Chapter 37 Loyalty and Disloyalty

Although noble concubines sometimes bring their children with them when entering the palace, the British duchess has always refused to enter the palace without her on the grounds that her daughter is still young.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, I went to the palace to pay New Year greetings, so I brought him with me. Unfortunately, Zhao Xing was with his father and didn't see him.

Speaking of which, this is the first time the two of them have met.

Zhang Guifen is more than one year older than Zhao Xing. If calculated in imaginary years, he would be ten years old this year.

But if we count it as one year old, it will take several months before he turns eight.

Wearing a light blue double-breasted jacket, with an upturned bun.

Although his face is childish, he is not as agile as his peers.

Zhao Xing didn't look too much, nodded slightly, looked at Empress Cao and said with a smile: "The queen mother said she was talking about her son just now, and she didn't know what she was talking about."

"Haha, Tell me about your childhood." Queen Cao smiled.

Zhao Xing was speechless. It seemed that in ancient times, elders liked to talk about embarrassing things about children when they were young. Fortunately, there were no embarrassing things when he was a child.

"Fu'er sat down and said, Miss Zhang, you should also sit down."

Empress Cao asked someone to add two soft stools to the side.

“Thank you, Queen Mother!”

"What are you doing over there, Your Majesty, that makes you feel bored and come here?" Queen Cao asked after the two of them sat down.

"My father asked the princes to compose poems and lyrics for entertainment, but my sons and ministers are not very knowledgeable and don't understand much, so they find it a bit boring." Zhao Xing said.

Concubine Zhu on the left heard the words and said angrily: "You know that your knowledge is still shallow, so you should stay there and study with an open mind."

Concubine Rong on the right did not speak. There was a hint of reluctance and envy deep in his eyes.

Before, she was the most favored by the officials, who visited her the most often on weekdays.

Except for Queen Cao, she is the most noble in the entire harem.

The official family has no children, and Concubine Rong also thought that she could be pregnant and give birth to a prince.

Although it is impossible for the officials to abolish Queen Cao and make her queen.

But Queen Cao is more than ten years older than her, so she will definitely not be able to survive her.

When Queen Cao dies in the future, she will be the most noble woman in the Song Dynasty.

It's a pity that the official family often watered her, and she failed to conceive a child. On the contrary, Concubine Zhu was not favored several times a year, but she became pregnant with a child and gave birth to a prince. The mother is more valuable than the son, and now her status exceeds she.

Not only do the officials go to her place less and less now, but even the seats are arranged so that Concubine Zhu is on the left and she is on the right.

But even if she is extremely unwilling, what can she do?

No one present paid attention to Concubine Rong's expression.

After hearing this, Empress Cao smiled and said: "Fu'er started studying at the age of three. He has never complained about the cold and heat. Even Hai Xueshi has praised him many times in front of the officials. Don't be too harsh on him. Harsh.”

"The eldest lady is right." Concubine Zhu did not refute when she heard the words, and nodded with a smile.

The lantern viewing continued until late at night, and Zhao Xing stayed here to talk to Queen Cao and his mother.

Zhang Guifen would only say a few words when asked about her, and the rest of the time she would be silent.

Zhao Xing has been paying attention to this future daughter-in-law, and saw a trace of heroism between her eyebrows, and she was very quiet.

After the show, Zhao Xing followed Empress Cao back to Renming Palace. On the way, Empress Cao smiled and said, "I saw you secretly sizing up the girl from the Zhang family just now. Are you satisfied with the future crown princess?"

"Mother, the person was chosen by the father, so she is naturally excellent."

Zhao Xing blushed when he heard this. He didn't expect that he was so careful and was discovered by Empress Cao.

"Fu'er, a girl from an honorable family has a slightly stronger temperament and is not as sweet and cute as those wealthy ladies from scholarly families. But you will soon be crowned a prince, and in the future you will be an official for all people in the world. , is also an example for the people in the world. Even if you don't like it, you can't ignore her because of it," Queen Cao warned.

Although many noble families no longer serve in the military, their ancestors were military generals, and their education of their children is still somewhat different from that of civilian families.

Not to mention a general like the British public.

The Cao family is also a member of the general family. After she got married to the Guan family, the relationship between the couple was not very good.

Men, who doesn’t like gentle and virtuous people.

But for a girl who comes from a noble family, there is definitely no problem with being virtuous, but gentleness is almost uninteresting compared to girls from civil servant families.

Because of her own background, Empress Cao had a good impression of Zhang Guifen, so she gave her a few words of advice.

"Don't worry, mother, I understand." Zhao Xing nodded.

Although ancient rules were feudal, many of them had their own reasons.

Not to mention that he liked Zhang Guifen when he was watching the drama in his previous life. Even if he didn't like it, he would not spoil his concubine and destroy his wife.

Empress Cao nodded happily and said, "It's getting late. You should go back and rest quickly. You will continue to go to class tomorrow."

"Mother, you are also early. Take some rest, I will take my leave." Zhao Xing saluted. ……

The next day, Zhao Xing started learning martial arts with Gu Yan again.

Gu Tingye did not come with Gu Yankai because he wanted to bring Sheng Changbai into the palace.

After practicing martial arts, Zhao Xing returned to Renming Palace, had breakfast, and took a chariot to Zishan Hall.

When Zhao Xing arrived, his companions had already arrived.

He also saw the unfamiliar face next to Gu Tingye.

No need to think about it, this person is Sheng Changbai.

Sheng Changbai is only in his early ten years, but his eyes are very calm, giving people a young and mature feeling.

If it weren’t for his childish appearance, I would have thought he was an adult at first glance.

"Greetings to Your Highness!"

Everyone who was chatting in the school quickly stood up and saluted when they saw Zhao Xing coming in.

"No courtesy." Zhao Xing waved his hand, came to the front and sat down.

Gu Tingye came over with Sheng Changbai and saluted: "Your Highness, this is Sheng Changbai."

"Caomin Sheng Changbai pays homage to Your Highness." Sheng Changbai saluted.

Zhao Xing waved his hand and said with a smile: "Zhong Huai recommended you to me and said that you are extremely talented, so I begged my father to call you into the palace to be my companion. You are still used to coming to Bianjing. ?”

“Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty, there is nothing wrong with me,” Sheng Changbai said.

"Well, the time is almost up, take a seat." Zhao Xing nodded.

Sheng Changbai has arrived, and there will be plenty of time in the future.

When they met for the first time, Zhao Xing couldn’t show too much importance.

Besides, Sheng Changbai is an upright man, so there is no need to go out of his way to win over him.

After a while, Hai Wenyou arrived at the school. After everyone saluted, the formal class began.

In the next period of time, Zhao Xing resumed his previous life, practicing martial arts every morning and then going to school. Learn the rules and etiquette on the day of rest.

During breaks in the middle of the school, Zhao Xing would also chat with Gu Tingye and Sheng Changbai about the past and present.

The most talked about are the pros and cons of the rules and regulations of various dynasties and generations. When talking about it, Zhao Xing would instill some ideas in them.

This was his intention in calling Sheng Changbai to come to Beijing as his companion.

Thoughts are not directly related to loyalty.

Although some people are loyal, they are very stubborn and have their own ideas and principles.

When they think something is right, even if they know the pros and cons, they will not back down.

What impressed Zhao Xing most deeply was an imperial examination fraud case in the early Ming Dynasty.

At that time, because all the students admitted were students from the south, the students from the north suspected that there was fraud. The crowd was so angry that they blocked the entrance to the palace and demanded an explanation.

Zhu Yuanzhang was furious when he heard this and ordered a thorough investigation at this time.

The results obtained made Zhu Yuanzhang stunned. There were no problems in the imperial examination this time.

As the saying goes, there is no best article. Some people think that the same article is well written and give it a high evaluation.

Some people may think that the article is too gorgeous, but they say nothing and give it a low score.

Disputes may arise, including the examiner’s preference.

It can be said that if we are really serious, even if there are no problems, we can still find some problems.

But he sent a bunch of people to investigate, and no problem was found.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very pleased with the justice of these people, but he knew that such a result would definitely not be accepted by northern students, and it would not be conducive to the stability of the north, let alone the stability of the court.

So I thought about asking the examiner to re-mark the papers, admit some northern students, and then find some scapegoats to give the northern students an explanation.

However, those who were in charge of the imperial examination at that time would rather die, saying that doing so would be unfair to the students in the south.

Can you say these people are disloyal?

The officials who were selected by Zhu Yuanzhang to be in charge of the imperial examinations were certainly not stupid. Can't they see the harm of only admitting students from the south?

But their thoughts and personalities make them stubbornly stick to their principles and are unwilling to make changes.

Zhao Xing not only needs loyal people, but also people who think the same as him.

The best time to instill ideas into people is before their ideas are fully formed. Once their ideas are formed, it is difficult to influence them.

Thanks to 1211…9792, Ziyan A, and Fighting for their monthly ticket support.

(End of this chapter)