Chapter 1007 Dowry Storm
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As time gradually came to June, more and more taxis came to Chang'an to participate in the imperial examination, but the initial noise disappeared. The scholars studied behind closed doors and began their final sprint. As the excitement led by the imperial examination ended, Chang'an became much quieter.
Another major event attracted great interest from Chang'an people, that is, the marriage between Cao and Liu. As time goes by, the marriage also mentioned the marriage stage.
Liu Jing and Cao Cao's envoy Chen Qun set an approximate time, but the specific details were discussed by the Ministry of Rites of the Monks's Ministry of Rites. In addition, the two parties agreed that the Minister of Rites Sima Yi and the Minister of Rites Zhao Lin would be representatives of the King of Han, and go to Yedu to marry Cao Cao's daughter Cao Xian.
As the day of marriage approaches, not only the people of Chang'an are looking forward to it, but even Yedu becomes lively. The streets and alleys are talking about the marriage of Mr. Wei's daughter, who is the daughter of Wei, is actually more concerned about whether the Liu and Cao families will stop their troops from then on, forming a situation where the two countries are coherent.
But many discerning people can see that this marriage between Liu and Cao is not very meaningful. It is just that the reconciliation method adopted by the Han Dynasty to unify the south can only be exchanged for two years of peace at most.
Moreover, the marriage between Liu and Cao has been in talks for several years and has been interrupted for some reason. This time it is just to fulfill the previous agreement.
Chen Qun played an important role in this marriage. Not only did his envoy finalize the date and specific details of the marriage, but he also had to serve as a wedding envoy. During this period, he was very busy.
Early that morning, Chen Qun came to the Deputy Prime Minister's Mansion, which is the residence of the Shi Cao Pi. At present, Cao Cao basically only cares about daily government affairs, and also handed over the daily affairs of the army to the Shi Cao Pi. Of course, major military and national government affairs still need Cao Cao to make the decision.
The daily government affairs of the Wei State were basically carried out in the Deputy Prime Minister's Office. The mansion was particularly busy, and the staff who handled the books, sent certificates and criticisms were busy from morning to night.
As soon as Chen Qun walked to Cao Pi's official yard, a guard bowed and smiled and said, "Shi is waiting for the Chief Secretary, please follow me."
When he walked into the courtyard, a guard immediately went to the lobby to report, and then came out to Chen Qun and said, "Shi Shi asked Chen Zhongcheng to enter the house."
Chen Qun walked into the lobby and saw Cao Pi sitting at the table to review the certificates. Chen Qun hurriedly stepped forward to greet him, "I met the world with my husband."
Cao Pi put down his pen and said with a smile: "Chief, please sit down."
Chen Qun sat down, Cao Pi turned over the table with a thick stack of certificates sent from the place, and asked Chen Qun: "This time Zhongcheng went to Han State, have he talked to the other party about the matter of Ding Ling?"
"Weichen did talk about this with Xu Shu."
“What do they say”
Chen Qun thought for a while and said, "Xu Shu said that it is not ordinary to let wealthy and powerful people hand over the land and population. It is useless to rely on Duke Wei's order alone, and there must be practical means."
"For example, what method?" Cao Pi asked anxiously,
The reason why Cao Pi was very concerned about this was because the Wei State issued the Ding Order encountered great resistance, and various counties wrote letters that if it was forcibly implemented, it would arouse rebellion among major wealthy families and affect the safety of Wei State, but in fact it would not be implemented.
Cao Pi was helpless, and more importantly, the land and slave conditions of Wei were complicated. There were rewards from the Han Dynasty, rewards from his father Cao Cao, and private purchases. To implement the order of Ding, it would definitely violate the interests of most people, especially the interests of the Cao clans in the military. His father promulgated a order of Ding and then allowed himself to implement it. What should he do?
Now Cao Pi is overwhelmed by this incident. His father is waiting to see the result, and he has no choice but to tell his father that he does not have enough prestige and ability, so how will his father think of him?
Cao Pi also heard that the Han Dynasty had similar measures and implemented them quite successfully. He was also interested and hoped to learn from the Han Dynasty's experience.
Chen Qun smiled bitterly and said, "I'm afraid we will find it difficult to implement the methods Xu Shu said."
"You said that, what is the method?"
"Xu Shu said that we must first understand the situation, and who occupied the population and land. These specific situations must be clarified, and then we must target the breakthrough. The Han State used the Cai family in Jingzhou and the Fei family in Yizhou as a breakthrough. The second was to go up and down. The Han Dynasty did not seek land and slaves himself, and the major generals also voluntarily returned the land and population. Finally, we established a reward system to allow Han officials to lose money and gains, so that they can be implemented."
Cao Pi nodded repeatedly. He had considered all these methods. In fact, the people below did not buy it at all. The most occupied land was the Cao family and the Xiahou family. Could he take action against them?
Cao Pi sighed helplessly and said, "Sometimes I also hope that this is the Han country. There are not so many complex interest relations and everything is easy to do, but we can't do it. The first order is to issue Ding Ling, which does not include the military. But if the military general does not implement it, no one will do it. It is less than a month since the implementation was implemented. All counties and counties have retreated, and the total number of people released is less than 10,000 households. How can I explain to my father?"
Chen Qun thought for a while and said, "As long as the world is reported according to the truth, I believe Mr. Wei is also very clear about the difficulty of this matter and will not make things difficult for the world."
"That's all."
Cao Pi stopped asking about this matter, and laughed at the topic: "I came to Zhongcheng today, actually to ask about my sister's marriage. Zhongcheng thinks there will be any changes in this matter?"
Chen Qun smiled and said, "This time is different from before. The other party took the initiative to mention it. I believe that if Liu Jing wants to attack Jiangdong and Jiaozhou and unify the south, he must stabilize the north. Therefore, Weichen believes that this marriage will be successful. In short, Sima Yi should have arrived in Yedu in the past two days."
"Don't Liu Jing come to greet the bride in person?"
"Duke Wei also hopes that Liu Jing can come to Yedu to welcome the bride in person, and promised his safety, but the Han Dynasty opposes it, so Liu Jing can only welcome the bride at Pujin Pass. I think this is good, and both sides don't have to worry about it."
Cao Pi pondered for a moment and said to Chen Qun: "I guess my father will discuss the dowry gift with the Zhongcheng in the past two days. The last time my two sisters married Tian, my father gave a dowry gift of 50,000 pieces of silk and black satin. I am very worried that my father will continue to be the same this time. To be honest, we can't afford such a high dowry. The last time we married Tian was to the right hand, and it would be okay to take more, but this time it was given to Han, I was worried."
Cao Pi did not say anything further, and looked at Chen Qun meaningfully. Chen Qun then realized that it was Shi who came to him for the dowry. Chen Qun smiled and said, "I understand Shi's meaning. Shi, please rest assured. I will persuade Duke Wei to be as low-key as possible."
Cao Pi smiled bitterly and said, "It is impossible to be low-key, try to be as simple as possible."
Chen Qun stood up and said goodbye. Cao Pi sent him out, walked back to his official room, and paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. Cao Pi was very supportive of Cao and Liu's marriage. If he was not in charge of the family, he knew better than anyone else what Wei needed most. Wei needed time to recuperate the most. Two years was not enough. It would be better for five years before Wei could gradually recover his vitality.
As expected by Cao Pi, Cao Pi was called to Tongquetai by his father Cao Cao in the afternoon to discuss the dowry with him. Of course, Chen Qun was also sitting there. With Chen Qun here, Cao Pi didn't need to say a lot of things.
"What I treat most is that my daughter, who has been at home for so many years, finally got married. I don't want to let her suffer any more. Liu Jing's wife Tao, who is the richest daughter in the world. The dowry caused a sensation in the world. I heard that even Sun Quan's sister got married, the dowry was a ship, so my daughter's dowry must be the same as Liu Jing's wife, and she must be married with the ceremony of marrying a wife."
Cao Cao spoke very directly and had little room for negotiation. He looked at Cao Pi and said, "I still have some savings. If it is not enough, the treasury will make up for it."
Cao Pi lowered his head and dared not refute, so he had to respond: "Children obey the order."
He was anxious and hoped that Chen Qun would help him quickly. At this time, Chen Qun said calmly: "Mr. Wei admires his love for his daughter, but Wei believes that marrying a generous amount of girl Xian may not be a good thing."
"Why?" Cao Cao's eyes turned to Chen Qun again and asked in confusion.
"This time, the Weichen visited the King of Han first, and the Han princess also came out. She clearly told the Weichen that the Han Dynasty advocated simplicity, and the Han princess set an example. Whether the princess or the second concubine, they should live a simple and low-key life. She hopes that this time the marriage will not be too extravagant."
"What about Liu Jing's attitude?" Cao Cao asked a little unhappy.
"The Han King's attitude is basically the same as the Han Princess. He said that the ceremony can be grand, but the style of marrying a generous marriage should not be long. Once the marriage of Cao concubine is too luxurious, it will be effective, which will not help the Han Dynasty advocate simplicity and will also increase the burden on both countries."
"This is his original words"
"Reporting to Duke Wei, I dare not hide it. This is the original words of the King of Han."
Cao Cao pondered for a moment, then turned around and asked Cao Pi, "What about your opinion?"
"The child is willing to listen to his father's words, but there is something that needs to be clarified."
"What do you want to clarify?"
"It's about the dowry of the princess Tao and the second concubine Sun. It's not what the father said. As far as the child knows, Tao's dowry was war horses and food. In fact, Tao used the dowry as an excuse to support Liu Jing's army. Tao himself did not have much dowry. As for Sun, there was no dowry, but only one of the floors of the building ship, and most of them were weapons collected by Sun himself. Sun's real dowry was only forty boxes, which is recorded. As for the father's dowry to give to his sister, the child actually didn't want his sister to be wronged, especially not wanting to be wronged after getting married."
Cao Pi's last sentence was to implicitly remind his father not to live the dowry of the princess, otherwise it would cause dissatisfaction with the princess of Han and his sister's life would not be better in the future.
Cao Cao just loved his daughter and wanted to make face for himself and his daughter. However, under the reminder of Chen Qun and Cao Pi, he also understood that his daughter's happiness does not lie in the glory of getting married, but in the life after getting married, especially with the princess and the second concubine.
If the dowry is too shabby, it will make others look down upon and ridicule, but if it is too extravagant, it will inevitably cause hostility to the inner house of the Han Palace, and the daughter will be sad in the future. Therefore, the dowry cannot be too much, but it cannot be less. The key is to be in line with the status of marriage.
Of course Cao Cao understood this kind of human nature. After thinking about it, he said to Cao Pi and Chen Qun: "This way, the marriage ceremony should be as grand as possible, at least in the territory of Wei. The dowry is the same as the second concubine Sun. I will leave this matter to you, and I will not be wronged by my daughter."
Cao Pi was secretly happy and hurriedly said, "Please rest assured, the child will discuss with his mother again, and will definitely get the matter done and let his sister get married with glory."
Chapter completed!