Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 473 Zhenbang's Marriage

Qu Shaoyang's plan to marry into the He family was not just a spur of the moment decision; he had this plan for a long time.

Qu Shaoyang himself does not have a high level of education, but he understands the power of knowledge and the importance of learning.

These days, the world is in chaos and anyone with a gun can become a king. It is indeed possible to quickly build a fortune by relying on force.

But if a family wants to develop over the long term, it cannot rely solely on force; it must have a deeper cultural heritage to support it.

If Qu Shaoyang was still a landowner in Linjiang City, it would be enough for the eldest daughter-in-law of Qu to be virtuous and frugal.

But Qu Shaoyang is already a general of Jilin. If he has the opportunity in the future, he will probably be able to move up one step. In the future, the Qu family is bound to become a big family.

Zhenbang is the eldest son of the Qu family and the future helmsman of the Qu family.

His wife must come from a good family, be well-educated and well-mannered, and her family must also be powerful.

The He family is a family of scholars. The Lingshi He family was very famous in the imperial examinations in Shanxi during the Qing Dynasty. There were countless Jinshi, Juren and Gongsheng in the family, and it is known as "There is no He family without an imperial examination."

Such families attach great importance to cultural inheritance and the education of their children.

Not only boys have been studying since childhood, but girls have also been influenced by them and have become talented.

At the same time, He Houqi's brothers, cousins, and many of his fellow clansmen were officials, and most of them were officials in the Northeast.

Among them were local officials such as prefects, county magistrates, and provincial governors, as well as heads of important departments such as the telegraph bureau.

The He family members who were engaged in politics outside the Great Wall supported each other and gradually formed a group of officials, which had a certain influence in the Northeast.

In addition, He Houqi's father-in-law is Zhang Xiulan. Even though Zhang Xiulan is currently recuperating at home due to illness, with his background and qualifications, he may be reinstated one day and become a provincial governor again.

It was based on these considerations that when He Houqi's family arrived in Jilin City that day, Qu Shaoyang secretly asked Chen Xiuyun to take good care of He Zewen, and asked Jialing and Jingya to interact more with He Zewen.

After a few days of observation, Chen Xiuyun was very satisfied with the girl from the He family, which led to Qu Shaoyang proposing to her in public today.

Of course, proposing marriage in public was indeed a bit abrupt.

Qu Shaoyang just wanted to take advantage of the fact that Zhang Xiluan and He Houqi were present to get a clear answer on whether it was possible or not.

After all, He Zewen is Zhang Xiulan's granddaughter, and as a grandfather, he has the right to choose a marriage for his granddaughter.

When Qu Shaoyang said this, Zhang Xiluan and He Houqi, the father-in-law and son-in-law, were both stunned.

The two looked at each other, and He Houqi nodded slightly.

Then Zhang Xiulan reacted and laughed.

"Shaoyang, Shaoyang, you are really smart. You have set your sights on my granddaughter?

If you mention someone else, I may not agree, but if it's your Zhenbang, well, that guy and I get along well and have a similar temperament."

Zhang Xiulan actually had a little plan in mind.

With Qu Shaoyang's current status and position, being able to marry him would undoubtedly mean gaining a powerful ally.

If Qu Shaoyang had not already had four wives and concubines, Zhang Xiulan would have wanted to marry his daughter to Qu Shaoyang.

Unfortunately, Qu Shaoyang could not divorce his wife and remarry, and Zhang's daughter could not be a concubine, so Zhang Xiulan did not mention this matter.

Zhang Xiulan also liked the younger generations of the Qu family and had thought it would be nice if one of them could get married.

But his good-for-nothing son only has two daughters now, the oldest of whom is only seven years old, not yet old enough to get married.

Neither his daughter nor his granddaughter would suit him, but unexpectedly, his granddaughter caught Qu Shaoyang's eye.

Moreover, the person proposed was Zhenbang, the eldest son of the Qu family, so Zhang Xiulan was of course happy to see it happen.

"My dear son-in-law, you are Wen's father, and you are the one who decides her lifelong affairs. What do you think about this matter?" Zhang Xiulan deliberately asked He Houqi.

What could He Houqi say? He was a governor of Binjiang Province, and Qu Shaoyang was a general of Jilin Province. If the two families were to marry, he would be marrying above his station.

Moreover, He Houqi, the eldest son of the Qu family, had also met him. He had outstanding appearance, extraordinary talent, and was humble and decent in his dealings with others.

If anyone had a son-in-law like this, he would wake up laughing in his dreams.

"Father, you are Wen's grandfather. Xiuying is gone, so Wen's marriage is naturally decided by you."

He Houqi was very happy, but didn't want to show it too much, so he just said that it was all up to his father-in-law.

Zhang Xiluan understood immediately and laughed, "Okay, okay, then I will take advantage of my seniority and make the decision for the two children.

Shaoyang, you can ask a matchmaker to propose marriage someday." This meant he agreed.

"Thank you for your help, foster father. Brother He, we are now relatives. Come, I'll toast you two."

Qu Shaoyang was very happy when his eldest son's marriage was decided. He immediately raised his glass to toast Zhang Xiluan and He Houqi.

The other people at the table also reacted at this time and congratulated the three people.

“Oh, this is a great joyous event.

Master Qu, Master He, congratulations! Whenever there is a wedding, we must come to join in the fun and share in the joy."

At the Liu family's wedding banquet, the news of the marriage between the Qu and He families spread quickly, and many guests came over to toast and congratulate them. For a moment, the atmosphere of the banquet became even more lively and festive.

The news soon spread to the female members of the family, and everyone congratulated Chen Xiuyun and He Houqi's wife Zhang.

Zhang was quite surprised when she heard the news. She didn't expect that the couple would bring their child to the wedding banquet and actually talk about marriage.

Although she was a stepmother, she was also the aunt of the three siblings of the He family. She had a good relationship with her deceased cousin and always treated the three children as her own.

Zhang had seen the child from the Qu family before, and there was nothing wrong with him, whether in appearance or in his speech and behavior.

Moreover, I heard that he is going to study in Germany in a while, so he will definitely have a bright future.

Furthermore, considering the current status of the Qu family, the He family is marrying up.

Therefore, Zhang was very satisfied with this marriage, and she and Chen Xiuyun became closer and closer as they talked.

At this time, He Zewen, Jialing and Jingya were accompanying Wanyu in the East Courtyard, so the news did not spread so quickly.

He Zewen didn't know yet that her lifelong event had already been decided.

However, Zhenbang and others who were toasting with Xinyuan in the front yard soon learned the news.

As soon as these boys heard that Zhenbang's marriage was settled, they started to make a fuss.

Zhenbang has had contact with He Zewen in the past few days and does not dislike the second daughter of the He family.

Moreover, he understood that as the eldest son, he had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, and the prosperity of the family was much more important than love affairs.

Marrying a wife who is well-matched with you and well-educated will greatly benefit the development of the family. Likes and dislikes are secondary.

What's more, for a real man, it is normal to have three wives and four concubines. If you really meet someone you like, just keep her by her side.

Therefore, facing the teasing and laughter of the crowd, Zhenbang was very calm and collected, and did not show any embarrassment or annoyance at not being able to make the decision about his life.

When these ruffians saw this situation, they thought it was boring and just let it go after a while.

The banquet went on very quickly. After noon, the bride's family members left, and the other guests also left one after another. Then, the next round of banquets began.

We kept busy like this until the evening, when most of the guests had left and only the relatives were left together chatting and laughing.

After being busy for so many days, the wedding was finally done and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The young people who had been clamoring to make a scene in the bridal chamber, including the students from the Surveying and Mapping School brought back by Tianzhi and Xinyuan's classmates, were all drunk and could not make a scene at all.

Only Zhenbang led his younger brothers and sisters to run outside the new house and listen from the window for a while, just for the sake of politeness.

Now that his two younger brothers had married successfully, it was time for Qu Shaoyang to get busy with government affairs.

On February 28, the Chinese merchant guilds in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces jointly sent a telegram to the Qing court in order to protect the two provinces' forests, minerals, fisheries, water transportation and other resources.

The Qing government was required to uphold its sovereignty and reject any demands made by any country.

At the same time, the two provinces sent representatives to Beijing to petition the court.

Qu Shaoyang could not express his opinion openly on this matter, so he could only support it secretly. He also sent people to protect Zhou Kang and his party who were going to Beijing.

In March, Qu Shaoyang announced that professional schools such as industrial schools, surveying and mapping schools, and medical schools would be established in Jilin City.

Students of appropriate age are selected from all over the country, and after passing the assessment, they enter the school.

All selected students will have their tuition, food and accommodation waived, and those with excellent academic performance will be arranged by the provincial government to study abroad.

In addition, middle schools should be established in each state capital, and each county should have at least one primary school to fully develop education.

Jilin Province established the Jilin Newspaper Bureau, which was responsible for delivering official documents throughout the province, and set up branches in several major provincial capitals.

At the same time, Qu Shaoyang petitioned the court to move the Dongbian Dao government office to Andong, and the Daoist commissioner Chen Yunzhe served as the general manager of Andong port, responsible for the construction of Andong.

Previously, the Harriman Railroad Company and Japan had signed a draft agreement on the joint operation of the Middle East Railway. However, just after the first month of the New Year, Japan unilaterally declared the agreement invalid.

Therefore, Harriman Company sent people to Jilin Province to contact Qu Shaoyang to discuss the construction of Anfeng Railway.

At the same time, it is hoped that the Ji'an Railway will be extended northwards through Harbin to Aihui.

Qu Shaoyang was naturally happy to see this happen, so he invited Heilongjiang General Cheng Dequan and Fengtian General Zhao Erxun to discuss the construction of the railway.

After several rounds of negotiations, the three provinces reached an agreement with Harriman Company, signed the relevant contracts and submitted them to the court.

The construction of the Anfeng Railway started at the end of March. When the weather got warmer, the construction of the Jilin-Haikou Railway also started.

On March 24, the Qing government's Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a note to the Russian envoy, demanding that Tsarist Russia compensate for the declared property losses caused to the three northeastern provinces by the Russo-Japanese War.

Soon, Tsarist Russia responded and refused to pay compensation.

A few days later, Japan demanded fishing rights in the three northeastern provinces, but was rejected by Zhao Erxun.

In early April, Zhang Tianzhi led a team to Changbai Mountain, Tumen River and other places to survey, draw topographic maps and determine borders.

As Qu Shaoyang expected, after Goryeo and Japan learned the news, they sent troops to stop it. The two sides were on the verge of a fight and the situation was tense for a while.

Fortunately, Chen Yunhan and Han Dengju arrived with their troops, and the 20,000-strong army was stationed on the banks of the Tumen River to intimidate the Goryeo and Japanese armies.

This made the other party dare not take any further action, and the boundary survey went smoothly.

At the same time, the glass factory, machine brick and tile factory, power plant, match factory, cement factory, sugar factory, paper mill, alkali factory, etc. jointly invested by the Qu family and merchants from all over Jilin Province also started construction one after another.

The Sanxing gold mine was also jointly developed by the Qu and Han families.

There are also the Huntian Chun Baoshan Silver Mine and the Benxi Lake Coal Mine, all of which were led by Qu Shaoyang, who called on merchants from all over the country to invest, set up mining companies, and develop minerals.

In addition, Qu Shaoyang also plans to build a large steel plant in Tonghua.

In this way, the more than two million taels of silver that Qujiang sent to Jilin City years ago were spent like water.

The Qu and He families decided on the marriage at the wedding banquet at Liu's mansion. In March, Chen Xiuyun asked a matchmaker to go to the He family in Binjiang Road to propose marriage, and the marriage was successfully arranged.

Because Zhenbang is going to study abroad soon and He Zewen is still young, it is not advisable for them to get married too early.

Therefore, the two families discussed and decided to arrange marriages for the two children first, and then wait for Zhenbang to return from studying abroad before getting married.

So, on the sixth day of April, Qu Shaoyang, accompanied by his wife and children, brought a generous engagement gift and went to the He Mansion in Binjiang Road to arrange the marriage between Qu Zhenbang and He Zewen.

On April 15, news came from the capital that the applications of more than ten people including Liu Xinyuan, Qu Zhenbang, He Zelian, and Zhao Yingchu to study in Germany were approved.

School starts in the fall, but they have to go there early to settle down and adapt to the environment, so they have to leave next month.

As a result, every family became busy and rushed to prepare for their children to go abroad.

The cost of these young people studying abroad is borne by the provincial government, and the school also provides scholarships, so it basically doesn't cost much.

But this is a poor family with rich money. Which mother can feel at ease if her child goes so far away?

So Chen Xiuyun secretly stuffed a lot of gold into her son's luggage.

Gold is a universal currency. It is useful in any country or region.

If you really encounter a situation where you are short of money, you can exchange gold.

In addition to clothes, luggage, gold, silver and other things, Chen Xiuyun also picked two loyal and smart boys from the servants at home.

They are all friends who have followed Zhenbang since childhood and played together. Let them go over and take care of Zhenbang.

While Chen Xiuyun was busy here, Lin Ruolan was not idle either.

Originally, Liu Dongshan and his wife had agreed that they would return to Linjiang City after their son got married.

As a result, not long after getting married, Wanyu and Zhao Yinglan both found out that they were pregnant.

Her daughter and daughter-in-law are both pregnant, Tianzhi is taking people to survey the border, and Xinyuan is about to go abroad. How can Lin Ruolan leave with peace of mind?

So Liu Dongshan returned to Linjiang to look after the family business, and Lin Ruolan stayed in Jilin City to take care of her daughter and daughter-in-law.

The daughter-in-law had just become pregnant and the son was going abroad to study. Lin Ruolan had to prepare things for her son while comforting her daughter-in-law.

"Yinglan, mother knows that you are reluctant to let Xinyuan go abroad.

But this has been decided long ago and cannot be changed.

As for you, you can just stay at home and take care of your pregnancy, wait for the baby to be born, and then wean him/her off until he/she is one year old.

If you are willing, I will talk to your elder brother and sister-in-law and try to send you abroad to live with Xinyuan.

If you want to learn something, your family will give you money to study abroad."

When Lin Ruolan was young, she was bullied by her in-laws and she managed to break free with great difficulty.

Now that she is a mother-in-law, she has never made things difficult for her daughter-in-law.

In her words, I have suffered so much that I cannot let my daughter-in-law go through it again.

Therefore, Lin Ruolan always considers her daughter-in-law, and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law get along very well.

(End of this chapter)