Chapter 64: No One Is Touching This We's Great Sword!

Inside the main hall, junior eunuchs had already served tea.

Zhu Youjian lifted the tea bowl, gently skimmed the foam aside with the lid, and took a light sip.

Gao Shiming hurried in and bowed. "Your Majesty, the examination papers have been distributed."

"Mm." Zhu Youjian acknowledged, then asked, "What does the Inner Palace School teach daily nowadays?"

Gao Shiming hastened to reply:

"In reply to Your Majesty, the younger ones first study the Hundred Family Surnames and the Thousand Character Classic for basic literacy."

"After that initiation, they study the Great Learning, the Analects, and the other Four Books. They also get some exposure to the Poems of a Thousand Masters and the Child Prodigy Poems, and the like."

"Once the fundamentals are largely complete, they are taught the practical affairs of the various palace directorates, in a course called 'Judging Precedents.'"

"In addition, the Record of Loyalty and Admonition and the Inner Palace Ordinances must be recited aloud and committed to heart."

Zhu Youjian was somewhat surprised. "No mathematics at all?"

"In reply to Your Majesty, simple addition and subtraction are taught to some extent, and the nine-times-nine multiplication table is memorized, but anything more advanced is not part of the regular curriculum. Those with surplus energy may study it on their own."

Zhu Youjian nodded, relieved.

It seemed the arithmetic problems he had set the previous night were not excessively advanced after all.

After all, he hadn't even brought out the classic problems like "filling and draining a pool at the same time" or "Xiao Ming and I walking toward each other."

His fingers tapped lightly on the tabletop, but his mind had turned to another matter.

Yesterday, while reviewing the list of officials dismissed from the Tianqi-era bureaus, he had actually spotted two familiar names — Hou Ke and Ding Qianxue.

They were the very instructors that the junior eunuch Ma Wenke had mentioned on the day of his enthronement, after Wei Zhongxian hanged himself — Ma Wenke's teachers at the Inner Palace School.

He had then looked up the corresponding personnel files and only then realized he had misheard the name that day.

It was Hou Ke, not "Hou Ke" with a different character, and more crucially, this Instructor Hou Ke was actually the younger brother of the Donglin partisan Hou Xun.

At this thought, Zhu Youjian swept his gaze around the hall and suddenly sensed something amiss.

"Why are there no masters from the Hanlin Academy present today?"

Gao Shiming hesitated inwardly, but still answered honestly:

"In reply to Your Majesty, the truth is that the Inner Palace School no longer has any Hanlin masters."

Zhu Youjian's tapping fingers stopped.

He raised his head and fixed Gao Shiming with a sharp stare.

"This We recall that the Inner Palace School customarily maintains four to six Hanlin lecturers on rotating duty. Why do you say there are no Hanlin masters?"

Gao Shiming cupped his hands and replied:

"Since the Taichang reign, the masters of the Inner Palace School have either sought other appointments or been stripped of rank and dismissed. With additions and subtractions, the numbers have always been insufficient."

"Since the beginning of this year's eighth month, when the last master, Yang Shifang, was placed on nominal leave and dismissed, the Inner Palace School... has had no teachers at all."

"At that time, it happened to coincide with the late Emperor's grave illness, so the matter of appointing replacement teachers was put aside."

Zhu Youjian's eyebrows rose. He found this increasingly suspicious.

According to the original host's memories, the Inner Palace School normally had around two hundred eunuch attendants studying there at any given time.

Whenever vacancies arose among the palace's twelve directorates, four offices, and eight bureaus, outstanding graduates from the Inner Palace School were given priority selection.

Even certain "senior eunuchs" who were illiterate had to come to the Inner Palace School for remedial study before they could be promoted in rank.

In a sense, this Inner Palace School was the inner court's equivalent of the Whampoa Military Academy.

How could a place so important have fallen to the point of having only a single lecturer, and now not even one?

Zhu Youjian looked at Gao Shiming, but the man merely stood there, eyes downcast and hands at his sides, showing not the slightest inclination to say more.

Suddenly, two lines from among the many personnel files he had read yesterday flashed through his mind.

"Shen Que once taught at the Inner Palace School; 'Jinzhong' and Liu Chao both performed the disciple's rite to him."

"Thereupon Vice Censor-in-Chief Yang Lian, greatly indignant, submitted a memorial. Zhongxian, fearful, sought mediation from Han Kuang, but was refused."

Jinzhong — Li Jinzhong, was that not the name Wei Zhongxian had used during the Wanli period!

Now he understood!

Gao Shiming had been a student at the Inner Palace School in the twenty-sixth year of Wanli. The teachers for his cohort had included Han Kuang and Shen Que.

But what Gao Shiming had not mentioned was that Wei Zhongxian had also been a "transfer student" in that same cohort or thereabouts.

Hence the statement that 'Jinzhong' and Liu Chao both performed the disciple's rite.

Later, Shen Que became a founding grandee of the eunuch faction, while Han Kuang became a grandee of the Donglin faction.

What did this signify?

Among the channels connecting the inner court and the outer court, the Inner Palace School was a position of crucial importance.

A single piece of evidence proves nothing; he needed to verify this further.

With that thought, he spoke directly: "Have there been precedents in the past of Inner Palace School instructors later becoming Grand Secretaries?"

— His Majesty is indeed meticulous and perceptive, missing nothing.

Gao Shiming sighed inwardly, but having no intention of concealing the matter in the first place, he spoke frankly:

"Your Majesty, the Hanlin masters selected for the Inner Palace School are invariably the best of the best, mostly serving as Junior Compilers or Hanlin Bachelors. It is therefore common for many of these masters to later enter the Grand Secretariat."

"For instance, during the Wanli period, Wang Jiaping, Zhao Zhigao, Shen Li, and others all followed this path. But if one speaks of the most famous example, it would have to be Xu Jie, Grand Secretary Xu."

Gao Shiming omitted certain details, trusting that the Emperor could discern the implications for himself.

After a moment's thought, he added one more remark:

"In truth, among the Hanlin masters through the ages, there have always been those who shunned association with the palace eunuchs, wished to avoid entanglement, and strove to leave their posts — and there have also been those who taught with dedication, imparting benevolence and virtue."

Zhu Youjian nodded. As he had suspected.

In the ancient world, beyond blood ties, the teacher-student bond was the weightiest of personal connections.

There were even cases where brothers fell out over political differences, yet teacher and student turning against each other was rarely seen.

Even for something as simple as entering the palace, these eunuchs had to arrange ties of patronage with old ancestors and old uncles — so how much more so for the openly acknowledged teacher-student relationship of the Inner Palace School?

This was a relationship where they had formally presented the ritual tuition gifts!

Seen in this light, the fact that the instructing masters had all been dismissed over the past few years might conceal another possibility.

Was Wei Zhongxian afraid that another Feng Bao might emerge, joining forces with some "Zhang Juzheng" from the outer court to shake his foundations?

Zhu Youjian's gaze deepened.

Moreover, Wei Zhongxian had actually studied at the Inner Palace School…

Then was he truly illiterate?

Zhu Youjian recalled the day of his enthronement, when he had made Wei Zhongxian write down that list — the artless simplicity and honest rusticity on that old face, as natural as if heaven-made.

"— This old slave cannot really read…"

A profound chill instantly shot up Zhu Youjian's spine.

So this old eunuch — even when closest to death, was he still putting on an act?

Zhu Youjian let out a long breath and set aside, for the moment, this question that would never have an answer.

For him, the more pressing question now was:

Should he reopen this passageway between the inner court and the outer court?

He rapidly weighed the pros and cons in his mind.

He soon made up his mind and decisively issued his orders:

"The affairs of the Inner Palace School shall henceforth be handled as follows."

"First: for the calligraphy instructors, you may simply find some old, repeatedly-failed licentiate candidates in the capital to fill the posts, with generous tuition gifts."

"Second: henceforth, all books used by the Inner Palace School shall have punctuation added throughout; the masters need no longer trouble themselves with parsing the sentences."

"Third: go outside the palace and hire several account-room masters skilled in calculation. Henceforth, ledger reckoning and practical arithmetic shall also be made regular courses at the Inner Palace School."

"Fourth: henceforth, the Inner Palace School shall hold minor inspections every ten days and a major inspection every month, staggered by one day from the Valiant Guard Camp's inspection schedule. At each major inspection, We shall personally attend."

He paused, then finally said: "As for the matter of appointing masters from the Hanlin Academy… that shall be discussed later."

Whether these civil officials wished to befriend the palace attendants to consolidate their power, or genuinely intended to educate the eunuchs so as to mitigate their harm —

it no longer mattered.

He needed only for the inner officials to become the purest, most loyal sword in his hand — a sword that obeyed his will alone!

Let no one else presume to lay even half a finger upon it!