Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 188: Offending the world, Ju Zheng teaches his disciples!
In the middle of the prime minister's mansion is a stone passage leading directly to the hall. On both sides are two large courtyards. Except for a large blue water tank with a white background made in Jingdezhen for fire prevention on one side, there is no tree planted in the courtyard, nor any flowers or plants, so it looks very open. When the sun comes out, the whole yard is filled with sunshine.

At this time, both sides of the passage were filled with bamboo boards that were ten feet long and five feet wide. There were more than a dozen of them in total, and they were all filled with books.

Zhang Juzheng, wearing a loose, plain white Songjiang cotton robe, sat in an armchair under the stone steps in the hall, letting the sunlight shine on himself and on the books on the bamboo boards all over the yard.

Scholars used to dry their books several times a year, but they stopped around the Ghost Festival on July 15th. The yang energy between heaven and earth gradually subsided, the yin energy gradually emerged, and a solemn and murderous aura quietly arrived.

In the past, Zhang Juzheng would dry his books according to the seasons, but this year was different. The heavy workload in the cabinet left him no time and he even forgot about it.

Today he finally had some free time, so Zhang Juzheng started to dry the books. However, he had a habit of not letting his servants do it when drying the books. He himself wandered between the bamboo boards, drying the books one by one.

This year is really different from previous years. Zhang Juzheng sat there watching his two sons wandering around the bamboo boards drying books.

At the beginning of the year, because of all the stupid things the Zhang family had done in their hometown of Jiangling, the emperor ordered the entire family to move to the capital. The eight-year-old eldest son and the seven-year-old second son were both able to come to live with him.

There was also a two-year-old third son who was disobedient, restless and ignorant, so his wife took him away to prevent him from playing around and destroying the books.

The knocker on the door outside the gate made a loud noise throughout the yard. Zhang Juzheng certainly heard it, but he acted as if he didn't hear it. His eyes were not on the book, nor on his son. Instead, he stared blankly at the stone passage under his feet, his eyes full of the sunlight reflected on the stone surface.

The two sons, Zhang Jingxiu and Zhang Sixiu, had obviously never seen such a phenomenon before. They were shocked and frightened, but since their father did not say anything, they acted as if they did not hear anything and just sat there stiffly flipping through the books one by one.

The louder the knocks on the door got, the more affected the Zhang brothers were. They looked at their father sitting in the chair in confusion.

"Siwen (Zhang Jingxiu's pen name) recited "The Art of Mind" by Su Xun of the Song Dynasty." Zhang Juzheng was still looking at the stone path, but his talent for multitasking allowed him to have a high degree of control over the changes in the people and events around him. The unusual movements of the Zhang brothers brought them a test from their father.

Zhang Jingxiu's small body shuddered, his upper and lower teeth chattered, and he said: "The way to be a general is to control your mind first. If Mount Tai collapses in front of you and your face does not change, and if a deer rises on your left and your eyes do not blink, then you can control the benefits and harms and be ready for the enemy.

All warfare is based on justice; if it is unjust, do not use it even if it is beneficial. It is not only beneficial to use it once, but it will also cause you to be unprepared in the future. Only justice can anger the soldiers, and the soldiers can fight a hundred battles with justice.

......"

After his eldest son finished reciting, Zhang Juzheng said calmly, "Go find the teacher and give him ten slaps on the hand."

With a pang on his little cheek, Zhang Jingxiu bowed to his father like a little adult and said, "Yes, father."

The eldest brother was punished.

Zhang Sixiu's little eyes rolled around and he was about to run away following his elder brother.

Just as he was about to step out of the courtyard gate, Zhang Juzheng's voice came from afar: "Sixiu, you too."

Zhang Sixiu paused, turned around, saluted his father with a look of wanting to cry, and said, "Yes, father."

After the sons left.

Zhang Juzheng raised his eyes and looked at the door. The two door knockers were knocking loudly. A doorman noticed the old man's gaze and had no choice but to shout to the outside: "My lords, the old man is ill and has been ordered not to see anyone."

Zhao Zhigao, who had just been beaten like a dog by the eunuchs of the Ministry of Justice in front of the cabinet duty room and had fled in panic, endured the pain of his bruised face and shouted loudly: "Go and tell my words, if the prime minister does not want to be famous after a hundred years, I will hit my head and die here, so that he will be cursed for thousands of years!"

The two doormen immediately panicked and shouted back, "Don't worry, sirs. I will report it right away."

In response, a doorman walked towards Zhang Juzheng with his back bent.

Zhang Juzheng stood up by holding the armrest of the chair and said, "Tell them that I don't want a good reputation after my death." After saying that, he prepared to leave the yard and walk into the hall.

The third master of the Zhang family, Zhang Juyi, the third brother of Zhang Juzheng, stopped the doorman and called out, "Big brother."

Zhang Juzheng stopped and was silent for a while when his relatives called him. Then he turned around and said, "Taizhen (Zhang Juyi's name)."

It turned out that there were two officials in the Zhang family, Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Juyi. Before the family got into trouble, Zhang Juyi was promoted to the position of assistant commander of the Right Guard of Jingzhou.

He was not as good as Zhang Juzheng, but when he was just over thirty, he became the chief military officer of a city. It is hard to say how much of Zhang Juzheng's influence was involved, but in terms of military strategy, he could be considered quite good.

Due to family problems, he gave up his job and went to Beijing, and has been serving Zhang's father these days.

As the sun went down, Zhang Juyi helped his elder brother move the books that were drying in the yard into the study, box by box.

Zhang Juzheng developed a reading habit over the years of knowing where the book was placed and when to take which volume and which page to look at.

In the past, after drying the books, he would place the different books in the positions he knew, which was a pleasure. But now he no longer has the heart to do so and lets his younger brother place the books on the bookshelf at will.

Perhaps it was because the brothers were connected by heart, or perhaps it was because he often accompanied his elder brother to read when he was young, Zhang Juyi put the book on the bookshelf, and Zhang Juzheng found that the volume was almost identical to the one he had put up.

Lüshi Chunqiu, Zuo Zhuan, Li Sao

Beads of sweat broke out on Zhang Juyi's face as he took the books out of the box and placed them in the empty spaces on the bookshelf.

"Taizhen, you have suffered a lot." Zhang Juzheng sighed.

The brothers were silent for a moment.

When there are too many coincidences, they are no longer coincidences.

Whether Zhang Juyi noticed or took note of the arrangement of the books on his bookshelf, it shows that he was a thoughtful and ambitious person.

If it weren't for family matters, it would be hard to say how far Zhang Juyi would have gone.

But with a dull father and an elder brother who was the prime minister of the dynasty, Zhang Juyi's fate was often not in his own hands.

"Brother, you ended up in this situation because you stood up for the court officials. Why did you hide when the court officials came?" Zhang Juyi asked, breaking the silence.

"Those are two different things."

Zhang Juzheng displayed a dignity that made Zhang Juyi feel awed. "I am protesting in front of the emperor because I don't want to starve the officials of the court to death, I don't want to starve the scholars to death, and leave a bad name for generations to come.

I don't want to see the court officials because I don't want to die yet. The emperor's will has been made up. It will be of no use for those people to cause trouble at the forbidden gate of the Western Garden and the duty room of the Cabinet.

A eunuch was blocking the way and they couldn't even get through the door.

All businesses were run by the government, and officials and gentry paid taxes and worked together. This was bound to offend people and leave a bad reputation, and Yuxi Palace and the Cabinet had to bear the brunt of the consequences.

But, Taizhen, never offend the scholars of the world at any time!
Your Majesty can afford it, but we cannot!
They will see His Majesty, but not through me, not through the Cabinet, and we cannot afford His Majesty’s wrath.”

(End of this chapter)