This is a conspiracy

Author: Potato Sweet Potato Pie

This is a conspiracy

As night fell, when the lights were turned on, a carriage drove towards the dimly lit Xia Mansion. When the carriage arrived in front of the manor, it stopped, and Xia Yuan opened the curtain and jumped out of the car.

The gatekeeper of the mansion saw someone entering indiscriminately. Just as he was about to stop him, he used the light to see clearly who the person was, and he blurted out in surprise: "The master has returned to the mansion!"

"Go, quickly tell the cook to cook me some more dishes, I want to eat!"

The Xia family has now become a wealthy family, and the number of servants in the mansion has already exceeded the double-digit mark. Seeing the return of the master Xia Yuan, everyone has a smile on their face.

However, the smiles of this group of people are basically professional. In his previous life, when Xia Yuan was a social animal, he was already quite familiar with this professional fake smile.

After eating a meal in a hurry and drinking a few big gulps of tea, Xia Yuan put down his chopsticks and leaned on the chair with a sigh of contentment. It felt so good and happy to have a full meal.

Zhao Yuerong, who was sitting next to him, was still stunned for a while, then picked up the teapot and helped to refill the tea, and asked: "Didn't your husband go to the Enrong Banquet?"

"What's the grace? The grand ceremony is gone."

Xia Yuan picked up the teacup and drank it all in one gulp. He was incomparable with those octogenarians who were already in the sunset. Their configurations were all different. Those people charged for five minutes and had two hours of battery life. They could last a whole day just by eating. They were busy today.

I guess no one felt hungry after such a long time.

And when I was growing taller, I ate more and got hungry faster. Good guy, I've been hungry for a whole day since I left home in the morning.

I originally planned to eat more while waiting for the Enrong Banquet, but the Chuanlu Ceremony was canceled and the Enrong Banquet was returned.

"Gone?"

"No, something happened, and they said the event has to be postponed. Forget it, let's not talk about it for now. I think it's not enough for you to give your husband another meal."

At this time, Zhu Youtang was also having a meal. Unlike the extravagant and lustful chiefs of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty did not have the tradition of having more than a hundred dishes in a meal.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor who came from a poor background, only had four dishes and one soup at the beginning. He even almost decided on the ancestral family law for this. Later generations could only eat four dishes and one soup for each meal, and they had to have whole grains.

But in the end, it was still a bit bad, because in the later period of Hongwu, as the country became more and more stable, Lao Zhu himself also declined. Later, his meals would consist of more than ten or twenty dishes, but the family law of coarse grains was finally settled.

As for the other emperors of the Ming Dynasty, Taizong Zhu Di was very frugal, with no more than seven or eight dishes per meal. However, after Renxuan, extravagance gradually began to spread.

A meal often consists of thirty or forty dishes, and in the current Zhu Youtang period, frugality has begun to be advocated again, and the ancestral family rules that Taizu almost set down have been picked up.

The emperor's meal consisted of four dishes and one soup.

Zhu Youtang ate his dinner in silence, still thinking about the preferential treatment in the imperial examination.

Although the matter was settled, he could not help but have some concerns. He was worried that once this edict was implemented, the scholars in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou would become angry and cause some trouble.

After all, this example had never been implemented before, which made him feel a little unsure.

Seeing Xiao Jing coming in from outside the palace, Zhu Youtang put down his chopsticks and said, "Can you send Xia Qing back?"

"Go back to your Majesty, I have already sent it back."

"."

Zhu Youtang pondered for a while and asked: "Xiao Banban, once this matter of preferential treatment in the imperial examination is implemented, do you think it will cause opposition from local scholars?"

Xiao Jing thought for a while and said honestly: "There will definitely be opposition, and there may be some obstacles, but I feel that this edict will be implemented smoothly."

"How can I see it?"

"Because I think this is a conspiracy."

After saying that, Xiao Jing raised his head and looked at Emperor Hongzhi's face. Seeing that his expression was calm, he continued: "The emperor has lived in the palace for a long time, so maybe he doesn't know much about it, but I know a little bit about it."

"Among the scholars in this world, I dare not say 80% to 90%, but at least 60% to 70% have no hope of being a scholar in this life."

"These people have been studying for a lifetime, but they can only be a child, not even a child."

"If the imperial court issues such an edict, those scholars in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou will quickly start a riot and divide into factions."

"One group will desperately resist the imperial edict." Zhu Youtang answered leisurely, "The other group is happily looking forward to the early realization of such things."

"There is no wiser person than the emperor. This is what I want to say." Xiao Jing complimented, and then continued: "The former is a person who can pass the exam, or a person who thinks he can pass the exam. The latter is naturally the one who will pass the exam in this life.

A man who has no hope of becoming a scholar."

"If this slave is the latter, I will definitely think that we can't pass the examination to be a scholar anyway, and we won't be able to enjoy such good things as tax exemption and food exemption. It would be nice to gain some fame."

"There are also those ordinary farmers and ordinary people. When they see that this scholar is so easy to pass the exam, they may let their children and grandchildren study for two years and come back as a scholar. This can be regarded as honoring the ancestors."

Zhu Youtang was a little puzzled and said: "Just the honor of being a student can be regarded as honoring the ancestors?"

"I don't dare to deceive the emperor, but it is true. Before I entered the palace, the son of a family in the village was pregnant and held a banquet in great glory. At that time, I was envious of him. I thought about myself

If I can become a scholar in the future, it will be worth my while."

"Then why did Xiao Banban not become a scholar and take the exam to become a scholar and honor his ancestors, but instead entered the palace?"

When mentioning this matter, Xiao Jing did not hide it, "At first, slave girl really thought so. Later, when I told my parents about this matter, they said that slave girl is not the material to study, and the family has no money for slave girl to study.

The slave thought nothing of it, and later there was another banquet in the village. This banquet was hosted by a father-in-law who came out of the palace in old age and adopted a son from his younger brother.

That banquet was more grand than the last banquet. It included chickens, ducks, and elbows. It lasted for three days. The slaves started to cry while eating. They thought it would be better to be eunuchs. We will also be eunuchs in the future.

I will go back and tell my parents about this, and this time my parents will agree."

Zhu Youtang couldn't help but smile, "It's unbelievable that my Xiao Banban had this past before he entered the palace, and I didn't even know about it."

After saying that, he paused and said, "But with your words, I feel a lot lighter. Once the edict is issued, even if there will be some trouble, it will not be a big deal and it will be carried out smoothly."

Go down."

"."

"At such a young age, he can come up with such a good plan for the country. I really don't know how to treat him."

"I want to select him as the number one scholar, but the ranking has not yet been released. The ranking can be changed, but the uniform of the number one scholar has been given to Na Kanghai."

Speaking of this, Emperor Hongzhi became a little embarrassed. His clothes were all hanging down. Could it be that he had to take them off?

In the Ming Dynasty, I also staged a Longmen poem to win the brocade robe?

ps: I have a little free time these two days. Many relatives have left, but there are still some who have not left. It is expected that they will not leave until the seventh day of the lunar month.

Three updates today and three updates tomorrow.

The fourth update will be resumed after the seventh day of the Lunar New Year.
Chapter completed!