Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 396 Finding Doubts
Go to Qingfeng Restaurant outside the east gate, Wang Anshi has already arrived for a while.

He was sitting by the window on the second floor. The food and drink had been ordered, but they hadn't been served yet, and no one came to bother Wang Anshi. A large rock slides into a pond, not smashes into it.

Wang Anshi was in a bad mood. To be precise, he was anxious about the future and fate of the Great Song Dynasty. If the Great Song Dynasty did not reform thoroughly, it might be completely ruined in the end.

At this time, a tall figure appeared beside him, and then sat down opposite him.

"I kept you waiting!" It was Fanning who came.

"No, I just came here not long ago."

Wang Anshi beckoned and asked the bartender to serve the food.

"Their house wine is good, I like Qingfeng Shao, how about you?"

"I don't care, just burn the bar!"

The bartender served them wine. Fan Ning grabbed the jug and poured wine for Wang Anshi, then asked with a smile, "You feel a little worried, are you still worrying about Wan Yanshu?"

Wang Anshi sighed, "There should be an explanation for success or failure!"

"Drink the bar first! After drinking, maybe I will give you a suggestion."

"Suggest?"

Wang Anshi glanced at Fan Ning suspiciously, then nodded and toasted: "Come on! We drank this glass of wine for each other's new jobs!"

"Done!"

The two drank the wine in one gulp. Wang Anshi grabbed the jug first, poured a glass of wine for Fan Ning, and said with a smile, "Tell me! Do you have any good suggestions?"

Fan Ning said lightly: "It's not a good suggestion, I just suggest you wait a few more years."

"You mean... now is the wrong time for reform?"

Fan Ning picked up the wine cup and said with a smile: "It's not that the timing of the reform is wrong, but that the reform will never happen in the past few years."

"Reason?" Wang Anshi spoke very concisely.

Fan Ning actually didn't blame Wang Anshi. Wang Anshi couldn't possibly know that Zhao Zhen only had five years to live. Of course, perhaps because of himself, Zhao Zhen's lifespan would increase a little.

can you?Fan Ning thinks that the possibility is unlikely. The last time he met the emperor, he found signs that Zhao Zhen's life was beginning to fail.

He even suspected that Zhao Zhen's lifespan would end early, because of Zhang Guifei, he had spent too much energy on her.

Historically, Wang Anshi's "Book of Ten Thousand Words" fell into the sea like a mud cow, silently, and did not attract Zhao Zhen's attention at all, although there are some official explanations for the specific reasons.

For example, Zhao Zhen is concerned about vested interests, but Fan Ning believes that Zhao Zhen does not have the energy to toss about reforms is also an important reason.

Secondly, the wealth brought by overseas operations also alleviated class conflicts to a certain extent. For example, the financial crisis of the imperial court was temporarily resolved, and the imperial court had the financial resources to consider the relief and resettlement of refugees.

But for this reason, Fan Ning did not want to discuss it with Wang Anshi. He believed that Wang Anshi would have his own eyes to see all this.

After pondering for a while, Fan Ning said: "The reason is actually very simple. I'm afraid the officials don't have so much energy to toss about your reform."

Wang Anshi's expression froze, and he asked suspiciously, "What do you mean by that?"

"You should have attended this morning court! Didn't you notice that the official family has become very old in the past two years?"

Fan Ning was also talking nonsense, no one could see the appearance of the emperor in the hall, but Wang Anshi didn't care about this issue, he was more concerned about Fan Ning's last words.

The official family has become very old, and the subtext that cannot be said in this sentence is that the official family's time is numbered.

"is that true?"

Fan Ning nodded, "Two days ago, the officials summoned me in the imperial study, and I could feel his exhaustion and old age."

Wang Anshi was silent. Now he finally understood why the officials were not interested in his reform plan, and he really couldn't afford it.

For a while, he suddenly felt very tired and lost all interest, just like a frost suddenly descending on the vegetable field, Wang Anshi was completely wilted.

Fan Ning saw that Wang Anshi was depressed, so he smiled and comforted him: "Your mentality is not that of a political reformer. If you lose confidence with a small blow, then I can only feel lucky for you."

"What are you lucky about?" Wang Anshi asked puzzled.

"It's a good thing you didn't start reforming the law, otherwise I don't know what you would use to bear the pressure from the opponents?" At the end, Fan Ning's eyes became stern.

There was a trace of shame in Wang Anshi's eyes. He straightened up slowly, shook his head and said, "I'm not unable to bear it, I'm just a little disappointed, but I can wait."

"That's right, come on! Let's have another drink."

…………

As soon as Fan Ning returned to the official room at noon, Li Weizhen put a file bag on Fan Ning's desk.

"This is all the information about the Ouyang Xiu incident so far. Once the Zhiyuan approves it, we will file a case for investigation."

Li Weizhen put another investigation letter in front of Fan Ning.

Fanning nodded, "I'll take a look at this case first."

Li Weizhen retreated, and Fan Ning opened the file bag, which contained a lot of information about Ouyang Xiu, but most of them had nothing to do with the case.

Fan Ning quickly found Ouyang Qian's letter, which mainly stated that his father Ouyang Xiu and his sister-in-law Wu Chunyan had no abnormal relationship, and those rumors were completely false accusations.

Ouyang Qian's letter was not convincing, so Fan Ning put it aside, and he took another record, which was put in the letter and submitted to the court of remonstrance.

The content of the record is about the conflict between Ouyang Xiu and his brother-in-law Xue Zongru. Ouyang Xiu's third wife, Xue Shi, is the daughter of Xue Kui, a scholar of Zizheng Palace.

Xue Zongru is the blood brother of the Xue family, and is currently serving as the imperial censor in the imperial palace.

Xue Zongru opposed his sister's marriage to Ouyang Xiu from the very beginning. He once went crazy with alcohol, made a big fuss in the wedding hall, and was beaten fifty times by his father.

But these are family affairs, not important, but Fan Ning saw the latter one, Xue Zongru was recommended by Zhang Yaozuo to enter Yushitai two years ago.

This is the key point, which shows that Xue Zongru belongs to Zhang Yaozuo.

Fan Ning noticed that in September last year, Xue Zongru impeached Ouyang Xiu for going in and out of the church for being dissolute and unseemly. It seems that this impeachment did not work.

In addition, in May last year, Xue Zongru impeached Ouyang Xiu for using his power for personal gain and leaking the imperial examination questions, but this impeachment was rejected directly. The imperial examination questions were only opened half an hour before the examination, how could they be leaked?Xue Zongru obviously did not understand the rules of the examination room.

Fan Ning walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, and came to Li Weizhen's official room next door. Li Weizhen's official room was much smaller than Fan Ning's official room, but there were many cabinets, which made it look more crowded.

Li Weizhen was reviewing the documents, when he saw Fan Ning coming in, he stood up quickly.

Fan Ning waved his hands and smiled, "Actually, I just came to ask, have some of the letters against officials been kept on file?"

Li Weizhen nodded and said: "Reserving files is definitely necessary, but because of the huge number, we usually only keep the documents submitted for five years, and the previous ones will be destroyed."

"If I'm looking for a letter against someone, can I find it?"

"If you find it, you can find it, but it will take manpower and time. I don't know whose indictment the Zhiyuan should look for?"

"I want to find all Xue Zongru's letters, can I find them?"

Li Weizhen thought for a while and said, "I'm afraid this is unlikely. The court of remonstrance only records the accused. As for who wrote the complaint, the court of remonstrance generally does not record. This is the rule."

Fan Ning smiled and said, "Then turn it around and help me find all the petitioners who have sued Ouyang Xiu."

Li Weizhen arranged for people to go, Fan Ning returned to his official room, sat down on his seat, and picked up another document, which was the copy of Xue Zongru's accusation of incest between Ouyang Xiu and his daughter-in-law.

In fact, Xue Zongru had no evidence, and just used an obscene poem as an inference. This kind of unwarranted accusation caused an uproar, and it was obvious that someone was behind the scenes.

Fanning read the erotic poem again.

Light thunder outside the willows and rain on the pond, the sound of rain dripping and breaking the lotus.

There is a broken rainbow in the west corner of the small building.

Leaning on the railing, waiting for the birth of the moon.

Swallows fly to peek at the painted building, jade hooks hang down curtains.

The cool wave does not move and the pattern is flat.

There are double pillows with water essence, and there are fallen hairpins next to them.

Fan Ning frowned, he suddenly discovered a suspicious point, how could there be any small building in Ouyang Xiu's house?He has been there several times, but he has never seen a building in Ouyang Xiu's house.

There seemed to be several small buildings in the rented house before, but the problem was that Ouyang Xiu moved out ten years ago, and it was three years ago that his daughter-in-law Wu Chunyan married into Ouyang Xiu's house.

Fan Ning is sensitively aware that if this poem really describes an affair, then the heroine is likely to be the niece Xiao Zhang, not the daughter-in-law Wu Chunyan.

.

(End of this chapter)