Xiao Jing couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this.
I'm thinking to myself, are you a hedgehog? Others only look for soft persimmons to pinch, but which one are you trying to hit?
"Mr. Zhang, when you enter the court, you will have many shady reasons and you will always have to meet with others. With your pure character, those officials will definitely dispel their doubts about you and live in harmony with you. "
Xiao Jing seems to be very optimistic about Zhang Zhou becoming a serious official.
In his eyes, Zhang Zhou was very principled and very similar to those civil servants.
Zhang Zhou smiled and said: "Being in harmony cannot form a party. If you join the court, you are just assisting in the government. What does it matter whether you live in harmony with them? Socializing among colleagues is still too cumbersome for me."
"Thank you very much. We are waiting at Qianqing Palace. I estimate that His Majesty will be back soon."
Xiao Jing stopped discussing this topic with Zhang Zhou.
It didn't matter whether Zhang Zhou got along with civil officials or not, as long as he didn't get along too much with internal officials, that was the easiest thing to criticize.
And precisely...
Now Zhang Zhou gets along much better with the internal officials than with the courtiers.
…
…
When Zhu Youtang returned to the gate of Qianqing Palace, he directly called Zhang Zhou and entered the palace together.
"Bingkuan, let me make everything clear. It has nothing to do with you, so you don't need to worry about it anymore. As for Cheng Minzheng, Tang Yin and Xu Jing, I will also send people to investigate. It may take some time."
Zhu Youtang may have wanted to protect Cheng Minzheng before, but compared to Zhang Zhou, Cheng Minzheng became a marginal figure in his eyes who could be protected or not.
Zhu Youtang was actually satisfied that he could get Zhang Zhou to disassociate himself from this matter.
"Earlier, you were in tit-for-tat with Mr. Xie Ge in the court, or you didn't know him well. He had no intention of ridiculing you. On the contrary, he paid great attention to the promotion of young people. Mr. Xie Ge has the demeanor of being a role model for others."
Zhu Youtang even wanted to say a few words for Xie Qian, telling Zhang Zhou not to take it too seriously.
Zhang Zhou smiled and said: "Your Majesty is serious. What I said to Mr. Xie Ge was purely to clarify my position and I had no intention of taking any aim."
"Yes." Zhu Youtang smiled and nodded, "I believe that the old man in the city of Xiege will not take it seriously. But for the first time you go to court and compete with others, you can be neither humble nor arrogant, but you can actually give in. I'm surprised that you can be on the spot without making a mess, and you have the potential to do great things."
"Your Majesty, I love you."
"Bingkuan, what do you think of this issue? I didn't ask you for specific countermeasures before. The focus was to get you out of the incident. Now you can tell me about it. After all, before the incident, you You can predict everything, so you have your own predictions about the outcome of this matter, right?"
Zhu Youtang had previously been determined to help Zhang Zhou clear his grievances. Seeing that his wish was almost fulfilled now, he began to discuss the matter with Zhang Zhou in detail.
This is why Zhang Zhou mentioned the vending problem among the three hexagrams at the beginning of the year.
Only by arousing the emperor's curiosity and making the emperor feel that he had some insights and opinions on this matter, the emperor would ask for opinions in private. This was the same purpose as his prediction of Zhang Yanling and Jianchangwei earthquake.
If he had not participated in it through prophecy in advance, after the incident, the emperor would have asked the ministers for their opinions. After all, those people were professional politicians who received salaries to do things.
How could the emperor listen to him on such a big matter?
Zhang Zhou said: "I feel that Cheng Minzheng and Xu Jing are not unjust in this matter."
"Oh? What do you mean?" Zhu Youtang's interest increased a bit.
This kind of statement is different when talking to ministers. Ministers generally do not use dialectical perspectives to analyze things. When talking to the emperor, they always stick to a fixed position and then reason.
Zhang Zhou's discussion was not as formal as court discussions. It was a private inquiry anyway, so he could say whatever he wanted.
"Cheng Minzheng did not participate in reading the test papers, but only composed the questions. Whether or not to take the test paper was the decision of other examiners. The suspicion that he cheated behind the scenes can be eliminated."
"Yes." Zhu Youtang nodded, "But the key lies in the rhetoric spread outside."
Zhang Zhou said: "I'm afraid it will be difficult to find any evidence in the end for the theory of the title, because after Cheng Minzheng was confirmed to be the examiner, he never saw anyone again. Could it be that he knew in advance that he was going to be the examiner, and also assumed the title, and went to inform What benefit does this have to others?"
Zhu Youtang thought for a while and nodded again.
Dai Yi next to him said: "If everything goes as Mr. Zhang said, it would be easy to handle. I'm afraid the scholars outside don't think so. They are convinced that there is a problem, and these principles cannot be explained to them."
Zhang Zhou said: "Your Majesty, this involves what I said. He Cheng Minzheng and Xu Jing were not unjust in this matter. After Xu Jing arrived in the capital, he took Tang Yin to visit Cheng Minzheng. As I know, he wanted to see Cheng Minzheng. The price to pay is quite high.”
"Just doing some things may cost a lot of money, and Tang Yin doesn't have that kind of wealth. Xu Jing must have done all the money-making, and Cheng Minzheng knew that he was the candidate to take the exam next spring, but he still didn't avoid suspicion. This It's his fault."
Zhu Youtang sighed: "I actually want to say this. If Cheng Minzheng hadn't gone to meet those people, would there still be rumors about the scandal? Others would not be able to find a loophole if they wanted to take action."
Zhang Zhou smiled.
The emperor almost said that Cheng Minzheng was an egg with cracks.
"But Your Majesty, it is not against the law for Ming ministers to meet civil servants, and Cheng Minzheng is not the only one doing this, right?" Zhang Zhou asked a question.
The emperor was silent this time.
Nowadays, everyone is finding Cheng Minzheng's fault, but his fault may not even be considered as the fault of others.
Li Dongyang, another examiner of this examination, has met more scholars than Cheng Minzheng, and every time he evaluates the talents and learning of these scholars, he also judges their level or encourages them, and he does even better than Cheng Minzheng. Zhang Yang, but no one attacked Li Dongyang.
The difference in treatment is so big.
To put it bluntly, Cheng Minzheng is just a soft persimmon?
As a cabinet minister, Li Dongyang is still the second assistant. Maybe when Liu Jian retires, he, Li Dongyang, will be the first assistant. What is the risk of civil servants criticizing Li Dongyang? Those scholars also have to think about becoming officials in the court in the future. If they offend Li Dongyang, their official careers will be bleak. They don't need to think about getting official posts in Beijing. They can directly go to Nanjing or local posts to find them. Official vacancies.
"In my opinion, Cheng Minzheng still suffered from poor official communication. In other words, someone was trying to punish him, but he himself was ignorant."
Zhang Zhou expressed his opinion.
Dai Yi, Xiao Jing and others next to them were all holding their breath and concentrating.
Apart from Zhang Zhou, no one else could openly talk about the factional views of the DPRK and Chinese civil servants.
This also reflects the difference between Zhang Zhou and others. As the emperor's personal advisor, if everything was analyzed quite satisfactorily, then why would the emperor ask him?
"Cheng Minzheng, alas!"
Zhu Youtang was filled with emotion when he mentioned this person.
Because the emperor also regretted telling others that he admired Cheng Minzheng very much and wanted to promote Cheng Minzheng to the cabinet, and also regretted his insistence on arranging Cheng Minzheng to be the examiner of the general examination.
"Your Majesty, Cheng Minzheng is actually more suitable for studying than for being an official. Of course, this is the opinion of my family. If he can wake up in time after experiencing this, take the initiative to resign, and stay in the capital to teach students, then I will definitely Go visit him more often and ask about academic matters."
Zhang Zhou smiled and proposed a future idea.
Let Cheng Minzheng become an official.
As a punishment for him, Cheng Minzheng was not allowed to leave the capital. Instead, he was allowed to stay in the capital to study, and Zhang Zhou also said that he would be an auditor.
Zhang Zhou was actually speaking for Cheng Minzheng.
In the emperor's heart, he also tended to protect Cheng Minzheng. The emperor also did not want Cheng Minzheng to be thrown into prison for torture and his reputation was ruined because of a case without evidence.
Zhu Youtang said: "I have already announced in the court that I will investigate this matter thoroughly, and the court officials will probably not give up easily."
The emperor knew very well the urinary nature of those civil servants, and they were the best at adding insult to injury. Historically, the emperor also imprisoned Hua Chang, Tang Yin, and Xu Jing first, and Cheng Minzheng was not imprisoned until more than ten days later. The emperor even By not publishing the memorial for participating in the impeachment of Cheng Minzheng, we are hesitating.
In the end, he was coerced by civil servants, and Cheng Min had to be thrown into the imperial edict prison, where Cheng Minzheng was treated inhumanely. Although there was no evidence to prove that Cheng Minzheng participated in the scandal, it was because Cheng Minzheng accepted the gold coins given by Xu Jing. , was dismissed from his post, and died of the trauma of torture within a few days of being released from prison.
"Your Majesty, I have a plan. You can ask him to write something, stating the wrong things he has done in the past six months without avoiding suspicion, and then take this thing to Hua Chang or the exam candidates. During the confrontation, the civil and military ministers can also observe and use this to determine right and wrong.”
What Zhang Zhou wants to do is actually to make Cheng Minzheng "confess" as soon as possible.
Pleading guilty to accepting gold coins and talking to Xu Jing about the examination was not only protecting Cheng Minzheng's life, but also protecting Tang Yin's future.
Zhang Zhou wanted to say, Old Cheng, I can only help you so much.
Who makes you not the mainstream civil servant?
If you have to ask such difficult questions in the examination to make it difficult for the candidates, who will they attack if others don't attack you? Wouldn't it be nice if you asked some simple questions and everyone answered them happily, and everyone competed based on their strength? You have to use your so-called talent and classify the scholars into three, six or nine grades based on the questions. Those who don't know how to do it will even have to hand in a blank paper...
It would be strange if nothing happens to you!
Dai Yi asked: "Mr. Zhang, is it possible for Bachelor Cheng to admit his mistake? This is almost equivalent to admitting guilt."
Zhang Zhou smiled and said: "If he denies it, you can remind him and tell him what he did wrong. Your Majesty will point it out. It will poke his weakness. If he denies it, he will destroy himself."
"Reminder?" Zhu Youtang smiled and waved his hand, "Bingkuan, thank you for thinking of it. It seems that you have already figured out where his faults are, and you have also thought of how to remind him to make him confess. Is it wrong?"
Zhang Zhou said: "I just want to remind him of his interactions with scholars and let his disciples set the threshold for meeting each other."
Zhu Youtang nodded slightly and said: "Okay, it's up to you to decide how to prompt. I will accept it. But I don't quite understand, why... you want to help him?"
"Your Majesty, is this a gang?" Zhang Zhou pretended to be surprised.
Zhu Youtang smiled and said: "Bingkuan, this is not your temperament. I can tell that although you are asking him to admit his mistake, the fundamental reason is to prevent him from going to jail."
Zhang Zhou smiled ashamedly and said: "Your Majesty has seen through this. It seems that I am really not suitable to be a civil servant with a city government. In fact, I want to help him, not only to clear my suspicion earlier, but also because I don't want to make the situation worse." , putting your Majesty and the court in a dilemma. At the same time... I also feel that Cheng Minzheng is a pillar of the Ming Dynasty. Even if he is not needed in the political arena, the academic world also needs him, and Tang Yin is also a talent that can be developed, and I still owe him a Jieyuan."
Zhang Zhou also thought about this problem.
Originally, he was already involved, so he should try his best to avoid suspicion. What role should he play in the case?
But if this is ignored, Cheng Minzheng will die, and Xu Jing and Tang Yin will not be able to take the National Examination again in their lives. There will be no potential political ministers in history, but there will be a topical figure Tang Bohu who is both outstanding in poetry and painting... Let history follow its original path. It is not impossible to develop towards development.
But Zhang Zhou felt it again.
Isn’t it precisely because of his own appearance that this Ming Dynasty can be more exciting?
Now that you are here, why do you still want to leave regrets to history?
Change means change. Changing history in your own way is also the meaning of time travellers.
(End of chapter)
