prosperous age

Chapter 247 Chapter 246

"I understand what the eldest son means."

After thinking carefully, Wei Guangde spoke to Xu Huai below, and now his marriage with Xu Jianglan is just settled, and the procedures of three media and six employments have not gone through, so naturally he can only call Xu Bangrui the eldest son.

"Go down and rest first, I'm here to talk to Xu Huai."

At this time Wei Guangde turned his head and said to the servant, Zhang Ji next to him tactfully led him the way, only Wei Guangde and Xu Huai were left in the room.

"The eldest son means that you want me to do some activities in the capital to shake things off, or what?"

Wei Guangde wants to find out Xu Bangrui's real thoughts, and then he can decide whether to do it or not, and how to do it.

"Master Wei doesn't know something, I have to talk about something else this time."

Xu Huai suddenly got up at this time and whispered to Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde was taken aback by his mysterious appearance, what did he think he was going to do?
After hearing the meaning of Xu Huai's words clearly, I was shocked again. Could it be that I guessed wrong, didn't I want to create momentum for him in the capital and recover the sealed order?
"Master Wei, don't think too much, it has nothing to do with that imperial order.

My son is the eldest son of the Duke's Mansion, this is unshakable, even if there is a dispute in the future, the court will send people down to investigate, if the court determines that the second son is the eldest son, our eldest son will naturally have nothing to say. "

Hearing what Xu Huai said, Wei Guangde knew it, and Xu Bangrui didn't want to make a fuss about that imperial order.

This is the Duke of Wei's mansion, what's the use of an edict, in the end it has to be listened to by Datian, only the emperor's approval is really effective.

Obviously, at that time, Xu Bangrui will come out to fight against his second brother. After all, his mother's identity cannot be changed.

"The eldest son asked you to come to tell me something?"

Wei Guangde didn't like this way of communication very much, it's good to say whatever you want, it's done in a secretive way, and he thought it was to discuss rebellion.

"Your Majesty Wei didn't know something. After the imperial order arrived in Nanjing, my young master didn't care about it, but he didn't expect it."

When he said this, Xu Huai paused slightly, his face became very ugly.

Seeing this, Wei Guangde smiled in his heart. Who was this acting for? Didn't he do this on purpose to express the seriousness of this matter in front of himself?

Wei Guangde didn't make a sound, but also pretended to look at him with concern, waiting for the next step.

Although the effect was not ideal, Xu Huai recovered quickly and continued to talk about what happened in Nanjing a few days ago.

It turned out that Xu Pengju, Duke of the State of Wei, found Liu Cai, Shangshu of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, and his purpose was to send his youngest son Xu Bangning to the Ministry of War to learn strategy and prepare for the future.

The yamen where Liu Cai works is in Nanjing, so he has naturally heard about the bullshit in Wei Guogong's mansion.

Although he and Xu Pengju have a good relationship on the surface, the civil servants have never regarded Xungui very much. He also has his own criteria for judging Xu Bangning's matter.

Liu Cai did not agree with the imperial order sent by the capital.

In fact, as long as the civil servants know the ins and outs of the incident, they will not agree to give Zheng an imperial order.

Apparently, the imperial edict of Duke Wei's mansion was actually obtained by deceiving the court.

It's just that seeing that the deal has been done, the adults in Nanjing's officialdom chose to remain silent. After all, the matter is mainly related to the succession of the Duke of Wei.

As far as the current situation is concerned, Xu Pengju is still alive and kicking, so he can't get involved with it at all.

When it is really time to determine the son of the Duke of Wei, as long as the court does not recognize Xu Bangning's status as the first son, it will be fine, and the eldest son Xu Bangrui will still inherit the title.

Xu Bangrui was not in a hurry to get the imperial order for Mrs. Zheng, the main reason was precisely because he already knew the plans of the officials.

But now he became a little anxious, and it was precisely because of the influence of the subsequent fermentation of this incident that he began to lose his control.

After Wei Guogong Xu Pengju saw that Liu Cai hoped that he could open the back door for Xu Bangning and arranged for him to enter the Nanjing military department office, he did not get the result he wanted, so Liu Cai sternly rejected his request.

Not only did he reject Xu Pengju's request, Liu Cai even advised him to change his mind and follow the court's patriarchal system, warning him that if he really loves his youngest son more, he should plan earlier and arrange a suitable position for him. The two brothers got into trouble because of the inheritance.

Faced with such an embarrassing situation, Wei Guogong Xu Pengju had no choice but to retreat temporarily and agreed to send his two sons to study in the Ministry of War.

Liu Caicai nodded in agreement with this result.

But after Xu Pengju returned home and called his two sons, Xu Bangrui had nothing to do with it, but Xu Bangning clearly refused.

Due to his brother's personality, he is not as domineering outside as he is. Now most of the sons and brothers in the whole Nanjing city are running behind his ass, very majestic.

Under such a living environment, he would of course not agree to let him study in the yamen.

Don't be a good dandy, what kind of sesame official should you be?

Xu Bangning didn't want to go, Xu Pengju had no choice but to put the matter aside for a while, and Xu Bangrui naturally couldn't go to the Ministry of War to learn strategy.

It's just that Xu Pengju chose another method to operate. At this time, it is still to send the child to make progress.

The highest institution of learning in the Ming Dynasty was naturally Guozijian. The capital city was the northern and southern capitals, and each government office had two teams. Naturally, the Guozijian also had Nanjing.

Xu Bangning didn't want to go to the Ministry of War, so let him go to the Imperial College to clear up the relationship. In fact, he doesn't need to go, the main thing is to make a name.

He could see that Liu Cai was seriously dissatisfied with his choice to train his youngest son as his successor.

Can't you provoke me, can't you hide?
But with the previous incident, Xu Pengju became more careful about operating the Imperial College, and he still asked both brothers to report to the Imperial College.

But in secret, he found another person to control all this, and this person is Liu Shiyan, who is also honorable and sincere.

Wei Guogong and Chengyi Bo, one is the descendant of the founding hero and general Xu Da, and the other is the descendant of the civil servant Liu Bowen.

Both Xu Da and Liu Ji (Liu Bowen) were important figures who assisted Zhu Yuanzhang in making his fortune. They had a good relationship at first. The two had worked together for a long time before their deaths, and they were friends who shared weal and woe. However, Xu Pengju's generation changed a little bit.

After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he implemented two systems that had influenced the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years.

One is to divide the princes into vassals of various places, and pass them down from generation to generation with the country, as an auxiliary guarantee for the imperial power.

The second is to confer kings and marquises on the founding heroes, so that their descendants can inherit the titles from generation to generation and enjoy wealth forever, so as to inspire future generations.

After Xu Da's death, his Duke of Wei's title was passed on from generation to generation by his descendants, while Liu Ji's title of Earl of Sincerity was interrupted for some reason, but it was passed on in the end.

In the 13th year of Zhengde, the title of Wei Guogong was passed to Xu Pengju. He was appointed by the imperial court as the garrison of Nanjing, the accompanying capital, and in charge of the Chinese military governor's office.

In the 12th year of Jiajing, the Earl of Sincerity was suspended for many years, and it was inherited by Liu Yu. Liu Yu was in charge of the former Nanjing Military Governor's Mansion and was in charge of drills.

After Liu Yu and Xu Pengju believed that they were both honored ministers, they refused to accept each other and finally clashed.

In the 18th year of Jiajing, during a parade review of soldiers, Xu Pengju and Liu Yu had a big fight because they were competing for the primary and secondary seats.

In a fit of anger, Liu Yu led his troops away regardless, causing an uproar for a while.

Afterwards, Xu Peng, Duke of the State of Wei, submitted a petition to impeach Liu Yu, causing Liu Yu to be dismissed, and the two families have feuded ever since.

In fact, as far as this matter is concerned, Xu Pengju was the admiral at that time, and Liu Yu was the admiral of Caojiang. They were indeed one level lower than Xu Pengju, and the court's handling was not inappropriate.

Since then, in the city of Nanjing, the Xu family and the Liu family have been on the same boat, causing many turmoil.

At least, from the perspective of the outside world, the relationship between the two is completely broken.

However, the Liu family, which was once "my son's house" in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, has changed from a civil servant family to a military general family, and has led troops in the south of the Yangtze River for a long time.

Whether willing or unwilling, the Liu family in the eyes of the emperor in Beijing is a force that restrains the influence of the Wei Guogong family in Jiangnan.

It's just that after the Liu family changed from civil to military, members of the family may have been in and out of the military all year round, and gradually became arrogant and rebellious, often causing disasters.

After every crime, the Liu family must be dismissed. After a period of time, the emperor thought of the usefulness of the Liu family and found a reason, or directly resumed the Liu family's duties on Xu Da's memorial day.

Liu Yu, the sincerity uncle of the previous generation, was finally dismissed from his post because of the incident with Xu Pengju, and he died of illness two years later.

Since Liu Yu's son Liu Hong died early, only his grandson Liu Shiyan was left in the Liu family after Liu Yu's death. According to the system, Liu Shiyan should inherit the title of Earl of Sincerity, but he was young at the time and pretended to be his successor for a few years. He did not become a prince until he became an adult.

But obviously, Liu Yu had an account with his grandson Liu Shiyan before he died of illness.

Although the Liu family was not considered the top dignitaries of the Ming Dynasty at this time, their privileges were very heavy. Liu Ji helped Zhu Yuanzhang too much back then. It was even interrupted in the subsequent regime change.

Liu Jing, the second son of Liu Ji, wrote to Emperor Jianwen in the early days of "Jing Nan", but it was not accepted. After Zhu Di usurped the throne, he recruited Liu Jing into the court.

Zhu Di arrested Liu Jing and sent him to prison. Liu Jing chose to commit suicide in prison. Considering Liu Ji's merits, Zhu Di did not pursue his descendants, but only sincerely wanted to stop attacking the earl.

Although he lost the title of Earl of Sincerity, Zhu Di still summoned the Liu family from time to time and gave him rewards. It was not until the Jingtai period that Liu Lu, the seventh grandson of Liu Ji, was awarded the post of doctor of the hereditary Five Classics, which can be regarded as enjoying the honorary benefits again.

On the matter of arranging his son to enter the Imperial College, Xu Pengju quietly found his "rival" Liu Shiyan to help him secretly.

I have to say that Ming's nobles are not brainless, at least these two still know that if the two of them are in Nanjing, hello me, hello everyone, then the emperor in Xiyuan may not be able to practice the way of longevity with peace of mind up.

The city of Nanjing controlled the most affluent place in the Ming Dynasty, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that half of the country was covered.

In order to dispel that person's worries, it is obvious that the two companies are working together to make arrangements, and the reason for this is self-evident.

It's just that Wei Guogong Xu Pengju never expected that his son was even better at playing chess than him, and he planted eyeliner by his side early.

He just secretly monitored Wei Guogong's every move and secretly reported the news, but never helped Xu Bangrui with anything.

And Xu Bangrui, after learning the news in advance, still chose to pretend to be deaf and dumb, showing that he was completely ignorant before that.

Life is like a play, it depends on acting.

Everyone was performing hard on the stage of Wei Guogong's mansion, just waiting for the last chance to seal their throats with the sword.

The two left Nanjing City at the same time according to the agreed time, met quietly in a temple outside the city, told Liu Shiyan what they were going to do, and asked him to help in secret.

Liu Shiyan, who knew about the family affairs of Duke Wei's mansion, would naturally not refuse, and agreed to Xu Pengju's request.

In Liu Shiyan's view, they sincerely believe that the Bo family can stand together in such a matter. After all, no one in the Ming Dynasty knew that the relationship between the two families was bad. Just don't admit it.

Liu Shiyan wrote a letter to Jiang Bao, his colleague and friend in the Ministry of Rites, asking him not to receive Xu Bangrui when he came to the Ministry of Rites in the future. In order to prevent Jiang Bao from refusing, Liu Shiyan even threatened Jiang Bao with the evidence he had of crimes.

Faced with such a situation, Jiang Bao was coerced into agreeing, and ordered his officials to do so.

As long as Xu Bangrui cannot register in the Ministry of Rites, he will naturally not be able to go to the Imperial College.

However, his brother Xu Bangning would not have such a problem. He easily signed up at the Yamen of the Ministry of Rites, and then reported to the Imperial College. As for whether he will go to the Imperial College on time in the future, that is of course another matter.

Not only that, Wei Guogong Xu Pengju also arranged for his subordinates, Zheng Rujin, who was an assistant teacher in the Imperial College, to spread rumors slandering Xu Bangrui, and these rumors were all about Xu Bangrui, the eldest son Xu Bangrui, who escaped and went to Jiujiang Mansion when Japanese pirates invaded Nanjing last year.

As for why such rumors were spread, the reason is actually very simple. There must be a plausible reason for Nanjing Ministry of Rites to reject Xu Bangrui's application.

The rumors that Zheng Rujin spread outside naturally became the best excuse for the yamen of the Ministry of Rites to refuse Xu Bangrui to enter the Imperial Academy.

At the same time, in order to prevent other officials from the Ministry of Rites from rebelling, Zheng Rujin took out the property given by Duke Wei Xu Pengju to bribe the officials of the Ministry of Rites, so that everyone can keep silent about Xu Bangrui.

For such a shot, Mr. Xu Bangrui was obviously a little caught off guard, and suddenly lost his position.

Seeing that victory was in sight, Xu Pengju also put down his guard and agreed to marry the Wei family of Jiujiang Prefecture.

In fact, it wasn't that Wei Guogong Xu Pengju felt that his eldest son was powerless or that Wei Guangde couldn't do anything even if he helped, but because the Wei family sent people to Nanjing and asked for a letter of approval.

Either agree, or give up the marriage in shame.

When Xu Bangrui was asked to go to Jiujiang Mansion to discuss his daughter's marriage, Xu Pengju nodded and agreed. Naturally, he didn't want to slap himself in the face at this time. Besides, his daughter is indeed grown up, and it's time to talk about marriage.

(End of this chapter)