Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 692 Questioning
He had been very aggressive when he was shouting in the Jiangdu Palace, but when he really stood in front of the emperor in the East Warm Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace, the fourth prince was as quiet and honest as a quail. After all, his father's eyes were like knives, piercing his face, and his brother, the third prince, had a look full of reproach.
Even Zhang Shou could hear some complicated emotions in the emperor's tone besides anger: "I asked you to come back, but you ignored me. But your teacher brought you back, and you obeyed!"
“Your Majesty, the Fourth Prince seemed to have acted impulsively this time. Not only did he contradict Chief Hong Shan in the street, he also took away those guards, which led to the farce that spread throughout the capital. However…” Zhang Shou heard the emperor’s implication in his words and had to stand up and explain for the Fourth Prince.
After a pause, he continued, "Actually, I don't want to plead for him, because he made a bunch of pretentious and twisted arguments in front of me in the carriage before."
He repeated the nonsense that the Fourth Prince had said in the carriage in front of the Emperor and the Crown Prince. Seeing that the Fourth Prince was bowing his head deeply, and he didn't know if his eyes were rolling around, he smiled and said, "But these lies were most likely told to the coachman and the guards of the Sharp Cavalry Battalion outside. To be honest, I don't know how much truth there is in them."
The fourth prince raised his head in a hurry, but when he met Zhang Shou's cold gaze, he immediately shrank back. When he heard what Zhang Shou said next, he became even more panicked.
"When I was at the Jiangdu Palace, I claimed that he was forbidden to speak, otherwise he would be punished with a ruler if he said a word. As a result, he must have said hundreds of words on the way, and most of them were nonsense. Fourth Prince, tell me, should he be punished?"
“I…I…”
He stuttered out two words, and seeing that his father and brother were looking at him with very clear anger, the fourth prince finally felt extremely aggrieved, and finally said angrily: "This morning when I was in Ciqing Palace, I saw Madam Hong gave a letter to the crown prince and the third brother. I heard her say that Hong Shanchang might write a letter to speak for the second brother, so I was unhappy. After seeing this old stubborn man, of course I wanted to embarrass him!"
"But I really saw the followers of my eldest and second brothers before... Third brother, you have seen them too! They are not the followers who do chores in the other courtyard. One is the one who serves the second brother's pen and ink, named Mo Hai, and the other one was once my eldest brother's bodyguard, and I think his last name is Shi! I am definitely not wrong. If you don't believe me, you can send people to search the whole city, and you will definitely find these two people!"
Faced with such an answer, Zhang Shou was finally speechless.
The next moment, he saw the Third Prince's face full of shame and embarrassment, as if he deeply regretted that his conversation with Hong was heard by the Fourth Prince. He, who had been standing beside the Emperor, actually retreated to the front of the Emperor, lifted the hem of his clothes, knelt down and bowed his head to apologize. Although he wanted to say that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was not cautious enough, when he saw the Emperor's eyes, he decided not to speak.
As expected, the angry emperor slammed the table and stood up, then shouted at the fourth prince word by word: "Since you said you have the ability to remember everyone you see, then I will pick two people at random for you to take a look, and then mix them with hundreds of people for you to recognize. If you can't recognize them, what's the problem?"
"Then I will let you do whatever you want!" The fourth prince looked up, his face showing great satisfaction. "Even if you smash my palm as the teacher said, I will accept it! But before that, shouldn't you check the two people around my elder brother and second brother first? I remember that after they were dismissed, they were forbidden to stay in the capital!"
Seeing the emperor's face turning pale with anger at the Fourth Prince's words, Zhang Shou suddenly asked, "Your Majesty, I have a few words to say to the Fourth Prince alone. Can you allow me to take him out?"
The emperor felt so suffocated that he raised his finger and said, "Take this kid away and ask whatever you want! I will immediately order someone to bring a few hundred people over. I want to see how much this kid can talk nonsense!"
Zhang Shou quickly bowed and agreed. The next moment, he stepped forward and grabbed the Fourth Prince, whose face was turning pale, and then winked at the Third Prince. The Third Prince was a little confused at first, but when he saw Zhang Shou dragging people out, he hurried forward to comfort his father who was obviously angry, but he was extremely uneasy in his heart, thinking about the Fourth Prince and wondering what Zhang Shou wanted to do.
Zhang Shou directly dragged the Fourth Prince out of the Qianqing Palace, wrapped him tightly in a cloak, wrapped himself in one as well, and walked out along the corridor surrounded by white jade railings, holding the child's hand.
When he almost reached the midpoint between Qianqing Gate and Qianqing Palace, he looked back and saw Ah Liu standing not far away. A few dozen steps away were the guards standing in front of Qianqing Gate. He stopped, then let go of his hand, looked at the naughty child in front of him and said, "You are willing to destroy your own reputation and put the first and second princes to death to eliminate future troubles?"
"I didn't!" The fourth prince was like a cat whose tail was stepped on. He was furious and said, "Teacher, how can you say that!"
"Then what do you want me to say? Agree that you have a photographic memory and are the best at recognizing faces? Do you think your little tricks can be hidden from your father? How old do you think your father is? He has been sitting on the throne for twenty-seven years, and you are playing such a trick on him?"
A few rhetorical questions suddenly came to him, and the Fourth Prince's eyes finally turned red.
He had cried before in the Jiangdu Palace, and his eyes were filled with tears when he argued in front of his father, but that was all pretense and acting. He did not really feel wronged at all. But at this moment he was really anxious and scared.
He subconsciously grabbed the corner of Zhang Shou's clothes, not caring that he was already in tears, and asked hurriedly: "Father, you won't guess, right? I just... I just can't accept it. Why have they been so arrogant and domineering for so many years, and now there are only rumors of a shipwreck, and we don't know whether it's true or not. How come it seems like they are being wronged all of a sudden!"
"I heard someone say today...I heard someone say that the Emperor wants to bring the eldest brother back!"
The Fourth Prince finally stopped pretending and directly used the name he used most in private, "Otherwise, how could he and the people around the Second Prince be in the capital! That's right, I didn't recognize them on the spot. Someone tipped me off. I left the palace today to go to the place they mentioned, but I didn't expect to actually see them!"
"They thought I couldn't recognize them hiding in the crowd... Bah, I have engraved every person around the eldest and second brothers in my heart, and I am always on guard against their mischief! Teacher, don't talk about repaying evil with kindness, I don't want to hear it. I only know that the reason why the third brother almost died of typhoid fever a few years ago was because the second brother stuffed a snowball into his collar when he went to see the deposed queen!"
"He did it on purpose! He knew that the third brother was weak, and when he was dying, he still didn't allow me to tell the emperor. I didn't listen to him, I went straight to complain. But the second brother still didn't admit it, and everyone around him didn't admit it. If the emperor didn't believe me, maybe the deposed queen would have framed me for falsely accusing my brother!"
"It is because of this that I have become a snitch since then. But because I keep complaining about everything, the eldest and second brothers can only glare at me fiercely at most, but they dare not really do anything! Because the emperor said clearly that if there is really any problem between me and the third brother, don't blame him for going crazy!"
"So, don't say that the second brother's life or death is unknown at the moment. If the news of his death was known, I would want to set off a string of firecrackers to celebrate! I don't want to call this kind of person the second brother! He doesn't deserve to be the elder brother!"
The naughty child blurted out this series of words like a machine gun, tears flying all over the place, but his eyes showed an extremely ferocious look. Zhang Shou didn't know whether he should be angry or amused.
After a moment's silence, he reached into his sleeves, wiped the man's face with his only handkerchief, and then threw the dirty thing to the ground.
"There is a sentence in the Analects of Confucius: 'Someone asked, 'How about repaying a grievance with virtue?' Confucius said, 'How do you repay virtue? Repay a grievance with justice, and repay virtue with virtue.' Confucius, who is a saint, said this, and you actually think I would agree to repay a grievance with virtue? When has your teacher ever repaid a grievance with virtue? If someone offends me, I will fight back if I can, but if I can't..."
"That's certainly a gentleman's revenge, from morning till night!"
The Fourth Prince immediately raised his head, his eyes revealing a look of surprise and joy, but then Zhang Shou flicked his finger heavily on his forehead.
"But there are many kinds of revenge. If someone verbally offends you, then you should retaliate. If someone does something to offend you, then you should do it in return. However, if you want to do something in return, then you should at least do it in the name of justice. For example, I asked Lu Sanlang to sell the technology of the new spinning wheel to the eldest prince at a high price, and then he presented it to the emperor."
"Did he suffer a loss? But what can he do? All he can do is to hold his nose and ask to go to Cangzhou to promote the product. What's the result? He only cared about making money, hurting the people, provoking civil unrest, and completely pitting himself! Of course, Zhang Chen also pushed him. But no matter what, he took the initiative to jump in, and I didn't frame him!"
"You can tell your father clearly that you found that the people around your elder brother and second brother did not leave the capital and are still hanging around. Wouldn't your father send people to track them down? But you insist on blaming these two people for the beating of Hong Shanchang. Tell me yourself, isn't this a waste of time to play tricks and frame them?"
"Even if you are calculating against others, your heart must be right. Only in this way can the tactics you use catch people off guard, rather than relying solely on slander and framing others, which makes it impossible for them to defend themselves. For example, if I question you repeatedly at this moment, you will immediately be defeated and have no power to resist!"
"Slander and rumor-mongering can be classified as a media offensive. From ancient times to the present, countless dignitaries have often used this trick to spread news and bring down political opponents with fabricated and unfounded information. However, a good swimmer drowns in the water. How many people have been brought down by this trick? Of course, you are a little cunning in spreading rumors."
"Your story is nine true and one false. Because as long as others find out that the two people in the capital are real, they will naturally think that the rest are also true, and the false can even become true. There is nothing better than this. But no matter what, others are instructing others to charge into battle, while you are behind the scenes planning and strategizing. What about you? You actually spread rumors yourself? Are you stupid?"
The Fourth Prince listened in a daze. He felt that he understood, but also felt that he did not understand.
If it were the teachers who taught him and his third brother, they would have warned him to be gentle, respectful, frugal and modest and not to use such low-level tricks when they were angrily scolding him for these little tricks. However, Zhang Shou told him that low-level tricks should not be used and that if he wanted to use them, he should use high-level tricks.
But in his impression, every time he was attacked, the teacher seemed to fight back directly, and never played these high-end tricks on others. But thinking about it, it doesn't make sense. The time when he tricked the eldest prince, the teacher was quite cunning!
Seeing that the Fourth Prince was completely confused, Zhang Shou reached out and touched the little guy's cold forehead, then said lightly: "There are many calculating and shrewd people in this world, and there is always someone better. I heard a little from my teachers, but I haven't learned much. So I don't like to keep it to myself, I prefer to report it immediately. I can't learn those advanced ones."
"What about you? You are young and thoughtful. I can understand your hatred for your third brother, wanting to trample your old enemy to death. But why don't you think about the fact that the eldest and second brothers you mentioned are also sons of your father?"
"In the beginning, I drove them out of the capital out of disappointment. For a father, that was not only a painful decision, but also a heartbreaking one. So the more you mess around, the more likely it is that your father will regard you as a rebellious son like the eldest and second brothers you mentioned. Your eldest and second brothers have already made him heartbroken once, are you going to do it again?"
"I remember my teacher once sang a song to me." Zhang Shou smiled slightly, and sang softly, picking up a passage from a once popular song that could easily be misunderstood, "When I was little, I thought you were very impressive, and your words were earth-shattering. When I grew up, I became you."
"When I grow up, I will become you. Zheng Yan, I only have one question for you: do you want to become the person you once hated the most?"
The fourth prince's face finally turned pale. That's right, he had seen the eldest and second princes speak, and many people rushed to their front and back, and many ministers smiled and flattered them. He used to think that was very impressive and majestic, and he also wanted to be like them. But didn't the eldest and second brothers fail in the end? Was he going to repeat the same mistake?
The naughty kid finally lowered his head and sobbed again: "No, I don't want to!"
