It is said that in Tingwei's Gao Mansion, the head of the family, Gao Rou and Gao Wenhui, was writing a remonstrance to the emperor, while Gao Jun, Gao Dan, Gao Guang, and Gao Xun brothers were discussing and dealing with the recent affairs in a side pavilion outside the hall. Several cases occurred in the past few days.
The first thing, which is not a big deal at all, is that a small official from Yiyang County, Diannong Liu Gui, took advantage of his vacation to visit Kyoto recently. One day, he and his three liang friends had a drink at Huanggong Jiulang. While riding their horses, they passed by the small forest outside the north city of the imperial city. Since he did not come to Luoyang often, he did not recognize this small forest. It is a royal forbidden garden.
Taking advantage of the drunkenness, he took out the bow and arrow he carried with him and boldly shot a hare in the forbidden garden!
Although Liu Gui committed the serious crime of trespassing into the royal garden, upon closer inspection, he only shot two hares to death, which is not a sin that is harmful to the world. As long as he handles it properly, this matter can be turned into a minor matter. .
But as luck would have it, a meritorious officer under Liu Gui whose name he did not know came to know about it.
This meritorious officer usually had some disagreements with Liu Gui. He seized this good opportunity, so how could he let it go so easily.
In this way, this meritorious officer did not help Liu Gui suppress the matter. Instead, he went directly to the school administrator in Luoyang and made the matter even more embarrassing!
The school official found out about this and immediately reported it to the school official He Zenghe Yingkao.
[Note 1: The name of He Ruijian in the previous article is the name of He Zeng's clan in Chen County and is not a pseudonym. He Zeng was named Yingkao. 】
Ever since the death of the late General Cao Zun and Cao Desi, he had only served as the school affairs officer for a few months. Now, it is the first time that the new officer has taken office. Therefore, everything is very detailed, so naturally he does not dare to slack off in the slightest.
Therefore, the emperor soon learned about this matter, both big and small.
Originally, Liu Gui's crime was not worthy of death, but unfortunately, the hunting law was at its most severe recently, and the informer was Liu Gui's mortal enemy. Many details, through his colorful exaggeration, turned out to be Liu Gui's determination to challenge the emperor. Majesty and deliberate hunting in the forbidden garden!
In this way, Liu Gui will naturally not be able to escape a serious crime. Although the emperor was furious, except for major cases in the palace, he never easily solved the case personally, so this matter became the task of Tingwei Gaorou.
In order to train the disciples and the younger generations of the clan, Gao Rou always leaves these troublesome but not difficult cases to the younger generations to deal with. Therefore, Gao Jun, Gao Dan, Gao Guang, and Gao Xun are now It was only here that we discussed the various large and small cases in Tingwei Mansion.
In addition, there is another matter that also falls on the heads of the four Gao Xuns.
According to the system of this dynasty, no matter how big or small an official is, those who suffer a major mourning will be reinstated after a hundred days.
Xie Hong, a minor official under the great Situ Dong Zhao and Dong Gongren, suffered the death of his father a few months ago. Now the period of mourning has already expired, which is more than three hundred days. It coincides with the shortage of manpower in the court, and it is urgent for Xie Hong to return to the court to serve. .
Originally, Jie Hong was ordered to serve, but for some unknown reason, he used illness as an excuse to request a postponement of his return to office!
This statement reached the emperor, who naturally thought that Xie Hong was either making excuses because of laziness, or because he wanted to gain fame and reputation as a filial son.
No matter what the reason was, this was something Cao Rui couldn't bear.
In a rage, Cao Rui wrote an eight-word reply to Xie Hong:
"If you are not Zeng and Min, how can you say anything about destroying evil?"
Although these eight characters are only a few words, they carry a lot of weight.
Zeng and Min were two sage disciples of Confucius who had participated in Min Ziqian.
These two were not only classmates of Confucius, but also both were famous filial sons in ancient times.
There has always been a popular story about Zeng Shen biting his finger in pain: When Zeng Shen was a boy, his family was poor and he often went to the mountains to collect firewood to make ends meet. One day, guests came to Zeng Shen's house. The mother, who was alone at home, was at a loss and bit her finger.
When Zeng Shen was collecting firewood, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart. He felt in his heart that his mother must be calling him, so he immediately returned home quickly carrying the firewood. When he knelt down to his mother and asked why, her mother said: Yes A guest suddenly arrived and I was at a loss, so I was biting my teeth.
As for Min Ziqian, there is a legend among the people that he obeyed his relatives in single clothes and whipped the reed flowers. This Min Ziqian was Zeng Shen's fellow disciple and one of Confucius' disciples. Among the Confucian sect, he was always as famous as Yan Hui for his virtue and was one of the seventy-two sages under Confucius.
When Min Ziqian was young, his stepmother disliked him and was often abused by her. One midwinter, her stepmother gave Min Ziqian clothes made of cotton made from reed catkins, while leaving cotton-wadding clothes for her two biological sons to wear.
During the severe cold weather, Min Ziqian was wearing this reed flower robe. Naturally, the cold was unbearable, and he was trembling. However, his father did not know this, so he accused Min Ziqian of being lazy, so he took the family stick and beat Min Ziqian. The father saw reed flowers flying out of the flaw of his son Qian's clothes. He was surprised. He went to check the clothes of the stepmother's son and found that both of them were wearing thick cotton wool.
His father was naturally extremely ashamed and angry, so he wanted to divorce his son and stepmother.
Unexpectedly, Ziqian repaid his kindness with kindness, and knelt down and begged: "When the mother is alive, the son is cold, and when the mother is gone, the three sons are alone."
When his father heard this, he felt extremely guilty towards Zi Qian. However, he thought about it and realized that it was not rational for him to divorce his wife in anger, so he forgave his wife.
From then on, the stepmother treated Ziqian as her own child, and the whole family finally lived in harmony. As the saying goes: The Min family has a virtuous husband, so why should they blame their stepmother? If the mother is left in front of the car, the three sons will be protected from wind and frost.
Min Ziqian was so filial that even his teacher Confucius once praised him and said: "How filial, Min Ziqian!" People do not listen to the words of their parents and brothers.
And this time the emperor's eight-character approval to Xie Hong was exactly reprimanding Xie Hong: You are not a filial person like Zeng Shen and Min Ziqian, but you still have the nerve to say that you have damaged your health because of mourning?
In this way, Xie Hong was also taken into custody by the emperor's dispatched school officials.
A tall and strong young man with stern eyebrows, thick moustache, and a Jinxian uniform was sitting in front of the case. After carefully reading the case files of Liu Gui and Xie Hong several times, he spoke. Said:
"In my opinion, Yiyang Diannong Liu Gui knew that the Forbidden Garden was not to be offended, but he was so bold that he hunted animals without authorization. His crime may not lead to death, but he should not be punished lightly."
This person is none other than Gao Jun, the eldest son of Tingwei Gaorou.
After hearing this, several people fell into deep thought. After a while, Gaorou's second son, Gao Tiao, who was tall, thin, with a slight mustache and dressed in terry clothes, nodded, then shook his head slightly, Then he spoke:
"What my brother said is reasonable, but I think that although Liu Gui is guilty, he just hunted two hares. He neither hurt anyone nor alarmed others. The inside story is still unclear. Therefore, for Liu Gui Don’t be hasty or take the punishment lightly!”
"What the second brother said is true!"
The short and fat Gao Guang said:
"In addition, I think that even if Xie Hong, a junior official in the Situ Mansion, is guilty of violating the system, if he is really ill, he can take a leave of absence according to the law. In this way, Xie Hong can be released without charge!"
Gao Xun was thoughtful after listening to the words of the three clan brothers. After a long while, Gao Xun had some concerns in his mind, and he said:
"Three brothers, I think that for these two cases, we need to meet Liu Gui and Xie Hong in person before we can judge whether Liu Gui intends to hunt the forbidden garden, and whether Xie Hong is pretending to be ill and being lazy."
After listening to Gao Xun's words, Gao Jun showed a satisfied smile:
"Brother Xun said it's a great kindness. Third brother, I'll leave you to interrogate Liu Gui. As for Jie Hong, I'll leave it to Brother Yu to do it myself."
"yes!"
After hearing this, Gao Dan, Gao Guang, and Gao Xun stood up and stretched out their sleeves to salute the eldest brother Gao Jun. The four of them had reached a consensus and went about their business.
Gao Xun had no plans, and he was relatively idle for the time being, so he came to his unique mansion given by the emperor as the emperor's brother-in-law.
Although this house is nominally owned by Gao Xun, all people in Luoyang know that as the royal son-in-law, Gao Xun will always put the princess first.
In this way, Gao Xun came to the main hall with an unknown mood.
At this moment, Dongxiang Princess Cao Ling, who was dressing up in the main hall, being served by four maids, had no reaction after noticing Gao Xun entering the hall.
She just glanced at the handsome and tall shadow reflected in the bronze mirror with her peripheral vision, and then continued to apply makeup smoothly.
Under the arrangement of Emperor Cao Rui, Gao Xun had been married for several years to his beloved Dongxiang Princess Cao Ling, who had been engaged to him as a baby.
But only Gao Xun knew in his heart that the Cao family's son-in-law was not very satisfactory to him.
For some reason, no matter how much warmth and affection Gao Xun gave to Cao Ling over the years, Cao Ling always responded to him with indifference.
One month, two months, three months, Gao Xun could bear it. Even at this time, his heart was full of happiness. After all, this woman who was as cold as ice to him was his most beloved woman and his wife.
One year, two years, three years later, Gao Xun still endured it. He tried hard to control his already dissatisfied heart and did not give up caring about and loving Cao Ling.
Today, Gao Xun's heart has become a bit riddled with holes.
At this time, he could no longer tell whether he was still so good to Cao Ling because he still loved her, or because he was just caring about Cao Ling's identity as Princess Dongxiang.
Perhaps, it has always been a combination of both.
Thinking of this, Gao Xun couldn't help but reveal a wry smile.
This bitter smile was reflected on his handsome face like a crown jewel, showing a somewhat sad beauty.
Years of dissatisfaction was finally aroused by the faint sneer at the corner of her mouth.
"Why?"
At this moment, Gao Xun's heart was extremely sad. He used to be a carefree young man wearing bright clothes and angry horses.
But now, his warmth, his kindness, and even the beauty of his nature have been torn to pieces by Princess Dongxiang's cruel indifference.
At this moment, he seemed to have forgotten Cao Ling's identity as Princess Cao Ling of Dongxiang. The tone of his questioning at this moment was exactly the same as that of a dissatisfied husband questioning his indifferent wife.
