Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 569: If you don’t want others to know, then don’t do it yourself
If the people from the Imperial Household Department were still near the hall, they would definitely be confused after hearing this. Setting off to the south is called "on the journey", and if the Second Prince gets into trouble and dies, it is also called "on the journey". How can Ge Yong , a great and learned imperial teacher, speak so unrefinedly?
Chu Kuan's answer to Ge Yong's simple question was delayed. After staring at Ge Yong for a long time, he finally laughed and said, "Even if the Second Prince wants to leave, he will probably have to wait until the Crown Prince is crowned. Otherwise, if he makes a scene on the way, wouldn't that be looking for trouble? But when exactly, of course, it's up to the Emperor to decide."
"hehe."
Ge Yong laughed twice with ambiguous meanings, and said lightly: "It turns out that the second prince has to wait so long before he can set off. The journey to Qiongzhou is long and the mountains are high. The old salted fish that Jiu Zhang knew before set off a little faster. The emperor was still worried that he would escape with the prisoners Xian Yunhe. If the second prince takes a boat from Tianjin, there will be problems halfway..."
He paused deliberately and glanced at Chu Kuan nonchalantly, not afraid of saying something taboo: "For example, the ship sank, encountered pirates, or was infected with malaria by coincidence..."
Before he finished speaking, Chu Kuan, who had been very calm, could not help but change his expression: "What does the old master mean by this? When the Second Prince travels, even if he is convicted, he will naturally bring enough guards, at least two imperial doctors with him!"
Although Zhang Shou had thought of bringing doctors with him to Xian Yunhe and others in Qiongzhou Prefecture, the medical skills of the time were too poor. Logically speaking, it was not surprising that Chu Kuan thought of equipping the second prince with an imperial physician. However, Ge Yong did not believe that anyone would be so kind and well-intentioned!
"What do you mean?" He raised his eyebrows, and his tone, which had seemed nonchalant just now, suddenly became a little sharper. "The deposed empress... more accurately, Concubine Jing, has been in a very bad state since she moved out of Kunning Palace. Some people even say that she is half crazy and half insane? Some people may think that she is just pretending to be crazy, but maybe she is really crazy?"
Chu Kuan's expression, which had just changed suddenly, returned to normal at this moment. He did not engage in verbal battles with Ge Yong again, but simply remained silent. However, after retiring, Master Ge, who had always been kind to others and at most quarreled with old friends and students, did not let it go this time just because of his silence, but chuckled again.
"Concubine Jing probably won't live long. The eldest and second princes are probably not much better off either. They will die any day. Some people may think that this will eliminate future troubles. After all, the emperor is in his prime, and the concubines in the palace are not incapable of giving birth. Look, Concubine Yu is old and pregnant, and perhaps more princes and princesses will be born in the future."
"Since the emperor has plenty of children, what's the point of keeping the mother and her two children? Are we going to repeat the scene when Emperor Yingzong seized the throne? Emperor Yingzong was still a capable and wise ruler. As for the eldest and second princes, they will only benefit some ambitious conspirators!"
Chu Kuan finally smiled after hearing this calmly. "Old Master, you are over-speculating. Even if they are the deposed queen and the guilty prince, they were once the queen and the emperor's son. Who dares to really ignore them? Who dares to really take their lives? Your Majesty is merciful. Otherwise, if it were any other emperor, no matter whether it was the third prince's biological mother, Concubine He or Concubine Yu, the palace would have already appointed a new queen."
"Who dares to take their lives?"
Ge Yong muttered to himself, then looked at Chu Kuan and said word by word: "Haha, others don't dare, but you do."
Seeing Chu Kuan's face suddenly freeze, Old Master Ge laughed and said, "If you don't want others to know, then don't do it yourself. You can even hide some things from the emperor, let alone an old man like me who is deaf and blind. However, there are still people with discerning eyes in this palace."
"Eunuch Chu, I am the one talking to you this time, but I may not be the same next time. Don't act on your own in the name of doing good for the emperor. If you touch some people and some things, you are crossing the line. Because what you think is good may not be good for others. You grew up in the presence of the empress dowager and the emperor, so there are some things that you don't need an old man like me to remind you of."
Chu Kuan watched Ge Yong quietly as he said this, then turned and left, his face still with that indifferent expression, as if the sudden change in his expression was just an illusion. Only when Ge Yong's back was completely out of sight did he slowly turn around and enter the public hall, and slowly sit down on the seat that belonged to the palm seal.
Before becoming the Imperial Preceptor, Ge Yong had been a Hanlin, and had also broken through the ordinary path to be an Imperial Censor, had killed people, supervised the army, and controlled floods... In short, he was far from being an ordinary person with only a powerful mouth, or a meritorious official with the blessing of his ancestors. However, no matter how powerful Ge Yong was, it was impossible for him to reach out to the Imperial Household Department to investigate his affairs, because the old Imperial Preceptor did not have the time or manpower to do so.
So, just as Ge Yong said, this old man was just a messenger, and there were other people with sharp eyes in the palace.
"Empress Dowager, is that you?" Chu Kuan muttered to himself, and finally sighed deeply. The person who understood him best in this world was not the emperor, because the emperor was always younger than him, and he only saw the most perfect and successful side of him that he deliberately showed. Only the empress dowager who took him home when he was a little kid and raised him was the one who truly understood him.
The Queen Mother knew it clearly, but still went around in circles and asked Ge Yong to warn him. Was this to save face for him, or had the past friendship been wiped out?
Ge Yong repeated to Chu Kuan exactly what someone had told him to say, putting on a serious expression. After leaving the Imperial Household Department, he boarded the sedan chair that he had been reluctant to ride in, in full view of everyone. As for what he had just said to Chu Kuan, he didn't even bother to think about it.
Although he could already guess the truth of many things in the past, he would rather keep them to himself. With this spare time, he might as well go back and think about the Yuan books he had collected from the Gujin Tongjiku in recent days .
If it weren't for Zhang Shou, he would never have thought that the Yuan people, who were better at riding and shooting and fighting, and were busy with internal strife, would have had time to translate so many foreign works - although it is believed that they were translated by masters like Guo Shoujing who were proficient in astronomy and mathematics, or by the Semites who were proficient in arithmetic and foreign languages, the number is still considerable.
However, those books were probably not read by many people during the Yuan Dynasty. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, although they were not destroyed in the war, they were still put aside and left to decay. This dynasty collected these books and put them into the Gujin Tongjiku, but few people were interested in them, even him, because the translation level of those books was very poor, and there were many formulas, so he missed a lot of books even though he often went there.
Fortunately, thanks to Zhang Shou, he has "created" a whole mathematical system. Although the terminology used in "Ge's New Mathematics" is different, the translators of the Yuan Dynasty who translated foreign mathematical classics copied the symbolic mathematical system, so he finally didn't find it so difficult to read. And now he is more certain that the teacher who taught Zhang Shou before him was a master who once traveled overseas!
Having just reminded the emperor, reprimanded Liu Feng, and warned Chu Kuan in the palace, the seemingly unfathomable old master, after leaving the Bei'an Gate of the Imperial City and reuniting with his own carriages and entourage waiting outside the gate, he resolutely and decisively uttered three words: "Go to Zhang Garden!"
After being delayed for a while in the Imperial Household Department, Chu Kuan arrived at Zhang Garden at noon. The weather was not good that day, and the sky was gloomy, but the Zhang family hung up big red lanterns, as if celebrating some happy event. Thinking that the three words "Tiangongfang" should not have been spread so quickly, Ge Yong couldn't help but feel a little puzzled when he got off the car.
He soon learned about the happy event from the cheerful little guy: "Mr. Ge, my young master is on leave today, and Lu Jijiu and Mr. Lu San are here. Before, it was my young master who went to the Liu family to help propose Mr. Lu San's marriage. Now Lu Jijiu said that Mr. Lu San's wedding date has been moved up. On the wedding day, please ask my young master to sit in the chief seat and be a witness in person!"
Ge Yong recognized the young man as Yang Hao, one of the attendants Zhang Shou brought from Rongshui Village. Seeing him smiling at him as if he was very happy, he couldn't help but want to make a joke, saying that this is not your young master getting married, but thinking that Zhang Shou's marriage would be in more than a month, he just laughed it off.
With Lu Wan's skills, there should be many dignitaries who will come to join in the fun. Zhang Shou is so young but he will be the chief seat... That scene is so exciting just to think about it. Of course he can't go, because as soon as he goes, Zhang Shou will definitely give up the chief seat!
Thinking this in his heart, Ge Yong asked with a smile: "Oh? Are Lu Jijiu and his son still here? The little fat guy Lu Sanlang is becoming more and more capable now. I hear his name everywhere I go!"
"Yes, yes!"
Yang Hao enthusiastically led Ge Yong inside, and said happily as he led the way, "Mr. Lu shouted out such good news as soon as he entered the door. He also said that he didn't want to get married before the teacher, but there were only two auspicious days in November, and he was fat and afraid of the cold. Besides, he was afraid that people would find fault with him and say that he was not yet an adult. Oh, yes, he also asked the young master to be his guest of honor!"
Yang Hao's speech was disorganized, while Ge Yong's was obedient and organized - when he heard the word "Zhengbin", his reaction was even greater than when he heard the word "Chief" before.
There is no other reason. Among the six rituals of the wedding, although there are guests who go to the bride's side to deliver various gifts and discuss the wedding date on behalf of the groom's family, they are more like envoys. The master of the wedding must usually be the father or even the elders of the clan. There are only two occasions that require a main guest, that is, the capping ceremony and the hairpin ceremony.
Is Lu Sanlang going to invite teacher Zhang Shou to attend the coming-of-age ceremony and serve as the guest of honor?
He had wanted to make Zhang Shou's ceremony more lively, and then personally crown him and give him a name, but Zhu Ying pointed it out, so he had no choice but to give up. As a result, Fatty Lu got the upper hand! Fatty Lu was the youngest son in the family, and he was not eligible for the imperial favor. In addition, he was not a Jinshi. Although he was praised by the emperor as a prodigal son who turned over a new leaf and received many rewards, he was not able to get a formal rank until this time.
The grand celebration now may not only be the idea of Fatty Lu, but also Lu Wan’s!
Ge Yong thought so in his heart, but his pace quickened a bit. He was extremely curious about what kind of courtesy name Zhang Shou would give to Lu Sanlang. You know, when he was choosing a courtesy name for Zhang Shou, he was really entangled to the extreme, always wanting to make it perfect and put a perfect end to his last disciple.
Now, the person who is troubled should be Zhang Shou, right?
Logically speaking, Zhang Shou, as a student, went to the Ge Mansion more often, while Ge Yong, as a teacher, seldom came to Zhang Garden. But in fact, Old Master Ge came here to hang out quite a lot. Sometimes, even when Zhang Shou was teaching in the Imperial College, he would come, and he would even bring Qi Jingshan and Chu Ying with him, and go straight to Zhang Shou's study as soon as he arrived.
Ge Yong was more familiar with Zhang Shou's study than Zhang Shou himself, as he had come so often. Of course, he also knew that the reason why some things were never moved was probably because Zhang Shou wanted to make it easier for him as a teacher. As for other places in the study, the old man had never touched them, and Qi Jingshan and Chu Ying would never touch them either.
If it weren't for some manuscripts in Zhang Shou's study, which really opened a window for people, Ge Yong suspected that his two old friends might not be embarrassed to follow him! How could they, as a teacher, barge into the study without hesitation?
At this moment, Ge Yong, who was walking hurriedly, had already arrived outside Zhang Shou's study. As for Yang Hao, who was leading the way, he had already been driven away by him halfway to continue guarding the door. Seeing that Ah Liu, who was boxing in the yard, completely ignored him when he saw him, and did not make the slightest sound to inform Zhang Shou, the old man couldn't help but give a thumbs up to the young man in his heart.
Obviously, Zhang Shou's conversation with the Lu father and son did not shy away from talking to people like him!
He stood quietly in front of the door, and heard Lu Sanlang's voice inside: "Really, teacher, a lot of people wrote letters to oppose your appointment as the lecturer of the Eastern Palace, and insisted on deciding the lecturer at the time of the imperial lecture. Weinan Earl Zhang Kang told me that the mountains of memorials from the Ministry of Public Administration are not enough, but the most infuriating thing is that there are people who are planning to collude in the Imperial College..."
Hmm? Ge Yong raised his eyebrows immediately. Are they really going to tear each other apart? Zhou Jijiu and Luo Siye of the Imperial College wouldn't be so stupid, and those students wouldn't be so short-sighted. Is someone behind this? Could it be those unwilling academic officials?
After a moment, he heard Lu Wan's voice: "Doctor Zhang, the third prince is about to be enthroned as the Crown Prince, and the first lecturer appointed by the Emperor is you, and the first batch of tutors appointed are the students of Jiuzhang Hall including Sanlang. From the perspective of outsiders, this is really too partial to the Emperor. It would be fine if Zhou Jijiu Luo Siye of the Imperial College could stand up and support you, but if not..."
"If this place doesn't want me, there are other places that will want me, right?"
Hearing this, Ge Yong understood Lu Wan's hidden meaning and immediately lost interest in listening. He walked forward and pushed open the door of the study. Seeing the three people inside looking at him, he said unhappily, "The Third Prince has personally written a letter insisting that he wants Jiuzhang to be his teacher. Unless those guys are planning to replace the Crown Prince, they are just making a fuss for a while!"
