Chapter Thirty-Six: Presenting the Memorial

  Zhao was in the room where her little brother Zhao Wei lived, studying and recognizing characters with him.

  She was actually very curious about what Guangping Wang would say to her grandmother Zhang, and she also wanted to ask him. After Gao Zhen returned, he knew that she had left, how did he react? Was there a reply letter? She can hold the pen more steadily now, and after flipping through several books, she wants to let her refer to the words in the book to write another letter. Even if it's written poorly or in plain language, there won't be any simplified characters appearing again. However, she only followed the adults to pay respects to Guangping Wang at the tomb, and when they returned home, she did it once more before being taken away from the main hall. When he left, no one informed her, leaving her with no opportunity to have a private conversation with him, feeling very depressed in her heart.

  The sky has turned dark, and the King of Guangping has long since left. Who knows when, even the second uncle sitting outside the main hall has gone, what is grandma still doing in the main hall?

  Zhao touched his little belly and felt a bit hungry, then looked at Little Brother Zhao Wei, who was also restlessly looking out the window, having long lost interest in practicing calligraphy.

  Just then, Autumn Leaves walked in: "Wei Ge'er, Jie Er, the old lady has something to say to you both. I'll take you over."

  Zhao Wei hastily put down his pen, jumped off the high chair, and Qiuye picked up Zhao, holding him in one hand, and the three of them walked towards the main hall.

  In the main room, Mrs. Zhang had already taken out paper and pen and placed them on the table in front of her. Seeing her grandchildren come in, she revealed a smile: "Come, you all sit here."

  Zhaowei climbed onto the chair beside her left hand and sat down, while Qiuye also placed Zhao on the chair to her right, then quietly retreated and stood outside waiting for orders.

  Madam Zhang looked at her grandson Zhao Wei, raised her hand and gently stroked his small face. Suddenly, her eyes reddened, she took a deep breath, suppressed the urge to cry, and calmly smiled as she asked him: "Wei-ge, Grandma asks you, do you want to be a marquis? The Marquis of Jian'nan."

  Zhaowei's face was filled with confusion: "Is grandmother talking about Eldest Uncle being that kind of marquis?" He lowered his head and thought for a moment, slightly pouting: "No! I don't want to be like him doing bad things!"

  Zhaoyi felt a bit uneasy listening to this, Grandma had said before that she wanted to take the title of Marquis away from Xiaochangfang and give it to Xiaoge. Zhao Kuang, the head of Xiaochangfang, had committed such a heinous crime, he no longer qualified to be a marquis. Now hearing her tone, why did it seem somewhat strange? How old was Zhaoyi anyway? If they could take the title away and let him have it, why bother asking if he wanted it or not?

  At this point, Zhao ? interrupted and said: "Brother, being a marquis doesn't necessarily mean doing bad things. Grandfather was also a marquis in the past. The one who was bad was Eldest Uncle, not the marquis."

  Zhao Wei tilted her head, pursed her lips: "Anyway... I won't do anything bad! Whether or not I'll be a marquis's wife, I... I don't know, I've never done it before, and I don't want to."

  "Then what do you want to do?"

  Zhaowei thought for a moment: "I want to read books like my father, and take the imperial examination in the future. Father said I have great talent." He glanced at his sister secretly again: "But I also want to learn martial arts, once I master it, I won't be afraid of being bullied anymore, my body will become stronger, and I won't get sick easily, making grandma worry."

  Zhang's expression was somewhat dazed, but he quickly came to and smiled as he asked his granddaughter: "What about you, little sister? Although being a marquis has nothing to do with being a good or bad person, if your brother is no longer a marquis, are you willing?"

  Zhao furrowed her brow and asked seriously: "Grandmother, are you going to let the title go to the eldest uncle's family?"

  Zhang's smile faded: "How could you think of this?"

  "Otherwise, why would you ask me like that?" Zhao said with a pout, "Whether brother becomes the marquis or not is none of our business, as long as we live our own lives well. But I don't want to let the people from Eldest Uncle's household take advantage of us. Eldest Uncle killed Father and Mother, and many others too. A murderer should pay with his life! Why should the descendants of a murderer take away what originally belongs to brother, continue to be high and mighty, and use their power to bully us?!"

  Zhaowei was shocked and hastily said to Zhangshi: "Grandma, is this really true? In that case, I don't want to either!"

  Zhang's smile gradually faded, her eyes reddened again, and she said in a choked voice: "Don't worry, how could Grandmother be so muddled? It's best if you don't care about the title of Duke Jianan, just like what Erniang said, we just need to live our own lives well, but Xiao Changfang...". She gritted her teeth, "Absolutely cannot let them have their way!"

  Mrs. Zhang seemed to have made up her mind, and she perked up, instructing Akira: "It's getting late, bring up the meals for Wei-ge and Mei-jie, let the kids eat early and sleep early too, there are things to do tomorrow."

  The autumn leaves fell with a rustling sound.

  Zhang's family began to think about the paper and pen in front of her, Zhao guessed that she was going to write something. She stretched out a pair of small, chubby hands to reach for the inkstone, imitating the action of autumn leaves, wanting to grind the ink for her grandmother. But she forgot that the inkstone needed to be ground into ink, and water needed to be added. Zhao Wei saw this and laughed: "Little sister, let me do it, your hands are too short." Then he took the inkstone from her hand, scooped up a little water from the water container with a small brass spoon, and began to grind the ink.

  Zhao picked up his wounded self-esteem after being struck by the two words "hand short", stared intently at his actions, and tried to learn how to do this thing as soon as possible.

  Zhang looked at the appearance of her younger brother and sister, and felt a warmth in her heart, thinking that she had more courage in her body. She had already written a draft, so she picked up her pen, dipped it in the ink that her grandson had personally ground for her, and began to write a lengthy article.

  Zhang wrote a memorial to be presented to the emperor, and after finishing it, the autumn leaves had already changed two shifts of candles. Zhao Wei was also unable to withstand his hunger and had eaten a meal, but only Zhang remained seated at the table without leaving. The night was deep, and Zhao Wei sat in a chair, nodding off to sleep, while Zhao looked down at the table as if unintentionally looking at what she had written.

  Zhang is apologizing to the emperor.

  Whether Zhao Jiong was a bastard or a nominal eldest son under the name of the first wife, after Zhang's entry into the house, she became his mother. When her son did unfilial and unkind things, as his mother, she had the responsibility of not teaching him well. She acknowledged this crime and believed that her son Zhao Jiong was not worthy of continuing to be the son of the Duke of Julu, fearing that he would tarnish the good name of the Duke of Julu, so she begged the emperor to take charge and punish this unfilial and unkind son for her.

  Zhang asked the emperor not to go easy on Zhao Jiong just because of the face of County Duke Ye, because at the gate of Fengxian County, County Duke Ye's spirit in heaven testified to Zhao Jiong's unfilial conduct in front of all the villagers, and his falling off the horse and becoming paralyzed was also a punishment from County Duke Ye. The spirit of County Duke Ye would not forgive this evil son.

  In addition, after the death of his father, Zhao Jiong treated his stepmother and younger half-brother poorly - Zhang Shi gave several examples - and concealed this from outsiders. He even pretended to be a filial son in front of the emperor. His wife, children, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren all turned a blind eye to this behavior. His wife, Niu Shi, was even more cruel than him. After his father's death, before the seven-day mourning period had passed, she directly led people to drive her mother-in-law out of the main house. Zhang Shi deeply felt that Zhao Jiong's wife and children were not virtuous, feared they would not be able to bear great responsibilities, and worried that in the future they would take advantage of their father's reputation to do wrong things and tarnish his good name. Therefore, she sincerely requested the emperor that if such a day came, he should fairly and justly punish them for their crimes, and not let unworthy children and grandchildren implicate their father's good reputation.

  She finally thanked the Guangping King's family for saving her life, and all of this was because the emperor was well-educated, so the imperial grace was vast. In order to report the emperor's kindness, she sincerely asked him to resign from his post - because in her hometown, people kept telling her that Zhao Jiong had committed a crime, and the title must be changed to someone else to inherit it, while Zhao Zhuo was the eldest son of the county public grandfather before his death. They were the second house, but they were the true direct branch, and they should have inherited the title of Marquis of Jianan - however, Zhang Shi believed that Zhao Jiong's title was properly granted by the court, and the county public grandfather also recognized his status as a son before his death. She had no intention of coveting that position at all, let alone now that her own son had died, what use would she have for the title? Although there were grandsons, they were still young, and it was hard to see how capable they would be in the future, and she was afraid that he would not be promising and could not serve the court, just bearing the name of a marquis.

  The imperial court confers titles to make people work hard, not to let them eat idle meals. How can the Zhao family's children be idle and do nothing? So she resolutely resigned from her title. If her son has a future, he will naturally have a bright future ahead of him, no need to cling to a title.

  Zhao? finally managed to cover up the unusual expression on her face. This letter from Grandma was well-written, although she voluntarily gave up the title, but she blackened Xiao Changfang thoroughly. Now, who can still compete for that title after seeing Xiao Changfang like this? And as a mother, who can blame her for scolding Zhao Hui?

  Zhang finished writing the whole text, and was already exhausted, but his spirit was surprisingly invigorated. Autumn leaves were somewhat worried and sent up ginseng soup, she drank it, let out a long sigh, looked at her grandchildren sitting in front of her, and revealed a relaxed smile.

  On the second day, after Guangping King finished reading Zhang's memorial, he was speechless for half a day.

  Zhang's expression was relaxed: "Your Highness just needs to hand this memorial to the Emperor, and as for the title, it's just an added decoration for me. My family has never had any intention of competing for that thing!"

  The Prince of Guangping took a deep breath, stood up and bowed solemnly to Lady Zhang. Lady Zhang hastily said: "Your Highness, why be so polite? Please rise quickly!"

  The King of Guangping shook his head and said, "I want to apologize to the old lady. Yesterday I said many things, but in fact there was one more thing that I concealed from the old lady. At the time, I only thought that the old lady might not necessarily understand, just needed to know the pros and cons of the matter, did not expect the old lady to have such a decisive decision, it was me who underestimated you."

  Zhang's face showed a look of surprise: "Your Highness has something hidden from me? What is it?"

  Guangping King sighed, "What I said yesterday was somewhat alarmist. In fact, when Taizu Emperor was alive, he personally taught his children and grandchildren a proverb - 'A scholar rebels, but it takes three years to succeed.' If someone wants to rebel, they must have a reliable army as their backing. The Marquis of Southern Zhao's mansion is indeed prestigious in the military due to the influence of Old Duke Zhao, so it was favored by King Ying, but neither Zhao Jiong nor his son had ever led troops into battle. Asking Old Duke Zhao's former subordinates for small favors might be possible, but when it comes to treason, people are not fools, how could they agree?"

  "Zhang didn't understand: 'Why did Your Highness say such a thing yesterday?!'"

  "I didn't intentionally hide it from you." Guangping Wang said calmly, "I just didn't want to let you know too much inside information, afraid that you would be sad. To be honest with you, those who have defected to Ying Wang are not just a few civil officials, there are also people in the military, and their positions are not low either. However, they are afraid of being pointed at by thousands of people, so they want to win over more people, that's why they need the prestige of building the South Hou Mansion."

  Zhang immediately guessed what he wanted to say and turned pale: "That person... isn't it the old subordinate of Duke Gong?"