Chapter 331 The so-called clear stream
Han Zhang left the hall and came to Hu Zhongyan and said, "Hu Shangshu, get up first. I have something to say to you."
"If the Grand Prime Minister wants to be a lobbyist, then he shouldn't open his mouth." Hu Zhongyan shook his head and said sarcastically: "Now the court is full of random thoughts. Your Majesty does not listen to the court officials. Even the petitioners are arrested at will. , but the Grand Prime Minister did not advise His Majesty. Does such behavior deserve the trust of the Supreme Emperor? ”
Han Zhang frowned slightly when he heard this and said: "I don't trust the Supreme Emperor, so I won't bother Hu Shangshu. I don't mean to persuade you, but His Majesty has a few words for me to convey to you. If you are willing to listen, just follow I’m here. If you don’t want to listen, forget it.”
After Han Zhang finished speaking, he turned around and left regardless of what Hu Zhongyan thought.
Hu Zhongyan hesitated for a while, then saw that Han Zhang had gone far away, so he quickly got up and chased after him.
"Master!"
Hu Zhongyan caught up with Han Zhang and said, "Just say what you have to say."
Han Zhang repeated what Zhao Xing had said before and said: "Based on my understanding of His Majesty, His Majesty has now reached the limit of his patience. Since Your Majesty has said that he will not follow the drama, Hu Shangshu should just accept it as soon as possible."
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"Just give it up when you see fit?" Hu Zhongyan said with a straight face: "The Grand Prime Minister said this, as if he was saying that I have selfish motives? What I did was all for the Song Dynasty. Is it possible that Your Majesty can kill me?"
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When Han Zhang heard this, the corners of his mouth raised slightly, and he said sarcastically: "Hu Shangshu, I can guess what you did. Although I have no evidence, do you think His Majesty has it? Emperor Taizu said that you are not allowed to kill anyone. If you do this, Your Majesty will not be able to kill you. But if His Majesty has the evidence of your illegality, you won’t have to worry about it anymore.”
After saying that, no matter what Hu Zhongyan thought, Han Zhang left directly.
Hu Zhongyan's face looked uncertain.
At this time, some of the officials kneeling outside Longtu Pavilion, like Han Zhang, just felt that Zhao Xing went too far by arresting those scholars and taking away their honors.
Others, like Hu Zhongyan, want to force Zhao Xing to compromise.
Their confidence in doing so, indeed, as Han Zhang said, relied on Emperor Taizu's saying that he would not kill officials who spoke out.
Although Zhao Xing denied that Emperor Taizu had said not to kill scholar-bureaucrats, he could not deny this.
Because the former was misinterpreted by officials, but the latter was indeed said by Emperor Taizu.
They were 'talking' by doing this. No matter how much trouble they made, Zhao Xing could not kill them unless he wanted to violate the words of his ancestors.
But everything has exceptions. Zhao Xing could not do anything to them because they forced the palace, but he could use other excuses to deal with them.
"Impossible. If the officials had evidence, they would have taken action against me long ago." Hu Zhongyan murmured to himself.
He indeed arranged for Peng Qingzhong to be killed, and he also knew that Zhao Xing could guess it.
But he did it very cleanly, and Zhao Xing couldn't find any evidence at all.
As for what he had done before, if Zhao Xing had evidence, why didn't he attack him?
Although Hu Zhongyan comforted himself in this way, there was always a trace of uneasiness lingering in his heart.
When Hu Zhongyan returned outside Longtuge, he found that most of the kneeling officials had dispersed, leaving only about thirty people.
And all the officials who had good relations with him left.
Most of the more than thirty people left now are imperial censors and officials of the Remonstrance Court.
This group of people is also the "clean stream" in the court.
These people neither form cliques nor take bribes. They only follow their own moral standards.
"Colleagues, where are the others?" Hu Zhongyan asked.
A censor said: "Hu Shangshu, just now..."
The official told what happened.
Zhao Xing learned that Han Zhang did not say what he said in public, so he asked Sanshui to come out and say it again, and at the same time told everyone about his 'reward' to them. After the officials heard this, many people were frightened.
When Zhao Xu attacked Peng Qingzhong and others before, they speculated that Zhao Xing might have obtained evidence of some people's crimes.
Some had ulterior motives, and some were afraid because Zhao Xing had rewarded several prisoners' family members.
It happened that Zhao Xing also said that he would let those scholars go, so he took the opportunity to go downhill and left.
Han Zhang left in the direction of Zhizhengtang, which was opposite to the direction of the officials, so Hu Zhongyan did not meet him.
Hu Zhongyan's face turned pale after hearing this. Now that he is alone and unable to speak, what should he do?
…………
Inside Longtu Pavilion
Zhao Xing learned that most of the officials had dispersed, leaving only dozens of Qingliu officials, but he felt a headache.
The so-called clean officials are not necessarily good officials.
In Zhao Xing's view, these people are more like 'die-hards'.
This kind of person has a high pursuit of morality and abides by etiquette.
In their eyes, morals and etiquette are everything. No matter what the reason, violating morals and etiquette is wrong.
This kind of person is even harder to deal with than those corrupt officials.
Standing on a wall for thousands of feet, if you have no desire, you will be strong.
As long as there are desires, there will always be weaknesses.
But these people are not greedy for money or power, and they are not even afraid of death.
That’s not to say they are completely without flaws, these people love fame more than anything else.
This is also the reason why Zhao Xing feels a headache.
He can scare away other officials, but not these people.
They even wished that Zhao Xing would execute them and gain a reputation as a loyal official, leaving their good name in history.
Zhao Xing rubbed his head with a headache and said, "Call them in!"
"Yes!" Sanshui responded and retreated.
After a while, a group of officials filed into the hall.
"I will pay my respects to Your Majesty!"
"Pingshen!" Zhao Xing waved his hand, looked at everyone, and said, "Other officials have left, why do you stay outside the hall?"
"Your Majesty!"
Liu Zhengqing, the censor doctor, bowed and said: "The scholars are sitting in meditation at the entrance of the execution ground and the Communist Party. Although there is something inappropriate, we only need to disperse the people. How can we easily order people to arrest them? "The Book of Rites" says: Punishment Not being a scholar means that those scholars are not yet scholar-officials, but they still need to have the most basic respect for scholars.”
"Ha~"
Zhao Xing smiled slightly and said: "Since Liu Yushi talked about the "Book of Rites", then tell me, how can you explain that etiquette cannot be extended to common people, and punishment cannot be extended to officials?"
"What your Majesty asked is explained in "Confucius Family Sayings". The general idea is that when scholar-bureaucrats make mistakes, they should be given basic courtesy and retain their dignity. But common people are busy making a living and working hard, and have no time and energy to learn etiquette. They cannot learn etiquette. There are too high demands on them," Liu Zhengqing said.
"Liu Yushi is knowledgeable and what he said is correct. But in my opinion, there is another meaning to the saying that punishment is not good for officials. Scholars and officials know the etiquette through reading, so when they make mistakes, they do not need to be punished by the court, and they will deal with it on their own. He punishes himself. It’s not that he doesn’t punish the doctor, but he doesn’t need to punish himself. Does Liu Yushi think so?
(End of chapter)