My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 43: Requesting the Preparation of a New Report on Yuefu

The most unpretentious workplace struggle is to speak ill of your opponent in front of your boss.

After the Six Subjects and Thirteen Questions suffered a great loss in the Golden Urn Drawing, they changed their strategy.

They no longer wrote collective petitions in a large-scale manner, but instead took turns impeaching Su Ze over trivial matters.

In addition, they also mobilized scholars and students of the Imperial College in Beijing to criticize Su Ze, fabricating some jokes and memes to slander Su Ze.

Shen Yi Guan looked at Su Ze worriedly. These censors' comments were actually irrelevant, and the emperor and the cabinet were too lazy to pay attention to them.

However, there were rumors that Shao Zhanshi Yin Shidan was going to join the cabinet last time, but it was said that the cabinet minister Gao Gong stopped him at the last minute, so Yin Shidan was unable to join the cabinet.

Because of this incident, Yin Shidan and Gao Gong completely fell out.

As a follower of Gao Gong, Su Ze was naturally targeted by Yin Shidan.

Shen Yikuan remembered what Zhu Dashou had taught him. It turned out that taking sides too early had both advantages and disadvantages.

Su Ze was able to be promoted many times out of turn and served as the Crown Prince's lecturer at a young age. This is the advantage of standing in a team. With someone above you, you will naturally make rapid progress.

However, while making progress, he was inevitably affected by the political struggles at the top. It was understandable that Yin Shidan used the word "controversial" to block Su Ze from giving the prince an imperial lecture. Even Gao Gong would not help Su Ze because of this small matter.

On the surface, Su Ze comforted Shen Yikuan with a few words, but in fact he also hated the censors to the core.

These guys are like flies. Once they target you, they will never stop and will always find a way to disgust you.

In addition to causing trouble in the court, these censors were also particularly good at stirring up public opinion. Su Ze's family was surrounded by students of the Imperial College twice.

This reminded Su Ze of the "cyberbullying" in his previous life. These censors were like keyboard warriors. After all, the pen was in their hands.

In addition to online violence in the public opinion field, Ming Dynasty literati were also keen on various notes and private history books. They would compile various jokes to discredit you, or simply publish books to discredit you.

The best among them were Wang Shizhen and Shen Defu. Wang Shizhen specialized in slandering Zhang Juzheng and wrote books specifically to slander him. All the stories about Zhang Juzheng occupying the old palace of the King of Liao and living an extravagant life were from his "Biographies of the Chief Ministers of the Cabinet since the Jiajing Period".

Shen Defu is also a heavyweight. Although his "Wanli Yewaibian" is an important material for studying the history of the Ming Dynasty, he also mixed in a lot of personal opinions and slandered all the prime ministers.

The Donglin Party that came after this carried these traditions forward. Those who were politically close to the Donglin Party had their achievements written about in great detail, while those who were distant from the Donglin Party had all kinds of negative materials fabricated against them. For example, Shen Yikuan in front of us would later become the leader of the Zhejiang Party who was at odds with the Donglin Party. There was a lot of negative information about him in history books.

Although Su Ze didn't care about these jumping clowns, he was not going to tolerate them any longer.

It is almost time for the [Portable Ming Dynasty Court] to refresh, and Su Ze has already prepared a memorial for counterattack.

Su Ze just returned home, but found an old man in a tattered Confucian robe standing at his door. Su Ze quickly stepped forward:

"Mr. Qingteng!"

The person who came was the advisor Su Ze had just hired, Mr. Qingteng Xu Wei.

Although Xu Wei was wearing a shabby Confucian robe, he naturally had an extraordinary temperament. When he saw Su Ze, he bowed to Su Ze:

"Dong Weng."

Su Ze opened the gate of the small courtyard and led Xu Wei into the house. Then he said a little embarrassedly:

"The courtyard is small. I cleaned up the wing a few days ago. Mr. Qingteng, please live here for now."

Xu Wei didn't care about it. He was a person who went with the flow. Although Su Ze's courtyard was small, Huang, the manager of the Suzhou Guild Hall, sent people to clean and tidy it up every now and then, so the courtyard was tidy and clean.

"Have you finished dealing with Mr. Qingteng's matter?"

Xu Wei nodded and said:

"In reply to Mr. Dong, I have already settled the overdue wine bill and can serve Mr. Dong starting today."

Su Ze said enthusiastically:
"There's nothing going on in the mansion these days, Mr. Qingteng, please stay here for now and get familiar with it."

But Xu Wei was no longer as arrogant as before. Instead, he said seriously, "Dong Weng, as a guest, I receive money to serve others. How can I just sit there and do nothing?"

Su Ze was a little touched that there were actually such employees who were so eager to get into work.

Xu Wei bowed his head and said:

"I, Xu, am not talented, but I am willing to assist Mr. Dong. I just don't know what Mr. Dong wants."

"Oh?"

Xu Wei said neither humbly nor arrogantly:
"If Mr. Dong wants to become famous in the literati community, I, Xu, can help him with his literary skills."

Su Ze thought to himself, you are a literate person, but most people are illiterate.

It was normal in the Ming Dynasty for staff to write for their employers. Xu Wei meant that he could help Su Ze become famous in the cultural circle.

Seeing that Su Ze did not respond, Xu Wei said:

"Xu also has some knowledge of government. Dong Weng wants to take charge of the provincial government and govern the people. Xu can also manage the internal and external affairs and assist in criminal cases."

Seeing that Su Ze still didn't nod, Xu Wei said:
"Back in the Southeast, I wrote the 'Ten Articles on Preparing for the Japanese' and I also understand some military training and military strategies. If you, Mr. Dong, want the border troops to achieve meritorious service, I can help you."

Su Ze shook his head, knowing that Xu Wei was not bragging.

But he took out the memorial he was going to submit tomorrow and said:

"Mr. Qingteng, this is the memorial I drafted. Please take a look at it and see if there is anything that needs to be revised."

Xu Wei took over the memorial. He had been Hu Zongxian's aide and had helped Hu Zongxian draft many memorials, so he was familiar with the ins and outs of it.

Su Ze's several memorials caused a stir in the court. Xu Wei had also read Su Ze's memorials and knew that he could always "express opinions that others could not express and do things that others could not do." He was also very curious about Su Ze's new memorial.

Xu Wei read very slowly and seriously. Su Ze waited patiently for him to finish and asked:
"Mr. Qingteng, what do you think?"

After Xu Wei finished reading, he was silent for a long time, and then he said cautiously:
"Dong Weng, will the court approve this memorial you submitted? This would be a direct confrontation with the six departments and thirteen ministries."

Su Ze said:

"Am I not the public enemy of the Kedao now? The Kedao is noisy. Even if Su admits defeat and surrenders, they will not impeach me?"

"How can one avoid being impeached by the Imperial Court while doing things in the Ming Dynasty?"

"As for whether Your Majesty agrees, man proposes, God disposes!"

Su Ze was naturally not worried. He was a person with a system. At most, he could use more prestige points to force the memorial through.

As long as this memorial can be successful, it will deal a heavy blow to the six departments and thirteen departments, and he will be less constrained in doing things in the future. This is the method Su Ze has come up with in the past half month to deal with the departments.

Xu Wei was silent for a moment. When he was an aide to Hu Zongxian, Hu Zongxian seemed to have said something similar.

At this moment, Su Ze's image and Hu Zongxian's image gradually overlapped.

Xu Wei also hated these censors. Hu Zongxian was imprisoned because he was framed by the censors.

During the anti-Japanese war in the southeast, Xu Wei often helped Hu Zongxian write memorials of apology to deal with the repeated attacks from the censors in the court.

Xu Wei was silent for a moment. The more he read Su Ze's memorial, the more surprised he was. This plan could be said to be very complete. Taking all aspects into consideration, even the implementation plan was feasible. Xu Wei had met many officials, but this was the first time he had seen someone as thoughtful as Su Ze.

And as Su Ze said, once this memorial is approved, it will deal a heavy blow to the current censors and greatly dilute their voice in public opinion.

But will this memorial really work?

Will the emperor and the cabinet really approve Su Ze’s memorial?
Xu Wei looked at the "Petition for the Preparation of a New Report of Yuefu" and fell into deep thought.

(End of this chapter)