The first thousand one hundred and eighty chapters family sacrifice event
The matter of offering sacrifices has always been a pain point for the Guo family. Every year when every household is preparing to offer sacrifices to their ancestors with great fanfare, the Guo Song family is always silent and the whole family hastily makes sacrifices to their ancestors.
Princess Xue Tao also persuaded her husband many times to move the Guo family's ancestral hall in Lingzhou to Chang'an. However, her husband was extremely stubborn on this matter.
On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, a guest came to the Jin palace, Guo Ziyi's son Guo Shu. Currently, there are three left among Guo Ziyi's eight sons, the sixth son Guo Ai, the seventh son Guo Shu, and the eighth son Guo Ying.
Guo Yan is currently the head of the family. He is not in good health and does not go out much at the moment. Guo Shu and Guo Song have a good personal relationship. They are rich in experience and have deep qualifications. After he came back from Chengdu, Guo Song wanted to make him the prime minister, but Guo Song was rejected.
Shu declined, and Guo Song had no choice but to appoint him as a bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion, which was the former counselor. He had the power to make suggestions on major military and political affairs, but had no decision-making power.
Guo Song met Guo Shu at the Qilin Hall. In fact, he was a little confused. Why did Guo Shu come to visit him at night? His intuition told him that Guo Shu's visit at this time should be related to the New Year clan festival.
"Back then, my father always regarded His Highness as his nephew. When he passed away, his last wish was that His Highness could become a member of the Guo family. However, things are unpredictable, such as the Jingyuan mutiny and the disastrous Chao Gang. We had to go with the flow. Many things have changed.
Let's leave it alone, now that we brothers are all old, we don't want to regret that our father's last wish cannot be realized!"
Guo Shu spoke very implicitly, but his meaning was very clear. He hoped that Guo Song would return to the Guo family.
In fact, based on the qualifications of the Guo family and their special relationship with Guo and Song, the Guo family should be very powerful in the court, but the fact is the opposite. The Guo family has been very quiet in these years, and their voices can hardly be heard.
There is no news that any of the children of the Guo family took part in the imperial examination or joined the army as generals. Only one Guo Shu served as advisor.
The root of the problem lies in the two heads of the Guo family, first the Duke of Zhao Guo Xi, and then the consort Guo Wen. These two heads of the family were both royalists. Like Dugu Dashi, they were very stubborn royalists and resisted the revolution led by Guo Song.
The imperial court strictly prohibited the children of the Guo family from serving as officials or joining the army.
It is precisely because of the royalist thinking of Guo Xi and Guo Ai that the Guo family and Guo Song have basically cut off contact in the past ten years, making it impossible to realize Guo Ziyi's last wish.
So today, Guo Shu suddenly came and proposed that Guo Song return to the Guo family, which was a bit abrupt.
Guo Song was silent for a long time. He was really not mentally prepared. Of course he was not a child. Children would get angry and ignore each other, but he would not. He was more concerned about weighing the pros and cons.
"How is the situation of your family head?" Guo Song asked with a faint smile.
Guo Yan was Emperor Daizong's consort and a well-known royalist. How could he suddenly change his mind and return to the Guo family?
Guo Shu sighed: "My brother fell down two months ago, which caused his condition to get worse and worse. Now he has lost all his memory and no longer recognizes me. A few days ago, the whole family agreed that I would
Become the head of the family."
It turns out that the head of the Guo family has changed. No wonder he was invited. Guo Song smiled slightly and said, "Congratulations to Brother Six on becoming the head of the family!"
When Guo Shu heard Guo Song call him sixth brother, he felt relieved and said: "This year is a big festival for the Guo family, and the Lingzhou Guo family will also come. If you can come, we will welcome you with the highest courtesy!"
Guo Song said calmly: "Let me think about it!"
Guo Song did not agree or refuse, so Guo Shu immediately left.
Guo Song returned to his study, pacing back and forth in deep thought, repeatedly considering the pros and cons of the matter. He no longer had any hatred for the Guo family in Lingzhou. The current head of the family was Guo Zhi, who was kind to him back then, but Guo, who he hated,
Shichang and his son Guo Sheng are both dead.
It's just that the children of the Guo family in Lingzhou have not contributed much to the court, and they have not served in the army. They are generally mediocre. Guo Song does not want to give them wealth and power out of thin air. That is what Zhu Si can do. Guo Song will never do this to the court.
This is a stupid thing that chills the hearts of the ministers and officers of the armed forces.
But Guo Ziyi's family was different. When Guo Ziyi was alive, he had a status like a military god in the Tang army. He had no problem even replacing the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.
Although Guo Ziyi has passed away, his family is still respected by others. It is only good for him to establish a relationship with such a family. At least they can influence the position of many royalists.
At this time, the door opened, and his wife Xue Tao walked in carrying hot ginseng tea.
"Husband, what happened?"
Xue Tao saw that her husband was worried. Did Guo Shu bring some bad news?
Guo Song smiled bitterly and said: "The Guo family is holding a big festival this year, and Guo Shu just invited me to participate. He is now the head of the Guo family!"
Xue Tao was startled and asked: "Husband, did you agree?"
Guo Song shook his head, "I didn't agree or refuse, I just said I would consider it."
"Does your husband want to go?"
"Very contradictory!"
Guo Song smiled helplessly and said: "Political considerations, I should go, but emotionally, I can't accept it."
"Husband, do you want to hear my opinion?"
Guo Song trusts his wife very much and will listen to her opinions on many important decisions.
Guo Song said happily: "Say it!"
Xue Tao said to her husband softly: "If your husband wants to take the next step, he must consider his family background. Just like the Sui and Yang Dynasties relied on the Yang family of Hongnong, and the Li and Tang Dynasties relied on the Li family of Longxi, the emperor's family must be the best in the world."
Only with status can aristocratic families from all over the world recognize you from the bottom of their hearts, and the support of a family is very important. The support of a family will prevent the emperor from being alone."
Guo Song nodded, "It makes sense, keep talking!"
Xue Tao continued: "Perhaps the husband is very powerful and has high prestige among the military and civil servants. No one dares to have different intentions and no one dares to oppose the husband. But the husband has to consider his descendants. What will happen to his descendants a hundred years from now?"
What to do? Take Cheng'er as an example. He will inherit the throne of his husband in the future. He will not have the achievements of unifying the world like his husband, nor will he have the followers when he started his business. He only has two brothers. In the future, he can only rely on the support of his relatives and family.
Is this what your husband wants to see?"
Guo Song was silent. His wife hit the nail on the head when she said that although he did not need the support of his family, he did need the support of his sons and descendants. The support of the royal family was very important to them. He could not only think about the present, but also for his descendants.
For his own sake, since the Guo family took the initiative to compromise, he really shouldn't put on airs anymore.
Xue Tao smiled again and said: "If my husband feels that it is difficult to save face, I have a good idea!"
"Madam, please tell me what a good way to do it?"
Xue Tao smiled slightly and said, "Let Cheng'er attend the Guo family's grand ceremony for you!"
"good idea!"
Guo Song's eyes lit up. This was a good idea. Since he avoided his own embarrassment, he also admitted that he belonged to the Guo family.
"Okay! Let Cheng'er attend the Guo Family Festival on my behalf."
Xue Tao reminded her husband again: "Since my husband has admitted that he belongs to the Guo family, he must show his respect to the Guo family."
"That's a good reminder, madam. I will consider it after the new year."
After solving a major issue, Guo Song felt much relieved. He picked up the tea cup and took a sip of hot tea. He remembered something and asked again: "You said you wanted to see me this afternoon. What's the matter?"
Xue Tao smiled and said: "Let's talk about it another day! It's just a casual thing, not a serious matter."
Guo Song said with a smile: "I'm very relaxed now and just want to chat about other things."
"I will tell you what your husband wants to hear!"
Xue Tao also sat down and said with a smile: "Didn't my brother Xue Qing come here at noon? I thought he was here to see Cheng'er, but later I found out that he came to ask me for a favor, to ask me to accept an adopted daughter."
"What's going on?" Guo Song was somewhat interested.
"Cheng'er has a good friend named Bai Juyi, husband, please remember him!"
Guo Song nodded, "Of course I remember that he ranked fourth in Jinshi this year. He is very talented and writes excellent poems!"
"This Bai Juyi is in love with the famous actress Shi Hongxiu. Shi Hongxiu is also a teaching assistant at Tianlai Lefang. She is only seventeen years old this year. I heard that she is also a talented woman. Weiwei likes her very much."
"Please accept this Shi Hongxiu as your adopted daughter?" Guo Song said in surprise.
"Yes, not only did he beg for it, but Cheng'er also came to me to beg for it."
"Why?"
"The reason is very simple, because Bai Juyi's mother did not agree with this marriage. She thought Shi Hongxiu was of too low a background and wanted her son to find a daughter from an official family as his wife."
"What is the origin of this Shi Hongxiu?" Guo Song asked again.
"Like my mother, her father was an old Confucian scholar in Anyang County, Xiangzhou. He opened a private school and made a living by teaching more than 20 schoolchildren. Her father failed in the imperial examinations for ten years and died in depression five years ago.
Shi Hongxiu and her mother relied on her eldest brother to live, but she was disliked by her sister-in-law, so she had to come to the capital to join her aunt. Her aunt taught pipa to students at Tianlai Lefang. Her name was Shi Jie, a very famous pipa musician in Chang'an, and she was about the same age as me.
, I have also met her."
"Looking at it this way, she comes from a scholarly family! Why didn't you agree?"
"Because I'm not an official!"
Xue Tao said with a bit of disdain: "I guess Bai Juyi's mother wanted her son to marry the daughter of the prime minister, so that he would have a backer for his official career."
Guo Song nodded, "It's normal to have such an idea. With Bai Juyi's talent and learning, he can indeed marry the daughter of the Prime Minister."
Xue Tao shook his head, "But that's not what I think. I think the most important thing between a man and a woman is to be in love with each other. In order to please her mother, Shi Hongxiu has stopped singing. It shows that she is very affectionate, and I don't want to see that.
The tragedy of beating mandarin ducks with a stick reappears!"
"So you decided to accept her as your adopted daughter?" Guo Songxiao asked.
Xue Tao thought for a while and said: "I plan to meet her first. If she suits my eyes, there is no harm in accepting her as my adopted daughter!"