Chapter 93: The Sky Pride Plan

  Liu Jin handled Zhu Houxi's case very quickly, and it only took seven days for Zhu Houxi to confess.

  In the imperial study of the Leopard House, Zhu Houzhao listened to Liu Jin's report and tapped his fingers on the desk, but it was unclear what he was thinking.

  To be honest, Liu Jin's heart was also a bit tense. The result he presented naturally followed his previous plan, with Zhu Houxi taking the blame for everything and trying not to implicate Tianji Hui and Zhu Youxiao in any way.

  Zhu Houzhao suddenly raised his head to look at Liu Jin, and Liu Jin's heart skipped a beat. However, on the surface, he remained calm and composed, only slightly bowing his body.

  Zhu Houzhao said: "Order the transmission to let Xing Xian Wang Shu enter the capital, I want to personally listen to him explain how he governs his children. Also, order the five military commanders' headquarters to exchange the Anlu State Commander-in-Chief and the Shaanxi State Commander-in-Chief. Furthermore, command the Xing Xian Wang Fu to reduce the number of guards, which must not exceed two thousand."

  "Yes, your humble servant obeys." Liu Jin responded, and after thinking for a moment, he asked: "Your Majesty, what about the Crown Prince Zhu Houxi?"

  "Hand it over to the Imperial Clan Court and let them handle it according to the law of treasonous conspiracy. If you really can't find any evidence that King Xing's uncle was involved, then don't implicate him unnecessarily." Zhu Houzhao said without hesitation, clearly having already carefully considered these matters.

  "Yes." Liu Jin responded again, he secretly took a glance at Zhu Houzhao, and couldn't help but feel some emotion in his heart.

  This twenty-year-old young emperor, those who are not familiar with him think he is a greedy and lustful person. But in fact, only those who truly understand this emperor know that he is not as despicable as his surface behavior suggests.

  Taking the disposal just now, for example. The transfer of the commander-in-chief of Anlu State to another post is equivalent to cutting off the connection between Zhu Youqian and the Commander-in-Chief of Anlu State. Then, the number of armored soldiers guarding the Wangfu was set at no more than 2,000, which is another insurance for King Xingxian.

  To know that in the Ming Dynasty's prince system, the highest quota for guards in a royal palace could be as high as 10,000 people. For princes like Zhu Youxiao who were close to the imperial family, sometimes they would even exceed this quota and secretly maintain private armies. Although maintaining private armies was considered treasonous, by the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty it had become an unspoken rule. Now that the number has been set at 2,000, it basically restricts the development of the Xingying Palace, Liu Jin knows that Zhu Youxiao will no longer have a chance to compete for the throne, this is why he sent out a fool to scare away the snake.

  And in Liu Jin's view, Zhu Houzhao's final treatment of Zhu Houxi could also be considered a trick, which was to deal with him as a traitor, which meant that Zhu Houxi was already doomed. However, according to the Ming dynasty law, conspiring with rebels would lead to the extermination of their nine clans, and at the very least, the destruction of three clans. Even if the emperor's mercy was abundant, confiscation of property could not be avoided.

  However, Zhu Houzhao let Liu Jin not get too involved, which was equivalent to showing mercy to Zhu Youxiao. I killed your son, but that's because your son deserved to die, and I didn't bother you about it, which is already a favor, you should thank me. This is the cleverness of Zhu Houzhao's handling. Moreover, Zhu Houzhao's handling also made other imperial relatives unable to say much, they could only say that he was kind to the imperial relatives. At the same time, keeping Zhu Youxiao also had the effect of intimidating those restless imperial relatives.

  One arrow, three birds. Liu Jin said silently in his heart.

  After Zhu Houzhao and Liu Jin had discussed the matter of Zhu Houxi, he waved his hand to let Liu Jin withdraw, then Zhu Houzhao ordered someone to summon Zhang Yong.

  Zhang Yongyi entered the imperial study and paid homage to Zhu Houzhao: "Your humble servant pays respects to Your Majesty, may you live for ten thousand years, ten thousand years, and ten million years."

  "Feel free to get up." Zhu Houzhao said with a faint smile.

  Zhang Yong stood up, slightly bowing his body. During this period of time, Zhang Yong clearly felt that Zhu Houzhao valued himself more and more, and all of this originated from the idea of Jiangxia's Jiangnan Mining Bureau.

  With the establishment of Jiangnan Mining Bureau, Zhang Yong's mansion can be said to have been trampled by people. Those officials who opened private copper mines in Jiangnan came to visit Zhang Yong with grand gifts, and recently, just receiving gifts made Zhang Yong's hands soft. However, he is also a clever person, knowing that the gifts received cannot be monopolized by one person, so he did not forget to share a portion with Jiang Xia and Zhu Houzhao.

  Zhu Houzhao now has Zhang Yong constantly sending silver over on his left, and the high dividend of Jiangxia Xiangshan Villa on his right, so the silver in the inner warehouse is becoming more and more abundant. Recently, Zhu Houzhao has even begun to consider whether to find some time, find some leisure, lead a group of dog legs, and stroll around Jiangnan.

  Zhu Houzhao looked at Zhang Yong, his eyes filled with a natural appreciation. Receiving such a gaze from Zhu Houzhao, Zhang Yong's heart was instantly delighted.

  Zhu Houzhao, with a hint of a smile on his lips, took out a handwritten edict from the table and handed it to Zhang Yong: "You immediately go and deliver this edict of mine to the Minister of Rites, Jing Gui."

  Zhang Yong bowed and took the imperial edict from Zhu Houzhao's hands with both hands. Normally, an imperial edict that cannot be seen by others would be placed in an envelope and sealed with a wax seal. This imperial edict was not placed in an envelope, which meant that Zhang Yong could see its contents.

  Zhang Yong glanced roughly and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise: "Will the trial be held ahead of schedule?"

  After a moment of surprise, Zhang Yong immediately understood the meaning behind Zhu Houzhao's actions. It was clear that Zhu Houzhao wanted to let Jiang Xia enter the imperial court through the civil service examination as soon as possible. The fact that he would advance the entire examination just for Jiang Xia alone made Zhang Yong astonished at how much Zhu Houzhao valued him.

  At this moment, Jiang Xia had just recovered from his injuries and came out of the Xiangyang Mountain Villa. For Jiang Xia's body, Cui Nianshu and Cui Ruxue, the two sisters, have been avoiding him in various ways for the past few days, not letting him get close. Looking at the two ripe peaches that were already within reach but unable to take a bite of their sweet nectar, this was simply a kind of inhuman torture for Jiang Xia. If he hadn't already expressed his knowledge of Zhu Houzhao's identity, Jiang Xia really wanted to trick him into the Xiangyang Mountain Villa and give him a good beating.

  But thinking that he could endure for a few more days, while Zhu Houzhao had to endure for a whole year, Jiang Xia's mood suddenly improved a lot.

  At noon today, Zhu Houzhao received a letter from Liang Wenhuan with an address inviting Jiang Xia to go there.

  After lunch, Jiang Xia left the door, and the one who accompanied him was not Zhong Bin, but Han Yu, who had just rushed back from Shaoxing. However, from now on, he might be called Han Mu Feng.

  The address written by Liang Wennan is not in the inner city of Beijing, but outside the city. If Han Mufeng was not familiar with the road, Jiang Xia might not have been able to find it.

  The horse carriage drove all the way to a pear orchard, which was very wide. Jiang Xia couldn't see the ends of both sides at a glance, only knowing that a long low wall surrounded this pear orchard.

  The horse carriage stopped in front of a wooden gate that was open on the short wall, and the address on the letter indicated that there should be a large pear garden here. Jiang Xia guessed it should be this place without mistake. Jiang Xia and Han Yu walked into the pear garden together, at this moment it was late summer, the pear trees in the pear garden were full of pears, due to the large quantity, they emitted a refreshing fruit fragrance.

  As she walked through the large pear forest, Jiang Xia couldn't help but smile.

  In front of me was a detached house, although not as large in scale as the Xiangyang Mountain Villa, but it had a elegant style, and at first glance, I knew it was built by someone with taste.

  In front of the other courtyard was a vacant piece of land, where all twenty-seven people on duty stood waiting for Jiang Xia. At this moment, seeing Jiang Xia arrive, the twenty-seven people lined up and saluted, saying: "Greetings to the leader."

  Liang Wennan ran over and said to Jiang Xia, "Master, this is the Tianjiao headquarters that I, Wang Wenbo, Xia Fengchou, and Jiang Hanlin chose together. What do you think?"

  Jiang Xia nodded, "This place is spacious and quiet, elegant and secluded, it's a good spot."

  "I knew you'd be satisfied." Liang Wenhuan said with a pleased expression.

  "Alright, let's go inside and talk. It's also time for us to arrange what Tian Jiao should do next."

  After finishing speaking, Jiang Xia walked into the house with everyone else, but Han Yu did not follow and instead stood guard in the courtyard.

  The other courtyard had obviously been cleaned and arranged by Liang Wenhuan and others, but it was unknown who gave the name "Zhi Shi Tang" to the conference hall.

  Jiang Xia sat in the main seat, and the other twenty-seven people sat one by one on both sides.

  Jiang Xia spoke up and said: "I've had a bit of an incident these past few days, so I haven't been able to attend to Tian Jiao's affairs. Please forgive me for this."

  "The master has been polite..."

  "We've all heard, the sect leader has been injured."

  The people below responded in unison.

  Jiang Xia nodded slightly and then said: "Since we're all gathered here today, let's talk about the future direction of Tian Jiao."

  Everyone sat up straight and listened intently, they didn't have a clear concept of the Tianjiao organization yet, so everything had to be heard from Jiang Xia.

  "Everyone, we are all men, and naturally should understand that the two things a man cannot lack in this world are power and money. Therefore, our future must be built on these two aspects. Everyone here has relatives holding official positions in the imperial court, which is already a huge advantage compared to ordinary people. Our next task is to do well in the imperial examination."

  "Who's going to recite?" Liang Wenhuan was the first to speak up, shaking his head like a rattle drum: "I'm definitely not going to make it, I can recognize all the characters in the Four Books and Five Classics, but if you ask me to recite them from memory, you might as well kill me."

  "Yes, yes......" As soon as Liang Wenhan said this, many people in the room started calling out.

  Jiang Xia smiled slightly and said: "It doesn't matter, there are still two months before the imperial examination, I will think of a way to make you memorize the Four Books and Five Classics."

  "There are still two months until the imperial examination, but there is only one month left for the internal exam of the Imperial Academy. If we can't enter the top 100 of the Imperial Academy, none of us will be able to directly participate in the palace exam." Wang Wenbo said worriedly.

  Jiang Xia nodded, this point he naturally had already calculated in advance. He smiled and said: "The Imperial Academy will test something simple internally, we can... cheat."

  "Cheating?" Xia Fengchao exclaimed, and immediately asked: "When the Imperial Academy holds an internal examination, the Education Commissioner will come to supervise. How can we cheat?"

  Everyone looked at Jiang Xia with a uniform gaze, and it could be seen that these people were very interested in cheating.

  Jiang Xia smiled and said, "I've already sent someone to investigate. The test questions for the national examination will be jointly discussed and prepared by the Ritual Department's Ceremonial Clearing Officer, the National Academy's Libationer, and the Dean, then sealed and stored in the National Academy's Doctoral Institute three days before the exam, with guards posted to watch over them. When the time comes, we'll figure out a way to find out what the questions are, then immediately spend a lot of money to hire someone to answer them. After that, we can just memorize the answers by rote and be done."

  "Even if we pass this level, how can we pass the imperial examination?" Liang Wenhuan couldn't help but ask, and he said anxiously: "The imperial examination is a test under the eyes of the emperor, no one dares to cheat. Moreover, the questions for the imperial examination are set by the emperor himself, and it's impossible to get the exam questions in advance. The only way is to rely on real skills, but our skills..."

  "The imperial examination is something we have to rely on ourselves, so within these two months everyone must memorize the Four Books and Five Classics. As for whether you can memorize them or not, don't worry about it, I will teach you a method, as long as you follow my method, you will definitely be able to memorize the content that needs to be memorized."

  At this point, Jiang Xia suddenly remembered when he was training his memory at Qianmen.

  At that time, eleven world memory masters came together to teach classes, training their own memory from four aspects: attention, observation, imagination, and creativity. Each training method was cruel, such as attention. If you couldn't remember 300 disordered numbers within one minute, what awaited him were whips and sticks.

  At this point, Jiang Xia suddenly had a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth as he looked towards everyone.

  For some reason, everyone who saw Jiang Xia's smile was frightened for half a day.

  No matter what method Jiang Xia would come up with in the end, since he had a method, everyone temporarily believed him. Next was talking about making money. Jiang Xia opened his mouth and said: "The aspect of making money is the foundation for Tian Jiao's future development, so it must not be ignored. To make money, we have to do business, so I propose that everyone pool their resources to do business together. The first two businesses we need to do are selling 'Fei Feng Dan' and 'Jiu Yang Dan'."

  "What are Feifeng Dan and Jiuyang Dan?" Liang Wenhuan asked.

  Jiang Xia smiled and explained: "Fei Feng Dan is a kind of elixir that makes women more beautiful after taking it, while Jiu Yang Dan is a kind of medicine that makes men stronger after taking it."

  "Isn't that 'Yu Yan Dan' and 'Shi Quan Da Bu Wan'?" Xia Feng Chou said.

  Jiang Xia shook his head and said mysteriously: "I guarantee with my integrity, the efficacy of these two medicines is absolutely beyond your imagination."

  Everyone looked at Jiang Xia with half-belief and half-doubt, but Liang Wenhuan called out first: "Let the sect leader say how much silver each person will contribute, anyway I'm in, I believe you."

  Liang Wennan said that everyone felt relieved. Anyway, they all came for Jiang Xia, as long as he said they could make money, wasn't that enough?

  Jiang Xia smiled slightly and said: "Five hundred taels... per person."

  "So... little?" Liang Wenhuan cried out in a low voice.