Back to the end of the Ming Dynasty when the emperor

Chapter 218

Because the literary test is next, the martial arts test will be after the literary test, and it will be their turn in more than half a month, so the next day, the Ma brothers and sisters, Zhang Huan, and Lu Xiao discussed the whole process. The Zuoyue Peng Inn was booked, and they paid a lot of money to send away all the other candidates. They planned to practice martial arts with Zhu Yousong here and stay quietly for a period of time.

But after they finished all this, they found that Zhu Yousong was gone, and even his sister Zhu Jiao was gone, and there were only two servants Li Quan and Xiaohong left in their room.

Li Quan told them that the young master and the young lady went out to do some errands, and it might take some time. The three young masters and one daughter were a bit disappointed, but they knew it was okay to let it go. From then on, they stayed at the Yuelai Inn. Wen practice martial arts, pass the time, but also wait for the appearance of Zhu Yousong brothers and sisters.

But there was no sign of the Zhu brothers and sisters for several days. Li Quan and Xiaohong were sometimes here and sometimes not, and they didn't ask them deeply. The Ma brothers and sisters, Zhang Huanlu and others were suspicious.

"Little sister, tell me, where did Young Master Zhu and younger sister Jiaoer go?" Ma Wannian and Xiao Lu couldn't help but came to the martial arts training ground in the backyard and asked Ma Jinhua, who was competing with Zhang Huan at this time.

Ma Jinhua drew a bow and released a feathered arrow, but the rake a hundred steps away made no sound. Ma Jinhua put away the bow and arrow. With a sullen face, she gave the three brothers a look, and said angrily, "Ask me, where am I going?" Do you know where to go?"

"Sister, why didn't you hit the arrow again, and you still hit the target two days ago?" Zhang Huan ran over and asked.

Ma Jinhua ignored him, and for some reason, she was always absent-minded for the past two days, thinking of Zhu Yousong and He Xuanjiao from time to time, especially Zhu Yousong's voice and smile occupied her mind, and she couldn't get rid of it.

"Is there something Mr. Zhu is hiding from us, making it very secret?" Ma Wannian asked again.

"It looks like it to me too." Xiao Lu agreed.

"Big brother and second brother, don't guess here. Big brother Zhu and sister Jiao'er will definitely come back. Let's practice archery quickly. The exam will start in a few days. The first subject is riding and archery. Everyone Nine arrows, the one with the best score wins." Zhang Huan said.

"What are you practicing, the third brother is the god of arrows, no one can compare to you in this respect." Principal Lu said nonchalantly.

Zhang Huan smiled modestly: "You can't say that, second brother. In addition to the test of archery, you also need to test strategy skills. Generally speaking, the younger brother is not as good as sister Jinhua, and brother Zhu is more capable. One of them must be able to win the number one prize." Yes. Big brother and second brother, am I right?"

Ever since Zhang Huan became sworn brothers with these two, there was a smile on his face, he became more lively, and he talked a lot.

But at this time, Ma Jinhua stopped practicing, and didn't take their troubles. She just threw away her bow and arrows and left. Ma Wannian and Lu Xiao also left afterward, "I don't know what's wrong with you. This is, if you don't practice, you will fall down. I practice..." Zhang Huan muttered, and then continued to practice his bow and arrow.

How could Zhu Yousong have time to accompany them now, the triennial national literary examination had already begun.In addition, Zhu Yousong has to go to the court to deal with the government affairs, which can be said to be a matter of daily affairs. It is enough for Li Quan and Xiaohong to come forward to deal with these loyal descendants of famous families by chance.

Next, Zhu Yousong has to see how Qian Yi, Minister of the Ministry of Rites, was scolded. Of course, he was scolded by the scholars of the world. To be precise, he was scolded by the scholars of the world. However, the rumors about not entering the Ministry of Household Affairs made a lot of noise. These Donglin students even ran newspapers to criticize the government, criticizing him as an arbitrary and arbitrary emperor, and even directly scolded him for being stupid and extravagant, interfering with the Secretary of State, and so on.

Zhu Yousong did not arrest people, nor did he search Donglin Academy. He was unwilling to do so unless it was absolutely necessary. He believed that the social atmosphere of freedom of speech was much stronger than Daxing Literary Prison, but as an emperor, it was still necessary to control public opinion. Yes, but the most important thing to control public opinion is to settle the Donglin Party.

Now that the warlords of the four towns did not listen to the imperial court, it has been completely resolved. With 40 loyal troops, he can do a lot of work. While the two routes use troops to take the opportunity to recover the lost land in Henan and Shandong, he must take time to get the Donglin Party Wash it.

But these Donglin Party members can’t cut it across the board. For those Donglin Party members who are gentle and obedient, such as Lu Daqi, they are allowed to have different opinions, but for those who talk about the government and even viciously attack him and attempt to subvert him, he is radical. Pai must be cleared strategically, and this is undoubtedly a big battle.

After thinking about it, Zhu Yousong decided to start with the imperial examination, so he defined this year's imperial examination questions as two main points. Policy theory, let the Hanlin Academy be in charge of the proposition, the Ministry of Rites is in charge of the examiner, and let him, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, personally check and grade the examination papers. Zhu Yousong also issued an order saying that in order to achieve fairness and prevent people from abusing their power and deceit, he will have all the examination papers of the examinees. Mu Yulan.

Zhu Yousong did this to deal with the Donglin Party, or in other words, he first dealt with the leader of the Donglin Party, Qian Qianyi.

The bureau has also been laid out, and the pit has been dug. Now Zhu Yousong is waiting to see how this talented man of money will face the scolding from all over the world.

However, Qian Qianyi has not been idle these days. Since the emperor's decree was handed down, Qian Qianyi was both afraid and hated. He felt that this stupid king was becoming more and more difficult to deal with, as if he had seen through him and made him walk on eggshells these days , as if facing an abyss, everything should be cautious.Secretly, he stepped up contact with Zuo Liangyu, who was heavily armed, and Zheng Zhilong, who was sitting in the southeast, in order to seek to overthrow the faint king and establish another bright master.

A few days ago, Hou Fangyu, who was lurking in Wuhan and was ordered to lobby Zuo Liangyu, had sent a secret letter, telling him that Zuo Liangyu had rejected them.

After Qian Qianyi scolded Zuo Liangyu for being treacherous, and secretly summoned Huang Zongxi, Fang Yizhi, Chen Zhenhui and other key members of Donglin Fushe to the mansion to conspire, he still decided to walk on two legs, and still placed his hopes on Zheng Zhilong's plot against Zheng Zhilong. His favorite student, Zheng Damu, was specifically operated by Huang Zongxi. Zheng Damu's handwritten manuscript had already been given to Huang Zongxi for him to copy it as soon as possible.

Now Zheng Zhilong has also written back to him. Although this is a normal correspondence between the teacher and the parents of the students, the letter mostly mentions Zheng Damu's affairs and his gratitude to Qian Qianyi, but Qian Qianyi has learned from this. He was overjoyed when he learned from the letter that Zheng Zhilong had a secret connection with King Zhu Yihai of Lu. If it was concocted and magnified, plus Zheng Damu's weight, it would be enough for the pirate leader to raise the banner of anti-imperialism again.

But Zuo Liangyu and Qian Qianyi certainly couldn't relax easily. After discussion, they decided to copy a large number of private letters secretly communicated with Zuo Liangyu. It also talked about Lu Wang Zhu Yihai, Tang Wang Zhu Yujian, Gui Wang Zhu Youlang, Lu Wang Zhu Changfang, etc., let them compare with Zhu Yousong intentionally or unintentionally, and said how virtuous they are, which insinuates that the current emperor Zhu Yousong is stupid and innocent. meaning.If these letters were thrown out without losing the opportunity, it would be enough to make Zhu Yousong fall into the trap and force Zuo Liangyu to turn against him, and their plot would succeed.

He had already arranged these things, and now Qian Qianyi led a group of staff including Wu Weiye, the Minister of Rites, Wang Bin, the head of the Ministry of Rites, and Zhang Zhe, a member of the Ministry of Rites, to patrol the examination room.

(End of this chapter)