December 20, early morning.
After breakfast and careful grooming, Zhu Qiyu, his concubine, his beloved concubine, and his entire family arrived at the new residence of Marquis Wuding.
The old Wuding Marquis Mansion was given to the second room and became the Wenxin Marquis Mansion.
The new Wudinghou Mansion is located in Huanghuafang, Dongcheng, close to Chaoyang Gate. It was originally one of Wang Zhen's luxurious mansions. After Zhu Qiyu inspected it, he transferred it to Wuding Hou as a gift of recognition.
Although Zhu Qiyu's family got up early and left early, when they arrived at Wudinghou Mansion, it was already very lively inside and outside.
There were many others who came earlier: Liu Chang and Zhao Xuan got up before dawn and led three thousand personal guards to surround the entire Hou Mansion. Anyone who has not received an invitation today will not be able to come in.
However, the Wuding Marquis Mansion set up porridge tents and held wedding banquets at street intersections farther away.
Whether they are monks passing by, beggars on the street, or ordinary people, they can all enjoy the happiness of the Hou Mansion. Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, tea and snacks, fragrant porridge and steamed buns, wine, meat, vegetables, and fruits were all given away to the outside world.
Not only that, the Wuding Hou Mansion attaches great importance to today's happy event, and even distributes cotton-padded clothes to keep out the cold to poor families and beggars on the streets.
As long as they come to say happy words and say congratulations, everyone can enjoy it.
On the great day of the Wuding Hou Mansion, even a helpless beggar can enjoy the day happily like ordinary people during the Chinese New Year.
The emperor's trusted ministers, dignitaries, and generals arrived earlier than Zhu Qiyu. Those who had errands were busy around, while those who did not had errands drank tea and chatted.
Chen Xun and Wang Wen were appointed as the masters of ceremonies for the wedding ceremony. Duke Yingying, Duke An, Duke Cao, and Duke Ding were the witnesses on the emperor's side; King Min, King Shu, Wang Tong, Marquis of Chengshan, and Marquis Li Yu of Fuyang were witnesses on the side of the Marquis of Wuding.
There were also eleven eunuchs in charge of the inner court who had recently been promoted by the emperor, and they were all present, helping out everywhere.
Even Jinyiwei and most of the generals from Qianhu and above came.
Although Zhu Qiyu usually didn't like to see Jin Yiwei, it was hard to say anything today. After all, his father-in-law, Guo Chang, Marquis of Wuding, is now in charge of the Imperial Guards. When Shangguan's family holds happy events, his subordinates come to congratulate him. It is only natural that even the emperor has no reason to kick people out.
There are so many people working, and since Mr. and Mrs. Guo Chang and Mr. and Mrs. Zhu Qiyu are the real owners today, they don’t need to take care of anything. They all went to the back hall to chat with Princess Yongjia.
Today, the front yard manager is Wenxin Hou Guo Cong, who is responsible for entertaining male guests. The stewards of the backyard are Mrs. Wenxinhou and Princess Xuanyi, who are responsible for receiving female guests.
Now, Wu Dinghou and Wenxinhou no longer have any conflict over interests, and they have become a loving family again.
Zhu Qiyu took Lin Xiangyu into the back hall, where sat the eldest princess Yongjia, the eldest princess Hanshan, King Min, King Shu, and Guo Chang and his wife. Zhu Qiyu bowed and Lin Xiangyu kowtowed.
The eldest princess of Yongjia was the twelfth daughter of Taizu, and King Min was the eighteenth son of Taizu. The two were siblings from the same mother. The eldest princess of Hanshan was the fourteenth daughter of Taizu.
These are the only three Taizu's children who are still alive.
King Zhu Chun of Shu, the eleventh son of Taizu, and the eldest princess of Yongjia are also the same mother. But the King of Shu who has passed away and is sitting here today is Zhu Chun’s fifth son, Zhu Yueshao.
The eldest princess of Yongjia has persuaded the kings of Min and Shu to fully support the emperor.
The remaining princes all supported the Supreme Emperor.
As for why these princes were so devoted to the Supreme Emperor, Zhu Qiyu himself was puzzled.
From a maternal perspective, Empress Dowager Sun was a concubine. When Zhu Qizhen was born, he was definitely a concubine without any dispute. Then Sun used extremely vicious means to knock down his wife, Queen Hu.
Ordinarily, if the princes want to support the system of direct descendants, they should support Empress Hu.
Speaking from the paternal side, the Jianwen lineage is the orthodox direct lineage. Even if the princes want to support the direct lineage system, they should support the Jianwen lineage.
From Taizong and Renzong to Xuanzong and Zhengtong, they are all rebellious officials and traitors.
You princes are shouting to support the heir apparent, but at the same time you are unswervingly siding with Sun and Zhu Qizhen. The contradictions and confusing logic of this behavior are really puzzling.
Since it doesn't make sense to reason, Zhu Qiyu just broke the jar.
Today, except for King Min and King Shu, no other princes were invited, and no invitations were even sent.
Even the well-known King Xiang was ignored by Zhu Qiyu.
Zhu Qiyu had made up his mind and would not waste even a trace of energy on persuading the feudal king. Trying to persuade the feudal king is purely to find anger.
If you have that kind of energy, why not save more of it. I will work hard in the spring of next year and strive to give birth to my eldest son no later than the year after next, and let my cronies put their hearts into their stomachs as soon as possible.
The two parties chatted for most of an hour, and when all the guests arrived, they went out to the main courtyard together.
Under the witness of everyone, the ceremony of recognizing relatives was performed.
At first, everyone watching the ceremony was just amazed. This scene was really grand: all three living children of Taizu were present, the first assistant and the second assistant presided over the ceremony, and the four princes, two princes and princes were witnesses. There were also a large number of civil servants and generals of rank three or above present, too many to count.
Then the emperor personally accompanied the princess and kowtowed to the eldest princess Yongjia first. That's all. After all, the eldest princess of Yongjia is the daughter of Taizu, and the eldest emperor has been the emperor for three generations. According to family etiquette, kowtow is not too much.
But the emperor's next move shocked everyone present: the emperor continued to kowtow with the princess, and also gave a grand salute to Wu Dinghou and his wife.
Now no one dared to look down upon Guo Chang, Marquis of Wuding. The emperor used the most convincing way to make it clear to everyone present that this recognition of relatives was definitely not a joke.
There is no doubt that the emperor really took Wu Dinghou as the head of the state, and Wu Dinghou ranked third in the courtesy among the state abbots of the Ming Dynasty.
Taizu must have kowtowed to his father-in-law too much, there is no doubt about this.
Taizong should have kowtowed to his father-in-law, so it's not a big problem. After all, Taizong was still the King of Yan when he got married, and his father-in-law Xu Da was the Duke of Wei at that time, so it was appropriate to kowtow.
The subsequent empresses, whose backgrounds declined, such as Renzong, Xuanzong, and Zhengtong, certainly did not kowtow to their father-in-law.
When he arrived at Zhu Qiyu's place, the absurdity broke out again, which shocked the officials.
However, Guo Chang and his wife did not have it easy. After receiving the ceremony with trepidation, Wu Dinghou's wife Yi Shi personally put the heirloom jade on her daughter's head and told the emperor: "Today is a great day for recognizing a daughter. Your Majesty's gift to us is I had the courage to accept it, but it’s just this once, but it won’t happen again.”
Zhu Qiyu nodded and agreed to just bow from now on.
Next, under the witness of the four princes, two princes, and all the guests present, Lin Xiangyu was officially recorded in the family tree of the Wuding Hou Mansion. From then on, Lin Xiangyu's official title became Princess Guo of Qi.
After the marriage recognition ceremony, close family members and distinguished guests went to the back hall for a small gathering, while others were having a banquet in the front hall.
The meal lasted until the afternoon, when the guests gradually dispersed. Those who were lucky enough to witness this event went back to spread the news.
At this point, Princess Qi's status was completely stabilized. And the emperor once again won the support of a large number of people.
There is a big difference between the emperor marrying the daughter of a military general and then forming a connection with the noble group through the general's relatives, and directly marrying the daughter of a noble man.
Now that the emperor directly marries Wu Dinghou's daughter, the position of those nobles who had remained neutral before has been greatly shaken.
(End of chapter)
