Chapter 21

After the incident of the assassination attempt on the King and the subsequent purge of the palace, the news coming out of the palace became mysterious and confusing, and also bizarre.

It was mainly because Feng Bao was constantly releasing fake news. Whenever he had nothing to do, he would stir up strange rumors—such as the Fengtian Hall catching fire, black monsters appearing under the corridors, the food delivered by the Court of Imperial Entertainments being poisoned, or palace maids becoming pregnant—and transmit them in a targeted manner. Once someone submitted a memorial, the scope could be narrowed down to find the internal accomplices of these officials within the palace!

The Emperor had taught him these tactics, and he was also striving to innovate and find new methods. For example, his spreading of fake news was essentially fishing.

Feng Bao was truly afraid of losing his position as the "Old Ancestor." Therefore, upon hearing the news from the Qianqing Palace that the Emperor wanted to farm, Feng Bao realized that his opportunity had arrived.

If he handled this errand well, his image in the Emperor's heart would improve somewhat, and it could be considered making up for his past mistakes.

Therefore, Feng Bao sent Xu Jue to deliver the news to You Qi: the Emperor wanted to farm, and the specific reasons were also stated very clearly.

Zhang Juzheng had to help him stabilize his position as the Grand Eunuch; otherwise, if he were no longer the Grand Eunuch of the palace and someone else replaced him as the Director of the Ceremonial Secretariat, they would have to start their dealings all over again, and Zhang Juzheng would be restricted everywhere in his work in the Outer Court.

After Zhang Juzheng finished writing the final chapter of "Mirror for Emperors," he also fully understood the key to it all.

"Send this to Ma Ziqiang at the Imperial Academy and have him carve the printing blocks overnight. I want to see the finished book by tomorrow. The Emperor's studies cannot be delayed." Zhang Juzheng handed the completed "Mirror for Emperors" to You Qi, signaling him to handle it.

Ma Ziqiang was waiting—waiting for Zhang Juzheng to send him the last few stories of emperors so that the book could be completed.

Officials both inside and outside the empire were serving the supreme Emperor of the Great Ming, even at the midnight hour.

As for the request Feng Bao had made, Zhang Juzheng began to weigh it with extreme solemnity.

He was not weighing the pros and cons; helping Feng Bao was helping himself. Helping Feng Bao stabilize his position as the Grand Eunuch was conducive to pushing forward his own political decrees.

For Zhang Juzheng, the Emperor farming was just that—what was the big deal? The Great Ming's Founding Emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, had once farmed in the palace wearing straw sandals.

The "Ancestral Injunctions of the Imperial Ming" record that Zhu Yuanzhang pointed to the vegetable patch in the palace and said to Crown Prince Zhu Biao, Prince of Yan Zhu Di, and others: "It is not that one cannot build pavilions and terraces here for sightseeing, but I only have the inner attendants grow vegetables because I truly cannot bear to harm the wealth of the people or labor their strength."

This was the ancestral craft of the Zhu family. The plaque in the Qianqing Palace honoring Heaven and the ancestors was still hanging there. The ancestral laws were upright and proper.

The wind stirred up by the Emperor personally farming was not even worth mentioning compared to the Evaluation Act he was currently pushing.

The Great Ming bureaucrats had been lazy and scattered for two hundred and five years; suddenly, a Senior Grand Secretary wanted to put a muzzle on them, and these bureaucrats wished they could chew him to pieces before they would be satisfied.

Great Ming Senior Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng was weighing what the Emperor should plant. Since he was going to plant, he had to produce some results.

Zhang Juzheng was recalling the various details of his meeting with the Assistant Prefect of Coastal Defense, Luo Gongchen.

Luo Gongchen's memorial and proposal were excellent, but could these potatoes and sweet potatoes really yield over two thousand catties per mu? Was Luo Gongchen exaggerating, or was it truly the case?

If Luo Gongchen's words were not credible, then he would find the Emperor a crop that was easy to produce results with.

If he could really produce potatoes with a yield of two thousand catties—no, even one thousand catties—per mu, then when the Emperor personally took charge of the government in the future, it would be much more stable.

"When a person dies, their policies perish"—this was an extremely common phenomenon in the Great Ming.

For example, the Founding Emperor of the Ming passed the throne to the Jianwen Emperor, Zhu Yunwen, who then lost the empire, making the Yan Prince's rebellion the only successful case of a vassal king rebelling in history.

For example, the Chengzu Emperor campaigned in the north five times and went to the Western Oceans six times; the practice continued until the Xuande reign, but after the Yingzong Emperor, no one ever went to the Western Oceans again.

For example, the Great Ming Wang Shaobao Yu Qian: after the Yingzong Emperor's personal campaign led to the total destruction of the entire Capital Battalion, Yu Qian rebuilt the Capital Battalion and repelled the Oirat; yet after the Yingzong Emperor was restored to the throne, he directly disbanded the Capital Battalion. What was the end for Yu Qian, who saved the Great Ming? Beheaded and displayed to the public.

In the Great Ming, "when a person dies, their policies perish" was the norm.

Yang Bo, the leader of the Jin Party, had warned Zhang Juzheng repeatedly: as the head of all officials, as the Senior Grand Secretary, reforming like this would absolutely not lead to a good end. The Great Ming Emperor was cold-natured and heartless. Selling one's life for the Zhu family like this would eventually lead to everyone attacking him, and the Zhu family's Emperor would inevitably settle scores, digging up graves and tombs, with Yu Qian's precedent right before his eyes.

Yu Qian's unjust death was a case of seeking glory only to receive humiliation. How chilling was it for those who came later to see Yu Qian's end?

Yang Bo had been trying to win over Zhang Juzheng; even giving the position of the Jin Party leader to Zhang Juzheng would be better than giving it to that two-faced thing, Zhang Siwen.

Zhang Juzheng hoped that his policies would not perish when he died; at the very least, he had to ensure that after the Great Ming Emperor personally took charge, he would have the strength to achieve this.

As for whether the monarch would completely settle scores with his policies, that was not something he could decide.

Zhang Juzheng opened his eyes; Luo Gongchen was credible.

His analysis was based on a fundamental principle: look at whose side he was sitting on.

Luo Gongchen was a gentry member with the status of a provincial graduate. What is a gentry member?

Once one passes the Juren examination, it is like a fish leaping over the dragon gate. Fellow villagers would do their utmost to register their land under the Juren's name to evade the court's grain taxes.

Zhang Juzheng had passed the Juren examination, and he deeply knew how majestic it felt after passing.

Those who used to be arrogant and domineering would wish they could kneel down and lick your shoes. Everyone's gaze would change, filled with awe and avoidance. Wherever you went, people would pay their respects, bowing and scraping.

Luo Gongchen was a typical "gentleman" and "ruler of men," a "meat-eater." When the Japanese pirate raids broke out everywhere, how many gentry members rolled up their money and fled to take refuge? The common people were too poor to run, but the gentry members had silver in their pockets and could go anywhere.

When the Japanese pirate raids broke out in the southeast, the gentry fled to Huguang. With a sprinkle of silver, they had land, tenant farmers, servants, and property.

Luo Gongchen did not run. Not only did he not run, but he also organized the military and civilians many times to resist the Japanese pirates. When Songjiang Prefecture was in trouble, Luo Gongchen, upon hearing the news, immediately set off to reinforce them. To thank Luo Gongchen for his night-time reinforcement, Songjiang Prefecture built the Danfeng Tower and erected a plaque reading "Looking Afar from the Phoenix Tower" to commemorate Luo Gongchen's achievements.

Zhang Juzheng had a favorable impression of the soldiers and civil officials who resisted the Japanese pirates during the raids. In his view, Tan Lun, Qi Jiguang, and Luo Gongchen could all be seen as fellow travelers.

Zhang Juzheng picked up a pencil and wrote down two sentences. The first was the one the little Emperor had annotated: "Comrades, fellow travelers, sharing the same joy."

The second sentence was "Knowing the top, remaining unmoved."

The conditions Yang Bo offered were too generous, and the price of insisting on pushing through the political decrees was simply too great. When all the officials in the world settled scores with him, his end could be imagined.

There were precedents for policies not perishing when a person died. Shang Yang's reforms offended so many people that Shang Yang himself was torn apart by chariots and his entire family was executed, but King Huiwen of Qin preserved Shang Yang's reforms.

"Knowing the top, remaining unmoved"—this was a sentence he said to himself. Being torn apart by five horses... it seemed not entirely unacceptable, but the political decrees needed to be preserved.

The next morning, the little Emperor began his daily bizarre routine again: he was reading books above, while they were arguing below.

They were still arguing about Tan Lun's retirement.

The Ministry of Personnel had previously impeached Tan Lun, and Tan Lun submitted a memorial for retirement today. The Minister of Personnel, Yang Bo, said that Tan Lun was indeed occupying a position without doing his job and listed thirty-four charges against him!

Zhu Yijun exclaimed, "Good heavens, is the Minister of War, Tan Lun, that dirty? Thirty-four charges—the Ministry of Personnel really dares to say it!"

The little Emperor listened for a while before he understood: these thirty-four charges were actually all accumulated from one single matter.

Tan Lun had been blocking the list of military talents recommended by Wang Chonggu and refused to approve it for a long time.

Wang Chonggu had been transferred from the Viceroy of Xuan-Da to the capital to supervise the military camps and had taken a list to select a group of military talents from the Xuan-Da border troops to enter the Capital Battalion. The process reached the Ministry of War and got stuck.

Tan Lun had stubbornly suppressed this memorial for six months.

Feng Bao looked at Wang Chonggu and said with a sinister expression, "Wang Shaobao Wang, during the Jingtai reign, Wang Shaobao Yu was also a Wang Shaobao. After Wang Shaobao Yu rebuilt the Capital Battalion and repelled the Oirat, he went to inspect the border regions at the first opportunity. Everything was left to the Emperor to manage. The Jingtai Emperor even personally cut bamboo to extract sap to treat Wang Shaobao Yu's phlegm illness. He can be called a model of a sage monarch and a virtuous minister."

Yu Qian was beheaded and displayed to the public by the restored Yingzong Emperor, Zhu Qizhen, on the charge of "intending to do so"—"intending to do so" meant that Yu Qian intended to establish the Prince of Xiang as the Crown Prince. Even the Yingzong Emperor's son, the succeeding Xianzong Emperor Zhu Jianshen, did not believe this.

It was thanks to the Xianzong Emperor Zhu Jianshen restoring the Jingtai Emperor's imperial title and rehabilitating Yu Qian that Feng Bao could cite this historical event so openly today.

Feng Bao threw a memorial onto the table. With gauze on his head, he looked at Wang Chonggu, his mouth twitching, his eyebrows raised, and he snorted through his nose, sneering, "Today it is Wang Shaobao Wang's turn to be a Wang Shaobao, also supervising the military camps. Tsk tsk, Wang Shaobao Wang, you really wish you could bring all the dogs from your house into the Capital Battalion to eat imperial grain!"

Feng Bao's words were truly very ugly. His duty was to scold officials, and he would make it as ugly as possible—the uglier, the better.

"The Great Ming court is not yet at the point where a castrated thief like you can be so rampant!" Wang Chonggu slapped the table and stood up, looking at Feng Bao with a drastically changed expression, clearly intending to resort to violence if things didn't go his way. The "Classic of Irritating People" had ten levels in total, and Feng Bao had at least cultivated it to the twelfth level.

The Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, Ge Shouli, couldn't beat Feng Bao, but Wang Chonggu could definitely beat him.

Feng Bao was not angry upon hearing this. He looked at Wang Chonggu and said quite calmly, "The 'Analects: Shu Er' says: 'The superior man is composed and calm; the inferior man is always worried and full of distress.'"

"The meaning of this, you gentlemen who are all presented scholars of classics, have always understood better than a castrated thief like me. The superior man has no shame before Heaven and no guilt in his heart. As for the inferior man, he is calculating, and for the sake of a little profit and power, he is terrified and restless, unable to be at peace."

"I am indeed a eunuch, but sitting here, I have no shame before the Emperor and the Empress Dowager, and no guilt in my heart. I am composed and calm."

"I have often heard that what the inferior man likes to do most is to hit the blind and scold the mute. After hitting the blind, the blind cannot see; after scolding the mute, the mute cannot talk back. With your every word being 'castrated thief,' who among us is truly the inferior man?"

"You, Wang Chonggu, have bells hanging on you. Let me see—it would be better to cut them off! I have served in the Respectful Affairs Office, and my knife skills are exquisite."

Feng Bao quoted the sage's words, scolding Wang Chonggu as an inferior man who hits the blind and scolds the mute to attack others' defects, and who has bells hanging on him, while he himself stood from the perspective of the Great Ming, with no guilt in his heart, a superior man with bells hanging in his heart.

If Wang Chonggu wanted to be castrated, it would be better to let him, Feng Bao, do it personally!

"To be so rampant! I am wholeheartedly working for the Emperor, supervising the Capital Battalion—naturally, it is for the sake of the Capital Battalion. Selecting the worthy without avoiding relatives—how did it become... such a dirty appearance in your mouth!" Wang Chonggu was finally extremely angry. Feng Bao's scolding was truly, truly very ugly. He rolled up his sleeves, preparing to stage a full-scale martial arts fight.

Zhang Juzheng spoke up in a flat tone, "Ceremonial Censor."

The Ceremonial Censor was specifically responsible for inspecting matters of loss of decorum before the hall. Arguing was one thing, but resorting to violence when one couldn't win an argument—what kind of decorum was that?

"Hahaha! Our Great Ming's scholar-officials are being pointed at and scolded by a eunuch using the books of sages, and they can't even talk back! I don't know whether I should be happy or sad." Upon hearing Zhang Juzheng speak, Tan Lun, ignoring Wang Chonggu's liver-colored, flushed face, leaned on the table and laughed.

Why did Tan Lun refuse to approve that list? It was because that list was full of Wang Chonggu's personal favors. Whether Wang Chonggu was willing or not, he had to recommend them that way. Sitting in the Zhao Wenhua Hall, as one of the twenty-seven dignified court officials, to write a recommendation for military talent and still have to consider personal favors—if one had to kneel to be a "virtuous official," then what kind of virtuous official was that!

This matter was thus settled.

The court debate was noisy, but under Zhang Juzheng's chairmanship, most of it had a relatively good result. The handling was extremely rapid. The Evaluation Act, which had been stuck, was temporarily implemented in the capital after Yang Bo expressed his approval, rather than being pushed to the whole country all at once.

Deciding on a political decree by a flash of inspiration was not something a mature virtuous official should do. Constantly summarizing experience and lessons during the implementation process and then pushing it to the whole country was the proper meaning.

Zhu Yijun received the new textbook, "Mirror for Emperors." Inside were stories of emperors through the ages compiled by Zhang Juzheng. Although there were only one hundred and seventeen chapters, each one had profound implications.

"Your ministers withdraw." The court debate ended amidst the noise, and those serving the Emperor's studies began to enter.

Feng Bao said very solemnly, "Your Majesty, I told the Senior Grand Secretary yesterday that you wanted to personally engage in farming, but there were many difficulties, and I was anxious for a moment, so I told the Senior Grand Secretary to help think of a way. After all, these are matters of the Outer Court, and it is not appropriate for me to talk too much."

"Hmm, what you said today was not bad. Keep it up." Zhu Yijun closed the "Direct Explanation of the Four Books" and looked at Feng Bao, nodding with great satisfaction.

Who did Feng Bao hear it from? He heard it from the palace maids arranged by Zhang Hong in the Qianqing Palace. How did Feng Bao pass the words outside the palace? Feng Bao let his adopted son, Xu Jue, go.

Zhang Hong had already reported it before the morning court session.

Inside and outside had their own purposes, working together to facilitate this matter.

"Your Majesty's praise is too much, too much. I am only relying on Your Majesty's imperial might to be able to scold them a few times." Feng Bao's face blossomed with smiles, and he hurriedly said. With one word of praise from the Emperor, his status in the palace stabilized by one point.

The Emperor would eventually grow up.

Zhu Yijun did not blame Feng Bao for revealing the news outside. As the Grand Eunuch of the palace, Feng Bao should understand the scale of what could be revealed and what could not.