The Great Seminary

Chapter 73 Flower Head
The main residence of the Zhang family in Pingyang, the main house, study, and secret room.

Zhang Qitai lowered his head and remained silent for a long time. He slowly raised his head and looked at Zhang Qiling, who looked very proud. He said in a slightly hoarse voice:

"Why is it that he will be crushed into powder without a doubt?

All the wealthy and powerful families in the world are dedicated to serving the public and keeping to the middle way.

I didn't see that company being reduced to ashes.

Today, our Pingyang Zhang family has eighteen officials of all ranks in the imperial court, and eighteen local officials.

There was also a talented scholar like Zhang Jiuqing, who was chosen as the grandson-in-law by the Prime Minister of Hexiang.

That's enough to serve the public.

The next position of "keeping to the middle" should also be reasonable.

Don't forget, when 'Four Dimensions Lord' was in charge of the cabinet, regulating yin and yang, and had immense power, it was because he was obsessed with serving the public that he lost his duty of 'keeping to the middle'.

As a result, in the past forty years, our Pingyang Zhang family has only had the "head of the family" but no head of the family.

Don't care about the place where you run the business.

Eventually, he was abandoned by the various noble families in southern Xinjiang. After Siwei Gong's death, if any political enemies tried to attack him again, he would just stand by and watch coldly no matter who he went to for help.

And what about Emperor Qi Geng at that time? Did he care about the bloodline of his "closest master"?
The lessons learned from the past should serve as a guide for the future!"

Serve the public and keep to the middle.

'Serving the public' means:

As children of prominent families, if they took the imperial examinations to become officials, they had to be willing to sacrifice themselves for the court.

'Keeping the middle' means:
For the entire family, their stance must be neutral, and even the emperor's decree cannot arbitrarily change it.

From the perspective of the head of a family and the leader of a clan, Zhang Qitai's words are absolutely correct.

But from Zhang Qiling's point of view, this is unacceptable.

"The Hexiang Guild has chosen a son of our Pingyang Zhang family as their grandson-in-law. Doesn't that represent His Majesty's trust and respect?

Moreover, the current dynasty is more than a hundred times wiser than Emperor Qi Geng back then…"

"Zhang Qiling, I don't have your talent and virtue, nor am I as eloquent as you.

Not to mention you, even some of the elders, owners and even managers in our clan privately say that I am of 'average talent'.

But the head of a noble family needs to be moderate and neither too hasty nor too slow, and neither too clumsy.

I won't argue with you about anything else, I just want to ask you, is it right or wrong for the ancient families to adhere to the principle of "serving the public and keeping to the middle"?
Throughout history, are those families that seize opportunities and rise to prominence, flourishing like a fire, or those that maintain a moderate state of mind and manage their families more enduring?

Facts speak louder than words.

It is precisely because Zhang Qiling is so talented and eloquent that he cannot lie with his eyes open.

In the end, he could only stare blankly for a long time, and disappeared in the crystal mirror in indignation.

For the first time in his life, Zhang Qitai won the debate against Zhang Qiling with great pride, but he did not feel any joy of victory in his heart.

A hurricane is coming. How can a small boat ride the wind and waves and escape danger?

Zhang Qitai sighed deeply and walked out of the secret room.

He cheered up and walked towards the living room where Rong Anshan and Rong Anqiu were.

If you want to have the best of both worlds and survive in the cracks, you have to be more considerate to the Rong family in Shuanghu.

Meanwhile, the head of the Zhang family in Pingyang wanted to perform opera in a snail shell, singing, reciting, acting and fighting.

Over there, the new rich man of the Zhang family was directing his men to pack shrimp paste at home, with grunts and noises.

Zhang Gui's business does not have any assistants to direct it.

Fifty strong soldiers, plus the fake Hundred Guards Zhao Fucheng, and the fire chief of the military camp worked hard for a long time before they finally filled more than a hundred cans of mixed fish and shrimp paste.

Zhao Huotou sniffed, smelling the strong fresh smell in the yard and praised:

“The old lady is really good at cooking.

Just by smelling this sauce you can tell it’s made using the raw pickling method, which slowly ferments into a paste.

A 20-jin jar only costs two taels of silver, which is basically free.

Isn’t it said that our governor is loyal to the country, honest and self-reflective, and loves his soldiers like his own sons…”

Zhang Gui, who had just learned that there was such a flatterer in Zhihai Village, was so hot and sweaty after being slapped, that he waved his hands and said, "Alright, alright, Zhao Huotou.

You know my craftsmanship is good, so you should just give me some compliments, but you keep talking. It's almost dark, why don't you hurry back to the barracks.

Don't delay the wife from eating the sweet dumplings and the children from lighting the lanterns."

"Yes, I will take my leave."
"I accept the Governor's reward. I will take my leave."

A group of soldiers, each carrying a large jar of shrimp paste, left.

Zhang Gui watched them go away, smiled slightly, took out five fifty-liang silver notes he had just exchanged from his pocket, and handed them to his mother.

"Am, this is the money for our shrimp paste, two hundred and fifty taels of silver.

Please keep it. In the future, whether you want to follow me to the military camp to enjoy a peaceful life or continue to do prosperous business, it’s up to you.

But even if you want to do business, don't work from dawn to dusk in the future.

Just ask someone to bring over the miscellaneous fish and shrimps, and hire some helpers to clean them. You and your aunt only need to prepare the ingredients and marinate them.

If you want to sell the prepared shrimp paste, you can sell some. If you don’t want to sell it, you can save it.

I'll have someone come collect it every ten days or so."

I know my son is ambitious and would never be greedy for this little fortune.

There must be a reason for doing this, so he quietly accepted the banknote.

My aunt-in-law, Qiedan Jena, was a simple person. When she saw Yang Duojie, she sold ten jars of shrimp paste, which cost less than twenty taels, for more than two hundred taels without saying a word.

I couldn't help but lean over and whispered:
"Sister, Guigui has just become an official, and he is so blatantly buying low and selling high to make money.

Don’t let anything go wrong or cause any trouble.”

Upon hearing this, Yang Duojie glanced at her son who was winking at her, and shook her head.

"Don't worry, big sister, your nephew is now an eighth-rank commander.

The eighth-rank military officer may not be very ostentatious, but the commander-in-chief of the militia is an officer in charge of the government office and has the final say.

There must be at least a thousand people under your command to provide food.

More than two hundred taels of flower money was consumed in a month."

Qiadan Sangjia didn't expect that his aunt knew all this. He widened his eyes and said in surprise:
"Sister, how do you know all this?"

Before Yang Duojie could answer, her second aunt, Qiedan Sangjia, interrupted and said:

"After all, my aunt is the 'female head of stone' of our Stone Corpse Tribe.

When Kui Hehan was still alive, he kept saying that he was as good as a prince in the court, and his elder sister-in-law was as good as a first-rank official.

It’s different from those of us who come from grassroots backgrounds.

Naturally, I understand some official rules.

Now that Guigui has become a respected military general, he naturally understands the rules clearly.

We don’t need to worry about it.”

Yang Kuihehan is Zhang Gui's uncle and the former poor and ambitious ruler of the Shishiman Kingdom.

When he was alive, he lived in a cave all day long, imagining how noble he was, but he couldn't even afford a fine cotton and fur coat in winter.

Although the two wives he left behind were both upright and of good character, they still had some conflicts from time to time.

But this is also human nature.

When Zhang Gui and his mother met him, they thought he was blind and deaf, unable to see or hear.

This time too.

As soon as the second aunt finished speaking, Zhang Gui pretended to be deaf and dumb and shouted:

"Oh my, I've been so busy these past few days, selecting students for the Imperial Examination, delivering invitations, taking military examinations, and serving in the military camp.

We finally replaced the front door of our house before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

Then you can move forward and backward freely.

Okay, enough of the small talk.

Let’s cook the Yuanxiao first and liven things up.”

(End of this chapter)