The matter was settled, and the Liu family went to visit the door of the Xu family that night, but Xu Zhiqiang, who had always been cautious, was frightened, and he didn't dare to receive him until the door came to report, saying that his aunt called their family to come over before he dared to open the door.

When he heard that Liu Sheng was willing to give 50,000 taels of silver to Concubine Yun Niangniang for disaster relief and fundraising, Xu Zhiqiang's heart has been up and down, his eldest sister has always had a big idea, and he naturally couldn't think of the reason why she would do this suddenly. But after all, there is such a relationship, and he can't refute the face of the two families on the spot, so he just said that he hurriedly sent the guest away after thinking about it, and turned his head and asked Jiang Yuyan to go to Changfu to ask for an explanation.

Of course, that's all for a later time. After listening to Chang Jinbai's plan, the two sisters were amazed at his boldness, and they dared to propose such a risky plan to the housewife, and they couldn't help but worry that the plan would fail, and Chang Jinbai was afraid that he would get into trouble.

Chang Jinbai shook his head unremittingly.

"What's there to be afraid of? That Liu Sheng is already a person who has stepped into the ghost gate with one foot, and no matter how much he tosses, he will not escape death in the future. As for the Xu family, our second aunt's family, although they also have some brains, they are really not much. Their family's vision and insight are like that, and interests are always the first element they consider. What's more, Aunt Jiang and my mother are close sisters, and if I want to sacrifice their family to achieve my goal, my mother will naturally refuse to agree. Don't worry, I have already paved the road for them, and the next thing is to see if my mother is strong enough to tell the whole story. ”

"Dick, cow*!" However, with a nine-leaky fish, Chang Yuning at this time could only express his shock and admiration in such a straightforward way.

"Second sister, you..." Chang Yujiao is different from her, how have you ever heard such unbearable foul language on weekdays? At that time, I blushed and wanted to stop drinking.

Chang Jinbai said with a smile: "The second sister and the third sister can rest assured, this matter is on me." But Jiaojiao, my brother also has one more warning for you here. If you encounter this kind of thing again in the future, you must learn to have the courage to deal with it. At the moment, we can protect you for a while, but if you get married and become the daughter-in-law of another family in the future, you can't let us go to your mother-in-law's house again every time we run into trouble, right? ”

"Third brother, you... What nonsense, Jiao'er is still young, this matter..."Chang Yujiao's face became more and more red, and she lowered her head and rubbed her handkerchief, and stopped talking.

Chang Jinbai said all this, looked at Chang Yuning and smiled, and went to Nuanchun Pavilion to visit the old lady. The academy will be open again in two days, and the time spent at home with the elderly is always precious.

Seeing these three children come together, the old lady here is also very happy, people are old, what they want to see most is nothing more than the health of their children and the prosperity of the family. The relationship between the grandchildren can be so close, the old man is naturally happy to see it, and he has been laughing and moaning all afternoon, and even a few grandmothers who have been with her have laughed and blossomed, and they are sincerely happy for the old man.

After dinner in this courtyard, Chang Yujiao, who was still young, was a little unbearable. The old lady felt sorry for her, so she asked the children to go back to rest, but Chang Jinbai was left, saying that she still had something to say to him.

Chang Jinbai understood what the old lady meant, the old man looked at the innocent and had no desire to ask about the world, but in fact, she was the most shrewd person in the family and cared about the honor and disgrace of the family.

"Bai'er, why are you so bold now? You dare to say anything, you dare to plan anything, right? After the two good granddaughters left, the old lady's face finally became gloomy. In fact, in all fairness, she also thinks that the solution proposed by Chang Jinbai is a good one, but after all, the child is still young, and such a risky thing should not be said by him.

Chang Jinbai lowered his head and obediently admitted his mistake: "What my grandmother taught me is that this matter is indeed a matter that my grandson owes me to consider." However, the mother is pressing step by step, and the grandson is always not good at watching the sisters in the family suffer, so she said it in a hurry, and I hope that the grandmother can be more compassionate, and the grandson really knows that she is wrong! ”

Seeing that he had a good attitude of admitting his mistakes, the old lady stopped reproaching, stretched out her hand and pulled him to sit down beside her, and sighed softly: "Hey... Wow, the head of our family, you eight brothers and sisters, you have been with my wife for the longest time. Since you were a child, your grandmother has taught you a lot of things, and she wants you to soar in the future, and rely on your own efforts to break out of the world. Now it seems that your child is a little more savvy than your grandmother sees, and in time, you may be able to be the nurturing grandmother of your sisters and sisters! ”

Chang Jinbai smiled: "Grandmother is making fun of her grandson again!" As a man, how does a grandson raise a grandmother? If you want to do this, you have to be a well-educated gentleman, right? ”

"Hahaha... You, you're used to making my wife happy! The old lady finally couldn't help laughing, and then said earnestly: "That's it, that's it, children and grandchildren have their own children and grandchildren, my wife and I are old, seeing that you are so calculating now, and willing to help your family, this heart, I can be more relieved." It's just Bai'er, grandmother still wants to tell you that your mother is a good woman who is as gentle as water, although you have inherited your father's shrewd calculation, but you can't lose your mother's heart, you know? ”

"The grandson has written it down, please rest assured that the grandson will never let the mother and grandmother down in the future, I believe that the mother has a spirit in the sky, and she will be proud of the child's achievements in the future!" There is light in Chang Jinbai's eyes, which is the desire and remembrance of maternal love.

The old lady looked distressed, and put her arm around his shoulders and said considerate words for a long time before letting him go back. Chang Jinbai didn't know that his words today would become a prophecy in the future, but the scene at that time really scared him out of half his life.

At the dinner table the next morning, the atmosphere was a little strange from the beginning. Jiang's gaze would drift to Chang Jinbai's face from time to time, and even Chang Hao, who had always been quiet, was a little more cautious when he looked at him, only Chang Jinbai was still eating by himself as if he was a nobody, completely ignoring the various glances that these two people threw at him.

After two more days at home, the children started school. Just when Chang Jinbai was enjoying the beautiful youth time again, waves of bloody rain were set off in the court.

The silver raising plan called for by His Majesty is progressing smoothly, and in just a few days, the amount of silver taels raised from the Manchu Dynasty civil and military forces and the big households in Beijing is as high as one million, plus the emergency silver taels allocated by the imperial court before, there is no problem in ensuring that the people of the northwest can survive the spring in peace.

Of course, all this can be smoothly carried out thanks to a certain adult who was the governor of the three northwestern provinces at the time, if it were not for his great righteousness in the world and his attention to the people's livelihood, I am afraid that the large amount of silver allocated by the imperial court at this time would have been divided up by some despicable villains.

However, it is precisely because of this silver raising incident that His Majesty has seen a lot of darkness hidden deep in the background.

In addition to some generations of meritorious service or families with relatives doing business, most of the donations from the ministers of the general court and the central government range from dozens to hundreds of taels, and those who can reach two hundred taels belong to a minority, after all, although the salary of the officials of this dynasty is not low, and even much higher than the contemporaries in the original world, but all things in the capital are expensive This is the theorem, a six-grade civil official, the food and clothing at home every month, the monthly payment of the next people occupies seven or eight tenths of the total salary, In addition, daily visits to relatives and friends, banquets and courtesies, the little silver taels in a month is often not enough, let alone want to save silver taels and other things.

Therefore, during this period, the marriage of officials attached great importance to the economic conditions of each other's families. Due to the popularity of the scholars, the leading wives of the officials are basically nobles, and what are the conditions of the concubine family, there are all kinds of things.

is like Chang Hao, in order to be able to get a large amount of dowry, he even did not hesitate to lower his price to accept an official prostitute home as a concubine, such a phenomenon is actually a very common thing in this dynasty, but everyone knows it, and no one will say it in the open.

But the matter of marriage is also consensual, if you want to marry a young lady from a rich family, it depends on whether the parents of the family are happy or not. After all, a family like the Chen family is a minority, and there are so many wealthy businessmen in Beijing, which family doesn't want their own girl to marry into a high family? Therefore, basically officials with lower grades than the fourth grade will run into a wall if they want to obtain wealth through this method. These businessmen really think about it, for the sake of the future of their daughters, completely ignore the personal wishes of their daughters, and sell them as commodities, and live a life that is much more miserable than ordinary official ladies, and may not even be as good as an ordinary peasant woman, which can be regarded as the sorrow of an era.

It is precisely for this reason that there is a very huge gap between the rich and the poor in the family situation of the ministers of the DPRK and China. Chang Hao's official residence is a second-grade official, and he can easily donate thousands of taels of silver to please the emperor without suspicion, while ordinary six- and seven-grade officials can take out forty or fifty taels of silver to tighten their belts, and if there are more, they will inevitably be suspected by the superiors, thinking that they must have done something shady in private.

The previous dynasty was so polarized, and the situation in the harem was not much worse. It is often said that there are three thousand beauties in the harem, although the actual number is far from so many, but there are always hundreds of concubines and nobles. In order to be able to rise to the top, the women of the harem are busy competing for beauty every day, calculating each other, and it is always very lively. But this time, His Majesty gave them a proposition homework, which made all the women in the harem a little dumbfounded.

It is important to know that donations are different from ordinary competition for favor, and the amount donated must be in line with common sense, otherwise it is easy to bring disaster to themselves and even the entire family behind them.