This person is none other than the head of the cabinet. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Lai Zongdao didn't know what the emperor was doing by calling so many officials here. It wasn't until Feng Quan appeared that Lai Zongdao guessed in his heart that the emperor should want to use Feng Quan's example to give a good reminder to the other ministers, reminding everyone to be honest and not to form a party for personal gain, and to act like a dog - this is actually very close to Xiao Mu's original intention.

But just now, the emperor's insistence on not allowing the little eunuchs to worship Confucius made the already very sober Lai Zongdao confused again: Enlightened students worship the Holy Master, this is an unchanging tradition for thousands of years, why does the emperor insist on his own views so stubbornly in this matter?

Although the Mengtong who are to be enlightened today are all some little eunuchs, the saints have a cloud of "teaching without class", no matter what kind of people can learn the words of the saints and read the writings of the sages, so of course the little eunuchs are also qualified to receive education and become the disciples of the holy teacher. On this issue, the civil officials represented by the sect all had the same idea, and at this moment they all incarnated as staunch fighters who advocated the fairness of education and defended everyone's right to education - of course, as for the question of whether the eunuchs could participate in the imperial examination after studying, they also naturally denied it in their hearts, or simply ignored it. At this moment, in this time and space of the Ming Dynasty, there would be no scholar who would have even the slightest idea of eunuchs participating in the imperial examination, just like Xiao Mu did not have the slightest idea of going back in time before crossing over, except for fantasy.

The main job of the eunuchs is to serve the emperor's diet and daily life, and the main job of the ministers is to assist the emperor in governing the world and becoming a generation of Ming monarchs, which is the mainstream view of the Ming society.

Therefore, in the eyes of Lai Zongdao, the emperor's approach seems to be very contradictory: on the one hand, the emperor is very concerned about the affairs of the inner study hall, and it can be seen that the emperor also hopes that the little eunuchs will be educated and learn to understand the words of the saints; On the other hand, the emperor's actions today seem to be blatantly discriminating against the little eunuchs, and cruelly depriving them of the right to become saints' protégés.

Of course, when today's son is a very holy and virtuous monarch (this is all thanks to Emperor Chongzhen himself, who eradicated the eunuch party before Xiao Mu crossed), this is well known, so Lai Zongdao naturally does not think that the emperor will do such a contradictory thing, and there must be a deep meaning behind the emperor's approach.

While Xiao Mu and the ministers repeatedly talked about "those who are guilty must not defile the sages" and "there is no innocent lecturer in the inner study hall", Lai Zongdao did not follow the other ministers to advise the emperor, which is not to say that he supports the emperor's approach, but is just analyzing the emperor's intentions.

After a brief analysis by Lai Zongdao, the conjecture that the emperor discriminated against the little eunuchs was ruled out. Although it seems natural for the emperor to get rid of Wei Zhongxian and destroy the eunuchs as soon as he ascended the throne, it seems that he should look down on the eunuchs, but if this is the case, the emperor will not care so much about the affairs of the inner study hall. Besides, even if the emperor really looks down on the eunuchs and wants to humiliate these eunuchs, it is not that any eunuch has the qualifications to be humiliated by the emperor, at least the eunuchs who have sat in the position of the master of ceremonies and the pen are worthy of being humiliated by the emperor himself. No matter what you think, there is no need for the emperor to take these powerless little eunuchs, and for this reason, all the officials above the third grade in the capital are gathered to watch together, which is simply an even more exaggerated "cutting chickens with a knife", and the face of these little eunuchs is inevitably too big.

Since the emperor didn't mean to embarrass these little eunuchs, what was the emperor's purpose in not letting them worship their ancestors? Lai Zongdao then thought that the emperor's move was to humiliate the backbone of the eunuch party represented by Feng Quan.

This reason seems to be very reasonable, at least in terms of rank, Feng Quan still has this qualification - the former leader of the eunuch party for a while, the existence of a cabinet elder, under the watchful eyes of all officials above the third rank in the capital, the emperor personally went out to humiliate him, which seems to be reasonable.

But Lai Zongdao is not very satisfied with this speculation, the emperor wants to punish the eunuchs, humiliate the leaders of the eunuchs, he can kill them all, or parade in the streets, in short, there are countless ready-made, and more effective methods can be used, why did the emperor turn a blind eye, but chose such a roundabout method, accidentally injured this group of little eunuchs, not to mention, but also caused the dissatisfaction of the courtiers, and finally evolved into an embarrassing situation of confrontation between the monarch and the minister.

After thinking about it, after eliminating all possible angles, Lai Zongdao still did not guess the emperor's true intentions. As a result, an idea that was impossible to produce gradually appeared in the mind of Lai Zongdao:

"Could it be that the emperor has nothing to do with the little eunuch and Feng Quan doing this, but is actually dissatisfied with the Holy Ancestor?"

I have to say that this is really a crazy idea, even Lai Zongdao himself did not expect that he would give birth to such a deviant idea, the emperor has always been a saint, how can he be disrespectful to the master? It's a fantasy.

However, the truth is sometimes so crazy, and such a very "absurd" speculation from the sect is precisely Xiao Mu's own thoughts. Xiao Mu's act of preventing Confucius was indeed carried out with some dissatisfaction, or more accurately, with dissatisfaction with such ritualized Confucian rituals.

Although Lai Zongdao clearly believed that his idea was completely wrong, and even sincerely blamed himself for having such an idea, such a crazy idea did not dissipate from Lai Zongdao's mind, but became clearer and more vivid.

When Xiao Mu and the other ministers were arguing on par, Lai Zongdao was trying to control himself from thinking nonsense, but in the end he helplessly found that his efforts were in vain, and some ideas would take root in people's psychology once they germinated, and they could no longer be erased.

So, the ministers around him spoke out and admonished, and under the urging and encouragement of the officials around him, "Come to the cabinet to say something" and "Come to the cabinet to persuade the emperor to withdraw his life", Lai Zongdao finally spoke:

"The minister comes to the sect, and he has something to say."

The cabinet chief finally spoke, and the once chaotic scene finally fell silent for the time being. I have to say that in the Ming Dynasty, although the cabinet bachelor was only at the level of the five grades, the status of each cabinet elder was very lofty, and the "head" of the cabinet elder, the chief scholar of the cabinet (also the fifth grade), which is usually called the first assistant, has a higher prestige. It can be said with certainty that in the Ming Dynasty, although the head of the cabinet did not have the name of the prime minister, he did the prime minister. Therefore, as soon as Lai Zongdao spoke, the other officials all quieted down, presumably Lord Shoufu must have a high opinion in front of the emperor and other ministers, and everyone was very looking forward to what Lai Zongdao was going to say, including Xiao Mu himself, and the same was true.

"Aiqing, please speak." Xiao Mu said, signaling to come to the sect at any time to speak.

In front of Xiao Mu and all the other ministers, Lai Zongdao fell directly to the ground, took off the black gauze hat on his head, put it on the ground, and said in a panicked tone: "The ministers came to Zongdao, there was no great talent, thanks to the emperor's promotion, he was able to rank in the cabinet, and he was the first assistant." Ranchen is really dull, talented, and vegetarian, and has not tasted a plan, offering a strategy and benefiting the country. Therefore, the minister was frightened, and he specially asked to resign from the position of first assistant, and hoped that the emperor would approve it, and at the same time select another virtuous person, in order to prosper the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible. ”

Coming to Zongdao to say, the mood is also very complicated, not only about the emperor's prejudice about the ancestor and Confucianism, but also for his own self-blame for having such a guess, as well as the exhaustion of the ups and downs of the sea over the years, and finally, of course, there is also the resignation and return to the field that he has been looking forward to, with the beautiful yearning of teasing his grandson and enjoying the joy of family.

Of course, the reason why Lai Zongdao made up his mind to resign, and even acted immediately, even to resign in front of the public, was to blame himself for doubting the emperor, and it was this that hooked up all the ups and downs of officialdom and the idea of returning to the countryside that had been forgotten recently, so Lai Zongdao found that he had no pursuit of official careers, and now he seemed to have no loyalty and awe to the emperor. There's no need to keep doing it.

Coming to Zongdao's resignation is tantamount to dropping a bombshell in the officialdom of Daming, and this metaphor is indeed very vivid, because all the officials of Daming happened to be present, and witnessed Lai Zongdao's resignation on the spot, and Lai Zongdao himself was like that bombshell, and everyone present, including Xiao Mu and Lin Yi, was all shocked by this bomb.

The scene was very quiet for a short time, but then it was like a frying pan, and the officials present were shocked and all reacted to what had happened, although they still could not believe the truth of what they had just heard, but the reactions of the other officials helped them confirm that there was indeed no problem with their ears.

The resignation of the first assistant in public happened without warning, so that no one cared about the question of whether enlightened students should worship Confucius anymore - although the ideas of the sages and the inheritance of Confucianism were very important, it was the resignation of the first assistant of the cabinet that deserved everyone's attention at this moment.

Xiao Mu also couldn't believe his ears, although the chaotic ministers below had already helped him confirm that what he heard was the reality, but Xiao Mu was still unwilling to confirm it again:

"What did Aiqing just say? I didn't hear clearly, so repeat it to me! ”