Chapter 42 Rectification

On the next morning, Zhang Taiyue was quietly carried into the mansion of Duke Mu in a sedan chair, along with two hundred taels of gold from the Xu residence. Although Mu Qi repeatedly said that as long as the person could be delivered, gold and silver items were not worth mentioning; but Master Gao seemed to think that sending just a bastard from the upright family was not a sign of sincerity, so after repeated persuasion, he asked the prince to eat two sour plum balls.

Anyway, they are all Lord Xu’s gold coins, wouldn’t it be a pity if I don’t spit out more?

Of course, Zhang Taiyue didn’t know about this dirty trick. Of course, the Xu family would never explain to him any crazy stuff like "marriage of peace" or "alliance marriage". They just said that it was Lord Xu's instruction before he left, and arranged for him to go to the Mu Mansion to see the world, so as to facilitate further development in the future.

In Zhang Taiyue's opinion, this arrangement was indeed very appropriate, and it must have cost Lord Xu a lot of effort; the Duke Mu's Mansion was favored by the emperor, and everyone in the capital knew about it, so it would certainly be a great benefit for him to see the world up close; the Duke's son... the Duke's son's reputation was indeed a bit strange, but didn't he also work in the cabinet, and could he draft bills for those on duty at the central government? If he is really so crazy, how could the wise emperor allow such a person to hold power? It can be seen that we cannot trust everything people say, we have to see it with our own eyes.

The situation seemed to verify Zhang Taiyue's conjecture. After he entered the mansion, he was taken directly to the study. The prince, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately stepped forward, held his hand and greeted him warmly. Then he nodded and signaled the butler behind him to bring up a piece of mutton-fat jade tablet:

"This is a jade tablet bestowed by the emperor. Only a first-class sage is worthy of its status." The prince sighed, "In the future, Mr. Zhang will use this tablet to govern the country, and it will not be a waste!"

To be honest, this operation was indeed suspected of cosplaying the former Huguang Governor Gu Lin giving a belt, but the flattered Zhang Taiyue obviously had no time to think of this. He racked his brains to tactfully refuse, but the prince quite naturally ignored all the excuses and took him directly to a partitioned quiet room behind the study:

"I am ashamed to say that I have been very busy recently, so I specifically asked the Xu family to recommend a writer with excellent writing skills to help with paperwork. Unexpectedly, I recruited you!" The prince expressed his admiration very directly, passionately and sincerely, without any falsehood: "You are so talented that I can only ask you to do these trivial things."

Perhaps because he was too shy to accept the compliment, Zhang Taiyue was stunned holding the tablet. He was really flattered and blushed. He couldn't bear it: "Your Highness, you are too kind. How can I dare to accept it..."

Although he has a reputation as a child prodigy in his hometown, it shouldn't be exaggerated to this extent!

"I never lie." Mu Qi said righteously, "Other people's flattery may not be credible, but Mr. Zhang's ability was told to me by Mr. Hai Gangfeng himself, so it certainly cannot be false."

Zhang Taiyue was stunned for a moment: "Mr. Hai Gangfeng?"

He had been making friends in the capital for several months and had indeed met Mr. Gangfeng at literary gatherings. Although they had only met briefly, the impression left on him was quite deep. He had not expected that the Mu Duke's Mansion was so powerful that it could even recruit such a person.

Although the prince has a bad reputation, his vision is indeed very experienced.

"Yes, it is Mr. Hai from Qiongshan, Guangdong." Mu Qi smiled: "Mr. Hai occasionally comes to take care of official business, but it is unfortunate today that the two of you cannot meet..."

At this point, he frowned slightly, his regret evident in his words; but the prince immediately smiled and led Zhang Taiyue to the table:

"These are some documents that have accumulated recently. I would like to trouble Mr. Taiyue to help me sort them out. It can also be regarded as a preparation for the future and an internship before entering the officialdom."

Because of Lord Xu's deliberate promotion, Zhang Taiyue had social contacts in the capital and had seen many official documents from government offices, so he was quite familiar with the affairs of these papers. The prince was so eager that he did not bother to refuse and directly took out a book from the table:

"Petition to discuss maritime trade issues in the Meiji era"

Zhang Taiyue:? ! ! !

Wait, why does this document look so much like a memorial submitted by a civil servant from the outer court to the cabinet?

What did Prince Muguo say about "cleaning up official documents" and "internship work"? Could it be that - it couldn't be - he was just reviewing these confidential central documents? !

As the first internship for a new employee before joining the company, isn’t this starting point too high?

Faced with this ridiculously high starting point in officialdom, Zhang Taiyue was at a loss. Zhang Taiyue was bewildered. Zhang Taiyue was holding the hot memorial in his hand and couldn't utter a word!

Of course, as a naive and ignorant newbie in the officialdom, it is completely normal for Zhang Taiyue to be confused. According to current court practice, a minister who has the ability to access the cabinet's memorials must at least be a vice-minister of one of the six ministries, with actual power at the vice-ministerial level or above, and truly be in a high position with great power. On the contrary, if you let a freshman college student review the confidential documents of the General Office of the Central Committee, that would be too stimulating!

The newbie Zhang Taiyue was stunned for a long time, but still tried his best to find an excuse:

"Let the prince know, this memorial may be..."

Could something have gone wrong?

Then, he watched the prince sort through the documents and pulled out a memorial from the Ministry of Revenue:

"Please withdraw silver"

...Well, Zhang Taiyue’s heart is dead.

As if he could see the embarrassment of the newbie Zhang Taiyue, the prince glanced at the memorial in his hand and consoled him:

"Mr. Zhang, don't worry too much. These are all old documents that have been piled up in the cabinet for a long time. They are basically insignificant matters that have long been forgotten by the cabinet elders and have been dealt with..."

He wanted to say that it was too hard to even wipe his butt, but considering his image in front of the SSR, he swallowed the second half of the sentence.

Zhang Taiyue's face twitched and he was speechless. He did understand the second half of the prince's words, but he dared not take it seriously - even if it was really too hard to wipe the butt, it should be the butts of the ministers; how could he dare to use such noble paper on the butt of a mere scholar like himself?

So, he still held the hot memorial motionlessly, looking nervous and awkward. The prince could only sigh and took the memorial:

"It's really nothing important, just take a quick look... What is this? Another memorial from those corrupt scholars criticizing maritime trade? Why do they keep going on day after day?"

Perhaps to show that they are noble and unconventional, even though the Crown Prince and the Junior Minister have worked hard to deal with the Emperor's cabinet and even the censors, there are still people who complain about maritime trade affairs. These people did not dare to launch any fierce offensive, and basically just entangled in minor details - such as the eighteen uses of a certain wording in the Sino-Japanese Treaty, etc.; they just kept pestering and making Mu Qi very impatient.

In that case, there was no need for him to be polite. The prince flipped through the memorial, then took out a jade seal from his sleeve, dipped it in the ink box on the table, and stamped it with a click:

[I have read it, it is bullshit!] The original memorial is thrown back and there is no need to discuss it further! 】

He threw the memorial back and clapped his hands casually:

"That's about it. There's my seal next to it, Mr. Zhang can use it anytime."

Mr. Zhang, who watched the whole process: …………

Well, he took back his words. These memorials might be... quite casual.

·

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Although I felt uneasy when I first started, after reviewing dozens of memorials, the tension caused by fantasy was almost gone - there was indeed nothing wrong with the prince's explanation. Most of these official documents that had been repeatedly screened by the elders and had been piled up for many days were long-winded, repetitive and broken court reports, and the amount of information might be even less than Lao Deng's Qingci. There may be some valuable sources of information among them, but after being completely drowned out by the mountains of documents and meetings, basically no one will look for them.

Therefore, although Zhang Taiyue was nominally reviewing important documents, his actual work was more like that of a garbage collector, diligently checking for useful content in endless volumes of textual garbage and doing repetitive and trivial assembly line work - 90% of the memorials were monotonous and boring daily greetings, which only required an "got it" review; the remaining 9.9% were mostly malicious and irrelevant attacks on each other, which could be returned in their original form and not accepted, allowing the officials who submitted the memorials to wash their mouths. If the insults were too foul, or if the words touched the prince's sore spot (such as boycotting maritime trade), he could use the seal of the Duke Mu's Mansion and stamp it with "bullshit"!

Using the seal of the Duke's Mansion means borrowing the authority of the Duke's Mansion. Even if something happens in the future, the blame will be on the Prince of Duke Mu, and it will not be the turn of a small intern to take the blame.

Zhang Taiyue could certainly perceive such sincere friendship and thoughtful preparations. Even for the sake of the prince's sincerity, he had to pull himself together and go all out to check such cumbersome documents one by one.

In such tedious and tedious times, the importance of talent becomes more apparent. Now, the official documents brought back from the cabinet are endless and piled up like a mountain. The contents are all long classical Chinese that is obscure and difficult to understand without even punctuation marks. The prince would just lie down and leave it at that after flipping through a few books, and deeply appreciate the benevolence of the former Emperor Gaozu - after reading Ru Taisu's classical Chinese memorial of tens of thousands of words, he was only given a few dozen strokes of the cane and left it at that. It can be seen that Emperor Gaozu was really gentle and compassionate, and loved officials like his own sons. Mr. Hai Gangfeng, who occasionally visited, could help with one or two things, but he was reluctant to waste time on these empty words and common examples, and would rather pay attention to the various trivial matters mentioned in the memorials, such as the prices of rice and vegetables.

And Zhang Taiyue - only Zhang Taiyue, seemed to have some kind of natural talent in dealing with these long and incomprehensible official documents. No matter how long he spent in the mountains of documents and the sea of ​​meetings, he could still be energetic and clear-headed. After a long time of reviewing, he became more proficient and could even gradually perceive the subtle thoughts hidden behind the words from the clichés and empty words of the people who wrote the letters. If he compared them with the changes in the government in recent days, he could appreciate some subtle insights, as if the tip of his pen could stir up the fog of the entire government...

...In fact, after repetitively honing it hundreds of times, a certain secret pleasure of spying on people's hearts and the political situation, and even of hiding and controlling the world, arose from the bottom of my heart and was difficult to erase.

All I can say is that talent is talent, and talent is talent. In the future, the Regent will be able to dominate the government for more than ten years, and all the civil and military officials in the world will hold their breath and bow their heads, and no one will dare to resist. Such a great prestige can never be achieved by just hooking up with a few eunuchs. ——The holy body born as the Prime Minister is always so terrifying.

Of course, the current Prime Minister is still just an infant, unevolved version. Even though he has sensed a hint of power from the central government's official documents, he certainly doesn't dare to think in that direction. He just did his job honestly and conscientiously as he was told. It took him two hours to sort out hundreds of memorials one by one. He also wrote a careful briefing, which he respectfully handed over to the prince after finding him.

The prince flipped through the briefing and was very pleased. He immediately praised:

"I always thought that official documents were difficult to understand, but I didn't expect them to be so clear and logical! People outside are slandering me for being uneducated, but from this point of view, they are just not speaking human language. This prince's cultural level is actually not bad at all!"

Zhang Taiyue: …………

Zhang Taiyue sighed quietly and remained silent. He couldn't say that he changed the draft three times just to write this briefing that even the prince could understand, right?

...Perhaps this could be considered as an early experience. The sadness of hard work in serving an ignorant ten-year-old child as recorded in history books had already begun to show up at this time.

After reading the briefing, the prince read the memorial from beginning to end, then happily picked up the pen and ticked it:

"You have done a great job, sir. I will take it to the cabinet for a draft vote tomorrow."

Zhang Taiyue was confused: "Can we write a draft bill like this?"

Don't we need to find a few more official figures to review the details? Isn’t this a bit too hasty?

The prince smiled calmly: "I trust you, sir. Of course, there is no need for this... Besides, the cabinet's meeting procedures are already like this, and there is no need to deliberately add anything."

Do you think the ministers review it three or four times before writing it seriously? It's good enough if they can think about it for seven or eight minutes!

He put away the briefing with satisfaction, and planned to ask Minister Zhao to draft it as it is tomorrow to finish all the hundreds of official tasks in one go. So talent is indeed the most important thing when doing great things. If Prince Mu were allowed to read memorials and write bills himself, he would not be able to write a few words even if he was dizzy and desperate, and it would be useless even if he had the power. But if he were given a Hai Gangfeng and Zhang Taiyue, then wouldn't he be able to use the power of drafting that he snatched from Minister Zhao freely and produce great results?

Therefore, special talents still need to be matched with each other to maximize their effectiveness. The Prince of Duke Mu is in charge of seizing power and resources, while Hai Gangfeng and Zhang Taiyue are in charge of handling government affairs and doing practical things. Isn't this a combination that doubles the effectiveness of tacit cooperation and makes them invincible and killing people?

We three are so strong that we can stir up the political situation with just a wave of our hands!

·

Perhaps because he saw that the prince was really easy to talk to, Zhang Taiyue plucked up his courage and took out another memorial from his sleeve:

"Let the prince know that I found this in the official documents..."

Mu Qi took the memorial, glanced at it and was slightly stunned: this was actually a request from the Ministry of Rites requesting the compilation of "Treasure Instructions of the Sages".

Da'an respected heaven and followed his ancestors, and ruled the world with benevolence and filial piety. After the previous emperors passed away, a special person would select the emperor's instructions during his lifetime and compile them into a book to be passed down to future generations, which was called "Treasured Instructions of the Sages". This was a very urgent matter for the court and should have been dealt with promptly; why was it placed together with these torn court reports?

Mu Qi flipped through the memorial and immediately realized: Although this memorial was a request for the compilation of Treasure Instructions, it mainly mentioned the instructions of the previous emperors Wuzong and Xiaozong. As everyone knows, the first priority of the current emperor since he ascended the throne is to recognize his biological father as his father and bring the lineage of King Xingxian to the throne of the emperor. Against this backdrop, the "treasured instructions" of the reigns of Emperor Wuzong and Emperor Xiaozong are of course very eye-catching.

Besides, the compilation of the Treasure Instructions is usually hosted by the Hanlin Academy. Given the current situation of the Hanlin Academy, who would dare to step forward and take on this hot potato?

The Hanlin Academy and Emperor Wuzong are two landmines linked to each other. It is no wonder that the cabinet is unwilling to make a statement. Of course, even if there is a delay in making a statement, such a memorial should not be shelved at will. Now it is mixed in with this pile of trivial official documents, I'm afraid there is something else going on.

Mu Qi thought hard for a long time and finally remembered:

"I remember that someone from the palace came to check the cabinet's files yesterday. In order to make room, they moved out the outdated memorials and sold them as waste paper. Maybe they bumped into something while moving them and mixed up this book..."

Zhang Taiyue: ...Ah?

“Selling waste paper?!” Perhaps because he couldn’t hold it in any longer, his tone suddenly changed, even bringing out a bit of fear: “Can memorials be sold as waste paper?!”

"Of course, this is a very important source of income." The prince said casually, "The higher-ups don't give out silver, so the money from selling waste paper is saved as one of the year-end benefits for the eunuchs guarding the cabinet."

Zhang Taiyue...Zhang Taiyue's eyes were about to pop out.

No, you are already working in a national core position, do you really need to skimp on these benefits?

Besides, memorials are official documents of the state after all. How can they be sold as waste paper by weight? Don’t the ministers find this insulting? !

Even if it's a makeshift temporary organization, this is too makeshift!

He said with difficulty: "What if, what if there is an important document, will it be..."

The prince looked at him calmly:

"What do you think, Mr. Zhang?"

Mr. Zhang's face turned green.

The prince sighed, but still spoke to comfort Mr. Zhang, who had not seen much of the world:

"This is not something that happened in just one generation. It has always been like this for decades since Emperor Xiaozong..."

Zhang Taiyue was unable to utter a word. But in the midst of the turbulent emotions, there was always a thought that gradually grew and became so overwhelming that it could not be shaken off:

Has it always been like this? Is it right?

Wait for me, wait for my future...

Zhang Taiyue couldn't think about how to "treat me" specifically, but a certain idea quickly became clear to him:

Such a cabinet really needs to be reorganized!

·

Master Feixuan and Emperor Wanshou stared at the stack of lists in front of them, their faces as gloomy as water, with wrinkles running down their brows, as if a storm was about to come.

Li Zaifang lay on the ground trembling with fear, but after waiting for a long time, he still did not hear the familiar voice of "You are deceiving God"; he looked up fearfully and caught a glimpse of the emperor's indescribable expression.

"Is this what you copied?" The emperor said coldly, "You are only reporting back now after I assigned you yesterday. You have done a good job!"

Li Zaifang kowtowed in fear:

"I am doomed to die! I received the order yesterday and immediately selected a few deaf, dumb and illiterate eunuchs from the East Factory to check the cabinet duty room. It is because I am stupid and incompetent that it has been delayed until now..."

To be honest, this is really a bit unfair to General Manager Li. The person the emperor wanted was deaf, dumb and unable to read, and the task had to be done in secret without leaking any information. Even if Li Zongguan was killed, he would not be able to use sign language to explain such complicated orders to the deaf and dumb eunuchs. After holding it in for half a day, he could only let the eunuchs enter the duty room in the name of cleaning to move the memorials, and just got some paperwork to make up the number. Isn't it normal that the person in charge makes a mess of it when Party A's demands are so outrageous?

Unfortunately, as the only psychopathic party A among the billions of people in Da'an, Lao Deng would never bother to reflect on himself. He snorted coldly:

"It's okay to be delayed, but what did you, a dog, come up with to fool me?"

Li Zaifang trembled in fear: "I am guilty of this! May I ask Your Majesty, is there anything on this list that Your Majesty wants?"

nonsense! Not to mention that they failed to copy out the most important script, the eunuchs had wasted half a day's work, and it might not have affected the cabinet's interest in slacking off and reading. Otherwise, why would Tianshu, who was in such high spirits today, suddenly start reciting the special extra chapter of "The Elder is Locked Up in the Western Garden Deep Spring"? !

Damn it, that half hour of sitting cross-legged and listening to the heart sounds was truly the longest and most torturous half hour in Master Fei Xuan’s life. Not only did he have to sit in meditation and hold his breath while listening to Tianshu's nonsense, he also had to watch Yan Fenyi and Xu Shaohu trembling and sweating profusely right under his nose, and finally both fainted - he finally woke up after a long while, but it turned out that Tianshu was talking about the exciting part of being turned over by Honglang, so he had no choice but to faint again.

What will happen if this continues? Zhenjun gritted his teeth and made up his mind:

"Forget it, I knew you were useless! Make arrangements more carefully this time, call the commander of the Jinyiwei and all the people from the East Factory to come to me, and pick out a few people who are careful with their words, and search them early tomorrow morning. If you miss anything again this time, you will be in trouble!"

Huang Shanggang, the director of the Eastern Depot, and Lu Wenfu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, were both the emperor's trusted confidants brought from his home. The emperor spared no effort to eliminate the ghostly script.