Dou Zhao returned to the Eastern Dou Mansion in her family’s carriage.
In the carriage, Dou Tuo asked his son, “What did Yuanji tell you?”
Earlier, with Steward Dou present, he couldn’t inquire deeply. He only knew that Dou Shizu had returned, and he guessed that Dou Shizu had likely come because of the conditions proposed by the Zhao family. But he couldn’t understand what use Dou Shizu’s return would be—the Zhao family’s conditions were meant to put him in a difficult position, to shift the responsibility onto him. Zhao Ruifu wouldn’t agree to write a letter of consent without getting half of the Western Dou Mansion’s property. Zhao Ruifu was confident of victory and wouldn’t give up because of a few words from Dou Shizu. He wouldn’t allocate half of the Western Dou Mansion’s property to Dou Zhao based on a few promises from Dou Shizu. The Wang family wouldn’t allow Wang Yingxue to continue staying in the Dou family without the Zhao family’s consent letter.
No matter how he thought about it, it seemed to be a dead end!
Dou Shiying spoke frankly, “Fifth Brother told me everything that has happened at home recently.”
After saying this, he fell silent, leaving Dou Tuo waiting for a while before he had to ask again, “So what did Yuanji say to you?”
“Fifth Brother said that Brother-in-law’s demands are understandable but unreasonable,” Dou Shiying said. “But with what happened to Gu Qiu, the Brother-in-law is understandably angry and demands compensation for Shou Gu from the Dou family. If we were in his position, we might have done even worse.
If it weren’t for the coincidence of Lord Wang’s inspection tour of Gansu, our three families could have sat down to talk and come to a new agreement on an amount that the Zhao family would find reasonable and you could accept, or even completely reject Brother-in-law’s demands and have Lord Wang take his daughter back. Lord Wang would probably understand. But now the timing is off.
The Zhao family doesn’t care, but important matters at court can’t be delayed—if Lord Wang were to be impeached, there might be no one else with such prestige and determination to investigate and ban the border horse markets. The Emperor’s desire to stabilize the northwest would become empty talk, and Minister Zeng would once again face the danger of being forced to retire. Fifth Brother asked me to persuade you to consider the bigger picture and think thrice before acting.”
Dou Zhao pouted.
In her previous life, Wang Xingyi had ultimately only closed the border horse markets but hadn’t been able to ban the trade completely.
If the court didn’t allow it, did that mean the frontier generals had no other options? What would the commanders of the Five Military Commission eat and drink?
Ultimately, the difficulty in banning the horse markets was because they were the private coffers of all the military commanders in the northwest. This was also the main reason why Wang Xingyi opposed opening the horse markets. The reason why Shi Ruilan remained arrogant and unbridled, with censors unable to impeach him, was the same. This was no longer simply a matter of whether to open the horse markets or not but involved the overt and covert struggles between civil officials and military commanders. In the end, Dou Qijun’s ability to impeach Shi Ruilan was because the new emperor had decided to take control of the border horse markets himself, sending Han Wei, the Supervising Secretary of the Imperial Household Department, to concurrently serve as the Monitoring Imperial Commissioner of Shaanxi, stationed permanently in Xi’an to oversee the border horse markets…
Dou Tuo sneered, “We don’t rely on the Eastern Mansion to eat. The bigger picture? What does that have to do with us? We don’t have that kind of insight.”
Still annoyed at being stuck in the Eastern Mansion for a day and night by Second Madam Dowager.
Not satisfied with just complaining, he pointed at Dou Zhao: “If she were a son, I wouldn’t hesitate to give her not just half, but all of the family property. But you want me to let a little girl take our ancestral property to another family? I’d rather the whole Dou family suffer along with Zeng Yifen.”
Dou Shiying remained silent, gently stroking Dou Zhao’s head as if comforting her not to be afraid.
The three of them traveled in silence to the Eastern Mansion.
Fifth Uncle personally welcomed them at the main gate.
“Uncle,” he said politely, “I should have come to pay my respects, but this isn’t a private matter. We also need to hear the opinions of the First Sister-in-law and the Second Sister-in-law. So I’ve put public matters before private ones. After this is over, I’ll come to your mansion to apologize and receive your teachings.”
Fifth Uncle smiled openly, his gaze frank and his attitude sincere, leaving Grandfather unable to find fault. All his pent-up anger could only be suppressed in his heart as he followed Fifth Uncle to the main hall with a displeased expression.
Dou Shiying handed his daughter to Tuo Niang: “Be good, go play over there. Father will come to pick you up at Sixth Aunt’s later.”
Dou Zhao nodded. After her grandfather and father had entered the hall, she circled outside and found an opportunity to slip in again.
Fifth Uncle was speaking: “…so after much thought, I think we, the Eastern Dou family, should provide Shou Gu’s dowry!”
“Have you lost your mind?” Both Grandfather and Father couldn’t hide their shock, especially Grandfather, whose face turned ashen. “Do you know what you’re saying? Do you know how much money half of the Western Dou’s property is? This is our ancestral inheritance!” As he spoke, he looked towards Second Madam Dowager.
Second Madam Dowager lowered her head, drinking tea with an expressionless face, as if what her son had just given away wasn’t all the ancestral property due to her branch, but merely the celadon teacup in her hand.
“I know!” Fifth Uncle said gently, his demeanor as warm as spring. “Our ancestors worked hard to leave us such a large fortune, wasn’t it for us descendants to live better lives? If this property becomes a burden, we can give it up without regret. In this world, those with virtue shall prosper. I believe that even if we give up our ancestral property, with me,” his gaze fell on each of the Dou descendants present, “with Lan’er, with Zhi’er, our lives can only become more prosperous and flourishing.”
Dou Zhao couldn’t help but nod inwardly.
Lan’er was from the first branch, Zhi’er from the second.
No wonder her Fifth Uncle could enter the cabinet. If nothing else, just his flawless way of speaking was beyond ordinary people.
Dou Tuo couldn’t utter a word for a long time.
This Dou Shizu was truly capable of thinking and doing!
No wonder he took charge of this matter.
No wonder among so many Dou descendants, only he had risen to the highest official position!
He was not only ruthless to others but equally ruthless to himself.
A quarter of the Eastern Dou’s property, he could give up just like that.
Thinking of this, Dou Tuo couldn’t help but frown.
Wait… his son wanted to elevate a concubine to the status of a wife, and instead of using his abundant silver, he wanted his nephews to help pay… Old Five wasn’t giving up the ancestral property at all, he was blackmailing him, blatantly blackmailing him!
Dou Tuo’s eyes immediately reddened.
He absolutely couldn’t let Old Five succeed!
Dou Tuo looked towards his nephews and their wives.
First Madam lowered her eyelids, her fingers constantly fiddling with her purple-red sandalwood prayer beads.
Second Madam sat there composedly, like an ancestral portrait in a shrine.
Dou Shibang, who usually smiled before speaking, now sat upright with a serious expression.
Only Dou Shiheng sat there casually, seeming somewhat out of place.
Dou Tuo asked Dou Shiheng, “You agree too?”
“I agree,” Sixth Uncle straightened up and said seriously, “I originally didn’t approve of elevating Wang to the status of a wife, but now that it’s a fait accompli, I think it’s good for Shou Gu to have some personal silver. Ruifu has finally done something sensible this time.” He always spoke straightforwardly.
Dou Tuo sneered, “Fine then, you pay Zhao Ruifu! I won’t contribute a single coin.”
Do you want to make things difficult for me? Well, let’s see how you get out of this.
To everyone’s surprise, Dou Shizu smiled and let out a long sigh of relief, his whole demeanor becoming relaxed as if a great burden had been lifted. He said, “I was worried Uncle wouldn’t agree… Since that’s the case, Third Brother, please bring out the account books. Let’s divide the property in front of everyone so Uncle can have a clear understanding!”
Dou Shibang immediately brought in a large stack of account books: “Uncle, I think since it’s Shou Gu’s dowry, it should mainly consist of land and houses.” As he spoke, he found one of the account books, opened it, and spread it in front of Dou Tuo. “Look, this is one of our estates in Xingtang, with over 2,000 mu of land all connected, yielding an annual income of 300 to 400 taels of silver. Then there’s the estate in Quyang, with over 1,500 mu, bringing in 300 to 400 taels annually…”
Although Dou Tuo didn’t manage the family affairs, it didn’t mean he didn’t look at the account books.
The places Dou Shibang pointed out were all properties of the Eastern Mansion.
Were they planning to use their own money to supplement Dou Zhao?
A look of deep confusion flashed in Dou Tuo’s eyes.
Dou Shizu smiled slightly and said to Dou Shibang, “Third Brother, you can discuss this with Uncle later at your leisure. The urgent matter now is to write a contract—everyone agrees that Shou Gu’s dowry will be shared equally among our six branches. Verbal agreements aren’t binding, we need written proof, right?”
“Oh, right,” Dou Shibang smiled, “I forgot you need to hurry back to the capital.” He turned to ask Dou Tuo, “Uncle, who do you think should write this contract?”
“Wasn’t it said that your three branches would bear it?” Dou Tuo asked in surprise. “How has it become shared among all six branches?”
Dou Shizu smiled and said, “My original intention was for our three branches to provide it, but First Sister-in-law, Second Sister-in-law, and Fourth Brother insisted on participating. I thought about it and realized that with their support, I would feel more confident, so I agreed.”
Sweat immediately broke out on Dou Tuo’s forehead.
He only had one son.
He wasn’t afraid of offending the Second Brother’s branch as long as he had the First Brother’s branch.
These cousins were just like the cabinet—under the influence of interests, today you ally with me to attack him, tomorrow I ally with him to attack you… Separating and uniting, it was all the same thing.
But now, to protect his property, he was causing the other six branches to suffer losses together. This was like tying the other six branches to one rope and uniting them against him who had taken their interests. None of the six branches of the Eastern Mansion would ever side with his branch again, and his branch would be completely isolated.
Not to mention that Wan Yuan was currently just a newly promoted juren. Even if he were a jinshi, wouldn’t he need to choose an official post? Wouldn’t he need to wait for a vacancy? Wouldn’t there be difficult times in his official career?
As Dou Tuo pondered this, Dou Shibang had already quickly written up the document.
“Uncle, please check if anything is missing. If not, shall we put our handprints on it?”
It was just a thin sheet of paper, but in Dou Tuo’s hands, it felt as heavy as a thousand jin.
He still couldn’t believe that Dou Shizu would give up his own money.
But the document before him made it hard not to believe.
Once the fingerprints were pressed, there would be no turning back.
As Dou Tuo thought about this, sweat from his forehead fell onto the document, gradually spreading like a teardrop.
A shadow flashed before his eyes, and suddenly the document was snatched from his hand.
“I know Father is afraid I won’t agree,” Dou Shiying tore the contract to shreds, then crumpled it into a ball and threw it in the corner. “Fifth Brother, no need to say more. Shou Gu is my daughter, and it’s right that I should provide her dowry. I agree to this half of the silver.”
Some readers in the comments section pointed out whether Wang Xingyi was in favor of opening the horse markets or not. The answer is that he was not in favor.
Then, blushing, I admitted that I had made a mistake in writing.
There was also a question about whether the names Cai Lan and Cai Shu were from the same series as Wei Yanzhen’s daughter’s name.
Indeed, they are from the same series, all originating from the “Book of Songs.”
However, the six branches of the Western Dou family and the families of Wei’s married daughters are distantly related and should not be connected. They each have their origins, so I won’t make any changes.