Chapter 168: Master Zhao Gives a Lecture
The north gate of the imperial city, outside Xiuwen Hall.
A carriage cut through the darkness of night, entered the imperial city in sight of the imperial guards, and stopped outside the yamen that had just been established one day earlier.
Zhao Duan lifted the car curtain and stepped out, only to see that it was completely dark.
There was no light in the sky, and the thick night enveloped the capital. Stars were faintly visible in the sky, and the full moon was clear and high in the sky.
Looking forward, the lanterns hanging outside Xiuwenguan embellish the night.
Coincidentally, Zhao Duan arrived with another car coming from the south, that is, from the direction of "Palace City".
Mo Chou got off the carriage, and the two of them looked at each other on both sides of the yamen gate. They were both stunned for a moment and said in unison:
"Why are you here?"
Then they said in unison again:
"Of course I can come!"
silence.
The corner of Zhao Duan's mouth twitched, and he glanced towards the palace:
"Your Majesty didn't come?"
He did not see the empress's royal carriage.
Mo Chou, nicknamed "Female Prime Minister" but actually more like a maid, said calmly with a stern face:
"Your Majesty is in seclusion practicing... You haven't told me yet, why are you here again?"
The time this morning was "imperial authorization", but this time it is impossible that His Majesty allowed him to come.
Retreat? How long... Zhao Duan was stunned for a moment, a little surprised, but facing the other party's questioning eyes, he just said:
"Master Dong invited me here, so what do you think?"
If you don't agree, bite me.
Will the Grand Tutor invite you?
The first female official, dressed in neutral attire, widened her eyes, obviously unconvinced, but when she caught a glimpse of the Grand Tutor's entourage beside the carriage, she hesitated again.
It was completely incomprehensible why this literary giant, who had always disliked cruel officials like Zhao Duan, would invite him.
"Hey...wait for me."
Just as I was about to ask, I saw Zhao Duan had already walked into the hall, so I had to chase after him.
I was very confused about the sudden summons from the Grand Tutor tonight.
…
The museum is brightly lit.
When the two opened the door, they saw that the room was still arranged in the daytime, except that the lampshades on the table were all lit.
At this moment, sitting at the head of the room was an octogenarian with white hair and beard, dressed in a bright red university scholar robe.
Next to him was Han Zhou, Han Banshan, who looked like a modest gentleman with neatly combed hair and a gentle temperament.
In addition, there were four other scholars who were obviously summoned in a hurry.
Not everyone has arrived yet...
But this time, Zhao Duan was no longer the one who was late.
Considering the distance between the Zhao family and Xiuwen Hall...
This means that Master Dong might have been the first one to summon him, followed by the others.
Zhao Duan already had some guesses in his mind.
"brush--"
At this moment, many eyes were cast over, with different expressions.
Except for Grand Tutor Dong, the other scholars all looked surprised.
Mo Chou's arrival was not surprising. Since it involved important matters, the empress could not come in person, so she had to send a trustworthy "ear" to listen.
but……
"Why is this warrior here again?" No one said this, but the expressions they showed clearly meant this.
Han Zhou was also surprised, but then he seemed to have figured something out and smiled and nodded at him.
The "Guo Jieyuan", who had an extremely ordinary appearance, the temperament of a veteran official, and was very good at finance, also smiled.
His eyes moved between Han Zhou and Zhao Duan, as if he could see the changes in their relationship.
"Grand Master." Mo Chou took a step forward and walked straight over:
"I wonder what the urgent purpose of calling you together at night is?"
Grand Tutor Dong raised his head, his eyes pulled away from the memorial, and nodded to Mo Chou, who represented the Empress.
"There are some changes regarding the new policy. Please take a seat."
Then……
His gaze turned to the invisible Zhao Duan, and he suddenly pulled out a stack of papers and shook them:
"This... you wrote it?"
As expected...it was the manuscript that sparked his interest. This old man has quite good eyesight...
Zhao Duan smiled and said:
"I just jotted down some random thoughts while listening during the day... they're not worth mentioning."
The tone is relaxed and casual.
Everyone couldn't hide their curiosity, including Han Zhou, as they were unaware of the existence of this manuscript.
"Yes," Master Dong paused with a sharp gaze, nodded slowly, and suddenly looked around at everyone, saying:
"No more waiting, let's get down to business."
The scholars were stunned, thinking that there were still several people who had not arrived, so why didn’t they wait?
Well, I guess the Grand Tutor is waiting for Mo Zhaorong, so it makes sense for Miss Mo to arrive...
The scholars became solemn and sat up straight. The atmosphere in Xiuwen Hall became serious and solemn at night.
Tsk... It feels like an emergency meeting late at night to work overtime... Zhao Duan took a step and came to the corner again, sitting down next to the registrar.
The latter was holding a pen and was about to take notes, but when he saw him coming, he nodded for the first time with a complicated look in his eyes.
"I urgently summoned you all here tonight because of the new policy. Scholar Han came to me this afternoon and asked me to withdraw the ten strategies." Grand Tutor Dong said shockingly.
Everyone was shocked and confused.
Han Zhou stood up, a look of shame on his face. "I'm really ashamed. I just offered ten strategies, but after being pointed out by others, I realized they were inappropriate..."
He then frankly described how he had "chancely" met Zhao Duan at noon, how he had received his advice during the meal, and how he had noticed something inappropriate. Due to space limitations, he did not go into detail:
"Mr. Zhao's words have awakened me from my dream. I deeply feel that the Ten Strategies are wrong, so I request a rewrite."
After he finished speaking, everyone present was stunned.
They instinctively thought it was absurd and bizarre. What exactly did that cruel and brutal official, whom they ignored and looked down upon, say?
How could it make Han Banshan like this?
Without waiting for the crowd to discuss, Grand Tutor Dong raised his hand to suppress it, cast his eyes towards the corner, and said calmly:
"I'm quite curious about the ideas you've written. Since you've pointed out the flaws in Han Banshan's policy, I imagine you have your own unique perspective on the New Deal. How about sharing them?"
How about telling me about it?
The Grand Tutor... is inviting a cruel official to discuss new policies?
Everyone was stunned again. The pace of this night meeting was too fast, and Han Zhou's speech seemed to be just a formality.
Before they could react, the microphone was handed to Zhao Duan.
Zhao Duan raised his eyebrows and smiled in response to the surprised glances.
If it was in the morning, he might not have a clear idea in his mind and would refuse.
But after an afternoon of sorting out, some basic ideas have taken shape.
Originally, he planned to follow the example of Zhang Juzheng in history and write a memorial to the empress to read and scare her.
Unexpectedly, Master Dong’s call came suddenly.
Okay.
"Haha," he chuckled, stood up, and walked straight around the long table.
Glancing at the empty chairs, I felt a little uncomfortable.
He glanced around and said thoughtfully:
"Master, could you please lend me a screen, some paper, and some ink?"
Master Dong nodded slightly.
The registrar stood up, moved a screen in the room to the end of the table, and found a large blank paper. He covered the screen as Zhao Duan requested.
In this way, we have a barely usable "blank slate".
Zhao Duan stood in front of a white paper screen with one hand behind his back, holding a small brush and dipping it in ink.
In a trance, it seemed as if I had returned to my previous life, when I was reporting and explaining slides in meetings.
"call……"
After a long exhale, Zhao Duan faced the scholars on both sides of the long conference table and the confused eyes of his rival Mo Chou, and said with a smile:
"The Grand Tutor asked me to speak, but I don't have any ideas in mind. So... let's start with the administration of officials."
This was the first issue to be discussed during the day.
Zhao Duan talked freely:
"In the pursuit of justice, there is no greater urgency than ensuring the people's livelihood; the key to ensuring the people's livelihood lies in the scrutiny of official administration..."
"The difficulty in worldly affairs lies not in making laws, but in ensuring that they are carried out; not in listening to advice, but in ensuring that it is effective. If one inquires into matters without examining their consequences, and initiates things without repeated reflection, if the superiors lack the wisdom to conduct thorough investigations, and if the people are inclined to make do with mediocrity, then even if one has a sage ruler above and virtuous ministers below, it will be difficult to achieve thorough results and success."
The opening remarks were a quote from Zhang Juzheng's original text of "Please Inspect the Memorials and Evaluate the Results in Order to Improve Practical Policies", with some modifications to the details.
As soon as these words were thrown out, everyone was stunned and surprised:
This cruel and brutal official was surprisingly good at writing.
And those who are perceptive have already captured the key words hidden in these clear opening words.
Zhao Duan turned around, picked up his pen, and wrote on the white paper behind the screen:
Official administration, assessment, and performance evaluation system.
Turning back, he smiled and said:
"The Grand Master said that the administration of officials is the most important of the new policies. I completely agree. Without clear administration, no matter how good the method is, it will be useless. However, compared to the strategies you have mentioned, I believe that the most effective one still lies in the art of assessment...
The ancient system of the Great Yu Dynasty already had the method of recommendation and selection. However, I believe that the times are different now and the old method is no longer sufficient to cope with the current situation. Therefore, I have conceived a new system, called "Performance Evaluation". As the name suggests, it will focus the purpose of assessment on the performance of officials at all levels..."
"The spirit of performance appraisal is to set deadlines for assessment and hold people accountable for their work... To implement this, the six ministries and the Censorate will set deadlines for the tasks that their officials should complete and record them in three ledgers. The six ministries and the Censorate will retain one as a master copy, send one to the six departments, and submit the third to the Cabinet...
The six ministries and the Censorate record accounts and conduct monthly inspections. Officials must record each completed task and report any errors accurately. The six departments also report to the Censorate every six months based on their accounts. Violators will be subject to limited case-by-case investigation and punishment. The Cabinet also verifies the audit work of the six departments based on the records in the accounts.
Zhao Duan was speaking and everyone in the room was listening.
Grand Tutor Dong frowned and said nothing.
The octogenarian had worked hard all day and was already exhausted, but at this moment his eyes were bright and he seemed to be lost in thought, deducing this method in his mind.
Han Zhou looked confused. He originally thought that it was the Grand Tutor who asked Zhao Duan to talk about the drawbacks of his ten strategies.
In this way, the scholars can study and discuss it.
But the development of things was completely beyond expectations, and Zhao Duan didn't even mention the Ten Strategies.
Instead, he started by talking about the administration of officials which had reached a deadlock in the morning and could not be advanced.
As for Mo Chou...
The maidservant beside the empress was completely stunned. Zhao Duan? That unlearned warrior?
In the future 'cabinet', will you lecture on civil service to a group of scholars?
She secretly pinched her thigh and it hurt. It was not a dream.
But it is more absurd and false than a dream.
At this moment, she suddenly recalled that in the morning, Zhao Duan asked her about the assessment. Thinking about it this way, she indirectly helped him find an idea?
However, at that time she didn't care at all and didn't even notice what he wrote or drew.
At this time, footsteps were heard outside the door and the door creaked open.
Then, Wang You, who looked like a nobleman, the son of the Minister of Personnel, and a scion of a prominent family, who had been so arrogant that he didn't even bother to look at Zhao Duan at the restaurant at noon, came late.
"too……"
Wang You stepped over the threshold and was stunned when he saw the scene in the house.
He subconsciously pulled his foot back, closed the door, looked up and around, and confirmed that it was indeed Xiuwen Pavilion.
"I must have opened the door incorrectly..."
Wang You laughed at himself and pushed the door open again. Then, the worldview of this great talent from the aristocratic family collapsed.
(End of this chapter)
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