The emperor glanced at Zhu Qiming lightly from the corner of his eye, "Flat." ”

Zhu Qiming turned around and bowed to Yang Rong, "The student has seen Scholar Yang. ”

"Your Highness is gracious." Yang Rong slightly bowed his hand, which was counted as a return gift, and then turned to face the imperial platform, and wanted to speak, but saw that the emperor had already got up and left his seat and walked towards the apse.

Huang Ying appeared from the side hall, chased after the emperor, and glanced back at Zhu Qiming, looking stunned.

Yang Rong waved his hand to signal his subordinates to retreat, and he got up and walked to the apse.

Zhu Qiming was a little confused, the emperor didn't speak, and he wasn't sure whether he should follow him to school. Thinking that Jin Ying had already spoken, he was only here to accompany the emperor to study, so he followed him hard.

Yang Rong saw that the emperor was seated, so he stood aside and pondered. In the past, the affairs of the court and the central government were decided by their auxiliary ministers, and the emperor obeyed everything, but recently, the emperor's temperament has changed, and although he does not oppose the opinions of the auxiliary ministers, he always likes to delay for some reason and refuses to nod easily, which makes the auxiliary ministers of Gu Ming no longer so handy.

Yang Rong made up his mind, and wanted to step forward to persuade the emperor to nod, but he saw the emperor looking sideways and said, "Give me a seat." ”

The chamberlain sent a stool to Yang Rong, and Yang Rong had no choice but to settle there and sit down after a while.

All the attendants in the palace retreated, and the emperor said lightly: "Bring Yu Qian's recital." ”

Zhu Qiming heard the emperor's orders, thinking that Huang Ying was the emperor's teacher, and there was no reason to run errands, and Yang Rong had just been given a seat, and his butt was not yet hot, how could he sit back and rise? What's more, he is an auxiliary minister, so the errand naturally does not fall on him.

That's what called me? Zhu Qiming immediately walked back to the main hall, took Yu Qian's recital from the imperial case, and just wanted to turn back and enter, when suddenly his curiosity suddenly rose, and he couldn't help but open the recital and read it quickly.

In the notebook, Yu Qian analyzed the reasons why it was difficult to achieve results in the repair of the embankment over the years, made a statement on the harm caused by the annual breach of the Yellow River, estimated the amount of work to repair the embankment, and listed the voices of the local people and the suggestions of the elderly, the content is very detailed, which shows that Yu Qian is a diligent and pragmatic governor.

What is particularly critical is that Yu Qian expressed the voice of the people and the feelings of the people at a large length, which shows that he focuses on the people's support and social stability.

Back in the inner hall, Zhu Qiming sent the book to the bookcase in front of the emperor's seat, and listened to the emperor's instructions: "Sit down." ”

Zhu Qiming looked back and saw a stool placed far away from the emperor, so he retreated there and sat down.

According to the emperor's meaning, Huang Ying explained "The Mean" today. The golden mean is very beneficial to people's self-cultivation, but it may not be effective in guiding the governance of the country. The logical starting point of the golden mean is "still in the middle", that is, everything must be just right, "no fault is not enough", which is very subtle, but how do you know that what you are doing is just right, no fault and no fault? There is no objective evaluation standard for many things, it can only be based on personal subjective judgment, Zhuge Liang's tongue war group Confucianism was extreme, and Hua Tuo's bone scraping and poison treatment was even more shocking, can you say that Zhuge Liang and Hua Tuo are too extreme is wrong? It is difficult to say who is extreme and who is moderate in subjective opinion, and you may not be able to say that others are extreme, but it is precisely your own extreme! Therefore, the survival soil of the mean is inseparable from the world's view, and the people's opinion, its practical value often falls on the "compromise and harmony" of neither left nor right, and is used for power tricks.

Huang Ying spoke with a lotus flower, but Zhu Qiming rarely listened attentively. He looked around and suddenly realized that there was something unusual in the temple.

Why wasn't the king called? Why did the emperor summon himself?

When I looked at the emperor again, I saw that his upper body was slightly tilted and his arms moved slightly, which was a sign of impatience!

Taking advantage of Huang Ying's lecture, Zhu Qiming pondered for a while, and said categorically: "Mr. Huang, the student is puzzled······"

Huang Ying glanced at Zhu Qiming with a rather jealous look, and said with a bitter face: "Your Highness, I don't have to ask anything today." ”

Seeing that the emperor straightened his back, it seemed that he didn't mind the episode of Fang Cai, why not? It seemed that there was still a bit of a taste of being in the middle of the heart, so Zhu Qiming continued: "Mr. Huang, the students don't understand, please explain the golden mean with examples." ”

Zhu Qiming's voice paused, and the emperor opened his mouth: "Yu Qian and local officials in Henan asked the imperial court to overhaul the embankment of the Yellow River, but the Ministry of Industry thought that the long-term repair was ineffective and did not advocate vain money. Sir, let's take this matter as an example, according to the golden mean, how should I decide? ”

Over there, Yang Rong's face was shocked, and he stood up straight, it turned out that the young son of heaven was hiding such a big scheming!

Here, Huang Ying was stunned. He was recommended by the assistant minister to become the emperor, and he was in awe of Yang Rong and others, but if he asked today, he was not allowed to play tricks, hesitated for a moment, and said: "Don't overhaul, don't don't don't repair." ”

You can't overhaul it, you can't do it without repairing, that's a minor repair? Isn't that a waste of silver? Hmph, I still can't escape the trap of sticking to both ends and taking the middle, and not offending the two! Is this the golden mean you are talking about?

Zhu Qiming secretly spit out, but seeing that Yang Rong's face was not very good-looking, Yang Rong said angrily: "Huang Ying, you don't know how to deal with politics, why do you talk nonsense!" How can there be so much silver in the treasury for water! ”

The emperor got up suddenly, turned around slowly, his eyes were much brighter than usual, and his face showed a slight anger.

Zhu Qiming saw the emperor's frank expression for the first time, and only felt that that face was so vivid and real at the moment, as if he had just returned from the heavenly realm to the world, no longer out of reach, no longer cloudy and foggy.

The atmosphere at the scene suddenly became tense. In the final analysis, what the emperor cares about is the dominance of the government, he hopes that the decree will come out of his heart and come out of his mouth, and he doesn't want to be a nod again! It doesn't matter if it's worth the money, he doesn't care, what he wants is dominance! He had made a compromise and just wanted to make a compromise as Huang Ying said, but Yang Rong categorically refused.

The emperor's eyes were fixed on Zhu Qiming's face!

Isn't that for me to offend people? The emperor's gaze seemed to be instructing, Zhu Qiming beat the drum in his heart, thinking that most of the Confucian scholars were pedantic and couldn't be followers, and Yang Rong was just a follower, and the followers were often accustomed to calculating economic accounts after a long time, calculating the efficiency-cost ratio between input and efficiency, and neglecting to calculate moral accounts and political accounts, while Yu Qian obviously paid more attention to moral accounts and political accounts!

That's it, for Yu Qian's sake, it's better to be a wicked person again! It's just that he can't discuss the government in vain, and he has to knock on the side, depending on whether the Son of Heaven has a heart.

"Mr. Huang, although today's talk is modest, when students read "Shangshu" and "Guanzi", they have a good understanding of "the people are the foundation of the state, the foundation is solid and the state is ning" and "the prosperity of the government is in accordance with the people's heart; The government is abolished, and there are doubts in the rebellion against the people's will, please give me advice. ”

"Not bad!" Without waiting for Huang Ying to speak, the emperor immediately said: "'The people are the foundation of the state, and the state is solid', 'The prosperity of the government is in accordance with the will of the people; The abolition of government is against the will of the people'. Now that hundreds of people in Kaifeng Mansion have called on the imperial court to repair the Yellow River embankment, how can I disobey the people's wishes? Over the years, the locust plague and flood in Henan have continued, and the people are in hardship, so they would rather flee the famine than make chaos, what is the reason? It's all because the court has done its best every year! Henan is close to the north of Zhili, the imperial court does not hesitate to spend a lot of manpower and financial resources every year to prevent disasters and provide disaster relief, the people see in their eyes, know gratitude, so Henan disasters and famines are frequent, but it has always been stable. On the other hand, in Huguang, Guangdong, and Fujian, the mob frequently rioted, and the cost of suppressing and appreciating the embankment was a huge amount of silver, a thousand times the cost of repairing the embankment! The Ministry of Industry only knows that shouting will not let the silver go to waste, but over the years, I don't know how much silver has been wasted! ”

Yang Rong realized the seriousness of the situation, and also felt that the days of assisting the minister to call for wind and rain were coming to an end, so he immediately bowed down and said, "The minister obeys the order!" ”

The state is on the table, but just let the emperor compromise only need to spend a little money, and now that he has reversed the dragon scales, he will spend a lot of silver, Yang Rong is not a taste in his heart, and after retreating, he glanced at Zhu Qiming leisurely, "King Yuejing has long passed away, and the matter of His Royal Highness's ascension to the throne cannot be left undecided for a long time." ”

Zhu Qiming's heart sank when he heard this, and he immediately realized that he had become persona non grata, and the drum noise of attacking the throne and going to the domain was about to resound in Fengtian Temple!

Fortunately, after Yang Rong left, the emperor called Zhu Qiming with a relieved face: "Qi Ming." ”

Zhu Qiming's heart moved. This is the first time since returning to Beijing that the emperor has called his name!