Volume 2: Residence in the Capital Chapter 182: Give It to You
In the huge Fengtian Hall, the only sounds seemed to be people's breathing and heartbeats .
When many people heard that Zhang Shou and Lu Sanlang were chosen by the emperor to attend the court meeting, they all planned to take advantage of this opportunity to make trouble. Pioneers like Zhao Shilang and Chen Zhushi also jumped out and made their own powerful speeches. Those who did not catch up in time naturally beat their chests and stamped their feet, feeling that they had missed a great opportunity to become famous.
But at this moment, all those who had regretted before were glad for their caution! Look at Master Chen, his pale face was like a dead person, words once spoken could be spilled, and this was in front of the emperor, there was no chance for him to deny his debt!
Even Weinan Earl Zhang Kang himself was surprised when he saw that the emperor did not take anything out of the box, but ordered Chu Kuan to get a pair of gloves. Even though he thought Zhang Shou had a great chance of unlocking the box, he did not expect it to be so fast and successful in one go! In the silence all around him, he suddenly heard a harsh voice and was immediately furious.
"Your Majesty, how do you know that this is not a conspiracy between the Earl of Weinan and Zhang Shou's students to replace the box..."
The emperor noticed that it was Minister Zhao of the Ministry of War who was speaking, so he interrupted nonchalantly, "You probably don't know that when I was a child, the late emperor gave me this box as a toy, probably hoping that a naughty boy like me could open it by fiddling with it. Unfortunately, I fiddled with it from the age of five until the late emperor passed away when I was eight, a full three years, and I never opened the box."
At this point, a hint of sarcasm appeared on his lips. "So, I know the patterns, shapes, and even scratches of this box very well, because Weinan Bo must have regarded this thing as a treasure and would mess with it casually, just like me, the naughty boy in the palace back then. So, I don't want to hear the word "switch" again, because it means that I am blind."
Minister Zhao blushed and dared not say another word. And Director Chen was even more confused and at a loss, standing there alone, as if he would faint in the next moment.
However, Lu Sanlang looked at those guys who just jumped out to accuse them with a haughty look. While Chu Kuan was still not back, he said sincerely: "Your Majesty, we were able to unlock this box this time because of the idea proposed by the teacher and the principle he explained to everyone. I led the other people in Jiuzhang Hall to check the calculations over and over again, and completed the first half..."
As Lu Sanlang spoke, he raised his head and glanced proudly at the officials around him, talking endlessly about the principles that were actually not that complicated: "Teacher believes that this fourteen-ring text lock may be a very simple shifting process of the poem, shifting the original text backward or forward in the Thousand Character Classic according to a certain rule, and finally forming the shifted ciphertext. What we need to do is to find the corresponding mapping relationship..."
However, the simplicity in his eyes sounded like a mystery to those who had never heard of it. They understood displacement, but what on earth was mapping? Especially when various terms that had never been heard of began to appear later, although some people could pretend to understand without showing their emotions, there were still more people who were very honest and confused.
These confused people soon felt thankful for their honesty, because those who seemed to be thinking about what was being said, or even nodded slightly to show that they understood, were immediately called upon by the emperor to ask questions - no one knew why the emperor could use those complicated terms so fluently, so those who pretended to understand were extremely embarrassed when they were exposed by the emperor that they actually didn't understand anything.
Only Zhang Shou knew that the emperor should have bought all 10 to 20 volumes of Ge's new mathematics long ago, otherwise, the third and fourth princes would not have secretly told him that the emperor was teaching them personally. Therefore, he did not find it strange that the emperor had the ability to expose those who pretended to know something when they did not. Instead, he felt that the emperor was really willful.
Seeing that many people had made a fool of themselves, the emperor said lazily, "To know what you know and to know what you don't know is knowledge. Someone has spoken on behalf of the scholars of the world before, saying that my promotion of Zhang Shou would chill the hearts of the scholars of the world. So this "The Analects of Confucius: On Government" should not have been read by anyone."
Although Minister Zhao was not in the same group as those who pretended to know, he still felt ashamed when the emperor used his original words. At this time, Chu Kuan had already brought the gloves. The emperor put on the silk gloves one by one, and then said without raising his head: "I still remember that someone just now couldn't stand the provocation of the head of Jiuzhang Hall, Lu Zhu, and said that he wanted to give his official position to him?"
If Minister Zhao was just ashamed, then Master Chen could be said to be truly shaky. He made up his mind and gritted his teeth to take off the black gauze hat on his head, but at this moment, he suddenly heard a chuckle.
"Master Chen is such an old man, why would he take the bet with a young boy like Lu Zhu so seriously?"
Zhang Shou glanced at Lu Sanlang as he spoke, warning him not to get carried away. Seeing him, he immediately lowered his head. He had just used the four words "young boy" in Chen Zhushi's original words to tease him, so he said indifferently: "Every profession has its own specialty. Zhao Shilang and Chen Zhushi have read a lot of sage books, but they are laymen in mathematics. In this case, it is not surprising that laymen say layman's words."
Finally, Chen Zhushi was provoked to a rage by Zhang Shou. He subconsciously pulled out the hairpin that fixed his black gauze hat and threw this official hat, which he always valued most, directly to the ground. But at this moment, he heard the emperor suddenly shout in surprise.
"What's this?"
Zhang Shou had just stood up to confront Minister Zhao and Minister Chen, so his position was no longer as far back as it was at the beginning. When he looked up, he was shocked by the thing in the emperor's hand. If he was not dazzled, it seemed to be a... watch? And then, his first reaction was that Emperor Taizu must have come in person, otherwise how could he have such a thing?
The emperor curiously looked at the watch, up and down, left and right, and even shook it a few times. Finally, he put it down with some disappointment, and then carefully took out a piece of paper from the box. But what caught his eye was the words that he had seen many times in the ancient and modern collections, but they were like incomprehensible books. Then the second piece, the third piece... the whole stack was the same.
At this moment, he no longer had any doubt that the box came from Taizu.
But he couldn't understand what he had tried so hard to find, so he naturally lost interest. However, facing the ministers with different expressions, he still smiled and said with ease: "Zhang Qing, when the teacher knows that you are better than me, he will be very happy. You have been teaching in Jiuzhang Hall for such a short time, but you have been able to lead them to solve such a difficult problem. You have really lived up to my expectations."
As he spoke, he glanced at Lu Sanlang, who stood up straight and had a smug look on his face, and said casually, "As for Lu Zhu, you were brave enough to criticize the Second Prince for his absurd behavior in public. In addition, you helped your teacher to unlock the box, and you did a good job as the head of the temple. Not to mention that I will give you a calligraphy painting on your wedding day, I will even be the guest of honor in person."
Before the ministers could get excited, the emperor changed his tone and said, "But if I go, your father, teacher, and ancestor's limelight will probably be completely snatched away by me, so I won't join in the fun, and I'll save others from endless persuasion! I got a piece of top-quality white jade paperweight before, so I'll give it to you! Each student of Jiuzhang Hall will be given an ingot of good ink and a piece of white paper. During the period of imprisonment, they will be given six stone of rice per year."
"I thank the emperor very much, and I would like to thank the emperor on behalf of the students of Jiuzhang Hall." Lu Sanlang was overjoyed and quickly bowed to express his gratitude. After he stood up, he happily bowed to Zhang Shou beside him and said in a very sincere tone, "Thank you, teacher!"
Zhang Shou had never thought of Lu Sanlang as a well-behaved kid, but now that he saw him showing respect for his teacher in public, he smiled and said, "Lu Zhu, you should thank your father. He gave birth to you, raised you, and arranged a good marriage for you. You should not forget such a kind father."
After thanking the emperor for his kindness, the fat son went to thank his teacher. Lu Wan felt angry and disappointed, and felt very uncomfortable. But when he heard Zhang Shou flatter him, Lu Sanlang turned around and thanked him again in the hall. He finally felt calm and couldn't help but reflect on whether he had been too biased towards his youngest son in the past.
But then, he almost got angry. Because he saw Lu Sanlang smiling and sincerely apologizing to Liu Shilang of the Ministry of Works: "Liu Shilang, I was impulsive last night and my words and actions were not careful, which gave outsiders the opportunity to question you and your daughter. It's all my fault. I apologize to you."
Although the marriage with the Lu family had been almost finalized, Minister Liu was still a little nervous - in order to prevent his bewildered wife from getting involved in the royal family's affairs, he had to cut the Gordian knot - but the story his daughter told him last night when she returned home in humiliation made him feel more favorable towards his future son-in-law despite his shock and anger.
Today, when Lu Sanlang spoke freely in the court, he completely dispelled his last doubts; it was okay to be fat, as long as he was healthy, but character and temperament were things that could not be changed! So, seeing his future son-in-law being respectful, he could not help but feel very relieved, and almost said, "A good son-in-law, there is no need to be polite."
The emperor watched as Lu Sanlang flattered his teacher and then tried to flatter his future father-in-law, and he began to laugh unconsciously. He looked down at the box in his hand, and suddenly an idea came to him, so he smiled and said, "As for Mr. Zhang, I just promoted you, but it is not easy for me to promote you again. Since this box is an item left by Taizu and you opened it, it is destined for you, so I will give it to you!"
Zhang Shou was stunned at first, then quickly suppressed all his emotions and bowed to express his gratitude. But when Chu Kuan came to Zhang Shou with the box in his hand, facing the surprised or envious eyes of many officials, the emperor suddenly asked: "Lu Sanlang just told me your idea, so can you tell me what the two lines of poetry that Emperor Taizu set up back then are?"
"The first line is, Xuanfu is still afraid of the younger generation." Zhang Shou paused, then said calmly, "As for the second line, everyone in the Jiuzhang Hall tried their best but still couldn't come up with a line. Then I had an idea and asked Lu Zhu to ask Weinan Bo. He found a lot of poems that were only one word short of the Thousand Character Classic. In the end, Lu Zhu and I were lucky enough to come up with it."
"So, the second sentence is, I was born with talent and it will be useful! It's not the "cai" in Li Bai's original sentence, but the "cai" in "talent."
I don’t know whether Taizu made a mistake when he set the code, or he deliberately used a wrong word!
