Chapter 113

“Father, First Mother, Second Mother, Third Mother, Fourth Mother, Fifth Mother!”

“Oh my, it’s been more than three years since I last saw him. Dingding has really become more and more handsome. Hmm, he has the same charm as the old master back then. You are the luckiest one, eldest sister.” The beautiful woman whom Zhang Weihai called Second Madam said with great envy.

“Oh dear, second sister, what are you saying? My children are your children too, they all call me ‘Mom’. When Dingding has many children and grandchildren in the future, you can’t be lazy, you all have to help take care of them.” Zhang Weihao’s biological mother joked happily, seemingly having a very good relationship with her other four sisters.

Well, the Zhang family is generally very harmonious. They only have one child, and it seems they can’t have any more. So, are they going to wait until the old man gets old and Zhang Weihai gradually takes over, then the mother and son will team up to kick them out?

Because Zhang Weihou was her only child, and her own, Zhang’s mother, as the legal wife, was naturally very magnanimous and did not care about the existence of her other sisters.

Although Zhang Weihao may have a genetic mutation, his parents were definitely not bad-looking, and the Zhang family did not just become wealthy in this generation, so their genes are very good.

Although he can’t compare to Li Xunhuan, you can still see some resemblance to Zhang Erhe in his younger days, so he’s definitely not bad.

After greeting his five mothers and entering the study to meet his father, who was the richest man in the country, Zhang Weihao discovered that his father was actually a third-rank master capable of circulating his inner energy in a small cycle.

Previously, I didn’t have this ability; I could only tell that my father, the richest man in this life, was not simple. Now, I can truly see the clues.

Unlike Wan Sanqian, who was not skilled in martial arts, Zhang Erhe was a master and also quite talented in literature. However, for some reason, he chose to sacrifice himself for his family and did not pursue a career in officialdom. Instead, he built a large business and was practically the de facto head of the Zhang family.

You might say that the Ming Dynasty wasn’t ruled by scholars, right?

That was true in the early and middle periods, but the situation changed after capitalism began to emerge in the later stages.

While power remains important, the financial resources a family controls are also crucial, and can even be a powerful backing for the family’s political representatives.

From the time of Bao Zong’s second term as prime minister, all those who could enter the cabinet either had powerful families backing them or belonged to a certain political faction. This political faction contained powerful families, sometimes more than one. So no matter how the cabinet ministers and chief ministers changed, they were basically all from the powerful families in the south, and the Zhang family was one of them.

This is also why, in the late Ming Dynasty, the emergence of the Donglin Party and the complete monopoly of the Ming Dynasty’s finances by the southern aristocratic families forced people like the Shanxi merchants to cooperate with the Manchus to achieve a change of dynasty.

The powerful families in the south and the Donglin Party were so powerful that they had almost completely sidelined the imperial family, preventing them from issuing orders to the central government. The so-called Grand Secretaries and regional officials in the court had all become their spokespeople and had to defer to these powerful families.

Unless there is a change of dynasty, it will be difficult for new interest groups to rise in this already corrupt political system.

Although it is only the mid-Ming Dynasty, Zhang Weihao has already seen the changes in the situation ahead. The general trend has already formed, which is why Zhengde and the following emperors died mysteriously.

Zhang Juzheng’s ability to implement reforms and become the de facto ruler in the early Wanli period was not solely due to his personal abilities, but primarily due to the power of the Zhang family. Had the Zhang family not been powerful enough to control the other major families and promote the implementation of reforms, the political game of “policies from above, countermeasures from below” would still have occurred.

In all the reforms of feudal dynasties, the starting point was basically good and had positive significance. The reason why most reforms failed was mainly due to the lack of implementation.

Reformers who support reforms often fail to deal with vested interests. The most obvious example is the several reforms in the Northern Song Dynasty, which basically all failed, and the conservatives and die-hards were able to dominate and humiliate them.

“Why did you come up with the courtesy name Lingyu? Wasn’t it supposed to be your uncle who chose it?”

“It was given to me by the Ancestor, and I dare not refuse a gift from an elder. The Ancestor has been very good to me, and I have now successfully established my foundation and transcended the mortal realm to become an immortal.” After Zhang Weihao finished speaking, he directly gathered lightning in his palm, and actually, dazzling white lightning appeared in his right palm.

“Palm Thunder! There really is thunder magic in this world!” Zhang Erhe was naturally knowledgeable about it. When his son left home before, he said that he had obtained a predestined connection with immortals and had met a real immortal. He was going to go out to cultivate, and he said it was to study abroad. But that was just an excuse. This is why Zhang Erhe has been supporting him with money and effort all these years.

After all, this wasn’t just his son saying it; Xue Qianxun said the same thing. He knew very well about Xue Qianxun’s background and why his son was valued so highly.

He was born as a reincarnation of an immortal, destined for great fortune.

Zhang Erhe would never forget the strange phenomenon when his child was born. He was even more certain when the terrifying woman who had ascended to heaven approached him. Although he was the father, he had always doted on his only son, Zhang Weihao, and would almost never refuse any request from his precious son.

“Since you have already achieved success in your cultivation, why do you still want to participate in the imperial examinations?” Some of the candidates, including Zhang Erhe, were not keen on their son becoming an official in the court.

Because of the Zhu family’s ruthless and heartless nature, they can turn on you in an instant. For example, three years ago, Zhang Erhe really wanted to kill the young emperor and Liu happy, but Zhang Weihai stopped him.

Zhang Weihao was well aware of his father’s immense wealth and the audacity of these top families. Killing an emperor was nothing to them; their methods were far more terrifying than many people imagined, and their power far exceeded their expectations.

They had a lot of spies and undercover agents planted in the palace, many of whom were like assassins, and they made significant contributions during the coup at the Fortress.