Chapter 420

You're talking nonsense! Officials forcing the palace is also a loyal heart that can illuminate the sun and moon for the country!

... And you keep saying 'New Policies, New Policies,' but even if the New Policies are good, what use is it if you lose the people's hearts?

The rivers and mountains of our Da Han Empire have been made to lose all popular support by treacherous ministers and cruel officials like you, Gong Dingzi, and Jia Jing.

Scholars and gentry not serving corvée and not paying grain is an ancestral system passed down for thousands of years, yet the New Policies insist on going against it, causing scholars and gentry everywhere to complain, people's hearts to panic, and the court to fall into chaos.

The sage said, the ruler is light, the state and altars next, the people heavy, scholars the foremost of the four occupations; without the support of scholars and gentry and all the educated people, how can our Da Han Empire's rivers and mountains remain stable!

Officials urging the abolition of the New Policies are simply trying to plug the gaps in court affairs—what's wrong with that? Kong Ying loudly retorted!

Well said! We are all thinking of the Da Han Empire's rivers and mountains!

Exactly! Forcing the palace is also a loyal heart!

Lord Kong's words are truly like parting clouds to see the sun, making one suddenly enlightened!

Zhang Tingyu heard this, glanced with an indifferent gaze at the faces of the officials before him; his resolute, sharp eyes made everyone lower their heads, then he slowly said:

In the early years of Jing Sheng Di's reign, the Yellow River flooded, turning a thousand li into marshes, with millions of victims; the court could not spare money for relief, resulting in countless casualties and beacon fires everywhere.

In the fourth year of Jing Sheng Di's reign, Japanese pirates ravaged the Jiangnan coast, killing our subjects; His Majesty several times resolved to suppress them, but due to an empty treasury, he had to prioritize the Liaodong front and could not deploy forces elsewhere.

Early this year, the three northwestern tribes invaded; the Ministry of Revenue had no silver, even forcing His Majesty to cut palace expenditures to support the northwestern front.

All these have left the state exhausted, finances depleted, internal and external troubles, causing His Majesty often to have no appetite and restless sleep.

Therefore His Majesty often tells us that his greatest wish in this life is to pacify Liaodong, rectify officialdom, reform corrupt policies, and revive the Da Han Empire's fortunes.

Thus, when external worries temporarily eased, His Majesty vigorously pushed the New Policies and implemented the Capital Inspection; know that these are not for his personal pleasure, but for the ten-thousand-year prosperity of the Da Han Empire's state and altars!

Several items of the New Policies, since implementation, have shown obvious results! Labor Tax Allocation has made the treasury's tax revenue these past months nearly increase by half.

Fire Consumption Public Return, although it deprives local grandees of the income from a three-year clean magistracy and a hundred thousand taels of 'snowflake' silver, yet it lets the treasury gain an additional twenty percent.

Grand Secretary Gong, in Jiangnan, promoted the policy of scholars and gentry sharing corvée and grain taxes equally; although it caused losses to those big landowners with fields, these past months it has delivered several million taels of emergency silver to the court.

The poor commoners have also seen their burdens lightened by corresponding measures of the New Policies; these are real events happening before our eyes!

Lord Kong, these... you shouldn't be unaware, should you? As a descendant of the Sage Supreme, you have long been esteemed among scholars; if others don't grasp the merits and demerits of the New Policies, could you really be unclear as well? Or is it for your own benefit?

Zhang Tingyu emphasized the words "self-interest," and as he knew, the Kong family has been the most active in opposing the New Policies at court in recent years.

Kong Ying repeatedly jumped up and down; behind it perhaps lies the instruction of the current Duke Yansheng.

After all, who allowed the Kong family to own no less than a million mu of land across dozens of counties in Shandong, Hebei, Henan, and South Zhili?

One can say the New Policies have genuinely harmed the Kong family's interests!

According to court investigations, most of that land was acquired by the Kong family through ruthless exploitation of tenants via high rents and usurious loans, seizing property by trickery and force, and they have never paid a single copper coin in tax!

Recently, the Shandong Imperial City Secretary memorialized a secret report saying the Kong family has in recent years completely disregarded the court's order to survey fields.

On the surface they continually deploy private armies and slaves to directly resist; secretly they nurture Shandong bandits and Green Forest guerrillas who burn, kill, and loot, obstructing the enforcement of the new laws—truly they act with impunity, audacious to the extreme!

The secret report also said the Kong family's Duke Yansheng residence, after several expansions, now occupies nearly three hundred mu.

With over four hundred sixty halls, halls, towers, and lodgings, they have turned a single clan's mansion into a palace, with carved beams and painted rafters, resplendent in gold and azure; adding the Confucius Temple, Confucius Cemetery, etc., the entire Three Confucius site covers more ground than the Nanjing Imperial Palace!

Moreover, the Shandong Provincial Commissioner and other officials have all been bought off by the Kong family, daring not to offend them at all!

Having reached this point, they no longer regard the court at all!

At that moment, Jing Sheng Di, upon seeing the Imperial City Secretary's secret memorial, flew into a rage and directly smashed several imperial vessels in the Qian Qing Gong; he labeled the Kong family a great malignant tumor of the Da Han Empire and ordered someone to summon Zhang Tingyu alone to discuss countermeasures!

Thus, Zhang Tingyu understands that Kong Ying's vigorous opposition to the New Policies truly stems from self-interest; though his mouth speaks of benevolence and ancestral rites, behind the scenes he calculates only his own gain.

At this moment, the officials gathered before Zhang Tingyu's residence fell silent under his reasonable, evidence-based words.

Only Kong Ying frowned tightly, his face flushed red, as if a cat whose tail had been stepped on, and he instinctively cried out sharply:

"No matter how you say it, it's nothing but profiteering at the people's expense, nothing but wasteful militarism, nothing but violating ancestral rites!"

"I see now, you Zhang Tingyu are just a treacherous petty man; for your own salary and rank, your mouth reeks of copper, where is any scholar's backbone!"

"You even don't mind bearing infamy, fabricating false cases to seek heavenly favor; in your eyes, where are the scholars of the world, where are morality and benevolence!"

"Do you think I can't see through you? Your intentions are nefarious, you are base and shameless, your conscience is utterly gone!"

"You are merely eliminating rivals to cling to your power; do you think you can confuse the senses? Fool the whole world?"

"Know that guarding against the people's mouths is more important than guarding against rivers; the people's will is heaven's will, the scholars' hearts are heaven's heart! The annals shine bright, they will not allow scoundrels like you to turn black into white!"

"Lord Kong's words are reasonable!"

"Lord Kong, well done!" a few officials echoed.

Zhang Tingyu smiled indifferently, glanced at the Imperial City Secretary beside him, and said in a hoarse voice:

"Indeed! The annals shine bright; let our achievements be left for posterity to judge!"

"Back then, Emperor Taizong of Tang once asked his minister Xu Jingzong: 'The whole court calls you capable, why then are there still criticisms?'"

"Xu Jingzong replied: 'Spring rain is as precious as oil; farmers like its moistening of the soil, travelers dislike its slippery roads. Autumn moon bright as a mirror; beauties love its purity, thieves hate its brightness. Heaven and earth cannot always satisfy human wishes, let alone mortals. I only seek to serve the public with all my heart, without guilt to my conscience!'"

"I, Zhang Tingyu, have learned from the sages, studying the teachings of the sages, clarifying loyalty, filial piety, integrity, and righteousness! For decades, I have been without shame before the emperor's grace above, without remorse before my conscience below; I can be said to have no guilt before heaven and earth in my conduct; as for praise or blame… that will be left to the annals!"

"I also advise my fellow officials present: today's Majesty is a ruler like Yao and Shun, possessed of great talent and strategy, brilliant and wise; for us ministers to encounter such a rare sage-ruler through the ages is indeed a great fortune; how could we not devote ourselves utterly, even to the point of spilling liver and brains upon the ground, to repay him!"

"Damn!" Kong Ying saw Zhang Tingyu impervious to persuasion, still using his questioning to sing high praises and display loyalty, his fists clenched tight, he muttered a curse!

Seeing that discussing the New Policies gained no advantage, another official nearby changed the subject:

"Lord Zhang, what about the Capital Inspection? You preside over it, evaluating officials by the examination method. But have you considered the old saying, 'Mere law is insufficient to govern itself'; the denser the law, the more corruption arises; the stricter the examination, the more pretense flourishes."

"Will local officials, to meet the assessment, keep piling on quotas? Will they, to make the numbers look good, force the people to pay taxes they shouldn't? Will they, to make their performance look good, turn minor matters into major cases?"

"The assessment reforms the system, but when the system reaches the grassroots, it is still carried out by people. If people harbor selfish motives, even the best system becomes empty words."

Zhang Tingyu fell silent for a moment, his gaze settling on that person's face, he stared for a long while, then spoke, his voice somewhat lower than before, in a hoarse tone:

"You are not mistaken; the new Capital Inspection method is indeed not so perfect, because the system is dead while people are alive; under heaven there is no flawless policy."

"But I ask you, are these faults of the examination method, or of the officials?"

That person stared, having merely been dissatisfied with the new Capital Inspection and thus pointing out its flaws, never expecting Zhang Tingyu to admit it outright!

"No matter how the Capital Inspection method is changed, or who carries it out, there will always be someone who can find a loophole."

But what the court wants to change is not a single law; the court wants to change the prevailing attitudes of the court and society. For only when the attitudes of the court and society from top to bottom are upright will those who exploit loopholes be rooted out; and if the attitudes are not upright, even the best law will be picked apart like a sieve.

The court's reform of the Jingcha is not to put everyone under strict control, but to give those who truly do substantive work a path forward. Zhang Tingyu paused, his voice suddenly dropping:

How difficult the journey is! It has always been hard to accomplish something, while finding fault is easy!

I know many people nowadays can't change their minds quickly, but don't rush, don't be swayed or driven to oppose, and with time, go see the actual effects for yourselves before speaking!

The Jingcha is currently only a pilot; everything must be judged by its actual results! His Majesty has repeatedly admonished officials: 'The way of governance lies in being practical, not in empty fame,' and 'With sincerity, carry out sincere policies.' These are the words of our lord and father; you should ponder them carefully.

The alley fell silent for a moment, and for a while no one spoke again.

Kong Ying stood where he was, his lips moving, wanting to say something, but his throat felt as if blocked by something.

He couldn't help but feel doubtful—doesn't everyone say Jia Jing's son is good at flattery? How come this Zhang Tingyu, with his left praise of the sage and right utterances of holy words, is like this? Where is the pride of the civil officials?

An official clasped his hands, said nothing more, turned and left; although some still wore displeased expressions, they didn't want to stay alone.

The crowd slowly dispersed, like a tide—coming quickly, going just as fast.

Zhang Tingyu stood outside the threshold, watching those silhouettes, silent for a long while.

At that moment, the old servant behind him said softly: 'Master, everything is ready; it's time to go to the palace.'

Zhang Tingyu did not turn back, his voice low: 'Let's go, you also be careful!'

The old servant went first into the sedan chair, the chair was lifted, and it proceeded along the street toward the palace.

Not long after, another carriage set out from the Zhang residence……

…………