Chapter 2734 2736 [Emerging]

Author: Ji Mobai

Xiang Nan knew that this case of fraud in the imperial examination was because the prime minister, Gao Ming, was engaged in fraud for personal gain and passed off inferior quality, which caused all his party members to pass the examination, causing great dissatisfaction among the examiners.

Seven candidates who failed the exam had no way to appeal, so they chose to hang themselves from a rafter in despair. As soon as this incident came out, the whole country was in an uproar, and public opinion was overwhelming, and they all asked the court to thoroughly investigate the matter.

The prince was upright by nature, so he also wrote a letter, hoping that the emperor would investigate the case thoroughly. In the end, the emperor ordered Dali Temple to investigate the case thoroughly.

However, Dali Temple was manipulated by the treacherous prime minister Gao Ming again. In the end, not only was he acquitted, but the parents of the seven failed sons were bribed by him and falsely accused them of being ordered by the prince to frame the prime minister.

Not only did the prince fail to punish the traitor, but he also threw a basin of dirty water on him. Naturally, he could not bear to be impatient and was filled with grief and anger. Therefore, he and his courtiers wrote several letters to request Dali Temple to re-investigate the case thoroughly.

As a result, the emperor was furious and demoted the crown prince and tutor to the people. However, the prince still refused to back down and continued to fight for his cause. He even wore mourning clothes in the palace to mourn for the seven deceased princes who died unjustly.

But there are rules in the palace. If there is no big funeral, it is strictly forbidden to wear mourning. If the prince is in mourning, wouldn't it be a curse for the emperor to die early. Therefore, Li Fu was naturally furious and came to reprimand him.

However, Li Chengji still refused to give in. Instead, he believed that his father was fatuous and was deceived by traitorous ministers. He allowed traitors to disrupt the government. In the long run, the people's support will be lost and the country will be ruined.

Li Zuo was even more furious, so he asked his family to whip Li Chengji himself.

…

Xiang Nan watched from the side, but quickly sorted out his thoughts.

This matter seems to be very simple.

The emperor was deceived by his traitorous officials and punished his prince, but it was not that simple.

The truth is that the Toyo Dynasty had just implemented the imperial examination system.

Before that, it had always promoted officials according to the nine-rank Zhongzheng system. Therefore, the power of the government was monopolized by the noble clans.

Nowadays, the implementation of imperial examinations and the recruitment of talents are aimed at breaking the monopoly of power and talents by clans.

But this also offended the clan, so they vigorously criticized the imperial examination system. Through the suicide of seven examiners, they created public opinion and pushed the emperor to abolish the imperial examination.

The reason why the emperor did not want to investigate the case thoroughly was to preserve the imperial examination.

The imperial examination system has just been implemented, so it is normal to have loopholes, and it is inevitable for people to take advantage of them.

After all, even in the Qing Dynasty, which had a very complete imperial examination system, there were endless cases of imperial examination fraud.

But the powerful people want to use this to completely abolish the imperial examination, which is to give up eating because of choking and harbor evil intentions.

Because once the imperial examination was abolished, the imperial court could only use the nine-grade Zhongzheng system to appoint officials.

In this way, power is still controlled by the clan. The dignified emperor of the Toyo Dynasty will also be regarded as nothing by them.

Just like in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, the daughter of a noble family with five surnames and seven looks was not even qualified to marry the royal family. The imperial court compiled the "Clan Chronicle", and the royal family was not even qualified to be ranked first.

Compared with them directly flipping the table, Gao Ming just poured sand into it.

As the saying goes, whichever is the lesser of two evils, the emperor will naturally support Ming.

What's more, governing a big country is like cooking small dishes.

In addition to selecting talents, the imperial examination also has the function of appeasing the people. If it is carried out with great fanfare and repeated investigations, it will only cause disputes, make the people uneasy, and full of doubts about the imperial court, thus losing the original intention of appeasing the people.

Therefore, to put it simply, it was not that the emperor was ignorant and favored treacherous ministers.

It was because the prince was careless and was used as a weapon by the family members, which ruined the emperor's plan to recruit talents. Therefore, he was abolished and sent to serve in the Anhu Mansion.

…

Xiang Nan was familiar with the Twenty-Four Histories, so he naturally wanted to understand the joints.

It's a pity that the prince was taken advantage of. He thought he was asking for orders for the people and was loyal, but in fact he fell into the trap of the family and was working as a gunman for others.

After understanding it, Xiang Nan couldn't help but sigh.

But I heard Li Hao say loudly, "Listen to me, if you still want to be your prince in peace, take off this mourning dress for me now, and don't mention this case again in the future."

"I have been the crown prince for more than twenty years and have never said a word "no" in front of my father. I cannot be as cold-blooded and ruthless as my father, nor can I watch those princes die in vain.

I don’t understand why my father doesn’t want to investigate this case. Do you really ignore the laws of the country in order to protect the traitor? Do you want to bear the infamy of being a foolish king who will last for thousands of years?" Li Chengji still gritted his teeth and spoke generously with righteous indignation. Ci Dao.

"You traitor!!" When Li Hao heard these words, he naturally felt extremely harsh and couldn't help but want to whip out the cane again.

"Father, calm down~" When Xiang Nan saw this, he shouted, rushed forward, protected Li Chengji, and let the cane hit him hard.

Fortunately, he was proficient in martial arts. He could even defend against being hit with a blunt weapon, not to mention being beaten with a cane, so he was fine.

"Brother Huang was just impulsive." He defended Li Chengji.

"Fifth brother, there is no need to defend me." Li Chengji still said forcefully, "Father is arbitrary and does not want to find out the truth at all. Maybe when the high party spreads all over the government and the public, and the emperor changes his surname, father will understand what I mean. What must it be!"

"Brother Imperial, you are confused!" When Xiang Nan heard this, he shouted, "It's not that my father is arbitrary, it's that you are being used as a weapon."

As soon as the words were spoken, the whole place fell into silence.

"Fifth brother, what did you say?" Li Chengji asked in confusion.

Xiang Nan then recounted the conspiracy of the noble clans to use the Qijuzi incident to abolish the imperial examination and monopolize power.

At this moment, in the East Palace, there are only the emperor Li Fu, the prince Li Chengji, the second prince Li Chengye, the third prince Li Chengwen, the fourth prince Li Chengyuan, the historian and the guards.

Xiang Nan is not afraid that his words will be spread out, let alone even if they are spread out, he is not afraid. And his words were nominally meant for Li Chengji to prevent him from being used as a weapon again.

In fact, he told the emperor Li Zuo to let him see his intelligence.

Because Li Chengyin had always been lazy, uncontested and inactive, and could not show the potential to be a prince at all, so he was not liked by Li Hao.

It was not until he went to the Western Region and performed extraordinary feats in the conquest of Dan Chi that Emperor Li Fu was impressed by him.

Xiang Nan didn't want to go to the Western Region, so he could only use this opportunity to show off his wisdom.

…

Sure enough, after listening to Xiang Nan's words, Li Hao's eyes lit up even though he didn't say anything.

I didn't expect that Lao Wu, who was usually lazy, could actually have such a brilliant vision. I had really underestimated him before.

Yes, the reason why Li Hao protected Gao Ming was not because he was deceived by him, let alone because he was afraid of his power.

Gao Ming is just a dog he has raised, and he can take care of it as he wants, whenever he wants to take care of it.

The prince only saw that Gao Ming had been calling the shots in the court in recent years, ostracizing and suppressing dissidents. However, he did not realize that those dissidents were all members of the noble family that he, the emperor, wanted to suppress.

Just like Wei Zhongxian, the Duke of Dongchang, everyone thought he was a rebellious minister, but in fact, without Wei Zhongxian's help, Emperor Chongzhen would not even be able to collect taxes.
Chapter completed!