The silence in the court made everyone feel a strange pressure. Everyone was thinking. Now that the two parties in the court were at odds, how would His Highness make a decision when faced with such a situation
Some people are even thinking that if His Majesty the Crown Prince succumbs to the noble family, will he be able to persuade the Crown Prince to be dismissed on the day when His Majesty goes to court? As for the reason, do you still need to think about it? A casual arrest is enough to find a lot of reasons to depose Prince Li Hong.
Several officials in the East Palace, headed by Shang Guanyi, Yang Sijian, and Xu Yushi, who can participate in the discussion of political affairs, have frowned and solemn expressions at this moment. If they don't know how serious the crisis facing His Royal Highness is, their lives will really be in vain. .
Any negligence will lead to ruthless attacks from the five surnames and seven families, and the noble and wealthy families. Now, because of the issue of new money and old money, the quarrels in the court have become so difficult to distinguish right from wrong, and they refuse to give in to each other.
Today's incident is a matter of government affairs that has been brewing for several days. Your Majesty and the Queen have not shown up yet. Does this mean that Your Majesty and the Queen chose to let His Highness the Crown Prince face it alone? What is their position? Do you support His Royal Highness the Crown Prince? Or do you support the five surnames, seven families, noble families, etc.? !
The silence in the court continued. Li Zhi and Wu Mei behind the screen were still watching the development of the situation. However, Li Zhi tightened the memorial in his hand and silently talked to Queen Wu Mei to see how Li Hong would make a decision.
Will the sharp reformists headed by His Highness the Crown Prince continue to use half a year's income of the Tang Dynasty as a bargaining chip, or will they choose to compromise with the five surnames, seven families, and noble families when it is difficult to distinguish right from wrong
The royal family and nobles looked relaxed. His Royal Highness might be able to reach an agreement privately with the five surnames and seven families to slowly resolve the dispute, but now he has overestimated his ability to move such a big matter to the court, and judging from the current situation, he has not With the support of His Majesty and the Queen, now alone, can he fight against the five surnames and seven families above the court
Now a Jinyang Wang family's attack has already put him in trouble, not to mention that others have not yet officially launched an attack.
You can hear needles dropping in the court hall, and everyone is waiting for His Highness the Crown Prince's decision, especially Wang Yuan, the head of the Jinyang Wang family, who now looks at ease and smiles, looking like he is sure of victory.
Wang Yifang, Kong Zhiyue, and King Cao Li Ming are all people who have close contacts with the Wang family. As the head of the family, standing in the court is just to give face to His Highness the Crown Prince. This proves that the Jinyang Wang family has not declined and is still a pillar of the imperial court.
"Sometimes, a person pays a higher price for something he gets for nothing. "Book of the Later Han" says: Everyone in the world knows that taking things is for taking, but no one knows that taking things from others is a kind of gain. But they all think that getting other people's things is a kind of gain, but I don’t know that giving to others is also a kind of gain. But what’s the answer? "Master Kong?" Li Hong spoke calmly and asked Kong Zhiyue, who stood proudly.
"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is very talented and learned, and he really did this." Kong Zhiyue replied with a whisker and a nod.
""Xunzi: The King's System Chapter" says: 'The common people are in charge, and then the gentleman is in power.' It is said: 'The king is the boat; the common people are the water; the water carries the boat, and the water overturns the boat.'" In "Zhenguan Zhengjiao·On Political System", the late emperor and Wei Zheng also said: "The king is like a boat; people are like water. Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. But now there are people who do not abide by the laws of the country and exploit the people's old money." Is this behavior of exchanging at a low price and then exchanging it with the court at a high price for the country or for myself?" Li Hong himself felt sour, and the two words from ancient books made him shake his head.
"Your Highness, what you said is wrong. We are only sharing the worries of the imperial court. We exchange old money with the people to reduce the burden on the imperial court. The purpose is to exchange it uniformly so that the new money can be formalized faster. There is no such thing. Exploiting the people." Wang Yuan was over seventy years old and his legs and feet were very neat. He probably wanted to show the prestige of his family, so he took two steps slowly with a walking stick in his hand.
"Doesn't I have to thank the Founding Lord on behalf of the court?" Li Hong stood up slowly and walked down step by step. There was a compelling heroic spirit between his brows, which was the same as when he returned to Chang'an from Anxi. Killing spirit.
He walked to a place not far from Wang Yuan and stopped, looked at Wang Yuan and asked: "Since the founding of the country believes that this move is to facilitate the people of the Tang Dynasty and relieve the worries of the court, then why don't you take a penny from the people in your hand? The old money was given to the court in exchange for one penny, so why did you choose not to go to Taiyuan Royal Bank to exchange it? "
One penny for one penny, the common money in the hands of the common people was usually seven or eight hundred penny, but in Wang's hands, they would be compensated at least two hundred penny. However, when exchanging with the court, they required one penny or two penny or more.
"The amount is too large, and I need time to take stock of it. Some of the money is even rusty and needs to be cleaned before it can be used again. As for exchanging one penny for one penny, I have never done it. The people gave me the usual eight hundred penny. Give the common people a thousand coins..."
"Full of lies! Where is Di Renjie!" A trace of murderous intent flashed across Li Hong's body, and he interrupted the words of Wang Yuan, the founding Duke of the country with a title of 2nd rank, and shouted.
Di Renjie walked through the crowd, but Li Hong kept staring at Wang Yuan and said: "You still don't know your guilt for not exchanging money with the court for so long, and you even argue that the amount is too much! I think you need to mint new money privately." It can only be taken out after being buried in the soil for a while, so you have been waiting for the old privately minted money to be unearthed! "
"Your Highness, please don't make any rash comments. As the head of the Wang family, I have been honest and aboveboard in my dealings with others for many years. Even when the late emperor was still alive, I would not criticize the old minister so much. What's more, the old minister and the Jinyang Wang family have been... for many years."
"Right or wrong! See for yourself!" As soon as Di Renjie walked up to Li Hong, the document in his hand was snatched away by Li Hong and photographed to Wang Yuan before he could hand it to Li Hong.
He turned around and ignored Wang Yuan's angry face. In all these years, no one had ever dared to treat him like this. Even His Majesty Li Zhi treated him with great courtesy!
"Where is Su Jing of Hongwen Hall!" Li Hong turned around and stood in the center of the court, looking at the dark group of people and shouted coldly.
At this moment, it was his turn to fight back. He was not an idiot. He dared to fight against five surnames and seven families alone. The court was an excellent place to stir up trouble and divide the enemy and ourselves. If he didn't take advantage of it, he would be a real fool.
Everyone has not yet reacted to the shock of Li Hong's angry rebuke to Wang Yuan, but they don't know why Li Hong suddenly caused trouble for Su Jing again!
"Your Highness, Su Jing, has met." Su Jing is in his forties and now serves as a bachelor of Hongwen Hall.
"Are you the one taking the exam for this paper?" Li Hong asked as he picked up the paper with Lin Shiling's name written on it.
"Back to Your Highness, I am taking the exam." Su Jing frowned and respectfully took the exam paper handed to him by Li Hong.
This person left a deep impression on me, because during last year's scientific examination, there was only one person like this who could calculate clearly in the scientific examination, and it was difficult for me not to remember him.
At that time, I was also impressed by this person's talent and learning in the subject of calculation, and it was also the test paper that he thought about the most. In the end, he passed it. As for whether he passed, it was a bachelor's degree from Hongwen Hall and Imperial College. It's a matter of your own business and has nothing to do with you.
"Do you know whether this person passed or failed?" Li Hong asked coldly.
The entire court was confused. Aren't His Highness the Crown Prince and the Wang family of Jinyang in tit-for-tat? Why, after apparently getting the handle on Wang, didn't he pursue the victory, but instead asked about whether a poor student had passed the exam
Others in the court didn't understand, but Wang Yuan, the second-rank founding Duke of the country, after hearing Li Hong question Su Jing, his veteran hand holding the document Li Hong had photographed for him trembled involuntarily.
Naturally, this scene cannot escape the eyes of Di Renjie, the fat minister of Dali Temple, who is standing there.
Kong Zhiyue also looked shocked! Lin Shiling! Naturally, he remembered this name. Last year, he was the only student from a poor family who did not take Ming Jing or Jin Shi as subjects to take the scientific examination. He also passed the exam, but in the end he was rejected and replaced by another student.
The student who replaced Lin Shiling was Wang Yuan's grandson Wang Ming.
Seeing Su Jing's confused expression, Kong Zhiyue's heart continued to sink, and a big question began to run around in his mind: How did the Crown Prince know about Lin Shiling's replacement? Lin Shiling was from a humble family, how could he possibly know His Highness the Crown Prince? What's more, he came to Chang'an alone for scientific research. He didn't know anyone in Chang'an. Even in Taiyuan, everything had been taken care of by the Wang family. Why was it that His Highness the Crown Prince was now intervening on his behalf
What unknown things happened in the middle? Not even Yan Zhaofu of the Imperial College knew about this matter. To be on the safe side, he did not tell him!
Su Jing did not dare to speak nonsense. Faced with the questioning by His Highness the Crown Prince, Su Jing forced himself to calm down. He knew that if something went wrong for him, it would not just be as simple as being exiled or convicted!
Now the first thing he needs to find out is whether the handwriting about himself on the examination paper is really his own handwriting, and whether those comments were originally written by himself.
Facing the Crown Prince's questioning, Su Jing's hands trembled more than those of Wang Yuan, the head of the Wang family in Jinyang. He read the comments and handwriting on the examination paper several times. After confirming that it was indeed the original examination paper, he After confirming that it was indeed his own handwriting.
He bowed and saluted and said: "Your Highness, this examination paper is indeed written by me. I am only responsible for taking the exam and making comments. After passing it, I will hand it over to others to judge whether it is passed or not."
"You just need to tell me whose hands this exam paper will eventually fall into, and who will you hand it over to?" Li Hong still looked down upon Su Jing.
He knew Su Jing's name, but not from his own memory, but from Sun Simiao. Sun Simiao once said that this person had done a lot of research on pharmacology, especially on medicinal herbs and various minerals. understand.
(End of chapter)