Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling counted the losses afterwards, and after the imperial court's dragnet investigation, the current loss of grain is close to 30,000 stones, and there are still 40,000 or 50,000 stone of grain that are in danger and may be seized at any time.

Combined with the loss of manpower, carriages and horses, and the seized warehouses, the total amount of silver was almost 35,000 taels.

Zhang Yanling slapped the table angrily, furious: "Don't let me know who stabbed us in the back, otherwise we will have to skin him!" ”

Zhang Heling was a little older, sitting on the side and looking at the bill in his hand, silent, his eyes turned cold.

There are too many worries in the past few days, not only to help my sister treat and exorcise the crown prince Zhu Houzhao, but also to take care of the theft of grain and being discovered. They don't feel sorry if they lose the stolen grain from the treasury, but they are afraid that the captured court officials will climb up layer by layer, and finally pursue it to their brothers, even if they have the blessing of Emperor Hongzhi, I am afraid that they will be removed from the title, and may even face the risk of being imprisoned for questioning.

Seeing that his brother didn't speak, Zhang Yanling continued to fan the flames: "Brother, you said that over the years, we have given less money to Your Majesty?" Even the daily use of my sister and the prince is the foil behind you and me, and now Your Majesty he turned his face and didn't recognize people, and turned our grain depot upside down, so what will we do to honor my sister in the future, isn't this to let us drink the northwest wind? ”

Seeing that his younger brother was so angry, Zhang Heling couldn't help but shake his head and said, "Your Majesty is right to do these things......

"What? That's right? When Zhang Yanling heard this, he immediately interrupted his brother's words, "Isn't it the provocation of the surname Liu, and the secret assistance of Ma Wensheng, the old horseman, to facilitate this case?" Are they justified? ”

Zhang Heling glared at his younger brother: "That is, it is too peaceful at the moment, if you really encounter foreign tribes, or if you encounter continuous famine, if there is no food in the treasury, it will shake the foundation of the imperial court!" ”

Zhang Yanling pouted: "Isn't this too peaceful?" Why are you going so far? I think that some people in the court look at our two brothers unpleasantly, and always want to pour dirty water on us, I think even the three pavilion elders are not happy, Your Majesty wants to place a few officials, these people are sparse, saying that Your Majesty will be stained because of this, but I don't know that now the prince is getting older, and he will ascend the throne in the future......

Speaking of the crown prince, Zhang Yanling couldn't go on.

The prince was seriously ill, and both the imperial doctor and the charlatans were helpless.

Now the reason why Empress Zhang gets the favor of the emperor is largely due to the crown prince Zhu Houzhao, and Emperor Hongzhi is exhausted due to state affairs, and has no time to find concubines.

Zhang Heling said: "If you have time, go into the palace to talk to the queen and mother." ”

The Zhang brothers are more or less capable, but they still rely too much on their sister.

Empress Zhang can be regarded as a woman who has been favored by the emperor in the true sense of the past and present, and she knows how to take advantage of her husband's love, and even took her widowed mother to live in the palace after her father's death...... The emperor lived with his mother-in-law, and Zhu Youzhu could be regarded as a historical precedent, absolutely unprecedented.

Zhang Heling continued to remind, "If you want my sister to speak to Your Majesty, this case should be closed here, if it continues, it will involve you and me, and I won't be able to eat and walk around!" ”

Zhang Yanling's body trembled slightly, even if the emperor treated his two brothers well, but after all, Zhu Youzhu is a universally recognized Ming monarch, and he can't bend the law for personal gain in everything, especially now that the grain theft case has become known all over the court, and even the household department Shangshu Zhou Jing has folded in, and if the Son of Heaven wants to protect them, he must also take into account the problem of people's hearts.

"Brother reminds me." Zhang Yanling said, "There are a lot of Taoist priests who have come to the house to recruit today, do you want to go and see it?" Maybe there are really people who can cure the prince's illness, and my sister has sent people to urge her many times, I am afraid that it is the prince's illness...... Still no signs of improvement. ”

Zhang Heling let out a long sigh: "Send the people to the palace together, and leave it to Your Majesty and my sister to decide." There are also those new science and technology scholars who came to the house for the banquet yesterday, and they will each give a small gift when they turn around, needless to say, but they must fulfill their intentions. These people may be used by us in the future. ”

Zhang Yanling thought about it, he couldn't help but feel a little painful, he belonged to the kind of person who was particularly picky, he was very distressed when he sent things to the palace on weekdays, and now he wanted to give gifts to some new science and technology scholars who had nothing to do with it, and he felt even more reluctant.

Although Zhang Yanling obeyed his brother's orders at the moment, he made up his mind in his heart that these new jinshi had no foundation in the imperial court, and in the future, they would appoint official positions to seek the government, and they would definitely make a good deal to get back the losses.

……

……

When Shen Xi came out to participate in the cultural meeting at the invitation of Su Tong, he learned that the news of the prince's illness had spread so much that it was known throughout the city.

Shou Ning Hou and Jian Changbo asked the Jianghu warlock to open the altar for the prince, which was tantamount to guiding the people to advocate superstition in disguise, which caused a very bad reaction among the ministers and the people.

It is said that on March 22 alone, there were no less than 20 warlocks to the Shouning Marquis Mansion, saying that they had great magical powers, which could make the prince turn the corner.

Dead horses are regarded as live horse doctors, even if these people have no ability, they were recommended to enter the palace by the Zhang brothers, but whether they can come out alive is another matter...... However, for ordinary people, it is worth it to be able to enter the palace and see the emperor and the crown prince with their own eyes.

March 23 was the day when the new branch of Jinshi visited the Confucian Temple, and Shen Xi, as the champion of the new department, was in front of all the 300 Jinshi.

On this day, the release ceremony was presided over and guided by officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Guozijian.

The release of the Cai Rite comes from a record in the Spring and Autumn Period: Confucius traveled around the world, was trapped between the Chen State and the Cai State, had no food for seven days, and could only rely on boiling gray cabbage for food, but he still played the piano and played music indoors every day.

Zilu and Zigong, the disciples who accompanied Confucius, believed that they had reached the end of the road, and only Yan Hui still "released vegetables outdoors" every day, that is, picked wild vegetables from the wild every day, and saluted the teacher at the door of Confucius's residence, to show that despite the teacher's extremely difficult situation, he still adhered to the principle of being a man and followed the teacher to learn art.

Yan Hui's move reflects his good quality of respecting teachers, and respecting teachers is a noble fashion and virtue that Confucian scholars should have. Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, with the implementation of the imperial examination system, the release of vegetables has gradually evolved into the main ritual of sacrificing holes.

The ritual utensils used in the release of vegetables are bamboo shoots, which need to use seasonal vegetables, and at this time it is only spring, the northern land has just been unfrozen, and the vegetables are only radish, cabbage and celery, leeks and so on, and then with red dates and chestnuts two kinds of dried fruits, of which red dates imply early determination, chestnuts represent awe.

Shi Cai Li first worships the ancestor Confucius; Then there are four matches, Yanzi, Zisizi, Zengzi, and Mencius; Finally, there are the twelve philosophers, Minzi, Ranzi, Duanmuzi, Zhongzi, Buzi, Youzi, Ranzi, Zaizi, Ranzi, Yanzi, Zhushizi, and Zhuzi.

At the same time as the Zhongjinshi performed the food ceremony, Zhu Youzhu ordered Li Dongyang to continue to thoroughly investigate the question case, and to take out the papers of all the candidates for the Ministry of Rites examination again for review, which made the Zhongxin Jinshi, who thought that his reputation had already been determined, panic and uneasy.

But Shen Xi knew that as long as there was no conclusive evidence that he was involved in the case, even if there was something suspicious in the final review, he could not be convicted for it.

Now the imperial court just wants to give an explanation to the world's scholars, and as for whether the case really happened, even Zhu Youzhu himself doesn't care too much.

When he is an emperor, what he pursues is not to be clear and fair, but to make people feel that he is impartial, and he cares about the direction of public opinion, not the incident itself.

With the end of the release ceremony, the new Jinshi temporarily relaxed, and in the following days, the number of cultural meetings and banquets among the Jinshi increased significantly.

In a few days, the imperial court will release officials, and it doesn't matter whether it is a real shortage or a temporary post. But there is one thing that makes the Jinshi very depressed, because in the past, the routine selection of the Hanlin Academy's examination for the selection of Shu Jishi would not be held, and it was the dream of the world's scholars to enter the Hanlin Academy, but now the dream was shattered because of the problem case, and the hatred for Xu Jing and Tang Yin in prison was even deeper.

There are three people who don't have to worry about this, that is, the top three in the first class this year, whether or not they are selected as Jishi, it will not affect Shen Xi, Lun Wenxu and Feng Xi to enter the Hanlin Academy.

Su Tong will leave to return to Tingzhou, and Shen Xi promised to accompany Su Tong to attend a few more cultural meetings in the next few days.

After attending the release ceremony, Shen Xi went to the inn where Su Tong was staying as promised, and learned that Su Tong had something to do temporarily, but Li Yu was waiting for Su Tong to come back at the inn at this time.

"Isn't this Painter Zhao?" When Li Yu saw Shen Xi, his eyes lit up, and he stepped forward with a smile, obviously he didn't know that the young man in front of him was Shen Xi, the new champion of this year.

Shen Xi and Li Yu met for the first time, and the two sides had a very unpleasant quarrel, at this time Shen Xi just wanted to be perfunctory, so he stepped forward to salute and greet, but was stopped by Li Yu when he was about to leave.

"Painter Zhao, there was some misunderstanding last time, it was not very pleasant, I wanted to invite you and Brother Su to have a banquet, but you both have no leisure, today I was going to invite the two to come over the house, to say how to say so coincidental, I just met Painter Zhao...... Fate ......"

Shen Xi and Su Tong participated in the literary meeting yesterday, and after listening to Su Tong, after Li Yue learned that he was a lifter, his closeness and compliments became more and more excessive, and he even wanted to participate in the literary meeting between the lifters. Su Tong was frequently attacked in the capital, and it was rare to enjoy this feeling of being revered, and asked Shen Xi if he would mind the formal "introduction" to Li Yu.

Shen Xi's answer was simple: too busy.

"If there is something going on, if Brother Su is not here, I will leave first." Shen Xi directly surrendered.

"Don't mind."

Li Yue rarely saw Shen Xi, and he didn't mean to let him go, "Let's talk about the last time...... It's that painting, the woman and the housemaid are quite similar in appearance, but I don't know which lady it is? I'd love to get to know you. ”

is basically the same as Su Tong's reaction, Li Yu is obsessed with the woman in the painting, but the woman herself is Shen Xi sublimated according to the appearance of Li Yu's sister Miss Li Er, there can be no such person in the world.

While entangled, Su Tong hurriedly came back, holding a red envelope in his hand and handing it directly to Shen Xi.

Zhao ...... Brother, you see, this is a letter sent by the Marquis of Shouning to the Dongsheng Inn, you are not there, it just so happened that I went to the inn to find you, and the gift was brought back by me by the way. ”

The red envelope doesn't look special, but after opening it, there is a secret inside, it turns out that Zhang Heling gave him a white jade pendant.

In the Ming Dynasty, jadeite is not valuable, but Hetian white jade is worth a little, a small jade pendant, how can it be worth a dozen taels of silver, this Shouning Hou Mansion to give him this new champion of the "meeting gift" is worth a lot.

The jade pendant is not big, it looks like it is used as a fan pendant, the gentleman wears the jade, Shen Xi took it in his hand and looked at it, and he didn't think it was rare.

Li Yu was a little surprised: "The Shouning Marquis Mansion gave a gift to Zhao Painter, could it be that he invited Zhao Painter to paint in the mansion?" ”

Su Tong did not introduce Shen Xi's true identity, Shen Xi himself is not very old, Li Yu only thinks that Shen Xi is a painter with no merit, since the Hou Mansion of Shouning can invite Shen Xi, there seems to be only one explanation, that is, Shen Xi's painting work is so good, even the Hou of Shouning is happy to ask him to paint.

As for whether it is a landscape or a character, or even whether it is a spring palace as he wants, it is unknown.

Su Tong said with a smile: "Of course, Zhao's reputation is not small, what if the Marquis of Shouning invites him to paint, I'm afraid the emperor will invite him in the future." ”

Li Yu smiled, obviously not convinced.

However, Shen Xi is about to enter the dynasty as a minister, and he can be regarded as being hired by the emperor, Su Tong is right, but he uses words skillfully and puns on his words.

Shen Xi didn't follow the words and asked, "When is Brother Su going to leave?" ”

Su Tong sighed and said: "It's been almost half a year since I came out, and I went out just now because there was a letter from Minsheng Teahouse, so I went over to get the letter, and halfway to Dongsheng Inn to find my brother...... Alas, there is something at home, and this time I can't continue to stay in the capital anyway, and I'm ready to leave tomorrow. ”

***********

PS: The first update is sent!

Yesterday, there was not much reward, this book is still ranked tenth on the starting point sales list, and you can show your face on the front page of the starting point for a day.

That is to say, today's guaranteed update is three chapters, and one more chapter is added for book friends, and one more chapter is still determined by the results, the more monthly passes, the more rewards, the more subscriptions, and the more recommended tickets, the more updates!

Encourage you all! (To be continued.) )