No matter how much of a headache it is, the duties of the Prime Minister must be fulfilled conscientiously.

Zhao Shouzheng knew that his abilities were limited, but since Grand Tutor Zhang had placed this burden on his shoulders, he could only do his best and try to get the derailed political situation back on track.

After calming down, Zhao Shouzheng spread out the memorial and picked up the brush to write a memorial to Emperor Wanli.

His handwriting is neat and regular, yet full and round, even if it is written in the official script, it is still beautiful. Doing the best in what you can is the reason why Zhao Shouzheng has come to where he is today... Not really.

The content of the memorial was to ask His Majesty to take care of his health and return to work as soon as possible. The imperial lectures should not be suspended for a long time, and the morning court should not be interrupted for a long time. Taizu was seventy years old and still attended court every day. Why? Because these were important links in maintaining the normal operation of the court.

But Zhao Shouzheng was not like his predecessor, who preached to the emperor or even scolded him. He used more tactful words and tried to consider the emperor as much as possible to reduce Wanli's resistance... This was also a survival skill he had mastered after serving Master Zhang for many years.

Zhao Shouzheng said, "I also know that Your Majesty has been attending court every morning for fifteen years, giving lectures every day, and has been burning the midnight oil every day. Even in winter when the water freezes, you still have to go to Wenhua Hall to attend classes in the cold wind. It is really very hard. I feel very tortured every day when I am with you, not to mention that the emperor has to deal with a myriad of affairs every day and study hard. It must be ten thousand times harder than me..."

However, as an emperor, he must meet with his ministers frequently! If the officials do not see the emperor for several months, they will be at a loss, full of doubts, and their morale will be low. They will either follow suit and neglect their duties, or act completely according to their own ideas. This will inevitably lead to the government's dysfunction, making the local officials at a loss, and finally chaos. If you want to restore peace, you will have to spend ten times or a hundred times more energy.

Finally, he also kindly suggested that if the emperor felt that getting up early was too tiring, he could postpone the time of the morning court and the imperial lecture, or even change it to every other day or every three days. These are all acceptable compromises - but he must not go without meeting with his ministers for such a long time, otherwise something serious would happen!

Especially the big one...

After finishing the memorial, Zhao Shouzheng put down his pen, rubbed his sore wrist, rang the bell to let the Zhongshu Sheren outside the door come in, took his memorial to frame it, and then sent it to Qianqing Gate.

Watching the servant leave with the memorial in his hand, Zhao Shouzheng felt sad again and silently lit a cigarette.

As soon as the Secretary of the Central Secretariat left, the Deputy Minister of the Cabinet, Shen Shixing, came into his duty room right after.

"What is Yuanfu thinking about?" Shen Shixing closed the door gently.

"I was thinking, I am less than a kilometer away from His Majesty, separated by only two palace walls. I can't even talk to him face to face, and can only rely on documents to pass messages all day long." The two of them had been abused together by Grand Tutor Zhang for many years, and their relationship had long been extraordinary. Zhao Shouzheng threw Hua Zi to him and said with a wry smile:

"When the Grand Tutor was in office, the Emperor would not even dare to miss a day of court. If there was anything he needed to see, the Emperor would immediately summon him to the platform and would never dare to delay. Alas, they are both Prime Ministers, but why is there such a big gap? It's really sad to think about it."

Shen Shixing held the cigarette but didn't smoke it. He was under too much pressure recently and his throat hurt. Hearing this, he laughed out loud and said, "Yuan Fu is wrong. The emperor is afraid of seeing you. He just thinks this method makes him feel comfortable."

"What should I be afraid of?" Zhao Shouzheng touched his face.

"Hehe..." Shen Shixing smiled and didn't respond. He thought to himself, "Aren't you scary? You are the father of the big devil."

"Sit down, what's up?" Seeing that Shen Shixing had no intention of lighting a cigarette, Zhao Shouzheng also put out his cigarette. He was always so considerate of his subordinates, and it was hard for those around him not to be moved.

"I'm here to hand in my resignation." Shen Shixing placed a petition in front of him and said, "I can't come tomorrow. I'd like to ask the Prime Minister to divide my work among two colleagues."

"Ah?" Zhao Shouzheng was startled and asked, "Do you want to quit, or have you been impeached?"

"The latter." Shen Shixing smiled bitterly, "The fire that Ding Qilu and Li Zhi started has finally burned me."

As he spoke, he presented another impeachment. Zhao Shouzheng picked it up and saw that it was from Yang Keli, the censor of Yunnan Province. He impeached the cabinet's deputy minister Shen Shixing for favoritism and fraud, and for treating the imperial examination as a way to buy favors and make profits for his own family.

Yang Keli said that Shen Shixing presided over the imperial examination and admitted Zhang Juzheng's son. Later, his two sons also passed the examination. The imperial court held the imperial examination to recruit talents for the country, but now the university scholars have taken all the places!

Is it really because their sons are all outstanding? No! There are many outstanding people in the world, but they cannot succeed just because they don’t have a father who is a university scholar, let alone create the myth of a father and son with five Jinshi or a family with three top scholars!

The wording of this memorial was extremely sarcastic, with words like "there are no commoners in the upper ranks, and no gentry in the lower ranks", which was very inciting to ordinary people. Even most of the middle and low-level officials were indignant. They had no ability to manipulate the imperial examinations, and their promotion path was squeezed by the second generation of officials. Of course, they hated the injustice.

And to be honest, in the past twenty years, the proportion of sons of ministers and officials who passed the imperial examinations was indeed higher. In addition to the sons of Zhang Juzheng and Shen Shixing, there was Chen Yiqin's son Chen Yubi, Lu Diaoyang's son Lu Xingzhou, Zhang Siwei's sons Zhang Taizheng and Zhang Jiazheng... It can be said that everyone was a Jinshi. If you say there is no trick, even a loyal person like Zhao Shouzheng would not believe it.

He couldn't help but feel lucky that his son didn't take the imperial examination. Moreover, he had only served as the deputy examiner of one subject, and he pretended to be deaf and dumb throughout the whole process. Later, he declined the position of examiner of several subjects, and was regarded by the scholars as a model of cherishing one's reputation and keeping oneself clean.

Otherwise, they would not have skipped over themselves as the Prime Minister and impeached Shen Shixing, the Second Prime Minister...

In fact, Zhao Shouzheng knew that Shen Shixing was wronged. It was true that his eldest son Yongmao was the 21st in the second class of the imperial examination in the 11th year of Wanli. But when Shen Yongmao was studying at Yufeng Academy, his grades in various subjects were among the best, and he was named one of the top ten students every year, and was known as the first of the Eight Horses of Guiwei!

And Shen Shixing's second son, Yongjia, failed the imperial examination the year before last...

But at this time any explanation is pale, and emotional output crushes everything!

"It's getting more and more outrageous." Zhao Shouzheng slammed the table angrily and said, "It's endless!"

He pointed at another pile of impeachments on the table and said angrily, "These are Jiang Dong's impeachment of Xu Xuemo for making a mistake in predicting the emperor's fate; Ding Cilu's impeachment of Shao Zong Bo He Luowen for writing the palace examination essays on behalf of Sixiu and Maoxiu; and the impeachment of Yin Zhengmao, Fu Zuozhou, and Wang Zhuan! This is to sweep away all the people promoted by Grand Tutor Zhang!"

"Just impeach me too!" At last, Mr. Zhao waved his sleeves angrily and said, "Let's all go back to our hometown and hug our grandchildren!"

"Prime Minister, calm down." Shen Shixing had come to complain, but he didn't expect that the Prime Minister, who was always so arrogant, would explode first. He bent down to pick up the memorial that Zhao Shouzheng had dropped to the ground, and said with a wry smile:

"This is the atmosphere now. All those who were considered as Zhang Taishi's personal accomplices back then have to work hard to clear themselves. I was promoted by the Taishi himself, so of course I can't avoid this."

In fact, wasn't Zhao Shouzheng promoted by Zhang Juzheng? It was a pity that no one dared to touch the head of Tai Sui...his father.

"No wonder the first thing Grand Tutor Zhang did when he started his reforms was to stop people from talking about him! If we let these censors make random accusations, the ministers and officials will all be in danger of losing their jobs. Who will have the heart to think about state affairs?" Zhao Shouzheng gnashed his teeth and said:

"If this continues, things will get completely out of control - people with different political views can express their opinions and debate openly! How can we just make personal attacks and use political tactics to drive out political opponents? We must stop this evil trend!"

He made up his mind and said to Shen Shixing: "Brother Rumo, please go home for the time being. I will unite the nine ministers and the various government offices to petition together and put an end to this evil trend!"

"Think twice, Prime Minister!" Shen Shixing said, feeling touched but also worried, "Those people are so arrogant, we shouldn't discourage them! Besides, the Emperor's attitude is... once they completely turn against each other, we won't be able to defeat them. Even if we end up in a draw, the authority that the Prime Ministers have established for the Cabinet over the past few decades will be gone!"

"This..." Zhao Shouzheng was stunned, thinking: Is it so serious?

"That group of people is probably waiting for such an opportunity to drag the Prime Minister into the water, so that they can let the Ministry of Education and the Cabinet compete with each other and form a clamp on the six ministries. By then, the Ming Dynasty will really fall into the whirlpool of party politics and will be completely hopeless!" Shen Shixing said with great sorrow:

"Our situation seems passive at the moment, but the Prime Minister has not expressed his position, and the young cabinet minister has not made any moves. No matter how happy those people are, it is just a monkey show in the eyes of the government and the public. But if the Prime Minister leaves, the situation will change completely! So for the sake of Ming Dynasty, we must not be impulsive!"

"I understand." Zhao Shouzheng nodded. He understood what Shen Shixing meant, that is, he, as the banner, must not fall, and the best way to remain undefeated is always to hang up the banner of exemption from war.

What if he can't do it? Let Zhao Hao do it. Isn't that what the young cabinet minister is for?

After Shen Shixing left, Zhao Shouzheng fell into deep thought again. In fact, he was quite conflicted now. As a father, of course he had to stand by his son unconditionally.

But he was still the top scholar chosen by the previous emperor, the chief minister of the cabinet, the teacher of all officials, the de facto prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, and the emperor's adoptive uncle... This prevented him from doing anything that would harm the Ming Dynasty.

But his son was planning to fire his boss...so Zhao Shouzheng couldn't figure out whether it would be beneficial or harmful to the Ming Dynasty if he handed the matter over to Zhao Hao.

It is difficult for scholars of their generation to separate the country from the emperor...

Therefore, when Zhao Shouzheng sent telegrams to his son, he usually only talked about his feelings and recent situation, and rarely asked him what he should do.

Anyway, with Shen Shixing, Xu Guo, and a large group of peers to discuss with, the decision made will not be too outrageous.

But now, his right-hand men have clearly expressed the need to ask Zhao Hao for help. Zhao Shouzheng knows that the situation must be very dangerous.

After thinking for a while, he made a difficult decision, got on his sedan chair and went home quickly, asking Wu Chengen to quickly telegraph Zhao Hao and tell him all about his difficulties.

I waited like an ant on the hot pan until eight o'clock in the evening. Zhao Hao called back and said, "I know."

Mr. Zhao immediately felt relieved. His headache and back pain were gone, and he could play two rounds of games with his old lover again.