lcionline Chapter 115: Drag your opponent into your familiar territory, and then use your rich experience to d
Chapter 115: Drag your opponent into your familiar territory, and then use your rich experience to d
The bonus question didn't really affect the overall situation, but King Ping quickly found a new reason.
"Bonus questions? The ancestral rules have been passed down for centuries. The palace examination only has two or three essay questions. How can you change them as you please!"
Lin Shiming glanced at him sideways. "It's not that I can just change it as I please. I proposed it and persuaded Father Emperor. Father Emperor made the final decision, not me."
Emperor Longyun, a member of the "fellow party," rolled his eyes.
Prince Ping and his men naturally knew that this matter had been implemented with the approval of Emperor Longyun. But they pretended not to know.
They had long understood that Emperor Longyun would inevitably side with the Crown Prince, and that to seize the throne, they had to consider Emperor Longyun as an opponent. Therefore, by dealing with Lin Shiming today, they were also trying to force Emperor Longyun to make concessions.
Once Lin Shiming is convicted, Emperor Longyun will either have to make a tough decision to shift all the blame onto Lin Shiming in order to maintain his authority and power, thus causing Lin Shiming to suffer a major setback; or Emperor Longyun, as Lin Shiming's "accomplice," will also be accused by them of arbitrarily changing ancestral rules, forcing Emperor Longyun to give in.
But now that Lin Shiming has pointed it out himself, they might as well attack together. Since they're all opponents anyway, what difference does it make who they fight?
"Princess Consort, there's no need to shift the blame. This question originated from you, and it's because of this question that the ancestral rules were broken. Even if Father is wrong, it's because of your slander! It was you who deceived Father and violated the ancestral rules!"
"Ancestral rules?" Lin Shiming smiled. "Emperor Huang was also an ancestor of his descendants! We are all ancestors, equals, so why can't we change them?"
"Besides, if you're talking about ancestors, you don't have to trace them back to our dynasty alone. You should broaden your perspective and go back thousands of years, or even further back!"
“Going back three thousand years, it was all about ‘recommending filial and incorruptible officials,’ there was no imperial examination system! What, you sprang from a rock, do you dare say you’re not a descendant of those people?”
Lin Shiming paced back and forth, his words sharp and incisive.
“Going back further, which country or nation hasn’t inherited this tradition from ancient times? Which one isn’t a descendant of ancestors who, thousands of years ago, established the rule of women being in charge? According to you, we should all step down and let women take charge, following the rules of our even more ancient ancestors!”
King Ping's lips trembled with anger. "You...you're talking nonsense! How can a woman be in charge of the household!"
"Nonsense? What, you're considered to have nonsense just because you can't argue with me?" Lin Shiming said calmly. "How can women not be in charge? Do you have some reservations about the 'female household' policy established by our ancestor, Emperor Taishi?"
"You!" King Ping was filled with rage, but he couldn't find the words to refute Lin Shiming's words.
Just then, Yue Linghan stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, the Crown Princess, you are using a fallacy. The ancestor that Prince Ping mentioned is the founding ancestor of our Lu imperial family, not some distant and untraceable ancestor. Emperor Taishi, who founded the dynasty and brought peace, is our ancestor. We should follow the will of our ancestor Taishi and abide by the rules set by him."
The faction of Prince An and the faction of Prince Ping are indeed incomparable. In terms of intelligence and combat prowess, they are not even in the same league.
However, when faced with Lin Shiming, a "theoretical master" who traveled from the modern era, they still had to back down.
"Does Grand Secretary Yue mean that Emperor Taishi's father is not worthy of being our dynasty's ancestor?"
Yue Linghan spoke urgently, "Your Highness, why must you deliberately distort our meaning! We..."
"Good good."
Lin Shiming slowly interrupted Yue Linghan, as he really didn't have the energy to discuss this boring definition of "ancestor" with these old scholars.
"I'm too lazy to argue with you about this kind of thing where people's words determine the winner."
Although he set two excellent exam questions, it was actually thanks to the history books he had occasionally read in his previous life.
If he were to debate with these old scholars about textual issues that might require citing classical texts, given that everyone in the court received the same education, his ideas would be somewhat out of step with the times, not to mention that a military man like him might not necessarily have the upper hand.
Moreover, he was still injured and his energy was indeed limited.
He simply shifted his focus to changing the rules.
"The matter of our ancestors is unclear, so let's not discuss who our ancestors were. From another perspective, there's always a first time for everything. What's wrong with Father Emperor being the first to do it? Does that mean that after Emperor Taishi established all the rules, there weren't any other ancestral emperors who changed those rules?"
Lin Shih-ming gave a very "appropriate" example: "After my great-uncle Lin Ching-yuan got together with a prince, didn't the emperor at the time issue an edict to change the rule of establishing a crown prince?"
Everyone in the hall was stunned.
On the other side, Lin Shihe, who was almost asleep, seemed to be woken up by a blow to the head and suddenly looked at Lin Shiming.
You little brat, how dare you bring up the matter of your great-uncle stealing the crown prince in front of so many people?! This is a universally acknowledged disgrace of the Lu imperial family. Aren't you afraid of being retaliated against by the Lu family members who are enraged?
Thinking about it, Lin Shihe subconsciously looked at Emperor Longyun on the dragon throne again.
Sure enough, the ruthless emperor started stroking his chin, as if he was about to plot against Lin Shiming at any moment.
have to.
Lin Shihe sighed.
That troublemaking, foul-mouthed younger brother of his! You can't be happy unless something happens to you every day, can you?
"Forget it, let the Crown Prince worry about it!" Lin Shihe withdrew his gaze and continued to close his eyes to rest.
The Taiji Hall remained completely silent, and all the officials stood motionless, as if they had been frightened to death.
Lin Shiming looked around blankly. "What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?"
The oblivious Lin Shiming was completely unaware that there was something wrong with his example. There was nothing he could do; he had never paid attention to politics before, and this was the only example he knew of. If not this one, which one should he choose?
Still, no one dared to speak. Lin Shiming, even more bewildered, turned his gaze to Lu Yuxi. Lu Yuxi gave a wry smile and stepped forward to clean up the mess.
“Father, the Crown Princess is right. These rules are not immutable. Doesn’t the second question in this palace examination also reflect the idea of adapting to the times?”
Emperor Longyun glanced meaningfully at Lu Yuxi, who had come to his wife's rescue, gave her a teasing smile, and then followed Lu Yuxi's lead.
"Hmm, that makes sense."
"Father!" Prince Ping rushed forward anxiously, "You mustn't be deceived by the Crown Princess! Her trickery in deceiving you into changing the imperial examination rules is truly..."
"Rules, rules, why are there so many ancestral rules?!" Lin Shiming was really annoyed and didn't want to get entangled with them anymore, so his tone became irritable.
We should focus on our strengths.
There's a saying that goes, "Drag your opponent into your familiar territory of madness, and then use your rich experience in madness to defeat them!"
Lin Shiming's strength lies in direct and straightforward threats of power in all its forms.
The first step, naturally, is to go crazy yourself.
Yue Linghan indeed took the bait, lured into the trap by Lin Shiming's irritating words.
He immediately knelt down and lamented, "Your Majesty, we must go to the Fengxian Hall to offer sacrifices to our ancestors! Emperor Taishi above, we are powerless! We can only watch as Your Majesty is deceived and the Crown Princess disobeys ancestral rules. We beg Emperor Taishi in heaven to see this unruly and unbridled Crown Princess!"