I open a history tutorial class in Daming

Chapter 176 Who will Li Shanchang believe?

"How can this be possible... How can this be possible!"

Zhu Qizhen's face became uglier as he was scolded, but he couldn't find a way to refute the other party, so he could only shout:
"Zhu Youjian, how dare you, a king of a fallen country, criticize me? It is a fact that the Ming Dynasty fell in your hands. Even if it has not fallen yet, you cannot govern it well with your ability. You still have the nerve to criticize my Battle of Tumubao. Didn't the teacher accuse you of killing loyal ministers last time?"

"No matter what, I am your ancestor. You even curse my ancestors. Where is the filial piety of the Zhu family? You are really going against the will of Heaven!"

He used his status to put pressure on others, and Zhu Youjian really had nothing to say.

Although the students in the class come from different dynasties, people who are familiar with each other actually talk to each other in a very equal manner. Their attitude only depends on the other person's achievements and political performance, as well as whether they are to their liking.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Li Shimin can't help staring at each other when they talk. Do you think Zhu Yuanzhang's political achievements are more famous than Li Shimin's? No, they are equally matched. Zhu Yuanzhang drove out the Tartars and restored the Central Plains, bridging the hundreds of years of division between the north and the south. Li Shimin was not bad either. He destroyed the Turks and became the Khan, laying a good foundation for the prosperous Tang Dynasty in the future.

But there is a bug here.

Although there was more than one person in other dynasties, the distinction between the ruler and his subjects was clear. Even if there was a ruler and his subjects separated by several generations like Zhang Liang and Liu Che, the former would help Liu Che because he wanted to help the Liu family.

The Ming Dynasty was different. There were four emperors in the three periods of Hongwu, Yongle, Tianshun and Chongzhen. Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao from the Hongwu period firmly suppressed all the people of the Zhu family, Yongle suppressed Tianshun, and Tianshun naturally suppressed Chongzhen.

They are all from the Zhu family, and their ancestral hierarchy is a natural suppressive force.

Zhu Youjian was the one with the lowest seniority present, and all he saw were his ancestors. When Zhu Qizhen brought this up, he had no way to deal with it.

"Hey, are you talking about ancestors?"

Zhu Yuanzhang spoke quietly, but he didn't get angry. He just stared at Zhu Qizhen:
"Then let me say what Zhu Youjian said just now again. How do you plan to refute it?"

"Zhu Qizhen, even if he made a thousand mistakes, he was better than many people in history in one respect, let alone you."

"You keep talking about what Mr. Song said. Do you remember that Mr. Song also said that when the Ming Dynasty fell, Zhu Youjian hanged himself and died for his country?"

"He couldn't even accept seeing the Ming Dynasty fall before his death. If he was the emperor captured by the Oirat at Tumu Fortress, he would never have the nerve to live on the grassland for a year, let alone help the Oirat people to ask the Ming Dynasty to open the city gates and be the emperor."

"If you really want to compare the toughness of your bones with Zhu Youjian, let's see if all your parts combined are not as hard as his knees, right?"

Zhu Qizhen: ...

If you use your ancestors' status to oppress others, you will always have to pay it back.

He knew he would be scolded, but he didn't expect it to come so soon, and he didn't expect Zhu Yuanzhang to slap him in the face on the spot.

This is really embarrassing for all our ancestors!

Zhu Qizhen's face was like a color palette, turning white, red, and purple, but he was now completely unable to speak.

At this time.

The office door was opened, and Song Shen and Li Shanchang walked out together.

"How is it, have you finished reading the papers? What do you think of Zhu Qizhen's answers?"

Song Shen asked casually, but he soon found that the atmosphere was not right, as if it was a bit awkward.

He glanced at the owner of the paper and saw that Zhu Qizhen's face was full of frustration and resentment. He guessed that he was probably criticized, so he smiled and said:

"Everyone can discuss each paper, but if there is no need for discussion, this part can be deleted."

"How about this, all students raise their hands to vote. If more than half of the students think that there is no need to discuss the test paper, then we will just go through the process and start grading. How do you think?"

Zhu Qizhen's eyes widened, and his anger and frustration turned into shock and confusion.

He stood up suddenly, and the emotions that had been accumulating just now burst out at this moment:
"Why? Why! When we were marking the papers for Emperor Yongle, we didn't mention raising hands to vote. Why do we have to raise hands when it comes to my paper?"

"If they don't discuss it and don't ask me why I decided on this strategy, and if they just guess and misunderstand me, my score will definitely be very low. What's more, they are biased against me to begin with. This is unfair!"

Song Shen glanced around and found that all the Zhu family members, including Zhu Youjian, had similar expressions.

They had no expression on their faces. No one cared about Zhu Qizhen's angry roar, and they even looked indifferent as to whether the discussion was ongoing or not, as if Zhu Qizhen was not a member of the Zhu family.

It seems that I missed a good show when I went in to discuss things with Li Shanchang?
Song Shen smiled and ignored him, just pointed at Ying Zheng and said:
"Student Ying Zheng, you are the oldest and your words carry the most weight in the class, so you go first, is there any need to discuss Zhu Qizhen's paper?"

Ying Zheng didn't expect that he would be the one being named.

He was just interested in watching the fun of grading papers. After all, the Qin Dynasty was the oldest, and he didn't know many of the strategies and inventions of later generations, let alone the history of the future. He couldn't learn from history, so he couldn't make any comments. He was willing to listen to other people's words seriously, mostly because he wanted to hear more about what these emperors and generals of later generations had planned.

But now Song Shen, for some unknown reason, asked me to speak for him. This...

He was a little confused, but Ying Zheng naturally couldn't be stage-frightened, so he stood up and glanced at Zhu Qizhen calmly, saying:
"What Zhu Qizhen wrote in his answer sheet is just a small thing."

"His mind is full of political intrigues in the court, and he has no thoughts on national policy at all, so naturally, what he writes will not be a policy that benefits the country."

"If he wanted to develop the Ming Dynasty, he should have thought about how to defeat the Oirat, how to select generals, how to improve weapons, or how to make money like Zhu Di planned to build a port to dig for gold overseas."

"Although Zhu Qizhen keeps saying that he must stabilize the government before discussing national policy, for a capable emperor, is this something that requires him to devote all his energy to?"

"I think there is no need to discuss his paper. Among all the emperors present, he is the only one who takes this seriously, except Zhu Youjian, who is not born a crown prince and lacks ability. Please don't waste time, sir, and just give your comments directly."

Everyone nodded!

What Ying Zheng said was absolutely right. For any capable emperor, unless the court was in chaos and full of rebels, it would not be a big deal if the officials just fought for power and the new emperor established his authority. Zhu Qizhen wrote thousands of words of magnificent articles, but he just wanted to explain the struggles between various forces and parties in the court and how to solve them... It's really a waste of time to read them.

The most important thing is, this guy thinks he is very good at fighting, and his words are full of complacency. It makes me feel annoyed just by reading them. Who would want to discuss it!
Song Shen nodded and looked at the other students:

"Well, if you want to discuss Zhu Qizhen's paper, please raise your hands so I can see."

No one raised their hands.

Even Zhu Qizhen himself did not raise his hand. It was not because he did not want to, but because he felt ashamed and embarrassed to vote for himself.

Song Shen was also surprised to see that there was no one there.

He knew that Bao Zong was not very popular here, but he never expected that this guy would be so unpopular that no one wanted to discuss him during the grading, even though they gave him some face as a classmate!
"...Okay, that's it."

Song Shen was silent for a moment and chose to listen to everyone's opinions.

He waved his hand, and the same forms and pens appeared on everyone's desks:

"Since there is no need for discussion, let's speed up and start grading directly. I won't go into details about the grading criteria and conditions. Just proceed as usual and make fair evaluations based on your own ideas."

When the score sheets were collected and the scores were counted, Song Shen was shocked again. Among so many sheets, no one gave Zhu Qizhen a score of more than 60 points. Some even gave him zero points, and there were more than one person!

"I can only remove the lowest score, but if they are all the lowest scores and there are more than two of the same score, I will only remove one."

Song Shen looked at the score sheet in his hand, his face full of indescribable expression:

"Student Zhu Qizhen's final score is 39 points."

Jingle Bell--

Coincidentally, just after he announced Zhu Qizhen's test score, the bell for the end of get out of class rang.

After a familiar feeling of dizziness, everyone left the system space and returned to reality.

…………

Ming Dynasty, the tenth year of Hongwu.

Wuying Palace.

Zhu Yuanzhang returned to his office from Kunning Palace angrily. Zhu Biao followed him but could not catch up with him.

"Dad, wait for me...don't run so fast!"

Kunning Palace belongs to the harem, while Wenhua Hall and Wuying Hall belong to the front hall. The two places are not very close to each other, but Zhu Yuanzhang walked all the way here with big strides, and his physical fitness was extremely strong.

Zhu Biao was panting behind, getting a stitch in the side while running, and he didn't dare to stop even though the pain made his lungs almost explode.

It was not until Zhu Yuanzhang ran into the Wuying Hall that Zhu Biao could finally breathe a sigh of relief!

"All of you, all of you get out."

Zhu Biao was breathing heavily and giving orders to the palace servants, and he didn't even bother to wipe the sweat off his face.

The eunuch he ordered first agreed, then pointed to the pot of tea on the table and whispered:

"Your Highness, that pot of tea was brewed a quarter of an hour ago and is still warm. Would you like me to replace it with a new one?"

Zhu Biao was overjoyed and waved his hand:

"No, all of you go out. I have something to discuss with my father."

After everyone left, Zhu Biao put aside his princely image and ran to the table, drinking from the spout of the pot in big gulps. Fortunately, the tea was not freshly brewed, but warm tea, so he didn't get burned.

After drinking half the pot of tea in one gulp and finally quenching his thirst, Zhu Biao recovered his breath and walked to Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Dad, I know you are unhappy, but it is useless for you to be unhappy now. Zhu Qizhen will be the emperor many years later. We just need to take care of ourselves and don't worry too much about him."

"For someone like Zhu Youjian, I can give him some pointers in the future if I have the chance. He is not a bad person by nature, but he was not raised as a crown prince since he was a child. If we teach him more, perhaps Chongzhen's Ming Dynasty can still be saved."

Zhu Yuanzhang had just rushed here as well, and his throat was already smoking with thirst, but he was embarrassed to bring it up because of his face.

Now seeing Zhu Biao drinking so much tea in one breath, and not even having back pain while talking while standing, he became even more angry.

He snatched the remaining half pot of tea from his son and gulped it down. Then he wiped his mouth with his sleeve and said angrily:

"Who said we were angry because of Zhu Qizhen?"

"If you can change your fate in the future, you won't become the emperor of Ming Dynasty. Why should we get angry over him? Does he deserve it?"

Zhu Biao was stunned for a moment:
"Since it wasn't Zhu Qizhen, then why are you so angry? No one else in the class has bothered you except him today?"

At this point, Zhu Biao recalled again and again, and confirmed that Li Shimin, the wealthy man who stabbed his lungs, rarely spoke today, and then he nodded in self-affirmation.

Zhu Yuanzhang's voice suddenly turned cold:
"Of course someone has offended us."

"Li Shanchang inexplicably entered the class today. According to common sense, this is impossible. Except for our first batch of students, all the later students have been given hints, but he is the only exception."

"Furthermore, Song Shen never brought students into his office. As soon as Li Shanchang arrived, he took him in. The lecture lasted for a quarter of an hour. No one knows what they talked about in there. I don't know if Li Shanchang let anything slip."

"Let's take a step back. You know that Song Shen is well versed in two thousand years of history. He knows that we will take action against Hu Weiyong, and even the Song family will be implicated. In this case, he talked to Li Shanchang alone. Does this mean that Li Shanchang is also involved in this case, and that's why he needs to get more information from Li Shanchang?"

"If Li Shanchang's ending is not good, and if Song Shen wants to pull him to his side, who do you think Li Shanchang will trust?"

Zhu Biao was choked.

In this way, it is true.

He naturally knew about his father's moral character.

In the third year of Hongwu, rewards were given according to merit. Those founding heroes who deserved to be granted titles were given titles, and those who deserved to be officials were given official positions. Moreover, many of them received Zhu Yuanzhang's personal promise and red-lettered iron certificates, which could exempt them from the death penalty.

Li Shanchang is one of them.

Logically speaking, Li Shanchang did not need to be afraid of death. The red-lettered iron certificate and the golden medal of immunity from death represented the emperor's credibility. If Zhu Yuanzhang regretted it at will, he would definitely have to bear the backlash.

But if Dad really wants to attack someone, will this life-saving method really work?
There is no problem in pardoning the crime, but as long as you accuse him of treason, even the king of heaven cannot save him.

What's more, last night the father and son deliberately concealed their whereabouts and went to Li Shanchang's house to use threats and inducements. Anyone who is not a fool can guess that doing so is obviously using Li Shanchang as bait, which is very dangerous.

If this is done, the ending will still be bad...

"Dad, there's no point in you getting angry here."

Zhu Biao calmed down and advised:

"How about we go to the Duke of Korea's mansion again tonight and ask him in detail what Song Shen said to him. Then, we can test Song Shen in the identities of Chen Guorui and Chen Biao, and then we can verify it from both sides?"

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered.

"What are you doing secretly?!"

"Biao'er, go outside and pass on the imperial decree. Summon the Duke of Korea, Li Shanchang, to the palace. I want him to come to the palace in person!"

(End of this chapter)