Chapter 40 Sky-high Betrothal Gift
Li Xiang understood what Li Shimin meant. On the surface, he was asking about this confusing case, but in fact, Old Li's core target was the aristocratic families.

And this Boling Cui family also has a close relationship with his grandfather Li Shimin.

Four years ago, when the "Clan Records" was revised in the 12th year of Zhenguan, the editors openly listed the Cui family of Boling as the first class. Li Shimin was very dissatisfied after reading it. He pointed out that the Shandong gentry "has been declining for generations, without any official title", and relied on marriage to make money, "I don't understand why people value it."

He then ordered Gao Shilian and others to re-revise the system, and instructed that "there is no need to talk about the past, but only to use the current official titles as the basis for ranking." The imperial family Li was re-ranked as the first rank, and the empress's family Changsun was ranked second.

Even after being suppressed by successive emperors, the aristocratic families still occupied the vast majority of political resources in the Tang Dynasty.

Even with the introduction of the imperial examination, it could not shake the status of the aristocratic family in the slightest. In the 116 years between the first year of Xingyuan under Emperor Dezong of Tang and the second year of Qianfu under Emperor Xizong of Tang, the imperial examination was suspended for two years. In the remaining years, people from the Lu family of Fanyang passed the imperial examinations and became Jinshi, and subjects other than the Jinshi examination were not counted.

This is the case with just the Fanyang Lu family, not to mention that there are six other families at the same level as theirs.

Xue Yuanchao, the prime minister during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, once lamented that one of the three biggest regrets in life was that he could not marry a woman from one of the five surnames.

In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, when Emperor Wenzong of Tang wanted to marry a princess to a noble family, he still said with emotion: "In ordinary people's marriage, official rank is not taken into account, but family background is taken into account. My family has been the emperor for two hundred years, but we are not as good as Cui and Lu!"

It was Huang Chao who truly destroyed the aristocratic families, ended the trend of climbing up the social ladder, and prevented China from giving birth to a unique caste system like that of India.

"How much money did that tycoon pay to make the distant relatives of the Cui family of Boling disregard their dignity?" Li Xiang asked curiously.

Li Shimin put down his chopsticks, sighed and said, "Fifty thousand strings of cash, a full fifty thousand strings of cash!"

Not to mention that the Cui family of Boling is a distant relative, even Old Li felt that this was a lot of money.

Don’t you see that because of the 30,000 strings of cash, the censors were so excited that they impeached Li Chengqian for his extravagance.

Finally, Old Li added bitterly: "Even if the royal family married off their daughter, they never accepted a betrothal gift of 50,000 strings of cash!"

"Grandfather is certainly different from those noble families," Li Xiang immediately began to flatter him, "Grandfather treats every aunt like a treasure. How could he treat them like money-making goods like those noble families do?"

"Moreover, every time Grandfather marries off my aunt, he always brings a dowry that is even more generous than the betrothal gift. Doesn't this only serve to highlight Grandfather's stature and those of the aristocratic families' stature?"

This is only possible in the Tang Dynasty, otherwise the aristocratic families would be regarded as objectification... No, how can the matter of taking money be regarded as objectification for those sophisticated and selfish "meiss"?
At least women from the five surnames can bring glory to the family.

Hearing Li Xiang's soothing words, Li Shimin smiled with great satisfaction and said, "Xiang'er still understands me, hahahaha..."

Then he looked at Li Mingda and said, "When Sizi gets married in the future, Father will definitely prepare a more generous dowry for you than Changle's."

When Li Mingda heard this, he lowered his head and said hesitantly: "I don't want to get married. I want to stay with Aye forever."

Li Shimin didn't say anything, just sighed and reached out to rub Li Mingda's head.

How could he not know that his daughter was not in good health?
I hope Dr. Sun has a solution.

Seeing the scene was a bit sad, Li Xiang changed the subject and said, "Since Cui has already promised to the previous family, there is no reason for the two to have one woman. After all, things should be based on first come first served. What is the logic of whoever offers the highest price wins?"

"But after all this, I'm afraid it's the Cui family's daughter..."

"Xiang'er, you're overthinking. How glorious it is for the five surnames' daughters." Li Shimin complained sourly, "Even if she remarries, there will still be people flocking to her and trampling down the threshold of their house!"

Li Xiang smiled.

"Why is the elephant laughing?"

"What grandpa is worried about is the power of the aristocratic families." Li Xiang smiled very much like Zhuge Liang, except that he was waving a goose feather fan: "My grandson has a plan that will definitely limit the power of the aristocratic families!" "You're just a child, what good ideas can you have?" Li Shimin glanced at Li Xiang.

Hey, you old man...

Li Xiang took a deep breath and retorted, "Grandfather, please don't look down on me. Confucius said that the young are to be feared. How can you look down on your grandson just because of his age?"

Li Mingda on the side covered his mouth and chuckled, his big eyes curved and shining as he looked at Li Xiang.

"What Xiang'er said makes sense, Aye..."

Now that his beloved daughter has spoken, what else can Li Shimin do?

"You tell me."

It can be heard that Lao Li's tone is a bit helpless.

Li Xiang looked up and asked, "Aunt, do you have the seal with you?"

"Wang De, go and get the jade seal on the table." Li Shimin ordered Wang De.

Wang De quickly took out the jade seal and handed it to Li Xiang. Li Xiang pointed at the jade seal and said, "Look, old man, if we can carve the book into something like a jade seal, wouldn't it save us the trouble of hand-copying books? It can also quickly reduce the price of the book..."

With Li Shimin's intelligence, this kind of thing is not difficult to understand. His eyes lit up, but he quickly said: "It's a good thing, but you take it for granted."

He didn't mean to suppress Li Xiang, he just wanted the kid to face reality.

"You expect this thing to undermine the foundation of your family. Do you know where the foundation of your family lies?"

"It's the reputation accumulated from generation to generation, as well as the political resources across the country! The aristocratic families, their students and old friends, and the forces formed by marriage, together weave a huge network of relationships. Just want to pry open their foundation with cheaper books?"

Lao Li didn’t say the next sentence, but from his expression, one could tell that “You’re just dreaming.”

Li Xiang was not surprised, as he knew this.

Mentioning printing technology is just a casual remark, the real killer move is still to come.

"Printing books is only the first step," Li Xiang said confidently, "the second step is to reform the imperial examination system."

"Go ahead and tell me."

Li Shimin didn't expect a twelve-year-old child to be able to say anything fancy, but then again, being able to think about these things at the age of twelve is already commendable.

He also didn't want to discourage the child's enthusiasm, so he prepared to let him speak and then point out the shortcomings.

Seeing Li Shimin's expression of not taking it seriously, Li Xiang felt indignant.

How dare you look down on me?

I hope you can still maintain this rebellious look later!

(There is one more chapter during the day. The second round of traffic is low. If nothing unexpected happens, there will be three chapters this week.)
(End of this chapter)