Chapter 102
After Princess Xiang left, the capital returned to peace.
Emperor Chongzhao strengthened patrols in the imperial city.
The atmosphere in the court relaxed slightly only after news came that Princess Axiang and Agumuduo had safely arrived in the northern border.
Emperor Chongzhao has put this matter aside, and the next one is about to come.
The Great Zhou Military Examination.
The Ministry of Rites issued the papers, and the Ministry of War supervised them.
The military examination is a blood transfusion for the young generals of the entire Great Zhou.
Many guests came to the Third Prince's residence for help - his princess consort was the granddaughter of the Minister of Rites, a natural in-law relationship.
Last time, the Minister of Rites helped the Third Prince to secure the mission to welcome Princess A Xiang, which was already an open statement of his stance.
The military examination also had a written examination, and the Ministry of Rites was responsible for preparing the examination papers.
If I could get a little support from the Third Prince, it would be a great opportunity.
So the Third Prince has been accepting gifts so generously recently that he even walks with a breeze.
The military examination was a good opportunity for him to place and cultivate his own men in the army.
——Of course, he would not accept gifts openly, but he had to maintain his attitude to save face.
Those who are thoughtful can naturally see his attitude of openly refusing but secretly accepting, and find ways to give gifts in other forms to express his allegiance.
-
Xu Mansion.
Qu Dubian came to find his uncle.
It has been more than three years since Xu Tingfeng started to rebuild the temple.
Qu Dubian didn't know what stage of cultivation he had reached now, but seeing that Xu Tingfeng was often in seclusion, he didn't dare to ask too much.
This time, he visited Xu Tingfeng while she was not in seclusion.
"Uncle, I came to see you about the martial arts exam."
Xu Tingfeng: "Tell me slowly."
Qu Dubian: "It all started with Xu Cheng instigating Sixth Brother to tamper with Xia Fuyang's martial arts exam. I thought about it later and felt something was wrong. Xu Cheng is a fool, but he is well-informed as he hangs around in the capital. He can make it sound so easy to tamper with the martial arts exam. I think he must have done this many times in previous years."
Xu Tingfeng smiled and said, "What do you want?"
Qu Duanbian: "Xia Fuyang is my friend. I want to make some noise. Even if someone wants to do something, they have to restrain themselves."
Xu Tingfeng: "It's not easy for us to interfere. In fact, there is another person who doesn't want to see cheating in this martial arts exam even more than you do."
Qu Duan nodded: "My eldest brother."
If there is cheating in the martial arts examination, the Ministry of Rites has the most room for manipulation, and behind the Minister of Rites stands the third prince.
No matter how fair it appears on the surface, the Third Prince will definitely benefit.
The eldest prince would not want to see this happen.
Qu Watanabe: "Let the eldest brother hinder the third brother in the court and kill with a borrowed knife. Others who want to take advantage of the opportunity or have bad intentions will also be afraid to act rashly."
Xu Tingfeng: "This is the simplest way."
Qu Dubian said nothing. He dragged his small stool towards Xu Tingfeng and sighed.
Xu Tingfeng touched his head and said, "Don't you want to see them fighting?"
Qu Watanabe hummed: "But I also know that it is inevitable."
He didn't hesitate for long, "This matter still needs a clue."
Xu Tingfeng: "You want to throw the second family out?"
Qu Dubian wrinkled his nose: "If he stays here for too long, he will become a cancer. He even dared to instigate the prince to interfere in the martial arts examination. Who knows what he will do next time. Uncle, sometimes stupidity is scarier than evil."
Xu Tingfeng laughed.
"My uncle agrees with this statement. Do you have any idea?"
Qu Watanabe chuckled and said, "It's relatively simple and crude, but I don't have many people I can use, so I need my uncle's help."
Xu Tingfeng raised his eyebrows slightly.
This little guy has quite a few people who can use him, but the size of their roles varies. Wen Xiaochun is one of them.
Xiao Qi hadn't realized yet that some people had already stood firmly behind him, and some were getting closer and closer to him.
For example, Xia Fuyang...did you really think he was good at hiding it? Otherwise, there are many people who know the art of war in the capital or outside the capital, why didn't he go to those people to ask for advice, but came to him secretly.
"Okay, what do you want to do?"
Qu Dubian said with a smile: "Public opinion can be a knife."
-
Near Ruyi Tower.
In the alley.
The Sixth Prince leaned against the wall, lowered his head and played with the hair that fell to his chest.
There were wailing sounds coming from the alley, and the sound gradually died down.
The Fifth Prince: "Sixth brother, don't make a fuss."
After hearing his reminder, the Sixth Prince lazily shouted, "Alright, come back now. It will be hard to deal with them if they are really beaten to death."
The group of thugs just came back.
Xu Cheng curled up on the ground, with no injuries on his face, but he was rolling and crying.
The Sixth Prince walked up to him, and after a moment, he stepped on his shoulder: "Do you dare to lie to me again? Huh?"
Xu Cheng burst into tears: "I won't dare to do it again! I won't dare to do it again!"
The Sixth Prince: "You have fooled me. Do I look like someone who is easy to fool? Or do you think I am stupid?"
Xu Cheng: "No! Absolutely not!"
"I just feel that you have a kind of affinity that makes me want to get closer to you. I want to be your retainer! That's why I came up with this plan. I definitely don't mean to deceive you!"
The Sixth Prince let him go.
"Actually, I'm quite comfortable playing with you, but Xiao Qi doesn't like you. I'll have to find him to play with me in the future. If I bring you along, he'll probably ignore me. So you should just go and be someone else's retainer."
"Xu's second branch... Guanglu Temple Minister, your grandfather hasn't retired yet? He's quite old."
He was quite disgusted.
Except for the oldest one in the family, there is no one else who holds a high position.
The fifth prince whispered, "Since you sneaked out today, it would be better to go back as soon as possible."
The Sixth Prince clapped his hands, "That's enough, I've let out my anger now, so I don't have to worry about you lying to me. Don't let me see you again, or I'll beat you up every time I see you."
Xu Cheng: "I remember! I remember..."
The Sixth Prince then took the Fifth Prince away.
It was a long time after they left that Xu Cheng walked out of the alley. Fortunately, there were no injuries on his face.
Apart from some not-so-obvious shoe prints and messy hair, she looked barely presentable.
Xu Cheng kept cursing in his heart.
Damn Seventh Prince, Damn Sixth Prince.
The most hateful one is the Seventh Prince. He is just a fool and has no idea how to build up his own power. He was instigated by his uncle's family to stay away from them.
My uncle is in the frontier, so it must have been my aunt who instigated it. And that old lady surnamed Wu doesn't want to accept a stepson, so why doesn't she die earlier!
Vicious curses kept coming out of his heart, but he looked calm on the surface.
No matter what, he is still the son of the Xu family and has many friends outside, so he should be elegant and graceful.
When passing by Ruyi Tower, he met a few friends.
Xu Cheng originally wanted to pretend that he didn't see it and quickened his pace to go home to change clothes, but his friends surrounded him and dragged him into the private room on the second floor.
"What are you doing!"
Xu Cheng straightened his clothes and frowned, "I said I won't drink today. I have something else to do when I get home."
Zhao Pincai and the others were not angry, and pulled his clothes: "Brother, does your grandfather know some of the questions for the military examination?"
Xu Cheng: "What's the question for the written test?"
Zhao Pincai: "Oh! Stop pretending. Who doesn't know that your grandfather and the Minister of Rites had a very good relationship? They often drank wine and tea together!"
"Besides, you always said that you have a good relationship with the Third Prince."
"We all know that the Minister of Rites will not leak the exam questions, but from daily chats, your grandfather must know what style of essays he likes recently. We are all brothers, so if you tell us, even if we don't take the exam, we can still sell the information for a good price, right?"
Looking at their expectant eyes, Xu Cheng was completely stunned.
It seemed that after he was blocked in the alley and beaten up, the outside world had completely changed into something he could not recognize.
His grandfather was on good terms with the Minister of Rites? They often drank and chatted together? How could he not know!
What position is the Minister of Rites? He is a senior official of the second rank. When did he become friends with his grandfather?
And him, he boasted that he was on good terms with every prince, but in fact he was only good friends with the Sixth Prince, and now they are broken up too.
Xu Cheng: "Wait wait wait, what are you talking about is nonsense. I don't understand."
Zhao Pincai: "Oh, you're still pretending to be stupid. Look at this."
He took out a piece of paper and wrote a few words on it: [I overheard two old men chatting, so I wrote it down]
Xu Cheng took a quick glance.
There is not much content on this piece of paper, but every sentence is essential.
The general meaning is that someone accidentally heard two old men talking about something interesting and wrote it down with a pen.
For example, this sentence: [How busy are you lately?]
Answer: [The examination paper for the military candidates is difficult to prepare. It must be both difficult and moderate. The civil examination and the military examination are different. It is difficult.]
Then asked: [Brother, are you busy recently?]
The answer was: [I have prepared food. After the new milk tea came out, there was a lot of food left over from the food sent by the ministers. I am urging my subordinates to come up with something new.]
After careful study, the two people who were talking were clearly the Minister of Rites and the Minister of Imperial Households.
The first few sentences identify the identity, and the last few sentences are the most important.
[When you make questions, do you make them based on the books you have read recently?]
[Sometimes.]
[Oh? I wonder what books you are reading recently?]
Here, it stops abruptly.
Xu Cheng shook the paper: "What's next?!"
And why are you still trying to pull it down? The meals that the Guanglu Temple gave to the ministers were actually very qualified. Why do they have to compare them with milk tea?
Zhao Pincai: "We want to know too. Aren't we here to ask you? What's next?"
Xu Cheng: “…”
He asked, “No, where did you get it?”
Zhao Pincai pulled him to the window and said, "Look for yourself. They are sold in front of all the major bookstores on the street."
Xu Cheng looked in the direction of his finger and saw two children standing outside the small study opposite Ruyi Building, handing out the paper in his hand to everyone who passed by.
Next to it is a milk tea shop.
A long banner was hung up to keep up with the trend, with the following message: [Milky tea that tastes better than the meals of the palace ladies, new arrival, hurry up and grab it!]
Xu Cheng: “…”
He didn't know who was behind this incident, but the owner of the milk tea shop was indeed a business genius who dared to take advantage of any hot topic.
He put the paper into his sleeve, tried to avoid the group of brothers, and rushed back home.
This piece of paper has been circulated everywhere in the streets and alleys. If it gets out of hand, there will be no good news.
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