Chapter 1600: The Marquis of Living

On March 18th, the imperial examination results were announced.

The final top three were No. 1 Shen Maoxue, No. 2 Zhang Sixiu, and No. 3 Zeng Chaojie.

Among them, Shen Maoxue was from Xuanfu, Nanzhi, and graduated from Yufeng Academy.

Zeng Chaojie and Zhang Sixiu were both from Huguang. In addition, 25 people in the second class were also from Huguang. The prominent appearance of Huguang fellows this time caused quite a bit of controversy.

People said that this was Mr. Zhang openly abusing his power for personal gain and improving the rankings of his fellow townsmen.

Even Shen Maoxue's dirty laundry was dug up. It was said that because his two sons passed the imperial examination, Mr. Zhang wanted to give them a high reputation so that they would not be out of place when they finally got high marks. So he wanted to find a few talented people to serve as foils.

Zhang Juzheng heard that the most popular scholars at that time were Tang Xianzu and Shen Maoxue. He sent people to win over the two, saying that as long as they came to be friends with our master, they would be guaranteed to pass the exam. And in the future, they would be Zhang Xianggong's men and would surely rise to prominence!

Tang Xianzu was busy rehearsing The Peony Pavilion, and he was also a proud man. He felt disgusted by this blatant deception and refused it on the spot, saying, "I'm sorry, I don't want to be a woman who loses her virginity!"

So he did not go to Beijing to take the exam, but stayed in Nanjing to continue working on his "Peony Pavilion".

However, Shen Maoxue could not withstand the power of the prime minister and the temptation of the top three, so he went to Beijing to study with Jingxiu and Sixiu, and ended up becoming the top scorer in the imperial examination.

People laughed at him and said that he was the top scholar by illegitimate means and was a "connected top scholar".

Zhang Sixiu was mocked as "Sifeng Bangyan".

Even the third place winner Zeng Chaojie was ridiculed as the "third place winner of the hometown friendship".

The top three were made to look disgraced, and the subsequent series of celebrations such as the parade for the top scholar seemed to have lost their flavor.

But at this point, we can only turn a deaf ear and hope that time will dilute the noise.

However, when the selection was made later, a balance was struck and only ten new Jinshi from Huguang were selected as Shujishi, and the rest were placed under the School of Science.

It was really annoying for Zhang Xianggong. Previously, Zhao Hao's disciples had won the top three prizes in three subjects without causing any criticism. But he didn't dare to choose the top prize in order to avoid suspicion. He only won the second or third place, and was scolded.

Could it be that Bu Gu is simply prone to being scolded?

~~

This was just a fleeting thought for Mr. Zhang. He had too many things to worry about and couldn't let such a small disturbance take up too much of his energy.

The next top priority was to select a queen for Emperor Wanli.

The Wanli Emperor would be sixteen next year, the age for an emperor to marry. Empress Dowager Li was very concerned about this matter, and in the first month of the year she issued an imperial decree to select girls from the capital and northern Zhili who were over fourteen and under sixteen years old, had decent appearance, were well-educated, and whose parents had no faults, to enter the palace for selection.

Taizu, who was particularly lenient in his management, stipulated in the ancestral precepts that "all wives, concubines, and imperial concubines of the emperor and princes should be carefully selected from girls of good families" in order to prevent external relatives from causing chaos in politics and endangering the imperial power.

Therefore, except for Zhu Di's Empress Xu, the emperors' concubines were selected from low-ranking officials and small families. If they were children from poor families, it would be even better, as it was said that this would help the emperor cultivate the virtues of frugality and diligence.

It is true that there was no monopoly of power by relatives outside the Ming Dynasty, but Zhu Yuanzhang obviously did not know what it meant to have a good woman bring prosperity to three generations...

Although Zhang Juzheng had some complaints about this, no one could challenge the ancestral precepts that had been passed down for two hundred years.

So he ordered the Ministry of Rites to select more than 450 girls who met the requirements and send them to the Forbidden City for the two Empress Dowagers to review.

After a rigorous comparison of appearance, birth date, behavior, family background, etc., Wang Xijie, the daughter of Wang Wei, the deputy envoy of the Wensi Academy of the Ministry of Works, was finally chosen as the queen.

According to the imperial custom of selecting one empress and two concubines, two other daughters from small families were chosen as concubines.

~~

It should be a great joy for the country, and Zhang Xianggong has always treated Emperor Wanli as his own son, and he is sincerely happy. But he is also worried, because money is flowing like water...

Although Empress Li believed in Buddhism, she was very particular about extravagance and ostentation, and she looked like a daughter-in-law who had finally become a mother-in-law. In March, her youngest son, Prince Lu, spent a full one million taels of silver on the ceremony of crowning.

The money that was actually spent was only three or five hundred thousand taels, and the rest went into the pockets of Wuqing Hou and his son.

The emperor's wedding was even more important than before, and Wuqing Hou was also rubbing his hands in anticipation of making a fortune. After all the calculations by Zhang Xianggong, after going through the whole process of accepting the betrothal gift, asking for the name, accepting the good news, accepting the betrothal gift, and asking for the date, he was afraid that it would cost more than two million taels.

This doesn't even include the cost of next year's wedding...

In fact, it’s not possible to spend that much money, but we have to set aside some money for the embezzlement by the Marquis and his son.

Mr. Zhang can't tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes, but this guy is the only one he can't do anything about and he has to clean up their mess often.

Because Marquis Wuqing is Empress Dowager Li’s biological father.

Wuqinghou was Li Wei, the Earl of Wuqing, who had taken the imperial store from the eldest princess and ran it in a mess. In the Wanli Dynasty, Concubine Li became Empress Dowager Li, and Wuqinghou was promoted to Wuqinghou.

Li Wei and his son have made a lot of money over the years, relying on the protection of Empress Dowager Li, and they dare not take anything they should or shouldn't. Not only does their family control the imperial store and farm, they also monopolize all the goods entering and leaving Liaodong.

Not content with that, the father and son got involved with Lao Xier and took on a big business of making winter clothes for the soldiers of the Nine Frontiers. As a result, they embezzled 80% of the money allocated by the Ministry of War and used dry grass as cotton wool in the cotton-padded jackets.

As a result, last winter, when winter equipment was distributed, dozens of soldiers froze to death in Jizhen alone overnight. Qi Jiguang, the general of Jizhen, was furious and went to Beijing to complain to Prime Minister Zhang overnight.

Zhang Juzheng was naturally furious. He had spent so much effort to rectify the border defense, which had finally started to improve, but someone actually dared to go against the wind and do such a horrible thing, freezing so many soldiers to death, which chilled the soldiers' hearts!

He immediately ordered a thorough investigation. No matter how high the official rank or what the background, once the facts were verified, the person would be executed without mercy!

After checking, it turned out to be Li Wei, that idiot...

Mr. Zhang was completely dumbfounded, but he couldn't just let it go, so he reported the matter to Empress Dowager Li.

Holding the fake cotton-padded jacket presented by Zhang Xianggong, Empress Dowager Li felt humiliated and said on the spot that Zhang Lang... Oh no, Xianggong, don't worry. If a prince breaks the law, he will be punished the same as the common people. I will definitely punish my father according to the law!

How could Zhang Juzheng be so naive? His power came from three sources: first, his status as the Prime Minister and the Emperor's tutor; second, the close cooperation of Eunuch Feng; and third, the Empress Dowager's wholehearted reliance on him.

The third one is the most important. He saw with his own eyes that the Queen Mother could get rid of Gao Huzi with just one word. So after he came to power, he tried his best to please the Queen Mother and satisfy her every request. Sometimes he even felt embarrassed. But this earned the Queen Mother's favor and obedience. How could Zhang Juzheng make things difficult for the Queen Mother?

She took the initiative to persuade him, saying that the Marquis was the emperor's grandfather after all, and the royal family's reputation had to be preserved. How about this, the empress reprimanded him and then punished him to immediately make winter clothes for the soldiers of the nine frontiers. This would be a win-win situation.

Empress Dowager Li was very grateful to Zhang Xianggong for thinking about her, so she called her father to the palace, scolded him, and made him stand in the snow for a long time. Finally, she made Li Wei spit out all the money he had embezzled...

But after the Chinese New Year, Empress Dowager Li forgave her father again. In her simple understanding, her sons' life events should of course be managed by their elders.

Li Wei was also sure that his daughter would not be able to bear to be cruel to him, so of course he had to get back all the money he lost.

Zhang Juzheng was very troubled by this marquis and was even more distressed about money, so he naturally thought of Zhao Hao.

Zhang Xiaojing's belly was getting bigger day by day, and Zhang Juzheng ordered her to stay in the capital to protect her pregnancy and not to run around. Zhao Hao naturally had to accompany her, so after the palace examination, she did not leave the capital. However, Master Zhao was not idle either, and he took advantage of this time to reorganize the Xishan Group.

Zhang Xianggong called Zhao Hao to Wenyuan Pavilion and asked him to represent him in dealing with Li Wei and his son.

Moreover, Zhang Juzheng told Zhao Hao that the total was only one million taels, and he would have to pay the extra amount himself.

Master Zhao agreed with a bitter face, looking like he had accepted a hot potato, but he was actually a little happy in his heart because he had long wanted to meet this greedy marquis.

Mr. Zhao is not afraid of greed for money, he is afraid of people who are not greedy for money... Aren't the people around him together just for the sake of making money?

~~

So after submitting the letter, he asked the Duke of England to accompany him to visit the Wuqing Marquis' Mansion.

When he heard that they were going to Li Wei's house, Duke Ying was very scared, but since Master Zhao had spoken, he had no choice but to risk his life to accompany the gentleman.

In the carriage, Duke Ying reminded Zhao Hao: "When you get to Li Wei's house later, don't eat his food."

"What do you mean?" Zhao Hao asked puzzledly.

"Our emperor's grandfather is extremely greedy. He not only covets other people's money, but also his own money." Duke Ying laughed bitterly, "Since he became the most important relative, we can't just ignore him, so we visited him one after another. But after a few visits, he complained that the tea, snacks and fruits we served were too expensive. So this miser had some fruit snacks made with wax and placed on the table at home."

"Good fellow..." Young Master Zhao took a deep breath and thought that even Grandet had never done this.

"It's really bad luck. I caught up with it not long after it was set up. I'm old and my eyesight is not good. I picked up a fruit and took a bite. Damn..." The British Duke stuck out his tongue with lingering fear and said, "I thought it felt like I had eaten wax, but when I looked closely, it was made of wax, wasn't it?"

"The miser was embarrassed. He quickly explained that it was hot and real fruit couldn't be kept and would attract flies, so he made some fake fruit." The Duke of England said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry:

"And he ordered, 'Quick, bring the real one to the master.'"

"Take one?" Zhao Hao exclaimed.

"Yes, just one is enough. The master is old, and his teeth are falling out if he eats too much..." The Duke of England imitated Li Wei's accent, and after he said that, the two of them burst into laughter, laughing so hard that tears came out.

"Later I realized that I was being too proud. If an ordinary guest had come, he wouldn't have been able to eat any fruit." The Duke of England reminded him, "I heard that in order to avoid this kind of thing, he would put a real fruit on the fake fruit plate. But not everyone can get it. Only distinguished guests can have this treatment. Anyway, it's better for us not to say anything!"

"Yeah, we can't share a fruit between two of us, can we?" Young Master Zhao nodded in agreement, and the two of them started laughing again.

(End of this chapter)