Xiang Nan knew that this fraud case in the imperial examination was because Prime Minister Gao Ming engaged in private fraud and passed off inferior quality, which caused all his followers to pass the examination, causing great dissatisfaction among the examiners.
Seven students who failed to take the exam had no way to seek help, so in despair they chose to hang themselves from the rafters. As soon as this incident came out, the whole country was in an uproar, and public opinion surged, demanding that the court investigate the matter thoroughly.
The prince was upright by nature, so he also wrote a letter, hoping that the emperor would investigate the case thoroughly. In the end, the emperor ordered Dali Temple to investigate the case thoroughly.
However, Dali Temple was manipulated by the treacherous Prime Minister Gao Ming. In the end, not only was he acquitted, but the parents of the seven unsuccessful sons were bribed by him and falsely accused him of being ordered by the prince to frame the prime minister.
Not only did the prince fail to punish the traitor, but he even threw a basin of dirty water at him. Naturally, he could not bear to be impatient and was filled with grief and anger. Therefore, he and his courtiers wrote several letters to request Dali Temple to re-investigate the case thoroughly.
As a result, the emperor Lei Lei was furious and demoted the prince and Taifu to serve the people. However, the prince still refused to back down and continued to argue. He even wore mourning clothes in the palace to mourn for the seven sons who died unjustly.
But there are rules in the palace. If there is no big funeral, it is strictly forbidden to wear mourning. If the prince is in mourning, wouldn't it be a curse for the emperor to die early? Therefore, Li Hao was naturally furious and came to scold him.
However, Li Chengji still refused to give in. Instead, he believed that his father was fatuous and was deceived by treacherous ministers. He allowed the treacherous party to disrupt the government. In the long run, the people's support will be lost and the country will be ruined.
Li Zuo was even more furious, so he asked his family to whip Li Chengji himself.
…
Xiang Nan watched from the side, but quickly straightened out his thoughts.
This matter seems to be very simple.
The emperor was deceived by his traitorous officials and punished his prince, but it was not that simple.
The truth is that the Toyo Dynasty had just implemented the imperial examination system.
Before that, it had always promoted officials according to the nine-grade Zhongzheng system. Therefore, the power of the government was monopolized by the noble families.
Nowadays, the implementation of imperial examinations and the recruitment of talents are aimed at breaking the monopoly of power and talents by clans.
But this also offended the clan, so they criticized the imperial examination system. The suicides of seven civil servants created a great public opinion and pushed the emperor to abolish the imperial examination.
The reason why the emperor did not want to investigate the case thoroughly was to preserve the imperial examination.
The imperial examination system has just been implemented, so it is normal to have loopholes, and it is inevitable for others to take advantage of them.
After all, even in the Qing Dynasty, which had a very complete imperial examination system, there were endless cases of imperial examination fraud.
However, the powerful family wanted to use this to completely abolish the imperial examination, which was to abandon eating because of choking and hide evil intentions.
Because once the imperial examination was abolished, the court could only use the nine-grade Zhongzheng system to appoint officials.
As a result, power is still controlled by the clan. The majestic Emperor Todyo would also be regarded as nothing by them.
Just like in the early Tang Dynasty, the daughters of the noble families with the fifth surname and Qiwang were not even eligible to marry the royal family. The imperial court compiled the "Clan Chronicle", and the royal family was not even qualified to rank first.
Compared with them directly flipping the table, Gao Ming just poured sand into it.
The so-called lesser of two evils, the emperor would naturally support Ming.
What's more, governing a big country is like cooking small dishes.
In addition to selecting talents, the imperial examination also played a role in appeasing the people. If the investigation is carried out with great fanfare and repeated over and over again, it will cause a lot of disputes, make the people uneasy, and full of suspicion towards the court, thus losing the original intention of appeasing.
Therefore, to put it simply, it is not that the emperor is ignorant and favors treacherous ministers.
But the prince was careless and was used as a weapon by the family members, which ruined the emperor's talent acquisition plan. Therefore, it was abolished and sent to Anhu Mansion to serve.
…
Xiang Nan was familiar with the Twenty-Four Histories, so he naturally wanted to understand the links.
It's a pity that the prince was taken advantage of. He thought he was asking for orders for the people and was loyal, but in fact he fell into the trap of the family and worked as a gunman for others.
After understanding it, Xiang Nan couldn't help but sigh.
But I heard Li Hao say loudly, "Listen to me, if you still want to be your prince in peace, take off this mourning dress for me now, and don't mention this case again in the future."
"I have been the prince for more than twenty years and have never said a word "no" in front of my father. I can't be as cold-blooded and ruthless as my father, and I can't just watch those princes die in vain.
I don’t understand why my father doesn’t want to investigate this case. Do you really want to protect the traitor and ignore the national law? Do you want to bear the infamy of being a foolish king that will last forever? "Li Chengji still gritted his teeth and spoke impassionedly with righteous indignation.
"Treason!!" When Li Hao heard these words, he naturally felt extremely harsh and couldn't help but want to whip out the cane again.
"Father, calm down~" Xiang Nan shouted when he saw it, rushed forward, protected Li Chengji, and let the cane hit him hard.
Fortunately, he was proficient in martial arts. He could even defend against being hit with a blunt weapon, let alone being beaten with a cane, so he was fine.
"Brother Huang was just impulsive." He defended Li Chengji.
"Fifth brother, there is no need to defend me." Li Chengji still said forcefully, "Father is arbitrary and does not want to find out the truth at all. Maybe when the high party spreads all over the government and the public, and the emperor changes his surname, father will understand what I mean. It has to be something!”
"Brother Imperial, you are confused!" When Xiang Nan heard this, he shouted, "It's not that my father is arbitrary, but that you are being used as a weapon."
As soon as the words were spoken, the whole place fell into silence.
"Fifth brother, what did you say?" Li Chengji asked in confusion.
Xiang Nan then recounted the conspiracy of the noble clans to use the Qijuzi incident to abolish the imperial examination and monopolize power.
At this moment, in the East Palace, there are only Emperor Li Fu, Prince Li Chengji, Second Prince Li Chengye, Third Prince Li Chengwen, Fourth Prince Li Chengyuan, historians and guards.
Xiang Nan is not afraid that his words will be spread out, let alone even if they are spread out, he is not afraid. And what he said was nominally for Li Chengji, so that he would not be used as a weapon again.
In fact, he told the emperor Li Hao to let him see his intelligence.
Because Li Chengyin had always been lazy and inactive before, and he did not show the potential to be a prince at all, so he was not liked by Li Hao.
It was not until he went to the Western Region and performed extraordinary feats in the conquest of Dan Chi that the emperor Li Fu looked at him with admiration.
Xiang Nan didn't want to go to the Western Region, so he could only use this opportunity to show off his wisdom.
…
Sure enough, after listening to Xiang Nan's words, Li Hao's eyes lit up even though he didn't say anything.
I didn't expect that Lao Wu, who was usually lazy, could actually have such a brilliant vision. I had really underestimated him before.
Yes, the reason why Li Hao protected Gao Ming was not because he was deceived by him, let alone because he was afraid of his power.
Gao Ming is just a dog he has raised. He can take care of it as he wants, whenever he wants to take care of it.
The prince only saw that Gao Ming had been calling the shots in the court in recent years, ostracizing and suppressing dissidents. But he didn't realize that those dissidents were all noble families that he, the emperor, wanted to suppress.
Just like Wei Zhongxian, the Duke of Dongchang. Everyone thought he was a rebellious minister, but in fact, without Wei Zhongxian's help, Emperor Chongzhen would not even be able to collect taxes.
Those Donglin Party members who claim to be dedicated to serving the country are actually the main culprits in tax evasion and tax evasion, leaving the national treasury empty and without money.
