I'm really not doing business

Chapter 865: Huangji Gate Public Trial

Zhu Yijun was also a scholar, and he knew exactly what the examination would include and how it would be conducted. After a lot of trouble in the Imperial Examination Hall, he finally completed the Emperor's request before curfew, changing his clothes, examination basket, and examination questions.

No one in the Imperial Examination Hall dared to openly disobey the order because the Imperial Guards had already surrounded the hall.

When Xia Zongyao was called to the Imperial Examination Hall to re-enter, he was a little confused. He was really framed. Although few people who smuggled documents in previous years were framed by others, he really didn't want to smuggle documents. Someone had replaced his candle.

Candidates had to bring their own candles into the examination room, but after Xia Zongyao bought the candles and put them in his book box, he never took care of them again. He really didn't know who replaced his candles and when, and he was very angry when they were thrown out of the examination hall.

However, to go to the government office to appeal for justice, he needed real evidence. He had no evidence at all, not even a guess.

When Xia Zongyao entered the examination room, he saw that more than ten people had been called back. They were all students who had been thrown out of the Imperial College by the inspectors this year. According to the old system, they should have been stripped of their titles, but they were called back, apparently because of Xiong Tingbi's help.

Everyone changed into new clothes, and their names were written on their personal belongings and placed in a side room in the Imperial Examination Hall to be collected after leaving. The examination baskets were also replaced with imperial-made ones.

February 9th is the time to enter the examination hall, and the examination begins on February 10th. It is divided into four sessions, totaling twelve days.

The first round was a test of the meaning of the classics, which tested the Four Books and Five Classics, also known as the eight-part essay. This time the emperor set the questions himself, and the Three Classics Factory was closed for printing and sent directly to the Imperial Examination Hall. The header of the answer sheet also had notes printed on it.

"The Four Books: The people of a country are not bounded by borders; the Five Classics: The people are enlightened and in harmony with all nations." Xia Zongyao frowned when he saw the content of the first exam. As a scholar who turned a deaf ear to the world outside and focused on reading the books of sages, he was a little confused when he saw these two sentences.

Because the questions His Majesty asked were so simple! I understood them at a glance.

The one selected for the Four Books is "Mencius", and the one selected for the Five Classics is "Shangshu", both of which are complete sentences.

The questions that Xia Zongyao practiced on a daily basis were extremely difficult, for example: The wife’s sexual desire.

Jun Furen is the last three words of the sixteenth chapter of the Analects, and Yang Huoyu is the first three words of the next chapter. This makes it very difficult to answer the question because the examiner puts them together because he does not want you to discuss them separately. However, the two chapters are not talking about the same thing, and it is very difficult to write if they are put together with far-fetched connections.

For example: and its vast grass.

The original sentence comes from Zhongyong: "Now a mountain is a mass of rocks, and it is vast, with vegetation growing on it." However, the person who set the question was ingenious and ignored the punctuation, and forced the two sentences together, making it very difficult to write. It was like trying to build a temple in a snail shell and making moves in a small space, which was extremely painful.

So, Your Majesty, these two sentences are complete sentences and there is no ambiguity, which makes them very easy to write. Your Majesty is so friendly.

When Xia Zongyao was about to start writing, he hesitated. He stared at the punctuation marks and fell into deep thought. Your Majesty asked such a simple question, could there be a problem with the punctuation marks?

Xia Zongyao was a completely traditional scholar. He was stuck in a fixed mindset and believed that punctuation marks were also part of the question.

As soon as Xiong Tingbi saw these two sentences, he knew what the emperor was asking.

Xiong Tingbi is very familiar with Your Majesty. The people of the region are not bounded by the boundaries. In fact, the question is whether the people who migrated from Luzon, Jiugang, and Jinchi Governor's Office are the people of the Ming Dynasty, which is the inevitable localization mentioned by Wan Zongbo.
And the people are enlightened and the nations are in harmony, which is actually a discussion on the fact that the people are the foundation of the country and the country will be peaceful if the foundation is solid.

Just as Xiong Tingbi was about to start writing, he suddenly frowned and stared at "The people are bright and clear, and harmony among all nations" for a long time. The emperor did have deep meaning in these two sentences. In fact, he was also asking whether the main body of the Ming Dynasty was the monarch or the people.

After the Ming Dynasty opened the sea, it encountered many countries. The former Minister of Rites, Wan Shihe, even compiled many volumes of overseas foreign countries to record the customs, culture and geography of these countries. There is no doubt that the people who have lived there for generations are the masters of all nations.

Once, the emperor went to the Quan Chu Guild Hall for a meal and discussed this sentence with his teacher, talking about the Dutch oath law. The emperor believed that this represented the public opinion and that this method was good, which would make the people enlightened and bring harmony to all nations.

Zhang Juzheng believed that this consensus was formed after being inhumanely bullied, or more directly ravaged, by the Spanish Governor. The Northern Alliance's Act of Absolution was the final result based on the Dutch social outlook, geographical factors, industry, humanities, etc. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Belgium) did not want to resist to the end because during the rule of the Spanish Governor, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the ruling class and the vested interests.

Simply copying and pasting will only lead to incompatibility, just like the Ming Dynasty's system of bureaucracy and counties. Felipe wanted to learn it, but he couldn't.

Even if one wants to study to become an official, the exams required for promotion are very difficult. According to Ming Dynasty's understanding, Spain is still a state in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. It seems to be a whole, but in fact it is a union of small states.

Each family has its own situation, and there is only one system that is most suitable for its own country. There is no such thing as a universal system. This is also the reason why the people of a place are shaped by their own environment and the people are in harmony with all nations.

Xiong Tingbi did not intend to write so in-depth, because this was actually the content of the struggle paper. Xiong Tingbi had studied the struggle paper and listened to the discussion between His Majesty and the gentleman. He knew what His Majesty was thinking, but this was the Imperial Examination Hall, and the gentleman had said that the struggle paper could only be read and used, and could not be discussed publicly.

If we really answer this question, in Xiong Tingbi's opinion, Your Majesty sitting on the dragon throne represents the will of the people. The majority of people in the Ming Dynasty are farmers, and Your Majesty is a farmer.

Which emperor can do farm work better than the master chef? When it comes to farm work, no one in the court, civil or military, can fool your majesty.

Xiong Tingbi prepared a draft in his mind and began to write. After he finished writing, he began to revise it. After repeated consideration, he began to copy it.

Yuan Keli also saw the questions. In his opinion, these two questions were really difficult to answer. It was easy to write, but extremely difficult to write well, because these were questions set by His Majesty himself. Now Yuan Keli had to guess not the examiner's intention, but His Majesty's intention.

Considering the current situation of the Wanli Reform, he was unable to start writing, because in his opinion, the Wanli Reform was not completely successful. What the Ming court saw was the inflow of precious metals and the production of large quantities of goods, but Yuan Keli felt that the wind of reform never blew to the countryside, and even because of going to sea, it led to population outflow, lack of manpower, and abandoned land.

Henan is a province with a large population outflow.

Due to different standpoints and seeing that these two sentences were different, Yuan Keli did not start writing for a long time. After several revisions, he finally completed the Sutra Volume. He wrote two versions, one praising the merits and the other criticizing the current ills. In the end, Yuan Keli chose the latter.

Faced with these questions, the people in the examination room had different reactions. Two days later, the examiner collected the answer sheets and began to cover the names.

The second round was about imperial edicts and memorials, which tested practical document writing.

When Xia Zongyao saw the topic, he felt like the sky was falling, because he couldn't write any of the four articles.

Edict: "Edict to the Governor-General's Office of Luzon to educate the barbarians"; Imperial edict: "Edict to appoint the Governor-General of Luzon as the commander-in-chief"; Memorial: "Memorial to congratulate the nine victories in the Eastern Expedition"; Judgment: "Case of the illegal colonization of merchants and civilians in Jinchi."

Xia Zongyao had no idea about these situations and had no idea how to start writing. He wanted to read miscellaneous newspapers, but his teachers and parents would not allow him to do so and only asked him to concentrate on reading the books of sages.

Just when he was in despair, he turned to every page of the test paper and found that there were materials for reference. This made him overjoyed. His Majesty really sympathized with the students.

When people read, they turn a deaf ear to the outside world and focus on reading the books of sages. He really has no experience in writing about the new things in the Wanli Reform. Without materials, he is completely in the dark. Even if he had materials, he could write about them.

"If I fail the exam, with my status as a juren, I can still go to Luzon to be an official." Xia Zongyao saw the materials of the imperial edict and discovered something. According to the materials of the imperial edict, the Governor's Offices in Luzon, Jiugang and Jinchi were short of scholars. When a juren went there, he could really walk around freely. He could be given houses, servants, land, and servants as long as he went.

The endless golden coast, big villas, coconut groves and endless plantations are the Han town.

Xia Zongyao thought about it and put away these messy thoughts. It was not safe overseas. Unless there was no other choice, few scholars would be willing to go there, otherwise there would not be such good conditions.

"It turns out that the Great Ming Code and the Great Ming Law on Colonization clearly stipulate that if Han people set up stakes in any unowned overseas land, those who plunder will be exempted from punishment if they are beaten to death." Xia Zongyao was a little surprised when he saw the fourth judgment. It turned out that this was the regulation in the Great Ming Law.

Illegal colonization mainly refers to some black sheep who do not colonize the land themselves, but instead steal the land that has been colonized by others. This is simply intolerable!
Opening up new land is extremely hard. If you are unwilling to put in the effort and want to rob others, then don't blame the owner. You will be beaten to death.

For the first time, Xia Zongyao felt that writing imperial edicts and memorials was a very interesting thing, because these four things were all important events of the country.

When Xiong Tingbi saw the topic, he felt a little guilty, because he often wrote these things and was very proficient in it. Others might not be familiar with it, but he was very familiar with it. Zhang Juzheng often asked him to write imperial edicts and memorials. Sometimes, Zhang Juzheng even took what he wrote and went to the court for discussion.

Because Xiong Tingbi had seen the written edict, which was published in the official gazette without any changes, it was obvious that Zhang Juzheng, the Imperial Household Department, and His Majesty did not make any changes.

He wrote two copies of the victory report of the Nine Victories in the Eastern Expedition. Zhang Juzheng and Shen Li from the Ministry of Rites wanted to compile "Records of the Eastern Expedition" and "Biographies of Heroes", so they asked Xiong Tingbi to write two copies.

Xiong Tingbi had no idea of ​​opposing these policies because his education and reason told him that this was the way it should be.

Yuan Keli liked these four questions very much. When he saw the questions, he couldn't help but stand up and walk around in the cramped examination room. He was a little excited.

He believes in a saying: when you are in trouble, you must change, and when you change, you will succeed.

Poverty does not mean destitution, but poverty at the end of one's rope. The Ming Dynasty before the Wanli Reform had already shown some signs of its imminent death and had come to an end. He saw a Ming Dynasty where local mergers were rampant, corruption and incompetence were rampant in the government, the literati were corrupt, the local gentry were as fierce as wolves and tigers, and there were endless struggles in the court. But it was not about the country and the people, but about petty personal gains.

He didn't know where the Ming Dynasty's way out lay.

He wrote many imperial edicts and memorials, but he felt very annoyed every time he wrote one, because he could not see any changes. Without changes, there would be no new paths to take, and this was what made him toss and turn the most.

Scholars should be broad-minded and resolute.

Yuan Keli had the world in his heart. Even though he was so poor that he couldn't even afford to buy a feng shui map, he still hoped that the Ming Dynasty could break free from its corruption and rise up. Because no egg can be left unbroken when the nest is overturned, if the Ming Dynasty collapsed, it would be like the collapse of heaven and earth for all the people. He was very determined, otherwise he would not have come to this tribute hall.

And these four questions are all variations!

The Ming Dynasty expanded overseas; the Ming Dynasty established order overseas;
The Ming Dynasty, which had broken the ancestral law of not conquering, no longer adopted a diplomatic policy of appeasing foreigners, but rather one of being ruthless and vindictive. If Toyotomi Hideyoshi dared to attack the Ming envoys, the Ming army would retaliate in kind, seizing the three kingdoms of Tokugawa, Iwami, and Nagato to teach the Japanese a lesson.

The Ming Dynasty was fighting for new living space.

Over the years, Yuan Keli has purchased a lot of miscellaneous newspapers through various means, including the "Gewu Newspaper" over the years, written by Doctor Gewu of the Gewu Academy, who tested the temperature and precipitation in 43 places in the north, from Womagang to Henan.

Data from the past 17 years show that the temperature is constantly dropping and precipitation is decreasing. This monitoring information is published every year. Every time Yuan Keli reads it, he feels his feet go cold.

If the Ming Dynasty does not change, this damn weather will cause a large-scale reduction in production in the north, and the result will be that the people who can't survive will rise up in rebellion.

Yuan Keli was really scared. He was afraid that the Ming Dynasty would be born for righteousness but die in disgrace.

The Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty was born in a humble family. His father, mother and elder brother starved to death one after another. The Hu people had occupied China for a hundred years. The Central Plains had long been polluted and the people were in turmoil. The Ming Dynasty was established in the ruins and the poor people rose up to seize the world. This was born out of righteousness. If he had perished at the hands of the people, it would have been a shameful death.

The more Yuan Keli thought about it, the more excited he became. After he finished writing, he took a nap and realized that he was too excited and his writing was too exaggerated. He quickly rewrote it, made some compromises, and then handed in the paper.

The third round was a policy question session, which consisted of five practical questions about the Reform Movement, allowing students to express themselves freely.

The five questions are: the similarities and differences between Emperor Wu of Han's opening up of the Western Regions and the opening up of the sea today;
In overseas colonization, we should follow the example of the Yin people who moved to Luoyi, or adopt the method of military settlement in garrisons;

How can the new learning and Confucianism work together to reform?
The barbarians and the Han people are fighting for land, the importance of the Chinese and the barbarians, the urgency of the world;
How can we argue that opening the sea hurts farmers and merchants seize land?
These questions were too difficult for Xia Zongyao. Yuan Keli was fine as he liked to read newspapers and knew the background of these things very well.

For Xiong Tingbi, it was easy and effortless, because he often wrote these, some of which were topics given by Zhang Juzheng, and some of which were his own thoughts. He was Zhang Juzheng's last disciple, the sparring partner of His Royal Highness Prince Lu, and the Xiong Da in His Majesty's mouth. All his food, clothing and expenses in the capital were paid by His Majesty's treasury, because His Majesty thought that he was a man of both civil and military talents and a man of potential.

He knew very well who he was, his talents, his uniqueness, and the privileges that others did not have. He was even more clear about his mission. He had to cultivate enough strength to safeguard all the achievements of the Wanli Reform after the death of his master, or even after the death of His Majesty.

No one, not even himself, can destroy the achievements of the Wanli Reform.

Even if it meant being infamous for eternity, he would protect the achievements of the Wanli Reform.

The fourth session was a special session on mathematics. Xiong Tingbi knew at a glance that these were questions set by His Majesty himself, because they were really difficult and involved many aspects, including land measurement, military food transportation, marching, six books and one account, banknote method, Sun Shangli index, and even conditional probability. Many questions were logical traps.

Your Majesty may think it is simple, but Xiong Tingbi was unsure about two questions.

For traditional Confucian students, apart from some basic points, they are completely in the dark about everything else.

Yuan Keli was somewhat fortunate that he had chosen the right school by taking intensive math lessons at the Quanchu Guild Hall's Home School. The Home School had strong faculty and targeted training, so he, who already had a good foundation, was able to handle these questions with ease.

The mathematics questions were indeed set by the emperor himself. He selected 300 questions from the question bank in the Sutra Library of the Academy of Gewu, with a total score of points, including multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, and big questions. Zhu Yijun had a total of three days to answer the questions. In his opinion, the time was very sufficient and the questions he chose were simple ones, so at least he could do all of them.

The weight of credits is 50%, and the weights of the first three exams are 20%, 10%, and 20% respectively. In fact, Zhu Yijun is making a distinction between arts and sciences.

Zhu Yijun thought the questions were not difficult, but the students were in despair and even doubted whether anyone could really get all the questions right.

On February 24th, the sky was cloudless. The students changed their clothes and took their personal belongings. Most of them looked pale and gloomy. The last mathematics exam was a bit too difficult, but after everyone discussed it and found that it was difficult, they felt relieved.

It's difficult at all, it mainly depends on your talent and how much you value mathematics.

While the students were waiting for the announcement of the examination results, a terrible piece of news swept across the capital. His Majesty once again issued an edict, requiring the students not to leave the capital and to attend the public trial at Huangji Gate on February 26th.

The students were taking exams while the emperor was investigating a case. During the investigation, Zhu Yijun discovered that Feng Bao was a very useful guy. He was right to open his arms to stop the emperor just after being punished.

Because the people who set up the trap for Xiong Tingbi and Yuan Keli were just waiting for the emperor to go crazy, and those despicable Confucian scholars wanted to see the emperor look defeated. They wanted to use this method to destroy the credibility that the emperor had built up over the past seventeen years and make the scholars of the world think that the emperor was a madman, not a wise ruler.

It was just to muddy the waters, to make things bigger, to provoke the emperor to double down and take the Wanli Reform to the extreme!
But Feng Bao's idea, which came to him suddenly and was quicker than his mouth, was indeed very good.

The reason was very sufficient. In the past, the imperial court was poor and could not afford to provide Confucian robes or examination baskets. Therefore, searching and finding evidence of hostility became the best way to target a scholar, which led to the frequent occurrence of false and wrongful convictions.

Such things happen every year. For example, in the second year of the Wanli reign, dozens of students gathered to speak out for Sun Kuang. Sun Kuang ranked first in the imperial examination, but was not allowed to take the imperial examination because of cheating. In the fifth year of the Wanli reign, Chen Xingxue was framed, and so on.

Moreover, there is a very long business chain surrounding smuggling, and scammers are rampant every time the imperial examination comes.

Now that the imperial court is rich, there is no need to search for smuggling. Everyone entering the Imperial Examination Hall changes their clothes and examination baskets, so it is impossible for them to smuggle anything. There will be no such unjust cases in the future. With a total of more than 6,000 candidates taking part in the imperial examination, the Ming court is still capable of handling it.

On February 26th, the sky was clear and the students changed into new Confucian robes and sandalwood bookcases. These were gifts given by the emperor to all the candidates who took the imperial examination. This was not to silence the students and prevent them from discussing Xiong Tingbi's privileges.

This had been prepared long ago. The imperial examination was a major event in life, but there were only 400 places for 6,000 people, and the remaining 50 were specially selected for the Academy of Gewu.

Some of the students who failed the imperial examination had to travel a long way and were from poor families and might only go to Beijing once in their lifetime, and would never have the energy to take the exam again. This was the memorial given by the emperor to the students. When they returned to their hometowns, they could point at the engravings and tell their children and grandchildren about their past.

The emperor wanted to give an explanation to the scholars all over the world, so he brought the candidates to the large square in front of Huangji Gate and held the first public trial in the 17th year of Wanli.

In addition to the cases of Xiong Tingbi and Yuan Keli, there was also a group of gangs that specialized in imperial examination fraud. They were arrested by the Shuntian Prefecture government and taken to the Huangji Gate for public trial.

The emperor and court ministers sat on the Huangji Gate, with silk flags fluttering on the city walls. Eunuchs and imperial guards stood upright under the silk flags, and an execution platform was built under the Huangji Gate. The students sat in a circle under the platform, divided into groups of fifty, sitting and standing separately. There was a notice board in front of each group, and whatever was said on the platform would be synchronously posted on the notice board.

It doesn’t matter if you can’t remember. The contents of the public trial will be recorded in detail in the monthly magazine.

Speaking of this public trial, it was the product of Zhu Yiliu's antics. Zhu Yiliu's original intention was to make those despicable Confucian scholars whom he disliked humiliate themselves, but his antics inadvertently promoted the construction of the rule of law.

In a case that has been tried publicly, all evidence, documents, and confessions of the criminals will be determined in full view of the public, and will also be disclosed in detail in the official gazette for public supervision.

The public trial began soon. Wang Chonggu, who was old but in good spirits, presided over the public trial as the Minister of Justice.

The candidates hated the scammers who appeared during the imperial examinations with gnashing teeth. Every candidate started to be deceived from the moment they arrived in Beijing. Even the maps they bought when they arrived in Beijing were outdated, and many of them took the wrong road!
Accommodation, food, water, travel, gatherings, apprenticeships, etc., as long as you are in Beijing, you can say that you are being cheated every day, and each one is different.

Obviously, some people treat these scholars as fat sheep to be slaughtered. Highway robbery is not as fast as cheating!
The Kezhi fraud was a group of cases, and there were some old cases that were announced to be solved during the period when the emperor was angry. Some things were really serious and the imperial guards could definitely be investigated if they were dispatched. However, the judicial power was really limited, and the imperial guards were only three thousand strong.

There are quite a lot of tax inspectors, more than 13,000 of them, but it is also a consensus that they only inspect taxes and do not handle other cases.

If the tax inspectors intervene too much in unnecessary matters, no one will pay taxes. It also involves the problem of the Tax Inspection Office having too much power, which leads to the degeneration of tax inspection into robbery. To some extent, tax stamps and indulgences do have something in common.

Xia Zongyao finally understood why he was cheated. Although his family was relatively wealthy, he always tried to save as much as possible when he was away from home. Sometimes, being frugal was not necessarily due to poverty, but rather to one's character.

The store owner held a grudge against him because he did not buy the Wenchang Talisman recommended by the store. While Xia Zongyao was out, the store owner replaced his candles.

There were three other people involved in the accident.

There is no doubt that the store he lives in is a black store.

The reason why Xia Zongyao refused to buy it was actually very simple. It was said that the Wenchang Talisman was obtained from the Confucius Temple in Qufu, Yanzhou. The Confucius Mansion in Yanzhou had been confiscated, so where would the Wenchang Talisman come from?
The matter was so outrageous that Xia Zongyao was convinced it was true.

Soon, all the scholars stretched their necks to look at the stage, because Xiong Tingbi had come on stage, and it was obviously the important moment of the public trial.

Zhang Juzheng had a very bad reputation among the literati, but Xiong Tingbi had a very good reputation among the literati and had countless admirers, because Xiong Tingbi lived the life they had always dreamed of. After reading Xiong Tingbi's story, the scholars felt that was what a Confucian scholar should be like.

Do all Confucian scholars like Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi's Neo-Confucianism?

Hard to say.

The six arts of a gentleman are rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy and mathematics. Prince De Zhu Zaiyu had always wanted to train the emperor to become a great musician, but unfortunately his majesty just liked to watch Queen Wang play the piano and was too lazy to learn it himself.

After Confucianism developed into Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism, of the six arts of a gentleman, only one book remained!
Confucian scholars have suppressed their anger deep in their hearts towards rote learning, but due to the social situation, they are unable to express this anger. Our ancestors said that reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. Studying rote books without any practice will only make you a fool chanting scriptures, which is of no use.

Confucian scholars also did not want to be useless, so Xiong Tingbi, who traveled around, left legends everywhere, and wrote countless legendary stories such as the Three Arrows to Conquer Yinshan Mountain, naturally became a role model in the hearts of many Confucian scholars.

This is what a Confucian scholar should be like.

"Uncle Liang..." Xiong Tingbi looked at the person in front of him, speechless. Then he understood why Zhang Juzheng did not talk to him about these cases.

This is the old carpenter of the Quan Chu Guild Hall. His name is Liang Shoujian. He is 54 years old this year and has been working in the Quan Chu Guild Hall for 12 years. He is responsible for all the carpentry, house repairs, and seasonal flowers of the Quan Chu Guild Hall. Everyone calls him Uncle Liang. He is almost the second steward of the mansion, second only to You Shouli.

It can be said that Liang Shoujian watched Xiong Tingbi grow up little by little, and this Uncle Liang was a participant in Xiong Tingbi's growth.

"I don't understand." Xiong Tingbi frowned and said, "If you have any difficulties, tell Uncle You, or tell the master. How can the master not help you?"

"Will you help my grandson when he takes part in the provincial and metropolitan examinations? You are Xiong Da, but my grandson is not." Liang Shoujian was kneeling on the ground. When he heard Xiong Tingbi's question, he answered after a long time.

Xiong Tingbi was called "Xiong Da" by the emperor. If he could not take part in the imperial examination, the emperor would be furious. He even came up with a special way to allow Xiong Tingbi to enter the tribute hall.

Xiong Tingbi frowned. He had learned a hard lesson today. This is the world seen by people who only care about their own interests.

He immediately realized very clearly that he was at the center of the struggle. He was well prepared. He started preparing from the moment he became Zhang Juzheng's disciple.

He narrowed his eyes and said, "If you want to cheat in the exam, then the Chu Guild Hall can't help you. Even if I want to cheat, the sir and His Majesty won't tolerate me. Not to mention me, the sir's children, if they ask the sir to cheat, the sir won't tolerate it either."

"It was because I was framed that His Majesty was willing to help me. Uncle Liang, have you ever been wrongly accused?"

The conversation tone has changed. Although he seems to be very polite by calling him Uncle Liang, his words are not polite at all. He even confuses right and wrong in the public trial!
Seeing that Liang Shoujian did not answer, Xiong Tingbi immediately began to pursue, and said anxiously: "Uncle Liang, this imperial examination is a serious matter, a major event of the country. Did someone promise you something? How can Uncle Liang believe it? Is there anyone who can cheat in the imperial examination? It is simply appalling!"

Xiong Tingbi was a scholar, and was very familiar with sarcasm and indirect criticism. When he entered the fighting state, Xiong Tingbi became more and more polite, but each word he said was more hurtful than the last.

"The teacher teaches very well." Zhu Yijun was a little surprised as he sat on the Huangji Gate. He finally felt relieved. Xiong Tingbi's biggest problem was his uprightness. After studying under Zhang Juzheng for several years, that uprightness was finally gone.

Xiong Tingbi was deeply influenced by Zhang Juzheng's true teachings, and many times and many things had to be learned in a roundabout way.

Xiong Tingbi seemed to be concerned about Liang Shoujian, fearing that he had been cheated. Now they were on the execution platform, and Liang Shoujian was already a criminal, but Xiong Tingbi opened his eyes and spoke insincerely, playing the image of the victim to the fullest. The victim almost couldn't take the imperial examination, but he was still concerned about whether Uncle Liang had been cheated.

Xiong Tingbi took a step forward and continued, "Promising that you can pass the imperial examination, what else can you say but cheat? That is the imperial examination, with thousands of eyes watching. If he wants to cheat in the imperial examination, can he cover it up?!"

"Uncle Liang, he just cheated you out of your money!"

The cheating in the imperial examination has directly risen to the level of covering the sky with one hand, which is basically treason, because there is only one sky in the Ming Dynasty, and that is Your Majesty.

Yuan Keli stood aside. As a victim and plaintiff, he naturally had to appear on the execution platform. He did not speak, but looked at the criminals as if he was looking at dead people.

"Stop talking, stop talking." Liang Shoujian knelt on the ground and said repeatedly.

Liang Shoujian was certainly not the mastermind. There was a long row of people kneeling beside Liang Shoujian. They were the ones waiting for His Majesty to lose his temper and start a political struggle. As long as the water was thoroughly muddied, no one would care how Xiong Tingbi's bookcase was replaced.

Because, by then, it won't matter anymore.

(End of this chapter)