allonlinenovel Chapter 424 I learned it from my brother-in-law!
Chapter 424 I learned it from my brother-in-law!
Liu Bowen stroked his beard and smiled, saying, "Does Your Majesty still remember the case of Sun Gupu's rebellion?"
Zhu Chongba hummed in agreement and said, "I remember."
Zhu Chongba felt uneasy whenever the Sun Gupu rebellion was mentioned.
There was a rumor circulating in the city that Sun Gupu's rebellion was not simply a Yellow Turban Rebellion, but rather that the plows distributed by the imperial court to the people were being resold in large quantities, causing widespread suffering among the people of Qingzhou, which forced them to rebel.
On the surface, this rumor seems plausible.
However, upon closer examination, it becomes clear that this rumor is utter nonsense.
The plowshare case came first.
Sun Gupu's rebellion followed.
If Sun Gupu's rebellion was due to the resale of plowshares, then it should have occurred before the plowshare case, and then the plowshare case should have been brought up.
The problem is that Sun Gupu's rebellion occurred after the plow case, after Xu Zheng, Qu Mingjie, and other officials who were involved in the plow resale were arrested.
So, did Sun Gupu rebel because the plows were being sold off, or because those officials and gentry were arrested?
Furthermore, if Sun Gupu rebelled because he couldn't survive, how do you explain the Japanese pirates involved in Sun Gupu's rebellion?
They said these Japanese pirates were all good people because they saw that Sun Gupu and his group were about to die, so they risked their lives to come and help them.
This is utter bullshit!
What's even more infuriating is that this rumor is quite popular in Jiangnan; any ordinary person can tell it with great detail and conviction.
If it weren't for other plans and the fact that the rumors were spreading so widely, Zhu Chongba would have even sent all those spreading the rumors to Dengzhou Prefecture to do hard labor alongside the Yellow Turban rebels under Sun Gupu.
Just as Zhu Chongba was feeling displeased, Liu Bowen continued, "In the case of Sun Gupu's rebellion, many Japanese pirates were involved."
"Inspector Xia should know where those Japanese pirates came from."
"Therefore, the simplest way for the Prince Consort to want the Japanese pirates is to have Inspector Xia send someone to make contact with them."
"As for allowing the people of Dengzhou Prefecture to go to sea to find Japanese pirates, I believe this is absolutely unacceptable."
"Once this door is opened, who knows how many problems will arise later."
Zhu Chongba grunted and was about to speak when Lan Yu stood up, glared at Liu Bowen, and then bowed to Zhu Chongba, saying, "Your Majesty, I believe the proposal of the Earl of Chengyi is unacceptable."
"If we want to catch the Japanese pirates, why would we need to send people to make connections with them?"
"Give me any reason and I'm willing to lead an army to attack Japan. How many Japanese pirates could we possibly take?"
Zhu Chongba snorted coldly and said, "Attack Japan? If we could spare the resources to attack Japan, do you think we would have waited until now?"
After Zhu Chongba said that, Lan Yu immediately fell silent.
Zhu Chongba then turned his gaze to Liu Bowen: "Mr. Qingtian, please continue. What should we do after we've made contact with the Japanese pirates?"
Liu Bowen cupped his hands and replied, “Your Excellency, the Japanese pirates are all beasts in human form. They are blinded by petty gains and forget the greater good. As long as Xia Jianxiao sends someone to seduce a group of Japanese pirates, we can buy a continuous stream of new Japanese pirates from them.”
Zhu Chongba's heart stirred.
Hopefully, we won't lose the Dragon Team this time.
After all, it was to catch that short, ugly guy for that bastard.
Wait, how did we end up talking about short and ugly people again?
Zhu Chongba was immediately displeased. He coughed and said, "Let's settle this matter with the shorty for now. We'll have Xia Yu go to Dengzhou Prefecture later. As for the present..."
Zhu Chongba glanced at Zhu Biao with a half-smile, then said to Li Shanchang, Xu Da, and the others, "It's rare for us old brothers to get together like this. Right now, the most important thing is to eat and drink."
Only after the banquet ended did Zhu Chongba take Zhu Biao to Kunning Palace.
Emperor Zhu rubbed his forehead, took the hangover soup from Empress Ma and drank a sip before looking at Zhu Biao and asking, "Tell me, what are your plans regarding the Empty Seal Case and the Imperial Examination?"
Zhu Biao chuckled and said, "The matter of the blank seal is actually easy to handle."
"The Censorate will go to the Court of Judicial Review, the Court of Judicial Review will take the confession and refer to the Great Ming Code to determine the crime, the Ministry of Justice will review it again, and the whole case of the blank seal will be over."
"It's simply a matter of killing those who deserve to die and exiling those who deserve to be exiled."
"As for the Great Ming Code..."
Zhu Biao chuckled again, then pulled out another stack of memorials from his sleeve, found two, and handed them to Emperor Zhu.
“This is what I discussed with my brother-in-law in Dengzhou Prefecture, about the Ming Dynasty law.”
"It contains suggestions on numerous legal provisions concerning the Constitution, Criminal Law, Civil Law, Commercial Law, Industrial Law, Military Law, and so on."
“Once Father feels it’s about time, he can send it to the Ministry of Justice and have them formulate the Great Ming Code based on these two memorials.”
Zhu Chongba had just hummed in agreement when Zhu Biao pulled out another memorial, handed it to the emperor, and said, "This memorial concerns the imperial examinations."
"Of course, it's not just about the imperial examinations."
"Some of the questions were prepared by the children."
"but……"
Zhu Chongba glared at Zhu Biao and scolded, "But what? That old scoundrel Liu Bowen likes to keep us in suspense. When did you pick up that bad habit too?"
Zhu Biao was immediately very dissatisfied.
What do you mean I learned from Liu Bowen?
I learned it from my brother-in-law!
Zhu Biao gave a slight humph and said, "When I was in Dengzhou, my brother-in-law once mentioned something, namely, cheating in the imperial examinations."
Upon hearing the words "cheating in the imperial examinations," Zhu Chongba immediately sat up straight and asked, "Cheating in the imperial examinations?"
Zhu Biao nodded and said, "My brother-in-law asked me two questions at the time."
"The first question is, if we agree beforehand to prove our identity with a certain sentence, will the examiners be able to recognize us?"
"The second question is, what if the examiner who sets the questions leaks them?"
Zhu Chongba grunted in response with a dark expression and asked, "Has that bastard come up with some new tricks again?"
Upon hearing Zhu Chongba's question, Zhu Biao was immediately filled with admiration.
As expected of my father, he gets to the heart of the matter very well.
"My brother-in-law said to have the examiners come up with more questions, and then shuffle them together and choose a few from them."
"Before the exam, have someone else change the questions."
"Before the exam, neither the person who sets the questions nor the person who changes the questions can go home."
"Exam questions are strictly monitored."
"When grading papers, the graders and the question setters cannot be the same group."
"..."
After rambling on for a while, Zhu Biao picked up his teacup, took a sip, and smiled, "Of course, this year's provincial and palace examination questions don't need to be set by anyone else; I've already prepared them."
Zhu Chongba glared at Zhu Biao again and asked, "And how did you prepare?"