Jiajing Chengming

Inside the Confucius Temple, Liu Jin, the runner-up in the imperial examination, was stunned when he saw a large number of Jinyiwei rushing in and killing Mao Tiancheng.

Mao Tiancheng was also stunned on the spot.

He really didn't expect that the emperor would be so powerful and take his life directly.

And Zhu Houcong did have strong capital.

For example, the Jinyiwei that appeared at this time were all orphans and young men selected by him.

These people do not recognize any human relationships in the underworld, they only recognize the emperor's orders.

So, immediately afterwards, Lu Li was also killed because he stretched out his hand to stop the scholar who was about to take the exam, and his blood splattered in front of the smiling statue of Confucius.

Several Jinshi scholars who were observing the government were also arrested on the spot because of the articles they wrote, and then taken to the execution ground, where they were announced to be executed on the spot by the three judicial officials who had been prepared in advance.

The runner-up Liu Jin was also arrested for this reason.

However, when Liu Jin was captured, he couldn't help but shout in despair: "Why would your Majesty think so! We just don't want to let the lucky ones in to fill the numbers!"

Liu Jin felt particularly wronged at this moment.

The scholar Shen Hongwen who was also arrested also felt that he was wronged and cried to the Jinyiwei who arrested him:
"My fellow imperial guardsmen, even if you have never been to school, you should know how important the provincial examination is to select talents!"

"Do you also think that we are wrong to protect the Talent Selection Ceremony?"

"What does this have to do with denying your Majesty's achievements in civil administration? What does this have to do with preventing people from pledging allegiance to your Majesty?!"

"And yet Your Majesty wants to kill the disciple whom he carefully selected for this. Do you think this is right? Is this in accordance with the laws of nature and human nature?!"

Zhao Ang, who happened to be riding over, saw this and shouted loudly:

"Ignore the nonsense these disloyal and unrighteous people are talking about!"

"We were raised by your majesty and have received the emperor's grace for generations. We must trust your majesty and believe that your majesty is indeed a holy ruler. Under your majesty's rule, the civil administration is more prosperous than the previous dynasty, and the expansion of the imperial examination is inevitable!"

"Besides, we have studied in Xingming Academy and we all know that previous emperors also expanded the enrollment. We have also seen the statistics and know that the number of scholars in the world now far exceeds that of the previous dynasties, and the proportion of scholars in the world has also greatly increased, so expanding enrollment is the general trend!"

"Let's not talk about anything else, just take our Xingming Academy as an example. In the past seven years, we have also had a large number of new classmates waiting to serve the court!"

"So, we can't listen to their lies. We must believe in His Majesty. Not only must we believe in His Majesty, but we must also be grateful. Because if His Majesty doesn't expand the enrollment, it will be even more difficult for many of our fellow students who study literature to be loyal to the court!"

"Captain Zhao is right. We are not fools. How can we not understand who has ulterior motives and who is truly doing good for us?"

At this time, the Jinyiwei who was holding Shen Hongwen responded and yelled at Shen Hongwen:

"Don't mislead us, your majesty is forced to do this because of you. Your Majesty has no choice!"

"Your Majesty would not have done this if it were not for the people with lofty ideals in the world! The imperial edict is very clear, and we understand it very clearly!"

After hearing this, Shen Hongwen gritted his teeth and said nothing more.

Liu Jin didn't say anything else.

They really had nothing to say.

And then.

Liu Jin, Shen Hongwen and others were all beheaded in the city.

The beheading of scholars such as Liu Jin and Shen Hongwen, and the killing of scholars such as Mao Tiancheng and Lu Li, effectively crushed the attempt of those who opposed the expansion of the imperial examination system to prevent the expansion of the Shuntian Prefecture's provincial examination by boycotting the examination.

However, the killings of Liu Jin, Shen Hongwen and others still caused a great shock in the court and the country.

After all, most of these people are children of officials and wealthy people!

Therefore, many officials were shocked and sad.

Xia Yan, who was promoted to the position of the head of the Hanlin Academy, had no choice but to find Yang Yiqing and asked with a choked voice:
"Prime Minister, why did the cabinet allow His Majesty to issue such an imperial edict?!"

"Now the Hanlin Academy is filled with cries and resentment!"

"After all, killing someone without warning is too overbearing and rude, and not in line with humaneness!"

Xia Yan started wiping the corners of his eyes as he spoke.

"Gongjin, in this era of the emperor ruling alone, I find it funny that you talk to me about benevolence!"

"Based on my many years of experience in managing military affairs, an unarmed person has no right to demand kindness from a person holding a knife, nor does he have the right to be as tyrannical as a person holding a knife!"

"For example, this time, they want to boycott the exam and refuse to cooperate with Your Majesty, not allowing other scholars to participate in the provincial exam. This is not unauthoritarian, but this is not their home, nor their academy. Their family power and talent will be vulnerable in the face of the mighty imperial power."

Yang Yiqing pronounced Xia Yan's name with a deep gaze.

After hearing this, Xia Yan felt reluctant to admit that Yang Yiqing was wrong. He just felt that what Yang Yiqing said was too true, so true that he didn't want to admit it.

But after hesitating for a while, Xia Yan finally spoke up and said, "Prime Minister, the emperor cannot rule alone. Please forgive me for my intrusion, but you are quite helpful in this matter."

Yang Yiqing was not angry about this, but just smiled faintly:
"You're right! I've been quite helpful here, but what can I do? I can't really disobey the teachings of the saints and not even mention the word loyalty, right?"

"Besides, if I fight against the emperor, even at the cost of my entire family's lives, can I change the current situation in the world?"

Xia Yan pursed her lips and didn't continue the topic.

He knew that it was useless to blame Yang Yiqing.

Therefore, he only asked at this time: "But why did Your Majesty do this? Filial piety is the basis of all government in the world. If a child is not taught well, it is the fault of the father; if a minister is disloyal, it is the responsibility of the monarch. Such a ruthless act will inevitably make people despise the emperor himself!"

"'There are no parents who are not right, and naturally there are no rulers who are not right' is the teaching of the saints that is suitable for the present!" "Instead of raising children without teaching, you can blame the parents; if the minister is disloyal, you can blame the king."

“The teachings of the saints must keep pace with the times and cannot remain unchanged.”

Yang Yiqing refuted this.

Xia Yan was stunned.

"This violent incident happened because the wealthy and powerful people in the world were unwilling to lose their power and forced Your Majesty to do this."

"But if we want Your Majesty to rule the world without the people, we can only accept Your Majesty ruling the world alone, and we can't sympathize with them!"

Yang Yiqing continued to express his own views at this time.

Xia Yan was even more puzzled: "Why did Yuan Fu say that? Doesn't he want scholars to rule the world with Your Majesty?"

Yang Yiqing looked at Xia Yan: "Don't you understand yet? The king and the literati ruled the world after the fall of the Song Dynasty. It is impossible for them to do so again! The wealthy and powerful monopolized the power to rule the people. It has also been impossible since the Yuan Dynasty!"

"Because my Ming dynasty was founded in a righteous way!"

"It was not orphans and widows who gained the country, nor was it foreigners who took over. It was because the people could not survive that they rose up in rebellion. It was not the scholars who gained the country, nor was it the foreigners who gained the country, but the millions of common people who restored China!"

"In this way, the emperor does not need the literati to correct his name, and he does not need to consider the feelings of foreigners. Therefore, if we want the emperor not to rule alone, we can only mobilize the people and unite with the people to check and balance the emperor."

"So, since the establishment of our country, whenever scholars have been able to defeat the emperor, they have mostly fought for the people!"

“Only by fighting for the people can the emperor be put in an uneasy position. But are today’s scholars fighting for the people?”

When Yang Yiqing got to this point, he asked Xia Yan, "And are you, Xia Gongjin, also willing to fight for the people?"

Xia Gongjin stood up and said, "Why not? Clear the land and I will submit a petition to the emperor!"

"That's right, you fought for the people, so His Majesty adopted your plan to clear the farmland."

"But are you still willing to continue to fight for the people to the point where the emperor cannot rule alone?"

"For example, allow the people to ask questions about government affairs and demand that officials who are close to the people explain why they do not collect taxes from certain powerful people?"

"For example, if a child is beaten to death by his parents, the parents also have to pay with their lives?"

"According to the ancestral system of our Ming Dynasty, slavery is not allowed, so slaves are nominally adopted children of the family. So by the same token, if a slave is beaten to death by his master, does the master have to pay with his life?"

"By extension of this, if an official kills a citizen for no reason, shouldn't he pay with his life?"

“Also, if the people encounter injustice, can they also cry in the temple and go to the government to make a scene and protest, but cannot punish the instigators?”

After Yang Yiqing asked, Xia Yan fell silent.

After a while, Xia Yan said, "It seems that we can only admit that there is no king or father who is not wrong in the world!"

"That's right! If anyone dares to question whether the emperor is qualified to be a sage monarch, I will be the first to disagree!"

Yang Yiqing suddenly looked at Xia Yan with a stern expression and said.

Xia Yan nodded thoughtfully: "Then these people really deserve to die! I shouldn't sympathize with them!"

Yang Yiqing nodded and laughed again.

"That's right, Gongjin. We all come from military backgrounds. We don't have to sympathize with those scholars and officials. Their era is long gone!"

"As long as there is money out there to enrich the country and strengthen the army, the lives of those of us with military rank will get better and better!"

“So, we should no longer regard ourselves as scholars and officials, but as nobles who are more honorable than them, and we should no longer care about their life or death.”

"Your Majesty is the one who needs to care about their lives, because Your Majesty needs them to check and balance us."

"For example, the people we really need to guard against right now are Zhang Yongjia and Gui Anren. They really intend to take advantage of the fact that the emperor is ruling alone and can suppress the officials and gentry to reform and enrich the people!"

"They are a group of despicable people who are willing to destroy the foundation of the emperor's rule for the sake of the people!"

After Yang Yiqing said this, Xia Yan stood up and bowed to Yang Yiqing: "I will take your advice! You are right, the emperor ruling alone is not scary, what is scary is that there are people who really want to destroy the foundation of the emperor's rule alone!"

Therefore, after leaving Yang Yiqing, Xia Yan no longer felt sad and depressed as he did at the beginning.

When the Imperial Academy lecturer Fei Maozhong learned that Xia Yan was killed because of crying in the temple, he went to see Yang Yiqing to ask the emperor's opinion.

So, when Xia Yan returned to the Imperial Academy, Fei Maozhong asked Xia Yan, "What did the Prime Minister say?"

"The Prime Minister asks us to sympathize with Your Majesty, understand Your Majesty, and more importantly, appreciate the wisdom of Your Majesty's actions."

Xia Yan replied.

Fei Maozhong was stunned for a moment: "But this time, more than a dozen Jinshi scholars were killed without warning!"

"There are only a dozen of them. Your Majesty has the whole country in mind. Sometimes he is a little strict, but it is for the overall situation!"

Xia Yan said with a smile.

After hearing this, Fei Maozhong said, "I don't understand what you mean."

"Even if you don't understand, you have to figure it out! Otherwise, don't even be a human being!"

Xia Yan suddenly scolded Fei Maozhong harshly. (End of this chapter)