Top Scholar

Chapter 447 My Master and I Raise Pandas (Seeking Monthly Tickets!!)
On the carriage back to the Leopard House.

Zhu Shou, still full of enthusiasm, exclaimed, "If all the teachers could lecture like him, how could the Emperor not listen?"

“Your Majesty, there are no outsiders here now…” Zhang Yong reminded the emperor that he no longer needed to pretend to be someone else.

"Let's talk about it after we get back to the palace and change our costumes, otherwise we'll get confused about the play." Zhu Shou shook his head, telling him not to cause trouble.

"Hey, hey." Zhang Yong had no choice but to laugh and cooperate, "Then you can talk to the Emperor about it and let him become a lecturer."

“He’d have to pass the imperial examination first. Those who review the emperor’s books are all Hanlin scholars; his status is too low for me to ask.” Zhu Shou said, frowning slightly.
"But he seems a bit insecure. Could it be that, like me, he's incredibly smart but not putting his mind to studying?"

"Probably not. He's the top scholar in the Sichuan provincial examination, and he even achieved the 'minor three top honors' in the previous examinations," Zhang Yong said.

"Then what is he worried about?" Zhu Shou chuckled.

"Are they afraid Liu Jin will cause trouble?" Zhang Yong guessed.

“Find out what’s going on. If someone is plotting against him, we have to help him,” Zhu Shou said. “Otherwise, that silly boy will really think I’m a useless friend.”

"Well, I'll check it out first," Zhang Yong replied softly.

~~
Leopard House, Panda Palace.

The ground was heated to a comfortable temperature, and a thick, soft white wool cushion covered the floor. A four- or five-month-old panda cub was curled up on it, happily munching on half a tender bamboo shoot.

Its fur is pure white, as clean as snow, except for the black rings around its eyes, ears, and shoulders. Its round body barely reaches its knees, and when it eats, it nods its head little by little, looking just like a swaying black and white ball.

Su Youjin squatted to the side, wearing an apron, sleeves, and a cloth head covering, holding a tender bamboo shoot tip with the old skin peeled off in his hand. After the panda finished eating one, he promptly handed it to it again.

Qian Ning, dressed similarly, squatted down beside him and couldn't resist offering him a bamboo shoot as well. To his surprise, the little dumpling suddenly shrank its neck, took the shoot in its mouth, and hid behind Su Youjin, staring at him warily with its bright black eyes, refusing to accept the food at all.

"Don't rush, this little darling is gentle but also wary of strangers. Let it get used to you first." Su Youjin said, putting his arm around the little dumpling and gently stroking its back to soothe it.

Seeing that the little dumpling had started eating again, Su Youjin continued, "There's an art to touching it. You have to stroke its fur in the direction of its head and back. If you do it against the grain, it will bristle and scratch you."

"Mmm." Qian Ning quickly took out his notebook and wrote it down. It was already filled with many pages of notes, including eating habits, feeding times, entertainment arrangements... He remembered everything perfectly.

"Why would a high-ranking officer like you, a commander of the Imperial Guard, want to learn how to raise pandas?" Su Youjin asked, puzzled.

“Master, aren’t you also a commander of the Imperial Guard?” Qian Ning smiled and said softly.

“That’s different. I was promoted to this rank because I raised a panda,” Su Youjin said. “You were already a commander of the Imperial Guard.”

“Master has only been here for a short time, so he may not know yet.” Qian Ning explained softly, “When you are by the Emperor’s side, the rank of your official position is not that important. The key is the distance between you and the Emperor, and your importance in the Emperor’s heart.”

"With both of these, you're perfect!" Qian Ning gave a thumbs-up. "You can't be missing either one."

He looked at the incredibly cute little dumpling and whispered, "The Emperor plays with this little thing every day. If it's even slightly unruly, the Emperor gets so anxious that he can't eat. So, Master, you have to do both. Everyone in the palace has to respect and honor you. Nobody dares to play those tricks on you."

"Hmm, no wonder everyone's been so friendly to me," Su Youjin said with a smile. "But I don't plan to stay here long. I'll quit once my nephew is safe."

"Why?" Qian Ning asked, puzzled.

"I'm so tired!" Su Youjin said dejectedly. "Back in Taiping Town, I was living the high life, with people waiting on me around all day. But here, I have to take care of this little thing every day. I've never been this attentive when I was taking care of my daughter. It's like working day and night, never leaving her side. My nephew has been in Beijing for days now, and I haven't even had a chance to go out and see him. Is this a life for humans?"

The little dumpling seemed to sense his dissatisfaction, rubbing its round head against his leg and making a coquettish sound.

"Okay, okay, I won't go, I won't go," Su Youjin quickly coaxed gently.

"Sigh, Master really has it tough," Qian Ning sighed softly. "This little thing treats you like its mother, so it never leaves your side."

"That's exactly right," Su Youjin patted Qian Ning on the shoulder and said, "Luckily, Xiao Ning, you're so dedicated. You'll be able to work shifts with me in a month or two."

"Yes, Master, don't worry, I will work even harder!" Qian Ning hurriedly and solemnly stated.

This panda is his last lifeline; he can't afford to lose it...

"Uncle, the Emperor is back. Quickly take the little dumpling over there." At this moment, Zhang Zhong came over and whispered to Su Youjin.

His godfather and Su Youjin were like brothers, so he naturally called him uncle.

"Alright, we've eaten enough, let's go for a walk." Su Youjin picked up the little dumpling and headed towards the emperor's inner chambers.

Qian Ning gazed enviously at Su Youjin's retreating figure, wishing she could immediately take his place...
After changing back into his imperial robes, Zhu Shou finally transformed back into Zhu Houzhao.

He took the little dumpling from Su Youjin's hands and began to knead it with a smile on his face.

This cub was also good-natured; it only whimpered in protest and didn't do anything else.

"You have gold, huh? What kind of person is your nephew, Su Lu?" Zhu Houzhao asked. "Why is he so interesting?"

"Is it interesting?" Su Youjin understood what he meant as soon as he heard it, and laughed: "A naughty child since childhood, always making his family angry."

"Sigh, the gap between the two generations is too deep. You wouldn't understand even if I explained. Go about your business." Zhu Houzhao didn't like hearing this. Wasn't this like scolding a bald man while sitting next to a monk?
"Yes." Su Youjin bowed and took his leave.

Zhu Houzhao then started playing with the little dumpling.

However, the story Su Lu told him was still lingering in his mind today. After playing for a while, he ordered, "Find me some books about Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean."

First, they couldn't stand the hassle of following each episode and wanted to know the rest of the story in advance. Second, they didn't want Su Lu to lie and deceive them.

After all, this isn't just idle chatter; if his overseas experiences are distorted, it could inevitably affect his future decisions.

Zhang Yong dared not delay and quickly found a stack of books, including writings by those who had personally experienced the events, such as Ma Huan and Gong Zhen, as well as official records archived by the cabinet.

Zhu Houzhao eagerly unrolled the book and began to read; it had been so many years since he had read a book so attentively…

But the more you look at him, the more his brows furrow.

How to put it? Although Zheng He's voyages in the book are magnificent, they are far less enjoyable than Su Lu's account.

Take the incident of soldiers being killed in Majapahit, for example. According to the records, Zheng He neither fired cannons to establish his authority, nor bombarded the capital, nor forced the Western King to surrender or demand blood for the murderers. He simply chose to forgive the Western King for the sake of the overall diplomatic situation because the Western King's envoy presented a letter of surrender and pleaded guilty. Where is the satisfying scene described by Su Lu, where he displayed his power and forced the other side to swear a blood oath?
~~
The next day.

Zhu Shou then slapped the official record in front of Su Lu and sneered, "Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?"

"Confucius wrote the *Spring and Autumn Annals*, adding what he wrote and removing what he omitted. Not to mention the history recorded by his disciples." Su Lu glanced at it dismissively and said:
"Official records never faithfully depict history; they only shape it according to their own needs, so it's enough to know the general outline."

"..." Zhu Shou didn't expect him to be so bold. After holding back for a while, he finally said in a muffled voice, "I don't believe them, I believe you?"

“Of course, you can’t believe everything I say.” Su Lu pointed to his head and said, “You have to have your own judgment—for example, the historian’s attitude towards the voyages to the West, towards eunuchs, towards the emperor, and whether the account conforms to normal logic…”

"This..." Zhu Shou felt as if a new world had been opened to him.

"It's like Zheng He leading an invincible fleet with an army of twenty or thirty thousand to the South Seas—he went to demonstrate his power, not to offer condolences. He was met with a crushing defeat the moment he set out, dozens of his soldiers were brutally murdered, yet he couldn't wait to forgive the enemy. Was he really that despicable? Does he seem like someone who crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood?" Then Su Lu said in a deep voice:

"Don't forget, the soldiers of our Celestial Empire are burly and well-armored, far superior to those monkeys from the South Seas. How could the natives mistake one for another? This was clearly a deliberate murder. How can we expect our soldiers to obey us if we don't avenge them? Do we expect them to listen to us on the voyage to come?"

“Indeed…” Zhu Shou nodded slowly and said, “My biggest impression from reading history books is that barbarians fear power but do not appreciate virtue. Forgiving them from the start will only embolden them. I believe that Eunuch Sanbao is not that naive.”

As he spoke, he pondered, following Su Lu's suggestion, "Considering the civil officials' attitude of avoiding Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean like the plague, they probably wouldn't record Zheng He's achievements and abilities truthfully."

"That's right. Zheng He was a eunuch, yet he commanded an invincible navy, made seven voyages to the Western Ocean, and displayed his power overseas. What did this mean to the civil officials? It was 'eunuchs wielding power,' 'militarism,' and 'waste of resources and manpower'! They were inherently opposed to eunuchs commanding troops and even more opposed to the voyages to the Western Ocean, so they naturally downplayed Zheng He's achievements when writing about them."

After a pause, Su Lu smiled and said, "But Zheng He's achievements are too dazzling, so let's downplay his decisiveness and make him seem like a 'gentle and pacifying' and 'neither merit nor demerit' figure. At the same time, let's quietly erase those details that highlight the might of the Ming Dynasty, so that future emperors will not be moved by them and want to go on the voyages to the West again."

"Hmm, that makes sense. Didn't something like that happen during the Chenghua era? As a result, Liu Daxia even burned the nautical charts. Such blatant defiance of the imperial decree, yet the civil officials celebrated and thought he was right."

"To portray Zheng He's voyages to the Western Ocean as too glorious would be a slap in the face to the civil officials who abolished the voyages," Su Lu said with a faint smile. "In short, after nearly a hundred years of embellishment, what truth can you expect to find in the official records of something that the civil officials were so resistant to?"

He paused for a moment, then said matter-of-factly, "At least you can't use their accounts to negate my story."

"Alright, you make a good point." Zhu Shou pondered for a long time, then slowly nodded, and then stared intently at Su Lu and said, "When you become a civil official in the future, will you also be like them, writing down what needs to be written and deleting what needs to be deleted?"

"No, that won't happen." Su Lu shook his head and said, "Our school of Taoism emphasizes seeking truth from facts; it is what it is."

He chuckled and said, "So it's best not to let the disciples of the Xun School become historians..."

"That makes sense," Zhu Shou nodded with a smile.
"Go on, I want to hear what you have to say! Since it's all unreliable anyway, I might as well listen to something I really enjoy."

P.S.: The exam is tomorrow!! Please vote for me, everyone!!!

(End of this chapter)