Chapter 1451 Chongwen Hall
Manbao: "What did you write?"
Mr. Zhuang and Xiang Mingxue also looked up at Bai Shan curiously.
Bai Shan said seriously, "The prince wants to recruit talents for the Chongwen Academy."
Chongwenguan is where the prince studies and is taught by the imperial tutor since childhood. Unlike other princes, the prince received imperial education since childhood and had a separate teacher.
In the past, the prince's tutors were Kong Jijiu and Lu Xueshi. In the first eighteen years, although the prince was naughty and occasionally showed some rebelliousness, and preferred horse racing and martial arts to literary studies, he generally satisfied Kong Jijiu and Lu Xueshi.
After all, he was the crown prince, and although he was not good at writing poetry, he was well versed in classics and Confucianism, and was willing to govern the country.
But later the prince learned bad things, and the emperor began to change his teachers one after another. All the ministers in the court had served as the prince's teachers, such as Wei Zhi, Old Lord Tang, Li Shangshu, and even the emperor's uncle-in-law, Duke Zhao, and Yin Li, all went to Chongwenguan to serve as teachers for a few months.
However, the emperor's method did not work. Instead, it made the ministers increasingly disappointed in the prince. The relationship between the prince and the ministers was also rather complicated.
For example, Wei Zhi did not agree to depose the crown prince, but he also felt that the crown prince was not doing well, so he wrote letters to the emperor every now and then to criticize the crown prince, and the frequency was almost as high as that of criticizing the emperor.
But when someone suggested that the third prince was filial and smart, Wei Zhi defended the crown prince, believing that orthodoxy should be maintained. He argued that the third prince did not take the initiative to request a vassal state, and that he was not filial because he had already reached adulthood but still stayed in the capital, causing embarrassment to the emperor.
Sometimes, when the prince did something too wrong, he would not be able to help but write a letter to hint to the emperor, saying, "Why don't you consider changing the prince?"
Of course, he would always write another memorial afterwards to explain that the previous memorial was written when he lost his mind, so he apologized.
In a word, Chongwenguan is where the prince studies, it is his territory, but now, he wrote to the emperor, openly asking to recruit talents.
Bai Shan took a sip of tea, his voice still a little hoarse from all the talking that afternoon. "The prince wrote to me saying that he had many shortcomings. He hadn't listened to his teachers' teachings before, and that was his fault. Anyway, he now knows his mistakes."
He said, "I heard that when the emperor heard this, he was extremely happy and immediately asked Kong Jijiu and others to arrange for them to teach the prince."
"The Crown Prince also wrote in his memorial that studying alone was boring and he could never concentrate, so he wanted some people to study with him." Bai Shan said with a serious face, "The Crown Prince has even prepared a list of names. They are all sons of powerful officials in the court, even Lord Wei's son is on it."
He said, "Your Majesty was originally quite happy, but after seeing the list, he frowned. Lord Wei was not present at the time, but Minister Li's people also expressed their opposition. Lord Wei came to the palace this afternoon, but Your Majesty did not see him, so Lord Wei blocked the entrance to Taiji Hall and cursed for an hour before leaving the palace."
So in one afternoon, everyone in the Imperial College knew about it.
There's no way around it. As reserve forces for future officials, they are just so well-informed.
Manbao opened her mouth wide and suddenly remembered what the emperor said to her today when he stood beside the stone vat.
She felt something was wrong and swallowed her saliva and said, "The prince thanked me at noon today."
Bai Shan asked, "Thank you for what?"
Manbao was speechless for a long time. After a long silence, he said, "Forget it. Let's not get involved in the affairs between these bigwigs. It seems to have nothing to do with us."
Bai Shan saw her shrinking like a quail, and couldn't help asking, "What bad thing have you done?"
"No!" Manbao denied it flatly.
Bai Shan had already said, "It cannot be that it has nothing to do with us, because today the doctors reported that Kong Jijiu was unwilling to teach the prince and was planning to retire and return home."
There are few evildoers in the Imperial College now, largely due to the protection of Kong Jijiu. Once he leaves, it is not certain who will take over the Imperial College in the future. This is of great concern to them.
Manbao hesitated for a moment and then said, "Your Majesty is very likely to agree to the Crown Prince's petition?"
Even Mr. Zhuang couldn't help asking, "Why?"
Manbao: "Because the lotus in the stone jar will definitely survive. Not only will it survive, but it will also grow well."
Manbao was right. After an afternoon and a night of rest, the lotus in the stone jar, from which she had broken off most of its tubers, not only straightened its stems again, but two of its buds were also half-opened, showing how strong and energetic they were.
The emperor came to see it early in the morning. He stared at the flowers in the stone vat for a long time, then turned to ask Gu Zhong, who was standing beside him, "The lotus hasn't been changed, has it?"
Gu Zhong immediately said, "After Your Majesty left yesterday, I asked someone to guard this place, and no one has touched this lotus."
The emperor nodded and asked the gardener who was kneeling beside him, "How can that tuber still survive after so many pieces have been cut off?"
The gardener wasn't here yesterday, so he had no idea how much Zhou Man had broken off. But that didn't stop him from answering. "Your Majesty," he said, "even if there's only a little bit of the lotus stem left, as long as it can sprout, it can grow."
However, it is not certain what it will look like and how long it will take to grow.
The gardener didn't dare mention it.
The emperor was silent for a moment and then said, "It is indeed tenacious."
The gardener, his head pressed against the floor tiles, said, "As long as there's water, it can survive."
The emperor just pinched his fingers and said nothing.
Although the prince occasionally quarreled with others these days, his temper has indeed calmed down a lot. He is now also interested in building his network of contacts, which is a good thing.
The emperor was not really afraid of the prince's networking. What he was afraid of was that he would give up and continue to be as reckless as before.
But it's not good to be too ambitious. The list submitted by the prince included almost all the young men of marriageable age from the aristocratic families and powerful people in the capital.
The emperor pondered for a moment and then turned to go to the front hall. It was time to attend the morning court.
Today's morning court was particularly noisy. The emperor agreed to the prince's request to recruit talents for the Chongwenguan, thinking that it was rare for the prince to be willing to make progress, so of course he had to support him.
Some of the court officials agreed, but some opposed, so there was a big argument.
When Manbao entered the palace, the prince was still arguing with someone in front of the hall. She felt the prince's pulse and found out that the child was healthy. Then she started to learn piano with the prince's wife and occasionally had a few snacks.
They were enjoying the sunshine and the gentle breeze here, while the prince was facing the wind and rain in front. Kong Jijiu was tired of being tormented by the prince in recent years and was unwilling to teach him anymore, so he wrote a letter to the emperor to resign and wanted to return home.
As a result, the court became even more chaotic. Amidst this chaos, the Zhou Man carriage overturning case, the carriage knife throwing case, and even the prince's poisoning case were almost forgotten.
The recruitment of talents for Chongwenguan was a big deal and it was not something that could be decided so easily, so while they were arguing, Yin Li and Tang He took the opportunity to investigate more and more deeply, bringing back more and more news and things to the capital.
See you at 4 p.m.
(End of this chapter)
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