mo alone.
After all these things were taken care of, Gao Pragmatic couldn't take a rest, so he took Huang Zhiting to greet his relatives and take a test on his brothers' homework.
As for the Gao family's civility, it may be that Gao Pingshi has sucked it all away. In his opinion, the homework of his younger brothers is relatively average. There is definitely no problem with being a birth attendant, but it depends on luck. He is casual After asking a big question, I looked at their solutions and handed it to Gao Cai.
After Gao Cai finished reading, he thought for a while, shook his head slightly and said, "It's quite satisfactory."
"It lacks aura, and even less grandeur." Gao Pragmatic spoke much more directly than his father: "The topic of the article is the general outline of the whole article. It must be from a high position and have an overview of the overall situation. To solve the topic like you, Even if you leave the following article to me to continue it, it won’t be a splendid one.”
The younger brothers all looked dejected and did not dare to say a word. Mrs. Zhang was still helping, saying: "You guys usually study in the clan and think that they are just for themselves. What do you think my mother said? Just you guys." If you have some ability, I will show you the article in front of my eldest brother. You will like it, so you should accept it now, right?"
Gao Wu, who had long been adopted by Gao Gong and favored Shang Baosi, saw that his younger brothers were struggling, so he still carried forward a bit of his elder brother's style and advised: "The eldest brother is the number one scholar in the sixth title, so it is inevitable to be picky. Although I read these articles, It's not a masterpiece, but it still has some rules. If you read it deeply and carefully for a long time in the future, you will naturally improve - Brother, right?"
Gao pragmatic nodded reluctantly, and then said: "Originally, I couldn't understand articles like yours. I should teach them personally. But you also know that I have a lot of things now and I really can't spare much time." No, I have a man of the same age whose surname is Xiao, whose name is Liangyou, whose courtesy name is Yizhan, and whose name is Hanzhong. He is the second in the ranking list of my class. He is now an official in the Hanlin Academy. I will go and tell him and ask him to come to you. If you do some counseling... you don’t want to go back to Xinzheng, and stay in the capital from now on."
It stands to reason that the head of the sixth house is Gao Cai, and he is here. Even if Gao Jingshi is the eldest son, he should not directly decide on it. But his eldest son is too special, and he is talking about academics. However, Gao Cai didn't dare to question the views of Liushou Number One Scholar. Instead, he could only follow his words and said: "Okay, okay, okay! If you can have Xiao Ranking No. 2 to give you guidance, your father will be relieved."
Then he turned to Gao Pingshi and said, "Would you like Wu Zheng and Wu to stay with you?"
Gao Pangshi originally had six younger brothers. Among them, Gao Wuguan was adopted by Gao Gong. Gao Wuqin had already gone to Annan and was now named the general commander of the six towns. As a result, there were two younger brothers, Gao Wujian and Gao Wuzhong. Going down are Gao Wuzheng and Gao Wuruo - the two youngest brothers are concubines and have the same father as him.
The reason why Gao Cai said this was of course worried that Gao Pragmatic might have too clear-cut views as his concubines, leaving only Gao Wujian and Gao Wuzhong to ignore Wuzheng and Wuruo.
But in fact, Gao Pragmatic basically didn't care. He even felt that in a family like the Gao family, the bastard brother would be more obedient than the biological brother, and might be better taught. So he said without hesitation: "Of course If you stay here, you can drive one sheep or a group of sheep, so why bother."
When he said this, he glanced at his mother Zhang from the corner of his eye, and found that Zhang's expression was quite calm, and she didn't mean anything unhappy. After thinking about it for a while, he understood: Probably in her opinion , these two younger brothers, no matter how hard they study, they still can't reach the heights of being the number one scholar in the Sixth Song, so they don't care much about it.
He was teaching his younger brother a lesson here, while Huang Zhiting was chatting with his three sisters on the other side. Among his three sisters, there were also two legitimate sisters and one concubine. Gao Pragmatic didn't communicate much with them, and he had no interest in getting involved with their daughters. When chatting at home, I think it’s good to communicate separately in this way.
About half an hour later, the sky gradually started to get dark, and the servants and maids had already started to go to the banquet hall to arrange the family banquet, when suddenly someone came to see them in a hurry.
At this time, Gao Qingshi was far away, but Gao Cai was close. The man who came actually knew Gao Cai. He hurriedly came forward to pay homage and said: "Master Gu, I am a servant of the Grand Scholar's Mansion. I just picked up Gao Cai." Go to Puzhou to report urgently, the old man... is riding a crane."
This man was about forty years old, and he spoke with great energy, and everyone heard what he said.
When Mrs. Zhang heard that her father had passed away, her vision went dark, and her whole body seemed to have been drained of energy. She staggered and fell backward. Fortunately, Gao Wujian and Gao Wuzhong were close to each other and quickly supported their mother.
Gao Jingshi also hurriedly stepped forward to check. Fortunately, Ms. Zhang only had a sudden surge of blood. After being supported by her two sons, she came back to her senses. When she saw Gao Jingshi, the eldest son who pleased her the most, she burst into tears. He fell down, but no sound came out of his mouth, he just whimpered and cried.
Huang Zhiting also trotted over quickly. She had experienced the pain of losing her mother and could empathize with it far more than Gao Pragmatic. She helped Zhang sit down and whispered comfort.
Gao pragmatic felt that he should cry a few times, but he didn't have any sad thoughts. Instead, he secretly felt lucky: Fortunately, the matter of adding cabinet ministers was settled first, otherwise it would be a bad dish?
Then I thought: No, I still have to squeeze out some tears...
Unexpectedly, when he glanced at him, he happened to find that his father Gao Cai also had a troubled face, and seemed to be in an awkward situation where he wanted to cry but couldn't.
Gao Pinggong said sincerely: If dad doesn't cry, I'd better not cry either, lest he be further embarrassed, then I might as well show some responsibility.
So he immediately said loudly: "Come here, check the carriage and horses, they will be used tomorrow morning! And you, you, you, you guys, go and pack things for the master and the wife, and you will go with the car tomorrow morning."
Mrs. Zhang listened on the side and sobbed: "No tomorrow, leave tonight!"
Unexpectedly, Gao Cai stopped him and said, "If you can't do it tonight, you have to do it tomorrow." As he said that, he winked at Mrs. Zhang.
Only then did Mrs. Zhang remember that today was indeed not possible. Her son’s wedding was only completed today, so what’s the point of leaving tonight? She quickly took Huang Zhiting’s hand and said, “Zhiting, I’m so anxious for my mother...”
Huang Zhiting didn't pay too much attention, and quickly expressed that she could understand, and then continued to persuade her.
Gao Cai pulled Gao Pingshi aside and said with a wry smile: "I originally planned to stay with you for a while, but it's a pity that things didn't go as planned..."
These days, filial piety is more important than anything else. Of course, Gao Pragmatic would not express his displeasure, but said with a sad face: "My grandpa is leaving now, and my son has an official position. He can't leave easily. He can only go through this difficult journey for his father. My son Unfilial..."
The father and son chatted for a few words, but Gao Cai went to comfort his wife and freed Huang Zhiting.
Huang Zhiting didn't know if she was infected by Zhang, but she actually shed some tears along with her. When Gao Pragmatic pulled her aside, her eyes were all red.
It's a pity that Gao Pingshi didn't have that much sentimentality, and he got down to business when he started: "My grandpa passed away, and tomorrow morning my uncle will definitely ask Ding You to resign. Although he is Yuanfu, generally speaking, he should step down in just two or three days. I may be very busy for a period of time..."
"The slave family knows that, sir, don't worry, just take good care of the changes in the DPRK."
Gao Pragmatic nodded and said nothing more.
There was no court meeting early the next morning, but Gao pragmatically went out before dawn and went to the Yamen of the Ministry of War to wait for news.
All yamen will have some connections in the General Affairs Department, and the Ministry of War is no exception. Before the morning was over, the news of Zhang Siwei's resignation from Ding You came through.
However, the emperor did not approve it immediately. Instead, he rushed from Qianqing Palace to Wenhua Palace to summon Zhang Siwei.
The conversation between the emperor and his chief ministers was very secretive. Everyone was ordered to go out and wait outside, including Chen Ju, so Gao Jingshi didn't know what they talked about.
The only follow-up news was that after Zhang Siwei left the palace, he sent someone to tell Gao Jingshi that he would leave in the afternoon.
In the Ming Dynasty, "going to work" was also very important. Gao Pragmatic stayed until noon and hurried to Zhang Siwei's house to see him off - of course seeing him off was secondary, the more important thing was to see what his uncle had to say.
The Zhang family is a wealthy family, and the death of the old man was a sign of foreboding, so when Gao pragmatically rushed there, the Zhang family's motorcade was already ready.
When Gao pragmatic arrived, Zhang Siwei was sitting alone in the flower hall in a daze, seeming a little lost. Only when Gao pragmatic called him did Zhang Siwei come back to his senses and waved to his nephew: "Sit down."
After hearing this, Gao Pingshi sat down and said, "My condolences, uncle."
Zhang Siwei shook his head slightly and sighed: "Stop talking about these words and let's get down to business. I'm a little worried and want to talk to you."
Gao pragmatic nodded and said: "Uncle, please speak."
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Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: The "three major levies" in this volume will be somewhat different from the three major levies in history...