Fang Kongzheng was refuted by his daughter and could not continue the topic for a while.
Since ancient times, when it comes to a woman's marriage, the father, as a father, can only consider the arrangement based on the marriage of interests, but it is difficult to convince his daughter emotionally. Especially a serious scholar-official like Fang Kongzhen, who is a straight man, will not understand his daughter's thoughts.
Fortunately, Fang Kongzhen was not the only one in the Fang family who cared about this matter. Just as the father and daughter were getting into trouble, there was a sound of footsteps outside the study.
A middle-aged woman walked in, and it turned out to be Mrs. Fang Wu Lingyi.
Wu Lingyi looked at her husband, then at her daughter, and then helped her husband to persuade: "Ling'er, young people are successful and famous. The crazier they are, the crazier they are. To put it bluntly, Shen Daotai also has this capital maniac, and he's not that big. issues of character.
When your eldest sister married your brother-in-law, she was also picky and critical. In the end, she did not live smoothly for 1989. Our daughter, don't be too demanding, maybe it will be a blessing.
What kind of moral gentlemen did your three aunts marry when they got married? But what happened? One died of tuberculosis within a year, and the other two were local officials and guarded the land, but were captured by the Tatars. Kill. Sometimes, men are opportunistic and flexible, instead of being rigid and easy to break."
These words would normally not be said by other officials, but the Fang family's situation was special, and Wu Lingyi had to lower his moral standards for his future son-in-law.
It's just that several aunts from the older generation of the Fang family were really bad. They all married moral gentlemen and ended up widowed. Wu Lingyi even hoped that her daughter would find someone with "a slightly more flexible moral standard" in the end of the world. You can live a few more years.
His eldest daughter, Fang Ziyao, married Sun Lin from the Sun family in Tongcheng nine years ago. Sun Lin's personal morals were not very good, and he had been living in Nanjing for many years after their marriage, living in debauchery.
But Wu Lingyi felt that this was good, at least he wouldn't rush to the front and die miserably for Ming Dynasty.
The family background of the Sun family in Tongcheng is also very good. Among the uncles and relatives of the older generation of the Sun family, one of them married an aunt of Fang Ziyao, and later left an orphan girl named Sun, who is now the wife of Shen Shuren's cousin Zhang Huangyan.
Sun Lin's eldest brother, Sun Jin, was also an important minister in the court at that time. He was the Minister of Dali Temple. Sun Jin married the niece of the late Donglin boss Zuo Guangdou and the junior sister of Shi Kefa (Shi Kefa was Zuo Guangdou's student).
In the eighth year of Chongzhen, when Sun Jin was serving as minister of Dali Temple, he also handled a major case that was tried by three divisions, involving the confirmation of the guilt of local officials such as An Lufeng after Zhang Xianzhong and other thieves dug up the Fengyang Emperor's tomb.
Sun Jin withstood the pressure and kept Shi Kefa and Huang Degong. When other officials around Fengyang were killed and demoted in large numbers, Shi Kefa and Huang Degong were promoted. Only then did Shi Kefa become the governor of Anlu and Huang Degong became the general manager of Fenglu. soldiers.
Therefore, the Sun family has a very powerful influence in the Tongcheng sect, and is also the hub of the relationship between the Tongcheng sect and Donglin. Sun Jin is not only Shi Kefa's brother-in-law, but also the savior of Shi Kefa and Huang Degong.
It is a pity that although the other children of the Sun family are playboys, Wu Lingyi actually misjudged this eldest son-in-law - Sun Lin seems to have no moral integrity now, but in history, when the nation is in danger, he still has integrity.
Later, after King Lu surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, the Qing soldiers directly occupied the entire territory of Zhejiang and forced their troops to Xianxia Ridge at the junction of Zhejiang and Fujian. Sun Lin also withdrew all the way south from Nanjing to resist, and brought some rebels to help Tang Wang Zhu Yujian in the battle. He died in the end. At the battle of Xianxia Ridge.
Fang Ziling's eldest sister, Fang Ziyao, also embarked on the old path of widowhood, just like her three aunts.
However, Fang Ziling had obviously not experienced any hardships and beatings, and could not understand her mother's painstaking efforts. Listening to her mother mention her eldest sister and brother-in-law, it actually touched her unhappiness:
"What are you talking about! Just don't mention my sister and brother-in-law. Has my sister lived a happy life these years? Even I have heard that my brother-in-law was looking for flowers in Nanjing and bought a famous prostitute Ge Nenniang as his concubine.
Speaking of this matter, this Chen Shuren is even more outrageous. When we were chatting and asking for advice just this afternoon, I even tried to persuade him insinuating that he should not miss important things for selfish desires, but he was not ashamed of it, but rather proud of it. In this regard, he was probably better than My brother-in-law went too far."
Wu Lingyi didn't understand current affairs, so she didn't quite understand what her daughter meant, so she looked at her husband with doubtful eyes.
Fang Kongzhen knew the political situation very well. He coughed awkwardly and taught his wife to read:
"What Ling'er said is that Shen Shuren was jealous of Master Hou's son and intercepted the concubine that Mr. Hou originally wanted to buy as a gift to Zuo Liangyu, a concubine named Li Xiangjun. This led to the crisis in Huangzhou half a year ago. Chen Shuren asked Zuo Liangyu of Wuchang for help but was unable to do so, so he had to come to us, almost missing an important event.
Fortunately, this Shen Shu man had extraordinary military talent. In the end, he did not invite Zuo Liangyu's reinforcements, but he still annihilated Erhe in one fell swoop. It's not easy to talk about this topic, so during the dinner just now, I also gave him a few words of advice. .
But this Chen Shuren is really a bit ignorant when it comes to women... I tried to persuade him, but he seemed to have no regrets, and he was not afraid of offending Zuo Liangyu or losing strong support."
After Wu Lingyi heard this, he finally completely changed his original mentality of trying to match up.
In her opinion, a man's loyalty to the court is just a little flexible, but when it comes to women, it's completely different. At least in terms of judging whether he is suitable to be a son-in-law, this is very important.
Her eldest son-in-law, Sun Lin, was also lustful and ransomed famous Qinhuai prostitutes, but at least he would not delay his future because of jealousy. Shen Shuren has reached the point where he may endanger his own life for the sake of a woman. That would be too dangerous.
Of course, it is impossible for the Fang family to know that all this was planned by Shen Shuren. He deliberately ran against Zuo Liangyu and made Zuo Liangyu fall into the crime of being afraid to move forward and sitting on the fence. He was trapped in Zuo Liangyu and moved to the town to be punished.
At the wine table just now, Fang Kongzhen was also tempted, but Shen Shuren was tight-lipped. His relationship with the Fang family was not close enough to reveal such a big conspiracy.
Shen Shuren still knew his priorities very well. Even if he realized that Fang Kongzheng might want to tell his daughter to him, he would not easily admit his conspiracy. He was not someone who left flaws in his strategy for the sake of women. Always put the overall situation first.
Therefore, of course Chen Shuren had to bite the bullet and say this matter as "I just risk everything for women. I saw Li Xiangjun's stunning beauty, and I was so excited that I would not hesitate to offend Zuo Liangyu for her. There is no other way." considerations”.
The news that he had offended Zuo Liangyu was originally leaked after he came to Jiangling last time to ask for help. So when he came last time, neither Wu Lingyi nor Fang Ziling knew that Chen Shuren had such "bad deeds".
I just waited until this time to confirm the truth and find out whether the outside world was spreading misunderstandings.
As a result, it was confirmed by Shen Shuren himself that he was "lustful and desperate", and of course he made Fang Ziling extremely angry at the wine table. It was absolutely impossible until this matter was revealed.
After Wu Lingyi figured out the cause and effect, he could only sigh: "Well, since that Shen Shuren is so desperate for women, he is not a good son-in-law. You have your own opinion, so just take it easy.
However, I will only grant you grace for this last year. You will be seventeen next year. Your eldest sister also got married when she was seventeen. If you keep prevaricating next year, I will find someone to marry you!"
Fang Ziling had no choice but to accept her parents' ultimatum first.
She couldn't help but wonder why there were so many strange contradictions in this Shen Shuren.
The advantages are so excellent and the shortcomings are so obvious. There is nothing about me that is mediocre. I am either a great virtuous or a great evil.
After returning to the house, like a zombie, she unconsciously dug out "Rizhi Shijian" and "Liu Zeilun", plus a few volumes of the reference book "Zizhi Tongjian", and began to study them together, and it was midnight before she knew it.
The best way to solve the mystery of a person's contradictions is to read his books.
At this moment, Fang Ziling is a bit like a later university Chinese professor who is studying "what kind of person Mr. Lu Xun is" through Mr. Lu Xun's works.
…
Chen Shuren didn't care about these nonsense at all. He came to Jiangling just to discuss political deals with Fang Kongzheng and wanted the support of power.
After several days of negotiation, communication, and private exchange of interests,
The two parties reached a dirty deal on matters such as the use of lijin, the setting of banknote customs, local adjustments of lijin tax rates, and other daily civil affairs decree authorizations... and other matters.
Those people from Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang Prefecture who were dissatisfied with Shen Shuren and felt that Shen Shuren were domineering and came to Fang Kongzhen to complain were all suppressed by Fang Kongzhen and completely betrayed.
After getting all this done, Shen Shuren's civil affairs reform, military training and labor service, and work-for-relief work in the Hanyang Second Prefecture in Wuchang can all be vigorously implemented, and no one can stop them anymore.
Chen Shuren stayed in Jiangling until the end of October. After finalizing all the things that needed to be discussed, on the second day of November, he set out on his way back eastward along the Yangtze River again.
The entire Fang family also went to the pier to see him off, and Fang Ziling also came generously. After all, the two families were family friends, and the relationship between Shen Shuren and Fang Yizhi was that they were the same age.
There was nothing disrespectful about Fang Ziling's farewell to "Brother Nian", even if they had no other relationship, it was appropriate.
After not seeing each other for a few days, Shen Shuren could see that Fang Ziling had become thinner again, probably due to studying too hard. When he was leaving, he joked politely and kindly:
"What? Are you worried that you won't be able to stop talking and talk about my plans with others? You are afraid that if you break your oath, you will be banned from studying for the rest of your life, so you are taking advantage of now to read as much as you can?"
Fang Ziling's face turned red. How can a villain judge a gentleman? She poured the soup from the bamboo tube on Shen Shuren in shame:
"Who is afraid of breaking an oath? Who bothers to talk about those lies of yours? Don't I love reading myself? I've always been like this!"
Shen Shuren smiled proudly, knowing his strengths and weaknesses very carefully: "I have always loved reading so much, how come I am getting thinner and thinner? Next time I see you, if you are thinner than now, it means that you are worried that you will not be able to break your oath. Read and read enough!"
Fang Ziling was speechless, she could only be teased by words, and let Shen Shuren drift away. She was so angry that her teeth itched, and she shed tears looking at Gu Fan's distant shadow.
Wu Lingyi knew that her daughter was thinking too much and didn't want her to suffer. After the boat was far away, she tried to persuade her: "There's nothing to be angry about. It's just a joke."
I think Shen Daotai doesn't want to make you angry, he just wants to persuade you to take good care of your body and stop losing weight again. He is too embarrassed to say it out loud, so he tries to bully you. If you don't want to be ridiculed by him next time we meet, you should take a good rest. .”
Fang Ziling felt better now and gritted her teeth: "I won't be picky about food starting today! Let's see what excuse he has for saying I'm thin next time!"