The First Gongsheng of Ming Dynasty

Ever since Zhang Zhou walked out of Wenhua Hall in anger, it had a great impact on Zhu Houzhao.

Perhaps it was a stress response. When Zhu Houzhao found out that he might be abandoned by his old father, he actually studied hard for several days in a row, as if he wanted to show a new mental outlook in exchange for his father's new understanding of him, so as to establish his position as the crown prince.

On this day, Zhu Houzhao took the initiative to go to Kunning Palace to pay his respects to his old mother, and also intended to test his mother's attitude.

However, when he arrived at Kunning Palace, he was told that the Queen had something to do and asked him to wait outside.

In the past, he would not give face to the person who reported it and would just rush in. In the end, he would probably be carried out or just break in directly... But this time he learned his lesson and sat on the stool that was temporarily prepared for him, just waiting patiently.

"Who do I think it is?"

A small figure ran out, it was my younger sister Zhu Xiurong.

At this time, Zhu Xiurong was over eight years old and had become a grown-up girl.

She looked at her brother who was sitting upright, but her tone of voice seemed very tricky, which made Zhu Houzhao inexplicably angry after hearing it.

Zhu Houzhao said, "I am whoever you want me to be. I am your elder brother and the crown prince. When you see me, shouldn't you greet me?"

"Tsk." Zhu Xiurong looked nonchalant, standing at the door of Kunning Palace and looking over, grinning, "Are you here to see the Queen Mother? I tell you, you have to wait if you want to see her, because the Emperor is here too. If the Emperor knew you came here, he would definitely punish you. If you don't believe me, let's make a bet."

Zhu Houzhao then realized that his mother chose not to see him because she had something to do with his father.

He was already eleven years old at this time, and he had begun to vaguely understand many things. After all, he was already in adolescence and had begun to learn how to be an adult.

He was also feeling lucky in his heart that it was better to be calm. If I had really rushed in like I did before and my father happened to find out, I would be in trouble. It was really a bad luck for me. I came to see my mother and actually met my father?

and many more.

It seemed like I could see them every time I came to Kunning Palace in the past, but things seem to be different in the past two years.

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you thinking about? Can you hear me?" Zhu Xiurong saw this elder brother mumbling there, as if he was planning something big, and she couldn't help but ask curiously.

Zhu Houzhao regained his composure and glared at her, saying, "Sister, you don't study hard and hang around here. Do you believe I will tell mother and let her punish you? You are not young anymore and should be sensible. If you were a girl from an ordinary family, you would be able to help the family a lot. But why do you look like a little girl? An elder brother is like a father. Do you believe I will teach you a lesson on behalf of the emperor?"

Zhu Houzhao originally thought that these words would scare his sister.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Xiurong just kept giggling.

"You old hen?" Zhu Houzhao frowned and said, "No, it's a young hen! Do you think my words are funny?"

Zhu Xiurong smiled and covered his mouth, "Father said that you are not serious, brother, and told me not to imitate you. It turned out that he was right. I recently learned a phrase called "the fox borrows the power of the tiger", which should be about what you are like."

"Who said I was taking advantage of the power of others?" Zhu Houzhao said sternly, "You used the wrong words."

Then he thought of the scene when his "Mr. Zhang" scolded him for using inappropriate words.

Zhu Xiurong said: "Why not? You know that using the power of the emperor to scare me is just like a fox borrowing the power of a tiger. Little fox, you don't have much ability, but you still want to pretend to be a tiger? Hahaha..."

"what!"

Although it was just a conversation between two children, the content was almost meaningless.

But it caused ten thousand points of damage to Zhu Houzhao's heart.

He has been feeling depressed recently. Who would have thought that even his own sister would not give him face? How could he bear it?
Then he was about to rush up and hit someone.

Gao Feng, who came with Zhu Houzhao at this time, hurried to stop him, fearing that the prince would play tricks... In any case, the prince did not seem to have the right to hit his sister. Even if he was really the prince, the heir to the throne, and the eldest brother was like a father, the key was that their old father was not dead yet, and he did not need to play the role of a father.

What's even more terrible is that the little princess has been doted on by the emperor recently. If Zhu Houzhao really beat his sister, the unlucky one would definitely be the prince.

"Who are you trying to scare? Hehehe, come and chase me if you can!"

Zhu Xiurong thought this was something funny, so he turned around and ran into the hall.

Zhu Houzhao chased in without saying a word.

This time Gao Feng grabbed his clothes tightly.

"Your Highness, please calm down. The princess was just joking. How could you take it seriously? Besides, you can't go in there..." Gao Feng was reminding the naughty child that this was a trap set by your sister.

She can go in, but you can't.

Zhu Houzhao said angrily: "My father and mother are doing things inside, why can she go in but I can't?"

After hearing this, Gao Feng wanted to find a hole to hide in. Is this what a child should say?
But thinking about it again, it seems that there is nothing wrong with it. I can only explain that what the naughty child meant is different from what adults understand.

Gao Feng said, "It is true that you cannot enter, Your Highness, you have grown up and should understand the situation now. If you go in now, won't His Majesty punish you?"

Zhu Houzhao's face was full of anger.

But if you think about it, this does make sense.

I just wanted to regain my father's trust, so I came here to act like a good kid, but I didn't expect that after being provoked by a little bitch, I would reveal my true colors...

Come to think of it, it's not worth it.

"I'll continue to wait." Zhu Houzhao sat down again, suppressing his anger. "Next time I catch her, I'll beat her up! No one taught her a lesson. She really thinks she can go to heaven. Who did she learn this from?"

Gao Feng had a distressed look on his face and looked at Zhu Houzhao.

"What do you mean? Are you saying that she is imitating me?" Zhu Houzhao has now begun to learn to understand what others cannot express with words.

Gao Feng hurriedly said, "Your Highness, I didn't say anything. The princess is naughty, why do you have to bother with her?"

Zhu Houzhao said: "Such a naughty sister really makes me angry..."

After saying this, he was sulking for a while, then he seemed to be less angry. After a while, he muttered, "Was I the same as her in the past, so annoying?"

……

……

Zhu Houzhao was ultimately unable to enter the Kunning Palace.

But when Zhu Youtang came out, he took his son with him and brought him to the Qianqing Palace. The father and son were silent along the way.

After arriving at the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youtang said to Chen Kuan beside him: "Prepare writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone for him. Now that he has seen it, let's test him. I haven't paid much attention to your studies recently, so let's see how you are doing first."

Zhu Houzhao said: "Father, regarding the contents of the Four Books and Five Classics, I can recite the entire text, and even annotate the classics. After reading the Annotated Collection, I have been learning to write articles recently. Otherwise, father, please give me a topic and let me write an article."

Zhu Youtang was also a little uncomfortable when he heard this. This naughty kid always refused to do the test in the past, but this time he actually took the initiative to make it more difficult for himself?
But think about it again, writing articles has various flexible means of coping, while examining the meaning of classics is basically dead content... Maybe after the prince learned how to write articles, he wanted to take shortcuts.

After all, if you can't write down the content that needs to be memorized in the exam, it would be like showing your weakness. But you can do nothing when writing an essay. At most, you can answer the question irrelevantly in your argumentative essay and use some clichés to deceive the examiner's trust... After all, the essay is not a static thing.

Zhu Youtang thought of this and said with an unhappy face: "Have you learned how to pick a topic? Then write an article and use Mencius."

Chen Kuan then handed over a copy of "Mencius".

Zhu Houzhao said: "Father, when writing an article, shouldn't we start with the Analects? You gave me a topic from Mencius right away, which is not easy to write."

"Hmph." Zhu Youtang sneered, "These two books are the same, they are all about the way to govern a country. Whatever questions I give you, you can just draw inferences from them. If you can't even answer the most basic questions, what else do you want? I didn't give you questions from the Five Classics, I've already considered that you are still young."

Zhu Houzhao took the paper and pen in a huff, and then sat down at the table prepared for him.

……

……

The exam took more than an hour.

Zhu Houzhao was writing articles below, while Zhu Youtang, in order to set an example for his son, was reviewing memorials above. But in fact, most of the time, Zhu Youtang was just holding a pen and daydreaming.

His son doesn't want to study, and he, as a father, doesn't want to work either.

After enjoying the happy time of touring, he could not calm down to deal with the affairs of the court. Perhaps only by keeping himself closed off could he not be disturbed by external things.

After Zhu Houzhao put down his pen, Zhu Youtang saw it first and raised his hand and said, "Go back after you finish writing. It's already past noon and you can't rest. Go back and continue to review your lessons. If you don't write well, I will punish you again!"

"understood."

Zhu Houzhao did not argue, but stood up, bowed and left.

After Zhu Houzhao and the attendants of the Eastern Palace left, Zhu Youtang looked towards the palace gate, then glanced at Chen Kuan and asked, "Is the Crown Prince different from before?"

Chen Kuan said: "I don't understand what your majesty means."

Zhu Youtang pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "It's hard to say. Why is he talking less?"

Chen Kuanxin said, "This prince asked you a difficult question in front of you, and you argued with him, but you still said nothing? How disobedient was he in the past, or how much did he like to talk back? That made your majesty think like this?"

Zhu Youtang said: "What is this article about?"

Obviously, Zhu Youtang was used to reading articles by great scholars, so this one seemed too trifling to him.

Chen Kuan said, "Your Majesty, the palace examination is about to begin. The prince's essay probably cannot compare with the candidates of this year's examination."

"That's true." Zhu Youtang said, "Let alone a Gongshi, even if he can be compared to a student, I will be satisfied. But my own knowledge is not up to the level of a Gongshi, how dare I ask for him? But what kind of people are his teachers usually? Those who come from the Hanlin Academy are all outstanding people, but what about him?"

At this point, the emperor began to scold his son again.

Obviously, Zhu Youtang's biggest dissatisfaction with Zhu Houzhao was that his son's character was not like his own.

Fathers all have a kind of self-confidence, thinking that they are the best and that only if their sons are like themselves can they be considered promising.

Chen Kuan said: "Your Majesty, this article...are you still reading it?"

"Show it to Bingkuan." Zhu Youtang said, "Also, let Bingkuan consider it for me and come up with a question. In the past, this was the responsibility of the Hanlin Academy, but now I want Bingkuan to come up with the question, and then Bingkuan will lead the examination."

Chen Kuanxin said that the Duke of Cai was not the chief examiner of this imperial examination, but he was going to select Jinshi on behalf of the emperor.

Your Majesty still cares about Duke Cai.

Chen Kuan said, "Your Majesty, the Cabinet and the Imperial Academy have also been preparing questions recently. I heard that it was Elder Cheng who set the questions himself."

Although the questions for the palace examinations were usually set in the name of the emperor, the people who wrote the questions were the great scholars of the Hanlin Academy. This was a rule. It could not be said that the emperor had to do everything himself, and not every emperor had outstanding talents and could write an excellent essay for the palace examination.

Of course, the emperor could make regulations on the direction of questions. That is to say, for the palace examination questions, the emperor would first give a question to the people in the Hanlin Academy, and let them write the questions based on this.

Zhu Youtang asked, "Did I ask them to prepare this time? If not, why are you asking me again? I told you to go and tell Bingkuan, so go now! Also, has anyone in the capital criticized Bingkuan recently?"

Chen Kuan said: "I'm afraid I have to ask the East Factory about this."

"Then I'll ask later." Zhu Youtang seemed bored. He had just accompanied his son to study, and this moment also made him exhausted. Sitting for an hour made him feel mentally exhausted.

"I'm going to eat something and make some adjustments first. Unless there's something important, don't bother me! I don't know what's going on in the northwest recently."

While Chen Kuan responded, he was also thinking.

The northwest has been peaceful since the Battle of Huamachi. The Tatars have not been forced into a desperate situation, nor have they committed any looting.

Both sides wanted to stop fighting.

This may be a good thing for people in the court. No news is good news.

But for the emperor, this was not enough, because what the emperor was pursuing was a great victory, a change in the battlefield pattern that could inflict serious damage to the Tatars. But obviously, the Battle of Huamachi did not achieve such great results relying solely on Liu Jin, Ma Yi and others.

……

……

Zhang Zhou was sitting at home.

He got an article written by Zhu Houzhao, and after reading it... he felt so uncomfortable that he wanted to pick his toes.

But speaking objectively, Zhu Houzhao was able to write complete articles, and his handwriting improved day by day. With such talent alone, it would be difficult for him to pass the examination to become a student. But in some places, if he took the first level county examination for students, he would have a chance of passing.

"Master, some tea." Lin Yi brought in the tea.

According to the rules of the Zhang family, when Zhang Zhou was doing official business, the task of serving tea and water could not be done by maids, but should be done by several young ladies in turn.

This can also enhance the relationship with Zhang Zhou, and Zhang Zhou will also pull people over to chat about daily life.

"Look, what do you think of this article?" Zhang Zhou handed the article written by Zhu Houzhao to Lin Yi.

Lin Yi was born into a scholarly family after all. After reading it, she nodded and said, "Not bad. I am not very knowledgeable and cannot tell the difference."

Zhang Zhou said: "That's right. Most people would think this article is good enough, but will Your Majesty be satisfied? The expectations of the prince... are not in line with his age, but he has never noticed it and thinks that he can do what his peers can do. It's not an exaggeration to say that he is forcing things to happen." (End of this chapter)