After the recital was submitted, Shen Xi tried not to think about whether it would be adopted in the end anyway, that was the meaning of the emperor and ministers who were high above, and it had nothing to do with him, a little Hanlin.

On the afternoon of the day when Shen Xi presented the recital, Honglu Temple sent people to the Hanlin Yuan to preach the message, and on the second day, the palace would hold a sutra feast, and the Hanlin Yuan sent people to attend.

As a Hanlin editor, Shen Xi was naturally invited.

The so-called "scripture feast" is a special imperial chair for the sake of talking about the scriptures and history, popularly speaking, it is a grand literary meeting held in the imperial palace, the emperor will personally attend, and the then the banquet will start from the four books and the five classics, talk about the past and the present, take history as a mirror, and the emperor and the ministers discuss the success or failure of the ancient kings together.

The feast system began in the Han and Tang dynasties, and gradually formed a custom after the Song Dynasty, and was followed by the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

The Ming Dynasty attaches great importance to the sutra feast, in the spring and autumn, when the climate is mild and suitable, the sutra feast is usually held three times a month, and the six Shangshu in Beijing, the imperial history of the left and right capitals, the cabinet scholars and the princes and nobles with titles usually attend, and the affairs, the imperial history and the Hanlin will be in attendance.

The Imperial Court appointed a special speaker to be responsible for each banquet, and if the emperor had any questions, all attendees could participate in the discussion.

The banquet in the spring of the twelfth year of Hongzhi has been deserted due to a series of reasons, such as the meeting examination, the palace examination, the banquet official Cheng Minzheng's involvement in the question, and the prince's illness.

As spring was about to pass, Emperor Hongzhi suddenly decided to hold a sutra feast, and Shen Xi realized that Zhu Youzhu might want to take advantage of this opportunity to bring out the old affairs of Jianwen for everyone to discuss publicly, and then his copy of the recital would be known.

For Shen Xi, it can't be said to be a bad thing, but at least it's not a good thing.

Waiting for the officials of Honglu Temple to leave, Zhu Xizhou smiled and said to all the colleagues in the official room: "Hey, everyone in the Hanlin Academy has been invited, and this banquet must be unprecedented...... You'd better prepare when you go back, and you won't let the Hanlin Academy lose face tomorrow. ”

Zhong Hanlin couldn't help laughing.

Holding a sutra feast is actually an opportunity for talented people to attract the attention of the emperor.

On weekdays, the king is high in the palace, and all he sees is the cabinet elder and the six ministries, the members of the temple divisions, and the middle and lower-level officials may not be able to say a word to the emperor for several years, and the emperor's impression of you comes from the assessment of the officials, and if you want to be promoted, you can only talk to the boss or the people of the ministry.

But during the feast, if the emperor has questions, and others can't answer them, you explain the emperor's doubts, can the emperor pay more attention to you?

Knowing that there was a sutra feast, everyone hurried back to prepare, but at this time, someone came to the Hanlin Temple to offer an invitation...... The person who came was from the Hou Mansion of Shouning, and invited the people from the John Forest Courtyard to come to the mansion for a banquet.

Although there were not many Hanlin invited, Zhu Xizhou, Wang Zan and Shen Xi were all invited, in addition to several Hanlin editors and doctors of the Five Classics, all of whom were well-educated.

The invitation of the people of the Shouning Marquis Mansion was an honor for Hanlin.

Zhu Xizhou muttered: "Isn't it related to tomorrow's feast?" ”

Every time there is a sutra feast, in addition to a special sutra speaker for the emperor and ministers to talk about the history of the scriptures, the emperor will sometimes improvise to ask the participants about certain things and other opinions, the answer is good, naturally the emperor is satisfied with the court's admiration, if the answer is nondescript, it is purely to smear his own face.

Even if the military generals attend the banquet, they must remove their armor and wear robes, how many people in the court can really be literate and martial?

If the generals are like this, those relatives who rely on shadow and nepotism are even more unbearable, and when others talk about it, they are likely to be dumbfounded and unable to talk.

For example, Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling, the two brothers, are now only in their twenties, and their learning is average, the only advantage is that they have a queen's sister, and they may be able to be invincible with the help of Queen Zhang in court affairs, but on this occasion of paying attention to talent and learning, they can only stare dryly.

Zhu Xizhou's words mean something...... As soon as the palace released the news of the feast, the people of the Shouning Marquis Mansion invited the Hanlin officials, who were second to none in the entire Ming Dynasty, to have a banquet, perhaps to get the "topic" to be discussed tomorrow in advance, and they were ready to discuss with the Hanlin officials and give them some strategies for answering questions, so that they could show their faces in front of the courtiers.

Originally, before the feast, what the emperor wanted to ask, it was impossible for the courtiers to know, but who called Emperor Hongzhi only had one wife, Empress Zhang, in case the husband and wife were deeply affectionate and had nothing to say?

There is something difficult in the emperor's heart, it is inevitable to discuss it with the person next to him, Empress Zhang is a woman, she learned about the emperor's question, called her two younger brothers to talk, and then let them go back to prepare, which is reasonable......

Shen Xi thought about it: "Won't the Zhang brothers also ask us to ask about Jianwen's old affairs?" ”

The Hou Mansion of Shouning was invited, and the faces of the invitees were very bright, especially Wang Jiusi, a Hanlin official who had just been promoted from Shuji Shi to Hanlin Review, and was not qualified to show his face before.

Wang Jiusi is very close to Li Mengyang and others on weekdays, and he is really capable of writing on weekdays, and he can find one at random, all of them are well-known writers, and he himself is also one of the "first seven sons" of the Ming Dynasty, which is also the reason why he looked down on Shen Xi from the beginning.

But Shen Xi was a little worried, mainly because he assisted Liu Daxia in handling the case, and was involved in the case of stealing grain from the treasury and had some entanglements with the Zhang brothers.

……

……

Before going to the Shouning Marquis Mansion to attend the banquet, Shen Xi went home first to make preparations, in addition to changing into gorgeous civilian clothes, and at the same time had an explanation to the family, Shen Xi even wrote a letter and pressed it under the pillow, if he really went and didn't return, it should be an entrustment to his family.

Shen Xi went to the banquet this time, in addition to bringing an invitation, he also brought a thin gift, in fact, it was a pair of herbs in a gift box, Shouning Houfu received countless gifts on weekdays, Shen Xi prepared a pair of medicines by himself, clear the fire and moisten the lungs, you nobles eat and drink a lot on weekdays, and it is considerate enough to extinguish the fire for you, right?

Anyway, Shen Xi knew one thing, the people of the Shouning Marquis Mansion would definitely not put a few poor Hanlin gifts in their eyes, maybe they didn't even have the interest to open it and look at it, so they threw it aside.

Shen Xi walked in front, followed by Song Xiaocheng and Tang Hu as servants...... Tang Hu was in charge of getting the gifts, and Song Xiaocheng reported to Shen Xi what he had seen and heard about what he had done with Zhou Fatzi in the past few days.

Zhou Fatzi did attach the industry to the name of the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce, but in fact, he was not restricted by the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce at all, and Song Xiaocheng did not have many people, so he was put aside when he arrived at Zhou Fatzi.

"Lord Zhuangyuan, the more I look at the surnamed Zhou, the more disgusted I feel, otherwise, how about we find someone to do him and replace him?"

Song Xiaocheng gritted his teeth and said.

Shen Xi stopped and looked at Song Xiaocheng in surprise, this is still the five good young man who used to be uneasy and even full of self-blame for doing bad things?

Song Xiaocheng has been the leader of the chariot and horse gang for a few years, maybe he has been mixing with those who do evil for a long time, and he actually has a bit of gangsterism, except for being respectful to Shen Xi and Hui Niang, he is not so patient with others, and as soon as he opens his mouth, he shouts and kills.

A businessman like Zhou Fatzi has a huge power in the capital, although he is polite to the government and people with official status and fame, but Song Xiaocheng is just a gangster who runs the rivers and lakes in the ninth rate after all, plus Song Xiaocheng was sent by Shen Xi to supervise things, and there is a conflict of interests between them, so Zhou Fatzi naturally will not give him a good face.

Shen Xi shook his head: "No matter what, be patient." No matter how bad Zhou Dangjia is, it is also the head snake of the capital, not to mention that we are not a strong dragon crossing the river, even if it is, it is difficult to suppress the head snake. This time, he sent the disaster relief food in the name of the Tingzhou Chamber of Commerce, and we are mutually beneficial, and we can't make things deadlocked......"

Song Xiaocheng lowered his head: "Lord Zhuangyuan reminded me." ”

Shen Xi frowned: "Sixth brother, you still call me a little shopkeeper or a little boss as before, I am here in the capital, it is rare to have the help of the sixth brother, and I am not used to it." ”

Song Xiaocheng smiled and said, "How can this be done?" You are now the champion of high school, and I don't remember your official position very much, so I have to call you the champion, which sounds quite kind, and when I meet people in the future, I will tell them that I am the champion and have face. ”

Song Xiaocheng has a strong learning ability, and after just coming to the capital for a few days, the tone of "Bei'er has face" has already been said in a good way.

Shen Xi sighed slightly.

Song Xiaocheng is a smart person, if he is trained properly, he can help him do a lot of things, but he is afraid that he will not learn well, and after he has his own support and gained a certain amount of power, it is difficult not to be impetuous.

Now Song Xiaocheng is grateful for the kindness of his acquaintance with Hui Niang, but who dares to guarantee the future?

When the three of them arrived outside the Shouning Marquis's mansion, it was another scene of busy traffic.

Shen Xi thought to himself: "Shouning Hou Mansion is probably the most lively place in the capital. ”

The Shouning Marquis Mansion is known as the "Ministry of Small Officials", but anyone who wants to ask for gifts and officials will come to visit. Because the Shouning Marquis Mansion sold the official mantle was almost blatant, but no one in the court dared to point fingers at the Zhang brothers, and Li Mengyang was just young and vigorous and participated in the Zhang brothers, and he was almost framed to death.

It is impossible for Emperor Hongzhi not to know that his two brothers-in-law are doing evil outside, but he can't afford to punish him.

No matter how much the Zhang brothers embezzled, they also remembered that they sent most of their bribe-taking income to their sisters, brothers-in-law and nephews, which was equivalent to generating income for the imperial court.

It is impossible for Emperor Hongzhi to get so much filial piety from normal channels, and now he is only sacrificing the quota of some unpopular "ministers", selling the officials, collecting the silver, and rewarding the ministers with the silver in hand to let them work for themselves, and they can also repair the palace and save expenses, why not?

The indignant people who were indignant about the Shouning Marquis Mansion were mainly the scholars who took the imperial examination.

After more than ten years of hard study, it is not as fast as the fame of those who have silver in their purses. In these years, as a person, at most he can only be a small official in the prefect and county yamen, or teach in the local county school and government school, but as long as the Zhang brothers are filial piety enough, they can be appointed by the emperor as the officials of the Zhan Shifu and the six ministries and temples.

The Zhang brothers are more and more hated by the middle and lower class scholars, but the middle and lower level officials who have become the court are too late to stammer, who is willing to stand up and denounce them?

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PS: The third update is sent!

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