Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 116 Donglin also wants to publish a newspaper (V)
"Brother Guojun, all the teachers and students in the school are signing a petition and are preparing to protest at the Nanjing Censorate. Will our class 38 join us?"
"Of course we should participate. But I think the children are still young, so we teachers should just step in to deal with this kind of thing."
"Brother Guojun, what you said makes sense. There are two grades in the school, more than 2,000 students. If they go out on the street together, wouldn't it be heartbreaking if someone gets hurt in the crowd?"
"Well, I agree with what Brother Huang said. Then let the students sign. I will go to the school affairs department later and propose that the students will not participate in this trip to the Censorate."
Zhang Yicheng was the Imperial Censor of Yingtian, and also the chief priest of Fangshan School (Zhu Youdong was the principal, but he was not in charge of the school). He was kind and meticulous. As a child of a scholarly family, he naturally had a different passion for running a school. So in the past year, he had put in a lot of effort in Fangshan School, which was seen and admired by everyone in Zhu Youdong's group.
At the same time, he was the top scholar in the imperial examination and was the best at writing eight-part essays. He never refused any teacher from Fangshan School who asked him for advice on how to write eight-part essays. In the end, he even held regular lectures for school teachers. Therefore, for those old scholars and students in Fangshan School who were limited by their family background and never received guidance from famous teachers, and thus wasted decades in the imperial examinations without making any progress, Zhang Jijiu was not only a leader at work, but also a mentor in academics.
After he was forced to write a self-defense at home, the teachers and students of Fangshan School were immediately outraged: This is too much! It would be fine if you, the high and mighty masters, took all the benefits. But you even took away the only hope for us poor people!
Great! You won't let us have an easy life, right? Then let's fight to the death! So one person started it, and thousands of people responded. The teachers and students of Fangshan School began to organize themselves spontaneously, writing petitions and organizing all the teachers and students in the school to sign. Some were even more radical, encouraging all the teachers and students in the school to go to Nanjing City and besiege the Censorate!
Just when the whole school was in a state of outrage and chaos, the night watchmen and other staff members of the school came out holding gongs and said, "Your Highness, the Crown Prince, has ordered, Your Highness, has ordered, all Your Highness, has ordered..."
Fangshan, above the halfway point are various laboratories, and at the foot of the mountain, facing Nanjing, are various production plants . In the other direction is Fangshan School. Since the teachers and students of the school spontaneously connected, Yang Tingyun in the school laboratory quickly sent a messenger to report to Zhu Youdong. After Zhu Youdong received the news, he immediately boarded the ship and rushed to Fangshan: this is his foundation, and he cannot afford to be negligent!
…
"Dear teachers, this is Mr. Zhang's current situation. In short, Mr. Zhang is not in any serious condition now. It's just that he has been impeached too many times and has to write a self-defense at home. So, it won't be long before Mr. Zhang comes back. Please stay calm and don't organize students to take to the streets!"
"Your Highness! Are there not many ministers in this dynasty who have had to submit their resignations due to too many impeachments ? Will Mr. Zhang also be forced to retire?"
"Don't worry, Mr. Zhang has not submitted his resignation to me. Even if he did, I would never accept it!"
"Your Highness is wise. But what if those bastards keep pestering us? Mr. Zhang is such a good man, he can't just stay at home and write his own defense, right?"
"Everyone, please be patient. I will never let this happen. But!" Zhu Youdong waved his hand and knocked on the table with the proximal inter-knuckle joints of the back of his hand: "I am the headmaster of Fangshan School. Whatever you say and do outside is related to me! I heard that you are colluding in private and are going to petition the Censorate to support Mr. Zhang. However, once you do this, the rumors that the monarch is forcing his subjects will inevitably spread. Do you want to put me in a difficult situation?"
"…Your Highness, we have absolutely no such intention."
"There are many people in this world who mean well but do bad things! I know you don't want to harm me, and even the censors in the Censorate know what your true intentions are. But once you do this, the result will inevitably be that all the officials in the court will rush to impeach me! I may have no choice but to return to Beijing in disgrace, or even be deposed as the crown prince. Do you want to see that happen?"
"…Your Highness, we dare not. Your Highness is our adopted parent and that of the more than 2,000 children in the school. How can we be willing to have your future damaged?"
"That's it. So, I'm begging you all to comfort the students. You must be patient at this moment!" After saying this, Zhu Youdong stood up and bowed deeply: "I'm begging you all."
"Your Highness, this is serious. We will obey your orders and will not cause any trouble for you. I only hope that your Highness can settle this matter as soon as possible and let Zhang Jijiu return to school as soon as possible."
The meeting was over. The teachers who were so angry just now were all sweating coldly: Damn, these Donglin guys were officials after all, and their tactics are different from ours. It turns out that their target is not Mr. Zhang at all, but the crown prince! If we are not yelled at by the crown prince, then the crown prince will be transferred back to Beijing?
After realizing this, the anger in my heart burned even more fiercely: MD, you really want to kill us all! Zhang Jijiu can't do anything for the time being. We just can't get guidance in eight-legged essays. But on the one hand, we are all in our 40s and it doesn't matter if we can't take the imperial examination. On the other hand, even if Zhang Zhuangyuan is gone, we still have several Jinshi scholars. They can still come to guide us in an emergency.
But what if the grandson is gone? This school will be completely ruined! This is where everyone lives now. Besides, if the school is gone, what will happen to these children? Will they wander the streets and starve to death again?
These damn people from Donglin Academy are so evil!
In the terrible silence, Li Guojun and Zhang Wenhua walked towards their classroom with gloomy faces.
After the two men walked for a while, Zhang Wenhua said, "If the crown prince is transferred back to Beijing, I will go to the Censorate with a knife and kill one to cover my losses, and kill two to make a profit."
"Brother Wenhua is going to the Censorate, and I will go to the Donglin Academy!"
After looking at each other, they both burst into laughter, and their previous depression seemed to be swept away.
"Teacher Li, Teacher Li Guojun."
"I am Li Guojun. What does this eunuch want to ask me for?"
"Ahem, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has already left the mountain, but Eunuch Cao Huachun has not left yet. I would like to invite Teacher Li and Teacher Zhang to get together now."
…
The two returned to the meeting place and were led by the eunuch into a small room next to the meeting hall. When they went in, they saw that they were all teachers of the top three classes in the grade at the end of last year.
"Please take a seat. This is an emergency, and the situation is dire. We will not discuss formalities."
"Yes, please tell me what I need, sir."
"I need to ask you to do something. Well, I have to make it clear first. These things are all ideas that I came up with by myself and have nothing to do with the Crown Prince. If something goes wrong in the future, you can push the responsibility onto me! Even if I am called back to Beijing by the Emperor and beaten to death, I will have no complaints. However, if some shameless lunatic insists on saying that this was the Crown Prince's idea, before I am beaten to death, I will ask the East Factory to kill your entire family first!"
"Please give us your orders, sir! If we can do our part for Zhang Jijiu and the school, even if you want us to be beaten to death, we will just say, 'We appreciate your advice!'"
"Good! You are indeed a teacher from our Fangshan! Teachers, we can do this and that..."
