Chapter 104: Reversing the Celestial Order

The heavy snow continued until evening, and the entire city of Beijing became a world of white.

As soon as it turned dark, the Grand Secretary Zhang Mansion lit its lamps.

Zhang Juzheng walked in front, wearing a black sable fur cloak, followed by a chubby man with a protruding belly.

That was the Minister of Revenue, Li Youzi.

The two walked one after another into the study; the maid had long since lit the palace lanterns, heated the floor flues, and specifically brought in a basin of charcoal for warmth.

After sitting down with the etiquette of host and guest, Zhang Juzheng waved his hand, and the maids and servants all withdrew.

He glanced at the round-faced Li Youzi and teased with a smile, "Yuan Shu, your belly is getting rounder and rounder. According to me, you shouldn't be called 'Three Pots' in the future, but 'Three Fatties' instead."

Li Youzi was broad-shouldered and fat, and was famously never without a wine pot, a chamber pot, or a teapot, hence his nickname "Three Pots."

The two had been friends for many years, so Li Youzi did not fear Zhang Juzheng's power; teased like this, he laughed and teased back, "Shuda, I am just broad-minded and fat, which is useless. On the contrary, you are still vigorous in your old age. It is said that you have already tasted the jade-like person bestowed by the Empress Dowager?"

"Thunder, dew, and rain are all imperial favors; as a subject, I dare not refuse."

Zhang Juzheng stroked his whitening beard and replied stiffly. Li Youzi burst into laughter, shaking his finger as he mocked, "Tsk tsk, according to me, you might as well stop being called the 'Iron-Faced Prime Minister'."

"Then what should I be called?"

"The Heartless Prime Minister."

"Hahaha!" Zhang Juzheng laughed out loud. After these two little jokes, the atmosphere suddenly became lively.

Zhang Juzheng quickly entered his state of mind and spoke directly about official business: "Yuan Shu, winter is coming soon. The winter clothing, grain, and military pay for the Jizhou border troops must be sent up quickly."

"These soldiers sleep in the wind and drink the snow; their lives are bitter. Every year, their only hope is to look forward to wearing new clothes and eating something good during the New Year."

"I know. I sent people to transport them five days ago. At the latest, they will reach the border troops by the middle of next month." Li Youzi nodded with a smile.

"For the construction of the forts in Jizhou, only the first batch of funds was given last year. This year, you must prepare the funds for the second year; your Ministry of Revenue must prepare early."

"Also, the Huai and Yellow Rivers have a small project every three years and a major one every five years. Next year is the five-year mark. Your Ministry of Revenue must also reserve silver, so as not to be caught short when the time comes."

Zhang Juzheng spoke at length, and Li Youzi nodded frequently.

After listening to Zhang Juzheng finish speaking in one breath, Li Youzi began to pour out his grievances: "Shuda, for the Ao Mountain Lantern Festival in the first month of next year, the Inner Court intends for the Ministry of Revenue to provide 300,000 taels of silver. Then there is the Emperor's dragon robe; the Inner Court wants another 200,000 taels. They also need money to reward the Concubines, and the Empress Dowager wants to worship Buddha, so she asks me for silver again."

"You tell me, with this way of spending money, how can the Ministry of Revenue hold up? I am not an immortal who can conjure money out of thin air."

"Tell me honestly, how many taels of silver does the Ministry of Revenue have left?" Zhang Juzheng asked directly.

"Counting the Jizhou winter clothing for the border troops next year at 200,000 taels, the Yellow and Huai Rivers at 1,000,000 taels, and then subtracting the 700,000 taels for building the forts, there is only a little over 4,000,000 taels left in the Taicang."

Every time Li Youzi said a number, he felt it was shocking.

Don't look at the fact that there are still over 4,000,000 taels; if you subtract some miscellaneous items, it's only 3,000,000. This money counts as money in normal times, but once a major event occurs, it is simply not called money at all.

After thinking in silence for a moment, Zhang Juzheng said in a deep voice: "The dragon robe... the dragon robe can be put off. The Emperor only had one made last year. The rewards for the Inner Court can be given less. The Ao Mountain Lantern Festival should be held as grandly as possible. For the Empress Dowager's Buddha worship, give 50,000 taels of silver."

"Good." Seeing that more than half of the silver was cut, Li Youzi felt relieved.

Mentioning the worship of Buddha, the topic was unconsciously drawn over. Li Youzi tentatively asked: "Shuda, do you know who the thug who injured someone at Zhaoning Temple recently is?"

"Zhao Lin's son." Zhang Juzheng said expressionlessly, then stood up, paced to the wall with his hands behind his back, and looked up at the black-faced Zhong Kui portrait above.

That was given to him by his good friend Wang Zhigao when he left Beijing.

Li Youzi also stood up, walked to his friend's side, and asked: "Then how do you intend to deal with it?"

"How do you think it should be dealt with?" Zhang Juzheng did not answer directly, but turned to the side and asked Li Youzi in a cold voice.

"About this matter, I have also heard some rumors. It is said that the monk molested a female devotee first, and that young man acted out of anger. According to me, a hundred strokes of the cane and exile for a thousand miles would suffice." Li Youzi licked his lips and said tentatively.

"Wouldn't that be smearing the face of the Empress Dowager?" Zhang Juzheng said, a dignified and elegant beautiful woman appearing in his mind.

"Shuda, do you want him to die?"

Li Youzi was shocked. Zhang Juzheng shook his head and waved his hand, "It is not that I want him to die, but that he has run right into the muzzle of a gun. I will not hide it from you anymore; the Empress Dowager summoned me yesterday and told me to punish him severely without leniency."

Gulp.

"So, he must die?" Li Youzi asked again.

Zhang Juzheng nodded and turned back to admire the portrait of Zhong Kui in front of him.

Suddenly, the door was kicked open with a "bang." The two turned around in a hurry to see Zhang Yunxiu standing at the door, reeking of alcohol, his clothes disheveled, looking furious.

You Qi followed behind, panting: "Oh, Fifth Young Master... Fifth Young Master, I said the Master is discussing business. Can't you wait until the Master is finished to talk about whatever you have?" Ignoring You Qi's shouting, Zhang Yunxiu stumbled forward, meeting Zhang Juzheng's gaze, and then pointed at Zhang Juzheng and shouted: "Old Zhang, Zhao Yong is an innocent person. You must submit a memorial immediately, inform the Empress Dowager, and then release him."

"You... what did you say?" Zhang Juzheng heard his son order him like this for the first time and found it somewhat unbelievable.

"Don't pretend; I know you must be clear about it in your heart." Zhang Yunxiu slapped the table, his eyes wide with anger.

"I'm pretending?"

Zhang Juzheng was so angry that his beard stood on end.

"Are you going to do it or not?" Zhang Yunxiu was drunk and didn't care about anything else, shouting, "If you don't do it, believe it or not, I will beat all your concubines away. Don't talk about ten days; I won't let you taste one for a year."

"You scoundrel! What concubines? Those are your stepmothers!" Zhang Juzheng was furious.

"Look at you, you're old and shameless, you don't learn anything good, and you're still messing around."

"Do you really not know how you died in the first place?! After you die, your New Policy will be destroyed in one fell swoop. Do you think you will have a good ending?!"

Zhang Juzheng's cheeks flushed red, his eyes bloodshot, and his full-blown anger was enough to boil a cow.

Li Youzi, who was on the side, did not expect Zhang Yunxiu to be so bold, so he hurriedly grabbed him and kept pushing him toward the door: "Nephew... nephew, you are drunk, you are drunk. Why are you talking nonsense?"

"I'm not drunk, I'm not drunk! Old Zhang, I'm talking to you, did you hear me? Get it done for me within three days." Zhang Yunxiu stretched his neck and shouted loudly.

"Rebellious son, rebellious son! Let's see if I don't beat you to death today." Zhang Juzheng unbuckled his belt, grabbed it in his hand, and chased after him.

Fortunately, with You Qi and Li Youzi pulling him back, and Zhang Fu also rushing over, this farce ended with Zhang Yunxiu fainting.

"Hoo, hoo..."

After spitting out two puffs of white air, Zhang Juzheng said with resentment: "This rebellious son, I have been too indulgent with him in the past. I didn't expect that he would dare to talk to me like this now."

"Can drunken words be called words?" Li Youzi helped Zhang Juzheng sit down and persuaded him with a smile.

"Truth comes out after drinking; these are his true thoughts." Zhang Juzheng bit his cheek and said.

"Shuda, aren't all young people like this?" Li Youzi smiled and told Zhang Juzheng about the past, "Have you forgotten? When you were young, because you couldn't stand Yan Song controlling the state, you used illness as an excuse to return to your hometown. For those three years, we also traveled to Hengshan together. At that time, you and I were only in our thirties. How happy and vengeful were we then?"

"Yunxiu is only twenty, full of youthful vigor; it is perfectly normal for him to be quick to champion the weak when he sees injustice."

Zhang Juzheng's anger had dissipated by more than half, but he still gritted his teeth and said, "What does he understand? When we were not in this position before, we did not know the hardships of this position."

"You tell me, if we were just a minor Imperial Censor, the worst that could happen is resigning from office. But we are the Senior Grand Secretary; if the implementation of these policies did not have the support of Empress Dowager Li in the palace, do you think we could even move?"

"Every step we take here is like walking on thin ice, fearing we might fall somewhere. And he, on the other hand, only cares about his own hot-bloodedness; what can he possibly accomplish?"

"Shuda, didn't you once say that sometimes hot-bloodedness can also accomplish things?" Li Youzi could not help but mock.

"Persistence must also have meaning; if persistence has no meaning, wouldn't the person persisting just be a fool?" Zhang Juzheng puffed out his beard and glared, his voice like thunder, "We don't care about anything else; if anyone dares to stir up trouble and obstruct the implementation of the New Policy, we will absolutely not let them off lightly."

"So, in order to curry favor with Empress Dowager Li, you are determined that Zhao Yong must die?"

"We are not afraid to tell you: that monk died this morning." Hearing the word "curry favor," Zhang Juzheng was quite displeased, and he said this shocking news with cold eyes.

"He died?!"

Now it was Li Youzi's turn to be shocked.

If he had only been beaten and injured, there would still be room to maneuver, but now that the person had been beaten to death, the nature of the matter had completely changed. "Was... was it Zhao Yong who beat him to death?"

"It doesn't matter anymore." Zhang Juzheng shook his head.

In the Great Ming, people are born every day, and every day people even die from hunger and poverty.

As the Senior Grand Secretary, he naturally did not have the energy to manage all of that; what he had to do was look down upon the world and care for the peace of the world.

Let alone just one person, even if it were ten or a hundred people, if they dared to stand in his way, he would crush them without hesitation.

"I understand, Shuda, but could you drag it out for a bit longer?"

"Why?"

"County Assistant Zhao died because of you, and now his son is also dying because of you; you must at least leave them an heir," Li Youzi said with a hint of helplessness.

"Before the autumn of next year, hurry and let him leave behind a seed."

(End of chapter)