Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 443: The Confucius Mansion Reacts
“Whirl, whirl.”
Kong Yinzhi quickly flipped through the newspapers of the past few months. In the hot air of the summer heat, his whole body felt colder and colder. In the end, he was shaking like a sieve.
Before traveling through time, Zhu Youdong, as an old bookworm, had read many novels about traveling through time from the Ming Dynasty. In these books, almost all of them were about Kong Yinzhi, as long as they were about the late Ming Dynasty. Although these books described this person as greedy, cruel, shameless, arrogant, stupid, etc. However, in Zhu Youdong's opinion, the first few words may be true, but arrogant is not quite appropriate, and the word "stupid" has nothing to do with Kong Yinzhi.
You know, the fight for the throne in the Yanshenggong Mansion is much more cruel and fierce than the fight for the crown prince in the royal family: if the prince fails in the fight for the throne, he can become a prince, but if the Yanshenggong fails, he will have to become a commoner and will also be retaliated by the successful family!
What's more, the current Yanshenggong Kong Shangxian has no descendants. Kong Yinzhi was able to stand out among so many males in the Kong Mansion. This person's perseverance and black heart need no further explanation.
It would be really strange if such a person, after roughly reading the recent newspapers, still didn't know what the emperor was thinking.
"How could this be? I have been serving my uncle every day, serving him medicine, water and food, and I have no free time at all . But there are so many people in my Kong Mansion, is it true that no one reads the newspaper? Is it true that no one understands the killer move here?"
"Master, what are you talking about? What's the killer move?"
"Hey." Kong Yinzhi immediately reacted and stopped talking: If you still want your servants to work peacefully under such circumstances, you must not let them know that the Kong Mansion is in danger of collapse! Otherwise, I'm afraid Kong Qi will have some evil thoughts in his mind.
As for the thousands of people in the Kong Mansion, their main focus during this period was on Kong Shangxian's health, but it was impossible that there was not even one person reading the newspaper. And the Kong family had a long history of family learning, so it was impossible that no one could see the murderous intent hidden in these articles in the newspaper.
The reason why no one came to remind him was simple: Kong Yinzhi was already in an absolute leading position in the succession dispute. For others, they were destined to be commoners in the future - so why bother? Especially the brothers of the same generation who had fought with Kong Yinzhi in the early stage were even more afraid of the terrible revenge that Kong Yinzhi would bring after he took the throne.
In the eyes of the rest of the Kong family, the emperor wanted to strike at the Kong family, so let's strike. After the strike, will you respect Confucius? You still have to respect Confucius. After all, after repeated reforms, Confucianism is still the theory that best supports the rule of the emperor. As a ruler, how can you just abandon it?
Anyway, Kong Yinzhi is the leader now. He will take charge of any issues. If he can't handle them, then don't we have a chance?
In short, because this was a very sensitive time for the Confucius Mansion, everyone had different plans. Therefore, the Confucius Mansion did not react to the various "provocations" that Zhu Youdong arranged for Zhang Shize to do some time ago.
"I'm going to see my uncle."
After reading the newspaper, Kong Yinzhi made a decision immediately. But when Kong Qi was about to report to Kong Shangxian's personal maid, he immediately stopped Kong Qi and said, "Go and invite all the elders of the Shang generation from the second to the ninth room, as well as the Yin generation, to come over. Let's go and pay respects to uncle together."
"……yes."
Of course, he couldn't go to see Kong Shangxian alone. As the first mansion in China, the Kong Mansion, although it was already decayed and decadent, still retained many old Chinese customs. One of them was that when an elder was sick, even if there were many servants in the house, the children had to personally bring medicine and feed him. The elder's excrement and other things also needed to be taken care of and watched by the children themselves. And all of this, Kong Yinzhi did very well in recent months.
Because he had been serving Kong Shangxian obediently for the past few months, he knew very well that Kong Shangxian's body was already exhausted. If he went to report this matter to Kong Shangxian alone, Kong Shangxian might die of shock and anger. By then, he would be like yellow mud falling into his crotch, and it would be shit if it wasn't shit.
Therefore, we must go together.
As a super family, a real family of wealth and power, it was not easy for the Kong family to gather two generations of adult men. Even if Kong Qi was very capable, by the time everyone was basically there in the morning and gathered outside Kong Shangxian's bedroom, it was already 7 o'clock in the evening.
"...Sir, this is what happened. I think the Emperor's move is not aimed at me alone, but at my Kong Mansion. So, Sir, uncles and brothers, at this time, my Kong family needs to unite as one and tide over the difficulties together!"
The 78-year-old Kong Shangxian no longer had the strength to sit up. He was half-lying on a soft chair, with his maids serving him. He was drooling from the corners of his mouth, and he was obviously breathing out more than he was breathing in. After Kong Yinzhi finished speaking, there was no expression on his face, and his body did not make any movements.
Seeing the current Duke of Yansheng like this, the other men of the Kong family exchanged glances with each other, and then a guy in his thirties stood up and said, "Brother Yinzhi, I have also read the articles in the six major newspapers. In my opinion, it is better for us, the Kong family, to ignore the current discussions in the newspapers for the time being. Anyone can see that after the emperor ascended the throne, he was determined to make progress and brought forth new ideas in many aspects. Therefore, it is certain that the emperor wants to improve Neo-Confucianism in terms of ideology. At this time, those Neo-Confucian masters did not stand up, and we should not stand up either. In short, as far as the recent articles in the six major newspapers are concerned, it is better for us in the Kong family to remain silent. When this trend passes and the emperor gets what he wants , the Kong family will still be the Kong family.
As for the subpoena sent to me by the Governor of Shandong, I think you still have to go to Jinan Prefecture. As long as the Kong family is still there, I will be fine. "
After hearing what Kong Yinliu from the fifth room said, Kong Yinzhi just wanted to grab a knife and kill this guy!
Kong Yinliu's words made it very clear: Everyone knows what the emperor wants to do now, so we Kongs should just be cowards. Of course, it is true that the emperor is dissatisfied with us Kongs, so we throw Kong Yinzhi out to let the emperor cool down.
After this wave of controversy has passed and the emperor's anger has subsided a little, no matter whether our Kong family is as powerful as it is now, it will still be the Yansheng Duke's Mansion after all.
It can be said that once Kong Yinliu proposed this plan, except for the men of Kong Yinzhi's father's lineage and Kong Shangxian, all the other Kong family men nodded. Some teenagers who were impatient simply began to sneer and ridicule: Brother Yinzhi, you are in charge of the family affairs on weekdays, and your lineage also gets the most benefits. Now that something has happened, shouldn't you take the responsibility?
As soon as these words came out, Kong Yinzhi's group would certainly fight back. Then, the whole room fell into a chaotic quarrel. As the quarrel progressed, everyone got angry and some hot-blooded young people even started to roll up their sleeves.
At this moment, the sealed room suddenly opened, and a group of fully armed servants rushed in with fierce faces. The people who stopped in surprise, and then focused their eyes on Kong Shangxian, who was in high spirits at this time and stood up with the help of the maid.
"Hu~" After taking a deep breath and then letting out a long breath, Kong Shangxian spoke in a weak but firm tone: "I just learned about these recent events today. I can be sure that the royal family wants to uproot our Kong family. This is not just Yinzhi's business."
After defining the matter, Kong Shangxian paused for a while, and then said: "For this matter, Yinzhi should not go to Jinan Prefecture, but if the Shandong Governor sends officers to arrest Yinzhi, we must not resist.
Now, each family must be clear that if we can't handle this, the Kong family will be overturned. As the saying goes, no egg will be left unbroken when the nest is overturned. Are all of you clean? If our Yanshenggong Mansion is closed by the court, do you think you can walk out of Qufu County alive? So, give it to me, woo~"
"Master!"
"grown ups!"
Kong Shangxian, who could no longer stand up, waved his hand while lying on the soft chair, asking everyone to shut up and continued, "Every family and every branch, put away your own little thoughts. If we don't work together this time, we can't get through this. Phew~ cough cough, there are three strategies for dealing with this matter. First, I will go to Beijing in person and kneel down to beg for forgiveness from the Emperor Taishang. Second, after each family goes down, they will clean up their own problems, open the warehouses to release grain, return some land to the people who have made a lot of noise, and mobilize their friends to speak for us in the six major newspapers. Ahem, third, after I leave, Yinzhi will be the head of the mansion, and all the servants in the mansion will be commanded by Yinzhi. Anyone who dares to disobey will be punished by Yinzhi according to the family law!"
