Volume 4 Chapter 9: The Next Wave
Perhaps because many scholars came from far away to participate, this year's Imperial College political meeting was particularly lively and fulfilling, so much so that it lasted for two consecutive days.
It can only be said that the enthusiasm of scholars to participate in politics and affairs of state is still worthy of promotion and encouragement.
However, the only drawback is that for some reason, the emperor has been acting a little listless these past few days. Most of the time, he just sits there, allowing officials to communicate with scholars and students... According to rumors, the emperor may have caught a cold and is not feeling well, but some senior officials have revealed that Emperor Zhao has always had this kind of temperament. On the contrary, he was tense and looked energetic last year because there was a war to fight, but now that the war is over, he suddenly relaxed and looks like a saint or a Buddha, but also a little listless.
No matter what, the lively twelfth lunar month passed quickly. Before the New Year, the political meeting ended, the government bonds were sold, the Cuju and Sumo competitions also came an end, and after Emperor Zhao gave a banquet, the generals and ministers returned to their respective jurisdictions to continue their official duties.
But as expected, with the increase in various political activities at the end of the year and a large number of political issues being put on the agenda, the contradiction between the Prime Minister Zhao Ding and the Privy Councilor Zhang Jun became more and more obvious.
At this time, many people have already realized the conflict and inappropriateness between these two people.
To put it bluntly, Zhao Ding is in his forties this year, was born in the occupied area of Hedong, has been struggling in the middle and lower classes for half his life, and is steady but conservative; while Zhang Jun is in his early thirties this year, was born in a wealthy family in Shu, was successful at a young age, and is impulsive but reckless... It was impossible for the two of them to get along.
As for personal relationships, it is ridiculous to talk about them when you are in this position.
However, it is worth mentioning that Zhao Ding was the Prime Minister of the capital province, so his position was naturally higher. He was also familiar with the affairs of the people and the operation of the grassroots, and was good at uniting officials. In addition, under the situation of confrontation between the north and the south, people's hearts naturally tended to be stable. He should have easily suppressed Zhang Jun by relying on the general situation... But in fact, it was not the case. After all, Zhang Deyuan was naturally closer to the government, better at guessing the intentions of the government, and often won by surprise. Many people also realized this and gathered around him, forming a certain force.
Therefore, the two of them have always been equals, and neither is weaker than the other. This time the fight has become intense, and it can be regarded as a fight between dragons and tigers.
However, just as this struggle was beginning to show signs of becoming fierce, it was soon forced to temporarily stop, because with the arrival of New Year's Day, the seven-day New Year holiday also arrived... Seven-day New Year holiday is an old custom that has been in place since the Tang Dynasty, but the Song Dynasty had been doing that for several years before that, so the New Year's Day holiday in the fifth year of Jianyan and the first restoration of the usual New Year rewards seemed very symbolic.
Back to the present, this day was the first day of the Lunar New Year. The New Year's Day court in the morning was of course not held according to the regulations of the so-called New Year's Day court. Emperor Zhao was just seated, and then the prime minister Lu Haowen led all the officials to pay their respects, presented a New Year's greeting, and ended the court conveniently.
Then, all the officials dispersed and the holiday officially began.
Among them, the middle and lower-level officials generally went to the old Shangshu Province opposite Xuande Tower to receive the New Year's rewards to celebrate the New Year. In addition, the provincial governor Zhao Ding did not need to go there in person to receive the rewards, as there were clerks to deliver them in person... But he still took the initiative to go there and personally take charge, and he had to see that the lower-level officials had received the rewards properly before he could rest assured.
That was not all. After the affairs of the old Shangshu Province were concluded, he personally brought some supplies and had someone drive a mule cart to the Imperial College to comfort a few students who were unable to return home due to poverty.
However, he was a step late this time. The Privy Councilors Zhang Jun and Zhang De were faster than him and arrived here with supplies earlier.
In desperation, Zhang and Zhao could only hold hands and talk happily, and then spend some time together in the Imperial College before they bowed and said goodbye and returned to their respective homes.
Let's not talk about how Zhang Deyuan went back, let's just say that it was already evening when Zhao Yuanzhen returned home. Although he was old and had been working hard for many days before the New Year, he was already exhausted. However, as soon as he got home, he was ready to take a bath and rest early... But since he had come to this point, there were some things he couldn't easily avoid.
"who?"
Zhao Ding, who was holding his son Zhao Fen's arm as he got out of the car, didn't hear clearly for a moment.
"Zhang Jun's nephew Zhang Zigai." Zhao Fen repeated in a low voice in front of the car.
Zhao Ding stopped and immediately frowned and twirled his beard: "We should call General Zhang... But how come Zhang Zigai is in the capital now? Didn't he go back with his uncle?"
"It is said that his uncle, Zhang Taiwei, asked the emperor for mercy before he left a few days ago and sent him to the imperial guard." Zhao Fen corrected his mistakes. "It is also said that my father is now the governor of the capital, which is different from before, so he dared not disturb Zhang Taiwei when he was with the emperor in Beijing a few days ago, so as not to cause criticism, so he came now."
"He is still somewhat sober." Zhao Yuanzhen nodded. "Zhang Boying and I have had many connections in Huaishang. He is not an ordinary warrior. I will go wash my face. You take Zhang Zigai to the back hall to meet him..."
Zhao Fen responded immediately.
A moment later, Zhao Ding came to the back hall where the floor dragon was lit to meet Zhang Zigai. After the two sides exchanged some New Year's greetings, Zhang Zigai, who was young and a warrior after all, simply stated his purpose.
"Uneasy?" Zhao Ding, sitting calmly in the upper seat, holding a cup of ginger tea, seemed puzzled. "What is uneasy, who is uneasy, and why is it uneasy?"
"Sir." Zhang Zigai looked at him carefully. "To be honest, Sir, my uncle has been getting increasingly uneasy since he met the Emperor a few days ago. I have also been a little uneasy since I started working here... My uncle is uneasy because he feels that he has made the least contribution in the previous battle of Yaoshan, and I am uneasy because I have been a class guard here, but I don't even have a cabinet position, not even a Xuanzan Sheren, and I am worried that I will be looked down upon."
Zhao Ding put down his teacup, frowned and sighed, "Your uncle can't be blamed for the military exploits. His jurisdiction is in the easternmost part, and Yaoshan is in Guanxi. It's the best he could do to send Tian Shizhong and the three thousand long axe soldiers there. He shouldn't belittle himself. As for the fact that you didn't get the status of Wu Sheren, I told you, you may not believe it, but the fact is that the government has always been too lazy to remember these red tape, so they forgot it... And the provincial government, the Privy Council and other officials are not willing to interrupt and remind you about such a small matter because the Imperial Guard involves the Imperial City Department, so as to avoid embarrassment... In my opinion, you might as well forget about this Sheren and just do your job in front of the emperor instead of looking for me to deal with this matter."
Zhang Zigai opened his mouth but could only nod.
"Is that all?" Zhao Ding continued to ask. "Your uncle and I have been colleagues for many years. It is extraordinary. You don't have to hide it."
Zhang Zigai nodded, but answered carefully: "To be honest with you, sir, my uncle is not only worried about his lack of military achievements. He had a night talk with me before he passed away a few years ago. He said that he had been in Huaishang for three or four years, built seven or eight large houses, bought several thousand acres of fertile land, married four or five concubines, and had three sons and a daughter. However, the emperor's family has been poor from Nanyang to Tokyo... Before Yaoshan, he could be said to have slept on straw and tasted gall. After Yaoshan, he thought that the emperor would more or less want..."
"We should follow the old system." Zhao Ding answered casually for the other party. "Let's not talk about indulgence. Just follow the old system, repair the dilapidated harem, recruit a few hundred eunuchs, and take in a few hundred palace maids. No one will say anything. Even the officials have advised the emperor a long time ago, but the emperor just turned a deaf ear to it. He would rather use the money to organize the Cuju League than to tidy up the harem... Not only your uncle, we also think that the emperor is a bit too hardworking."
Zhang Zigai nodded repeatedly: "I was also shocked when I joined the squad... No wonder my uncle was worried."
"In fact, the emperor must know about your uncle's behavior." Zhao Ding picked up the ginger tea again, but sighed softly. "As for a military general, if he is not greedy for money and lustful, he is really incorruptible. Isn't he being closely watched by those censors like Yue Fei? As for the emperor, it may be because there are still some loopholes in the court's finances, and he doesn't want to give people a chance to criticize him. After we quell the Dongting Lake Rebellion this year and survive until summer, when we have more energy and the finances are better, we can go and persuade him again."
"It can only be done this way." Zhang Zigai also sighed. "Thinking back to my uncle's sigh that day, it's hard to be a military official. If you are greedy, you will feel uneasy. If you are not greedy, you are afraid that the government will be suspicious... Sir..."
Zhang Zigai was talking nonstop, and was about to say something else, but he saw Zhao Ding's expressionless face, sipping ginger tea non-stop. He suddenly realized something and stood up quickly: "Sir, thank you for your understanding today, and I'll take my leave now... I'll come back to play with some other brothers in a few days, but there's no need to disturb you."
Zhao Ding smiled in return and let his son send the other person out.
After a while, Zhao Fen came back and shook his head again and again: "Dad, this general is too shameless... What do you mean by not being greedy but afraid that the emperor will get suspicious? But I have never seen the emperor suspect General Yue, right?"
Zhao Ding, who had already thrown away the ginger tea, shook his head, but then nodded: "Zhang Boying's case is a little special. His greed was secretly promised by the emperor. He got it in exchange for his military exploits on the Huai River that day. In addition, he sent Tian Shizhong over this time, so he did not lose out in the end... But, in the final analysis, it's because he is greedy! Otherwise, why would he be left behind by Han Shizhong? And let Li Yanxian, Yue Fei and others catch up? Now in the eyes of the emperor, I'm afraid he is not as good as Zhang Rong and Wu Jie, and is only slightly better than Qu Duan."
Zhao Fen nodded heavily.
"Should we confiscate any valuable gifts from him?" At this point, Zhao Ding suddenly remembered something.
"No." Zhao Fen responded respectfully. "Don't worry, Daddy. I have my own ideas."
Zhao Ding then nodded heavily, and finally put aside all other matters, and just took a bath and prepared to enjoy his vacation.
Not to mention a restful night, on the next day, which was the second day of the Lunar New Year, the current provincial governor took a rare lazy sleep and slept until noon. After getting up, he took a leisurely bath and ate only some porridge. He then asked the servants to close the door and refuse visitors. Then he went to the courtyard and sat under the warm sun of early spring. He asked his son to bring him the latest court newspaper and read it for him.
As the first new official bulletin after the New Year, it should have been issued yesterday evening and copied today, so there is nothing new to say about it.
And sure enough, as Zhao Fen continued reading, one could only hear the talk about the etiquette of the New Year's Day court meeting, and about Prime Minister Lu Haowen bringing the four ministers to pay their respects to the country on behalf of the emperor. Then, he even talked about how Zhao Ding, the Prime Minister of the Capital Province, and Zhang Jun, the Privy Councilor, went to the Imperial Academy to comfort the students. Finally, he listed a few well-written New Year's greetings, and the so-called official business of the court came to an end.
Next, I turned to the last two magazines. The first one was naturally the "Miscellaneous Notes on Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons", which was circulated in the palace and signed by Lan Qiao Tianren and had been serialized for two or three months.
Today's plot is about how Monkey King fought against the Black Bear Demon, but was unable to defeat him. He then wanted to go to the Guanyin Temple to seek justice from Guanyin Bodhisattva, but the story ended abruptly.
After reading it, Zhao Fen couldn't help but stand up, half feeling unsatisfied and half angry, and said, "Dad, you said that the emperor was so strong that he couldn't win in order to make up a story. How could the Monkey King not be able to defeat a black bear demon?"
Zhao Ding was not in a hurry. He stared at his son and answered calmly: "First, the emperor never said that he made this thing up. Second, it is still unclear whether it was written by Madam Wu or by a ghostwriter. Third, if I were to say, it is amazing that the Monkey King could not defeat the Black Bear Monster... Otherwise, how could we ask Guanyin Bodhisattva to come?"
"Dad is right." Zhao Fen suddenly smiled and was about to lower his head to read again, but suddenly remembered something and smiled beside his father. "However, the things that came out of the palace under this pen name really make people suspicious... Dad doesn't know that since the publication of "Journey to the West Conquering the Demons", the monks and Taoists in Tokyo have been arguing all day long. The monks say that this story is about worshipping Buddhism and suppressing Taoism, and the Taoists say that this story is about worshipping Taoism and suppressing Buddhism... I don't know what Dad thinks?"
"Your Majesty is the emperor who scraped off the gold powder from the Taoist and Buddha for military expenses, how can he worship Buddhism and Taoism?" Zhao Ding lay in his seat, closed his eyes and sneered. "This story has been circulated before, and it's fine for the Majesty to borrow it and interpret it. If you have to make a statement, it seems like you are mocking the various bad things that the Emperor Taishang Daojun did in the past..."
Zhao Fen seemed to be thinking about something, but suddenly came to his senses and was speechless for a moment... As a father, he did not allow his son to say it directly, but why did he call it "the official's interpretation" instead?
Of course, he was his biological father after all, so Zhao Fen didn't say much, but continued to sigh: "Speaking of which, there are a lot of storytellers in this dynasty. In the past, whenever there was a story, the storytellers would make it into jokes, and then the dignitaries would listen to it. But I didn't expect that now it is the officials who make up the jokes, and then the storytellers will read them to the people of the world?"
"This is the intention of the emperor to run the official newspaper carefully." Zhao Ding closed his eyes and spoke slowly, but he seemed a little sleepy. "He conveyed his meaning directly to the capital and the Privy Council... Is there anything else? Read the title first."
Zhao Fen hurriedly flipped through them, and immediately found the topics of several remaining articles published in the magazine: "Mr. Qingshan (Hu Anguo) is talking about his 'qi' again..."
"It's useless, don't read it anymore."
"Yes... there is a miscellaneous article written by Lu Benzhong, the eldest son of Lu Gongxiang, which talks about the Jiangxi School of Poetry..."
"Let him be. He's already old, but his future has been ruined by some strange mistake. He can only deal with these trivial matters all day long... I'm not interested today, so forget it."
"There is another one..." Zhao Fen suddenly stopped talking.
"What's the other article?" Zhao Ding still had his eyes closed, and he was becoming more and more sleepy.
"There is also a short article signed by Lu Gongxiang, which talks about the principles of heaven." Zhao Fen became a little more serious. "The article is very short."
Zhao Ding had no choice but to force his eyes open, then sat up with obvious weariness: "The Lu family's teachings are mostly a mixture of Buddhism and Confucianism, and they may not have the same 'spirit' as Hu Anguo, but after all, they are important military and national affairs, and as a prime minister, we must be cautious in dealing with them... Read it carefully."
"Yes." Zhao Fen immediately stood up and recited aloud. "The principle of heaven is the foundation. When Tai Chi was first formed, Tai Chi suddenly gave birth to yin and yang, and then the origin of heaven appeared. The origin of heaven inherited the principle of heaven and formed all things. Humans are the spirits of all things, and they are born unstable. Therefore, we should follow human desires and argue about the principle of heaven. To argue about the principle of heaven, we should understand all things. To understand all things, we should learn and practice it, and practice it in order to achieve morality. When morality is complete and the principle of life is perfect, we are saints."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhao Ding's eyes flickered and he was shocked.
How could Prime Minister Zhao not know about this? With Lv Haowen's current status, he came up with something like this in a newspaper directly controlled by the government, during a period when neither the government nor the people could make a statement... Was he trying to turn the world upside down?
But what does it matter if you know?
In this situation, who can shake the alliance between the emperor and Lu Xianggong? Not to mention that this thing seems to make some sense... at least it is smoother than Hu Anguo's "qi"... even if it doesn't make sense, don't we have to admit it?
Thinking of this, Zhao Ding lay down with his head tilted back again, his eyes bright and he no longer looked tired at all.
Zhao Yuanzhen was not thinking about the principles of heaven, but he suddenly realized that he seemed to have never understood the official's intentions at all.
However, as a provincial governor, the actual person in charge of all government affairs, he had no idea that he had the absolute authority over the emperor. Or, in other words, he did not understand the emperor's intentions, but he was a provincial governor... This in itself was a very ridiculous thing.
"Dad, I really don't want to go..."
Just as Mr. Zhao Ding was losing his mind like many others, in a large and somewhat oversized garden in an area in the west of the city where dignitaries lived, a skinny boy about sixteen or seventeen years old was pleading with a middle-aged man in plain clothes with a handsome face and a graceful demeanor. "I'm not good at studying!"
“Kneel down!”
The middle-aged man in plain clothes, who was holding a copy of a court report, turned around and looked angry when he heard the words.
The young man was startled and knelt down immediately.
"All of you go down." The middle-aged man in plain clothes turned around and looked friendly to the servants around him. With his handsome face, he really made people feel good about him.
The servants around did not dare to delay and quickly withdrew.
As soon as the people left, the middle-aged man in plain clothes, the head of the Pearl Wu family and one of the two fathers-in-law of the emperor, Wu Jin, just stood with his hands behind his back and looked coldly at his son who was kneeling in front of him: "Wu Yi!"
"Here!" Wu Yi, who was only sixteen years old, actually shivered on the ground.
"You were born out of wedlock, so your family business and future have nothing to do with you. But who made your sister a concubine? So, whether you like it or not, the future of our Wu family will depend on you... You brothers can't even fight for it!" Wu Jin sighed. "Otherwise, do you think I want to control you? I let you do whatever you want for eleven or twelve years, and then I force you to do this and that?"
"Daddy." Wu Yi on the ground burst into tears, as if he had suffered a lot from studying in the past few years just like his sister. "It's not that I don't want to work hard, but I'm not good at studying... And I've learned arithmetic for several years, and I finally learned how to keep accounts, but now it's useless..."
"I'm telling you." Wu Jin became more impatient when he saw the other person crying. "This matter has no say for you, me, or even your sister... Who made us maternal relatives? The emperor's family has no close relatives of the same clan right now. As maternal relatives, there are some things that are really beyond our control!"
Wu Yi on the ground stopped crying for a moment, but still felt a little dazed.
"I'm telling you." Seeing this, Wu Guozhang became more and more depressed, and his words became more sincere. "If the official is a double-faced person, generous on the outside but cautious on the inside, you can't do business, study, or do accounting. You can only worship Taoism and Buddhism in this life and become a 'god among gods'. The family business will be left to you brothers to manage, and you are not allowed to interfere."
"If the emperor is a romantic figure like the Supreme Dao Emperor, you can only be a romantic hanger-on in this life, writing obscene lyrics, composing romantic poems, playing Cuju and chess, like Xiao Yige in Daming Mansion in the past , and General Gao in front of the emperor in the past... so that you can accompany the emperor to visit brothels conveniently."
"And if the emperor is a man of great talent but uses people arbitrarily, even if you are extremely afraid of death, you must eat well, then put on your armor, wield a sword and a gun all day long, pretending to be the emperor's Wei Qing, and then before going into battle, grit your teeth and die suddenly like Huo Qubing, dying before you can accomplish your mission. This will be good for both the country and your family."
"But now, the government has neither asked you to die nor to prostitute, they just want us to find a way to support Lu Xianggong's 'principle learning'. When it comes to you, it's just to let you go to the Imperial Academy to be a Mengchangjun who spends money... When you see someone who is willing to study things according to the principle learning, you have to praise and flatter him!" Wu Jin finally felt a little disappointed. "Such a simple thing, how could you not understand it? Who really asked you to study in the Imperial Academy? Study and study, get a doctorate? What's the point? Can a relative of the emperor be an official? Letting you go to the Imperial Academy is to let you be free and easy!"
Wu Yi suddenly realized.
