Jiang Wuque was particularly happy when he summoned this year's new top scholar, for two reasons: one was that this person won two first prizes in the imperial examination, and the other was that it was rare for the Jin Guo Mansion to have someone who could serve as an official.
The new number one scholar is sixteen years old this year, his surname is Jin and his given name is Yu.
Jiang Wuque closed the brilliant article in his hand, his eyebrows and eyes were full of satisfaction, and he asked His Highness with a smile, "Jinyu, I am very pleased that the Duke of Jin's Mansion has produced a top scholar like you."
Because the late emperor used the gentry to support the poor in the first half of his life, there were very few daughters of the gentry who were able to become successful and take on important responsibilities, and most of them were playboys and second-generation rich kids.
In his later years, the late emperor was extremely disappointed with the gentry because of the abolition of the crown princess. He promoted officials from humble backgrounds, and the gentry officials were suppressed and excluded by officials from humble backgrounds.
It was not until she ascended the throne that the balance between the nobles and the commoners was achieved. However, the number of young people among the gentry who could enter officialdom was less than that of those from the common people.
In places like the Duke's and Earl's Mansions, the younger generations mostly rely on the influence of their ancestors, only know how to enjoy and squander, and gradually decline.
Nowadays, there are almost no people like Jin Yu who are able to work hard and get the highest score in the imperial examination.
Jiang Wuque was happy. As the emperor, she did not want to see the rise and fall of the poor and the aristocratic families. What she wanted to see was that the power of both sides in the court was similar so that they could check and balance each other.
Jin Yu, the top scholar, represented the power of the gentry, which made Jiang Wuque very pleased.
She was happy and granted Jinyu a wish, "But make it clear in advance, I only have one son, and he will marry into Prime Minister Wei's family when he reaches the age of 15 next year." So it was impossible for her to marry a prince.
Jiang Wuque was talking about marrying Jiang Xinli into the Wei Mansion like an ordinary family, not inviting Wei Shu into the palace to be a son-in-law who would not be involved in state affairs.
Jin Yu hurriedly shook her head, lifted her skirt and knelt on the ground, begging: "I do want to ask the emperor to grant me a marriage, but not to marry His Royal Highness the Prince."
Jiang Wuque became interested, and said with a long ending "oh", smiling: "It seems that you have found someone you like."
Jiang Wuque smiled, tapping the tabletop with his fingertips, saying, "As the daughter of the Duke's Mansion, it should be easy for you to marry a man, but now you insist on passing the imperial examination and asking me to grant you a marriage. Is it possible that someone in your family is obstructing you, or is it that the man's family disagrees?"
Jinyu lives in a large family with many people, complicated affairs and high threshold. If the man she wants to marry is a child from an ordinary family, it would be inappropriate and the Duke would probably not agree.
Jiang Wuque nodded and agreed, "Tell me, I will make the decision for you."
Jin Yu couldn't hide the joy in her eyes when she heard this. She raised her head, bowed her hands and said, "The person I want to marry is Wei Miao. I beg Your Majesty to grant my wish."
Jiang Wuque paused, wondering if he had heard wrongly. He frowned and asked uncertainly, "Who are you going to marry?"
Jin Yu repeated, "Wei Miao, son of Prime Minister Wei."
She lowered her eyelids slightly and raised the corners of her mouth to smile bitterly, "I am afraid that the Left Prime Minister will not be satisfied with me, so I am asking you for an imperial decree to grant me marriage."
Jiang Wuque pondered in silence, thinking that if it was just for you, Wei Min might be satisfied, but if the Duke's Mansion behind you was taken into account, she would definitely not agree.
"This..." Jiang Wuque regretted that he had said so much just now. He shook his head and chuckled, "It's just a coincidence that Wei Xiang took a rare sick leave today, and you ended up asking for her son's marriage."
Fortunately she wasn't there, otherwise if she had rejected it in person, it would have been so awkward for the two of them.
"I'll tell you the truth," Jiang Wuque walked down from the dragon chair and raised his hand to help Jin Yu up. "You are handsome and promising. You are already the top scholar before you are twenty. You have a bright future and you are the daughter of a duke. With such a superior family background and status, if you asked to marry someone else, I would agree immediately. But if you want to marry Wei Miao, I really can't agree for Wei Min."
Although Jin Yu was very outstanding, Jiang Wuque still couldn't agree to her arranged marriage with Wei Miao. She knew how much Wei Min loved his son, and she might not be interested in the Jin Guo Mansion behind Jin Yu.
The Mansion of Duke Jin Guo was a large family with many miscellaneous matters to attend to. In a family like this, there must be many men in the backyard, and there would naturally be many shameful intrigues and dirty tricks, which the Wei Mansion did not have.
Wei Miao, who grew up in the clean Wei Mansion with a backyard and was pampered by everyone since childhood, would probably be eaten to the bone in such a mansion.
Not to mention that Wei Min disagreed, even if she were in his shoes, she would not be willing to let the simple-minded Miaomiao, who she had watched grow up, marry into such a smoky and chaotic backyard.
Jinyu should know all these.
Jin Yu bowed her hands and said to Jiang Wuque, "I understand that Prime Minister Wei loves her son, and I also know her concerns. Three years ago, I talked to my mother about giving up the hereditary rights of the Duke's daughter and moving out of the Duke's mansion to start my own business. My mother agreed at that time."
"After I marry Wei Miao, I will not let him suffer from the Duke's Mansion, so I dare to ask Your Majesty to be a matchmaker for me." If these things had not been dealt with, she would not even dare to mention the marriage.
Although Jin Yu is a princess, she is not loved by the Duke in his mansion. Three years ago, when she had not yet achieved any fame, the Duke was naturally very happy to hear her say this and nodded in agreement. But now that she has become the top scorer in the imperial examination, her mother is afraid that she will not let her leave the mansion easily.
The reason why Jin Yu mentioned this old story in front of Jiang Wuque was that she hoped to let the emperor know that she had set up her own business so that her mother would not regret it.
Jiang Wuque felt that there was something fishy going on when he heard this. "You made this decision three years ago? Did you make up your mind to marry Miaomiao at that time?"
Jin Yu was a little embarrassed and lowered her head and said, "Actually, it was earlier."
Previously, when talking about the affairs of the court, the newly crowned top scholar had unique insights and experienced comments, but now he looked shy when talking about his sweetheart.
Jiang Wuque couldn't help but laugh, "Okay, okay, considering your infatuation, I will go to the Wei Mansion on your behalf and act as a matchmaker."
Jiang Wuque raised his hand and patted Jinyu's shoulder, saying, "But we have to make it clear in advance. I can't guarantee whether it will succeed or not."
Jin Yu knelt down in gratitude, "Thank you, Your Majesty."
Wei Min has seldom taken sick leave during all these years as an official. Now that she is nearly 40 years old, it is not that she is in poor health, but that she has the vague idea of retiring and returning to her hometown, and is slowly handing over her power.
When Jiang Wuque arrived, Wei Min was trimming flowers and plants in the mansion. He looked very leisurely and did not look sick at all.
"You seem to be taking it easy." Jiang Wuque complained, "I am so busy with official duties that I can't handle them all. If I had known that you were free, I should have asked Shiwu to put the piles of documents on the table into sacks and bring two horse-drawn carriages to you when I came."
People who came to the Wei Mansion to visit relatives and friends always brought gifts, but Jiang Wuque was the only one who wanted to give her all the memorials every time he came.
Wei Min smiled, his hands still scissoring flowers, "I just took the medicine not long ago, and A Ruan didn't let me go to bed early, so he gave me the scissors so I could move around and sweat more. Who knew you'd be here the next moment."
The two of them are like a king and his subject in public, but behind closed doors they are old friends who have known each other for many years.
Wei Min's illness wasn't actually serious, she just caught a cold. She had been thinking about resigning from her official position for the past two years, and since A'ruan was worried, she simply took a leave of absence.
How could Jiang Wuque not know what she meant? He frowned and sighed, "The princess is still young, and Xiao Shu is also young. The children are not old enough for us, the older generation, to let go of them without any worries... Can you and A'ruan stay in the capital for a few more years?"
If the two of them returned to Qingping County, it would not be so convenient for them to meet again in the future.
Jiang Wuque was reluctant to let him go, so he said, "Look, you are old, you are already old and you are just retiring to your hometown. How many ministers in the court are like you, who want to quit before they are even forty? I tell you, I don't agree."
"I didn't say I'm leaving now," Wei Min said as he carefully trimmed the branches, "I'm just making preparations first. Xiao Shu hasn't gotten married yet, Miao Miao hasn't gotten married yet, and A Ruan and I don't have any grandchildren yet, so we can't just leave whenever we want."
Jiang Wuque smiled and said, "That's right."
Speaking of Wei Miao not being married, Jiang Wuque then remembered the main reason why she came to the Wei Mansion. She looked at Wei Min's hand holding the scissors and asked carefully, "Do you know this year's new champion Jin Yu?"
Wei Min smiled, "I only took one day off, how could I not know? I was the one who marked her paper in the imperial examination. Her writing was brilliant, not full of pedantry. It was within my expectations that she would win the first and second place."
Jiang Wuque heard Wei Min's tone, smiled slightly, raised his eyebrows and said: "It seems that you have a good impression of her."
Wei Min did not comment.
Jiang Wuque coughed lightly and said, "Today I summoned Jinyu, and she knelt down and begged me to grant her a marriage with someone. It happened that you were not here, so I don't know which young master she was begging for."
Wei Min had no interest in which young man the new number one scholar liked. She just responded to Jiang Wuque's words with an "Oh?" and focused all her attention on the flowers under her scissors.
There was a flower planted in the pot, and A'ruan asked her to trim the branches when she had nothing to do.
Jiang Wuque suppressed his laughter, cleared his throat, and said, "She didn't ask for help from anyone else, but Wei Miao, the son of the current left prime minister Wei Min."
Jiang Wuque had been staring at Wei Min's hand holding the scissors, and saw that as soon as he finished speaking, Wei Min used the scissors to cut off the flower that he had just carefully trimmed for half a day with a pair of scissors. With a "click", there was only a bare flower stem left in the pot.
Wei Min narrowed his eyes slightly, "Jinyu? The daughter of Duke Jin's family?"
Wei Min finally placed the scissors that he had been reluctant to put down since he came from Jiang Wuque on the plate beside him. He raised his hand to take the towel handed to him by the servant and wiped his fingertips, ignoring the flowers that fell on the ground.
Wei Min sat opposite Jiang Wuque, took a sip of tea, and asked, "So what did you say?"
Jiang Wuque laughed as he looked at the pot of flowers that Wei Min had cut bald. He said as he laughed, "This flower should have been planted by Ruan. I'll see how you explain it to him later."
Wei Min was startled, then frowned and looked at Jiang Wuque. Not being changed by her, he narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, "You didn't agree, did you?"
Jiang Wuque laughed so hard that his stomach hurt. He drank a sip of tea to suppress his laughter. "If I had agreed, why would I come here today?"
"I'm just here to act as a matchmaker for her."
Wei Min rejected it without any hesitation, "This marriage is not possible. You know that the backyard of Duke Jin's mansion is full of chaos."
Jiang Wuque naturally knew that she had told Wei Min again what Jin Yu had said in the morning.
Wei Min narrowed his eyes, "Oh, I remember now, Miaomiao met Jinyu once when she was four years old."
My goodness, he has been thinking about her son since then, how brave he is!
The author has something to say: Small theater
Little Goldfish: Suddenly a little scared_(:зゝ∠)_
Miaomiao: My mother has a very good temper =v=
Little Goldfish: I'm afraid that among all of Jiang, you and your father are the only ones who think this way T﹏T
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