During the New Year holiday, various gifts were prepared for Yu Shun and sent to the Xue family and Jia family, as well as to the family of Gao Yongmin from the Ministry of Industry, the chief and deputy examiner of the rural examination.

After that, the brothers Shi Zhongkui and Yu Tongfu studied quietly behind closed doors. After taking the exams against each other, they each gained something, and became more confident about the joint exams.

Even in order to succeed in one fell swoop, Yu Honggao not only tutored him personally, but also asked Pang Shitong, who lived in seclusion in Mount Tai, to send several boxes of information.

Shi Zhongkui didn't think it was anything. After reading it, he could remember it by memorizing it several times and reviewing it several times. Even if he copied it and put it in a space, it would be difficult to forget it.

But Yu Tongfu seemed to be too stressed before the exam, and sometimes he couldn't sleep all night long, so he had no energy to study during the day.

After a few days, Shi Zhongkui had to use words to enlighten him and play chess with him to relieve his nervousness.

This method is indeed effective, because Shi Zhongkui was a bad chess player at the beginning, but Yu Tongfu found his confidence after winning for several days in a row.

But as the games continued, Shi Zhongkui's chess skills were improving at a speed visible to the naked eye.

If he hadn't been worried about hurting him, he would actually be confident that he could even fight with Yu Tongfu after a week.

Later, because he had to think about how to lose chess, his chess skills once again ushered in a period of growth.

Playing three games of chess every day and maintaining a three-to-seven tie every day not only made the relationship between the two closer, but also made progress in their knowledge. Yu Honggao was even more satisfied with Shi Zhongkui.

After standing aside and watching it once, Yu Honggao returned all the fans that he had accepted that night.

This surprised Shi Zhongkui, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that this was normal.

It is true that the future of a biological son cannot be compared with a dozen fans.

But what people didn't expect was that he would be involved in the battle between the two emperors in advance.

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Prince Anle has been detained in Longshou Palace by the Supreme Emperor for more than two months. After the initial hesitation and fear, the 16-year-old young prince started to think carefully again.

Moreover, this experience of being almost killed by the emperor also made him understand that when the Supreme Emperor dies, the best outcome for him will be to be trapped.

But for him to directly alienate the relationship between the Supreme Emperor and the Emperor, he is not so bold, nor is he so stupid.

After much thought, since the emperor was cutting out the manpower left by his father, why not follow suit?

At first, Prince Anle targeted the cabinet and several important ministers from the Six Ministries who had defected to the emperor. However, in the fight more than two months ago, Xiuyiwei not only killed the men left by the former crown prince, Prince Yi Zhong.

One batch.

Even the inside and outside of the county prince's palace were almost cleaned.

In addition, he was detained in Longshou Palace and could not contact the outside world. This made Prince Anle unable to find anyone to help him.

After thinking about it, I remembered that my wet nurse had said that the Zhen family, Jia family and other noble families in Jinling were all members of my father's lineage. I couldn't help but think of the old concubine Zhen in the palace.

And because the emperor knew a lot of killers and hidden officials in the Anle County Prince's family, he couldn't help but feel a little complacent.

He was also really worried about his own safety, and vaguely revealed his intention to rectify the capital camp, 50% of the troops and horses, and even to honor the nobles.

The first two are easy to say. The Zhen family has been serving as imperial envoys to the president of Tirenyuan in Jinling and has nothing to do with military affairs.

But if the emperor intends to rectify the nobles, it will cost the Zhen family their lives.

At that time, the Supreme Emperor traveled south seven times and stayed at the Zhen family five times, the Jia family and the Wang family twice.

Glory is indeed glory. In those years, the Zhen family in Jiangnan was really a family that even princes and princes did not dare to offend.

But the money is flowing like water, and the Zhen family can't resist it even if they have gold and silver, let alone five times.

Therefore, over the years, the Zhen family has owed almost 2 million to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and this is what the Zhen family still owes after paying back 1 million.

The Supreme Emperor also knew that because of him, the Zhen family almost emptied their treasury, and even went so far as to repeatedly reduce expenses during the Chinese New Year.

That's why the Zhen family has always been the official minister of the president of Tirenyuan.

The so-called Tirenyuan, in addition to reporting to the Supreme Emperor every month on matters in the south of the Yangtze River, also handles the purchasing errands of the Ministry of Internal Affairs when the Supreme Emperor was still in power and the current Longshou Palace.

It stands to reason that after more than ten years, if one or two hundred thousand silver is repaid every year, the 3 million silver that year should be almost finished.

The Zhen family was very active in repaying the money at first. They even cut down on clothing and diet, and gritted their teeth and repaid 600,000 taels in three years.

But since the Supreme Emperor became seriously ill, he became the Supreme Queen.

The silver that was caught was not returned to the Ministry of Revenue, but went into the Dragon Head Palace.

Later, the Zhen family even got involved in the Jiangnan salt tax.

So as soon as she heard the emperor's dissatisfaction with the nobles, Mrs. Zhen understood that the money she owed must be paid back.

But the Emperor is still alive, and both sides want money. Doesn’t that mean they are forcing the Zhen family to death?

In this case, apart from confronting the emperor, the Zhen family actually has no other option.

Moreover, throughout Jiangnan and the imperial court, there were many officials who did not want the emperor to touch the salt tax and investigate the annual deficit.

As soon as Prince Anle approached the old concubine Zhen, they didn't know what they talked about. That night, the old concubine personally gave a bowl of lotus seed soup to the emperor.

Fortunately, the emperor has not been the emperor for nothing in recent years. Not only are the Dragon Head Palace where the Supreme Emperor lives, but they are all the emperor's spies, but it is not difficult to just keep an eye on Prince Anle.

Xia Shouzhong reported to the emperor that Prince Anle went to see the old concubine Zhen.

At first, the emperor and Xia Shouzhong never thought that anyone would target Shi Zhongkui. After all, there were too many important courtiers than him.

Even any nobleman in charge of the army is ten times or a hundred times more important than him.

Moreover, the only people the emperor was guarding against were Prince Anle and a few brothers. Naturally, he thought that this was his restless nephew and went to the old concubine to plead with the emperor.

Either release him, or give him a fiefdom and become a vassal.

But after thinking about it, as long as people are not stupid, everyone knows that if Prince Anle leaves the Longshou Palace, he will definitely be troubled by the emperor and Xiuyiwei. Even if a person dies of cold and cold, no one can find out the result.

After thinking about it to no avail, the emperor could only prepare how to deal with the Supreme Emperor and possible arrangements for Prince Anle.

When Mrs. Zhen went to see the Supreme Emperor, what she said was very simple.

One sentence: 'My sister is so lucky. She had a son-in-law named Tanhualang, and now she has decided to be her granddaughter-in-law, Mr. Jieyuangong, who won four yuan in a row.'

This sounds no problem to you, but when the Emperor heard it, he knew that he was talking about Jia Mu.

And in his opinion, this is a bilateral bet between the Jia family and the Wang family, and there are signs that it is out of his control.

Directly issuing an order to reprimand the Jia family, or removing Wang Ziteng from the position of Jiedushi in the capital, is definitely the stupidest approach.
Chapter completed!