Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 279 A Perfect Match
Yang Yiming's forehead was throbbing with veins after being scolded by Zhu Ying. He was so angry that he almost wanted to rush forward and fight. However, he still had some rationality left. In addition, he had just come up with this solution after thinking hard in the doctoral hall this afternoon. He didn't want to be easily squeezed and retreated by Zhu Ying. He took a deep breath, made up his mind, and suddenly put down his right hand that was covering his left shoulder.
When Zhu Ying's whip fell just now, a fierce gust of wind blew in his face, like a knife cutting, and he also felt a dull pain in his shoulder. The whip was definitely a heavy blow, and it was impossible for Zhu Ying to deny it!
"You're still right after beating someone up. Is this the family education of your Zhaoguo Mansion?"
He sternly rebuked her, but after he finished speaking, he suddenly realized that Zhu Ying, who was standing opposite him, had a smile on her face, looking fearless. Not only Zhu Ying, but the guards behind her also had similar expressions. Even the people around him looked at him with completely different eyes than before.
Realizing that something was wrong, he hastily turned his head to look at his shoulder, and saw that although his clothes were slightly wrinkled, they were intact, and there was no trace of the whip hitting his clothes. He was shocked and did not dare to hesitate, and hurriedly tore open his left lapel to expose his shoulder, but this time, he fell into panic again.
Because those shoulders, which had become a little shriveled due to age, still had no scars!
Until this time, Zhu Ying just chuckled and said: "You shouted and called so many students here, and attracted so many passers-by, didn't you just want to seek justice for yourself? How is it now? Your clothes are not torn, and although your shoulder is a bit ugly, at least there is no mark at all. Do you want to scratch it yourself and blame it on me, or what do you want?"
This is impossible, how could this be possible! The pain just now couldn't be fake, how could it be fake!
Seeing that Yang Yiming was in a state of panic, Zhu Ying remembered that ever since she was assassinated in Cuiyunjian and returned home, she had been thinking about how to improve her martial arts. However, although she was already very talented, she was only this old, so she could only think of cleverness and tricks.
Just now, she frightened Yang Yiming with a strong breeze, and then she waved her whip in vain, which really frightened the doctor of the Imperial College and made him scream like a pig being slaughtered. At this moment, seeing that Yang Yiming was obviously desperately thinking about what to say next, she pointed at him with her whip and raised her chin contemptuously.
"You just said that Ah Shou wanted to swap the Banshan Hall and the Ruxing Hall of the Imperial College. Is that to win fame and favor and to destroy the Imperial College? Haha, you said that the Banshan Hall was specially built by Emperor Taizu for me and my juniors. Let me ask you, is this written on paper or in the Records of Emperor Taizu? If it is not recorded in the Records of Emperor Taizu, then you are making it up!"
Seeing Yang Yiming's face turn pale, Zhu Ying said calmly, "Besides, what do you mean by destroying the Imperial College? Ever since the Emperor came to the Imperial College and asked for a rectification of the academic atmosphere, I heard from Ah Shou that the students in the six halls of the Imperial College are all devoted to learning, so there are especially many students who are promoted to the Ratexing Hall. The Ratexing Hall is not big enough and can hardly accommodate everyone. Could this be a lie?"
Yang Yiming had never expected that Zhu Ying, who was always ridiculed as beautiful but brainless, would actually know these details that only the Imperial Academy officials and students would care about. He hurriedly pulled up the clothes that had just fallen to his shoulders, then calmed down and sneered, "Even if there is no room in the Ruxing Hall, you can stand or even sit outside the hall to listen to the lecture!"
As he spoke, he emphasized his tone and said word by word: "Since you are a disciple of the saint, you should work hard and study hard. Why should you be afraid of the pain of studying?"
"Oh, so when you were studying, Dr. Yang, you stood to listen to lectures every day, regardless of the wind, sun, or rain?" Zhu Ying chuckled, "Who is the one who complains that Suixing Hall is too small, hoping that the court will spend money to expand and renovate it? Who is the one who complains that Banshan Hall is too big, that the tables and chairs need to be replaced frequently, and who is the one who says that the students of Banshan Hall are not worthy of such conditions?"
"Now that Ah Shou is willing to give Banshan Hall to you, you have turned your back on it and look down on it. You even threatened to ruin the Imperial College... Haha, you have such a bad memory, you probably don't remember that when the Imperial College was first established, the six halls of the Imperial College exchanged lecture halls every three months. As a doctor of the Imperial College, don't you study history?"
"Emperor Taizu encouraged students to strive for excellence and never stop learning. Have you never seen this admonition engraved on the Taizu Quotations Stele in the Imperial Academy, or did you choose not to read it?"
As Zhu Ying refuted all of Yang Yiming's so-called reasons pointedly, Zhang Shou, who was at the back of the large group of students, keenly felt that the emotions of the indignant students who had originally gathered behind Yang Yiming were obviously gradually calming down. Especially when Zhu Ying pulled out the Quotations of Taizu as a talisman, he even heard many voices whispering and asking each other questions.
Before proposing the class division in Banshan Hall today, Zhang Shou had already thought it through clearly - because he chose this moment to build up enough momentum in the capital and focus most of the attention on himself. In this way, Zhang Chen, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu would only have to deal with the local forces and at most the eldest prince who thought he was already capable of doing things on his own.
Therefore, he had anticipated the reaction of some conservative... or stubborn academicians in the Imperial College and prepared a series of arguments in advance. However, considering that he could not appear too aggressive in front of Zhou Jijiu and Luo Siye when arguing with someone or a group of people in the Doctoral Hall, he considered bringing in a helper.
Originally, Lu Sanlang, who was good at speaking and had the aura of a prodigal who turned into a genius, was a good choice. However, Zhu Ying came to him again last night after comforting her parents and asked directly where Ah Liu was. In desperation, he could only tell her everything. As a result, when she heard that she was going to cause trouble, the eldest lady immediately became excited.
Zhu Ying asked him about all the arguments he had prepared, and then promised that she would help him build momentum. But in the end, he heard in the doctoral hall that Zhu Ying had beaten Yang Yiming, and he almost dropped his jaw.
At this time, seeing Zhu Ying making progress step by step, first clearing herself of the suspicion of assault, and then further expanding to whether there was a theoretical basis for the swap between Banshan Hall and Ruxing Hall, she successfully forced Yang Yiming to the edge of the cliff. Even though he was initially somewhat skeptical about Zhu Ying's volunteering, and after teaching her various responses, he was still not at ease, and at this moment he could not help but want to cheer.
The eldest daughter is really born to be more calm in a bigger situation. She probably has never known what fear is. Her heart is so big!
Sure enough, after failing to accuse Zhu Ying of wounding someone, Yang Yiming was just holding on. However, when Zhu Ying kept bringing out the Quotations of Taizu and then cited old precedents of the Imperial College as evidence, he finally realized his inevitable defeat.
Just when he was desperately considering whether he should faint like the former Minister Zhang of the Ministry of Revenue, a voice like heavenly music finally came from behind him: "Times have changed. The old ways of Taizu may not be suitable for today. The six halls of the Imperial College have been fixed for a long time. The lecture halls have not been rotated for many years. How can teachers and students not be troubled by the sudden change of the system?"
Although Zhang Shou was behind the crowd and could not see who the student who stood up to speak to Yang Yiming was, many students in front of him started to stir, and then a name was passed from the front to the back and reached his ears.
"It's Xie Wanquan!"
"Xie Wanquan is really righteous. You know, when he was recuperating at home, Dr. Yang had already let someone else take his place as the head monk! When he recovered and came back, he didn't even have the position of head monk of Ruxing Hall!"
"The position of the head monk cannot be vacant. Since you are recuperating, of course it has to be handed over to someone else. As for the fact that the other person did nothing wrong, why should it be returned to you? Look at Banshan Hall. Dr. Zhang trusts Zhang Chen enough, right? But when he fell off a horse and was injured and recuperating at home for a few days, Dr. Zhang still promoted his future second uncle to be the current head monk. To be honest, that is called nepotism, right?"
Zhu Er, who was standing beside Zhang Shou, had a face as black as a pot-bottomed pancake. He could tolerate being accused of being the head of the temple by nepotism in Banshan Hall, but he couldn't tolerate being accused of nepotism in public! Besides, he didn't believe Zhang Shou could tolerate it! Sure enough, when he turned his head to look, he saw Zhang Shou had already walked around the crowd and walked to the front.
"Yes, the old rules of Taizu may not be suitable for today!" Yang Yiming no longer cared about the fact that he always mentioned Taizu when he was in the Ruxing Hall of the Imperial College, and he grabbed this life-saving straw first. Sure enough, seeing Zhu Ying was obviously a little surprised, he felt a flash of inspiration in his mind, and suddenly realized that those words just now could not be improvised by the eldest daughter of the Duke of Zhao.
If she had this kind of brains, why would she be out of tune with other famous ladies in the capital, and never get along with Princess Yongping, who is always known as a talented woman?
However, before Yang Yiming could use this opportunity to catch his breath and sort out his thoughts, he heard Xie Wanquan behind him continue to say: "Furthermore, the previous exchanges in the Imperial College were all between the six halls, and I have never heard of an exchange with Banshan Hall. The six halls are distributed symmetrically from east to west in the Imperial College. If Ruxing Hall and Banshan Hall are exchanged, how should the other five halls be dealt with?"
Xie Wanquan walked forward calmly and looked into Zhu Ying's eyes calmly: "Dr. Yang is the doctor of the Imperial College who is in charge of the Ratexing Hall, so he will naturally speak for us. However, in fact, not only the Ratexing Hall, but the other five halls of the Imperial College are all too small. Whenever everyone gathers for a class, even if they sit on the floor, they may not be able to accommodate everyone."
"So, if we just swapped between Ruxing Hall and Banshan Hall, even if we, the students of Ruxing Hall, moved to the Banshan Hall, which is regularly renovated, has the largest area, and is most fully equipped with desks and chairs, we can only watch other students continue to attend classes in the other five halls. How can we bear this? We are all students, so why are we divided into different levels?"
Zhu Ying looked at Xie Wanquan for a long time, and finally asked with a smile: "You are also a student of Ruxing Hall? What's your name? You have quite a lot of knowledge, much better than your teacher Dr. Yang who can only make specious arguments!"
Zhang Shou, who was walking around from the back, heard this and couldn't help but mourn for Xie Wanquan. It was obvious that the eldest lady, who was too lazy to remember irrelevant people, had already forgotten about him.
Zhu Ying should have seen Xie Wanquan, or at least heard his voice. Back then, this guy was still the head monk of Ruxing Hall. He and Tang Ming, the top scholar in the imperial examination, went to Rongshui Village to cause trouble for him, but they met Ge Yong, a great Bodhisattva, and returned home in defeat. After he entered the Imperial College, he heard that he was recuperating and didn't pay much attention to him. Later, when Xie Wanquan returned, he was too lazy to cause trouble for him.
After all, if they met now, Xie Wanquan would have to respectfully call him Dr. Zhang whether he was willing or not.
Xie Wanquan originally thought that Zhu Ying was pretending not to recognize him and was mocking him, but when he saw her looking him up and down with no disguising her admiration, his anger finally turned into helplessness and bitterness.
He bowed as calmly as possible, and then said in a deep voice: "My student is Xie Wanquan, the supervisor of the Ruxing Hall."
"Xie Wanquan, why does this name sound so familiar?" Zhu Ying frowned and tried hard to recall where she had heard this name. But before she could remember, she heard a voice that made her feel relieved.
"Master Xie's words really hit the nail on the head. Since the founding of the Imperial College, there were tens of thousands of students at its peak. Now, apart from those who are students but not in the academy, there are at least two to three thousand students studying in the academy. With six classes, they often have to take turns to teach in batches. Therefore, Dr. Yang's constant complaints about the inability to accommodate the large number of people in the Ruxing Hall are really like a full man not knowing the hunger of a hungry man."
"You know, Guangye Hall, one of the six halls in the Imperial College, has a total of 700 people. How big is Guangye Hall? It seems to be about the same size as Ruexing Hall! Dr. Yang has been running around to speak up for Ruexing Hall, but he doesn't know that Director Xie is looking at the issue from the perspective of the entire Imperial College. Is there only one Ruexing Hall in the Imperial College?"
As he said this, Zhang Shou squeezed out of the crowd. Behind him was the expressionless Zhu Tingfang and several guards from the Duke of Zhao's mansion. When Zhu Ying saw her elder brother, she felt guilty. When she saw Zhu Tingfang glaring at her unhappily, she breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly wanted to dismount. But when she saw Zhang Shou waved his hand at her when he passed by her, she stopped.
Xie Wanquan was caught off guard by Zhang Shou's constant calling him "Xie Zhaizhang" and immediately felt like a thorn in his side . Regardless of Zhu Ying's praise or Zhang Shou's words that seemed to praise his insight and tolerance, they were actually based on belittling Yang Yiming. In this way, Yang Yiming might hate him as much as he thanked him when he first stepped forward!
He still remembered the last time he confronted Zhang Shou, he refused to give in, and every word he said hit him and Tang Ming's weak spot, and with Ge Yong coming down from the sky, they were eventually defeated. But this time, he was polite and tried to overcome the hardness with the soft, but he didn't expect Zhang Shou to change his usual style and directly bring him to compete with Yang Yiming!
As expected, when Xie Wanquan was trying to gather his spirits to get through this, he heard a voice of anger from behind him: "Well, well, you are a self-proclaimed teacher! It turns out that you are in cahoots with Zhang Shou, using slander against my teacher to elevate yourself!"
Before Xie Wanquan could explain, Zhang Shou laughed and said, "Dr. Yang, Master Xie was kind enough to help you, your teacher, out of trouble, but you felt uncomfortable just because I praised him a few words. You even suspected him of being disrespectful to your teacher. Don't you feel ashamed to be such a teacher?"
