Zeng Guofan was the navigator of the late Qing Dynasty, and he was also a saint who worshipped countless people with lofty ideals. But in addition to Zeng Guofan's achievements in his career, he also has many little-known family stories. And Zeng Guofan's wedding night was full of twists and turns.
On the day of Zeng Guofan's wedding, his bride suddenly repented. Just when the Zeng family was about to lose face, the matchmaker who brokered the marriage pointed to the woman next to him and said, "Marry her." ”
Why was Zeng Guofan repented? This has to start from his early years of study.
According to historical records, Zeng Guofan was after Xiucai Zenglin's book. Zeng Linshu was a talent in his nearly 50s, but he was a very talented person, and later became a private school teacher. But what people did not expect was that Zeng Linshu, who was over fifty years old and could not reach the first, his ability to teach and educate people was very good, and he also cultivated many excellent students. Zeng Linshu knew that he could no longer participate in the exam, so he pinned his dream of entering the palace as an official on his son Zeng Guofan.
Zeng Guofan began to read and write at the age of five, and when he was six years old, he entered the private school run by his father. Although Zeng Guofan was not happy to learn things, he was very down-to-earth and enterprising, and his father Zeng Linshu had been patiently teaching him. In the early years of Zeng Guofan, there was also such an interesting thing:
Zeng Linshu wanted to see if his son was a material that could be made. Therefore, Zeng Linshu came up with a "egg hunting case" to test Zeng Guofan.
Before his son Zeng Guofan returned home, Zeng Linshu first asked someone to go to the kitchen to cook five eggs, then let a servant eat one and place the remaining four eggs on the table. After Zeng Guofan returned home, Zeng Linshu asked his mother to pretend to be surprised and said in front of him: "Why is there one less egg on the table?" Then Zeng Linshu slowly stepped out and explained to Zeng Guofan: "Your mother originally asked the servant to cook five eggs for you to eat today, but I didn't think that there were only four eggs on the table, who stole the missing egg?" And you help your mother look it up. ”
Zeng Guofan sat down and thought for a while, he first asked the servant to prepare a pot of tea, and brought all the cups and a large wooden basin, and then summoned all the servants in the house. After all the servants had arrived, Zeng Guofan asked them to drink the tea one by one and spit water into the large wooden basin, and he stood by to carefully observe the tea spit out by the servants. In the end, Zeng Guofan found that only one maid spat out egg residue in the tea. Thus, the case of "who stole the egg" was thus revealed.
When Zeng Linshu saw that his son had thought of a way so quickly and found the "prisoner", he was very happy and praised Zeng Guofan one after another: "Not bad, there will be a future." Zeng Guofan later verified his father's words.
When Zeng Guofan was 15 years old, he went to take the examination in Changsha Province, and he ranked seventh. Almost all the young students in Changsha took this exam, which is enough to show the wisdom of Zeng Guofan.
Four years later, the adult Zeng Guofan left his father's private school and went to study at the Tang Ancestral Hall in Hengyang. Here, Zeng Guofan met the master who influenced his life: Ouyang Ningji. Ouyang Ningji and Zeng Linshu were in the same window, and the two had a lot of friendship. Ouyang Ningji was also a man with a full belly of meridians, and his fame was far and wide in Hengyang, so Zeng Linshu asked his son Zeng Guofan to worship him as a teacher.
Soon, Zeng Guofan was 20 years old, but he had not yet married a wife. Zeng Linshu knows that his son is eager to learn, but the matter of marriage is also very important, the ancient saying has "first start a family and then establish a career", Zeng Linshu wanted to find a good family affair for his son as soon as possible. He quickly wrote to his old friend Ouyang Ningzhi about the idea.
During the period of teaching Zeng Guofan, Ouyang Ningji was also very optimistic about this diligent and studious apprentice, and after knowing that Zeng Linshu intended to marry him, Ouyang Ningji decided to personally broker Zeng Guofan and propose to a family surnamed Wang at the foot of Hengshan On behalf of the Zeng family.
This Royal Family is a famous and prestigious family, and the Lady of the Wang Family naturally has to marry the right person. Although Zeng Guofan's father was only a private school teacher, they had also heard about Zeng Guofan ranking seventh in the Changsha Province Boy Examination when he was 15 years old, and the matchmaker was Ouyang Ning, a famous talent in Hengyang, so the Wang family agreed to this family affair.
In 1832, the two families set a wedding date, and when everything was ready, they were going to have a wedding. However, at this time, Miss Wang Jia retreated. Because in the past few years, although Zeng Guofan took the imperial examination, he did not pass the first, and only passed the Xiucai examination. Miss Wang's heart is quite high, and if she wants to marry, she must marry a more talented person. Therefore, after the Zeng family arranged the house properly, they did not see the bride's figure for a long time.
At this time, the guests had all been welcomed into the palace, and everyone was waiting for the two newcomers to visit the church, but the Wang family did not send a single person to explain the situation.
Ouyang Ningji and Zeng Linshu summed up, and they knew that this big lady of the Wang family was definitely unwilling to marry. But now that she is repentant, isn't this a joke for Zeng Guofan to be seen by everyone? Zeng Guofan was also quite helpless after learning about this matter.
Just when everyone was in a hurry, Ouyang Ningji called his daughter and pulled the father and son of the Zeng family into the house and said:
"Only blame the old decay for not doing things well, today's guests are full of seats, always can not make a fuss, my parents and daughters, eighteen years old, almost good looks, no major shortcomings." As long as Xiao Zeng does not abandon it, how about marrying my girlfriend? ”
Ouyang Ningjie said that his daughter was "almost good-looking". According to legend, his daughter Ouyang Shi was full of hemp seeds, so she was 18 years old and had not yet married. But the Zeng family naturally did not mind the appearance of the Ouyang family, they had already had contact with the Ouyang family, this woman Hui Lanxin, diligent and simple, if she could marry into the Zeng family, it would be a blessing for the Zeng family in the future. Therefore, the father and son of the Zeng family agreed to this.
Although Ouyang and Zeng Guofan had only known each other for a few years, there was also a tacit understanding between the two, so Ouyang did not oppose his father's arrangement, and the crisis at the wedding was finally lifted.
That night, Zeng Guofan finished socializing with guests and returned to his room to prepare for bed. But when Zeng Guofan took off his clothes, Ouyang Shi was so frightened that he almost fainted. It turned out that Zeng Guofan suffered from skin diseases, he had grown ringworm since he was a child, and the bed he slept on often had ringworm skin falling. Because of this, the Zeng family still thought that he was reincarnated by a python. But Ouyang Shi was just a boudoir woman, and she didn't know how to do medicine, when had she ever seen such a scary ringworm?
Zeng Guofan saw his wife being frightened, and his heart was very guilty, and this disease of skin ringworm was indeed his unspeakable secret. Although Ouyang was horrified, she did not blame Zeng Guofan anymore, but she made a request to Zeng Guofan: she hoped to become lady of the Commandments in the future. Zeng Guofan knew that he was ashamed of his wife who had hurriedly married him, so he agreed to this request.
After getting married, Zeng Guofan took the exam twice, but neither of them won the exam.
In 1834, Zeng Guofan was raised after participating in the Hunan Township Examination, and the Zeng family was very happy, and the next step was to enter Beijing to prepare for the examination.
Four years later, Zeng Guofan finally passed the test, and he also began his career as an official.
Zeng Guofan was busy outside, and his wife Ouyang Shi stayed at home to serve her in-laws and arranged the family's life properly. Zeng Guofan was very grateful to his wife, and a true relationship gradually developed between him and the Ouyang clan.
Zeng Guofan once wrote in the book:
"Staying at home is just an accident, and staying at home is a long-term solution."
Although he later became an official to erpin, he did not forget to care about his wife. Zeng Guofan earned her the title of Lady of the Commandments at the age of 33, fulfilling the promise of the wedding night. The Ouyang clan also became the youngest lady of the Qing Dynasty.
Although Zeng Guofan later married a beautiful concubine, he did not spoil the concubine and destroy his wife, but still respected the Ouyang clan very much, and the two of them also became an envious couple.
Although Zeng Guofan and the Ouyang clan came together because of the repentance of their original fiancée, the two had the same temperament, and one was a family leader and the other was talented, which also laid the groundwork for Zeng Guofan's later smooth career.
Although Zeng Guofan was in a hurry to marry his wife, he also unexpectedly reaped the happiness of a lifetime.