I am a temporary worker in Jinyiwei, how did I become a powerful official?

Chapter 96 Let the baby elephant paint?
The Ming Dynasty ruled the country with filial piety. Filial piety does not only refer to children towards their parents, but also to servants towards their masters, subordinates towards their superiors, and subjects towards the emperor.

After all, "governing the world with filial piety" is an idea created by feudal dynasties to facilitate their rule.

The Great Ming Code clearly states that "unfilial piety and treason" is:
If children curse their parents, they will be executed immediately.

A daughter-in-law who insults her parents-in-law will be sentenced to death by hanging.

If a servant insults his master, he will be hanged.

If a servant insults his master's parents, he shall be beaten with sixty sticks.

If common people cursed officials appointed by the imperial court, or if subordinates cursed their superiors, they would be sentenced to caning according to the rank of the official, with the maximum being 100 strokes of the cane.

Sun Yue's adopted wife was 20 years older than him. She was used to being domineering like a tigress. She actually cursed her parents-in-law.

If Sun Yue really wants to get serious with her, she will be hanged on the southeast branch.

Now that Fatty Sun has been promoted and divorced the tigress, he is truly overjoyed.

Encountering such a happy event, the master and the apprentice did not eat in the canteen at noon, but went to the restaurant outside the elephant training center for a delicious meal.

In a firewood room in the West Garden, Ambassador Hu from the Bird Room and Ambassador Cao from the Insect Room were drinking together.

Ambassador Hu said angrily, "Damn it! Lin Shisan has cut off our source of income as soon as he arrived. If we don't teach him a lesson, he won't know how many hairs there are under the horse king."

Ambassador Cao said, "Brother, please be patient. He is the nephew of Eunuch Lu. Even if we want to show some favor to him, we have to do it in secret."

Ambassador Hu's eyes lit up: "You are full of bad ideas. You have an idea, right?"

Ambassador Cao asked with a smile: "In the entire Xiyuan, which pet does the emperor value most?"

Ambassador Hu replied: "Of course it is the golden turtle."

Ambassador Cao said, "I heard that Eunuch Lu gave the job of serving the golden tortoise to Lin Shisan."

Ambassador Hu said angrily: "Humph. For an assignment that allows him to show his face in front of the Emperor, Eunuch Lu will naturally take care of his nephew."

Ambassador Cao laughed and said, "What if Lin Shisan failed to show his face but ended up showing his butt?"

Ambassador Hu became interested: "How do you say that?"

Ambassador Cao said: "What if, I mean what if, the golden turtle is lost."

Half a month later.

After the first month of the lunar calendar, spring arrives. The weather in the capital city is getting warmer day by day.

In the court, the Yan Party and the Xu Party were fighting fiercely over the impeachment of Shen Lian.

The censors of the Xu party knelt in front of the Xi'an Gate every day to protest and protect Shen Lian.

This made Emperor Jiajing very upset. Fortunately, he would go to Taiye Lake to see the golden turtles from time to time, which could help him relax.

The Yan Party was no pushover either. The Ministry of Personnel, which they controlled, was holding up the document requesting that Wang Bengu, a member of the Xu Party, be demoted to Zhejiang Province as the Inspector General.

These major political events have nothing to do with Master Lin Shisan and his disciples for the time being.

Lin Shisan was promoted, became rich, took a concubine, and enjoyed all the blessings of having many wives.

Sun Yue was promoted, became rich, and divorced his wife, and he was very proud of himself.

That morning, Lin Shisan and Sun Yue were doing their official business in the duty room.

Three Siamese and an interpreter came into the duty room. These three Siamese were new elephant slaves at the elephant training school.

Siam has always been a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. Unlike Annan next door, Siam has always been respectful to the Ming Dynasty, and there has never been a war between the two countries.

Many of the elephant slaves in the elephant training center are Siamese.

The three Siamese saluted Lin Shisan. Lin Shisan and his disciples saluted the interpreter.

Because this interpreter was a chief clerk in the Ministry of Rites' Department of Guests and Guests, a sixth-rank civil servant, and his surname was Xu.

There were not many people in the capital who understood Siamese, so Mr. Xu condescended to act as an interpreter.

The old Siamese leader, "Sawadee Ka, Kakunka," said a lot. Xu, the chief, said, "General Lin, this man said he has a way to make the baby elephant draw on paper."

Lin Shisan was extremely shocked: "A baby elephant painting? The baby elephant's four hooves can't hold the paintbrush."

The old Siamese explained that the baby elephant used its trunk to illustrate the painting.

Lin Shisan laughed and said, "I've only heard of pigs with green onions inserted into their noses pretending to be elephants before. Today is the first time I've heard of elephants with their noses pretending to be painters."

"Master Xu, ask him how to train the baby elephant so that it can paint."

After a series of questions, the old Siamese told him his extremely bloody method of training elephants for painting.

First, separate the baby elephant from the herd. Drive a nail into the baby elephant's paw so that it cannot stand on all fours. Then lock it in an elephant stake made of four huge logs.

This is to remove its wildness and tame it.

Then make an elephant hook, which is a wooden stick with an iron barb hanging in front.

An elephant's mental state is similar to that of a four or five year old child, and it has an excellent memory.

The elephant trainer will find a painter to paint in front of the baby elephant.

Then he stuffed the paintbrush into the elephant's trunk. It would be painful to stuff a small stick into a human's trunk, let alone an elephant's.

At this time, the elephant trainer will order the baby elephant to learn from the painter and use his trunk to control the brush to paint.

If there is anything wrong, the elephant trainer will immediately use the elephant hook to make a bloody hole in the baby elephant's head.

The elephant trainer kept teaching, and the baby elephant kept learning. After half a year, after being hooked hundreds and thousands of times, the baby elephant learned how to paint with its trunk. It was able to paint on its own in front of people.

After Mr. Xu finished translating, an expression of disgust appeared on his face.

Lin Shisan was also a little angry: "He is not taming the elephant, he is clearly abusing the elephant."

"It is very rare for a baby elephant to paint. It can make the emperor and his concubines smile."

"But the emperor respects heaven and practices Taoism. Taoism believes that the way follows nature and that humans and all things in nature have the same origin."

"If the emperor knew that the little elephant was tortured to paint, wouldn't he be furious?"

Xu Zhushi agreed: "Taoism talks about following nature. Confucianism talks about benevolence. This elephant taming method is violent and inhumane. My scalp tingles from translating it."

Lin Shisan discussed with Xu Zhushi: "These three elephant slaves are full of evil spirits. It is very unlucky to keep them in the elephant training center."

"Will you report this to your superiors in the Ministry of Rites and send them back to their home in Siam?"

Manager Xu praised: "It seems that General Lin is also a kind person. You and I have the same idea."

Lin Shisan said: "Well, what is a strange and cunning trick? What these three Siamese people said is a typical strange and cunning trick. We in the Ming Dynasty don't care about it."

Manager Xu led the three people out of the duty room. As soon as they left, Chen Ju rushed in like a wild dog: "Brother Lin, something big has happened."

Lin Shisan asked: "What happened? Tell me slowly."

Chen Ju said, "There have been rumors in the palace in recent days that the golden turtle in Taiye Pond has been lost."

Lin Shisan laughed and said, "Nonsense! How could a golden turtle weighing more than 300 kilograms be lost? If you said it died of old age, I would believe it."

Chen Ju said, "But yesterday morning, the emperor went boating on the Taiye Lake. I scattered three buckets of small shrimps in advance, but the golden turtle didn't float."

Lin Shisan said: "This method won't work every time. Maybe the golden turtle is under the water?"

Chen Ju gulped down a sip of tea and said, "The worst thing is that the rumor has spread from inside the palace to outside."

"Those upright officials who knelt down at Xi'an Gate said that the loss of the golden tortoise was the emperor's punishment of the loyal minister Shen Lian, which caused the wrath of heaven."

"The loss of the golden turtle is a punishment from heaven."

"The Emperor asked Eunuch Lu to find a way to prove that the golden tortoise is still in the Taiye Lake. Eunuch Lu asked you to go to the West Garden as soon as possible."

Lin Shisan's heart skipped a beat: "I'll serve the golden tortoise. Why is it related to the court?"

(End of this chapter)