Chapter 75 075 The tool man is confirmed. …
Mr. Zhang Ying is a person that Master Kang values very much, and he is also a very legendary figure in history.
He passed the imperial examination at the age of 26 and became a Jinshi at the age of 30. He entered the officialdom through the imperial examination, started as a Jinshi and editor in the Hanlin Academy, and finally became the Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Palace. He truly reached the highest position among officials and lived a wonderful life.
The most terrifying thing is that not only was he the prime minister, but his son Zhang Tingyu was also the prime minister. The configuration of father and son being prime ministers is not very common in the entire history, not to mention that both father and son are famous prime ministers, the kind that will go down in history, which is even rarer.
What is even more awe-inspiring is that Zhang Tingyu had four sons in total. Except for Zhang Tingyu, the other three also passed the imperial examination and became Jinshi. Zhang Tingyu's third brother Zhang Tinglu even won the second place. He was truly a family of five outstanding men.
In addition to his sons, Zhang Ying also had daughters who left their names behind.
His third daughter, Zhang Lingyi, was a famous female poet who left behind many poems and is known to the world. She is the only one of his four daughters whose name was recorded in history.
But no one knew that his youngest daughter was actually more talented and elegant than his third daughter. Moreover, compared with his third daughter Zhang Lingyi, who was 26 years old this year and already married, this youngest daughter of the Zhang family was only 16 years old and still unmarried, and needed to find a good husband.
In fact, it stands to reason that Zhang Ying has now been promoted to the position of Minister of Rites and also serves as the President of the Hanlin Academy. He must have met quite a few young talents throughout the year.
Why hasn’t a suitable handsome and talented man been found for the younger sister of the Zhang family? The main reason is that the younger sister of the Zhang family is Zhang Ying’s daughter who comes later in life, and he dotes on her very much.
But this girl was extremely intelligent and often said that ordinary men were not worthy of her. Zhang Ying also agreed with her. Therefore, although many editors entered the Hanlin Academy every year, there were very few suitable ones in terms of age and talent. Even if there was a suitable one, he was reluctant to marry him to the little girl of the Zhang family too early.
After all this time, it has been delayed to this time. If they don't see each other again, the little sister of the Zhang family will really become an old maid.
Although Zhang Ying and his younger sister were not in a hurry, Zhang Ying's wife was extremely anxious. She even asked her second son Zhang Tingyu to look for a suitable person among his classmates.
Zhang Tingyu, who would become a famous prime minister in the future, was now only a 22-year-old scholar who had not yet passed the imperial examination. His classmates were only scholars and students, and there was not even a juren. Of course, he was not worthy of their little sister.
However, Mrs. Zhang always took this matter seriously, which inevitably made Zhang Ying think about it and help his daughter to keep an eye out for a suitable partner.
It was just by chance that he saw Wang Yao.
This time, because Master Kang wanted to thoroughly investigate the imperial examination cheating case, he specially invited Zhang Ying to be the chief examiner of the provincial examination.
When he was the chief examiner, Zhang Ying had some impression of Wang Yao. After Wang Yao, along with the Fourth Prince Yinzhen and Xianyu, uncovered a cheating case in the imperial examination, he became more and more impressed with this talented and handsome young man.
The most commendable thing is that Mingming Xianyu is not in a position to show up in public because of her unmarried status. If Wang Yao did not take the initiative to say it, all the credit would probably be attributed to him and the Fourth Prince.
The Fourth Prince was originally the investigator appointed by Master Kang, so Wang Yao's contribution would be very eye-catching, and it would definitely be beneficial to his future development in officialdom.
However, he always said that it was his sister who gave him advice behind the scenes, and he had no intention of usurping Xianyu's credit. This honesty and respect for women made Zhang Ying very satisfied - since he was able to raise four sons who became Jinshi scholars, and four daughters who were well-educated and well-mannered, he was naturally different from the ordinary pedantic Confucian scholars.
His approach, which at least appears to be "equality between men and women," is actually very ahead of its time.
At least in Master Kong, it is unique.
Of course, she can't be compared with Wang Ziteng. After all, Xianyu's cheap father has already spoiled her like a baby. They are simply not on the same track, so there is no need to compare them and attack them at a lower level.
The more Zhang Ying looked at Wang Yao, the more he liked him. He even considered arranging a marriage between Zhang's younger sister and Wang Yao.
However, Lord Zhang is the future Prime Minister after all, and he is definitely different from ordinary parents.
He takes his time in doing things and always hits the target with one strike after being fully prepared.
Therefore, he first investigated Wang Yao's background.
Since Wang Yao is being investigated, Wang Ziteng, the father, must be the focus of the investigation.
Wang Ziteng has been serving as the governor of the Beijing Camp for several years. He has a very good reputation and his ability is obvious to all. What's more rare is that there is no problem with his character. How can we see this? It must be from his attitude towards his daughter.
Zhang Ying felt the Wang family's love for their daughters from the way Wang Yao often mentioned his own sister.
There would be no problem for their precious little daughter to marry into this kind of family, as she would definitely not tolerate any grievance.
He felt relieved.
Next is the sister-in-law Xianyu.
Since she is so smart, yet so low-key - no matter how Wang Yao and the Fourth Prince praise her for her ability in front of Lord Zhang, she is always very low-key and never shows up in public. This really demonstrates the calm and humble virtues of a lady from a noble family. It can be seen that she has first-class family education and must have a very good mother behind her.
On this point, Mr. Zhang was wrong.
It's not that Madam Liu is bad, it's just that she's confused. But to be honest, she's quite sincere when it comes to treating people. As long as you can accept that she's not very capable but always wants to stand out, then she's really a lovely person...
In short, Zhang Ying studied the Wang family from top to bottom and came to the conclusion that the Wang family was worth marrying into.
Then we must speed up its implementation.
These days, a good son-in-law is as sought after as an official position in a popular government office. If you hesitate, it will be easy for someone else to get there first.
What Zhang Ying did was to go directly to Master Kang and ask him to help arrange a marriage - this is very interesting.
After all, Master Kang had wanted to personally arrange a marriage for Wang Yao.
The person for the arranged marriage was also considered carefully. He wanted to keep him in the royal family and make him the husband of a certain princess... Yes, he had thought of the Fifth Princess at first. After all, the Fifth Princess was the most suitable age for Wang Yao, and the Fifth Princess also had a good relationship with Xianyu, so the two sisters-in-law would get along well in the future.
Yes, Master Kang actually had the same idea as Liu, and also wanted his sons and daughters to marry each other off.
However, unlike Liu who was criticized by the whole family for "overestimating his own abilities", "bringing shame upon himself" and even "digging his own grave", Master Kong's approach is very commendable.
After all, the royal family is different from ordinary families. If he values a family, he can marry the daughter of the family as his daughter-in-law, and marry his own daughter to the family as his daughter-in-law.
This kind of marriage will make the bond close enough and there is no need to worry about it breaking up in the future.
Anyway, Master Kang has many sons and daughters, so this kind of marriage is just a common occurrence for him and it's nothing at all.
Therefore, Master Kang's original plan was to marry Xianyu to the Fourth Prince Yinzhen, and the Fifth Princess to Wang Yao.
In this way, the Wang family formed a close alliance with their royal family - yes, the old man had long disliked the four kings and eight dukes.
The old men who fought with our ancestors to establish the country are long gone, and now these people are just relying on the influence of their ancestors to eat some free meals. However, if they are not honest and want to jump around, form cliques and engage in personal gain, that would be too much.
Master Kang had already been keeping an eye on several of these families, such as the Prince of Beijing's Mansion and the Jia family, and he just needed to find an excuse to clean them all up.
But at this moment, he suddenly had a new inspiration.
Instead of trying to deal with them one by one, it is better to disintegrate them from within. That is the fastest and most effective way.
It would definitely be best to find a helper who knows all about the families of the Four Kings and Eight Dukes.
After much deliberation, Master Kong finally chose the Wang family in Jinling as a breakthrough point.
First of all, the Wang family is also from Jinling Province, and it is a big family. It is said that it is one of the four major families of Jinling Province's "Official Protection Talisman" circulated among the people.
The Wang family is only ranked third among the four major families, while the Jia family is the leader of these four families.
With such convenient conditions, it would be a shame not to make use of them.
In addition, no matter whether it is the four major families or the four kings and eight dukes, except for the families that Master Kang wants to focus on, the other families are not powerful and have no capable descendants to use.
That's it. If you don't have the ability, you really can't do this job.
It's not easy to find someone who has a good family background, connections, ability, and brains. I finally found someone like the Wang family who is both useful and capable, so I must hold on to him.
What?
Zhang Ying actually values the boy from the Wang family? He wants him to be the son-in-law of the Zhang family?
this……
If you think about it carefully, it doesn't seem to be impossible.
The Zhang family represented the pure stream of Han literati, and could just help him purge that bunch of Manchu and Mongolian aristocratic parasites who were messing around and causing chaos.
By this time, Master Kang had already vaguely discovered the flaws of the Bannerman system, but after all, the Eight Banners system was the foundation of their Qing Dynasty and could not be easily shaken. He could only find a few typical examples and punish them severely to serve as a warning to the rest.
So, Master Kang happily agreed to Zhang Ying's condition and promised that after Wang Yao passed the provincial and palace examinations in the spring of the following year, he would directly arrange a marriage for him with the younger sister of the Zhang family.
With the guarantee from Master Kong, Zhang Ying felt relieved.
The Wang family knew nothing about this and had no idea that their two children had already been arranged by Master Kang.
The main reason is that the Wang family has been busy with something recently.
After Wang Yao passed the imperial examination, he continued to prepare for the imperial examination in the spring of the following year. Xianyu, on the other hand, continued to work and unexpectedly became an idol for the girls in the powerful circle of the capital.
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