The six ministries of the previous dynasty were built on both sides of the main gate of the imperial palace. They were originally built to facilitate the work and court of various departments. However, a violent prince suddenly forced abdication and arrested all the officials of the six ministries. After that, the emperor learned his lesson and built the six ministries outside the palace to form a guard.
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; even the stone lions at the door were more imposing than those at other departments. Even so, at every grand court meeting, the Minister of Revenue would cry and wail about his poverty, which was simply shameless.
The weather was getting colder, and the officials from the Ministry of Rites gathered around the brazier, handling government affairs with shaking hands.
"It's foggy and cold today, so His Royal Highness Prince Chen probably won't come."
"I don't think anyone from Prince Chen's Mansion came to say goodbye?"
There was a hand warmer on Ming Jingzhou's legs. It was given to him by his daughter before he went out. Listening to his colleagues' idle chatter, he shook the file in his hand and made notes at the foot of the page with a pen.
"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 subordinate, 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 old rules, only the queen's father was eligible to be conferred a title due to marriage. Prince Chen is not even the crown prince, but His Majesty has promoted his future father-in-law to a higher position, almost making his favoritism known.
"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 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."
"Thank you, Lord 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.
"Ten years of imperial examinations, the list of top-ranked candidates, the list of visiting envoys from various countries in the past twenty years, and the 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 places to understand. Although everything in the world is always changing, it is ultimately the same. As long as you understand the beginning, things will be much simpler 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 exam questions and the list of successful candidates public. What's the point of memorizing them other than wasting time?
No wonder he dug out the files that had been sealed for many years early this morning. It turned out that they were 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 back 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, and he sat up straight unconsciously, waving at 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." Prince Chen stood up and took the painting in his hands: "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 looked at it with a frown.
What is this painting...?
Where is the Koi?
Where is Lian?
Picking up the scroll and looking at it frontally, backwards, and sideways, one can just barely make out the ink ball in the middle of the painting, which might be a chubby 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.
"Miss Ming... has outstanding painting skills, and this prince loves her very much." Prince Chen put away the key, "Others in the mansion 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 made His Highness respect her so much.
After putting away the scroll, Prince Chen finally remembered the file he had forgotten for a long time. Picking up the file casually, he leaned back on the couch again and opened the file.
What are the questions and names of the top ten imperial examinations?
After flipping through two pages casually, Prince Chen was not surprised at Ming Jingzhou's perfunctory attitude. He flipped through the file a few times faster, and when he was about to throw it aside, he noticed the small words in the corner.
The main idea 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 written 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 candlesticks in the room, and seeing the prince's serious expression, he asked nervously, "It's getting late, and you haven't eaten yet."
"Got it." Prince Chen looked at the flickering flame on the candlestick and said, "Set the meal."
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 Ming Jingzhou's most disliked smell.
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 a few 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 Ministry of Rites has had enough charcoal recently, so I won't freeze." Ever since Prince Chen came to the Ministry of Rites, not only has the charcoal supply been more plentiful than before, but even the tea and ingredients in the public kitchen are more exquisite than before.
"By the way, Mingyue Palace sent someone this afternoon to pick up Jiuzhu and bring her to the palace to talk to the Imperial Concubine tomorrow morning." 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, full of resentment. "I heard that Concubine Su likes jade. There is a jade carving in the storeroom. Let Jiuzhu take it to present to Her Majesty 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 friendly enough. 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 King Qi.
"He only gave the prince a list of past imperial examination questions and successful 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 actions may have been like abandoning his daughter, totally ignoring how she would be treated when she married 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 try to win over Ming Jiuzhu?"
"Noble Consort 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 promoted Ming Jingzhou to a higher rank, 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?" The King of Qi closed the scripture, stood up, picked up the scissors, and cut off a piece of 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 benevolent. Even if he is dissatisfied with Ming Jingzhou because of these things, he will not punish him too much."
"So even if the Ming family doesn't support Prince Chen, they will only sacrifice one daughter." The counselor laughed, "What they gain is countless reputations."
King Qi thought of the innocent girl from the Ming family, 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." Xiang Juan brought tea into the room: "It was other Empresses in the palace who copied them every day out of gratitude for the kindness of God to repay God's will."
Jiuzhu was stunned. The ladies in the palace really respected God.
"If you hadn't come today, they would have come to copy it too."
"Thanks to God, how can I affect the important matters of the ladies?" Jiuzhu said to Concubine Su: "Your Majesty, let the other ladies continue to copy, and I will just 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."
"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: "It's a coincidence. I'll take you to see other concubines copying scriptures later."
"Will it bother the ladies?"
"They are so focused on copying, how could they be disturbed by external things?" Concubine Su raised her eyebrows: "Unless they are not sincere."
In the meditation hall, the concubines were quietly copying scriptures when they heard footsteps and voices outside the window.
"Your Highness." Jiuzhu lowered her voice, "You ladies copied very carefully."
Concubine Su chuckled: "Maybe it's because sincerity can bring success?"
"Before you ladies copied the scriptures, did you burn three sticks of incense in front of the statue?" Jiuzhu reminded quietly, "If you don't light the incense, what if the heaven can't hear your sincerity?"
"Jiuzhu's reminder makes sense." Concubine Su sighed, "Come here, bring the best incense I have, let the ladies clean their hands, light the incense, and re-copy today's scriptures. We must let the gods feel their sincerity."
Jiuzhu held her face and looked at Concubine Su with shining eyes.
The goddess was so kind and considerate that she even took out her best incense in order to let God hear the goddesses' sincerity.
The concubines who were copying the scriptures: "..."
Can these two women standing outside do something human?
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