Chang'an. In the East Palace, several gentlemen were discussing matters. "Lang Shiren was executed."
Originally, the prince had six gentlemen, but now there are only five in the room.
Fang Jian, who was so hot that he could run away with a gust of wind, coughed dryly, "I went to ask, and Han Ze said that Lang Shiren bewitched His Highness, which made His Majesty so angry that he had him executed. What do you think of this?"
The fat and amiable Han Zheng said: "To be honest, Lang Shiren's inducement was a bit excessive. He often hinted that His Majesty killed too much, and often asked the prince to write sensitive articles. Where do you want to lead the prince?"
Fang Jian was a little sad, "We are also responsible for this."
"In your Majesty's eyes, we are all standing by and watching." Han Zheng said coldly: "I wanted to take action at that time, but you said you should mind your own business. Fortunately, now that Lang Shiren has been killed, your Majesty may have some opinions on you and me.
Mr. Prince, I think it won’t be long before I’m kicked out.”
The crown prince and tutor are currently vacant. According to outside speculation, there is a high probability that they will be Liu Qing and others. But as the true gentlemen of the prince, the future of these few can be said to have been locked.
The system of the Tang Dynasty was very open, and the East Palace also had its own set of people. After this set of people became mature, when the prince ascended the throne, they would be his arms and the important ministers in the future court.
After the emperor defeated Shi Zhongtang, how many people wanted to be A Liang's husband? Countless!
Everyone hoped to realize their ambitions or achieve rapid success through the title of Mr. Prince. The emperor was selective and finally selected six people.
Lang Shiren left the army without success,
Logically speaking, there are more monks and less rice. The fewer people there are, the greater the benefits of profit sharing. But Han Zheng and the five people were a little embarrassed.
"Speaking of..." A gentleman whispered: "Judging from Lang Shiren's incident, His Majesty has been paying attention to the Crown Prince and us. Ask yourself, we are also responsible for this matter, but why did Your Majesty not touch us?
"
Another gentleman stroked his beard and smiled: "We are all well-educated people, and His Majesty is reluctant to leave us and is also afraid of us. If we are expelled, how will the world's literati view you and the prince?"
"yes!"
Probably feeling that they had landed safely, the gentlemen all laughed happily. But Fang Jian had a cold face. "Mr. Fang, this is..."
Fang Jian slowly looked at everyone, "You think His Majesty will be jealous of us and won't leave us. Don't forget, when you were in Northern Xinjiang, in order to promote your knowledge, Your Majesty drove all those gentlemen back home.
That's Northern Xinjiang, a desert of knowledge. How precious is this gentleman? And this is Chang'an, where a brick can hit a scholar. Will Your Majesty be reluctant to leave us? You're overthinking it!"
"Tsk! Then what do you think His Majesty means?" someone asked.
"At the beginning, the content we taught the prince was complicated, but His Majesty kept asking people to reduce the content we taught, and the time became less and less. Think about it carefully, does the Prince spend more time with us or with His Majesty?
How many hours are there?" Fang Jian asked.
A teacher covered his forehead and said, "The prince spends most of the day with His Majesty, and I still complain, saying that he doesn't pay attention to a lot of homework. This is..." Think about it again, what have we taught the prince now?" Fang said.
Jian sneered.
Han Zheng looked grim, "What we teach are just the most basic things."
"You still don't understand?" Fang Jian patted the table, his skinny face turning red, "What we teach the prince are ordinary and extremely ordinary things. The teachers in the school are more than capable of teaching these things, why should we be used?"
"
These people are all famous and well-educated people in our time. It is really humiliating to compare them with the teachers in the school.
Han Zheng sighed: "I see... Our professor, the prince, is just a name, and the so-called sir is just an excuse for Your Majesty to deal with the outside world. The prince's real teacher is your Majesty!"
A Liang is looking at the battlefield after the war.
Countless rebel prisoners knelt on the ground obediently, waiting for the officers and soldiers to come over and kick them, then stood up and followed them in line. A Liang went up and asked a prisoner
, "Why did you follow in the rebellion?"
The prisoner didn't recognize him, but when he saw the several horned dragon guards beside A Liang, who were powerful and looking at him with unkind eyes, he couldn't help but shudder and knelt down. "Get up and talk." A Liang was influenced by his father and didn't like this.
Later, Jiang Cunzhong said: "The prince has learned well from His Majesty. Look, how tolerant he is."
"Your Majesty doesn't like people to kneel down and worship you, but don't forget, whenever those nobles kneel down to worship, your Majesty always has to slow down and let them kneel for a while." Pei Jian felt that the emperor looked down on those nobles from the bottom of his heart.
The prisoner stood up, hunched over and said, "I don't know why, I just know that I will do whatever my master tells me to do." "Then, your master asked you to die?" the prince asked.
There was a look of despair on the prisoner's face, "The villain... has to die." "Is that so?" A Liang nodded, the prisoner saluted, and quickly followed the team. "This is the man." came from behind.
The emperor's voice.
"Aye, why do some people live numbly while others live ambitiously?"
"Most numb people live at the bottom of this world. Their ancestors have lived in the same way for generations, and they feel that they will also live in this way. Everything is for the so-called master. When a person can see it from birth
When his future is gloomy and he cannot fight back, he can only become numb. Otherwise, there will be endless pain waiting for him."
"Oh! Then...those ambitious people are also motivated by desire. They have seen their future since they were born, but their future is all about wealth! Why don't those numb people have desires?"
"Insensitive people also have desires, but their desires can never be realized, so they are numb. But those who are ambitious have many resources. The more people have, the greater their ambitions will be. Do you understand?"
"I understand." A Liang said: "One side has too low desires, and the other side has too high desires. Aye, how to solve this problem?" The emperor said, "Balance."
"balance?"
"Suppress those who hold too many resources, and distribute some of the resources in their hands to the numb people at the bottom, so that they can see hope and develop desire."
"Oh!" Ah Liang looked a little enlightened, but he didn't fully understand.
"Desire is not always a bad thing. Desire can drive the world forward." The emperor said: "As a father, I can continue to teach you, but many things require more than just teaching, but more understanding. What you learn on paper will eventually become shallow.
I know that I must do this with due diligence."
The prince saluted, "Yes, my child understands."
The emperor touched his head and said, "My son must understand something." The prince stood with his hands tied.
The emperor paced slowly with his hands behind his hands, "All problems in this world come from desire. Desire can drive people forward, but too much desire can lead to huge disasters. So how to control desire and how to regulate the balance of various groups
Desire, this is what an emperor wants to do."
Jiang Cunzhong covered his forehead, "I was confused."
"This is the art of the emperor." Pei Jian understood. "Your Majesty, the Tang Dynasty without desires is a pool of stagnant water. The Tang Dynasty with too many desires will be a disaster."
The emperor patted A Liang on the shoulder and said, "Go, son, go and look around." A Liang nodded and took more than ten guards to find the prisoners and question them.
"Your Majesty, do you want to teach the prince to understand the human heart?" Han Ji came behind the emperor at some point.
"Understanding the human heart is the most difficult thing to learn in this world. An emperor must learn this lesson to perfection. I don't want A Liang to be exposed to this at a young age, but this is fate."
The emperor turned around and said, "I told him about the dangers of too many desires, and I am sitting in the place with the most desires in the world. Old Han, the throne of the emperor is not easy to sit on, it is like walking on thin ice!"
The battle in Guanzhong started quickly and ended quickly.
Except for a few people in Chang'an, no one knew where the emperor and the prince had gone. The emperor took the prince around in Guanzhong.
They wandered around the city, chatted with women in the market, and listened to the old people telling their stories; they were in the countryside
Wandering around for a while, they fled in panic after being chased by a pack of dogs. After entering the village, they went to see the hog pens, the cattle pens, followed them to herd cattle, followed them to farm, and listened to the old people talking about the things of those years...
····
"...Those days! It was really hard for people to live. During the lean years, those in the family who should go out to farm would drink a bowl of thin soup, and those who didn't go out would lie in bed and try not to move..."
This is a small village in Guanzhong. Under the big tree at the head of the village, a few old people are performing ancient rituals, while the emperor and the prince are squatting beside them to listen.
The prince was fascinated by what he heard and asked, "Why don't you move?"
The ancient old man had deep wrinkles on his face and said with a smile: "If this person doesn't move, he will get hungry slowly. If he moves, he will get hungry faster." "Is it so painful?" There was a look of pity in the prince's eyes.
"That's not a complaint." The old man looked at the father and son. The father looked like a villager.
The villagers' squatting method is very particular. The buttocks must be almost touching the calves...and it requires years of squatting to do this, otherwise your knees will not be able to bear it and you will not be able to squat down.
The emperor squatted very naturally, his buttocks were close to his calves, and he looked quite comfortable. It seemed like he could squat to the end of the world.
The old man picked up the earthen bowl with a hole on the ground, took a sip of crude tea, smashed it in his mouth, and chewed the tea leaves in his mouth, "Back then! There was nothing to eat, and everyone's eyes turned green from hunger. What were they looking at?
I picked up all the green ones and ate them. After eating them, I was still hungry, so I peeled off the bark of the tree and cooked it. But the bark was also peeled off..."
"What should we do?" The prince seemed to have seen the tragic scene, "What should we eat?" "Eat dirt!"
Later, the emperor and the prince found a place and ordered the guards to dig up the top layer of soil. There was white clay underneath. A Liang asked, "Aye, what is this?"
The emperor dug up a piece of white clay and held it in his hand. He said to the prince, "This is soil!"
The prince looked solemn, "Can you eat it?" "No!"
"Then they still eat it."
"If you don't starve to death, what you eat can at least comfort your stomach. But, you will die of abdominal distension." The prince raised his head, with a look of shock in his eyes, "Aye, all of this..." "A Liang, try it.
.”
The emperor broke some clay and gave it to his son, and he also got some, more than the prince's. The taste was very strange.
But at least it is more delicate than ordinary soil and will not scratch your throat. Ah Liang burst into tears after eating it.
It's not that I feel uncomfortable physically, but that I feel uncomfortable in my heart.
"My father asked you to eat dirt, just to tell you that when meat-eaters make decisions in temples, they should think less about themselves and more about the people. I just want to tell you what the purpose of governing is..."
·
"Let the people eat meat!" "Yes. What else?"
"Let those ambitious people eat dirt!" "My son is smart! Hahahaha!"