Volume 5: Fellow Traveler Chapter 843: There's no end
For people like Lu Wan and Liu Zhiyuan who had fought their way through the imperial examinations and then made great achievements in officialdom and could be considered top civil servants, Zhang Shou certainly didn't need to memorize the two passages from the original text of "Youxue Qionglin" to inspire them. He even deliberately removed the passage on astronomy from "Youxue Qionglin" when he mentioned the table of contents .
The reason is very simple. Given the tendency of scholars these days to use philosophy and Taoist theology to explain natural science, it is better not to include astronomical knowledge, since there are natural science classes anyway!
However, Zhang Shou did not expect that Lu Wan and Liu Zhiyuan felt that since the emperor intended to relax the astronomical ban, the Three Enclosures, Four Symbols and Twenty-Eight Mansions must be included. Thinking that this was also considered ancient traditional culture, he did not express his opinion for the time being, but repeatedly emphasized that nothing too difficult or too mysterious should be added to it.
As for who Lu Wan and Liu Zhiyuan would ask to edit the book, he had no control over it. Anyway, he had made up his mind that he would definitely ask the emperor to personally serve as the chief editor, and then use his eloquence to cut out all the overly bad things. Presumably, the emperor would be happy to take on such ideological unification work.
And he found a long and time-consuming task for Lu Wan and Liu Zhiyuan - even if everyone worked together, a year or two would be considered fast - Zhang Shou, who was always busy himself, felt that it was better to share happiness with others than to enjoy it alone, and he was satisfied for a while.
Of course, before going to find Lu Wan and Liu Zhiyuan, he made a special trip back to Jiuzhang Hall and assigned a lot of class assignments to the students.
When he finished talking and returned to Jiuzhang Hall, he saw the blond boy Wu Dawei still sitting in the last row, but he was not scratching his head as he had initially thought, because he was actually holding a book and reading it with great interest. He approached quietly from behind and found out from a high position that it was not a textbook, but a class note.
The way some letters and formulas were written on the notebook imitated the italic fonts on his blackboard. At first glance, it looked like the style of some students' class notes in later generations. For a moment, he couldn't help but take a second look, without disturbing the blond boy in front of him who was watching with great excitement. After a long while, he suddenly reached out and snatched the notebook from the other person's hand.
Suddenly, a hand reached out from behind and snatched the notebook in his hand. Wu Dawei was very anxious. However, he subconsciously reached out to grab it, but it was empty. He turned his head in frustration, and when he found that it was Zhang Shou, his arrogance immediately disappeared. He hurriedly stood up and lowered his head, but he dared not say a word.
Before, when Zhang Shou finished writing on the blackboard and went out, he deliberately buried his head in the desk, praying a thousand times in his heart that others could not see him. It actually worked. Zhang Shou seemed not to see him at all and went out straight to talk to Zhang Chen.
Moreover, when Zhang Shou came back later, he turned around and left after assigning a bunch of questions, and he still didn't seem to see him. Relieved, he sat quietly in the corner and pondered the formula on the blackboard. After pondering for a long time, he couldn't figure it out, so he made up his mind and thought about the one in front of him.
Seeing that the man was struggling with a question, he leaned over and quietly reached out his hand to pick up a booklet on the man's left hand and took a look.
He only flipped through it and was sure that it was a note. Although some parts were disorganized, it was much better than reading the textbook by guessing as he didn't know many Chinese characters. After all, he knew the letters that Zhang Shou often used.
But as foolish and bold as he was just now , he was as honest now, especially when he caught a glimpse of Zhang Shou walking straight to his front desk with the notebook, patting the man on the shoulder and returning the notebook. The other party was still confused and didn't understand what was going on, and didn't even turn around to see him, the culprit. He became even more frustrated.
"Come out with me."
Without disturbing the other students who were buried in the sea of questions, Zhang Shou left Jiuzhang Hall after saying these four words. When he stood in the courtyard and saw Wu Dawei following him with his head down, he asked calmly, "You are quite brave. You dared to instigate Zhang Chen to bring you here? Does Eunuch Liang know that you are skipping classes like this?"
"No, no, no, I didn't skip class, absolutely not!" Wu Dawei quickly shook his head like a rattle, "The master suddenly went to the palace for something today. Before he left, he told me to go to the young master's study and tidy up. While I was working, that young master Zhang suddenly came and said he wanted to borrow a book..."
Zhang Chen had already roughly explained the second half of the story, so Zhang Shou interrupted him directly, "Okay, no need to say more. Mr. Liang is not here, and you came here instead of going back to review your lessons after cleaning the study. Do you want to eavesdrop and learn? Don't you think about whether you can understand those professional terms and nouns? I'll give you a set of "New Edition of Ge's Mathematics". Can you recognize all the characters?"
"You haven't even learned to read all the characters, haven't even learned to speak, and you want to fly?"
After staying in Zhang Garden for so many days, Wu Dawei's vocabulary and conversation skills have made great progress - after all, at his age, his language learning ability is at its strongest - so the blond boy can understand 70% to 80% of Zhang Shou's words. But because he understood, he couldn't help but want to argue.
"Literature, history and mathematics are not in conflict. You can study them together!"
Hearing that the blond boy in front of him blurted out an idiom, but said "learning in parallel" instead of "advancing in parallel", he couldn't help but laugh. But facing that particularly sincere...even sincere to the point of begging, he pondered for a moment, and then he had an idea.
"Since you want to learn so much, I'll give you a set of the textbook later. I'll ask Eunuch Liang to read the text to you every day after teaching you. As for the formulas and symbols, I think you are more familiar with them than Eunuch Liang, so there's no need for him to explain them to you."
At this point, seeing that everyone was already surprised and delighted, he paused, then said with a smile: "The first two volumes are the foundation. Since you want to learn, let me see how long it will take you to fully master the contents of these two volumes. Moreover, this mastery is not up to you. I have a workbook, and I will use questions from it to test you later."
Seeing the blond boy in front of him full of confidence, Zhang Shou couldn't help but laugh secretly. Don't underestimate elementary school mathematics. When he was in school, the application questions of elementary school mathematics were already varied, not to mention the various brain-burning Olympiad mathematics. Later, even many former top students had a headache when facing elementary school mathematics problems when tutoring children.
I hope this kid will still have the same enthusiasm as he does now when he sees the thick exercise book... just like Lu Sanlang who was addicted to doing exercises back then. He is a true math genius.
After solving Wu Dawei's problem, Zhang Shou planned to let him move freely in the public school. Seeing him, he was overjoyed. Suddenly, he remembered something and stopped him and asked, "Did Eunuch Liang tell him what happened in the palace and asked him to come over?"
Because Zhang Shou was so easy to talk to, Wu Dawei was of course happy to answer. But he really didn't know much about this matter. After racking his brains for a long time, he said uncertainly: "There was a young man who spoke in a similar style to Mr. Liang. He whispered to Mr. Liang for a while, and Mr. Liang's face turned very unhappy. I remember..."
"I remember him saying, why is this happening again?" Wu Dawei recounted Liang Jiucheng's original words in a serious manner, and then said with some distress, "I even chased him to ask when he would be back, and he just told me to go and clean up the study, and that he would be back after I finished these things! I really don't know anything else."
After making sure that it was impossible to get anything out of Wu Dawei, Zhang Shou nodded and said, "I understand. You can come back with me in the evening. Now you can go wherever you want, just stay within the gate of the public school."
Seeing the blond boy who lied about his age cheering and running away, but still heading straight for Jiuzhang Hall, Zhang Shou couldn't help but laugh. He gently touched his chin thoughtfully, thinking about the reason why Liang Jiucheng suddenly returned to the palace. Although he didn't really care about what secrets happened in the palace, but who can blame him for some things when they are unraveled?
The lady is still ill, I hope nothing unexpected happens!
At this moment, the Qianqing Palace was filled with a suffocating and rigid atmosphere. Fortunately, the three people standing in it, whether Hua Qi, Chu Kuan, or Liang Jiucheng who was urgently recalled, were the least afraid of this kind of dull atmosphere, so they stood like clay sculptures and wooden statues, as if they did not see the emperor's grim anger.
Seeing that no one was talking, the emperor could not help but become impatient: "Where is the evidence? Could it be that you two have spent so much time investigating and only came back to say this bunch of baseless things?"
"Your Majesty, I just said that this is just a rough deduction made by me and Mr. Hua Qi based on the witnesses and evidence and clues left behind. It cannot be called evidence. If Your Majesty thinks it is unfounded or absurd, please punish me severely..."
"What severe punishment do you mean? You should apologize first when something happens. When did you learn this annoying trick?" Hua Qi interrupted Chu Kuan's next words in annoyance and then sighed.
"Your Majesty, those who had contact with the eldest prince were previously imprisoned in the imperial manor. I selected the most reliable people to guard them day and night, and then secretly ordered some of them to monitor each other. Then, I interrogated them in coordination with Eunuch Chu, and dug out the details. Only then did we finally pull out the suspicious person. He did say nonsense during the interrogation later that the descendants of Emperor Taizu founded a country overseas."
"But he died the day after he confessed. According to the coroner's findings, he died at night and the cause of death was poison. But I can guarantee that we checked him before arresting him and found no poison in his mouth or on his body. On the night he died, Eunuch Chu and I were in the same room with him and did not notice any clues, so we can only say that there is no witness or physical evidence at this time."
"It is true that there was a mistake between me and Eunuch Chu, but there is not a single falsehood in what I said."
It was only at this time that Chu Kuan continued Hua Qi's words and said calmly, "Just as Master Hua Qi said, because Eunuch Liang is the person who is most familiar with Emperor Taizu's letters and classics in the Ancient and Modern Collection, I asked to invite Eunuch Liang here. We have collected and preserved all of that guy's belongings, from clothes, shoes and socks to all possible writing objects."
"Moreover..." He didn't even blink, and casually said a sentence that he had not mentioned just now, "This person once said when he couldn't endure the torture any longer that the second prince is now in their hands."
Seeing that the emperor's face was as dark as Bao Gong, Liang Jiucheng had to persuade him: "Your Majesty, don't say that the person who confessed is dead and there is no evidence. Even if he is still alive, how can we know that he is not just talking nonsense because of his momentary delusion?"
"Emperor Taizu set sail that year, and there has been no news since then. Although there was a man called Lao Xianyu sent back by Zhang Xueshi who said that he had seen a stone tablet on the Haidong Continent, it cannot be used as evidence after all. Moreover, there is no evidence for the so-called later generations' claims. You know, over the years, the court has also been turbulent due to the change of the throne, but has anyone ever jumped out?"
"Since there was no turmoil in the past, how come such evil spirits and monsters have jumped out now when the world is peaceful? Isn't this a typical case of choosing the difficult over the easy? Moreover, apart from the royal family and some related people, how many people in the world know that Emperor Taizu disappeared when he sailed overseas after abdicating? The records and history books say that he died of old age!"
Liang Jiucheng's words made Hua Qi and Chu Kuan nod at the same time. Even though people were questioning the results of their investigation, such words were undoubtedly reasonable.
However, this did not convince the emperor. It can be said that the throne was passed down from generation to generation, and there were even short-lived emperors in the middle. The pursuit of Taizu's whereabouts was no longer as persistent as it was at the beginning. However, his father Ruizong perfectly inherited the trait of being a crazy admirer of Emperor Taizu .
Therefore, he sneered, and then said with a stern face: "It would be too arbitrary to conclude that it is a fabrication based on these. You know, Dalang's death was unclear, and even Erlang's shipwreck incident also has many doubts! If I can't find out, I would rather believe it than not believe it."
Liang Jiucheng was choked and speechless. Although he wanted to ask the emperor how he would investigate if he really believed it was true, he still held back. But to his surprise, the emperor answered the question immediately: "Order the best men and ships from the royal fleet, and prepare to set sail eastward!"
"Send someone to Qiongzhou Prefecture to urge them. I have already sent someone there. Bring that old salted fish who once encountered the big island... no, the old salted fish from the mainland back to the capital as soon as possible! Let him lead the way! Those old stubborn people in the court don't agree to send official ships, but I have my own ship!"
Finally it has come to this... Perhaps the emperor only needs a reason, or even an excuse. So the so-called witness' death will only have a better effect. Otherwise, if the person is alive, he will reveal his flaws under the interrogation of various masters who are proficient in punishment and psychological warfare, and the so-called overseas founding of a country will be impossible.
Thinking of this, Liang Jiucheng Liang Gonggong couldn't help but sighed deeply. But then, the emperor looked at him.
