Infrastructure masters in the red building

This time, instead of the third prince taking the lead, the prince jumped up and said loudly: "This is impossible——"

"Come on, go to the East Palace quickly, and fetch the test questions sent by the Ministry of Rites—"

"Come here, go to the Ministry of Rites, read all the answer sheets of Jia Zheng's examination that day, and present them to the lobby of Shuntian Mansion—"

"Come here, go to General Shenwu's mansion with Gu's order, search Feng Yuan's residence, and make sure to find the box containing the test questions hidden by Feng Yuan..."

The third prince found that the second brother had already said all the orders he wanted to issue in one breath, and finally held his breath, with resentment in his eyes, and sat in his seat in silence.

Yin Linyan of Shuntian Mansion breathed a sigh of relief - it will be a matter of time, he will show his true colors in front of everyone that he is a show, but since the East Palace and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are at odds, his pressure will be much less immediately .

Following the order from the servants of the Shuntian Mansion, His Royal Highness' orders were immediately carried out.Taking advantage of the time when his subordinates were away on business, Yin Linyan of Shuntian Mansion carefully unwrapped the roll of paper sealed with wax paint.

"Everyone, please be a witness!" Lin Yan said, "Before I remove the wax, no one can read this roll of paper."

Then he took apart the wax paint, stretched the paper inside into a roll, flipped through the text on it, and asked: "I don't know the subject of the exam. Is there anyone here who has participated in the exam?" ?”

Right now, there are quite a lot of people in the hall of Shuntian Mansion who are taking the examination of this subject—both Jia Zheng and Feng Yuan.But these two are obviously inconvenient to help identify the exam questions.So Shui Xian coughed from the side, and said: "The three scholars who are in the first grade of the current department have been hearing the trial in this hall!"

Lin Yan suddenly felt that the lobby of his Shuntian Mansion was full of splendor, and all three of them came. Does this prove that the feng shui of his Shuntian Mansion has begun to improve?

Shuntian Fu Yin hurriedly invited the No. [-] champions to the hall, gave them seats respectively, and asked them to identify whether the papers that were removed from the wax were written on the papers that were written in the current subject examination.

After reading it, all three nodded: "It is indeed the test question of this subject."

Now there is a clear conclusion: the late Minister of Rites, Gao Shida, did get the test questions for this subject, and went to give them to Feng Yuan and Jia Zheng respectively.However, unlike Feng Yuan, Jia Zheng still resisted the temptation to know the test questions in advance. Although he got the box, he didn't open the test questions inside.

Soon, Jia Zheng's test paper was retrieved from the Ministry of Rites. After taking over, Lin Yan read it from beginning to end, and said, "It is true that I did not answer well in the first test, and even failed to answer two questions, so I handed in the paper directly."

When Jia Zheng heard this, his face immediately became bitter.

"The second test and the third test have improved—maybe this is the reason why you got to the [-]rd place in the test?" Lin Yan followed up with comforting words.

At this moment, the champions and runners-up looked at each other, got up together, saluted Shuntian Mansion Yin, and Meng Youde said: "My lord, the questions of this test are indeed relatively uncommon in the first test. But although the questions of the first test are cold , but it’s not too difficult. If you know the topic in advance, you won’t be unable to do it.”

This means that the three contemporaries of Jia Zheng all tend to believe that Jia Zheng really did not see the subject that was leaked in advance.

Hearing Meng Youde's tone, he even had some admiration for Jia Zheng - after all, not everyone can do it, even if the test questions are presented to him, he can resist looking at them.

Immediately afterwards, the people from the Eastern Palace came, and the box containing the test questions that had been sent to the prince for presentation earlier was also delivered.

Lin Yan compared the two boxes on the table, there was no difference between the box sent from Wanqing Tower and the box sent from the East Palace.Then I opened it again, and saw that the box sent from the Eastern Palace also contained a roll of paper paper sealed with wax. The method of sealing the wax was exactly the same, and the sealing was also stamped with the same six characters, "Respectfully, to the Eastern Palace." Browse in person".

However, the test paper submitted to Dong Gong for personal reading was sealed well and was not opened, which proves——

The third prince glanced sideways at his elder brother, but the prince laughed out loud "hehe", and said, "Gu this is also... also has the foresight..."

Foresight?This is because the crown prince doesn't even bother to look at it—everyone in the lobby of Shuntian Mansion heheed twice in their hearts.

But this at least proved that the test papers were not leaked from the East Palace.

Lin Yan compared the test questions kept by the East Palace with the one sent by Wan Qinglou just now, and concluded: "It's completely consistent." It can be seen that they are all real questions of this subject.The copy sent by the Ministry of Rites to the East Palace still remains in the East Palace.Somehow, Gao Shida also got a copy, which was exactly the same as sending to the East Palace, but it was given to Jia Zheng.

Not long after, the Yamen servant of Shuntian Mansion who went to General Shenwu's mansion to search Feng Yuan's residence also came back, and brought back a box containing unsealed test questions.

Yin Linyan of Shuntian Mansion brought the casket and compared it as usual, and it was exactly the same as the previous two, which proved that it was also produced by the Ministry of Rites.Lin Yan reached out and took out the test questions in the box, flipped through them roughly, and saw that the test questions were the same, so he randomly rolled up the paper and wanted to say something.

Unexpectedly, before Lin Yan could speak, he took a deep breath and said in shock, "This..."

I saw him roll up the paper in his hand, and put together the residual wax paint on the paper.Part of the wax paint is missing, so the stamp on the wax paint is not complete, but it can still be seen clearly with the light, and there are only three characters "Cheng Yuqian" on it.

Obviously, this box was sent to the Li Palace on the outskirts of Beijing and presented to His Majesty the Emperor.

This... the face of Shuntian Fuyin immediately hung like a bitter gourd. He looked at the third prince beside him, and then turned to look at the prince sitting behind him. The wishes of the two of you, even if you don't want to touch the imperial court, it will not work.

"Your Highness, I can no longer be the master of this matter. I have to report it to the emperor." Lin Yan got up and bowed to the prince and the third prince, thinking that the person who secretly planned this matter is really a chicken thief. Even His Majesty the Emperor was dragged into the water.In order to give an explanation to the scholars of the world, His Majesty the Emperor had to order a thorough investigation, and it was unknown how many people would be involved in this way.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, the outside of Shuntian Mansion became lively, as if there were noises from the common people.Not long after, a servant from the Shuntian Mansion came in to report: "The crown prince Tai Fu Xia has arrived. The officials of the Ministry of Rites have arrived."

Hearing Xia Sheng's arrival, the crown prince and the third prince all stood up, followed by the three of the No. [-] picks—Xia Shengshen is the teacher of the prince and the third prince, and also the teacher of Lin Ruhai and others. Dare not neglect him.

However, Xia Sheng was walking in slowly, with his body hunched over under the support of a young man.

When the prince saw Xia Shengshen, he was taken aback and called out, "Teacher!"

Earlier in the garden of Rongguo Mansion, Xia Shengshen's hair was still gray, but in this mere hour, Xia Shengshen's hair was covered with snow, and he helped the young man beside him to walk tremblingly, as if he had aged ten years all of a sudden.

The third prince also rushed forward quickly, and asked loudly to the young man who was supporting Xia Shengshen: "Jia Zifang, tell me, what happened?"

The young man who supported Xia Shengshen was Jia Fang. Facing the fierce question from the third prince, he really wanted to go back: You all just rushed to this Shuntian Mansion together, and no one cared about the old lady who stayed in the garden inside.

But he couldn't get the words out of his mouth.

At this time, Xia Sheng was followed by a large group of officials from the Ministry of Rites, many of whom Jia had seen in the "marking team" that day.These officials followed Xia Xingshen to the gate of Shuntian Mansion. At this moment, they all knelt down and called "Master Xia" repeatedly, some of them were crying—

Afterwards, the prince was shocked to see Xia Shengshen raised his robe, knelt down in the hall of Shuntian Mansion, and said, "His Royal Highness, the old minister is here to plead guilty."

"The leak of the test questions was caused by the Ministry of Rites. The veteran is willing to take full responsibility!"

Jia Fang did not follow Shui Xian, Lin Ruhai, Jia Daishan and Jia Zheng out of the garden to Shuntian Mansion, but stayed in the garden to take care of Xia Shengshen.

Hearing Jia Fang's order, Shuangwen hurriedly took out the ebony soup that had been boiled in the morning and soaked in the well water, sent it to the red incense garden, washed the clean towels with sweet well water, Give it to Jia Fang.

Jia Fang had already helped Xia Shengshen to sit in the small open room of Hongxiang Garden, carefully cleaned the old man's face and hands with a cold towel, and then tried to feed him a little ebony soup to relieve the heat.

Who would have thought that Xia Xingshen just sat in the open room, staring straight at the Ru Kiln porcelain cup filled with ebony soup in Jia Fang's hand, seeing little bits of water oozing from the wall of the porcelain cup? Zhu, the old man is still motionless.

Jia Fang watched his hair slowly turn white.

To be honest, when Jia Fang saw Xia Shengshen for the first time in his life, his impression of this person was really a mess, but after the experience of going to the Ministry of Rites to review papers, Jia Fang's view of Xia Shengshen changed a little bit—this person He is rigid and old-fashioned, but he has a sense of responsibility. He really regards the words of sages and sages as the way of life and the foundation of governing the country, and he spares no effort to practice them.

People who cared about the fraud in the examination room had already left completely, but no one thought that the boss was still in the garden of Jia's mansion.

Jia Fang rushed to send someone to invite a doctor, but it happened that Jia Daishan, Jia She, and Jia Zheng were not in the mansion at the same time, and Mrs. Shi happened to go to visit the Wang family.In the end, I found Jia Min. Jia Min ran to find Mrs. Shi's film, and invited the doctor that Rongfu usually invites over.

The doctor looked at Xia Xingshen's condition, and only said that he was "exasperated and overwhelmed", and asked Jia Fang to "persuade him with kind words" to let him slow down, otherwise there might be problems.

But if Jia Fang wanted to persuade him, he really didn't know how to persuade him.

Regarding the matter of the examination, the third prince has been focusing his attention on the Rongfu, wanting to prove that Jia Zheng’s performance in the examination is incalculable. It seems to be aimed at the Rongfu. It is also true for the prince.

But everyone forgot that the responsibility of the Ministry of Rites in this matter was not small at all, and Xia Xingshen was the first one who couldn't escape after liquidating Xia Shengshen.

In terms of theory, Xia Shengping supported the third prince. At the same time, his identity was the crown prince's tutor, and he was a towering tree standing behind the prince. His weight was very important.

After the imperial examination, Xia Shengshen clearly opposed the trend revealed by His Majesty in the palace examination questions. He also declared in front of many people that after this imperial examination, he would never "let go" of the emperor's instigation. If the debate continues like this, he will definitely come forward to stop it. With his reputation among scholars, he will raise his arms...

But once the fraud case in the examination room came out, Mr. Xia Shengshen, there was no such possibility anymore.

He has already stepped out of this officialdom with most of his legs, towards the grave.

The powerful alliance of the three princes in Shilin, as well as such a towering tree behind the prince have all fallen down, but those two are still playing in Shuntian Mansion, so you punch first, I will shake it It's a game of one more kick.

Jia Fang looked at Xia Sheng's graying head little by little, but he still couldn't bear it, so he leaned forward and asked in a low voice, "Master Xia, can I ask someone to send you back home to recuperate?"

Unexpectedly, Xia Xingshen had "woke up" from his contemplation at this time, turned his head quickly, and stared at Jia Fang closely.After a while he murmured: "It really looks like the emperor when he was young—"

Jia Fang: This...

"The emperor saw you, and suddenly remembered the happy days in the past?" Xia Xingshen suddenly smiled, but Jia Fang felt that his smile was a bit sinister.

"At that time, the days were so happy. Why didn't he want to die of old age in this garden, and spend happy days with Miss Xiang forever?" Xia Xingshen suddenly raised his voice, which shocked Jia Fang, "Since he walked out of this garden , you should take care of the world!"

After scaring Jia Fang to death, Xia Shengshen suddenly cried: "As soon as this person gets old, when he thinks of the good old days, he feels that there will be no better things in the world."

"I can also understand the emperor's thoughts. The child born to the woman he loves grows up in the blink of an eye. He is smart and handsome. All he remembers in his heart is the other party's kindness, so he must do something for the other party no matter what. What."

The back of Jia Fang's head was dripping with sweat: Why do everyone think that the emperor did all this because of the blood of the past, why don't everyone think that the emperor can pursue a little pursuit, a little progress and science?

"Your majesty, it's like an old house is on fire, and there's no cure at all..."

Xia Xingshen seemed to be broken, and he didn't care that Jia Fang was right in front of him, so he said such outrageous words.He looked very sad when he said it, as if he knew that he would not have a good result.But now, not only will Xia Shengshen not have a good result, but he will not be able to use any of the "last tricks" he planned earlier.

Jia Fang continued to persuade: "How about you go back home earlier to recuperate?"

Unexpectedly, Xia Shengshen suddenly stretched out his hand and held Jia Fang's wrist tightly - Jia Fang was depressed: Is his wrist an Achilles' heel, everyone likes to pinch it?

"I only have one thing to warn you, this man Xiang Fengyi is as loyal as a traitor, and his theory must never be used."

"Xiang Fengyi doesn't have the word 'lord' in his heart. He only has 'country' in his heart. He doesn't know that 'the king is in the world'. He only knows that the country's affairs are the most important, the people are more important, the community is second, and the king is the least!"

Jia Fang was speechless after hearing this, but he suddenly felt that what Xia Shengshen said might indeed be true——Xiang Fengyi dared to directly support another new monarch when the whereabouts of the monarch was unknown, so as to stabilize the court. This boldness is unprecedented, but it does mean that in Xiang Fengyi's mind, the monarch is not a god bestowed by heaven on earth, but a person who serves the country, not a ruler but a manager, and he should wear clothes and eat food , after death.

So Xiang Fengyi died-in order to prove the rationality of his restoration, the emperor's father had to die to Xiang Fengyi.

But now His Majesty the Emperor has turned his head around and wants to re-promote Xiang Fengyi's ideas and theories.It's as funny as it is contradictory.

Xia Shengshen has seen through this point, he knows that the emperor is doing contradictory things, so he wants to advise, dissuade, and do his best to prevent this from happening.

It's just that his overall plan was disrupted by an inexplicable fraud case in the examination room.At this moment, Xia Shengshen's students are using this case to accuse each other, and trying to find ways to attack each other secretly.

But who is behind this criminal case?

Jia felt relieved: Could it be that the one on the dragon chair really made a secret move to drive Xia Shengshen away from the position of Prince and Taifu, or even send him out of the capital before the attack?

It seemed that Xia Shengshen thought so, but he still didn't think so.An emperor with power in his hands, facing an old man who can only move his mouth... There is no need to be like this.

But at this moment, no one really thought that this old man was so desperate and sad, staying in the garden left by his old enemy, facing the grandson of his old enemy alone, it was hopeless and futile to persuade. "Although Xiang Fengyi has a close relationship with you, I still hope that you have the ability to distinguish right from wrong."

"In the future, you will take on a great responsibility. Don't let the emperor go astray, and don't let this country go astray."

"Send me to Shuntian Mansion!" Finally, Xia Shengshen grabbed Jia Fang's wrist and stood up reluctantly.

"Please send a letter to all the officials in the Ministry of Rites, telling them to go to Shuntian Mansion—"

"I should bear the consequences of this matter alone, but they have to show up and show an attitude..."

So, everyone in Shuntian Mansion saw Xia Sheng facing the Prince Jianguo, bowing down in the hall of Shuntian Mansion to plead guilty, with snow-white hair on his head, almost unrecognizable.