Quickly wear it and insist on being an old man forever

Chapter 339 I Really Want to Live Another 11 Years ()

Qidong Zhao family, Zhao house.

In fact, the place where the Zhao family lived could no longer be considered an ordinary house, but a small castle, or a small city. Nearly 30,000 people in Qidong depended on his family, farming for them, working for them, and even protecting their safety.

The reason why the aristocratic families were difficult to deal with in the early days was that their roots were mainly in the local areas. On the one hand, they sent some of their clansmen to serve as officials in the court to ensure that they had people in the court. On the other hand, they still managed local forces. The local aristocratic families who could easily mobilize thousands or tens of thousands of private soldiers were naturally not so easy to deal with and suppress.

This is also the main reason why there were very few collective punishments in the Tang Dynasty.

The official clan member is in the court, while the rest of the clan members are still in their hometown. If only the official and his parents, wife and children are dealt with, the rest of the clan members in the local area can naturally tolerate and accept it. But if the entire clan is really exterminated, the rest of the clan members far away in their hometown will definitely have enough time to learn the relevant news. Then, do you think they will stay where they are and wait for death or start a rebellion?
Even if the uprising failed, as long as they could plunge the area into chaos, they could at least hide some of their people.

It is impossible for the whole clan to be exterminated.

It's impossible to be wiped out at once.

They were later wiped out by Huang Chao, mainly because they gradually gave up running their local areas and flocked to Chang'an, and because they monopolized the imperial examinations and offended too many poor people, which ultimately led to their own destruction.

Of course, these are still far away.

The Zhao family of Qidong is still the largest family in the local area. The current head of the family is the retired Anxiang County Magistrate. He currently has a son who is the county magistrate in Huaiyang, and another son who is a fifth-rank ceremonial official in Shendu. In addition, there are several clansmen who are serving as county magistrates in some places, or serving as staff officers and generals in the army. These are all the family's support.

Local families provide them with resource support.

They provide official support to local families.

If one does not want to rebel, it is quite necessary for someone in the family to be an official. If a family has no one holding an official position for two or three generations, the family will soon become poor, and the family's original land assets will quickly be swallowed up by other rising families.

If the family’s foundation is not good enough.

If there is no one to hold official positions in a generation, the country will decline.

Why do I mention their family? Because a group of women in their family, with the support of their grandmother, are arguing with the current head of the family, Zhao Qiong, and are arguing about going to Shendu to take the exam.

That is the talented women selection organized by Bai Sheng.

"Mother, why are you getting involved? A group of noble ladies from aristocratic families traveled across mountains and rivers to go to the capital of the gods to participate in the selection of talented women. Is this reasonable?"

"To say she is entering the government is just to be a female official. Being a female official is not entering the government. She is just the leader of a group of palace maids. What is the difference between her and those eunuchs and eunuchs?

It would be fine if the current emperor were a man.

Maybe there is a chance to become a concubine in the harem.

But it is obviously impossible for the current emperor to have a harem!

Moreover, you don't even look at how old the current emperor is. A new emperor has new ministers, and the same goes for female officials and eunuchs. You will just be wasting your time.

Why do you have to go against me for this matter?"

Obviously, this was not the end yet, Zhao Qiong continued:

"Also, don't you see how old your granddaughters and great-granddaughters are? Some are about to get engaged, and some are already engaged and are waiting to get married next year or the year after. Now they are going to the capital to participate in this talent selection. What about their marriages? Are they going to cancel the engagement? Cancel the engagement with so many families?"

"If they fail and come back, it's fine. One or two years is barely enough. But if they succeed and become female officials, who knows how many years it will take. That female prime minister Shangguan Wan'er, does she have a child now? She is so old and doesn't even have a child.

There isn't even a particularly clear status.

She was neither a civil or military official of the previous dynasty, nor a concubine in the harem. She did have the status of a concubine in the harem, but that was nothing. She was also a female figure, which was nothing but flattery.

Does she have the ability to be the prime minister?
She is already the most successful among the female officials, but so what? Who respects her in private? I am afraid she won't even have incense and offerings after her death, so please stop making trouble. There is no need for us to join in the fun."

It can be seen that Zhao Qiong was really unwilling to let her daughter, granddaughter, and other younger women of marriageable age in the family participate in this so-called talent selection.

Because he really felt that there was no hope.

Even if she was chosen, what would happen? What kind of help could a female official bring to the family? Shangguan Wan'er was as good as a female prime minister. Did she bring much benefit to the Shangguan family? Basically no benefit.

But if you are accidentally involved in any conspiracy or coup, it may bring disaster to the family at any time.

In his opinion, the current capital of the gods is like a powder keg, even if the emperor is dying soon, he is still messing around, and there is a possibility of mutiny or other messes at any time. Now it is the best way to stay away from the capital of the gods to protect himself. He has even written a letter to inform his son, the fifth-rank ceremonial officer in the capital of the gods.

Let him find a way to transfer out as soon as possible.

“Since the children want to go, you can let them try. It’s a good opportunity for them to meet some talented women from all over the world.

I don't understand what you said, but I know that this opportunity is rare. It has never happened in the past few hundred years, and it may not happen again in the future.

It is definitely enough to be recorded in the history books.

How can being a good wife and mother compare to leaving your name in history books? Do you believe that thousands of years later, there are still people who know the name of Shangguan Wan'er, but it is not certain whether anyone in our ordinary family knows her?

If I weren’t too old.

I want to try it.

And do you really think that these girls in our family can stand out? Some of them can't even recite the Four Books and Five Classics. But it won't do any harm to go and see and meet other girls from noble families. Maybe they can also broaden their horizons in the capital of gods, meet some noble boys with higher status, and become good friends with the two families.

Okay, just tell me whether you agree or not.

Do you agree that I can take them there myself? "

For Song Qiaoyan, she grew up listening to the legendary stories of Princess Pingyang Zhao when she was a child, and in her later years she watched the current emperor gradually change from an empress to the second saint, and finally ascended the throne and became the emperor.

Unlike other men in the family who cursed at this and thought it was a hen crowing at dawn and reversing the yin and yang, she actually admired it because Princess Pingyang Zhao made her realize that women could also become generals and ministers, and the current emperor made her realize that it was also possible for a female emperor to become one.

Unfortunately, she is old and powerless.

Now that the empress has started the selection of talented women, many younger generations in the family are eager to try. She really can't bear to let her younger generations miss such a good opportunity. Even if they cannot succeed, they can make such a trip and participate in it, so that when they are older, they can proudly tell their children and grandchildren about the past events.

Therefore, her attitude is still very firm.

"It will delay the children's marriage!"

"The mother of the current emperor didn't marry into the Wu family until she was forty-four. No matter how much time they have been waiting, they are only fourteen or fifteen years old now. How long can they be delayed?"

"How do we explain this to our in-laws?" "To be frank, if they are dissatisfied, they can write to His Majesty. If they really have the guts to do so, I will absolutely respect them."

After arguing for a while, neither side could convince the other because they each had their own considerations. They were deadlocked for several days until a message came from the God.

Only then did the deadlock break.

That means Shangguan Wan'er was appointed as prime minister.

It was not like before, when everyone just called her the female prime minister out of politeness, but she was really appointed as the prime minister.

The Tang Dynasty had a system of multiple prime ministers, which meant that there was not just one prime minister in the court, but several at the same time, sometimes two or three, sometimes five or six. But even so, the value of a prime minister was still much higher than that of other ordinary officials, and appointing a woman as prime minister was unprecedented and earth-shaking.

When Bai Sheng just proposed this idea.

The opposition from the ministers was quite strong.

However, Bai Sheng choked them all back with one sentence, that is, I already have a female emperor, so why can't I have a female prime minister? Yes, no matter how high the position of the prime minister is, it is lower than that of the emperor. Once they belittle her, it is actually equivalent to belittling Bai Sheng, questioning and opposing the legality of Bai Sheng's ascension to the throne and rule.

In the end they had no choice but to compromise again.

But they did not compromise to the end. As a result of their efforts to argue with reason and present facts and reason, Shangguan Wan'er did not become the Foreign Minister, but the Internal Minister.

That is to say, she still does the same work as before.

There is just an additional position of prime minister.

The power was limited to the communication between the inner court and the outer court, and it did not have the power to interfere with the three provinces and six ministries.

It is a bit similar to Feng Bao in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, Zhang Juzheng was in charge of external affairs, and he was in charge of internal affairs. He was once called the Prime Minister. His position as the Prime Minister was the same as Shangguan Wan's previous position as the Prime Minister. They were both in reality but not in name, and were known for fawning and flattering.

All officials could see that Bai Sheng was very determined, so they could only make concessions and let Shangguan Wan'er become the prime minister while trying to reduce the actual power of Shangguan Wan'er as the prime minister. At the same time, they produced a lot of evidence to show that Shangguan Wan'er herself had no merits and was not familiar with the affairs of the prime minister. She was not qualified for the job and it was already quite good for her to be the internal minister.

The most important thing is that Shangguan Wan'er herself retreated at this time, so Bai Sheng had no choice. After all, if she wanted to help Adou, Adou had to be able to help her!

Shangguan Wan'er herself is not strong enough.

What can she do?
So this is the case. Although Shangguan Wan'er was promoted to prime minister, it was actually just the operation of the internal minister.

But the internal minister and the external minister are both ministers. To put it bluntly, the internal minister is closer to the emperor. Although it is said that serving the emperor is like serving a tiger, as long as one can gain the trust of the emperor and have power far exceeding that of the external minister, it is not an outrageous thing.

As soon as this news came out, those who originally wanted to participate in the talent selection became more enthusiastic, and some people who were against their daughters participating in the talent selection were also tempted.

Those who know that their daughters are talented and often lament that it is a pity that their daughters are not boys are especially excited.

The result was that the talent selection process, which had been progressing at a relatively slow pace, seemed to have been accelerated, with the number of participants from all over the country increasing several times.

The head of the Zhao family finally gave in.

Agree to send someone to escort the female family members to the capital for the exam.

The only difference was that this time his mother was also quite interested and insisted that she must go with him.

And he said he would be willing to die in the capital.

I must see this talent search.

The Zhao family patriarch couldn't persuade his mother, so he had no choice but to agree, and added more guards to ensure that his mother and the women of the family could get to the capital safely. In addition, he had to prepare a lot of gifts, and negotiate with the relatives who had agreed on the wedding date before to postpone the wedding, etc.

Of course, such behavior is not uncommon.

After all, it's not just their daughter who is tempted by this. Daughters from many families are also tempted. It's just that some families are relatively open-minded and willing to let their daughters try, while some families are more old-fashioned and simply lock daughters who have such rebellious ideas at home and don't let them go out.

Even if Bai Sheng had issued a special decree to express it.

No one can stop the talented women from coming to Beijing.

The effect is also average. Those who don't let their daughters leave the house are still unwilling to let their daughters leave the house. Even if they want to resist and report to the police, they can't even leave the house. How can they resist and report to the police? In addition, in this day and age, the word "filial piety" is enough to crush them to death, so it is really useless.

But no matter what, no matter how much the big families favor sons over daughters these days, they will not completely give up their daughters.

There is still some training for my daughter.

It’s just that the resources invested in him are not as good as those in his son.

So there really was no shortage of talented women, nor of relatively open-minded parents and elders. Most importantly, the social atmosphere at that time was far less oppressive than it would be later, so starting in April, many talented women gathered in the Divine Capital. Bai Sheng specially vacated a dozen of the confiscated princes' mansions to house those talented women, and also sent many imperial guards to patrol nearby.

This ensures their safety.

Although the Divine Capital is generally safe, no matter how safe it is, it can only be said to be generally safe. No one can guarantee absolute safety. If there is a scandal by accident, or if a thief breaks into the residence of those talented women and does something bad, then the selection of talented women cannot be carried out, which would be a slap in Bai Sheng's face.

So of course you have to be as cautious as possible.

It is better to make more seemingly unnecessary preparations than to try to make up for something when an accident really happens!
At the same time, because this matter was assigned to Princess Taiping by Bai Sheng, Princess Taiping was also very busy during this period. She needed to determine the overall assessment process on the one hand, and receive visits from many people on the other.

The imperial examination system during the Wu Zhou Dynasty was relatively straightforward, and basically followed the system of the Tang Dynasty, which was that cultural level was one aspect, but background and connections were more important.

He was born into a noble family and had high-ranking officials to endorse him.

Or the prince or princess could help say hello or something.

The qualification for passing the imperial examination will definitely be greatly improved.

The selection of talented women at this time was considered by many people to be somewhat similar to the imperial examination for women. After all, those who succeeded could enter officialdom. So naturally, some people began to imitate the imperial examination system, using their connections to send some of their past poems and songs to Princess Taiping, hoping to get her comments, or directly using their connections to send gifts.

If they were not very close or familiar with Princess Taiping, they would ask someone they knew to contact Princess Taiping indirectly, hoping that she could take care of his daughter.

It's always the same.

There is not so much fairness and justice. Even though the participants in the assessment are all girls from aristocratic families, the family backgrounds of the girls are also different in status. The Five Surnames and Seven Famous Girls are far superior to the others.

Princess Taiping was so annoyed that she had a headache.