Jiuxi

Chapter 999 [Fork in the Road]

At sunset, at the residence of the Right Prime Minister.

"Master, Minister Kong, Minister Liu, and the other examiners clearly see this imperial examination as a means of arguing with the court. If we allow them to send out the imperial edict, the scholars in the south will certainly be overjoyed, while the scholars in the north will certainly be in an uproar. At that time, the people's hearts in the north and south, which have been connected with great difficulty, will be cracked again."

Jiang Hui looked solemn and said hurriedly: "Once this crack appears, I don't know how much it will cost to repair it! I am stupid and failed to convince them. I beg Master to stop it!"

Xu Zuo sat upright on the armchair, looking at this outstanding disciple who had high hopes for him, and fell into a long silence.

Jiang Hui was confused about his attitude for a moment, and finally he could only grit his teeth and said, "If Master is unwilling to take action, I will report to the King of Qin immediately to prevent him from being deceived by those people's sweet words."

"stop."

Xu Zuo stopped Jiang Hui who was about to leave and said calmly, "What are you going to say when you meet the King of Qin?"

Jiang Hui said bluntly: "Of course, I will report the whole story to the King of Qin in detail."

Xu Zuo asked again: "And then?"

"Then?"

Jiang Hui was slightly stunned and looked at his master with a little confusion.

"Sit down first. Even if you want to go to see the King of Qin, there is no rush at this moment. Kong Yingdong must wait until tomorrow to enter the palace to see the emperor. Only after the emperor's approval will the imperial edict be announced."

Xu Zuo slowed down his tone and continued, "Tell the King of Qin about this. What can he do then?"

Jiang Hui frowned and asked, "Can't the King of Qin stop them?"

Xu Zuo said calmly, "How can we stop them? Logically speaking, Kong Yingdong did nothing wrong in his handling of the case. As the Minister of Rites and the president of the Imperial Examination, he should select candidates based on the quality of their answers. This is his responsible attitude towards the court. You have been staying in the Imperial Examination Hall for more than half a month. Have you noticed any signs of collusion and fraud?"

"Reply to Master, no."

"So from the time the examinees answered their papers to your Eighteen Rooms marking them, and then to the final decision on the list of successful candidates, was there anything irregular in the process?"

"nor."

"That is to say, there is nothing wrong with the results of the Enke exam, but you think that in order to take the overall situation into consideration, some Jiangnan scholars who should have passed the exam should be sacrificed, so that Kong Yingdong can forcibly favor Jiangbei scholars, right?"

"Master, this is not forced. I have carefully reviewed the papers of those Jiangbei scholars. It is indeed difficult for them to enter the A list, but they are not impossible to enter the B list. At least their essays are not inferior to those of the scholars in the middle and lower parts of the B list."

"Whether it is inferior or not is not up to you, nor is it up to me, and certainly not up to the King of Qin."

Xu Zuo sighed softly and said earnestly: "Since you also think that Kong Yingdong and others did not collude to cheat, or there is no solid evidence, then this matter will become a tit-for-tat debate, that is, whether it is more important to win over the hearts of the people or fairness and justice. If the court chooses the former, how will you give an explanation to the scholars in Jiangnan? If the court chooses the latter, how will the people in Jiangbei view the court?"

Jiang Hui was suddenly speechless.

He now understood the thorny nature of the matter.

Xu Zuo continued, "It is true that the King of Qin does have a way to solve the problem, which is to break the situation with force, but are you sure this is the result he wants to see? Kong Yingdong and others may really have selfish motives, but this cannot be confirmed. If the King of Qin threatens to kill, how do you want the world to see him? Just because the candidates were not selected according to his requirements, the dignified Minister of Rites and a group of upright officials will be held accountable? If he can ignore the impact, why bother to take every step carefully? Wouldn't it be simpler to directly lead the troops into the palace?"

Jiang Hui murmured, "It turns out that my teacher...had already seen through the King of Qin's mind."

"At this point, burying your head in the sand is nothing but self-deception."

Xu Zuo shook his head and did not go into the topic further. He said slowly: "Shaoyang, you were right not to go directly to the King of Qin. Even if your original intention was to consider the overall situation of the court, as long as you enter the King of Qin's mansion tonight, you will cut off your path to becoming a civil servant."

Jiang Hui tried hard not to refute, but from his expression, it could be seen that he did not think that what he did was wrong, let alone that the consequences were so serious.

Seeing this, Xu Zuo patiently said, "Whether it is the battlefield or the officialdom, each place has its own rules. Since you have to work within the limits of the rules, you must learn to use and master these rules. Emperor Gaozong was so wise and powerful back then, but he had to constantly compromise and give in. Only in this way could he unite most people around him and eventually gain enough advantage to take action against the Jiangnan clans. If you appeared from the Imperial Examination Hall today and went straight to the Prince of Qin's Mansion, which civil servant would dare to work with you in the future? Without anyone's support, even if you have extraordinary talents, you will not be able to move forward in the end."

After hearing these earnest instructions, Jiang Hui's anxiety gradually subsided. He bowed his head and said, "My disciple is dull, but fortunately I have the guidance of my teacher."

“This is the duty of a teacher.”

Xu Zuo thought for a moment and said softly, "You don't have to worry about the King of Qin. With the infiltration of the talents under his command into various forces in the capital, I'm afraid he will know the details of your dispute with those people as soon as you step out of the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall. What I'm worried about now is that he will get angry and take ruthless action against those people. This will not only destroy the current stable situation, but may even affect the overall situation of the new policy."

Jiang Hui asked honestly, "Master, Liu Zhongcheng and the censors impeached so many officials before, and it did not cause any criticism from the court or the public. Why can't the King of Qin take action this time?"

Xu Zuo said frankly, "Everything in the world cannot escape the word reason. I just mentioned the word rules. Since the King of Qin has chosen this path to win the hearts of the people, his actions will be restricted. Liu Bingyuan has impeached many officials, but he has real evidence. In addition, as the Left Censor, these are his duties. The King of Qin is different. Now that the new policy has not achieved obvious results, he needs to consider the impact. The most important thing is that Kong Yingdong and others are in the right. Can the King of Qin treat the Minister of Rites as a pig and a dog and deal with it at will? How is that different from a traitor?"

Jiang Hui remained silent, feeling a growing headache.

"Forget it, I'll go to the Prince Qin's Mansion."

Xu Zuo stood up slowly, but before he could leave the study, the housekeeper came in and reported: "Prime Minister, there is a man outside the mansion who wants to see you. He said he came here on the order of the King of Qin."

The master and the disciple looked at each other, and Xu Zuo said, "Please ask him to come here to meet me." "Yes."

The butler withdrew.

Soon, he came over with a man in his thirties.

"I am Nan Yi, and I am here to meet Prime Minister Xu."

"No need to be so polite. What important matter did the King of Qin send you to convey?"

"The prince ordered me to tell Xu Xiang and Jiang Xiuzhuan that he has already known about the special examination. Please do not worry, the result will be known at the court meeting tomorrow."

Xu Zuo frowned slightly, looked at Nan Yi's neither humble nor arrogant posture, and finally said with relief: "Okay."

Nan Yi bowed again and said, "I'll take my leave."

After he left, Xu Zuo was silent for a moment, and then he told Jiang Hui, "Remember, if the Saint summons you to the palace tomorrow, you must answer whatever he asks you, without any personal judgment. I will help you do what you want to do. You are still young, you need to settle down and learn to be patient. There will be a time for you to realize your ambitions in the future."

Jiang Hui knew very well that this was his master's love and protection. He did not want Jiang Hui to be involved in the vortex of power struggle in the court at such a young age, and he did not want his reputation to be tainted by dust.

Thinking of this, he bowed deeply and said, "Master, how can I be so worthy..."

Xu Zuo raised his hand and patted his shoulder without saying anything else.

……

At the same time, in the study room of the inner house of the Left Prime Minister’s residence.

"Snapped!"

As Xue Nanting slapped him in a rare move, a red mark instantly appeared on Xue Ruogu's cheek. However, he was only slightly stunned, and quickly stood up respectfully, lowered his head and asked, "I wonder why father is angry?"

"Why are you angry? If Kong Yingdong hadn't just sent someone to deliver the secret letter, I wouldn't have known that you had the guts to stir up trouble in the country's affairs."

Xue Nanting looked coldly at his eldest son who had been going smoothly all the way, and said in a cold voice: "Who do you think Kong Yingdong is? Is he a fool who lets you play tricks on him with your cleverness? Do you think he is a real gentleman who will let you stay out of it? Where do you get the confidence to treat the Minister of Rites as a chess piece?"

Facing this series of questions, Xue Ruogu still humbly said: "Father, please calm down. I have no selfish motives."

Xue Nanting laughed in anger: "What a selfless person! Why didn't you discuss this with me in advance? Why did you act on your own? Don't think I don't know what you are thinking. You knew Kong Yingdong would not be your scapegoat, so you used this incident to force me to fight against the King of Qin."

At this time, Xue Ruogu slowly raised his head and said in a tone that Xue Nanting felt was very unfamiliar: "I have never understood why the King of Qin's intention to usurp the throne is obvious. As the left prime minister of the dynasty, why is father unwilling to argue with him and instead give in step by step or even cooperate with him?"

"So you would rather personally come forward to instigate Kong Yingdong, just to force your father to take action?"

"How dare I be so disobedient and unfilial? I acted on my own because I didn't want to put my father in a difficult position. The Grand Master may not be a gentleman, but as long as he still wants my father's help, he will naturally not drag a junior out to take the blame."

Hearing this, Xue Nanting looked at Xue Ruogu for a moment, then turned around and sat back.

Xue Ruogu continued, "I have been taught by my father since I was young to be loyal to the emperor, so I don't regret doing this at all. Please rest assured, even if the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan tells the King of Qin the truth, I am willing to take full responsibility. Father, I know that the King of Qin holds the military power and his position is unshakable, but there are always some stupid people in this world who are willing to do stupid things. If my head and death can awaken the blood of some loyal people, I will be happy to die."

"Go down."

Xue Nanting said this expressionlessly.

Xue Ruogu bowed and left the study calmly.

Xue Nanting looked at his departing back and felt a sudden pang of pain in his heart.

He could sense the disappointment that his eldest son was trying hard to conceal. Presumably, in Xue Ruogu's eyes, his father was afraid of Lu Chen's power, or was reluctant to give up the position of Left Prime Minister. Therefore, instead of trying to weaken Lu Chen, he tried his best to promote the implementation of the new policy.

"You do not understand……"

Xue Nanting whispered to himself, but he was not trying to convince himself, but rather sighing with extreme exhaustion.

Young people often cannot help but get excited, but they do not know the damage a civil war with swords and guns will cause to the country.

The word "measure" is so difficult.

Xue Nanting sat quietly for a long time, his eyes obscure and unclear.

Eventually it turned into a feeling of disappointment.

(End of this chapter)