The six ministries of the previous dynasty were built on both sides of the main gate of the palace. Originally, it was to facilitate the work and court of each department. However, a hot-tempered prince suddenly forced his way into the palace and killed all the officials of the six ministries. After that, the emperor learned a lesson and built the six ministries outside the palace in a dispersed manner to form a defensive posture.
Today, the Ministry of Rites is built on the street outside the south wall of the Imperial Palace, and its next-door neighbor is the Hanlin Academy, which is even poorer than them.
The best-built government office was the Ministry of Revenue, with even the stone lion at the gate more imposing than those of other departments. Even so, every time there was a grand court meeting, the Minister of Revenue would cry and wail about his poverty, which was simply shameless.
The weather was getting colder and colder, and the officials of the Ministry of Rites gathered around the brazier, handling government affairs with shaking hands.
"It's foggy and cold today, His Royal Highness Prince Chen probably won't come."
"I don't think anyone from Prince Chen's Mansion came to say goodbye?"
Ming Jingzhou had a hand warmer on his lap, which his daughter had given him before he left. Listening to his colleagues' idle chatter, he shook the file in his hand and took a pen to make notes at the foot of the page.
"Master Ming, do you understand?"
Ming Jingzhou glanced at the person who was speaking and said with a smile, "Lord Wang, you are joking. Even the Minister does not know, so as a humble official, I naturally have no idea."
The person who asked the question laughed meaningfully. Who doesn't know how Ming Jingzhou got his title?
According to the old rules, only the empress's father was eligible to be granted a title due to marriage. The prince was not even a crown prince, but His Majesty promoted his future father-in-law to a higher position, almost showing his partiality.
"You all came quite early." Prince Chen walked into the house, took off his cloak and handed it to his attendant: "I seem to have heard someone mention me, what is it?"
"Greetings, Your Highness." All the officials stood up and bowed to the Prince.
"No need to be so polite, my lords." Prince Chen walked up to Ming Jingzhou and lifted his arm. "There are still some things I don't understand. Please teach me."
"Your Highness is too polite." Ming Jingzhou looked at the prince in a gorgeous brocade robe, turned around and picked up the annotated files on the table: "If your Highness has nothing to do now, take these and memorize them first. I believe that with your intelligence, you will be able to memorize all the contents quickly."
"Hello, Lord Lao Ming." The Prince took the file and turned back to the office specially prepared for him by the Ministry of Rites.
"Lord Ming, what did you ask His Royal Highness the Prince of Chen to recite?" After the Prince of Chen left, an official who was familiar with him asked.
"Examination questions for the tenth imperial examination, the list of top scorers, the list of envoys from various countries who have visited in the past twenty years, and a list of important gifts." Ming Jingzhou smiled and said, "The affairs of the Ministry of Rites are trivial and complicated. Your Highness should start from the most basic things to understand. Although everything in the world is always changing, in the end, all changes remain the same. As long as you understand the beginning, things will be much easier in the future."
Other officials: “…”
Is Ming Jingzhou really the future father-in-law of Prince Chen, rather than his mortal enemy?
The imperial court has made all the examination questions and lists of successful candidates public. What use is there in memorizing them other than wasting time?
No wonder he dug out the files that had been sealed for years early this morning. It turned out that he was waiting for Prince Chen here.
He is indeed a member of the Ming family who would rather be exiled to the frontier than surrender.
Prince Chen waited until the Ministry of Rites was dismissed before returning to the palace. Looking at the files and painting tubes on the table, he lazily leaned on the couch and said to the eunuch, "Fugui, bring the painting here."
Fugui carefully opened the lid of the painting tube, took out the painting, untied the rope on the scroll, and opened the painting.
After taking a look at the painting, Prince Chen's eyes widened, he sat up straight unconsciously, and waved to Fugui: "Bring the painting closer."
"Your Highness, is there something wrong with this painting?" Fugui leaned over to see what was painted.
"Close your eyes." The Prince stood up and took the painting in his hand: "You go out first, I want to appreciate the painting alone."
Fugui closed his eyes and said, "Your Highness, I will go and make you some hot tea."
"Go." Putting the painting on the table, Prince Chen frowned and looked at it.
What is this painting?
Where is the koi?
Where is the lotus?
Picking up the scroll and looking at it frontally, backwards, and sideways, one can only barely make out the ink ball in the middle of the painting, which might be a fat carp.
Recalling the little girl's red nose and sparkling eyes, Prince Chen sighed and put the painting away: "Someone, bring the painting box."
When the servant brought the painting box, he put the painting into the box and locked it.
"Ms. Ming... has outstanding painting skills, and I love her very much." Prince Chen put away the key, "Others in the palace are not allowed to move without permission."
“Yes.” The attendants looked at the wooden box containing the painting in awe, wondering how amazing the future princess’ painting skills were that His Highness would respect her so much.
After putting away the scroll, the Prince of Chen finally remembered the file he had forgotten for a long time. He picked up the file casually, leaned back on the couch, and opened it.
What are the topics and top-ranking candidates for the 10th examination?
He flipped through two pages carelessly, not surprised by Ming Jingzhou's perfunctory attitude. He turned through the pages a few times faster, and when he was about to throw the file aside, he noticed the small words in the corner.
The main purpose of the essay of the first-class Jinshi.
Li En, Zhou Rui, Ming Jinghai, Ming Zengsheng, Zhao Boshen, Sun Yong, Lin Zhongling, Chen Zhixing...
If you look carefully at the list, you will find that the names of most of the important officials in the court are on it.
After reading Ming Jingzhou's annotations on the main points of the essays answered by several important officials in the imperial examinations, the Prince of Chen held the file tighter and tighter, not even noticing that it was getting dark outside the window.
"Your Highness." Fugui lit the candlestick in the room and saw that the prince looked serious. He asked nervously, "It's getting late. You haven't eaten yet."
"Got it." Prince Chen looked at the flickering flames on the candlestick and said, "Set the table."
At the dinner table, Jiuzhu scooped a bowl of soup for Ming Jingzhou: "Father, please drink the soup."
The hot soup gave off a faint medicinal smell, which was the smell Ming Jingzhou disliked the most.
No matter how bad the soup my daughter scooped for me tasted, I had to grit my teeth and drink it.
Seeing Ming Jingzhou drinking the soup obediently, Shen smiled with satisfaction: "The weather has been getting colder recently, so I asked someone to make you some new jackets. They are warm and thin, and you won't be able to see anything when you wear them under your official robes. Remember to change into them before going to court tomorrow."
"Don't worry, Madam. The charcoal allowance of the Ministry of Rites has been sufficient recently. I won't freeze to death." Since His Royal Highness Prince Chen came to the Ministry of Rites, not only has the charcoal allowance been more sufficient than before, but even the tea and the ingredients in the public kitchen are more exquisite than before.
"By the way, Mingyue Palace sent someone this afternoon, saying that they would pick up Jiuzhu and bring her into the palace tomorrow morning to talk to the noble concubine." Shen added two more spoonfuls of soup to Ming Jingzhou: "I agree."
Ming Jingzhou picked up the bowl and drank it all in one gulp, "I heard that Concubine Su likes jade. There is a jade carving of a twig in the storeroom. Let Jiuzhu take it to present to the queen tomorrow, so that such a good thing will not be left in the storeroom and covered with dust."
Shen looked at her daughter, smiled and nodded slightly: "Okay."
Jiuzhu looked at the two of them. She had clearly listened to their conversation word for word, but why did she still find their smiles mysterious? Was this the wisdom of the elders?
"Your Highness, after the Prince arrived at the Ministry of Rites, all the officials were too polite and not close enough to him. No one dared to get close to him."
"What is Ming Jingzhou's attitude?" Under the candlelight, there was no expression on the handsome face of Prince Qi.
"He only gave the prince a list of past imperial examination questions and Jinshi candidates and asked him to memorize them. His attitude was perfunctory and he was very cold to the prince, even trying to make things difficult for him." The counselor said, "Ming Jingzhou's behavior is probably like abandoning his daughter. He doesn't care how she will be treated when she marries into the prince's mansion in the future."
"Really?" Prince Qi flipped through the Buddhist scriptures in his hand. "If that's the case, why did Concubine Su still want to pull Ming Jiuzhu?"
"Concubine Su has always doted on Prince Chen, so she thinks that all parents in the world do the same to their children." The counselor said sarcastically, "Now that your majesty has conferred a title on Ming Jingzhou, if he doesn't want to be known among the literati as someone who sells his daughter for fame and flatters a treacherous concubine, he will not help Prince Chen."
"Isn't he afraid of angering my father?" Prince Qi closed the scripture, stood up, picked up the scissors, and cut off a piece of the wick.
"Your Highness may have forgotten that sixteen years ago, the three brothers of the Ming family were exiled to the frontier and suffered for Your Majesty." The counselor explained: "Your Majesty is kind and virtuous. Even if he is dissatisfied with Ming Jingzhou for these things, he will not punish him too much."
"So even if the Ming family doesn't support Prince Chen, they will only sacrifice a daughter." Mou Shi smiled: "What they gain is countless good reputations."
King Qi thought of the innocent Ming girl, put down the scissors, and lowered his eyelids slightly: "Hmm."
What a pity.
"My lady." Jiuzhu looked at the thick pile of scriptures on the table and asked, "Do you like copying scriptures?"
"Miss Ming, these were not copied by the Empress." Xiangshen came in with tea: "These were copied by other Empresses in the palace. They were grateful for the kindness of the Heavenly Emperor and copied them every day to repay the will of Heaven."
Jiuzhu was stunned. The ladies in the palace really respected Cang Ke.
"If you hadn't come today, they would have come to copy it too."
"Your Majesty, please let the other ladies continue to copy. I will just stay by your side and accompany you."
"Since Jiuzhu said so, let's do as she wishes." Concubine Su said with a smile: "Our Jiuzhu is really sensible and considerate. It's my fault that I didn't think it through enough."
"Don't blame your majesty." Jiuzhu shook her head quickly: "It's just that I came at an untimely time."
"What a coincidence." Concubine Su tapped Jiuzhu's forehead and said, "What a coincidence. I'll take you to see other concubines copying scriptures later."
"Will it bother the ladies?"
"They were so focused on copying, how could they be distracted by external things?" Concubine Su raised her eyebrows: "Unless they are not sincere."
In the Jingxin Hall, the concubines were quietly copying scriptures when the sounds of footsteps and voices came from outside the window.
"Your Highness." Jiuzhu lowered her voice and said, "You ladies copied very carefully."
Concubine Su chuckled: "Maybe it's because sincerity is the key to success?"
"Before the ladies copied the scriptures, did they light three incense sticks in front of the statue?" Jiuzhu reminded them softly, "If they don't light incense, what if the gods can't hear their sincerity?"
"Jiuzhu's reminder makes sense." Concubine Su sighed, "Come here, bring the best incense in my palace, let the ladies clean their hands, light the incense, and rewrite today's scriptures. They must let His Majesty feel their sincerity."
Jiuzhu held her face and looked at Concubine Su with sparkling eyes.
The queen was so kind and considerate that in order to let Shang Cang hear the queens' sincerity, she even took out her best incense.
The concubines who were copying scriptures: "..."
Can these two women standing outside do something human?
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