Top Scholar

Chapter 532 The Last Lesson

Upon hearing Su Lu's words, Zhu Shou's carefree expression froze instantly. He stammered a few times, his square brows furrowed in embarrassment, and said, "That's truly astonishing..."

"What's even more shocking is yet to come," Su Lu said through gritted teeth. "Guanghui Temple doesn't run this coal mine for the sake of making money. They're rich and powerful, and they don't care about the little money they can make from mining coal."

"Then what were they after?" Zhu Shou asked hastily. He knew that Su Lu was trying to change the subject and help him out of his predicament.

“Making ritual implements and stockpiling materials for rituals.” Su Lu said with deep disgust, “In Tibet, they can directly extract materials from serfs, but in the Ming Dynasty, ‘harvesting and mutilating’ is a serious crime. So they have their eyes on the coal mines where the most people die, so that they can have a continuous supply of materials without worrying about being harassed by the government.”

"This is truly wicked!" The scholars felt nauseous upon hearing this, and Zhu Shou's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Is Lamaism really this evil?!"

"If you don't believe me, Qian Ning is currently raiding Guanghui Temple. I'll take you on a tour later; it'll definitely broaden your horizons," Su Lu said calmly. He dared to overturn the table at Guanghui Temple largely because the other side was Lamaism. If it were a Zen sect or something similar, with a memorial tablet for the emperor's maternal grandfather, he would have to think twice.

"Okay, let's go take a look." Zhu Shou nodded and said, "I'll go out first. You tell them to come out quickly too, so we can get out of this awful place."

"Yes." Su Lu responded and instructed his men to arrange for the rescued miners to be treated and given travel expenses to go home, with the money coming from the lama.

As for the Grand Lama and the overseer, they were naturally taken back by the Western Depot for interrogation.

Then he walked towards his fellow students, and after a moment of silence in the eerie mine, he slowly spoke:
"Gentlemen, this is our final lesson—remember this well! We scholars must not assume that the pavilions, terraces, talented men, and beautiful women we see every day are the whole picture of this world."

"Yes." The students nodded in unison. What they had seen and heard here had a tremendous impact on them. Many of them even felt that their worldview had been shattered and they were still not able to recover.

"What I want to tell everyone is that such evil and suffering are not isolated cases, but rather prevalent in the two capitals and thirteen provinces." Su Lu paused, his tone heavy as if filled with lead:
"The true misery in this world far exceeds the limits of your imagination; the true evil also far exceeds your imagination. And we, as disciples of the Emperor—"

He looked around at everyone and said each word with conviction: "Our mission is to tear through this darkness and prevent the world from becoming so miserable; it is to confront evil and bring wickedness to a halt!"

As he spoke, he bowed deeply to his fellow students and said from the bottom of his heart:
"Since the world has come to this, we must not continue to be accomplices to evil. We should do our best, however small, to contribute our meager strength!"

"Yes, we will certainly live up to your expectations, Brother Zhuangyuan!" All the Jinshi graduates of the Wuchen year returned the greeting and made a solemn promise.

~~
On the return journey, Su Lu boarded the bumpy carriage to visit Lu Ying.

"Brother Zhuangyuan." Lu Ying, lying in the carriage, struggled to get up to greet him.

"Don't move, don't move." Su Lu quickly pressed him down and leaned over to ask, "Are you feeling better?"

Wang Kezhang, who was standing next to him, pursed his lips and said, "He was arrested a day ago and got stabbed a few times. I don't think it's anything serious. He's just scared and exhausted."

"..." Su Lu's lips twitched. Shandong people are indeed straightforward, they don't beat around the bush at all.

Lu Ying was also filled with shame: "Alas, this is so embarrassing! A scholar who passed the imperial examinations twice and a student of the emperor, I was actually taken down in public. How can I face my fellow graduates now?"

"It's not that bad," Su Lu waved his hand, reassuring him.
“You’re still studying at the Dragon Tiger Academy, so if you don’t pay your ‘tuition’ now, when will you?” Su Lu comforted him gently. “It’s much better than stumbling after you’ve been granted an official position.”

Then he blamed himself, saying, "It was my oversight. I didn't expect them to be so brazen—they even dare to arrest newly appointed scholars right under the emperor's nose!"

"How can this be so absurd?" Wang Kezhang couldn't contain himself any longer and asked Lu Ying urgently, "What exactly happened? Tell me quickly."

"Sigh, don't even mention it..." Lu Ying sighed deeply, unable to bear the memory, "Didn't I find out before that Guanghui Temple's permanent land holdings far exceeded the limit?"

"Mm." The two nodded.

In the third year of the Hongwu reign, the imperial court issued an edict stipulating that each temple or monastery could only reserve thirty mu of land as tax-exempt permanent land, and all other land must be recorded in the "Fish Scale Register" and taxed in the same way as ordinary households.

In the third year of the Jingtai reign, the Yongye land was increased to sixty mu, and there were no more exemptions after that.

But after some investigation, it was found that every temple in the capital far exceeded the limit. If a temple didn't have several hundred acres of permanent farmland, the abbot would be embarrassed to even greet his fellow temples.

Many others own thousands or even tens of thousands of acres, such as Guanghui Temple...

The two then heard Lu Yingshi exclaim in shock: "During this period of time, I conducted on-site visits, asked around, and checked the land transfer records of Wanping and Daxing counties. I discovered that the land owned by Guanghui Temple is a massive 3,000 hectares, or 300,000 mu! Moreover, none of it is land granted by imperial decree, and they should all pay taxes as usual, but they pay almost no taxes at all!"

"Wow, so many?" Wang Kezhang was startled.

Even Su Lu was surprised. The famous Baolian Temple only had thousands of acres of temple land, while Guanghui Temple was unassuming and had three times as much land.
"This is way beyond the regulations! How dare they be so audacious?" Wang Kezhang exclaimed in astonishment. "I also found it unbelievable, which is why I investigated repeatedly, fearing I might make a fool of myself," Lu Ying said in a deep voice. "And I actually discovered their secret—someone told me that of those three thousand hectares of land, at least two thousand hectares didn't belong to Guanghui Temple, but rather..."

As he spoke, his mouth went dry, and he couldn't utter the rest of the name.

“It belongs to the Zhang brothers,” Su Lu said for him.

“That’s right.” Lu Ying nodded, and said with a serious expression, “Have you heard about how Alliance Leader Li impeached the Zhang brothers, who were related to the Empress Dowager, a few years ago?”

“I’ve heard of it. It happened in the eighteenth year of the Hongzhi reign.” Su Lu nodded and casually gave a number: “Back then, Li Mengyang impeached them for illegally occupying more than 5,300 hectares of land in Shuntian Prefecture alone. All of it was farmland and official land that they had seized by trickery and force.”

“Yes, I’ve heard about it too. It caused quite a stir back then,” Wang Kezhang said. “But the late emperor didn’t make things difficult for the Zhang brothers. Instead, he imprisoned Alliance Leader Li in the imperial prison and tortured him… It seems that the late emperor’s mother-in-law was the one who got angry.”

"Yes, but now it seems that Chief Li has the support of the cabinet and the then Minister of Revenue, Minister Han. His memorial was definitely not his own idea, which is why the Zhang brothers were terrified," Lu Yingjie said.
"The two marquises then dispersed most of their land holdings to several affiliated temples to prevent the imperial court from seizing them. Guanghui Temple was the largest of these, so those two thousand hectares of land were actually the Zhang family's private property, just registered under the name of Guanghui Temple!"

Wang Kezhang gasped, "No wonder they dared to be so arrogant; it turns out the Zhang family would protect them to the death if anything happened!"

“The people from Guanghui Temple thought I was here to investigate the Zhang brothers’ crimes of transferring land, and were afraid of causing trouble for the two marquises,” Lu Ying said in a low voice. “They also thought that if something happened, the Zhang brothers would cover for them, which is why they dared to arrest me!”

"When they learned that I was just a newly appointed scholar and not an official of the imperial court, and that the investigation was just to complete my homework, they breathed a sigh of relief and made me write a guarantee... saying that they would let me go after I finished writing it."

"Then why don't you write it?" Wang Kezhang asked.

"Because I had to admit in a written guarantee that I stole the golden Buddha statue from the temple. Life and death are minor matters, but losing one's integrity is a major one. How could I possibly slander myself just to survive? So I resolutely refused to write it, and as a result, I was sent to work in the coal mines..."

Lu Ying gave a wry smile and said, "This is my first day down the mine, and I have absolutely no idea how to do it. I've worked all day and haven't even finished half the work, and as a result, I'm being punished by not being allowed to eat dinner. I can only go home when I've mined enough coal..."

"Alas, Brother Binyang, you've suffered." Su Lu patted his hand comfortingly, then said seriously, "But your investigation is extremely valuable and will definitely come in very handy!"

"Oh, that's good." Lu Ying said with concern, "Won't seeing this big eye affect my graduation grades?"

"Haha, let's see if you still have the courage!" Su Lu laughed loudly.

"Yes, of course!" Lu Ying hurriedly said sheepishly, "At most, I'll be more careful next time..."

"Hahaha!" A burst of laughter came from inside the carriage.

~~
Inside Guanghui Temple, however, the atmosphere was as heavy as iron.

Qian Ning was solemnly directing his men to search the temples and interrogate the lamas, both senior and junior. As more and more confessions and physical evidence were collected, his expression did not ease at all; on the contrary, he became more and more tense.

Firstly, the things in the temple were so outrageous that it was hard to tell if he had entered a demon's lair or a temple. Secondly, he discovered that his connection with his two imperial uncles was much closer than he had imagined.

“Godfather, this temple is just a front used by the Marquis of Jianchang to hide his assets,” the bearded Hua Qiang exclaimed, “We’re not investigating a lama here, we’re clearly investigating the Emperor’s uncle!”

"I know, but this isn't something I'm investigating," Qian Ning said with a dark face. "If the sky falls, someone taller will hold it up; what are you afraid of?!"

“Son, weren’t you worried that your godfather would fall again? You’ve finally managed to get out of this mess…” Xiaoqiang said with a worried look, “Godfather, be careful that your godfather makes you take the blame.”

"Don't worry, my godfather isn't that kind of person." Qian Ning slowly shook his head, somewhat unsure, but still forced a smile and said, "He's going to do big things, how could he let his subordinates take the blame? Who would be willing to risk their lives for him then?"

“But isn’t it only natural for those above to pass the buck to those below?” Xiaoqiang said.

“Godfathers are different.” Qian Ning shook his head, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on how they were different.

Just then, a commotion arose at the temple gate, accompanied by gruff shouts and curses, as if someone was forcibly breaking through the gate.

Qian Ning's brows furrowed sharply, and he demanded in a stern voice, "Wasn't the temple already sealed off? Who dares to trespass on the mountain gate?!"

P.S. The next chapter is still a thousand words away. Sigh, it's getting late and late, it's becoming a vicious cycle...

(End of this chapter)