Chapter 42: Deduction of the Political Situation

Yu Qianlou scolded: "Nonsense! Father cares most about your affairs. Just now he told me you were back and asked me not to go to the official office, but to see you first. After you moved out of the house that day, he even wrote to his friends to arrange for you to enter the National School—"

"That's him trying to send me away! But if Father had even a little bit of concern for me, he wouldn't have ignored my bitter pleas and wouldn't even be willing to say a word for the Commandery School! Even without me, Father and Teacher are friends for decades, and he wouldn't help! Even without considering private friendship, the Commandery School is related to the school pulse of my state, let alone the local scholar-officials, even outsiders, such as Xie Si Niangzi, are helping with all their might!

But what about Father? What he did really makes people feel cold!"

Yu Qianlou saw the painful look on his brother's face, shook his head, and waved to several attendants: "You retreat."

After the attendants retreated far away, Yu Qianlou said: "I asked you to read the *Book of Later Han, Biographies of Partisan Prohibitions* last time, did you read it?"

"Read it."

"What are your thoughts?"

Yu Yuling said with a righteous face: "As a scholar, one should sharpen one's reputation and take clarifying the world as one's own responsibility!"

"Wrong!" Yu Qianlou said categorically, "I want to tell you that since ancient times, partisan strife is hard to end! And those who are limited to partisan strife are most likely to suffer disaster! Looking at the situation, you must learn to look from the perspective of partisan strife, otherwise you will look at flowers in the fog and be separated by a layer."

"Partisan strife? Where does our dynasty have partisan strife?!" Yu Yuling was shocked.

"It's not that only those with the name of partisan strife are partisan strife. Bright parties are easy to see, dark parties are hard to observe." Yu Qianlou sighed lightly.

"Dark parties? Who is the dark party, brother?"

"I'm not saying anyone is a dark party, but..." Yu Qianlou pondered for a moment and said: "The words I say to you now, come out of my mouth and enter your ears, and cannot be spoken to a third person, even your teacher. Can you do it?"

Yu Yuling thought for a while and said: "As long as it is not harmful to the teacher, I will definitely not say it."

"Mr. Liu really accepted a good disciple," Yu Qianlou couldn't help but sigh, looked at his brother and said: "Ajie, you are about to enter the National School, and it is time for me to tell you about the affairs in the imperial court."

Yu Yuling thought to himself: If the Commandery School cannot be preserved, I will definitely not go to the National School to study!

Only heard his brother say: "The current Emperor has twenty-one sons in total. Excluding the sixth prince, twelfth prince, and fifteenth prince who died young, there are still eighteen alive. Although the children are numerous, most of them are young, and only six are truly adults.

The eldest son, who is also the Crown Prince, Xiao Changmao, is thirty-two;

The second prince, Prince of Jingling, Xiao Ziliang, is thirty;

The third prince, Prince of Luling, Xiao Ziqing, is twenty-two;

The fourth prince, Prince of Badong, Xiao Zixiang, is twenty-one;

The fifth prince, Prince of Anlu, Xiao Zijing, is eighteen;

The seventh prince, Prince of Jin'an, Xiao Zimao, is eighteen.

In fact, you can see from the age that the Crown Prince and the second prince are a cut above the remaining princes, and they are in their prime. Both their power and prestige are not comparable to other princes.

Ever since the Second Imperial Prince was enfeoffed as the Prince of Jingling, he had been in the limelight. He served as Minister of Works, opened the Western Residence, poured his attention into guests, and recruited talented scholars from all over the world, earning the reputation of a virtuous prince. His princely mansion scholars could actually stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the doctors of the Imperial Academy! He also treated high-ranking monks with courtesy, discussed Buddhist dharma, compiled books of the hundred schools, and collected the literary works of the world; the flourishing of culture and education was unprecedented in the Jiangzuo region!

Just last year, the Emperor also let the Prince of Jingling concurrently hold the position of National School Libationer! Although the Prince of Jingling declined, the Emperor gave him a three-hope cart to reward him. His favor is so prosperous, his reputation is so high, and his power is so strong that he is gradually forcing the Crown Prince..."

"Brother!" Yu Yuling was startled. He didn't expect his brother, who was usually steady, to speak so recklessly!

"It doesn't matter, now there are only you and me brothers, you can say anything."

"But... but everyone says the Prince of Jingling and the Crown Prince are very friendly, are they all fake?"

"I don't know if it's true or false, I'm just talking about the objective situation. The Crown Prince established the Six Diseases Hall to support the poor, and the Prince of Jingling opened a private warehouse to help the poor in Danyang.

The Prince of Jingling proposed to relax punishment and rest, lighten taxes and save labor, and the Crown Prince personally visited the Xuanpu Garden to record the prisoners of the three offices and grant great forgiveness.

The Crown Prince went to the National School to test the students, and the Ministry of Personnel recommended the Prince of Jingling as the Libationer of the National School.

The Prince of Jingling invited high monks to lecture on Buddhism, and the Crown Prince held a great assembly of monks to debate the classics.

You can certainly say that this is mutual supervision and progress together. But there can be many brothers, but there is no second Crown Prince. The so-called "side-by-side," the so-called "progress together," placed in the royal family, itself represents a tense relationship."

Yu Qianlou's words were like parting the fog, allowing Yu Yuling to see a scene he had never seen before: "Brother's meaning is, there are Crown Prince parties and Prince of Jingling parties in the court?"

"Let's call it that for now.

The two parties are fighting, so they have to win over other forces to strengthen their own party. For example, the remaining four adult princes.

Among the four princes, two are in the capital: the third prince, Prince of Luling, is the General of the Middle Army, and the fifth prince, Prince of Anlu, is the General of the Protectorate.

The other two princes are in the town: the fourth prince, Prince of Badong, holds Jingzhou, and the seventh prince, Prince of Jin'an, holds Xiangzhou.

These are all pivotal figures.

No matter which party they join, they can greatly increase the strength of that party."

Yu Qianlou saw his brother's expression of sudden realization and emphasized again:

"I will say it again, what I just said is my deduction based on the limited information I have obtained, and it does not necessarily represent the real situation.

Since it is a deduction, there may be other situations regarding the four princes, for example..."

Yu Qianlou deliberately stopped talking and cast an examining look at his brother.

Yu Yuling tentatively said: "For example, these four princes form a party together, or each forms a party?"

Yu Qianlou smiled: "The child can be taught! Let's take the fourth prince, Prince of Badong, as an example. If he wants to win over his own forces and weave wings—"

"The Prince doesn't seem to have this scheming. He doesn't even see the civil and military officials of Jingzhou, how can he win over wings?"

Scheming is something that if even you can see it, it's not called scheming. The imperial court is very strict about guarding against feudal towns. The upper civil and military officials in Jingzhou are either selected by the Ministry of Personnel or grasped by local gentry, and some are simply the ears and eyes of the imperial court. If you win over them openly, if you are not careful, you may pass back to the imperial court.

Instead, like the Prince, he only sees people in his own Prince's Mansion, doing things seemingly as he pleases, all based on likes and dislikes, but always within the rules, without causing any harm. The scholar-officials all say that the Prince acts frivolously and makes mistakes, but when they talk about it, they are all unimportant small mistakes, so the Emperor has been lenient to him until now.

Furthermore, the Prince puts his own personal guards into the army. Do you say he is appointing people by nepotism? Or is there another intention? He also often shows a rough and

Furthermore, the Prince lets his own personal guards serve in the army. Would you say he is appointing people based on nepotism? Or does he have other motives? He also often shows a rugged and martial side. I have heard that among the low-to-mid-level officers, the Prince's reputation is truly quite good."

Yu Yuling thought for a moment, still feeling it was somewhat exaggerated, and sighed, "What my brother says doesn't even sound like the Prince of Badong."

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Note: It doesn't matter if you can't keep these imperial princes and princes straight; I will sketch them out clearly bit by bit. Also, Yu Qianlou's official rank is not considered high; he counts as regional middle class, so guessing the situation of the upper echelons might not be accurate.