"After all, he is just a young man who has just graduated. He has caused a scandal of cheating in an exam. He has brought shame to the Imperial College!"
"It's ridiculous. Can you blame Dr. Zhang for a student cheating? Every year in the imperial examinations, there are always a few or even dozens of students who bring in cheats or even cheat. The Imperial College exams don't have body searches for cheats, so who knows what will happen! Besides, the suspected cheater, as far as I remember, is from the family of the Duke of Chu, Zhang, whom you, the Prime Minister, admire!"
"He is the son of the Xiangyang Earl family. What does he have to do with the Duke of Chu? Besides, how do we know that someone is not framing him?"
"The student cheated because someone framed him, but you want to blame the teacher for this? I want to know, when you were the local chief judge, did you always confuse right and wrong when trying cases?"
The morning sun has already filled the huge square in front of the Fengtian Palace. It is another morning for the emperor to attend court. The various discussions that were heard while waiting for the court to start just now are no longer there. Except for the sound of breathing and footsteps, there is no more noise. However, those who witnessed or heard the dispute in the court room just now knew that it might be brought to the emperor's presence soon.
Just over such a small matter of the Imperial College's Banshan Hall branch examination, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister could have such a quarrel. Who would believe that they were not taking advantage of the issue
It's a pity that Duke Zhu Jing of Zhao attended court for two or three days after returning, and then he was ordered to stay at home to recuperate. Otherwise, it wouldn't just be Jiang Ge Lao and Kong Daxueshi who were at loggerheads. Believe it or not, the Duke of Zhao, who had killed so many people before, would have thrown a punch! The only strange thing was that Zhang Qiong, the always hot-tempered Earl of Xiangyang, was listening outside, but he didn't get furious because he was involved.
The first half of the morning court session was always plain and unremarkable. Most people just had to be the background board, watching others jumping up and down to pass one topic after another. Even the emperor on the throne couldn't help but take a deep breath and swallow the yawn that was about to come out of his mouth. Although officials in this dynasty were not as arrogant as those in the Song Dynasty, they still made mistakes in both directions.
It is no small crime for an official to misbehave. As for the emperor to misbehave... he would also be ridiculed if the news got out.
However, being polite does not mean not being distracted. Just when the emperor was wondering for the umpteenth time why Emperor Taizu did not abolish the morning court and change it to meetings at different levels to reduce the number of people and time, he suddenly heard a sharp voice: "Doctor Zhang Shou of the Imperial College has been praised by the emperor many times. This time, he went against all odds to hold a separate examination for Banshan Hall, but the result is a mess!"
The emperor came to his senses almost instantly. When he saw that the person who spoke was Zhu Heng, the Left Censor-in-Chief, who was known as a big shot in the Censorate and had the same surname as Zhu Jing and had previously attacked Zhu Jing's core, he understood what was going on. He did not say anything at the moment, but gently stroked the armrest with his right index finger, while glancing at Lord Jiang.
Although the Prime Minister, who had been in the cabinet for fifteen years, remained expressionless, he was still able to conclude in his heart that Zhu Heng, who could be called the Chief Justice, was just a pawn.
"It was just a child who shouted cheating, but Zhu Duxian took it to court seriously. Do you think everyone has too much free time?" Chen Shang, the Minister of Revenue, sneered and then said nonchalantly, "There are so many important things in the world that need to be taken care of, and the false accusation of meritorious officials is pretended to have never happened. Instead, he focuses on the Imperial College. Zhu Duxian is really missing the point."