Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 174: The Confidant Outside the Palace Wall (Vote Request)

Xie Qian felt that he was a little overwhelmed when facing the curious prince.

It seemed as if a child who had been confined for so long suddenly became interested in things outside the palace walls, but the emperor did not allow these lecturers to teach about court affairs because it involved the prince's governance.

Everyone knows that the emperor dislikes the prince, and everyone also understands that the emperor will not allow the prince to interfere in state affairs for the time being. So how could the lecturer of the Eastern Palace not be cautious in this regard?

"Yu Qiao, what did the prince say to you?"

After Xie Qian left the Wenhua Hall, he found that Wang Ao, who was a Jinshi in the same year as him and now also a lecturer in the Eastern Palace, was waiting for him.

Both of them became Jinshi in the 11th year of Chenghua, Xie Qian was the top scorer and Wang Ao was the third place.

According to the Ming Dynasty system, among the top three candidates in the palace examination, the top scholar was appointed as a historian in the Hanlin Academy, a sixth-rank official, while the second and third place winners were appointed as editors in the Hanlin Academy, a seventh-rank official. In this way, it is understandable that the two had different circumstances.

At least from the current point of view, Xie Qian's development is much better than Wang Ao's. Seeing that he could not be promoted in the Hanlin Academy, his superiors found another way and found him a position as Youchunfang Youyude in the Zhanshi Mansion, which is a fifth-rank official position. However, Wang Ao is still stuck in his position as a Hanlin editor. Now Xie Qian's reputation in the Hanlin Academy is much higher than Wang Ao's.

Xie Qian raised his hand, meaning that we should talk while walking. After walking for a while, he showed some helplessness on his face and said, "The prince asked about the affairs of governing the country with rites and music."

Wang Ao looked suspicious: "You only asked about governing the country with rituals and music? You didn't talk about anything else?"

Xie Qian said: "Just this point alone, I can't explain it to him in detail. He asked whether the court is now governing the country with rituals and music. How do you want me to answer? Should I tell him that the court has long been in chaos?"

"you……"

Wang Ao smiled bitterly and said, "Don't be so discouraged. The situation in the court is far from that point."

Xie Qian said angrily: "Look at those two people in the cabinet, are they in charge? Since Shang Ge Lao retired, there has been no one in our Hanyuan who presides over rituals and music for a long time. They are all people who are trying to curry favor with others... You and I can keep ourselves idle, but how many people are like us?"

Wang Ao asked, "Yu Qiao, is this what you told the prince?"

Xie Qian shook his head: "I didn't say a word, I just told the prince that when he experiences it personally in the future, he will understand the truth."

"Ah."

Wang Ao seemed to agree with this view. He was silent for a while, then suddenly asked curiously, "The prince has finally grown up. He would never have asked such a question before... Why is he suddenly interested in matters related to state affairs?"

"Maybe they are getting married." Xie Qian replied.

"Well. But Yu Qiao, don't you think that the prince has been asking about things outside the palace recently?" Wang Ao asked.

Xie Qian stopped, looked over curiously, frowned and asked, "Have you asked?"

Wang Ao nodded, "There were some years ago, but you just didn't pay attention to them... Do you still remember the prince asking about poetry? I looked it up later and even asked a lot of people, but they all said they had never seen it before. The words are very neat, so they must have been written by a famous poet. Where did the prince get the words from?"

"That word..."

After all, Xie Qian was a top scholar and had extraordinary knowledge. He had also seen the poem, but didn't think much of it at the time, thinking it was just a child playing around. But now thinking back on it, it seems that things are not that simple.

Wang Ao continued, "Since then, the prince has often asked questions, sometimes asking about matters concerning the sky, asking whether changes in the stars would affect human affairs."

Xie Qian asked: "How do you answer?"

Wang Ao said, "I am not the one being asked. I just know that this happened. I guess it has something to do with the fact that Taoist Li has been talking to Your Majesty about disasters and changes recently. It was unbelievable before, but after these few times... and it also involves the Eastern Palace, I have no choice but to believe it."

"You mean..."

Xie Qian pondered for a moment and asked, "Is there someone secretly giving instructions to the Crown Prince? Is it an official in the Eastern Palace?"

Wang Ao sighed and said, "Among the eunuchs in the Eastern Palace, none is more knowledgeable than Tan Ji. Do you think that Tan Ji, who is calm and reserved, would casually talk about these things with the Crown Prince?"

"Who could that be?"

Xie Qian looked puzzled.

Wang Ao said: "I haven't told Xixian about this. If he knew, he might be even more worried... You and I can just talk about it privately." What he meant was that it would be better not to tell Liu Jian.

Xie Qian nodded and said, "Then we should pay attention to it later. The prince never leaves the palace, so it stands to reason that no one can influence him except us, or maybe we are overthinking it... Let's see later."

……

……

Zhu Youtang is a persistent person.

He couldn't get answers to certain things, and he was always worried and troubled about it.

In the past, he didn't feel bad about being treated as a puppet or a canary that didn't care about the world.

But once he came into contact with things outside the palace, he would be interested in all situations outside the palace, especially the court affairs that were closely related to him, and he also wanted to find out the truth.

Why did a lecturer in the Eastern Palace become so secretive when talking about the knowledge of governing a country with rites and music?
There is no one around me to communicate with. Isn't it possible for me to talk to my future wife and let her understand how I feel at this moment?

Then the letter was delivered to Zhang Yu the next day.

Seeing Zhang Yu scratching his head, Zhang Yanling walked over to ask, Zhang Yu said with a dull look: "I don't understand it at all... Second brother, can you explain it to me?"

After saying that, he handed the letter to his brother.

"Sister, this is a letter written to you by your future brother-in-law. You see, it was sent out of the palace intact, which means that the person who sent the letter knew the reason behind it and didn't dare to open it casually... You actually let me read it?"

Zhang Yanling did not open the letter to read it immediately, but asked with a smile.

Zhang Yu rolled his eyes at him and said, "Who asked me to write to him? At the beginning, you said he was a young master from a wealthy family, but you were just lying to me."

As he spoke, he snatched the letter away, scanned a few lines, and then looked at his brother with an aggrieved look on his face, "I said I couldn't understand it, or I told him to write a better letter next time and not be like this. He didn't say a few nice words, it was just there... I don't know what he said."

Zhang Yanling took it and read it carefully. After reading it, he smiled and said, "Who said it's not written?"

"Where is it?"

Zhang Yu was instantly interested.

It seemed that she also hoped that her future husband would write a few words of love to her. This was what the little girl liked to see the most.

You wanna talk to me about something?
Don’t you know that women can’t talk about things, but should be coaxed?
Are you going to talk to me about reason, or about the general principles of governing a country?
Are you crazy?

Zhang Yanling smiled and said, "It's not written in detail, but I can feel the deep attachment of my future brother-in-law to you from the words. Look at these contents, they should be the secrets in his heart, which he would never tell anyone before, and some of the contents are even considered forbidden, but he still told you without hesitation."

Zhang Yu muttered, "Is it as mysterious as you say? Why can't I see it?"

Zhang Yanling pointed to the sentences above and said, "Look here, he is talking about how he encountered a problem and went to find Xie Qian, the lecturer of the Eastern Palace, to try to explore the current situation of the Ming Dynasty's governance of the country through rituals and music, but he did not get an effective response."

"Oh, so what?"

Zhang Yu asked.

"This shows that the lecturer of the Eastern Palace will not or is unwilling to tell the Crown Prince about the current darkness of the court." Zhang Yanling said.

Zhang Yu asked in surprise: "Is the court very dark?"

"Yes."

Zhang Yanling nodded and said, "Sister will be married to the palace next month. When you talk to the prince in private, you can tell him about the current shortcomings of the court. This way he will know that sister is his confidant."

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(End of this chapter)