Jiangzhou, the Temple of the Holy Master, in a crowded square.
The crowd of scholars between the high platform with the clay statue of the Holy Master and the red-lacquered double-door gates, like a tide, spontaneously branched out into a road from the middle.
The dark crowds on both sides of the road turned their heads and looked at the fox-white fur figure walking towards the red-painted double door without looking back.
"Ouyang Changshi."
In the silent square, the round-faced young man who was the first to ask a question suddenly shouted.
Facing countless looks and ignoring the angry look of a traitor from the livid and frustrated Yue Ziang, he mustered up the courage to ask loudly:
"What do you think we should do now?"
Honorific words were used.
Ouyang Rong paused, turned around, and faced the expectant, confused, or excited looks of the young scholars.
Xie Lingjiang and Yan Liulang also stopped. The two of them were closest to Ouyang Rong. They looked sideways and found that the young man in front of him with fox white fur had a complex and hesitant expression on his face and opened his mouth slightly.
There seemed to be thousands of things I wanted to say to these passionate young scholars.
In the end, Xie Lingjiang and others only saw him closing his mouth, pursed his lips, and then spit out the eight characters like a smile:
"Study hard and make progress every day."
Everyone's reactions ranged from surprise, silence, or thoughtful chewing.
Ouyang Rong and his party left the Temple of the Holy Master.
Behind the window on the top floor of a tall building not far from the Temple of the Holy Master.
A cold-skinned woman wearing crimson palace clothes and dimpled lips slowly looked away.
She arrived here early and listened coldly for a long time, but a trace of hesitation flashed in her eyes.
Miaozhen turned around and waved.
The maids standing on both sides handed over pamphlets and ink pens again.
Miaozhen made a few notes in the book, hummed softly, and left the high-rise building with the hem of her palace dress trailing to the floor...
"Miss, stop looking, everyone has left with Miss Xie."
Opposite the holy temple, in a small alley filled with willow trees that have just sprouted branches, a girl's clear voice came from a carriage that had been quietly driving for a long time.
The curtain on the side window of the carriage, which had been lifted at a corner, suddenly fell back to its original position.
Immediately, there was another cold clearing of the throat with a nonchalant tone:
"Look at him, he's just bored and dazed. Cai Shou, if you keep talking nonsense, will you tear your mouth apart?"
In the carriage, Cai Shou looked curiously at the impatient expression on her young lady's pretty face.
Although Li Guo'er is currently the youngest daughter of King Xunyang and a royal princess, the little maid with a bun face who has been accompanying her since childhood still calls her "Miss" habitually, just like when she was in Dragon City.
"Then why did the lady suddenly ask the coachman to stop halfway and wait for so long? Isn't it because it depends on Mr. Ouyang? He couldn't be parked on the roadside just to be in a daze. Isn't it okay for the lady to be in a daze on the way?"
Cai Shou asked with confusion on her face, and then sighed:
"Hey, I originally planned to go to Kuanglu Mountain to attend the Xilu Elegant Fair, but I'm going to be late. I definitely won't be able to make it before noon."
Li Guo'er's expression remained unchanged and his voice became louder:
"This princess came here because she heard that there was a lot of fun to be seen, and thought that Yue Zi'ang could make Ouyang Lianghan feel embarrassed, but it turned out that Yue Zi'ang was useless. He couldn't fight with Ouyang Lianghan with his words, and his ability to adapt to changes was far inferior to him. Naturally, Feeling bored.
"So it's not okay to be bored and dazed. You, a sharp-toothed little maid, actually took charge of your master and wanted to be beaten?"
"Well, I don't dare, slave."
Cai Shou shrank her head and stuck out her tongue. She thought about it and couldn't help but ask in a low voice:
"It turns out that the young lady valued Mr. Yue so much before. Even though Mr. Ouyang is an acquaintance of Longcheng, she still stands by him."
Li Guo'er turned away, was quiet for a while, and curled his lips: "Otherwise, if I follow you, I will support whoever is handsome?"
Cai Shou stuck out her tongue and asked quietly:
"Miss, did Mr. Ouyang accidentally offend you some time ago? I want to see his joke."
"No." Li Guo'er denied it flatly, paused, and then said, "I just hate Jun, can't I?"
"Well, Miss is really a strange woman. She doesn't judge people by their appearance. She may become a good story one day..."
Cai Shou was surprised to praise her. Halfway through, Li Guo'er next to her added:
"It's annoying to be ugly."
"..."
Not long after, the little maid with a bun-faced face whose little head was burned out left the carriage and went to tell the groom to change the route.
The carriage under the willow tree started slowly and left the alley.
In the quiet carriage, Li Bao'er lowered her head and hugged the cat, with her back to the Temple of the Holy Master and the crowd of scholars who were slowly going away. She brushed the butterfly slave's neck hair with her jade hands and chewed on a rather strange and high-spirited blessing:
"Study hard...do you want to get better every day...Ouyang Lianghan, where are you going?"
She bit her lip in a daze, not knowing what she was thinking. After a while, she suddenly imitated her great-grandfather who had only seen the portrait and said:
"The heroes of the world have come to my rescue."
…
In the morning, the number of people watching the excitement at the Holy Master Temple was far more than Miaozhen and Li Guoer.
Also included was the sharp-faced butler specially sent by Wang Lengran to see Ouyang Rong's jokes.
The warm and considerate Governor Wang even dispatched a group of officers and soldiers in advance and asked them to wait in the alley of the next street.
He carefully waited for the image in his imagination of a bold person who went to a meeting alone and was beaten by angry scholars over a disagreement, and prepared to deal with his embarrassing situation.
It doesn't matter if it's more intense. It would be better to have another Liuzhou tragedy. Well, it would be interesting if the bleeding party is Jiangzhou Zhoushi.
However, the sharp-faced butler hurried back and brought new news, which made Wang Lengran, who had been looking forward to it all morning, feel a thump in his heart. Not only did his plan fail, he walked around in the lobby for a while, frowning.
Wang Lengran, who had a political sense as sharp as a dog, felt something was wrong, and his expression became anxious.
The next few days.
The response in Jiangzhou Shilin was greater than Wang Lengran imagined.
It made him feel cold and jealous at the same time.
It was passed down by word of mouth among the scholars who participated in the conference, compiled into a book by those who were interested, and there were also letters among scholars and friends.
The public exchange between Ouyang Lianghan, the governor of Jiangzhou, and the scholars of Jiangzhou Prefecture at the Temple of the Holy Master was widely circulated in Xunyang City.
Then it spread to the entire Jiangzhou Shilin, then spread to several surrounding states, then to the Jiangnan Dao Shilin, and finally spread from south to north...
Perhaps it's because Ouyang Lianghan has a reputation as a gentleman, and his slightly strange moves are the talk of the town, not to mention that he has stepped on the hottest topic at the moment.
It may also be that the state governments in various places have shrunk for too long in the wave of young scholars criticizing the center and statues. They were holding their breath, both public and private, and wanted to use the Jiangzhou example to calm down the hustle and bustle of scholars in Fushun, so Intentionally or unintentionally, it contributed to the spread of Jiangzhou Governor Ouyang Lianghan's remarks...
In less than a month, this matter spread throughout the world, causing heated and extensive discussions among scholars.
The corresponding manuscript recording the dialogue between Ouyang Rong and Jiangzhou scholars in the temple was widely circulated in the literary circles of the north and the south.
Some people support it, some people oppose it.
Several provincial governors and governors made public speeches, including Ouyang Lianghan, who quoted the words "study hard and make progress day by day" no less than ten times.
There are also some local officials who followed suit and followed the example of the Shengxian Temple in Jiangzhou. They competed with the angry young scholars in the Shengxian Temple for fame...
To name a few.
Of course, there were also many scholars who held the same attitude as Yue Ziang and fiercely criticized Ouyang Lianghan.
However, these fierce debates in Shilin spread the story of the Jiangzhou Holy Temple further and further, becoming the forefront of public opinion in the world in the early spring.
One word can be a law for the world, and an ordinary person can be a teacher for hundreds of generations.
Ouyang Rong had no choice but to become a certain type of opinion leader that he had previously described.
As the first to take advantage of the situation, he stood out from the crowd of state and local officials who were hunkering down like ostriches for his calm and sharp performance in the temple.
These naturally attracted close attention from the Zhou Dynasty court in Luoyang, the sacred capital.
In the imperial court, most of the Baoli ministers, who were already leaning towards the conservative establishment, expressed their opinions privately, praising the incident.
A highly respected, elderly and taciturn gentleman in purple rarely spoke.
"Shi Lianghan, the governor of Jiangzhou, has a strong spirit, excellent talent and economics, integrity and integrity, and a luxuriant voice. He is a genius in the south of the Yangtze River."
The old man made a comment in public at a certain birthday banquet. For a time, this comment spread throughout the city of Shendu and was talked about by people.
Night, Shangyang Palace.
The main hall, whose name is "Guanfeng", is tall and grand, clean and solemn.
Eighteen candles as thick as a baby's arm hung on a tray hanging from the pillars of the palace projected the figures of a group of slowly retreating red-clad warriors onto the tile floor.
The hall was empty again, with only the echo of fingers tapping on the gold and jade handrails.
On the dragon chair at the head of the main hall, Queen Wei Zhao of the Great Zhou Dynasty sat high up, her pale hair under her crown neatly combed.
She tapped the armrest with her fingers and lowered her eyes to stare at the brochure in her hand that had been presented to her all the way from Jiangzhou.
"What a good debate. This guy is so brave... Heh, are you going up every day? It's interesting..."
An imperceptible smile appeared at the corner of the old woman's mouth.
After a while, the rhythmic knocking sound in front of the dragon chair suddenly stopped.
She turned around and said:
"Rong Zhen."
"exist."
There was actually a palace servant hidden in the main hall. A cold and cold girl walked out from the shadows behind the palace pillars. She was wearing the same crimson palace dress as Miaozhen.
However, compared to the women in palace attire far away in Jiangzhou, the girl in palace attire is much more petite and exquisite. In her youth, she is also a female official in colorful clothes serving the emperor.
The old woman in the dragon robe gave a few instructions without raising her eyes.
The cold girl named Rong Zhen left immediately, went to the imperial study room of Ziwei Palace overnight, retrieved a memorial that had been kept in a box for a long time, and presented it to the imperial court.
Immediately, like a small transparency, it retreated into the darkness behind the palace pillars, making no sound.
Queen Wei Zhao picked up the memorial and looked down at it.
The man's handwriting on the memorial was clear and elegant, with a thousand words of eloquence, and he was calculating a rather daunting debt for her.
Why do you like to settle accounts like the old man?
After a while, Empress Wei Zhao slowly put down the memorial, supporting her chin with the back of her hand. Her old face with sagging nasolabial folds showed a thoughtful look.
After a moment, she suddenly said:
"Rong Zhen, make a copy of this memorial, omit the name, and send it to the political hall for discussion, and then draft a copy and submit it."
"Yes, saint."
In the darkness behind the pillars of the main hall, a cold girl in palace clothes covered the cold hard floor, kneeling on the ground to receive the order.
When copying this ordinary memorial, which seemed awkward, she glanced at the four-letter name and ignored it...
Early the next morning, at the political hall meeting in which Master Di was absent,
The princes were curious and discovered that a favored female official in Caishang who was in front of His Majesty sent an unsigned memorial and circulated it one after another...
In the afternoon, the Zhengshitang drafted a brand new edict and sent it back to the palace for prosecution.
Queen Wei Zhao reviewed it and drew circles with a red pen.
The next day, an imperial edict was announced to the court and to the world.
As for the deadline for collecting "Song De Bronze" and the construction deadline for the Buddha statues in the four directions, each state in the world has given an extension ranging from three months to six months depending on the situation.
At the same time, the imperial edict also slightly relaxed the construction specifications of the Great Zhou Songde Center and the Sifang Buddha Statues, and appropriately reduced the budget...
Waiting for the new regulations to be released, it has caused a heated discussion.
For a time, most of the courtiers and local officials were surprised by the slight change in the attitude of the Queen of Zhou and her unpredictable Sacred Heart.
In the early morning of that day, at the court meeting in Ziwei Palace,
The two kings of the Wei family were expressionless.
All the gentlemen in purple glanced at the motionless figure of the old woman in dragon robe above them.
They exchanged glances silently and bowed their heads.
…
Luoyang, night.
Adjacent to Jishanfang on the south bank of Luoshui River, inside a prime minister's residence.
The lights in the study were still on, and the old and rickety Mr. Di, dressed in regular clothes, was sitting at the table. Turning on the light, he squinted and repeatedly browsed a certain manuscript that was widely circulated in Luoyang.
There is also a middle-aged official in scarlet robes in the study, the censor Zhongcheng Shen Xisheng.
Shen Xisheng sat on a wooden chair in front of the desk, poured himself a cup of hot tea, and softly recounted the latest imperial edict on Her Majesty's change of attitude, as well as the general reactions of the two princes of the Wei family and the princes of the court.
Master Di lowered his head at the desk, not sure whether he heard it or not.
Shen Xisheng could only continue talking with the help of the fat old man's nasal voice from time to time.
After lighting a stick of incense, he finished talking about the court affairs and stopped talking.
Seeing that the master still didn't respond, he glanced at the familiar and widely circulated manuscript in the master's hand.
"Brother Xie, this great disciple, has been in the limelight again recently."
Shen Xisheng smiled and told some comments about Ouyang Lianghan from other important figures in the DPRK, and asked with interest:
"Master, what do you think?"
Master Di glanced at a strange thing called an abacus on the table and commented:
"Not doing your job properly."
After a pause, the fat old man nodded slightly: "But it's in time."
Shen Xisheng was slightly stunned, chewing on the first four words, with some curiosity in his eyes.
Di Fuzi had no explanation.
After a while, Shen Xisheng left with a slight doubt.
After the people left, the study became quiet.
Master Di reached for an abacus, manipulated it with his fingers quite skillfully, and shook his head.
This is a small gift someone asked from his mentor. It seems to be made by splitting bamboo with his own hands.
He recently took a leave of absence and was studying this thing in his spare time, which was a waste of time.
"Even my husband is not doing his job properly."
The old man added, sighed and stood up, silently walking to the back room.
The next day, Feng Pavilion in Ziwei Palace.
"Husband... Master."
"Um."
Di Fuzi, who had been recovering from illness for many days, was wearing a neat and straight official uniform and carrying an abacus. He passed by the Fengge officials who greeted him in surprise and approached the solemn hall where he had been away for more than a month.
As usual, he walked to the seat next to the window and sat down. He lowered his head and wiped the thin layer of dust on the desk with his sleeve, and sorted out the pile of papers.
The officials of Feng Pavilion either looked sideways or rushed to tell each other.
The fat old man picked up an official document and glanced at it, frowning a little: "It costs money again."
A brand-new abacus he had brought casually was placed on the old wooden table in front of him, which was piled with slips of tax and treasury profit and loss slips from the Zhou Dynasty.
The news of Master Di's return from leave spread throughout all the official offices in the palace that morning. In an instant, it aroused astonishment both inside and outside the court.
In the evening, when His Majesty Feng was on duty, the saint Luan Jia came to the gate of Feng Pavilion as scheduled. Her Majesty the Queen personally visited the elder and gave him many gifts.
Outside the gate of Feng Pavilion, the emperor greeted him with greetings, and the old ministers responded with moving expressions.
For a time, in the eyes of everyone, the monarch and his ministers were in harmony, and the relationship seemed to be restored to its original state.
A certain string that had been tightened between the government and the public in Luoyang for several months was finally loosened a little...
(End of chapter)
