[Red Mansion] The third master of jade-like stone treasures

Above the court hall, all the officials were arguing.

"I heard that Jia Baoyu has a romantic nature and is not clean and self-conscious. He actually got entangled with prostitutes in brothels. How can such a person enter the Imperial Academy? According to the courtiers, it is better to release him as an official. He has more experience and self-cultivation!"

"It's not right! The number one scholar has always been the model for all Jinshi. They should be appointed as Shuji scholars in the Imperial Academy. How can they be released? Although Jia Baoyu has a reputation for being romantic, it happened many years ago, and being entangled with prostitutes is even more important. Spread rumors! Your Majesty, don’t believe in rumors!"

"Exactly, my minister seconded the proposal! The imperial examination is an important matter of the country. Since Jia Baoyu is the number one scholar hand-picked by the sage, it is natural that he should be appointed as a scholar of the Imperial Academy!"

"I object! If there is no real fact, how can it be groundless? Jia Baoyu's entanglement with prostitutes may not be a fact. Such misbehavior, how can he be an example for the world's Jinshi? If he is an example, the world's Jinshi students will follow the example and indulge in it. Beauty, eating, drinking, prostitution and gambling are not doing their job properly, then the country is in danger! The world is in danger!"

"You fart! Why is there no excuse if you want to commit a crime?"

"You are talking nonsense! The court is spitting obscenities!"

"You are guilty, have you visited brothels like Jia Baoyu?"

"Your uncle, frame me..."

"Your grandma's..."

Bao Cong stood in the corner, shrinking his head silently, trying not to let others notice him.The ministers didn't know what was going on, and they were about to fight for no reason!Where is Baoyu appointed, and it has nothing to do with them, and I don't know what they are arguing about?

Carefully looking up, Bao Cong found that Emperor Zhao was not only not angry in this messy situation, but also had a slight smile on his mouth, apparently in a good mood.

He was not sure whether Emperor Zhao was happy because he saw the ministers arguing, or because Concubine Chen gave birth to a son for him the day before yesterday.

Hearing the news from the palace, it was said that Emperor Zhao intended to promote Concubine Chen as a noble concubine, which shows his love for this son.

Baocong was running wild, thinking about a lot of things, then he heard Zhaodisi said slowly: "Okay, don't make noise! ​​Jia Baocong, tell me, is it true that Jia Baoyu was with a prostitute in a brothel? ?”

Bao Cong knew early on that he couldn't hide, so he had already thought up the wording, saying: "When my elder brother was studying in Suzhou, he often went to the poetry meeting held by the magistrate's house. After returning to Beijing, he devoted himself to preparing for the imperial examination. The rumors of prostitutes hanging around are not true. Moreover, the Holy Majesty is the Lord of the world, and no matter what the positions of the ministers and elder brothers, they will do their best for the Holy Majesty and the court and society!"

When that Yunxiang was with Baoyu, she had already redeemed herself from the brothel, and now she has disappeared without a trace.Bao Cong avoids the important and takes the light, saying that Baoyu is not hanging out with prostitutes now, nor can he be considered a bully.Besides, looking at Emperor Zhao's appearance, it doesn't seem like he wants to pursue this matter seriously.

Sure enough, when Bao Cong said that Emperor Zhao was the lord of the world, the smile on Emperor Zhao's face became more obvious.

Emperor Zhao nodded, and reprimanded the officials: "Look at you, you are still the pillars of the country! How is it different from the hawkers in the vegetable market who are arguing over a copper coin?" As the number one scholar, it is natural that he should be appointed as a good scholar."

Such a light sentence is a foregone conclusion.Some people were aggrieved, some laughed like an old father, only Bao Cong, the most relevant person, lowered his eyes calmly, as if he had nothing to do with him.

After the court, naturally someone congratulated Bao Cong, and Bao Cong responded to everyone with a smile, and then sneaked home at the right time.

It's just a top scholar award, why does it seem like there are six ministers to be selected?

The more Bao Cong thought about it, the more strange he felt, but he couldn't think of the key point.After all, in today's court, almost every minister is speaking, some support Baoyu, and some criticize Baoyu.

The faction of King Zhongshun must have criticized Baoyu, but those who criticized Baoyu may not all be from King Zhongshun.

There are also those who turn back and add oil and vinegar, they are going to put him on the fire...

Baocong intuitively felt that there was some danger coming to Baoyu, but he still didn't know how many enemies there were and where they came from.

Recently, more and more people came to Jia's house to visit. Even if Bao Cong kept hiding, it was inevitable that he would meet a few.There are also colleagues from the Ministry of War, who are obviously strangers, or have only met a few times, but they see him like a brother, come up to hook their shoulders, and invite him to eat and drink.

Bao Cong naturally refused, saying that he was too busy teaching students to draw maps.

But the man looked around sneakily, and then whispered in Baocong's ear: "Lord Jia, it's a common practice for our colleagues in the military department to eat, drink, and connect with each other. You can't be special! Besides, Lord Shangshu appreciates you very much. I told you to go!"

So the point is here!The Minister of War wants to find him!

Bao Cong endured the doubts in his heart, and agreed with a smile: "Naturally, Lord Shangshu values ​​it, and the next official will naturally go to the appointment."

In the evening, after going to the restaurant, Bao Cong drank and chatted with a few people in the lobby, and then he was led to the box on the second floor by Xiao Er.Inside is the Minister of the Ministry of War, and a table of sumptuous food and wine.

"Come, come, I've been waiting for you for a long time." The Minister of the Ministry of War enthusiastically told Bao Cong to sit down.

The soldiers came to cover the water and soil, and Bao Cong was trying to figure out what was going on, so he naturally sat down respectfully.

The two first chatted about some daily affairs, and then flattered each other. It was not until they drank almost two jugs of wine that the Minister of the Ministry of War blushed, and happily patted Bao Cong on the shoulder and said, "You two brothers, good luck! How wonderful! Did you know that when your brother Baoyu was taking the scientific examination, someone changed his test paper to a blank paper and made him fail?"

Bao Cong was shocked and asked, "What's going on? Who is so bold that he dares to tamper with the imperial examination!"

Although I have seen many such plots in TV dramas and novels before, Bao Cong has experienced scientific examinations himself, and knows that the examination of candidates and the supervision of examiners are very strict.After the exam, the test papers were sealed and shipped, and the examiners were locked in the room to correct the test papers and were not allowed to come out.Every link is monitored by guards.

If this is the case, there are still people who can manipulate the imperial examination, how powerful is this person?

The Minister of the Ministry of War did not say who it was, but smiled and said: "Good luck! When that person changed the test paper, he was discovered by Wang Jin Wang's examiner, so he changed the test paper back at that time. You said it was a coincidence, but later unpacked I saw that it was your brother's name! Fortunately, it was changed back, otherwise the number one scholar in your family would be gone!"

lucky?Baocong didn't think so.

It is not known who exchanged the blank papers, but this Wang Jin who exchanged the test papers is the cousin of the queen's natal family.How is it such a coincidence?It happened that the queen's cousin found out and stopped it?

It's just that the Minister of the Ministry of War said so, and Bao Cong naturally echoed it again and again: "Oh, this is really my ancestor's smoke, and my ancestor's protection! Thanks to Mr. Wang, my brother and I will definitely come to pay our respects someday!"

The Minister of the Ministry of War shook his hand and said: "Don't be so indifferent, this is just the effort of Mr. Wang. He is low-key and doesn't want you to come to thank him for it. Besides, the empress admires you two brothers very much. Wang Jin has kept your brother's first prize. The empress is also very pleased!"

With these words, the minister of the Ministry of War showed his favor for the queen, and it was very obvious that he wanted to win them over.

Now Concubine Chen has given birth to a son, and the queen has only the princess under her knees, so she is rightfully anxious.It's just that Yuan Chun gave birth to a daughter, so the queen won't be able to compete with Concubine Chen if she wins over their brothers?

Bao Cong just couldn't figure it out. Within a few days, two major events happened in the harem. One was that Concubine Chen was promoted to a noble concubine, and the other was that the empress adopted the eight-year-old eldest son of the emperor as her first son.

The emperor's eldest son's mother and concubine have been sick all year round, and just passed away at the end of last year. Do you think this is a coincidence?

All the clues came together, and Bao Cong understood that now the empress and concubine Chen were fighting fiercely, and each had a prince by his side, so he began to win the support of the courtiers.

These two children are still young, they didn't expect to start fighting for the throne so soon!

Could it be that Emperor Zhao is going to die?

Looking back on Emperor Zhao's face recently, Bao Cong looked quite energetic, and he didn't hear of any serious illness, but a Taoist priest often concocted alchemy for him, and he seemed to want to live forever.

Of course, Bao Cong absolutely believed that it was impossible to live forever, and if Emperor Zhao took a few more years of pills indiscriminately, it would be more likely that he would die prematurely.

I also thought of the fact that Baoyu's test paper was almost replaced with a blank paper in the imperial examination.The selection of talents through the imperial examination is the most important matter of the country, but there are people who can play tricks on such a major national event. Could it be that the court has rotted away in a place where he can't see it?

Bao Cong couldn't help but think about the imperial examination that he participated in, no one should have tampered with it, right?

But it's useless to think about it, it was all a few years ago.

The officialdom and the imperial court are really muddy. Bao Cong, a craftsman, deeply feels that he is not a talent who takes the political line, and it is safer to squat in small classrooms all his life and teach others to draw maps.

It's just that Baoyu seems to have been involved in the court struggle... It can be seen from the chaos at the court meeting that everyone was arguing about whether Baoyu should be appointed as a scholar of the Imperial Academy.

Where are they arguing about Baoyu's position? It's more likely that they are using this matter to suppress the momentum of the enemy!

Baocong had a headache thinking about it, so he only asked Baoyu to work hard in the Imperial Academy, not to form cliques, and not to have too much contact with the ministers of the court.But Baoyu said sullenly: "There is no clique forming in the Hanlin Academy! Everyone is very friendly, and they often drink tea together to discuss knowledge and so on. Both No. [-] and Tanhua are very talented, but they are just average."

After a pause, he continued: "I don't have friends with other people, I just go to Beijing King's place to have wine and tea occasionally."

Although he is busy every day, he is actually not very interested in affairs, especially because most of his colleagues are old men, and the younger ones are all average-looking... Yunxiang is better, she is beautiful and gentle, just looking for After so long, there is still no news, and I don't know if something unexpected happened... Baoyu sighed, with a sad face.

When he was a teenager, Baoyu often went to Beijing Palace to play, and now it is the same as before, Baocong is not surprised.Just talking about the Hanlin Academy, where everyone was in a good mood, drinking tea and discussing knowledge, he felt a little magical.

When he went to the Hanlin Academy, no one smiled at him, and the Shangguan even assigned him the most tiring, troublesome and inconspicuous tasks.If it weren't for his lack of determination to stand out and win, he might have caused trouble in the Hanlin Academy, or he would have wooed people everywhere and hooked up with high-ranking officials to change departments.

Bao Cong thought to himself: Could it be that everyone treats the number one scholar more affectionately than Chuanlu?Or is it because of that piece of jade that everyone is very kind to Baoyu?

The jade on Baoyu's neck was shining with a soft white luster. In Baocong's eyes, it was obviously very dazzling, but it was not dazzling at all.There are a bunch of small words floating on it, what about health bonuses, luck bonuses, sanity bonuses, affinity bonuses... I am very envious of Baocong.

If he borrows it to wear it, will his luck improve?

Of course, Bao Cong was just thinking about it and wouldn't really do it.If Baoyu lost his jade and became a naive child, he would not be able to go to the Hanlin Academy on business.Something big is going to happen!

Baoyu became the favorite colleague of the ministers, while Baocong still stayed in the small classroom to teach. The only trouble was that many colleagues in the Ministry of War explicitly hinted that he would be invited to attend the party of the Queen's Party.

Bao Cong really didn't want to go, but Wang Jin couldn't completely shirk away because of Wang Jin's "hands-on" to Bao Yu, so he also participated three or four times in a perfunctory manner.

Then, the bigger worry is that when the Queen's Party and the King Zhongshun's faction disagree, Bao Cong has a headache, how should he express his position...

hateful!Why did he, a minor official of the Ministry of War, attend the court meeting?Do you still have to show which side you support at the court meeting?

Although he was at odds with King Zhongshun, he never thought about being tied to the same boat with the Queen!Although it is not impossible, but...... the queen is a good person?

Could it be that she didn't care that Yuanchun gave birth to a sickly daughter and tried to use Yingchun's daughter to confuse the royal blood?

This matter was known by the queen's party, and it was also a handle to restrain Jia's family and Yuanchun, okay?

Bao Cong persisted for a while in the complicated officialdom, and the queen's recruitment became more and more intense, to the point where he needed to clearly stand in line. , bedridden.

There are still a lot of people who come to visit the doctor, but Bao Cong let Lin Daiyu block the door, and doesn't want to see anyone.

Until, Feng Tang came to visit him with the imperial decree of Emperor Zhao...