The struggle for the throne among nine princes—I really don't want to be the crown prince.

Chapter 352 I Was a Keyboard Warrior Back in the Day
Shen Ye glanced at Zhen Yan, who looked righteous and ready to die for his country, and thought to himself: This guy is really convincing.

Since ancient times, no one has ever escaped death!
That's true, but how many people would actually be willing to deliberately seek death?

After Zhen Yan finished speaking passionately, Shen Ye calmly said, "Minister Zhen, this rebuttal has only just begun, and you're already acting like you're about to die. There's no need for that."

After saying that, he turned to the Ninth Prince and said, "Sit down. We're here to reason with each other, not to bully others with our power!"

Then, he instructed Zhou Bao, who was serving him, "Pour Lord Zhen a cup of tea and let him catch his breath."

The Crown Prince's words immediately eased the tense atmosphere considerably.

But those below were even more confused.

What exactly is the Crown Prince up to?
Emperor Qianxi, who had initially given up hope of a rebuttal, calmed down at this point.

He picked up his teacup, took a sip, and then listened silently.

Tong Guowei also sat to the side. After all, he was Emperor Qianxi's uncle and the Grand Secretary of the court. He was also getting old, so Emperor Qianxi naturally had to give him some face.

So he has a seat!
On the surface, Tong Guowei appeared calm, but inside he was in turmoil.

He knew that this rebuttal was a matter of life and death for Zhen Yan, and even more crucial for the Crown Prince.

If the Crown Prince is rendered speechless by the questioning, causing Emperor Qianxi to lose face and be unable to back down, then the Crown Prince himself will not have an easy time either.

Right now, besides a few incompetent allies, the Crown Prince also has a few treacherous fake allies.

Despite the initial setback, the Crown Prince's ability to maintain such composure demonstrates remarkable generalship.

From this point of view alone, he is indeed much stronger than the Ninth Prince and the Tenth Prince.

The third and fourth princes are absolutely not comparable to the crown prince.

This crown prince position is truly well-deserved.

However, throughout history, in debates between emperors and their ministers, emperors almost never win unless they resort to drastic measures.

The Jiajing Emperor was incompetent, the Qianxi Emperor was incompetent, not to mention the Crown Prince.

It's just unknown how the Crown Prince will respond next.

Just as Tong Guowei was filled with anticipation, he heard Zhen Yan speak up: "Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness, but I am not thirsty at the moment!"

Good grief, they're really pushing their luck! They're being incredibly ungrateful!
I poured you tea and you said you weren't thirsty. What do you mean by that? Are you deliberately trying to go against me, the Crown Prince?
Some people were waiting to see a good show, but Shen Ye calmly said, "Although today I am refuting you, it is still a discussion of principles."

"Have a drink of water, no rush."

At Shen Ye's command, a young eunuch promptly poured Zhen Yan a cup of tea.

Zhen Yan simply thanked him and didn't say anything more.

“Lord Zhen, you just said that ‘the wealth of the world is fixed,’ which is incorrect,” Shen Ye said calmly.

When Zhen Yan heard the Crown Prince begin to criticize him, he felt no fear whatsoever.

He replied confidently, "Your Highness, the wealth of the world is fixed; this is the wisdom of the ancients, how could it be wrong?"

"Does the Crown Prince believe that even the sages were wrong?"

Shen Ye laughed: "Even the wisest men can be wrong."

"Take Confucius for example. If he never made a mistake, he wouldn't have been chased around like a stray dog ​​when he traveled around the states."

These words, though somewhat teasing, struck Zhen Yan like a thunderbolt, causing his expression to change drastically.

He abruptly stood up, glaring at Shen Ye, and said, "Your Highness, how could you... how could you slander Master Da Liang like this? This... this is simply..."

Zhen Yan wanted to say "outrageous," but due to his status as the Crown Prince, he swallowed the words back.

Many ministers in the hall also had drastic changes in expression, especially Zhang Ying—a recognized great Confucian scholar, whose expression was extremely complicated when he heard the Crown Prince say this.

He wanted to speak up, but the occasion was inappropriate.

If he remains silent, how will future Confucian scholars view him, given the presence of so many court officials? They might even criticize him behind his back.

After hesitating for a moment, he still advised Emperor Qianxi: "Your Majesty, please ask the Crown Prince to be careful with his words. After all, sages and worthies should not be insulted!"

Emperor Qianxi was actually quite pleased. You scholars, just because you've read a few books, you dare to criticize me?

Heh heh, now the Crown Prince says that the sages in your hearts are like stray dogs, let's see what you do now!
He waved his hand at Zhang Ying, whose face was pale, and said indifferently, "Just listen."

At this moment, Shen Ye chimed in, "I'm not slandering you. Isn't it clearly written in the Spring and Autumn Annals?"

"Even Confucius didn't shy away from his mistakes, so what makes you think he couldn't make mistakes?"

At this point, Shen Ye stared at Zhen Yan, her tone turning cold: "Zhen Yan, you've gotten so bookish that your brain has become stiff."

"Let me remind you, reading is a good thing, but believing everything you read is worse than having no books at all."

"If you only cling to books, you'll be stubborn and incompetent, and you'll never achieve anything in your life."

"The purpose of reading is to make the things in the book your own, not to believe whatever the book says."

Shen Ye's few words turned Zhen Yan's face pale.

He wanted to refute it, but he also vaguely felt that the Crown Prince made sense, and for a moment he didn't know how to respond.

Shen Ye didn't give Zhen Yan a chance to catch his breath and continued to press: "You said 'the wealth of the world is fixed,' then let me ask you, if the wealth of the world is really fixed, then who would bother to work hard?"

"Farmers don't need to cultivate the land, they don't need to weed and cultivate the land under the scorching sun."

“Craftsmen don’t need to work; they create the things we need for clothing, food, shelter, and transportation.”

"Why don't we just do nothing, lie around and wait for the heavens to bestow blessings?"

Zhen Yan took a deep breath and forced himself to say, "Your Highness, that's not what I meant." "I meant that you shouldn't be vying for wealth."

"Wealth should be used for the benefit of the people."

Shen Ye calmly replied, "I didn't fight for wealth!"

"I am creating wealth in my own way."

"How many years has this land in Xiaotangshan been abandoned?"

"By the way, has Yarjan arrived yet?"

When Yarjianga heard the Crown Prince address him, his heart skipped a beat.

But the crown prince was a half-ruler, so he dared not refuse to come out.

So Yarjan had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "Your humble servant is here."

"Yarjiang, tens of thousands of acres of land in Xiaotangshan used to belong to you. Tell Lord Zhenyan, how much can these tens of thousands of acres produce in a year?"

Shen Ye smiled and said, "To be honest, His Majesty is listening here too. Don't talk nonsense in front of His Majesty."

Thinking of his tens of thousands of acres of land, now worth nearly a million taels of silver, Yarjiang felt a heart-wrenching pain.

How hateful!
He felt he had lost out big time, not only because he had given the land to the Crown Prince for nothing, but also because he had to spend tens of thousands of taels of silver to buy thousands of acres of land to build a manor.

However, in this situation, he couldn't pretend to be mute and remain silent.

The Qianxi Emperor is watching closely!
Moreover, this rebuttal was of paramount importance to Emperor Qianxi.

After taking a deep breath, he said in a deep voice, "Your Highness, my family owns tens of thousands of acres of land here, which only produces about a thousand taels of silver a year."

"After all, this is all mountainous land, and farming doesn't yield much harvest."

Shen Ye smiled at Yarjiang'a and said, "Lord Zhen, as you heard, Yarjiang'a's tens of thousands of acres of land only produce a thousand taels of silver a year."

“If I don’t manage it, the annual output will still be one thousand taels of silver.”

"But now, I have built a hot spring palace for His Majesty here, and I have also had people grow out-of-season vegetables and fruits here."

"Not only did we sell these lands, but the income here also increased."

“This money wasn’t stolen from anyone; I created it.”

"Lord Zhen Yan, please tell me, who exactly did I compete with for profit?"

"With Lord Yarjiang?"

Zhen Yan's face twitched slightly, momentarily stumped by Shen Ye's question.

He doesn't engage in any productive work and only studies by rote, so naturally he wouldn't know about these things.

He only knew that the Crown Prince made money, and a lot of money at that. But how did he make that money? By competing with the people for profit.

For every money the prince makes, someone else loses money.

However, he was somewhat reluctant to include Yarjan in the list of "people" and among the allies.

For a moment, he was speechless with astonishment.

“Your Highness, you have made money, but the people living here have lost their homes.” After glancing at the palace a few times, Zhen Yan, who had a sudden inspiration, found another angle: “Because of your money-making plan, they have to move away and become homeless.”

"Although I don't know what they do now, I imagine they are struggling to make ends meet."

Having completely calmed down, he said to Shen Ye, "You did not compete with Lord Yarjiang, but for the common people here, you have taken away their livelihood."

“What you are doing is even more upsetting than competing with Lord Yarjiang’a for profit.”

As Zhen Yan spoke, he became more and more composed, as if he had seized a handle on the Crown Prince.

Shen Ye had thought he had outwitted Zhen Yan's Emperor Qianxi, but upon hearing Zhen Yan's words, his face immediately darkened.

He didn't expect that Zhen Yan would not only not admit defeat, but would instead bring up the residents here.

This problem is not easy to solve.

After all, Xiaotangshan had taken over the land, and the farmers who usually worked for Yarjiang'a really had nowhere to go.

So, it seems...

Emperor Qianxi felt inexplicably guilty.

He thought to himself that if the Crown Prince lost, then his rebuttal would truly become a joke.

Should we really send the ministers to handle this?

Or should we just kill them?

Just as he hesitated, Shen Ye smiled and said, "Lord Zhen, I can easily answer your question as well."

"However, after debating for a while today, my mouth is a bit dry."

"The watermelons growing in the greenhouses in Dongshan are almost ripe now. How about we eat a couple of slices first?"

As they were talking, Shen Ye said to Zhou Bao, "Go and have someone bring the watermelon up."

Following Shen Ye's words, two simply dressed farmers came up carrying two loads of watermelons.

Many people were stunned when they saw the watermelon.

After all, it's the dead of winter, so how could there be watermelons?
And what exactly does the Crown Prince intend to do with all these watermelons?
What exactly is he up to?
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(End of this chapter)