Ming Dynasty: I risked my life to teach the prince, the emperor begged me not to die

Chapter 217 Jiao Fang, the Big Fool

In the middle of October in the autumn of the twelfth year of the Hongzhi reign, Emperor Hongzhi summoned the six ministries of the Cabinet and organized a survey of the land across the country in November of that year, with the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Personnel taking the lead.

After the news was released, Cheng Minzheng, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, found Chen Ce immediately.

A meeting has been held within the Ministry of Rites, and everyone believes that they can use the influence of Shuntian Press to announce this matter to the world.

The development of Shuntian newspaper industry has sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain, and its scope is no longer limited to the capital area. There are branches of Shuntian newspaper industry in the prefectures under the jurisdiction of each provincial government.

For the newspaper industry to develop to such an extent within just a few months, it would be impossible without the control of Emperor Hongzhi behind the scenes.

But this does not mean that Shuntian Press was controlled by the imperial court, because its actual helmsman was still Chen Ce, or the beloved son of Emperor Hongzhi.

The imperial court had no involvement, and Emperor Hongzhi planned to hand over this powerful weapon to Zhu Houzhao in the future.

Chen Ce saw this very clearly, so in the past few months he had been cooperating with Emperor Hongzhi to develop the newspaper industry. Although the two had never met before, Chen Ce could sense that Emperor Hongzhi knew of his existence and that he had met his beloved son.

If Chen Ce was healthy, he would definitely find a way to leave a way out for himself, because when the newspaper industry develops to a large enough scale, that would be the time for him to get out.

When the emperor realized his existence, he was also close to death.

Chen Ce knew all this very well.

But Chen Ce didn't care, he knew he wouldn't live long.

Chen Ce was not surprised that Cheng Minzheng found Chen Ce, the behind-the-scenes leader of the newspaper industry. Cheng Minzheng asked Shuntian Newspaper to make headlines to publicize the national land survey work.

Chen Ce first asked whether this was against the rules. After all, the first rule of the newspaper industry was that it could not involve any issues of state affairs. Cheng Minzheng said that the Ministry of Rites had discussed it with the six ministries of the cabinet, and this was not against the rules, so Chen Ce could feel free to publicize it.

Only then did Chen Ce nod in agreement.

It seems that Emperor Hongzhi has already planned to implement his salary plan for the royal family. I wonder if he will be very angry after he understands my intention?

Throughout history, the only one who dared to force the emperor like this was probably Chen Ce, right?
……

East Palace.

Jiao Fang finished teaching Zhu Houzhao his lessons today and was reviewing them alone in the duty room.

First, he deliberately assigned Zhu Houzhao homework on the southwest. Based on his understanding of Zhu Houzhao's personality, he believed that Zhu Houzhao would definitely strongly support Qian Yue to conquer the southwest.

But the result surprised him. Zhu Houzhao did not express his position, nor was he as enthusiastic about war as he had imagined.

Later, Jiao Fang personally wrote a letter to the Emperor Hongzhi, begging him to let Qian Yue attack the southwest. He wanted to drag Zhu Houzhao into the war, but Zhu Houzhao objected, saying that Qian Yue might not win the war and drew a clear line between himself and Qian Yue.

And every time the prince refuted him, he left the East Palace.

Jiao Fang had not thought about it carefully before, but after reviewing it now, he realized that he seemed to have been made a fool of!

Jiao Fang is narrow-minded, but he is not a fool.

The last time he went to test Chen Ce, his purpose was to see if Chen Ce was behind the prince's instructions. At that time, Chen Ce behaved like a fool.

Jiao Fang also thought that the other party was just a country bumpkin and an uninformed boy from the city.

But...what if he was pretending?

What if he did it on purpose?

Jiao Fang had never thought about these carefully, because Chen Ce was too young and his eyes were so innocent, how could he look like a liar?

But this cannot explain why the prince's attitude changed after he returned from leaving the palace.

It was obvious that someone was directing the prince. Who could that be?

If it was Chen Ce...then what am I in that kid's eyes?
The more he thought about it, the angrier Jiao Fang became. He was already old, and had been hunting geese for years, and now he was pecked in the eye by a sparrow?
After some reflection and thinking, he was sure that he had been played for a fool!

But now Jiao Fang has no time to see so much with a common peasant. Qian Yue will definitely win. When Qian Yue wins, the prince will know who is his real teacher and who can teach him real skills.

When Yang Tinghe and Jin Gui were chatting, they both found that the prince had changed a lot recently.

I heard from the civil servants in the outer court that the solution to the excessive salt permits was the work of the prince.

These things were naturally not taught by Yang Tinghe and Jin Gui. They even suspected Jiao Fang and Fei Hong, but Fei Hong was an open-minded person and naturally denied that he had taught the prince these things.

In the end, it can only be Jiao Fang.

After hearing these words, Jiao Fang just smiled faintly with an ambiguous attitude.

But afterwards he couldn't help but frown, because he knew it was not his work.

The entire Eastern Palace didn’t teach the prince these things, so who could it be?
Or him?
Many things are hard to believe without thinking about them. The more you think about them, the more incredible they seem!

If it really is that boy, then how evil must he be?
Since he has such great ability, why doesn't he ask the court for a reward for his merit?

The only explanation is that he didn't know that he was teaching the crown prince of the current dynasty.

In that case, why doesn't Jiao Fang take all the credit for himself?
That's why when faced with the temptations from people like Yang Tinghe and Jin Gui, his attitude was so ambiguous, neither denying nor admitting.

Let them guess everything for themselves, but looking at the understanding expressions of Yang Tinghe and the others, they must have believed that everything the prince did was the work of Jiao Fang.

……

Liu Jin heard some gossip in the Eastern Palace and felt indignant for Chen Ce, so he immediately reported it to Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao said angrily: "Jiao Fang... is too shameless!"

"Why didn't you say anything in the East Palace?"

Liu Jin: "...I didn't have time. And, Master, we can only swallow our anger. Even if the teachers in the East Palace misunderstood, you can't explain anything."

"You know Mr. Chen doesn't want to be involved in these scandals."

Zhu Houzhao snorted, but he was still angry.

After arriving at Huaihua Hutong, Zhu Houzhao told Chen Ce about these events in a different way, and then said indignantly: "Little brother, don't you think these scholars are too shameless?"

Chen Ce himself did not expect that someone would be greedy for this credit. He was also worried that these things would be revealed in the future and he would become a thorn in the eyes of the powerful.

Since Jiao Fang came up to him on her own initiative, there was no reason for him not to congratulate her.

This is a real warrior!

Chen Ce was not angry but laughed: "I think this is good."

"Look at what I have done. If people find out about it, won't they kill me?"

"It would be great if someone took the initiative to take the credit for this."

Ok?
After hearing what Chen Ce said, Zhu Houzhao actually felt that it made a lot of sense. He chuckled and said, "Isn't the guy who took the credit a big fool?"

Chen Ce smiled and said, "If you want to be famous, you have to bear something. Maybe he just wants this fame? Just satisfy him."

(End of this chapter)