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Their relationship began to deepen day by day, even to Zhao Su's surprise.
Forbidden City, Wenyuan Pavilion.
All who enter the Grand Secretariat, enter the Belvedere of Literary Profundity1.
This was a place that all officials in the Great Ming would like to enter, and to be able to work here meant that you were at the top of the pile in this empire, only beneath the Emperor, looking out over all others.
The weather was hot and the sun was baking the earth as if it was going to burn up people too.
The pomegranate blossoms were like flames, stretching their branches towards the window, igniting with colourful passion, dazzling with brilliance.
It was just that the people inside the house didn’t have the heart to look at them.
Xu Jie leaned back in his chair, his eyes slightly closed, as if he was asleep.
“Teacher…..” Zhang Juzheng said very lightly, carrying an air of cautious enquiry in his voice.
His eyelids twitched, but Xu Jie’s face was as calm as ever, as if unaffected by the current gossip outside.
“Taiyue2, your teacher, I have made a mistake……” He slowly straightened up in his chair, laughing at himself humbly.
Zhang Juzheng quickly said: “Teacher, you weren’t wrong, you were just thinking about the country. You wanted to take advantage of the Yan faction falling from prestige to completely rid the Imperial Court. It’s the enemy who is too sly……”
Xu Jie nodded: “I was too impatient, I waited for over ten years，but I didn’t wait until the end. I thought I could take advantage of the opportunity to wipe out the Yan faction, but I forgot that a centipede does not die hard3. The Yan family have been in power for decades, so how could they possibly be completely defeated overnight?”
He had wanted to take this opportunity to completely get rid of the Yan faction, but instead was bitten by the latter using the impeachment of his own student, but their intentions were obvious: Xu Jie, weren’t you trying to get rid of corrupt officials but you allow students to take bribes, your own family is also taking over fertile land, let’s see how you’ll get out of this one?
Zhang Juzheng didn’t want his teacher to continue to blame himself so he changed the subject: “Fortunately, His Majesty is on our side this time.” Xu Jie raised his eyebrows, “How do you know?” “When the impeachment was submitted, His Majesty did not issue it, nor did he issue a decree to reprimand you, teacher, which means that His Majesty still thinks highly of you.” “You’re wrong，”
Xu Jie sighed: “Now the Emperor must think that I say one thing and do the other. I haven’t been able to completely get rid of the Yan faction but he must already be growing suspicious of me.”
Zhang Juzheng was greatly startled :“Why is that?”
Xu Jie didn’t answer, he only said: “Just watch and see, in a few days we will know.” It must be said that Xu Jie, having been in the Grand Secretariat for so many years, was equally accurate in guessing the Emperor’s mind. It was just after the eighth month of the Lunar Year，Jiajing ordered: Yan Song must return to the Capital and re-enter the Grand Secretariat. Secretary Yan was already over eighty years old，At this time, he is still recuperating in Zhili4, just a stone’s throw from the Capital so he would return in just a few days. This means that the Yan faction, which had been dormant for over a year, was on the verge of a comeback.
And all this change was just from a decision that the Emperor made in a mere moment. Jiajing showed his dissatisfaction with Xu Jie by his practical actions, and Xu Jie could only silently swallow the bitter fruit5, lay down the flag and still the drums6 and continue to flatter and fawn, whilst waiting for his next opportunity to come. It was in the midst of the murky and unclear change when Emperor Jiajing fell ill.
The roots of his disease had been planted many years ago.
As everyone in the court knew, His Majesty had always taken immortality pills as if they were food. No matter how healthy one’s body was, after years and years of accumulating this in the body, of course, there was no way that he could continue to withstand it. Not only Li Shizhen, but also every imperial physician who had consulted the Emperor’s pulse had warned him to stop taking the immortality elixir, but unfortunately these words all fell on deaf ears of an Emperor who was eager to become immortal.
Only that no one expected that the Emperor, being so ill, would summon both the Prince of Yu and the Prince of Jing to the palace to wait upon him serving soup and medicine.
It was necessary to know that over the last few years, the number of times that Jiajing and his two sons had met could be counted on one’s ten fingers. Even when he had previously taken ill, the two sons had never been summoned to the palace before. This time was with such fanfare that one could not help but think about it.
The Prince of Yu entered the palace, Consort Chen and Secondary Consort Li accompanied him, So in a large Prince of Yu Manor, there was only Zhu Yijun who could be considered a Master.
Because the Prince of Yu was not at home, Gao Gong and the others did not come over either. Only Zhao Su, with his duties, still has to travel frequently between the Manor and the Hanlin Academy. Another year passed and he was promoted to Senior Compiler at the Hanlin Academy, which was a sixth rank official position, and he was finally freed from his lowly title of “seventh-ranked official”.
Yuan Shu had already arrived in Qujing to take up his official post, and because of the long journey, only one letter had come back, saying that the locals there were simple and honest, but there were also many problems, conflicts between the Han and non-Han people. The common people were poor and could not find a livelihood, but he was trying to find a way to change things.
Zhao Su also replied with a letter saying that the habits of the non-Han people were very different from those of the Han Chinese, telling him to try to respect the customs of the non-Han people so as not to provoke civil unrest, and also suggesting that Yuan Shu should first find a way to build roads, because only by opening up access to the outside world would it be possible to achieve other things.
Regarding the others, Xu Shixing finally did accept his ancestors and changed his surname to Shen, and has been called Shen Shixing ever since. Everyone was working at the Hanlin Academy together, their friendship gradually became deeper, having a close-knit and tightly formed team around them all. Zhao Su handled matters with honesty and was the most trustworthy, plus, with the involvement with Xu Jie, Prince of Yu and other forces, he implicitly became the leader of the group.
The young master of Hui Chun Tang, Shen Lexing, came to visit Zhao Su and his family in Beijing, bringing a letter from Lady Chen, in which she reported that he was safe, and mentioned a little about Zhao Su’s marriage, saying that many families had come to their door to ask to matchmake, almost breaking down the threshold, wanting to know what he thought.
Zhao Nuan became more realistic with flights of fancy, and continued to make the shop better and better. With the additional staff sent by Lady Chen, he took out surplus money and rented a shop to make snacks, which also bore the name of “Tang Song Ju”. Business was going well, and Zhao Su even used his relationship with the Embroidered Guards to get them to help so that no one came to make trouble or try to make them pay any superfluous taxes.
Zhao Su had a share in Tang Song Ju, so once business was good, he naturally had a lot of money on the side, so he bought a new servant and named him, Zhao Ji, which made up the word auspicious7 with Zhao Nuan’s servant Zhao Xiang.
Zhu Yijun was also slowly growing up without being noticed by many people. Although he still looked like a white and tender little bun, his eyebrows and eyes are gradually opening up. It was vaguely visible to see that he had received the good points of the Prince of Yu and Consort Li, so in time he would surely grow up to be a handsome youth.
Zhao Su put in strenuous efforts in order to make sure he was nurturing a competent future son of heaven.
For example, the last time he drank with Shen Shixing, they had mentioned Hai Rui, so he took the opportunity to teach Zhu Yijun how to distinguish between a righteous official and a corrupt one.
Zhao Su: “A loyal official may not be a capable official and a corrupt official may not be incapable of doing anything. A righteous official like Hai Rui, who is demanding of himself and others, can manage a small place well, but may not be able to govern the entire country well.”
Zhu Yijun: “So can corrupt officials be treated lightly and leniently?”
Zhao Su: “No, not really. It depends on how much he has contributed to the people of the country. If a person enriches himself but only to fit in with the rules, gets on well with his colleagues, and then does a lot of good for the people in his position, then he cannot be treated as the same crime as those corrupt officials who only know how to oppress the people and show off their power, lust and punishment.” Zhang Juzheng, I am trying to excuse you in advance for what you will do in the future.
The child continued to ask: “So, does Susu want to be a corrupt or a righteous official?”
Zhao Su smiled: “Many things in this world are not black or white. Perhaps in the future, I will also accept bribes and do things that only corrupt officials do. When the time comes, crooked or straight cannot escape the sanction of the law of this country and the public opinion of later generations.”
The little kid looked serious: “Susu won’t be a corrupt official, corrupt officials will be scolded, if you need money to spend, I will give it to you and you won’t have to become a corrupt official.” Zhao Su didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or cry, but his heart was warmed.
Many things could not only be learned from only the vast ancient records and canon texts such as the Four Books and Five Classics, so Zhao Su did his best to combine what he had seen and heard with the books to instil into Zhu Yijun, hoping that the child would be able to look at the world from a more objective perspective, rather than becoming a stubborn person as he had been noted down in history.
In his spare time, he would take Zhu Yijun through the streets and alleys of the Capital, telling him the origins of every monument, the duties of every government office, how the people in the city lived and how they worked and toiled to make ends meet, telling him that water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn a boat, telling him that beyond China, there was the world, that the Ming Dynasty was not the kingdom of heaven, let alone the centre of the world, and that there were countless other countries and civilisations in the far west.
In all things in this world, if you invest your efforts, you will be rewarded. Sago Palms8 will eventually blossom one day, let alone the personal growth of people.
Zhu Yijun became more and more attached to Zhao Su, although Zhao Su looked young, his real age was in reality beyond these years. The relationship between the two was like that of teacher-student and friends, with an added layer of fatherly affection and love, which deepened over time, even to Zhao Su’s own surprise.
Entering the ninth month of the lunar year, the situation started to become even more belligerent.
Yan Shifan would soon return to the Capital when he finished observing the mourning period. Yan Song still sat firmly in his position as the Senior Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat, although he was of an advanced age and much less efficient and responsive, but as long as he was present, the Yan faction was as stable as a rock.
The Emperor’s condition did not seem to be improving, the Prince of Yu and the Prince of Jing were still in the palace and were not allowed to leave. Jiajing did not want to see his officials at all, even Yan Song and Xu Jie had only been summoned once, but fortunately with the Grand Secretariat at work, everything was in order, even if the Emperor was not in charge, the country would not be in chaos for a while.
Yan Song and Xu Jie continue to go to the Grand Secretariat every day to carry out their duties, not wasting any time, when they saw each other they would still greet each other with a welcoming smile, as if those occasions of vile nastiness did not happen before, but the subordinates below them did not have the same kind of ability as them.
As for the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers, they all met often and it weighed heavily on their minds with no one sure when things would come to blows again.
Zhang Juzheng was led by a maidservant through the Prince of Yu Manor and round the corner towards the flower garden where he saw two people sitting at the stone table playing go.
On closer inspection, the game was neither chess nor go, a very odd game.
The stone game pieces were engraved with the words — from Commander-General, Deputy Commander-General, General down to the regular foot soldier, and included almost all the military positions of the Ming dynasty, imitating two sides facing each other, with the same dividing line in the middle, but played in a very different way.
While Zhang Juzheng watched with amusement, the two people had already spotted him. “Zhang da-ren,” Zhao Su greeted him.
“What is this?” Zhang Juzheng pointed to the chess game that they were playing.
“Where did you get this from?” Zhao Su laughed, “This is a game I came up with in my spare time, for the princely heir to learn about the military system of the Great Ming.”
The Qing dynasty immediately gained the empire and held the Emperor’s military achievements in high esteem, whilst the Ming dynasty was the opposite. After the two emperors – Hongwu Emperor and Yongle Emperor, the high-ranking officials thought that a good Emperor should not disturb the people or incite military affairs indiscriminately, so even when the Emperor wanted to launch a campaign, it often never happened because the high-ranking officials objected.
If it had been a Confucian scholar9 who saw Zhao Su teaching Zhu Yijun how to play military chess, he would have rebuked him loudly for teaching the princely badly badly and encouraging him to indulge in military affairs, for fear of repeating the mistakes of the Tumu Crisis but Zhang Juzheng was not a normal person after all. When he heard what Zhao Su said, his first reaction was that if such chess pieces could be popularized in the army and used for training, they would be of great benefit to the Generals who lead the country’s troops.
“How do you play this?” He immediately showed interest. Zhao Su briefly explained the rules and at the end said, “It can be a two-player game or a four-player game. As the princely heir is still young, I want to teach him more through these kinds of practical methods.”
Zhang Juzheng nodded thoughtfully, sweeping his eyes across the tea and cakes on the stone table and then the splendid and glorious golden chrysanthemums in the garden, he could not help but sigh: “There is chaos outside, but you are free and unfettered here, living your days without worries.”
The words did not conceal his admiration.
Zhao Su read through the lines and understood that Zhang Juzheng seemed to be preoccupied, so he asked him to sit down, and when the maid served the tea, he asked: “da-ren is something troubling you?”
Author Note:
Note that time is beginning to move faster.