"Your Majesty, since you have already sent someone to deliver the first imperial edict, why did you ask Eunuch Wuchan to make another trip to deliver the second edict? And the conditions are so favorable, is it really that Cao Hongde of the Cao family is so powerful?
face?"
In the Regency Hall of Dachu Palace, Su Wang and Chu Zheng, a pair of monarchs and ministers who cooperated tacitly, stood opposite each other.
After hearing the question raised by Su Wang, Chu Zheng continued to bury his head in the pile of memorials without even raising his eyes.
"Teacher, are you pretending to be confused again? I don't believe you don't understand the meaning behind this."
Regarding this, Su Wang smiled awkwardly. Although he did not directly admit what Chu Zheng said, he did not deny it either.
"Hahaha, Your Majesty, if you really want to say something, I have noticed something, that is, the Emperor deliberately wants to give the Cao family face. The Cao family left behind by the previous dynasty is not just a farming and studying family, but a full family.
There are dozens of them. Since the emperor wants to use these so-called farming and studying families, he must do a good job in terms of face. If we spend great efforts to appease one Cao family, we will control all the families. We will have no choice in the future.
They refused to comply.”
At this time, Chu Zheng just finished annotating a memorial in his hand. After throwing it on the table, he temporarily put down the brush in his hand.
"Teacher, isn't this enough?"
Su Wang smiled and shook his head.
"Your Majesty, if it is just for the above reason, the position of Academy Headmaster is enough. But according to the Emperor's decree, half of Jinghua Academy is given to the Cao family. No matter how I look at it, I don't think it is right.
It’s so worth it.”
Chu Zheng withdrew his gaze, picked up a memorial and read it again.
"Teacher, it's enough if you can think of what you just said. Originally, I just wanted to give it to a mountain leader, but one person made me change my mind."
Su Wang's face showed a rare expression of surprise.
"Your Majesty, I really can't think of anyone who can change your mind. Why don't Your Majesty tell me that person's name so that I can see it."
As if remembering the person he was talking about, Chu Zheng stopped reading the memorial and smiled knowingly.
"The Cao family has a young phoenix, Cao Huabin of the Cao family!"
After finishing speaking, Chu Zheng ignored Su Wang's surprised look and continued to speak on his own.
"In my opinion, the post of mountain chief was originally prepared for Cao Huabin of the Cao family. As for the others, it was given for the sake of Cao Hongde. If Cao Hongde had misunderstood what I meant, or said he understood but was unwilling
If Cao Huabin is allowed to enter Beijing, then I will naturally find a way to get back the things I gave away as a reward."
After waiting for Chu Zheng to finish speaking, Su Wang had a chance to interrupt.
"This... Your Majesty, may I ask who this Cao Huabin is? I have never heard of him."
Chu Zheng picked up the brush again and buried his head in the pile of memorials.
"Teacher, I can't tell you clearly about this person. You'll have to wait and see for yourself, Teacher, for the details. Anyway, the news I got was from Cao Hongde himself. He said that this son's intellectual accomplishments are no longer inferior to his."
Su Wang's eyes showed disbelief for the second time today.
"Your Majesty, Cao Hongde is one of the five great scholars recognized by our great Chu Dynasty. Apart from him, the other four are all old men with white beards and hair. According to what the emperor is saying, Cao Huabin won't say anything.
He is young, but at most he is a middle-aged scholar. How can he be qualified to compare with those great scholars?"
Chu Zheng did not answer Su Wang's question, but threw it out.
"Teacher, it was Cao Hongde of the Cao family who said this, not me. If you want to ask, you should ask Cao Hongde!"
Without further questioning, Su Wang reached out and touched his beard.
"I'll have to take a closer look when I get there to see who this Cao Huabin is!"
…
"I have a little donkey. I call him Cao Huawen. One day I suddenly wanted to ride him to the capital..."
A motorcade suddenly appeared on the spacious official road leading to the capital, and the loud singing voice came from a carriage in the motorcade.
Pedestrians on the road were all raised eyebrows by this voice. This was not because the man in the carriage sang so beautifully, but because the song that was originally full of childlike innocence contained the voice of a middle-aged man.
"Cao Huabin!"
Before the song even ended, a voice that was so angry that it was difficult to contain came from a carriage behind the carriage, although there was a lot of fire in the words.
Although he was angry, it was still easy to tell that the owner of the voice was Cao Huawen, the head of the Cao family.
"parking!"
At the owner's order, all the carriages stopped immediately, and then you could see Cao Huawen, who had an angry look on his face and was no longer gentle at all, jumped off the carriage, walked quickly to the side of the previous carriage, and then
Lift your feet and go in.
"Cao Huabin, you still sing after I told you to stop singing. You sincerely want to make trouble with me, don't you? Don't think that I have a good temper just because I read a few books. You really want to drive me to the edge. Watch out if I beat you!"
"
Opposite Cao Huawen, a middle-aged man wearing a green shirt was lying comfortably in a spacious carriage. Although
"Old Cao, don't say that. We are following each other. You can also sing that you have a little donkey and I call him Cao Huabin! I won't argue with you. How old you are. Don't be stingy like a child!
"
"Cao Huabin, you don't know which one of us is more like a child? Do you think I am as childish as you? When I was young, I was not sensible, so I let you sing if you wanted to. But how old are we now? You
You still sing, you are shameless and I still want to be shameless!"
Regardless of whether it was a child or not, singing or not, Cao Huabin, dressed in a green shirt, pretended to be mysterious and whispered into Cao Huawen's ear.
"Cao Huawen, do you know why our ancestor asked me to be the mountain chief instead of you?"
To be honest, Cao Huawen is actually a little confused in his heart. When it comes to knowledge and culture, he feels that he is not much inferior to Cao Huabin. The only thing he loses to Cao Huabin is that he is just a little less agile than him, but it cannot be because of this.
And let yourself miss the position of mountain leader!
"Why?"
Cao Huawen Zheng'er Ba Jing asked doubtfully.
"because…"
At the critical moment, Cao Huawen once again moved his ears forward.
"Because...because I can sing! I have a little donkey and I call him Cao Huawen!"
"Cao Huabin!"
Cao Huawen, who was teased by Cao Huabin again, was really furious, but he couldn't really hit this guy! Although they had fought a lot when they were children, it was just childhood ignorance.
"Now that we have reached the age of growing beards, and children can hold books, you are still not ashamed at all. My ancestor was really blind to give you the position of mountain chief. If you go to the capital, you must not take away my Cao family's
You’ve lost all your face!”
After he finished speaking, he lost the courage to continue the argument with Cao Huabin. It was not groundless to say that he was less clever than Cao Huabin. He had never defeated Cao Huabin in sophistry since he was a child.
He was probably dizzy with anger, so he didn't call for stop, but jumped directly. However, he obviously overestimated his own strength, and sprained his foot as soon as he landed on the ground.
I guess I didn't want to lose face in front of other people, so I had to grin and bear it and walk back to my car before starting to hold my feet and cry out in pain.
…
Wende County, where the Cao family is located, is located in Bianzhou, so in just one day, Cao Huabin and his party saw the top of the capital city wall.
As soon as the motorcade passed through the city gate, Cao Huabin started talking again.
"Cao Huawen!"
"What are you doing again!"
Hearing Cao Huabin calling his name again, Cao Huawen reluctantly stuck his head out of the carriage.
He originally didn't want to talk to this guy, but this time Cao Huabin finally didn't add the prefix of "little donkey" to himself, which made Cao Huawen decide to talk to him.
But when he stuck his head out, he realized that Cao Huabin didn't call him at all. Following his gaze, Cao Huawen found that his eyes were fixed on the horse pulling the cart!
In just a moment, Cao Huawen knew what this guy who had been eating all day and had nothing to do was going to do, so he wanted to sit back quietly, but at this time everyone was attracted by his "What are you calling me for?"
attention.
Cao Huabin turned his head and glanced at him.
"I didn't call you!"
After that, he turned his attention back to the horse.
"I'm calling it!"
"Pfft~"
Hearing Cao Huabin's words, the rest of the people accompanying him laughed suddenly, but when they thought that the two men in front of them were the eldest and second gentlemen of the Cao family, they quickly stopped their laughter, but they all
It felt a little uncomfortable to hold it in.
Immediately afterwards, the good horse that Cao Huabin called a donkey also barked a few times.
"Ee-er~Ee-er."
Hearing the cry of one's own horse means Cao Cao
Hua Bin was a little embarrassed because of his thick skin. He really didn't mean to tease Cao Huawen this time.
"Forget it, let's not talk about it. I've grown so old and I haven't even gone to Jiangnan to see it! Cao Huawen, let's go!"
"Where are you going?"
Upon hearing Cao Huabin's words, Cao Huawen almost thought he had heard wrongly.
"Go to Jiangnan!"
"My ancestor asked you to be the chief of the mountain, not just for fun. Besides, if you don't pick up the chief seal of the mountain, that would be a serious crime of deceiving the emperor. Our family will be implicated by you!"
At this time, Cao Huawen no longer held any grudge against him. If Cao Huabin gave up at this time, where would he find another mountain chief?
"Cao Huawen, what nonsense are you talking about! Although I am a bit playful, I will not bring trouble to my family. The emperor's imperial edict said that I will go to the capital to take up my post. Haven't I already entered the capital? As for the mountain leader
Seal, just leave it where you are for now, I’ll ask for it from you when I get back!”
"You want it from me? You're playing!"
For the first time, Cao Huawen felt helpless towards this guy who had always been absurd. In the past, you could just make fun of your family members, but now you are actually fighting with the emperor. He may not have the patience of those guys in his family.
"Cao Huabin, I don't care what you think. If it doesn't work, you can leave tomorrow. I will never stop you, but today, you must go to the academy with me to pick up Shan Changyin."
"Okay, okay, it's not as serious as you think. I'll just run away. If you have anything else, wait until I come back to talk about it!"
"Cao Huabin."
no looking back
"Cao Huabin!"
Cao Huawen raised his voice a few times, but he still didn't look back.
"Cao Huabin, go ahead and eat shit!"
Until the end, Cao Huabin ignored Cao Huawen's hoarse voice behind him. He slapped the horse's butt and walked away, forcing the second Mr. Cao family to curse him later.
Seeing that Cao Huabin really had no intention of looking back, Cao Huawen returned to the carriage. As the genius of the Cao family second only to Cao Huabin, he actually knew why Cao Huabin left, but he was afraid that he might be mistaken for his cleverness!
…
At the same time, a large crowd gathered at the entrance of Jinghua Academy. In addition to the scholars of the academy, there were also a large number of common people. Among them, Su Xiang of the Great Chu Dynasty was mixed in the crowd.
Because the head of the martial arts academy was the second prince, he arrived early.
But it was said that today was the day when the headmaster of the College of Liberal Arts took office, so many people came to watch the fun. Amid everyone's expectations, a long carriage came to the entrance of the college.
After the first carriage stopped, everyone present focused their attention here, because according to common sense, this was Shan Chang's carriage.
In the midst of everyone's eager and expectant eyes, a lame man stepped out of the car, and this lame man was naturally Cao Huawen, who had a sprained foot.
"This crooked melon and cracked jujube can also be the head of a mountain!"
Su Wang's shock filled the floor, but while he was still in a daze, Cao Huawen spoke.
"I am your jailer! I am not your mountain chief. Your mountain chief fell to death on the way here!"
Probably because he was afraid that others would not believe what he said, Cao Huawen said it again in an accentuated tone.
"Yes! He fell to death!"
After finishing speaking, he limped into the academy regardless of other people's arbitrary comments.
…
The purple and red walls, emerald bricks and jade tiles, and the cicada holding a whisk in hand quickly walked through the palace, and soon came to the Regent Palace, next to Chu Zheng.
"Your Majesty, after Cao Huabin of the Cao family entered Beijing today, he left Beijing and went south again. You see..."
"Well, I understand, let him go!"
She shouldn't have said anything at first, but Wuchan still had some weight in the emperor's heart, so she hesitated and spoke anyway.
"Your Majesty, you can be said to be extremely benevolent to the Cao family, but are their actions a bit..."
Chu Zheng pulled himself out from the pile of memorials. Seeing the relaxed look on his face, he must have finished reviewing all the memorials.
"You don't understand this. As the saying goes, good birds choose trees to roost in, and wise ministers choose their masters to serve. And wise ministers have their own way of judging whether the current emperor is a wise king. So, in this case, Cao Huabin, a wise minister, wants to
It is understandable to test whether I am a wise monarch, and I can stand his test! Let him go to Jiangnan! He will come back on his own in half a year at most!"