The biggest shortcoming of the literati is that they are stubborn, self-serving, and self-willed, and when they encounter injustices in the world, their enthusiasm is higher than anyone else's, but it is precisely because of their stubborn and inflexible character that they have always been insufficient in success and more than in failure.

And those who are good at power and scheming and know tricks have either become ministers and ministers above the court in contemporary times, and they don't care about their names at all, or they are vigorous and loyal to the monarch and patriotic after a lifetime, leaving behind for future generations to talk about right and wrong after tea and dinner.

Looking down from the top and from the bottom up, in the era when the imperial examination was prevalent, in the governance of the country and the state where the literati had the upper hand, most of the influential literati were disappointed with the present and were proud of the evaluation of him by later generations.

Proud of the literary world, frustrated in the court, but even so, there are still most literati, with the enthusiasm and ideal ambition of worrying about the country and the people, sharpening their heads and wanting to stand on the court, hoping to rely on instinctive idealism to make the world become the ideal in his mind, but after all, they are all hit on the court, and then the will is depressed, and the life is spent in confusion.

The most important thing is that his family is ruined, his reputation is ruined, and he has been nailed to the pillar of shame for the rest of his life, and he can only rely on the objective position of future generations, and become an existence that people look up to like rebirth.

Whether it is in the present or in the future life, such things have been happening, and no one who lives in the present will ever cherish and look up, but after he dies, his life's achievements will be immediately raised to another level, and he will become a saint under the words.

Just like some literary and sports stars in later generations, when they were alive, they were more insulted than praised, but once they died or retired, they immediately became artists and masters, and their achievements instantly became unsurpassable classics.

In ancient times, more and more people boasted, just like the current literati, under the "right" of the dead, standing on the moral high ground, under the banner of sacrificing the dead, and doing acts for their own personal gain.

The act of sacrificing the Confucian saint and repairing the Confucian temple can not only make the prestige of the Confucian saint infinitely higher in the case of many rulers for the sake of the people's heart, but also allow the rulers to reap greater benefits with the help of this.

This is true of Confucius, Guan Yunchang, and the same is true of Zhu Xi in the future, who could not bring more benefits to the ruler during his lifetime, but after the change of dynasty, he was able to bring extraordinary group benefits.

Zhu Xi wanted to turn over with the help of repairing the Confucian Temple, so as to be able to resolve the suppression of him from the Lin'an court, and Han Yanxuan's suppression of him, by the way, he could also block Ye Qing to achieve the goal of killing two birds with one stone.

"So to put it bluntly, Zhu Xi is obviously not dead to the court now." Ye Qing held the teacup and looked at Xiao Zhen, who had been busy for a day, and said.

Xiao Zhen pouted in disbelief, and said, "Lord Ye, isn't there something ...... People who are too cautious ....... ”

"Today's starvation is a small thing, and the loss of festival is a big thing, and you can already see it, don't you want to admit it?" Ye Qing put down the teacup and asked strangely: "When I had a grudge with Zhu Xi back then, Zhu Xi's financial resources came entirely from Fan Niande's funding, and now, Zhang Yan and his student Lin Zhizhi have replaced Fan Niande's role at the beginning, it stands to reason that he should be more upright and self-reliant......." ”

Xiao Zhen smiled bitterly, Ye Qing was obviously fabricating accusations against Zhu Xi, as the so-called crime that he wanted to add, Ye Qing was now trying every possible way to lower Zhu Xi's reputation again, so that some of his prestige that had just accumulated in the north would instantly come to naught.

"The Chinese characters are broad and profound, and all the sage words are indeed as Lord Ye said, and everyone can get different understandings when they read them. Death by starvation is a small matter, and a loss of temperament is a big matter, which can also be said to be a chastity for a woman, but it can also be regarded as a gentleman who should change his integrity and frankness, but when it comes to your mouth, it becomes not accepting the funding of others, and the so-called uselessness is not punished. Lord Ye, if you understand it this way, then the sage's words will be able to crawl out of the coffin and settle accounts with you in anger. Xiao Zhen said.

"Alas...... In fact, who knows whether it was Sage Kong or Zhu Xi, or who and who, whether they deliberately said these words so ambiguously, so that later generations of literati who love to drill the horns of the bull can interpret his words casually, in short, this is not harmful to him, no matter from which angle of understanding, it is the edification and teaching of people, so ambiguity is like only understanding, unspeakable, unfathomable. Ye Qing shook his head, and no longer studied the words of the original saint, how to understand it was the most correct.

In his opinion, whether it is a sage or a folk saying, as long as he can use it for himself at the right time and at the right opportunity to bring benefits to himself, he is also willing to respect the words of these saints.

"But isn't it a little too bad for you to do this?" Xiao Zhen shook her head, thinking about the fact that at noon tomorrow, a large pot would be set up near the Sage Academy, and then the mouth-watering aroma of food would drift into the academy with the breeze, and at that time, Zhu Xi's face would probably ...... It's going to be ugly.

And what is even more insidious about Ye Qing is that the reason why he did this is not to take revenge on Zhu Xi and those literati, but to help the victims.

I have been in Qufu all day today, looking for the victims who have just returned to their hometowns after the first day to escape the famine, and now they have gathered nearly 3,000 people, all of them are lazy, yellow-skinned, and will gather in Qufu early tomorrow morning to beg, so Lord Ye will release the food for disaster relief tomorrow, and then let the victims receive a portion of the rations before the autumn harvest.

Now just a few days after the spring ploughing, although Jinan Prefecture has allocated seeds to the victims who have returned to their hometowns, but in the days before the autumn harvest, they have to carry their belts and eat one ration as two servings, so they are going around today, which naturally makes those who have just been resettled rush to them, and they can't wait to go to Qufu County immediately to solve the problem of food and clothing in the past few days.

After Zhu Xichen finished reading, Lin Zezhi ran in in a panic and said in a panic: "Sir, then Ye Qing has come up with a trick again, he has set up hundreds of cauldrons not far from the academy, and now he is cooking rice and meat, he ...... He's here to divide and disintegrate us again, no wonder he refused to meet with you yesterday. ”

Zhu Xi frowned, and scolded in his heart, but without waiting for him to speak, Zhang Yan also hurriedly ran in, but compared to the panic on Lin Zhizhi's face, Zhang Yan's face was a little happy: "Mr. Zhu, good news." The temple of the saint, which had been closed for a day, was evacuated today, it is said that because thousands of victims poured into Qufu, and those soldiers were withdrawn to maintain order, and now we can gather in front of the temple of the saint again. ”

"Shameless, Ye Qing is really a villain!" Zhu Xi's fist slammed on the table.

Zhang Yan was stunned for a moment, and before he could ask, he heard Lin Zhizhi next to him ask: "Mr. Zhang, before you just returned to the academy, didn't you see the hundreds of cauldrons erected by the Qufu County Ya?" ”

"See, it is said that the government set it up to help the victims, isn't that a good thing? The government provides relief to the victims, and we worship and repair the temple of the saints, don't we interfere with each other? Zhang Yan didn't react for a while, and until now, neither Ye Qing nor Jinan Mansion had agreed to them to repair the Confucian Temple privately.

"This is exactly Ye Qing's ruthlessness." Zhu Xi walked out from behind the desk, his face was even more ugly than after being rejected by Ye Qing yesterday, and said solemnly: "At this time, the relief of the victims and the place are set up here, nominally it is said that the academy is spacious here, which is convenient for the government to place soup kitchens, but in fact, it is to divide the scholars from poor families and scholars from rich families, and there is a greater grievance. Yesterday, he deliberately misinterpreted the old man's remarks, and the academy that had already made trouble was boiling, and today it is to help the victims, which can not only make some people salivate, but also let the scholars here see his Ye Qing's love for the people, so as to win a good reputation. And more importantly, Ye Qing's move is like killing people, we have to spend a lot of money to repair the Confucian Temple when we gather here, and Ye Qing is using a lot of money to help the victims, so in comparison, our actions of caring for the world and the people are even more untenable, so that we will only lose face and be spurned by the victims and the people of the world, so it is a bad plan. ”

"That'...... So what do we do now? Zhang Yan's face turned pale all of a sudden, he really didn't expect that there were so many doorways in a seemingly accidental relief for the victims.

"Sir, do you want to ...... Why don't we take a step back for a while and avoid its edge? I want to see how long he Ye Qing, who keeps saying that he has no money to repair the Confucian Temple, and how long can he continue this matter of helping the victims. So that more people in the world can see ....... Lin Zezhi's teeth itched, and Ye Qing's mind was simply too vicious.

"No, that's nonsense. Ye Qing helped the victims, even if he was in charge, but what was wrong with helping the victims? On the contrary, if we ignore the victims' requests for the restoration of the Confucian Temple, we will only be spurned and insulted, and we will never be able to do it. Zhu Xi glared at Lin Zhizhi and said.

"Then let's take a step back, don't bother with him, let these literati disperse first, and wait for this gust of wind to pass, how about we make a comeback? Moreover, the scholars and literati in the academy now, because of Ye Qing's despicable actions yesterday, are no longer of one heart and one mind, so we take the opportunity to retreat at this time and then slowly try to retreat, which can be regarded as being able to retreat with our whole body. Zhang Yan quite agreed with Lin Zezhi's opinion to avoid his edge and said.

"It's late." Zhu Xi raised his head and sighed wistfully: "Ye Qing has always acted decisively and ruthlessly, and if we withdraw now, we will only leave more handles for Ye Qing." Like what...... After seeing many victims, we ran away in a smoke, and in one fell swoop to repair the Confucian Temple, we would be woven by him to sell fame and reputation, and even provoke people all over the world to scold us for ignoring the food and clothing of the common people. And if he continues to insist on repairing the Confucian Temple, he will also be accused by Ye Qingluo of ignoring the lives of the victims in the world, and would rather spend money to repair the Confucian Temple than relieve the victims. In a word....... ”

"It's not going in, it's not going back, so what should we do? This Ye Qing is really hateful! Lin Zhizhi said angrily, no matter what, Ye Qing's move did easily push them into a dilemma, they couldn't go up and down, and the situation was really embarrassing.

"Now that there are two factions in the academy, and some people have not eaten for a day and a night from yesterday to today, Ye Qing has put the place of relief for the victims to the left, Mr. Zhu, we can't sit still like this." Zhang Yan moved his nose along with the faint fragrance in the study, and instantly understood that the smell of food outside for disaster relief had been transmitted into the academy.

"I'll go find Ye Qing." Zhu Xi's face was gloomy, this move was simply too shameless!