Chapter 3: Bowing for Five Pecks of Rice
Zhang Yanling was mostly injured. The first time she went out in this life was to go to Xingji City with her father to borrow money from a big house.
When they wake up early in the morning, the family is busy tidying up. Different from the past when they have to put on airs and show off their wealth when going out, this time they have to pretend to be down and out. In fact, there is no need to be too deliberate. Just remove the usual disguises, which is the most real thing at home at the moment. state.
"Father, I want to go with you."
The little beauty Zhang Jue looked timid and pleading to her father.
Zhang Luan showed off the aura of a feudal old stubborn and scolded: "How can a daughter of a harem go out for a walk? Even if you really want to go to the Sun Mansion, you can't show up. Boss, what are you doing?"
Zhang Heling was begging for money from his mother, Jin, with a sullen face: "Dad, wait for me...Mom, one penny is really not enough. I want to buy two for fire at noon. My second brother and I can't have enough to eat each of us. One more penny." Well...hey, thank you dear mother."
Jin dug around and took out two pennies. Zhang Heling put them all in his pocket and said they were keeping them for his younger brother.
Originally, Zhang Luan only planned to take Zhang Yanling out, but Zhang Heling also begged to go with him. Since there were only two boys in the Zhang family, Zhang Luan agreed so he agreed.
"Go early and come back early. The city is not at peace, so don't let any evil spirits get you involved."
Jin was rather superstitious and nagging. Before Zhang Luan and his son went out, he warned Zhang Luan, "eldest son, take good care of your brother. His body and bones are not fully recovered yet. I'm afraid he won't be able to bear it after walking for a long time. Just sit with him, but Qian Don’t cause any trouble again. Dad, if it doesn’t work, just hire a donkey cart..."
"I know, I know, mother, why are you so annoyed? Second brother, follow me, I will protect you."
Zhang Yanling listened, and felt an inexplicable warmth in his heart.
Although he knew that the guy in front of him would not be a toy in the future, as he was familiar with history, the brotherly relationship was stable from beginning to end. Anyway, it was just a nest of snakes and rats working together. The two brothers wore the same pants in terms of not being a thing. Even if the brothers were not united, there would be no quarrel between brothers.
In this way, this big brother can still be paid.
…
…
The farm where the Zhang family lived was located six or seven miles outside Xingji City. At that time, there were many villages and towns surrounding the county. In addition, the Qianli Fertile Wilderness was flat and close to the Grand Canal. It was also close to the official road. Pedestrians coming from the south and the north were crowded, and it was overwhelming. It doesn't seem lonely either.
When they were approaching the city gate, Zhang Luan was still giving orders to his son.
"When you get to the mansion, please be honest. My father is going to use your studies to get a few taels of silver from the mansion."
Zhang Heling heard this with a sly smile on his face: "Dad, you didn't let my two brothers go to private school. If my second brother and I know those two words, can people believe that we want to study and make progress?"
Zhang Luan became angry when he heard this and cursed: "You little kid knows how to play football? If not, how can you say that?"
Zhang Yanling seemed to remind him intentionally or unintentionally: "Father, why don't you tell me about your study in the Imperial College? Dad failed in the provincial examination this year, but with my knowledge, if he can take the exam to be a tribute supervisor in the township, he can study abroad from Beiyong. Wouldn’t it be good to be an official?”
Zhang Luan was startled by these words, with a puzzled face: "Where did you hear this? Don't talk nonsense if you don't understand."
He blamed his son, but these words caused ripples in the old father's heart, so that Zhang Luan was thinking carefully about it for a while.
Zhang Yanling thought to herself, has this opened the Pandora's box in your heart?
Historically, if it weren’t for the fact that you were a Gongsheng student in Beijing and the whole family was stranded in the capital, and it happened to happen that the prince was choosing a concubine, how could such a big pie fall on your head by such a coincidence?
Historically, Zhu Youtang’s selection of the crown prince was carried out hastily after the death of Concubine Wan Guifei in the first month of the 23rd year of Chenghua. It was completed in the same month. There was no large-scale selection across the country. In other words, only those in the suburbs of Beijing were selected. The daughter of the Zhang family was a virgin and settled down. It was precisely because Zhang's family lived in the capital and had some background in the court that the Zhang daughter was successfully selected.
This has to mention Zhang Yanling's two "uncles".
Xu Qiong.
Shen Lu.
All are famous figures in history.
Before the three men arrived at the Zhang family mansion, they met a smiling scholar in a blue shirt. They greeted him from afar: "Aren't you here to visit? But you are going to the county school? Oh, how old are you two?"
But he was Zhang Luan’s classmate.
The two chatted for a while, and the person who came looked at the two brothers who were wearing old and white clothes with some emotion: "Laizhan, I heard that things have not been going well for you recently, and the baby looks like this... I have someone here. The private school is recruiting students, and I will be given six qian of silver per month, and will be able to earn another three to five shi of rice after autumn. The next competition will be three years away, so I have to make some plans for the women and children in the house."
Good things come to light and bad things spread thousands of miles. Recently, Zhang Luan often goes to the city and has to borrow money to make ends meet. This story spread among a group of acquaintances.
How could Zhang Luan endure such insult?
Arrogant and arrogant, he immediately refused: "No, I plan to take the Beiyong exam, so I don't want to go to the big house to talk about it."
"Ah? Then... I wish brother that all your wishes will come true."
When this man said goodbye to Zhang Luan, he had a slightly teasing look on his face. It was obvious that he had long regarded Zhang Luan as a fool with unrealistic ideals, but he was too embarrassed to say it clearly due to human feelings.
Zhang Heling asked with great interest: "Dad, do you want to go to school?"
"What if?"
Zhang Luan glanced at his youngest son, his face a little confused.
The younger son just suggested this to him, but in the blink of an eye he was used as a shield in front of his classmates to refuse help from others when he was in trouble.
Zhang Yanling couldn't help but sigh in her heart, as expected, any father would have a son, and no one would believe him if he was not his biological son.
…
…
When the father and son arrived at the Zhang family's mansion, they didn't go through the front door, but the side door. Zhang Luan probably wanted to be embarrassed, so he didn't go through the front door to borrow money so as not to look bad when he was kicked out.
I knocked on the door, but no one answered after knocking for a long time.
In the end, Zhang Heling became anxious and went up to help his father and smashed it hard, finally calling out the people inside. "Are you in a hurry to wake up? Hey, isn't this the doorman of the second room? Why are you so kind and come to the door?"
The person who came out was the manager of the Zhang Mansion, and he was not very friendly when he saw Zhang Luan and his son. Zhang Luan probably did this kind of thing a lot in the past, and everyone knew the purpose of Zhang Luan's visit.
Zhang Luan smiled and said, "Come and see my second brother. It's almost the end of the year and we can talk about the harvest in the fields."
"Wait first."
Out of sympathy, the other party turned around and went in to pass the message. He first took the father and son to a chicken coop in the side yard to wait.
When Zhang Heling saw the old hen jumping up and down in the chicken coop, he went up to tease it with a straw stick, laughing as he teased it.
Not long after, the steward came out and asked the father and son to cross a porch. Inside was a square courtyard. Zhang Luan asked the two boys to wait in the courtyard while he followed the steward inside to find Zhang Yin.
"Second brother, how about taking a chicken back when we leave and laying eggs for us?" Zhang Heling encouraged his younger brother.
Zhang Yanling said: "Brother, we are here to borrow money. Can you please stop thinking about that sneaky thing? If you don't have a chicken, you won't think that we are the one who did it?"
"Um?"
Zhang Heling looked at his younger brother in surprise.
When I talked about this kind of thing with my brother before, he was much more enthusiastic than him. Why did he teach me a lesson today?
"Second brother, after you received this beating, I always feel that you are different from before. That stick took away your courage? If you don't do it, I will. If he doesn't give me money, I won't do it." Move his chicken coop!"
Hearing this, Zhang Yanling wanted to give this big brother a thumbs up.
You are still awesome.
You are not afraid of heaven and earth. From now on, you will probably regard the Ming Dynasty as the Zhang family in front of you, right?
The two brothers were bored, each holding a straw stick and scratching on the ground. A young man, sixteen or seventeen years old, well-dressed, came in from the opposite door and stepped in front of the two brothers.
"It's you two again? Why are you here?"
The person who came was Zhang Yue, Zhang Yin's second son.
Zhang Heling threw the straw stick to the ground and said aggressively, "Even if this is your home, it is still the Zhang family's land. Who says we can't come?"
Zhang Yue seemed too lazy to pay attention to the two brothers, with an indifferent expression: "Don't follow your father to borrow money again... Oh, save your face, why don't you borrow money from your aunt? They belong to a wealthy family, but we are a small family... …Whose life is better? If you just borrow money and don’t pay it back, one family will be a drag on several families!”
After saying that, Zhang Yue went into the inner courtyard.
"Dogs look down on people."
Zhang Heling waited until Zhang Yue walked far away before cursing.
Zhang Yanling also saw that Zhang Yue looked down on his own family, but the terrible thing was that he felt that what he said was quite reasonable.
When I can’t survive, I don’t think about how to create wealth, I just want to borrow money.
Can you call me snobbish?
The most I can say is that he is upright and speaks his mind.
…
…
The Zhang family is in the main hall.
Zhang Luan was sitting on the guest seat with his head lowered, carefully waiting for Zhang Yin to give a reply.
Making a request to borrow money, waiting for others to find excuses to refuse, and then pulling emotional strings, is the most painful thing for a borrower.
"...Come to see, you don't know the current situation at home. After Mr. Chen became an official, our only support in the court was your family's Xu Hanlin, who was in charge of the Nanjing Hanlin Academy. Although the relationship was somewhat alienated, it was still a bond. . You came to borrow money many times before, and I tried to be as accommodating as possible."
This is about Zhang Luan marrying his sister to Xu Qiong as a concubine to obtain political resources for the Zhang family.
Zhang Yin was willing to lend money to Zhang Luan just for the sake of his brother-in-law.
Zhang Luan sighed: "It's a pity that there are not many places where I can help in Nanjing."
"Whether I can help or not is a secondary matter."
Zhang Yin said, "There is something in front of me that I want to tell you. There is a royal guard in the court who is in charge of the affairs. Uncle Wantong and Wanguo, you should have heard of him. Most of his villages are in the Bazhou area, but we also have some in Xingji. His land..."
"I know."
Zhang Luan said, "The uncles of the Wan family are famous and powerful in Beizhili!"
Zhang Yin nodded: "Isn't this a coincidence? His disciples in Xingji heard that there is a beautiful girl in your family who wants to take her as a concubine. They came to my house to ask about it before, and I told them , your wife has made a betrothal engagement, I'm afraid it won't work out.
"I'm thinking, if you agree to this marriage and get it done, Uncle Wan Guo, a high-ranking family member, will support our Zhang family in the future, no matter whether the Zhang family establishes a foothold in Xingji, or you go to Beijing to study, or even seek a successor Officer, it’s all a matter of one sentence. I can’t make the decision on this matter, you can think about it yourself.”
(End of chapter)