Chapter 173: Matters of Worry All His Own

"What exactly is this newspaper office?" Feng Quan asked with a smile as he exchanged pleasantries with Wang Cheng'en upon entering, turning to the side as he spoke.

"Hmph." The Chief Grand Secretary beside him gave a cold snort and shot back: "Do you really not know, or are you just pretending not to?"

Feng Quan glanced at Wei Zaode, still smiling as he spoke, clearly reading between the lines: "Heh heh, what difference is there between really not knowing and pretending not to know?"

"You old bastard." Wei Zaode cursed and ignored him.

He had long known that Feng Quan was a slippery character.

Now that he had rejoined the Grand Secretariat and been entrusted with an important task by the Emperor, there was no way he didn't know the purpose of this newspaper office and why His Majesty had established it. To ask such a question at this moment meant either he was currying favor by playing dumb, or he had already divined the imperial will and was preening with self-satisfaction.

Wei Zaode couldn't be bothered to waste words with him. He found a seat by the window, picked up the so-called first issue of the newspaper, and glanced at it — but that single glance froze his gaze, and even his hands began to tremble.

"The Fushe Society, calling itself a boon to the people, is in truth a pack of villainous scoundrels who fear nothing more than a peaceful realm, who stir up court disorder and pick quarrels to make trouble — no different from local street thugs!"

"The current leader of the Fushe Society, Zhang Cai, is nearly fifty years old, yet he presumes upon his age, frequenting brothels and wine houses, with women on both arms. His so-called 'True Record' book twists right and wrong and slanders the imperial countenance — and it was written in a brothel! Utterly detestable!"

"Our wise and enlightened Son of Heaven has abolished the Three Surcharges, exempted taxes for one year, broadly dispensed benevolent governance, restored farming and garrison duties — the capital is already paving and repairing roads. These are all great acts of benevolence!"

"Just as the Hongwu Emperor executed corrupt officials to the last, His Majesty has reinstated the Petition Drum to seek justice for the people. All those whose homes were seized and who were executed were corrupt officials, every case verified with hard evidence — the people of the capital rejoice and celebrate without exception!"

"The Son of Heaven seeks justice for the common folk, placing righteousness above family ties, executing Li Kangshi and seizing the property of the Zhou family of the Imperial Father-in-Law — the people are all moved with gratitude!"

"The court has established the Shrine of Loyal Martyrs to honor the fallen soldiers' noble names. Three great victories at military pay and provisions, Xuanzhen, and Gu Pass have beheaded hundreds of thousands. The long-standing malpractices of the Capital Camps have been reformed, and with the capital troops unified, their combat strength rises day by day."

"The Emperor personally led the campaign, commanding a hundred thousand capital troops to surround and annihilate two hundred thousand bandit forces at military pay and provisions, washing away the shadow of the Tumu Incident. Regional Commander Gao Jie led his forces north to defend the throne, slaying the barbarian prince Abatai in battle and utterly destroying the so-called iron cavalry of the Jianzhou barbarians at Xuanzhen, sweeping away the weakness of our troops. Governor-General of the Five Provinces Chen Qiyu went south and captured the bandit chieftain Liu Fangliang, and at Gu Pass broke the bandit army in a great battle, beheading tens of thousands and recovering the prefectures of Zhen and Bao..."

"... These are all the brilliant martial and civil achievements of our current Emperor, things no previous dynasty could match. This is a sign of resurgence — how could a tyrant like Jie or Zhou ever possess such?"

"You Fushe Society rat scholars — in letters you cannot stabilize the state, in arms you cannot raise a blade to slay bandits. Generations have eaten the sovereign's generous stipends, yet in this time of chaos, instead of thinking of repaying the state, you constantly wreak havoc on governance. You are truly the Daji of the Shang dynasty, the treacherous ministers of the Eastern Han!"

"This so-called Zhang Cai of the Fushe Society boasts of his integrity, and the world sings his praises — yet the man has seized two thousand mu of farmland and takes in silver by the hundreds of thousands each month."

"Zhang Cai has built lavish mansions in Jiangnan and repeatedly chartered entire river boats — another fortune of tens of thousands. The extravagance of the Zhang family gardens rivals that of the imperial household — yet another fortune of tens of thousands. The villain Zhang has persecuted over seventy innocent households including Liu Ying — every debt is written in blood, with both witnesses and evidence in hand!"

"……"

The words in this newspaper were a direct rebuttal to what the Fushe Society published. But the clever part was that the Fushe Society attacked court governance, claiming the Chongzhen Emperor was benighted — a mindless, one-note smear with no intelligence behind it.

This newspaper, however, only attacked Zhang Cai, glossing over the others with a few strokes. Figures like Chen Zilong and Fang Yizhi were even given mixed assessments, with differing opinions, which made the newspaper seem far more truthful and credible.

Beyond regular publication and distribution, the Chongzhen Emperor also had Wang Cheng'en dispatch literate imperial hounds to various places to lecture and read aloud the contents of each issue. Local government offices would also receive official documents requiring them to post notices in prefectural and county seats, with runners specially assigned to explain the newspaper's specific contents.

Moreover, for certain reasons, the imperial newspaper was currently distributed to the public free of charge, requiring no payment whatsoever. That meant even a beggar on the street corner could receive a copy free from the hands of an official runner — something utterly unimaginable in the past.

Given the importance of the newspaper office, the Three Depots and One Guard also dispatched considerable manpower.

Wang Cheng'en, Cao Huachun, Fang Zhenghua, Li Ruolian and others all issued flying dispatches, reactivating old depot and guard offices and guard stations across the realm to monitor the entire affair.

According to the Chongzhen Emperor's decree, if any official profiteered or oppressed the people, the depot and guard agents had the authority to throw them directly into the Imperial Prison — even if they were a Prefect of high local rank, there would be no leniency whatsoever.

But soon enough, Wang Cheng'en discovered that running the newspaper office was not so simple. Earlier, unfamiliar with newspaper affairs, he had boasted before the Chongzhen Emperor that he could gather everything within two days, and grandly claimed he could put out an issue every few days. Only later did he realize how naive he had been.

Setting aside the pile of complex affairs stacked together, merely reactivating the old imperial printing offices was no easy task.

Beyond that, given the speed of information transmission in this day and age, even if the next issue were printed on schedule, it would be difficult to spread it to other parts of the Great Ming in time. This required time.

The first two issues went smoothly, but Wang Cheng'en realized that at the current pace, he would soon have nothing left to report. If every issue contained the same content, who would bother reading it?

So extending the interval between issues was already a foregone conclusion, because only then could the newspaper spread to more places and achieve its intended effect.

The Chongzhen Emperor, in the Eastern Warm Chamber, was fretting over a different matter. Hearing Wang Cheng'en's report, he said without even raising his head: "I was muddle-headed. Change the newspaper to one issue every seven days. Go and handle it."

The Chongzhen Emperor had given his new directive, and Wang Cheng'en could see that the Emperor was troubled. He said nothing else to disturb Chongzhen, asked a few brief questions, and quietly took his leave.

"Sigh..." After Wang Cheng'en left, the Chongzhen Emperor rose and paced back and forth before the door of the Warm Chamber, his face clouded with worry: "Who should the Imperial Son-in-law be after all?"

That pale-faced pretty boy from before was out of the question — useless.

Gao Jie could fight, but he was too wild and ungovernable. Changping was, strictly speaking, his borrowed daughter, not his own flesh and blood, but after all this time, there was at least some affection between them. Chongzhen naturally couldn't bear to see her suffer.

The name Gao Jie, once it surfaced, was immediately dismissed by the Chongzhen Emperor and never considered again.

As for Huang Degong — honest and dependable, capable too, but he had to be at least forty-something by now. That was far too old. Wouldn't that be an old ox chewing tender grass? Changping was only eighteen.

Tang Tong? That fellow was trapped at Shanhai Pass, unable to save himself — how could he give his daughter a stable life?

Bai Guangen? No good either. That man had betrayed the Great Ming, and his abilities weren't particularly outstanding.

Zhou Yuji? Still no. That lad was good in every way, except he already had a wife — and a woman of steadfast loyalty at that. How could an imperial princess marry into his household as a concubine?

Moreover, given Zhou Yuji's temperament, even if he forcibly married Changping to him, the two would still maintain the formalities of sovereign and subject. Zhou Yuji would never truly regard Changping as his wife.