Under the guidance of the steward, everyone entered the Confucius Mansion through the door.
After passing through a long and narrow courtyard, we came to the second gate of Kongfu Middle Road. This gate was built in the Wuzong period of the Ming Dynasty. A vertical plaque written in Li Dongyang's handwriting reads "Sage's Gate".
After entering the "Sage's Gate", you are greeted by a small, exquisite and unique screen door. Hanging on the screen door is a plaque with the words "Gifts of Great Light" written by Jiajing when Kong Shangxian attacked Yan Shenggong. plaque.
When Hai Rui followed the butler's steps and walked here, he might have felt something in his heart, so he subconsciously raised his head and looked at the plaque.
After passing this door, everyone finally arrived at the lobby of the Confucius Mansion. The lobby of the Confucius Mansion was usually used as a place for Duke Yan to read edicts and receive officials. Sometimes cases were even heard here.
After entering the lobby of the Confucius Mansion, they saw Kong Shangxian sitting at the top, pointing to the empty seat beside him, and giving instructions to Hai Rui and Cao Feng.
"You all have a seat!"
"Yes, thank you Yanshenggong!"
Seeing this, Hai Rui and Cao Feng bowed respectfully to Kong Shangxian before sitting down on their seats.
Not long after the two sat down, a servant soon came forward and brought a bowl of hot tea to each of them.
Kong Shangxian, who was sitting at the top, saw this situation and made a gesture of invitation to the two of them.
"You two, why not try my Kong Mansion's unique tea!"
After Kong Shangxian finished speaking, Hai Rui and Cao Feng on the side picked up their teacups and took a sip.
Immediately, after tasting the tea in the cup, Cao Feng couldn't help but his eyes lit up, and he immediately spoke in praise.
"This tea is really good. It has a mellow taste and a long aftertaste. If you taste it carefully, it still has a hint of sweetness. Not bad!"
Hai Rui on the side did not comment on the taste of the tea. He just took a sip and quickly put the tea cup back in his hand.
Seeing this situation, Kong Shangxian, who was sitting at the top, could no longer suppress his curiosity. He turned his eyes to Hai Rui and asked.
"Master Censor, I wonder what your Majesty's purpose is in asking you to come here this time?"
When Kong Shangxian finished speaking, the lobby of Kong Mansion suddenly fell into silence.
Even Cao Feng on the side subconsciously focused all his attention on Hai Rui, completely unaware that he was still holding a teacup in his hand.
Upon hearing this, Hai Rui turned his gaze to Kong Shangxian, and immediately stood up from his seat. After saluting Kong Shangxian respectfully, he spoke word by word.
"Mr. Yan Sheng, I'm telling you the truth. Your Majesty has entrusted your subordinates to tell you that if you want to survive, you should go to the capital!"
After Hai Rui's words fell, Kong Shangxian felt a chill coming from the soles of his feet and straight to the Tianling Cap!
"Wha...what, this...this is impossible, I...I am Duke Yan, Your Majesty will never..."
Kong Shangxian kept mumbling, with a look of disbelief on his face.
At this moment, I heard a crisp sound of "bang" and followed the sound. I saw that the teacup that was originally in the hand of Shandong Governor Cao Feng fell down at some point and shattered on the ground, turning into countless pieces. The ceramic shards and the tea in the cup were just spilled on the ground, still steaming a little.
The expression on Cao Feng's face at this moment was exactly the same as Kong Shangxian's before.
Because the whole thing was too shocking, Cao Feng's face turned pale at this moment, his whole body was shaking, and he had fallen into a sluggish state.
Hai Rui took in the expression on Kong Shangxian's face and immediately stepped forward to hand the handwritten letter sent by someone from Jiajing not long ago into Kong Shangxian's hands.
"If Duke Yan Sheng doesn't believe it, just read this letter!"
"This is a personal letter that His Majesty sent to your subordinates not long ago!"
After Hai Rui finished speaking, he glanced at Kong Shangxian and then returned to his seat to sit down.
At this moment, Kong Shangxian was already very upset. His reason told him that everything Hai Rui said was true, and he had really offended His Majesty!
But perhaps with the last bit of luck in mind, Kong Shangxian opened the envelope tremblingly and began to browse the contents.
There was not much content on the letter, only two short sentences, but when Kong Shangxian finished browsing the contents of the letter, his whole body felt like being struck by lightning, and the last trace of luck in his heart was broken, and he saw a look of despair on his face. Colorful, he put the letter in his hand aside tremblingly.
There is no other reason. On the letter, the content of those two sentences is.
"I already know what Aiqing said in the letter, and all the families involved will be dealt with by me!"
"Also, when the time comes, give me a message to Duke Yan Sheng. If he still wants to live, come to the capital!"
At this moment, the atmosphere in the lobby of the Confucius Mansion had dropped to freezing point, and no one in the room spoke.
After a long time, Kong Shangxian came back to his senses. With the last bit of luck, he turned his gaze to Hai Rui. After hesitating for a long time, he finally spoke.
"I wonder if you, Lord Censor of the Capital City, are willing to..."
Before Kong Shangxian finished speaking, he was coldly interrupted by Hai Rui: "Mr. Yansheng, I just followed His Majesty's order and came to give you these words. Since the words have been brought to you, then It’s not convenient for me to stay as a low-ranking official, so I’ll take my leave!”
After Hai Rui finished speaking, he bowed his hand to Kong Shangxian, and immediately walked out of the lobby of the Kong Mansion with Cao Feng.
In Hai Rui's view, now that he had delivered the words, the letter had lost its meaning. Therefore, Hai Rui did not choose to take back the handwritten letter from Kong Shangxian.
After the two of them walked out of the lobby of the Confucius Mansion, Cao Feng reacted belatedly. He turned his eyes to Hai Rui, his face full of horror, and asked.
"Sir... Sir, this, this, this, this, is it possible that Your Majesty really wants Duke Yan to go to the capital..."
Hai Rui saw the expression on Cao Feng's face, sighed helplessly, and then spoke.
"Master Cao, this matter is not something we can interfere with. We just need to wait for the final result with peace of mind. Let's go!"
When Cao Feng heard what Hai Rui said, he couldn't help but show a helpless expression on his face. Immediately, he hurriedly followed Hai Rui's pace and walked towards the outside of Kong's mansion.
Before leaving officially, Cao Feng reluctantly looked back.
The scenery of Kong Mansion was no different from before they arrived. On the left and right sides of the door, there were still the pair of two-meter-tall, lifelike stone lions holding stone beads in their mouths.
The red-edged and black-painted door is inlaid with Suan Ni cattail heads, and the word "Kongfu" written in gold letters on a blue background is hung on the door. Everything is so majestic!
Compared with when he came, the scenery was much the same, but in Cao Feng's view, the Kong Mansion at this moment had an inexplicable meaning.
Suddenly, this sentence suddenly appeared in Cao Feng's mind: "The beauty of a gentleman will be killed in five generations!"
But soon, he put this thought out of his mind and comforted himself.
"No, it shouldn't be the case. In the final analysis, Yan Shenggong just made a small mistake this time, and it shouldn't be so serious!"
"No, it shouldn't be the case. In the final analysis, Yan Shenggong just made a small mistake this time, and it shouldn't be so serious!"
"Your Majesty asked Duke Yan Sheng to go to the capital, probably just to learn about the specific situation from him!"
"Yes, that's right, it must be like this!"
After Hai Rui and Cao Feng left the Kong Mansion one after another, Kong Shangxian was seen slumped on the seat with lifeless eyes, and kept muttering: "It's over, it's over, it's all over now!"
Until this moment, Kong Shangxian could not convince himself to accept this fact.
So what if the Confucius family has extremely high prestige in the hearts of scholars all over the world?
But in the final analysis, everything the Kong family currently has comes from the emperor. Whether it is life or death is nothing more than a word from the emperor!
It's just that the emperors in the past either did it to consolidate their own rule, or out of the principle that doing more is worse than doing less. In short, they turned a blind eye to what the Kong family did behind the scenes. Attitude!
Emperor Jiajing, on the other hand, had no such concerns at all. On the one hand, this was because when he first ascended the throne, he overpowered his ministers and established his dominance through the great ceremony debate.
On the other hand, as Jiajing has been in power for a long time, its position has become more and more stable. In other words, Jiajing does not really need the help of the Kong family and the other "Four Sages and Three Sages" families to be able to secure the throne as emperor. s position.
However, there must be a Duke Yansheng, and even if this person is not Kong Shangxian, he will be someone else in the Kong family.
Only then did Kong Shangxian realize how ridiculous his previous ideas were, and he regretted that he had been unable to withstand the temptation and agreed to the proposals of the other families.
However, there is no regret medicine in the world. After calming down, Kong Shangxian began to rack his brains to think about the next response.
"First of all, Your Majesty just asked me to go to the capital and did not say that I would be punished. In other words, there is still room for relaxation of the matter!"
"In addition, I have Mr. Yan Ge and Mr. Xiao Ge as my support in the court. As long as they can come forward and say a few good words for me in front of His Majesty, this matter should be over soon!"
Kong Shangxian thought so, and saw him calling his servants and giving instructions.
"Go and invite my wife to my place right now, and tell her that you have something important to discuss with her!"
"Yes, sir!"
After responding, the servant immediately turned around and left. Not long after, Mrs. Yan, accompanied by her maid, arrived at the lobby of the Confucius Mansion.
As soon as Mrs. Yan entered the lobby of Confucius Mansion, she saw Kong Shangxian with a sad face.
Although she had no feelings for Kong Shangxian, she still asked symbolically out of concern for her wife.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
Hearing this, Kong Shangxian sighed helplessly, and immediately handed the handwritten letter that Hai Rui left before into Yan's hands.
"Oh, what happened back then, you can see for yourself!"
After Yan took the letter from Kong Shangxian, he began to browse the contents.
Although it has been said since ancient times that it is a virtue for a woman to have no talent, as a child of a top official family, Yan received an extremely strict education since she was a child, so reading and literacy was not a problem.
Yan just glanced at the content on the letter and was immediately frightened to the point of confusion. Immediately, he came back to his senses, with a slight tremor in his tone.
"This...what should we do next? His Majesty wants..."
Kong Shangxian saw the expression on Yan's face, and his face was full of helplessness: "Oh, now that things have come to a point, I can only go to your father for help!"
After hearing Kong Shangxian's suggestion, Mrs. Yan couldn't help biting her lips, her face full of confusion.
Due to emotions and reasons, since she got married, she actually had little to do with the Yan family. On weekdays, in order not to arouse the emperor's suspicion, except for some necessary emotional contacts, the two families also tried not to interact with each other.
But now, because of these scandals of the Kong family, her father, who had just joined the cabinet, and her grandfather, who was still the chief minister of the cabinet, were involved, which made Yan very confused.
Kong Shangxian on the side seemed to see the hesitation in Yan's heart, and immediately spoke to comfort him.
"Don't worry, I'm just asking your father to say a few nice words in front of His Majesty, nothing else will be involved!"
Kong Shangxian finished speaking. After thinking for a long time, Yan finally nodded and agreed to Kong Shangxian's proposal.
"Well, I'll try to write a letter to my father first. As for whether my father will agree, I can't control it!"
When Kong Shangxian saw that Mrs. Yan finally agreed to his proposal, he couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief and immediately agreed.
"Well, no matter what the final result is, let's try it first!"
…
Since then, two more days have passed.
In the evening, Yan's study room.
At this moment, Yan Song was wearing reading glasses and looking at the book in his hand quite intently, while Yan Shifan stood uneasily not far from Yan Song.
Time passed by slowly. I don’t know how long it had passed. I saw Yan Song slowly taking off the reading glasses he was wearing, and then looked at Yan Shifan aside and asked.
"Tell me, what's going on?"
Seeing this, Yan Shifan couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief. After organizing the words in his mind, he lowered his voice and said.
"Father, there is news from Hai Rui!"
"Oh, is there any new development over Hai Rui?"
After Yan Song heard this, he couldn't help but become interested. He immediately turned his attention to Yan Shifan and asked.
"Father, not long ago, Hai Rui dispatched local guardsmen to confiscate the homes of all the families of the "Four Saints and Three Sages" on the grounds that they had colluded with the White Lotus Sect!"
"Currently, all members of the families involved in this case are being escorted to the capital!"
"There has been no news from Duke Yan Shenggong. It is said that Hai Rui went to Duke Yan Shenggong with Cao Feng, the governor of Shandong, after that. It is unknown what the two sides discussed!"
When Yan Shifan said this, he immediately changed the subject and added to Yan Song.
"In addition, my father heard that Hai Rui's property confiscated from those families is conservatively estimated to be at least 80 million taels!"
"In addition, there are countless items such as antiques and curios, house deeds and title deeds. According to preliminary statistics, the land previously occupied by those families was approximately 360,000 acres!"
After Yan Song listened to Yan Shifan's report, the expression on his face did not change much. He just glanced at Yan Shifan rather plainly and said with emotion.
"It seems that His Majesty has taken action after all!" (End of Chapter)
