?? Xiang Nan knew that this case of imperial examination fraud was because the prime minister, Gao Ming, had engaged in private fraud and passed off inferior ones as good ones. All his party members were high school, which caused great dissatisfaction among the examiners.
Seven students who failed the exam had no way to seek help and chose to hang themselves from a rafter in despair. As soon as this incident came out, the whole country was in an uproar, and public opinion surged, demanding that the court investigate the matter thoroughly.
The prince was upright by nature, so he also wrote a letter, hoping that the emperor would investigate the case thoroughly. In the end, the emperor ordered Dali Temple to investigate the case thoroughly.
However, Dali Temple was again manipulated by the treacherous Prime Minister Gao Ming. In the end, not only was he acquitted, but the parents of the seven unsuccessful sons were bribed by him and falsely accused them of being ordered by the prince to frame the prime minister.
Not only did the prince fail to punish the traitor, but he also threw a basin of dirty water on him. Naturally, he could not bear to be impatient and was filled with grief and anger. Therefore, he and his courtiers wrote several letters to request Dali Temple to re-investigate the case thoroughly.
As a result, the emperor was furious and reduced his official position to that of the people. However, the prince still refused to back down and continued to argue. He even wore mourning clothes in the palace to mourn for the seven unjust sons.
But there are rules in the palace. If there is no big funeral, it is strictly forbidden to wear mourning. If the prince is in mourning, wouldn''t it be a curse for the emperor to die early? Therefore, Li Hao was naturally furious and came to scold him.
??However, Li Chengji still refused to give in. Instead, he believed that his father was stupid and was deceived by treacherous ministers. He allowed the treacherous party to disrupt the government. In the long run, the people''s support will be lost and the country will be ruined.
??Li Fu was even more furious, so he asked his family to whip Li Chengji himself.
…
Xiang Nan watched from the sidelines, but quickly straightened out his thoughts.
?This matter seems to be very simple.
The emperor was deceived by a traitor and punished his prince, but it was not that simple.
The truth is that the Toyo Dynasty had just implemented the imperial examination system.
Before this, it had always promoted officials according to the nine-grade Zhongzheng system. Therefore, the power of the government was monopolized by the noble families.
Nowadays, the promotion of imperial examinations and the recruitment of talents are aimed at breaking the monopoly of power and talents by clans.
But this also offended the nobles, so they vigorously criticized the imperial examination system. The suicides of seven civil servants created a great public opinion and pushed the emperor to abolish the imperial examination.
The reason why the emperor did not want to investigate the case thoroughly was to preserve the imperial examination.
The imperial examination system has just been implemented, so it is normal to have loopholes, and it is inevitable for others to take advantage of them.
After all, even in the Qing Dynasty, which had a very complete imperial examination system, there were endless cases of imperial examination fraud.
??However, the clan wanted to use this to completely abolish the imperial examination, which would be a waste of food due to choking and harboring evil intentions.
Because once the imperial examination was abolished, the imperial court could only use the nine-rank Zhongzheng system to appoint officials.
?As a result, power is still controlled by the clan. The majestic Emperor Todyo would also be regarded as nothing by them.
?Just like in the early Tang Dynasty, the daughters of the noble families with the fifth surname and Qi Wang were not even qualified to marry into the royal family. The imperial court compiled the "Chronicles of the Clan", and the royal family was not even qualified to rank first.
Compared with them flipping the table directly, Gao Ming just poured sand into it.
As the so-called lesser of two evils is concerned, the emperor will naturally support Ming.
What’s more, governing a big country is like cooking small dishes.
In addition to selecting talents, the imperial examination also has the function of appeasing the people. If the investigation is carried out with great fanfare and repeated over and over again, it will cause a lot of disputes, make the people uneasy, and full of suspicion towards the court, thus losing the original intention of appeasing.
So, to put it simply, it was not that the emperor was confused and favored treacherous ministers.
It was because the prince was careless and was used as a weapon by the family members, which ruined the emperor''s talent acquisition plan. Therefore, it was abolished and sent to Anhu Mansion to serve.
Xiang Nan is familiar with the Twenty-Four Histories, so he naturally wants to understand the joints.
??It''s a pity that the prince was taken advantage of. He thought he was asking for orders for the people and was loyal, but in fact he fell into the trap of the family and worked as a gunman for others.
After understanding it, Xiang Nan couldn''t help but sigh.
But I heard Li Zu say loudly, "Listen to me, if you still want to be your prince in peace, take off this mourning dress for me now, and don''t mention this case again in the future."
"I have been the prince for more than twenty years and have never said a word "no" in front of my father. I cannot be as cold-blooded and ruthless as my father, nor can I watch those princes die in vain.
I don’t understand why my father is unwilling to investigate this case. Do you really ignore the national law in order to protect the traitor? Do you want to bear the infamy of being a foolish king that will last forever? "Li Chengji still gritted his teeth and spoke impassionedly.
"You bastard!" When Li Yu heard these words, he naturally felt extremely harsh and couldn''t help but pull out the cane again.
"Father, calm down~" Xiang Nan shouted when he saw it, rushed forward, protected Li Chengji, and let the cane hit him hard.
Fortunately, he is proficient in martial arts. He can even defend against being hit with a blunt weapon, not to mention being beaten with a cane, so he is fine.
“Brother Huang was just impulsive.” He defended Li Chengji.
"Fifth brother, there is no need to defend me." Li Chengji still said forcefully, "Father is arbitrary and does not want to find out the truth at all. Maybe when the high party spreads all over the government and the public, and the emperor changes his surname, father will understand what I mean. What must it be!”
"Brother, you are confused!" Xiang Nan shouted when he heard this, "It''s not that my father is arbitrary, but that you are being used as a weapon."
As soon as the words were spoken, the whole place fell into silence.
“Fifth brother, what did you say?” Li Chengji asked in confusion.
Xiang Nan then recounted the conspiracy of the noble clans to use the Qijuzi incident to abolish the imperial examination and monopolize power.
?At this moment, in the East Palace, there are only Emperor Li Fu, Prince Li Chengji, Second Prince Li Chengye, Third Prince Li Chengwen, Fourth Prince Li Chengyuan, historians and guards.
Xiang Nan is not afraid that his words will be spread out, let alone even if they are spread out, he is not afraid. And what he said was nominally for Li Chengji, so that he would not be used as a weapon again.
In fact, he told the emperor Li Zhen to let him see his intelligence.
Because Li Chengyin had always been lazy and inactive before, and had no potential to be a prince at all, so he was not liked by Li Shi.
?It wasn''t until he went to the Western Region and performed extraordinary feats in the campaign against Dan Chi that Emperor Li Fu was impressed by him.
Xiang Nan doesn’t want to go to the Western Region, so he can only use this opportunity to show off his wisdom.
…
?Sure enough, after hearing Xiang Nan''s words, Li Hao''s eyes lit up even though he didn''t say anything.
Unexpectedly, the five were lazy, but in fact, he had such a clever vision. He had really underestimated him before.
?It is true that the reason why Li Fu protected Gao Ming was not because he was deceived by him, let alone because he was afraid of his power.
???Gao Ming is just a dog that he keeps, and he can take care of it as he wants, and when he wants to take care of it.
The prince only saw Gao Ming in recent years, calling the shots in the court, ostracizing and suppressing dissenters. But he didn''t realize that those dissidents were all noble families that he, the emperor, wanted to suppress.
?Just like Wei Zhongxian, the Duke of Dongchangchang, everyone thought he was a rebellious minister, but in fact, without Wei Zhongxian''s help, Emperor Chongzhen would not even be able to collect taxes.
?Those Donglin Party members who claim to be dedicated to serving the country are actually the main culprits in tax evasion and tax evasion, leaving the national treasury empty and without money.