[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-i-really-am-not-neglecting-my-duties":3,"chapter-i-really-am-not-neglecting-my-duties-i-really-am-not-neglecting-my-duties-chapter-34":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","I Really Am Not Neglecting My Duties",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2363303,4622,"Chapter 34: The Water That Capsizes the Boat Is the Tears of the Common People; Only When It Floods Does the Ruler Know","i-really-am-not-neglecting-my-duties-chapter-34",34,"\u003Cp>Offending Feng Bao could result in dismissal for stepping into the official compound with the left foot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Offending Zhang Juzheng could result in dismissal for stepping into the official compound with the right foot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you offend both, you are very likely to be exiled to Yongning Temple to break ice and catch fish.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After receiving messages from Feng Bao and Zhang Juzheng, Xu Zhen began coordinating and arranging all plans: the Emperor’s personal involvement in farming and sericulture must be maintained, but the dirty, laborious tasks could be done when His Majesty was absent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Isn’t seeding supposed to happen after Qingming? It’s still the first lunar month—can we start seedling cultivation already?” Zhu Yijun asked, frowning, genuinely trying to understand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zhen looked at the vast glass-heated chamber and again marveled at the power of authority—it could accomplish anything. He whispered, “Your Majesty, Qingming is primarily about soil temperature and irrigation.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Does the glass-heated chamber lack soil temperature? Does it lack irrigation? It lacks neither.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhu Yijun stared at the glass-heated chamber and understood Xu Zhen’s meaning—even lack of light could be resolved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The taste of power is indeed exquisite.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your Majesty, come this way.” Xu Zhen led Zhu Yijun to the seedling room. There were three types of potatoes—yellow, purple, and white—and four types of sweet potatoes—red-heart, white-heart, yellow-heart, and purple-heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These three types of potatoes and four types of sweet potatoes were sent to the capital by Luo Gongchen, the Assistant Prefect of the Hai Fang Office at Yuegang Duxiangguan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What Zhu Yijun had to do was lay all kinds of potatoes and sweet potatoes flat on the ground and wait for them to sprout; once sprouted, they could be cut and planted for seedling cultivation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Transporting the potatoes and sweet potatoes was not difficult; Zhu Yijun held a pen and carefully recorded every word Xu Zhen spoke in his notebook.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zhen and several elderly farmers spoke at length about water chestnut seedling cultivation, discussing the piles of potatoes and sweet potatoes spread on the ground; Zhu Yijun listened silently, saying nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After finishing his discussion with the farmers, Xu Zhen approached the Emperor and said, “Seedling cultivation is of paramount importance.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Water chestnuts are like potatoes and sweet potatoes: they are propagated by tubers. But over time, these tubers degenerate and become heavily toxic—meaning low, unstable yields; planting often produces male water chestnuts, stunted, clustered plants that fail to form tubers and yield nothing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Water chestnuts share many characteristics with potatoes and sweet potatoes, and they are cultivated in Guangdong, Fujian, Guizhou, and Zhejiang; since the Song Dynasty, people have sought to cultivate them widely due to their high yields.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But none succeeded; water chestnuts could only serve as emergency food in famine years, and becoming a staple grain proved extremely difficult.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More often, water chestnuts were grown as fruit, and they could not grow in the north due to the cold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Do water chestnuts, potatoes, and sweet potatoes have no seeds?” Zhu Yijun asked, puzzled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zhen shook his sleeve and pulled out a cloth bag; inside were kidney-shaped seeds of various colors. He stated firmly, “Yes, there are seeds—but the germination rate is far too low, and yields are extremely poor.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even after repeated replanting, one mu of land still fails to reach the required planting density.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When water chestnuts bloom, their flowers must be removed, their floating roots severed, and their side leaves trimmed—making it even harder to harvest enough seeds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Xu Zhen’s explanation, Zhu Yijun finally understood: the reason for avoiding seed planting is simply that seeds won’t work.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In farming, Zhu Yijun never voiced any opinion—he truly didn’t know; he had killed even his pothos plants, so he chose to follow the experts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Let professionals handle professional matters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhu Yijun’s farming: whatever he plants dies. He lets it live one day at a time, at the mercy of fate. So when Xu Zhen and the farmers truly wished to grow potatoes and sweet potatoes well, Zhu Yijun had no intention of interfering with imperial authority.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zhen was a jinshi; he could have flattered the Emperor from a civil official’s perspective, praising His Majesty’s wise acceptance of advice—but he didn’t, because he hadn’t thought of it; he simply accompanied the Emperor to farm, purely wanting to do the job well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xu Zhen knew nothing else but farming; had he understood compromise, he would never have carried a bamboo basket of books into the capital.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the sun set, the Emperor of Great Ming returned to the Qianqing Palace, washed, dined, then went straight to his desk to record the day’s small gains.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, he added a notebook of questions—current difficulties, such as how to detoxify potatoes and sweet potatoes propagated by tubers, how to maintain yields through detoxification; but detoxification was not a problem Zhu Yijun needed to solve now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What Zhu Yijun needed to do now was summarize historical agricultural texts and peasant experience, and make potatoes and sweet potatoes grow in northern soil.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He drew a glass model on paper: one end had a large glass bulb, the other an open mouth; water would be poured inside, and temperature measured by the rise and fall of the water level through thermal expansion and contraction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He set down his pen, satisfied with the model—it was the most primitive thermometer, capable of determining the temperature at which potatoes and sweet potatoes sprout, thrive, bloom, and freeze, requiring replanting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was seriously farming—even though Empress Dowager Li thought him overworked, Zhu Yijun found everything fascinating; he was already thinking how to encourage potato and sweet potato cultivation after success.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The way of the ruler must begin with caring for the people; if one harms the people to nourish oneself, it is like cutting flesh from one’s thigh to feed the belly—the belly fills, but the body dies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was what Zhang Juzheng said today when explaining Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin: a ruler must first think of the people; harming them to serve oneself is like cutting thigh meat to eat—full belly, dead body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The people can carry the boat, and they can also capsize it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The people are like water: they can carry a boat, and they can also overturn it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The principle is simple, easy to understand—but usually, the Emperor is the last to know his state is collapsing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the late Eastern Han, the Huangjin Army’s unrest spread across the empire in an instant, like wildfire igniting—suddenly, as if lit by a spark: “The Azure Heaven is dead, the Yellow Heaven shall rise; in the year Jiazi, all under heaven shall be blessed.” This slogan seemed to echo across the entire Eastern Han within months, blooming everywhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was the Huangjin Army’s surge an accident? No.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Long before the Huangjin uprising, the slogan “The Azure Heaven is dead” had already spread widely among the people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A brick, called the “Azure Heaven is Dead Brick,” was carved on the fourth day of the fourth month of Jianning Year Three—fourteen years before the Huangjin uprising.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From “The Azure Heaven is Dead” to “The Azure Heaven Has Died” was the process of popular resentment rising from hidden currents to roaring chaos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The water that capsizes the boat is the tears of the common people; only when it floods does the ruler realize it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The water that overturns the state is the tears of the people—but until it overflows, the noble and the rulers cannot see it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhu Yijun had not seen the tears of the common people, but he knew the fate of Great Ming and the responsibility upon his shoulders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Phew! Done. Tomorrow, give it to Feng Da to burn and place it in the Jingshan glass-heated chamber. If we’re going to do it, we must do it well—precisely, thoroughly.” Zhu Yijun handed the blueprint to Zhang Hong, then walked to his bed, threw himself down, and fell into deep sleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sleep early, rise early, grow tall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Hong gave the draft paper to a palace maid; the maid passed it to Xu Jue; Xu Jue delivered it to Feng Bao overnight; Feng Bao ordered the Military Equipment Bureau to burn it overnight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Officials throughout the empire, domestic and foreign, were always ready to serve the Emperor at any hour—that was the Emperor’s right.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the second day of the second month, when the Dragon Raises Its Head, a thunderclap split the sky, rumbling and exploding through the air, then reaching the Wenhua Hall where court deliberations were underway.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, Minister of War Tan Lun was again submitting his resignation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, not because he was idle and blocking Wang Chonggu’s list of candidates for capital military posts, but because Tan Lun, during the Spring Equinox, attended the Chaoritan altar sacrifice; caught in a late cold snap, he caught a chill, coughed incessantly, and committed a breach of protocol.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the Emperor knocks over furniture or walks unsteadily, Empress Dowager Li scolds him; similarly, court ministers who cough, sneeze, collapse from fatigue, or whisper during sacrifices also commit breaches of protocol.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The officials who impeached Tan Lun were Censor Jing Song and Han Bixian of the Fujian Circuit of the Censorate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This is a critical military post entrusted to an unworthy man. If the northern barbarians launch an unexpected attack on our borders, and one cannot even perform sacrificial rites properly, how can one entrust the empire to such a man?” Grand Censor Ge Shouli read Jing Song’s memorial aloud, then passed it to a eunuch, who placed it before Zhang Juzheng.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, yes, yes, you’re right. Tomorrow I’ll write another resignation petition—claiming illness, asking to retire. You just can’t stand me? Fine, I won’t stay to annoy you.” Tan Lun leapt to his feet, preparing to leave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Juzheng held Tan Lun in place and said calmly, “Minister Tan, this is the Wenhua Hall.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At these words, Zhu Xixiao, standing at the door with his embroidered uniform sword and cleansing whip, exhaled in relief; Tan Lun had acted on impulse, ready to storm out—would the protocol officers stop him or not?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tan Lun’s unauthorized departure was a clear breach of protocol; by regulation, the protocol officers were obligated to detain him on the spot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Zhu Xixiao, as a military noble, arresting the Minister of War would bring trouble to his brother, Prince of Chengguo Zhu Xizhong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tan Lun, hearing Zhang Juzheng call him, sharply flicked his sleeve, glared disdainfully at the smug Ge Shouli, and sat back down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tan Lun had betrayed the Jin Party; the Jin Party seized the opportunity to impeach him. Tan Lun had indeed erred—breach of protocol. In the rigid rites of Great Ming, this was a grave offense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhu Yijun paused his writing, thought for a moment, then resumed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What Ge Shouli’s remark meant was unimportant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tan Lun fell ill before the Spring Equinox, requested sick leave, and did not attend the Chaoritan sacrifice; the Ministry of Personnel denied his leave; Tan Lun went anyway, exposed to the cold wind, nearly died; his illness had just begun to improve when the Censorate’s hounds pounced.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One wave after another—because Tan Lun had changed sides over the list of capital military candidates.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At least most of the Jin Party believed so.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tan Lun’s position was extremely precarious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Grand Censor Ge, Minister of Rites Lu Shusheng also coughed incessantly at the Chaoritan altar—why was no one impeaching Lu Shusheng?” Feng Bao began his sarcastic tone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is that so?” Ge Shouli frowned, puzzled, looking at Feng Bao.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Surely Grand Censor Ge knows only half the story?” Feng Bao sneered. Could the Jin Party’s vanguard impeach a minister without full information?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even when the young Emperor goes out, Feng Bao is informed first!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As an insider of the inner court, Feng Bao’s first duty is to protect imperial authority. Tan Lun offended the Jin Party because of the capital military candidates list—to prevent the Jin Party from monopolizing power. Regardless of Tan Lun’s motives, whether he used this to prove loyalty to Zhang Juzheng, he directly and indirectly protected the Emperor’s safety.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Feng Bao naturally must protect Tan Lun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Feng Bao sat upright, fully engaged, and spoke calmly to Ge Shouli: “The Analects, Wei Linggong, says: ‘Be strict with yourself and lenient with others, and you will avoid resentment.’”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You, Grand Censor Ge, are a scholar—what does this mean? Explain it. If you don’t wish to explain, no matter—I, this eunuch, will explain.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ge Shouli’s face darkened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This eunuch is wielding the Analects like a club again!\u003C\u002Fp>",2093,"2026-06-21T07:55:54.218Z",1,"Qwen3.5 397B","63887e8c13a7dc9cb4bd9f8d0cf3dd89a71ccb20769512439054f28c32a3888b","i-really-am-not-neglecting-my-duties-chapter-35","i-really-am-not-neglecting-my-duties-chapter-33",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fi-really-am-not-neglecting-my-duties-cover.jpg"]