When Zhuge Weidao got off the car outside the gate of the Marquis Mansion in Wuxiang, he walked into the Marquis Mansion accompanied by his two men, Guo Xiaobao and He Tianran, and walked all the way through the lobby, second hall, third hall, inner hall, and Yanlou. When running away to the back house.
He finally knows what it means to be as deep as the sea, and what it means to be a top family member!
Such a large prince's mansion is one of the mansions owned by the king, two princes and three princes of the Zhuge family.
When he was studying in Beijing, he looked at the mansions that once belonged to this prince and that prince, and he felt envious in his heart. He wanted to shout, "This is what a man should do." I didn't expect that today I would actually become a descendant of the Zhuge family, a top family in the new Ming Dynasty!
Walking on the spotlessly swept brick road, you can see the curtains of the houses hanging low, and there are layers of flowers, grass, mountains and rocks on both sides. The male servants and Japanese ladies wearing white and cyan servant uniforms walked with their heads lowered, and when they saw Zhuge Weidao, they all bowed respectfully.
Zhuge Weidao immediately... somewhat understood the "dissatisfaction" of King Zhuge Wuzhong and why Zhuge Weidao had to work so hard.
Although the Zhuge family, due to the "silent prophecies" of their ancestors (which never predicted the future of China) and the existence of the "Twenty Volumes of the Book of Heaven", their actions over the past hundred years can be regarded as a model family of self-denial and love for the people. .....But a gatekeeper is a gatekeeper after all!
King Zhuge Wuzhong may have seen the trend of the Zhuge family becoming more clans during his lifetime, but he was unable to change it, so he was so angry in the portrait.
And Zhuge Weidao, who was born in this glorious and prosperous top family and was extremely talented himself, was certainly not willing to fall from the top of the mountain. King Zhuge Wuzhong just left behind a military advisor system, which allowed the talents among his concubine descendants to climb up the ranks based on their abilities. Of course, the qualifications to climb up can be obtained by passing the exam, but whether you can climb to the position of military advisor depends on your own talents.
That's why this Zhuge Dao uses all kinds of methods, just to stand out from the eight hundred Zhuges...
Zhuge Weidao was thinking as he followed Guo Xiaobao along a long walkway and soon arrived at the entrance of a garden. Looking up, a cornice is hidden among the rocks. Someone seemed to be playing the piano upstairs, and the sound was a bit hasty and messy. Even a layman like Zhuge Weidao could tell that the person playing the piano was in a restless mood.
Amidst the sound of the piano, Zhuge Weidao followed Guo Xiaobao into the garden, then followed the stairs built among the rockery rocks and went up to a high attic. The attic faces the Shicha Sea. Sitting inside, you can not only see the boats passing by on the Shicha Sea, but also the scenery of Feng Pavilion, Dragon Tower and the Sky Han on the other side - there is more than one Prince Wu's Mansion over there, as well as Prince Cheng's Mansion and Prince Zhennan's Mansion. , Zhendong Palace, a total of four palaces, all lined up along the north bank of Shichahai. It is really a wealth that connects to the sky!
Zhuge Weidao stopped outside the attic, looking at the scenery and thinking about his relationship with his stepmother.
Just as he was thinking about it, a maid standing outside the attic reported in a low voice: "Old madam, the second master has arrived."
The music inside suddenly stopped, and then an angry voice came out: "Daozi, come in and talk."
Entering the pavilion, Zhuge Weidao saw a plump, beautiful middle-aged woman in her thirties, sitting behind a table with a guzheng, and two maids serving her on both sides. Zhuge Weidao guessed that this must be his stepmother, Guo Rong, Guo Xiaobao's aunt.
Zhuge Weidao's eldest brother, Zhuge Weixue, was also sitting on a chair nearby. With a wry smile on his face, he pointed at Guo Rong and clasped his fists, probably asking Zhuge Weidao to pay homage to his stepmother quickly.
After all, the stepmother is also a mother!
Seeing this scene, Zhuge Weidao breathed a sigh of relief - it seemed that the relationship between the original Zhuge Weidao and his stepmother was still very pure, so he hurriedly bowed respectfully: "My son is the Dao, and I say hello to my mother. "
"Snapped!"
The stepmother Guo Rong, who was furious at the sight, had already slapped the table, which shocked Zhuge Weidao.
What does this mean? This woman spent money on herself just like Empress Dowager Zheng, so she should think highly of herself. Why did she fall out with her now?
Zhuge Weidao, the amnesiac Zhuge, was confused, but Zhuge Weixue over there had already spoken: "Second brother, mother is angry because of your private life-long decision with Natalie."
What?
Zhuge Weidao was even more confused this time. Does this matter have anything to do with her becoming a stepmother? Zhuge Weixue, the eldest brother and father, did not do well! Zhuge Weixue is the current Marquis of Wuxiang and the head of the family!
When Zhuge Weixue saw Zhuge Weidao's confused look, he just sighed. His brother, who was good at pinching and calculating, was already a candidate military advisor, but he hadn't recovered much of his memory yet.
"Second brother," Zhuge Weixue added, "I also just found out that my mother has been helping you to match up with the eldest lady of the Dahei family. You brought this matter up yourself, but now..."
"What? The Dahei family?" Zhuge Weidao was stunned again and again, "Which country are they from? Why is this surname so strange?"
Zhuge Wei said: "Japanese, do you remember the four major chaebols in Japan?"
Of course Zhuge Weidao remembers the four major chaebols...Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Yasuda, but there is no Daikoku family among them!
"It's not very clear." Zhuge Weidao asked, "Which four families?"
Zhuge Weidao sighed: "They are Sumitomo, Daikoku, Goto, and Tagawa. Among them, Sumitomo made his fortune by developing the Besshi Copper Mountain. The ancestor of the Daikoku family was a mint and opened the Tsuneshisho Mint to mint silver coins for the shogunate... ....”
"Ginza Daikokusune..." Zhuge Weidao had already remembered, "Is that Goto the one who holds the gold throne?"
"Yes, yes, one makes silver coins and the other makes gold coins," Zhuge Wei said. "The Tagawa family is the Zheng family of Qianzuo, the ones who make copper coins. In fact, their family cannot be considered Japanese. They are a branch of the Zheng family in Japan. Today's Japan , except for the hereditary shogunate Tokugawa clan, these four families are the richest... After the Japanese Guoxue we launched the Reform and Founding of the People's Republic of China, these four families followed the shogunate to invest in industry and commerce, and secretly engaged in human trafficking. , and made a lot of dirty money. If the legitimate daughter of the big black family marries into our family, the dowry will not be less than one million silver dollars, right?"
"But aren't Japan and our Ming Dynasty enemies?" Zhuge Weidao asked with a frown.
Zhuge Weixue was speechless when he asked this question - he actually just found out that his good brother and stepmother Guo Rong were planning to marry into the Daikoku family, Japan's largest conglomerate, and now it seems like he was behind the plan. Same.
However, Zhuge Weixue, the eldest brother, does not dare to criticize his amnesiac brother now, because he already knows that his younger brother has passed the military advisor examination and is already an alternate military advisor - no one can become a military advisor even if he has lost his memory, and he passed unanimously. .
"Daozi," Zhuge Weixue said to his brother patiently, "our relationship with Japan is very complicated and cannot be generalized. The main enemies of us in Japan are the samurai class, especially those poor middle- and lower-level samurai. I dreamed of fighting with us. If we were defeated, we would probably die. If we won, we would be rewarded.
The chaebols and big businessmen in Japan do not dare to be our enemies. Businessmen are very practical. Comparing how much steel, coal, oil, grain, and electricity Japan has will make everything clear. How can Japan be our opponent? Moreover, apart from mining in their country, the real profitable business of those big Japanese businessmen is controlled by us! Fight with us? Isn't this crazy? Therefore, Japan’s four major chaebols have a very good relationship with us. It is also common for the legitimate daughters of the four major chaebols to pay huge dowries to the concubines of the eight major aristocratic families. "
"Mother," Zhuge Weidao looked at the angry little mother and said with a smile, "I have Natalie now, so I'd better push this marriage aside."
"Pushed it away?" Stepmother Guo Rong was almost furious. She pointed at Zhuge Weidao's nose and said, "This is the marriage he begged me to arrange... He said that this marriage can not only win A large dowry can also bring the Zhuge family closer to the Japanese chaebols, who can then use the chaebols to control the shogunate and the feudal lords. With these relationships, it will not be difficult to find a military advisor position in the future."
Zhuge Weixue saw his little mother explode, and quickly helped to persuade him: "Mom, don't be anxious, let's just let this matter...he has to let it happen, right?"
When Guo Rong heard this, she became even more angry. She pointed at Zhuge Weixue's nose and shouted: "Now your brother is confused and has fallen in love with a Rakshasa girl. Are you, the eldest brother, confused too? I don't think so." go!"
After saying this, the stepmother stood up suddenly, kicked over the piano table in front of her, and rushed out without looking back, leaving only the two Zhuge brothers staring at each other.
