Chapter 1118 Written by Lu Gong

It has been nearly ten years since Mrs. Lu married into the Zhang family, but she has never been satisfied in her heart.

The Lu family comes from the Lu family in Donglai. As the granddaughter of Lu Yijian, Lu Gongzhu's daughter has inherited the court training since she was a child. She is a good woman who can support her husband and educate her children.

However, no one is perfect, and Lu's temperament is a bit strong and competitive.

She had always been at odds with the Seventeenth Mother in the house, and the main issue was who would be the head of the family. Ms. Lu believed that she was the eldest granddaughter-in-law, and she was the one to take the initiative in the Zhang family, but the Seventeenth Mother also had a reluctance to give in.

Later, the two families lived on separate sides of the house, and the conflicts became much less frequent.

Although she has less direct conflicts with Qi Niang, she is more concerned about her husband than her husband.

Is there any woman in the world who doesn't want her husband to succeed?

Lu's family is no exception.

Although Zhang Yue has always supported Zhang Zhi, she believes that Zhang Zhi may not be inferior to Zhang Yue in the future, or even be better.

After all, she was also a legitimate daughter, so how could the Lu family's help to Zhang Zhi be less than the Wu family's help to Zhang Yue.

Later, Zhang Yue worked his way up the ranks of prime ministers, and finally became prime minister. Although she was happy, she always felt a little unhappy in her heart. In fact, Zhang Zhi also rose through the ranks, and finally he became the official envoy of Xihe Road and the direct bachelor of Longtuge.

But people always look at the height of this mountain. The higher it gets, the higher it gets, and the higher it gets, the higher it gets.

Being a military envoy is by no means the end of Zhang Zhi's official career. He must at least be in power, or even prime minister, in order to fulfill her wishes.

Lu's grandfather Lu Yijian was the prime minister, and his great-uncle Lu Mengzheng was also the prime minister.

It only took Lu Mengzheng twelve years to become prime minister.

Her uncle, Lu Gongbi, was promoted to Privy Councilor.

Even Prime Minister Wang Gui said that when it comes to the wealth of people in the world, the Lu family must be regarded as a noble family.

How could her husband not be the prime minister?

Mrs. Lu had a plan for Zhang Zhi's promotion. She made arrangements for which position he would reach, who in the family or who would need help from his disciples and former officials.

Unlike the Wu family, who almost ignored Zhang Yue and only helped at key points.

When Zhang Yue recommended Zhang Zhi to be the economic envoy of Xihe Road, he consulted Lu about his wishes. Of course, Zhang Zhi was not appointed as the economic envoy, but was also transferred back to the capital to serve as the deputy envoy of the Third Department or to join the Si Nongyuan.

However, Lu felt that such promotion was too slow. It was time for the imperial court to expand to the west and focus on military merit.

Zhang Yue came back from Xihe Road as a military envoy and directly received the official title of Bachelor of Hanlin and Bachelor of Duanming Palace.

But Zhang Kai was even more impressive, he directly skipped the four steps and signed the privy council affairs, almost as much as he was in power.

This Xihe Road is the place where generals come out and enter the prime ministership. With Zhang Zhi's background, the emperor was young and could not reach full power in one step after returning from Xihe Road.

In this way, she is on equal footing with Zhang Yue, even better than her father.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Zhi was surrounded by Mingsha City. When she learned about this, Lu tried her best to keep calm on the face, but deep down she was in a state of panic.

Until a few days ago, news came that Mingsha City had fallen and Zhang Zhi's whereabouts were unknown.

Knowing that Zhang Zhi was in serious danger, Lu held Zhang Zhi's only daughter and cried bitterly all night.

As for the fact that Zhang Zhi actually had a foreign wife in Xizhou, someone had already reported it to her. When Mrs. Lu knew about it, she was beyond her reach and had no choice but to do anything. Later, Zhang Zhi was trapped in Mingsha City.

She decided to take the outer room back to Bianjing and made all the arrangements herself. Unexpectedly, Zhang Yue's people arrived first, and they were able to take them back to the capital first.

This put Lu into a passive position.

Ms. Lu was not a vegetarian either. She made a prompt decision and took her daughter back to her parents' home for a short stay on the grounds that her mother was unwell.

In this way, he expressed his dissatisfaction with Zhang Yue.

Lu is feeling uneasy now.

The Lu family's brothers and sisters-in-law, such as Lu Xiji's wife, was originally the daughter of Wu Chong, and she was originally on good terms with the Lu family, but she died of illness a few years ago, which left the Lu and Zhang families without someone who could pass the news.

Now several mothers, brothers and sisters-in-law are speaking for Lu.

One person said: "Look, that Miao family is also the daughter of a prison officer. In order to please her uncle, she used some charming tricks. How can such a woman be allowed into the house?"

Another person said: "Yes, my Lu family has such a good family tradition and strict family rules. Even if I take a concubine, I have to be a serious, scholarly woman from a well-established family."

"What's more, she is a concubine, and her status is still the daughter of a criminal official. How can she live under the same roof? Serving her parents-in-law together? This is not a surrender of status, not to mention that she has two children. It has been so long.

Now, isn’t it true that a slave is bullying his master?”

The last person said: "I think the only way to keep the child is to go to the mother. I will send her away with a sum of money and never see her again."

Sitting on the side is Lu Xizhe's wife, who is Zhang Xizhi's daughter.

Seeing this, Mrs. Zhang said solemnly: "The more you talk, the more outrageous it becomes."

As the eldest daughter-in-law, Mrs. Zhang had great authority in speaking, so the nuns immediately went down after hearing this.

Zhang said to Lu, "What do you think? Tell me."

Lu said: "Sister-in-law, I don't have any idea in my heart. I came back just to listen to my parents' wishes."

Mrs. Zhang said: "You are now married into the Zhang family. When you get married, you are a wife and a daughter-in-law. How can you expect your family to make decisions in everything?"

"Whether this matter will succeed or not, you should decide on your own thoughts."

Lu said: "I don't know. I have never seen this woman. I don't know what kind of person she is. She actually bewitched Ah Xi and gave birth to a son for him."

"Now I just hate in my heart. Ah Xi is very measured and organized. He never hides anything big or small from me or goes against my will. But in this matter, he made the decision himself."

"I don't know what's wrong with me. I look after my husband and raise my children at home, respect my parents-in-law, and plan his career. What does Ah Xi want from this woman?"

Zhang said: "What does this woman ask for? I don't know, but this woman has already given birth to a son for the Zhang family, and she is pregnant with another one."

"I know what you are thinking, but although the Queen Mother Zhang Xian did not tell Renmiao about her life experience, she also treated her biological mother, Concubine Li Chen, kindly."

…

On this day, Lu Gongzhu resigned in the court hall from his errand to negotiate peace with Xixia. He said that monarchs who have been successful since ancient times can govern without losing people's hearts; nor can they use threats or forceful arguments to win people's hearts. They should cultivate virtue to calm the people. .

This statement made the emperor really unable to step down.

After Lu Gongzhu went to court, he met Zhang Yue.

Zhang Yue said to Lu Gong: "I'll tell you if I have time to talk about the internal control."

Mr. Lu agreed.

The two of them went to sit in the tea room outside the palace, where they could see the busy traffic outside Xuande Gate at a glance.

Lu Gong was not only a scholar of the Han Dynasty, but also a great writer and a master of Confucianism.

Zhang Yue wanted to persuade Lu Gongzhu to accept the mission of negotiating peace with Xixia, but he had just said goodbye to the emperor in the court, and also criticized the emperor for not practicing morality and being argumentative, but it was useless.

If you don't feel comfortable, just try to persuade me face to face.

Zhang Yue thought for a moment and took a look. The young man standing outside smiled and asked, "Is this Xing Jushi, an internal disciple and known as a child prodigy?"

Lu Gongzhu nodded and said: "Exactly, he is the son of Uncle Xing He, and he has been famous for his articles since he was a child."

Zhang Yue nodded and said: "I remember that there is a line in this poem, 'The strong man Huo Yao went to Huo for prostitution, and he was bound to Huhan to make a household registration.' It is very impressive and is now passed down by people in the capital."

"Luke Gong really has a good disciple."

Lu Gongzhu is different from ordinary officials. Ordinary officials recruit disciples and disciples from the same hometown, in the name of support, for the purpose of forming alliances with private parties in the future.

Lu Gongzhu himself was a master of Confucianism. He used Confucian moral knowledge to teach and restrain his subordinates. He was quite pioneering. From this aspect alone, his vision was better than that of other bureaucrats.

Lu Gongzhu asked: "Teaching your disciples is just to impart some knowledge. Today there are many cliques and selfish interests in the officialdom. Recommending officials to the court does not look at their character and morality, but only whether they will repay the family in the future. They do not ask whether they can treat the people well, but only ask whether they can treat the people well. Whether you can be good at opportunism or not? This is because the official atmosphere of the imperial court is deteriorating day by day."

"Lv was incompetent, so he had no choice but to raise the moral standards of his subordinates, and wait until they understood that the world's affairs should be based on 'governing the mind and cultivating the nature' before recommending them to serve as officials."

When he refused, he always said what he said first, Zhang Yue said: "I have learned from Lu Gong's words."

Lu Gong said: "I don't dare to take it. I still need to ask the Prime Minister for more advice in my studies. I wonder if the Prime Minister has any advice?"

Zhang Yue said: "Studying is the way to enlighten the body and make use of it. I recently used Su Zizhan's method of being attacked from all sides in my studies, which is quite useful."

Lu Gong wrote: "I have heard that Su Zizhan said that he read the Han Dynasty. The history books are as vast as the sea and can be found in department stores. People cannot read them all, so he only reads one example at a time, listing the governance, characters, Geography, official system, art of war, etc., read them with one intention at a time, and do not think of other things."

Zhang Yue said: "However, when I was young, I read aimlessly. I often gained nothing after reading it once. The sage said that learning without thinking is a waste. This is indeed the purpose of learning. But learning without thinking, what? Think? The sages didn’t teach it.”

"But with the method of facing enemies on all sides, I have understood something. Only by learning with one purpose in mind can I achieve something. The world's affairs are not like this. For the affairs of the world, there can be no way without skills, and there can be no skills but no way. .”

Lu Gong wrote: "What the Prime Minister said is absolutely true. However, in order to govern the world, if there is a way but no skills, skills can still be sought. But if there are skills but no ways, then it will stop at skills."

"To govern the world well, the first thing is the benevolence of the master, the second thing is the employment of people, and the third thing is the system. These are related to the people's support. The direction of destiny is where the Tao lies. Everything else is just a matter of technique."

Zhang Yue shook his head and said: "Lv Gong, I don't think so."

"To emphasize Taoism over skill is the disease of contemporary Confucianism. When it comes to governing the country, the emperor does not ask the prime minister; when it comes to economic stability, the prime minister does not ask the businessmen; when it comes to military warfare, the general does not ask the generals."

"Those who are in their position do not ask about the facts, but are prone to making assumptions. Everything comes from their own ideas and the government is governed by themselves. Isn't this the disadvantage of Duke Shu's reform during the Xining period?"

Lu Gongzhu took a sip of tea after hearing this.

There is a problem in Chinese philosophy. In terms of methodology, too much emphasis is placed on the deductive method and not on the inductive method.

For example, everything in the world is covered by a fixed formula, such as yin and yang and the five elements.

None of us have thought about what to do if the theory is wrong? Then wouldn’t all your research fall into a trap?
To be continued...