The twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, two days before the wedding.

Young Master Zhao had intended to catch up on some sleep, but was woken up by his father at four in the morning. Zhao Shouzheng ordered him to wash up, change into new clothes, and then led him to the backyard where the father and son lived, and into a back room in the middle.

The room was brightly lit with candles, and Zhao Liben and Zhao Shouye were both there.

Zhao Hao walked into the house and greeted his grandfather and uncle, and his eyes were attracted by the long altar behind the incense table.

There was a shrine in the middle of the altar, upon which was enshrined the thick genealogy of the Zhao family.

Under the family tree were four solemn red sandalwood tablets, on which were inscribed:

"My great-grandfather, Mr. Zhao, guarded the spirit tablet of the ancient Lord."

'The spirit tablet of my great-grandfather, Lord Zhao, whose name was Shoucheng Mansion'.

'The spirit tablet of my great-grandfather, Lord Zhao, whose taboo name was Shouping Prefecture Lord'.

'The spirit tablet of my great-grandfather, Lord Zhao, whose taboo name was Shouji Mansion'.

"Grandpa, who are these people?" Zhao Hao thought they were from his father's generation. He put his hands together and bowed, while curiously asking, "Are they all my deceased uncles?"

"Yes, you will inherit their clan name and carry on their family lineage in the future. So kowtow and return to your clan name quickly." Zhao Liben said indifferently.

"Grandpa, no matter how dissatisfied you are with my father, you can't replace him for me." Young Master Zhao looked back at Master Zhao Er behind him and muttered softly, "Besides, you can't replace four with one..."

"Why would I change your father?" Zhao Liben almost fainted. He glared at him and said, "That beast is still your father!"

"So from now on, I will have five fathers? Why do I need so many fathers?" Young Master Zhao said with a smile, "Isn't one enough for me to worry about?"

"Father is much less worried now." Mr. Zhao protested in a low voice.

"These four have all become tablets. What do you have to worry about?" Zhao Liben said with a roll of his eyes.

"That's really unlucky." Zhao Hao couldn't accept it.

"Do you think I'm willing to go through all this trouble?" Zhao Liben blew his beard and glared, "Isn't it because you insist on marrying five wives? This is the only way! If you only marry Xueying... I won't bother to meddle in your business!"

"Mingyue is married to the emperor..." Zhao Shouzheng weakly expressed his attitude. In fact, it was not his attitude...

"Shut up, you puppet!" Zhao Liben shouted with a frown.

"What about Miss Zhang..." Zhao Shouzheng muttered again.

"Shut up, you traitor! Now that you've grown strong enough, do you want to rebel?!" Zhao Liben was so angry that he raised his hand to hit him.

"I'm neither a traitor nor a puppet..." Zhao Shouzheng retreated repeatedly, but kept talking.

"I'm going to beat you to death, you beast!" Zhao Liben picked up the candlestick on the altar and was about to cut his head.

"Dad, I'm going to be a father-in-law the day after tomorrow!" Zhao Shouzheng quickly held his head and kept a safe distance...

Over there, the old man was arguing with Mr. Zhao, while Mr. Zhao made it clear to Zhao Hao:

"You are not an official, so you can marry as many wives as you want. Ordinary people will only say that you are loyal and do not want your women to be concubines. But after all, 'there is a serious legal obstacle, and there is no second wife'. We, a family of scholars and officials, still have to be more particular."

"I understand." Zhao Hao nodded. He knew what Zhao Shouye meant.

With the establishment of the system of primogeniture as the core of the patriarchal system, the marriage system of China has been "monogamy with multiple concubines" since the Zhou Dynasty, and it has been fixed in the form of law in successive dynasties.

However, rituals are rituals, laws are laws, and social reality is another picture. The phenomenon of "equal wife and legitimate wife" is a wave that has always existed in the ritual order, disturbing the ideal of ritual and the authority of law of the ruling class. Although it has always been prohibited by law, it has always existed as a matter of course in social life. Moreover, it has become more and more serious from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Ming Dynasty, and its living environment has become more and more tolerant.

For example, the "five queens coexisting" mentioned by Zhao Shouye just now was a feat of Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian's son-in-law, Emperor Tianyuan of Northern Zhou Yuwen Yun. Before him, it was not uncommon for Wei and Jin scholars to marry "left and right wives" for a wider range of marriages.

By the Tang Dynasty, when people were more civilized, it became a common practice to have two wives and one legitimate wife, and no one thought it was wrong. During the Tang Dynasty, the practice of having two or three wives was particularly prevalent. In the household registers of the Tang Dynasty, it was very common for a family to have two or three wives. If a court official already had a wife, the emperor would often grant him another wife and confer titles and honors on her together with the original wife, as a common means of winning over the court official.

This trend gradually declined after the rise of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty. However, after the rise of Xinxue in this dynasty, the ethics and morals were greatly damaged, and the phenomenon of having two wives together became common again. Moreover, the people did not care about this phenomenon that was obviously against the etiquette, but instead regarded it as a manifestation of affection and righteousness.

Huizhou is the place where the phenomenon of co-wifery is most common. Because Huizhou people generally marry early, they will go far away to do business after getting married at a young age. The wife stays at home to serve her parents-in-law and raise children. In this evil patriarchal society, as long as men have money, they will not be sexually repressed because of the separation of husband and wife. Therefore, after Huizhou merchants make money, they often marry another wife outside and live a happy life with both ends.

The government would not intervene in such family affairs. Even Hai Rui was too embarrassed to bring up the Ming Dynasty Law to sentence someone for bigamy.

We are all men. Do you think that you are nobler than me who has two wives because you have one wife and one concubine? In fact, it is not as noble as mine...

~~

But Zhao Liben had a far-reaching idea. First of all, breaking the law is breaking the law, and it cannot become legal just because Shaq did it. So if this kind of thing is not handled well, it will eventually become a handle in the future.

It doesn't matter if the emperor grants the marriage now, but what if the emperor turns against him in the future? Or what if the censor is determined to investigate strictly according to the law? Even if he can't deal with Zhao Hao, he can still make things difficult for Zhao Shouzheng at the critical moment.

The bigger the person is, the more cautious he must be. He must not leave any troubles behind. Even if he thinks there is no problem now, he must consider what to do if the situation gets worse in the future. So Zhao Liben thought about it and decided to learn from the businessmen in his hometown.

The Huizhou merchants' "two big heads" are no joke. Their families are large and their businesses are huge. If this problem is not handled properly, when they get old, their two wives and children will fight over the family property and their brains will be torn.

Even if they made a will and clearly understood the division of the family property, if they did not give the second wife a legitimate status in law, the son of the first wife could go to the government to file a complaint for "bigamy", claiming that the will was invalid and forcing the second wife to leave the house.

Although this is not easy, it is possible to do it as long as you can get the connections and are willing to spend money.

In order to solve this hidden danger, the smart Huizhou merchants got inspiration from Emperor Jiajing's idea of ​​"inheriting the throne but not the heir". They looked for uncles and aunts without children from their own clans, and prepared rich gifts to ask them to inherit the clan lineage without leaving the house, so that one person could take care of the incense of two houses, and in this way, the two wives could be equal without distinction of age.

Because although the husband of the two rooms is the same person, under the clan law, he is "two unrelated people". Naturally, he can marry a wife each. As long as the heirs of the two rooms inherit the two clan branches separately in the future, it does not conflict with the law prohibiting bigamy.

Of course, this kind of de facto bigamy, which is like covering one's ears and stealing the bell, is actually taking advantage of a legal loophole. In other dynasties, it would have been patched up in minutes.

Only in this dynasty, after Jiajing, this patch can never be applied...

Because if you patch it, you are denying the system of concurrent succession. If you deny the system of concurrent succession, then Emperor Jiajing's succession to the throne will be illegal, and his father Emperor Xingxian will have to be moved out of the Taimiao immediately!

Ordinary people may have forgotten it, but all scholars will remember it clearly. Because Emperor Xiaozong insisted on monogamy and one child, Emperor Zhengde had no brothers and he himself was infertile. As a result, after his death, he could only give birth to his cousin, Prince Xing Zhu Houcong.

After Zhu Houcong succeeded to the throne as a vassal king, he became the late Emperor Jiajing. Soon after Emperor Jiajing ascended the throne, he started a three-and-a-half-year-long dispute with the former officials of Emperor Wuzong, led by Prime Minister Yang Tinghe, over who was his father.

The ministers believed that since he was the heir to the throne as a vassal king, he should naturally acknowledge Emperor Xiaozong as his father. As for his biological father, King Xingxian, he became his uncle.

Jiajing was not happy when he heard this. He came to be the emperor to abuse his power, but he lost his father first. What's the point of being the emperor? At this time, the newly-appointed Jinshi Zhang Cong submitted a memorial, saying that Your Majesty came to inherit the imperial lineage, not the heir. Just like the folk "Jianzhao", it is not necessary to adopt a son to inherit the ancestral lineage. It is completely possible to inherit two branches of the ancestral lineage. Therefore, the imperial lineage does not necessarily have to be inherited by father and son. It is suggested that Jiajing should still take his biological father as the test.

Jiajing now had a theoretical basis, so he insisted on "succession but not heir". I will be the emperor, but I will not recognize my new father...

Although the ministers of the "succession faction" came one after another, the young cabinet minister Yang Shen led the crowd to raise his arms and shout at Zuo Shunmen, "The country has nurtured scholars for 150 years, and today is the day to die for justice!" Then he asked for a hammer and got it, and was repeatedly beaten in the court and exiled...

However, the tough Emperor Jiajing still won the "Great Ceremony Debate". He inherited the throne through the elder brother's succession. He posthumously honored his biological father as Emperor Xingxian and later conferred him the title of Emperor Xian. He also changed the title of Emperor Xiaozong to "Huang Bokao".

Therefore, the joint succession of the emperor to the throne cannot be criticized. If you deny its legitimacy, you are denying the legitimacy of Emperor Jiajing. Then the legitimacy of Emperor Longqing will also be denied, and the legal system of his descendants inheriting the throne will be shaken!

Therefore, unless there is another imperial transfer in the Ming Dynasty, this patch can never be applied again.

Thus, a perfect closed loop was formed, and the legitimacy of the two big families was solved. In this way, the Huizhou merchants only needed to strictly separate their property in the two houses, and their sons would inherit their own property, without having to worry about the two houses fighting over the property.

Moreover, Zhao Hao was the only son of Zhao Shouzheng, which was exactly the same as the situation of Emperor Jiajing at the time, so the reasons for concurrent succession were even more sufficient.

This will completely eliminate future hidden dangers.

So only by knowing and understanding the law can you break it...Oh, it’s not against the law!

Although it is a bit too much to take on five tasks at the same time, the more capable you are, the more work you should do.

In addition, Zhao Liben has always been worried that he would insist on not distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate children. This would solve the hidden danger of his sons fighting over the family property after he dies.

Zhao Hao would never have thought of these things, so the saying that having an old person in the family is like having a treasure is absolutely true!

After understanding the cause and effect, he happily burned incense for his four uncles, and then bowed four times, and then started the incense burning of these four families...

P.S. Ever since the war, I have been thinking about how to make Zhao Hao marry five wives. Phew, I finally solved this big problem. No need to be stuck, speed up! Write another chapter!