Chapter 27 How could I have such a foolish son?
"Put on your mother!"
Ying Chengjiao lifted up the table and smashed it, knocking over several tables and banquets.
These guests dodged in a hurry, and some of them had oil and wine splashed on their clothes, and their faces were all pale.
"Ying Chengjiao! Do you want to be our enemy?"
"This is not the Chang'an Palace! This is not the place for you to act wildly!"
"If it weren't for your majesty protecting you, there would be no Chang'an Lord in Qin today!"
The most angry one was a burly man wearing a green knight's robe and with a big iron hammer at his feet.
He was nine feet tall, had a full beard, and looked fierce. He looked twice as strong as the thin Ying Chengjiao.
"This is too much!"
The burly man slammed the table hard, and a crack appeared on the solid wooden table, spreading out along the place where his palm landed.
If there hadn't been someone stopping him, the burly man would have used his sandbag-sized fist to give Ying Chengjiao a good beating.
"Brother Zhang, you can't do that! Qin is not like Yan! If there is a private fight outside, the first person to start will be sentenced to six months in prison!"
The nobleman next to the burly man crossed his arm to stop him.
"It was obviously this guy who started it first! How can you say that I started it first!" The burly man shouted with an indignant look on his face.
"My dear brother Zhang! Chang'an Jun only overturned the table and case, and he needs to pay the government for the table and case fees, but he did not start a private fight!"
The nobleman knocked on the crack on the table and said with a wry smile, "This table costs less than ten coins outside, but it is worth one gold coin in the building. Brother Zhang, please sit down for my expense!"
"What! One gold? Did the Qin State rob us of our money?"
The burly man was very anxious. He came from the countryside, and one gold coin was enough for his family of three in that small village to spend for a month.
Breaking a table required compensation of one gold coin, and he had never heard of such a high price.
"I broke his desk! Just give him a new one as compensation! Why did I waste a gold coin?"
Ying Chengjiao hugged the stunned female steward into his arms, and said to the burly man with a sidelong glance: "Let you, a Yan person, know that Qin is not a lawless place like Yan. Qin is governed by law, and Qin law is supreme! Qin law stipulates: If you break a table or a desk, you will be fined one gold coin, one less, one more, and you won't be compensated with a new table or desk! If you don't want to pay, go to Mount Li to repair the mausoleum for two months!"
"Then I will go to Mount Li to build a tomb for two months!" The burly man's voice was like thunder. He would rather be sentenced to prison than let the young master pay.
The nobleman took a deep breath, pulled the burly man hard, and gave him a stern look.
Strangely enough, the burly man who was just full of righteous indignation suddenly looked embarrassed and stopped talking when facing this nobleman whose thighs were not as thick as his arms.
The noble young man bowed to Ying Chengjiao.
"Please forgive me, Lord Chang'an. This is my nature as a brother. I would like to apologize to Lord Chang'an on behalf of Brother Zhang."
"Well, you're not bad, unlike these idiots. What's your name?"
"The surname is Zhang, and the given name is Zi."
"Zhang Zi?"
"Exactly."
The word "Zi" is the highest praise for contemporary literati and a respectful title.
The young man in front of me is named "Zi", which is extremely rare.
"Your parents have high expectations of you." Ying Chengjiao said sincerely.
When parents give their children this kind of name, they definitely hope that their child will have the character "Zi" in his or her name in the future.
There are countless literati in the world, but how many of them can obtain the word "Zi"?
How could the guests who were hit by the bullets stand watching Ying Chengjiao chatting here?
One of the guests had an angry face and said to the female steward lying in Ying Chengjiao's arms: "Steward! Are you determined to favor Ying Chengjiao today?"
…
At the same time, in Xianyang City, on a street not far from the tower, the young scholar Zhang Ping said angrily: "Teacher! Are you determined to favor Ying Chengjiao today?"
The young scholar beside Zhang Ping had a sullen look on his face. There was only a scabbard on his waist but no sword.
When the two commanders led them away from the tower, it was as if they were fleeing, and they didn't even have time to pick up the young scholar's sword.
Seeing that the two teachers seemed to have not heard anything and were only focused on leading them to walk away, the young scholar could not help but complain, "Confucius said that a scholar must be broad-minded and resolute. Confucius taught us to be brave and resolute. How can the teachers lead us to escape from the battlefield?"
The two older Confucian scholars still ignored them, and with gloomy faces, they hurried on their way with the two students.
The four of them walked quickly until they arrived at a mansion, knocked on the door and entered the courtyard.
The two elderly scholars watched the door close and looked at each other. Suddenly, their two sullen faces started laughing, and the laughter got louder and louder, and they couldn't stop at all.
“Hahahahahahaha!”
“Hahahahahahaha!”
Zhang Ping, the young scholar, had no idea what the two teachers were laughing at.
What's so funny about being bullied by that brat?
The two teachers were either laughing out of anger or suffering from hysteria!
Looking at his disciples' faces full of indignation and resentment, the middle-aged Confucian scholar held back his smile.
"Junior brother, I will go report this to Brother Chunyu, and you come and help these two children solve their puzzles."
"Hahahahahaha! Brother, just go ahead!"
The older scholar was in a mess, but he was still laughing heartily and couldn't stop.
This mansion was the gathering place for Confucian students to discuss academic matters and exchange political views. The owner was Chunyu Yue.
"Teacher, what are you laughing at?"
"Uncle Master, please help us solve our doubts!"
Seeing the two children getting anxious, the older scholar stroked his greasy beard and shook his head, saying, "Let me ask you, why did the four of us go to the tower?"
"Show that bastard his true colors! He is not worthy of annotating the Analects!"
"Let Ying Chengjiao lose his moral integrity! Never slander my Confucian classics again!"
"Yes, so, have you figured it out?" the older Confucian scholar asked.
Zhang Ping and the young Confucian scholar were still confused and couldn't figure it out no matter how hard they tried.
What do you want to understand?
That damned slave minister voluntarily lay there, but Ying Chengjiao's morality was not affected.
Instead, we were the ones who were splashed with oily vegetable leaves and had to flee in embarrassment.
The older scholar waited expectantly for a few minutes, but seeing that the two children in front of him still couldn't say anything, he couldn't help but label them as "not smart enough" in his mind.
"Well, you don't have to guess anymore. I'll tell you. The Analects of Confucius says: "It's not about the target, it's about strength. This is the ancient way." This sentence means that in archery, it's enough to shoot through the target, not how much strength you have. This is the ancient and modern truth."
"We say that he doesn't treat people as human beings because we want to say that he has low moral character and to make Ying Chengjiao lose his qualification to annotate the Analects. Why do you want to put the cart before the horse and insist on arguing about his not treating people as human beings? He beat us in public and did such rude things to us. Isn't this also a manifestation of low moral character?"
After listening to the explanation of the older Confucian scholar, Zhang Ping and the young Confucian scholar suddenly realized and realized that they had achieved their goal without realizing it.
Zhang Ping's eyes sparkled as he said, "We didn't fight back, which means that this was a one-sided atrocity by that brat! We left in a hurry because we were afraid that he would react and lure us into attacking, which would cause more changes!"
The older scholar stroked his beard with satisfaction, and his evaluation of Zhang Ping changed to "slightly intelligent".
"This young man is teachable!"
…
Zhangtai Palace.
The First Emperor Ying Zheng was so angry at Ying Fusu that one Buddha was born and two Buddhas ascended to heaven.
"This child is incorrigible!"
Gai Nie, standing at the door, resisted the urge to turn around and chop Ying Fusu with a sword, and silently added a sentence in his heart.
A rotten wood cannot be carved!
No matter what Emperor Qin Shi Huang said, he could not change Ying Fusu's inner thoughts.
Ying Fusu stubbornly believed that only when everyone is well would things be truly good, and that the Zhou rituals should be restored, the country should be governed by rituals, and the world should be brought into harmony.
Using harsh laws to constrain civilians is wrong, should be rejected, and is cruel.
In Ying Fusu's opinion, how should the country be governed?
If someone steals, let him know that stealing is wrong. If everyone else does not steal and has high moral character, but he is the only one who steals, then he will feel guilty, correct his behavior, and stop stealing.
"The country you envision is impossible to realize! Where there are people, there will be selfishness! There will be fighting! Not everyone in this world can be a saint!"
"When people are born, their nature is good. Natures are close, but habits make them different. All people are born pure and good. The reason why people fight with each other later is because of the influence of the environment. Historical records say that Duke Zhou created the Zhou Li, and the people followed it and loved others as they loved themselves. The Zhou State 800 years ago could do it, so what can't the Qin State do?"
Ying Zheng was furious.
"I told you! The History of Zhou is a lie! Much of what it says is not true!"
"This is my father's prejudice!"
"You rebellious son! I will kill you!"
Ying Zheng was furious. He jumped up, took down the Qin King's sword from the wall, drew the sword out of its sheath and slashed at Ying Fusu.
The sword stopped an inch away from Ying Fusu's neck. Ying Zheng angrily asked, "Why don't you hide?"
"If a father orders his son to die, how can he avoid it?"
My father wants me to die, why should I hide?
Reaching out and gently pushing away the Qin King's sword from his neck, Ying Fusu stood up straight.
Seeing this, Ying Zheng sneered: "Rebellious son! Your words and deeds are inconsistent! You are afraid of death!"
Ying Fusu shook his head.
"I stood up not because I was afraid of death, but because I was afraid that my father's reputation would be ruined because of me. If I died in Zhangtai Palace, at the hands of my father, people would say that my father was cruel and heartless. I asked my father to let me take a sword and commit suicide in my own bedroom, so that my father's reputation could be preserved."
Ying Zheng was so angry that the Qin Sword in his hand kept shaking!
He could see that every word Ying Fusu said came from the bottom of his heart, but that was precisely why he was so angry!
Die if you say die!
How could I have such a foolish son!
All the efforts of me and Cheng Jiao have been in vain!
Why did I ever choose this rebellious son to inherit the Qin Kingdom?
