Da Ming: Father, step aside, I'll be the prime minister!

Chapter 113 You gentlemen haven't studied mathematics much, have you?

Zeng Shengwu, the Minister of Works, led his troops to deal with the rebellion of the Tusi (local chieftains) in the first year of the Wanli reign. He can be described as "diligent in his duties and full of suggestions".

However, Zeng Shengwu's rise to the position of Minister of Works over the years was largely due to the help of Zhang Juzheng.

At first, Zhang Juzheng naturally scoffed at Xu Xuemo and others' attacks on him, and even angrily wrote a memorial impeaching them, urging the emperor to thoroughly investigate Xu Xuemo and others.

However, Zhang Juzheng's serious illness caused Zeng Shengwu and others to lose their confidence.

Furthermore, Zhang Juzheng's so-called "epidemic prevention and control plan" was clearly the work of Zhang Yunxiu. It was like child's play for a young man to participate in important court affairs.

Moreover, there have always been established procedures for dealing with plagues since ancient times.

If this procedure is followed, even the death of a person can be justified.

This has been true throughout history. When people die from plagues, it is not because the court is inactive, but because Heaven and Earth are unkind.

However, this "epidemic prevention and control plan" is completely different.

Regardless of whether Zhang Shiyuan's "outlandish ideas" were useful, simply pushing forward this plan, which was not approved by most court officials, gave the opposition an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

From the perspective of court politics, it was a terrible move!
Zeng Shengwu and several other ministers who also supported Zhang Juzheng visited him when he was seriously ill, but they did not receive a positive response from Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng.

More recently, the plague in the capital has gradually subsided, but rumors among the people continue, and scholars and students from all over the country are full of complaints.

Even Zeng Shengwu and others were having their own doubts.

Was Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng really senile, believing a child's joke?

Zeng Shengwu knew perfectly well that as the Minister of Works, he was one of the key figures in promoting the Wanli New Deal and there was absolutely no possibility of him "defecting".

These days, he has been running around trying to win back the hearts of the "Zhang Party".

However, without Zhang Juzheng as the core leader, and as long as there is no news of Zhang Juzheng's recovery, the ministers in the court will not clearly take sides.

This is the way officials in the imperial court conduct themselves.

At the start of today's court meeting, Emperor Wanli displayed extraordinary courage, and Zeng Shengwu truly thought that hope was on the horizon. However, in the end, things remained the same as always.

In his emotional turmoil, Zeng Shengwu almost wanted to give up.

Just when he was feeling disheartened, Shen Shixing unexpectedly threw out this thing.

A line graph showing the trend of the number of infected and dead in the capital during the fight against the plague.

This sentence sounds very convoluted, but the officials in the court are all well-read people, and they can roughly understand its meaning after thinking about it.

Like the officials in the court, Zeng Shengwu stood on tiptoe and focused intently on the huge scroll. At first, he was a little confused, but in the end, he found it quite interesting.

The horizontal and vertical axes marked above each have categories and corresponding text.

On this huge scroll, there is not just one picture, but seven or eight charts in a row, which respectively display the so-called "statistics on the number of patients received" and "statistics on the rate of serious illness".

The statistics in the "mortality rate" column are naturally the most concerning.

Many ministers became curious, and one minister couldn't help but ask.

"Your chart is quite novel, Grand Secretary Shen. According to you, this chart can demonstrate the effectiveness of epidemic prevention and control? Could you explain it further?"

The officials in the court had a general idea of ​​what was going on, but the specific details still needed to be discussed during the Shenshi hour.

Shen Shixing coughed and then explained.

"This is a statistical report on plague prevention and control. As you can see, it is marked with red dots and broken lines, showing the plague situation inside and outside the capital from the very beginning of the plague!"

At some point, Shen Shixing picked up a long cane. As he paced around the hall, he used the cane to point to the data patterns on the scroll, explaining them one by one to Emperor Wanli and his ministers.

"Your Majesty, gentlemen, the latter half of March is when the plague broke out in the capital."

He tapped a date on the scroll chart with his cane, extending upwards along the vertical axis.

"According to the statistics of Renmin Medical Hall, six out of ten people in the capital are infected with the plague, while nine out of ten refugees outside the city are infected with the plague!"

After Shen Shixing's explanation, the ministers in the court were momentarily dumbfounded.

The death toll and the record of the plague can actually be expressed like this? You know what, it looks incredibly vivid and clear, much more so than written words.

Standing on the imperial platform, Emperor Wanli's heart suddenly raced upon seeing the contents of the scroll.

He suddenly remembered that Zhang Yunxiu had once brought him a similar chart when he reported on the situation of Renmin Medical Clinic.

Previously, Emperor Wanli had remarked that if such forms could be implemented in the court, reports would no longer be as tedious and cumbersome as before.

Most importantly, on the same single page, such a chart can convey far more information than text, and it is more intuitive and easier to find the required numbers.

"How could I not have thought of that!"

Emperor Wanli stared wide-eyed, suddenly feeling a pang of regret for not having brought up this data earlier.

But upon closer reflection, it would be quite unbecoming for an emperor to present charts to his courtiers.

It's likely that Zhang Yunxiu had this in mind.

Thinking of this, Emperor Wanli's confidence immediately increased. He straightened his back and smiled as he spoke.

“Interesting, truly interesting. These charts subtly reveal the principles of counting, bringing numbers and records to life on paper. Minister Shen, please continue.”

He glanced at the stunned expressions of Zhang Siwei, Xu Xuemo, and the others standing to the side, and couldn't help but feel a little smug.

Having received the emperor's instructions, Shen Shixing felt even less need to be reserved and bowed to the emperor.

"I humbly obey Your Majesty's decree."

After he finished speaking, he became even more energetic and began to introduce himself to the assembled officials.

“Looking at the nodes of this broken line, you can see that it shows a sudden downward trend. This is because after Renmin Medical Hall intervened and the capital was locked down to prevent and control the plague, the number of infected people in the capital became obvious. With the help of ‘modern medicine’ and ‘epidemic prevention measures’, the number of patients in the capital no longer increased as rapidly as before.”

This proves the effectiveness of the plague prevention and control measures!

Fearing that his ministers might not understand, Shen Shixing explained the contents of the chart in great detail.

Of course, this was also thanks to Zhang Yunxiu's "earnest teachings." Heaven knows how many times he, a Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, was called a "stupid fool" by Zhang Yunxiu in order to understand the abstract concepts he had created!
Now that their roles have been reversed, Shen Shixing has begun to instruct the ministers in the court. He looked at Xu Xuemo, Zhang Siwei, and others beside him.

"Grand Secretary Zhang, Minister Xu, do you both understand?"

This sentence drew everyone's attention to the two men. Only then did the ministers realize with surprise that Minister Xu, who had been full of energy, now had a somewhat vacant look in his eyes.
Of course, it's no wonder that Minister Xu was the one to blame; his expression reflected the expressions of many other ministers in the hall.

After all, even the most learned scholars have never heard of or seen anything like "charts" before!
Shen Shixing's actions were tantamount to something that happened before the invention of firearms, such as during the Three Kingdoms period when the armies of Shu and Wei were facing off. Cao Cao was making wild pronouncements, but Zhuge Liang gave an order and led a squad of Shenji firearms to fire a volley at Cao Cao.

The scene was truly...
"Cough~ cough~" Zhang Siwei, standing at the back, was clearly anxious and coughed heavily twice.

At this moment, Xu Xuemo seemed to wake from a dream and looked at the chart again.

His lips twitched slightly, but in his heart he was cursing Zhang Shiyuan for being despicable and shameless.

It's obvious without even thinking that it was that kid's idea!

However, Xu Xuemo was ultimately a talented individual. Through some of Shen Shixing's words and the annotations on the charts, he quickly grasped some key points.

He immediately chuckled confidently and said...

"Is Grand Secretary Shen joking?"

Shen Shixing was taken aback for a moment and said, "What do you mean?"

Xu Xuemo disregarded all etiquette before the emperor, stepped forward, pointed to another chart, and said...

"You keep saying that the plague has been cured since the city was locked down, but look at this picture, doesn't it clearly show that the number of deaths is increasing day by day? And the number of patients is also increasing every day!"
Shen Rumo, what you've submitted yourself is inconsistent! What else do you have to say?

The court fell silent for a moment.

Shen Shixing looked at the other person with an expression as if he were looking at an idiot, just like Zhang Yunxiu used to look at him.

"It seems that Minister Xu is not very good at mathematics?"

　Note 1: Zeng Shengwu was considered one of the core members of Zhang Juzheng's reforms. Historically, after Zhang Juzheng's downfall, Zeng Shengwu was also purged, as recorded in the "Draft History of Ming": "Zeng wore a turban and blue robe, while Wang Zhi wore prison clothes and begged for mercy; the eunuchs beat him with a cane."

　　Note 2: The villains in the novel are basically based on historical figures who opposed Zhang Juzheng. I will list them one by one when I have time.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)