allonlinenovel Chapter 164 I have a sentence in my hand, but I don't know whether I should say it or not?
Chapter 164 I have a sentence in my hand, but I don't know whether I should say it or not?
Magistrate Yang's behavior is just like when the teacher says "Go home and rest well" before the holiday, and someone raises their hand and says, "Teacher, you haven't assigned any homework for the winter break."
Or, to put it even worse, it should be that right after the winter break, everyone handed in their hastily written winter break homework to get by, but there was this one jerk who seriously completed all the questions and even wrote a paper citing classical texts, accusing everyone of being unworthy of the teacher's care and the parents' feeding if they didn't do their homework properly.
Teachers definitely like such good students and will use them as role models to discipline other students, while the other students will also be successfully disgusted by this good student.
What's even more infuriating is that even if other students want to gang up on this good student, the teacher will always be biased towards protecting him. And this teacher is the head teacher, homeroom teacher, dean of students, principal, and holds all the prestigious positions in the school. He's afraid of no one except his wife.
Right now, Emperor Zhu Chongba is furiously criticizing the Minister of Personnel, Sheng Yuanfu, with the "Year-End Summary" and "Work Report" presented by Magistrate Yang.
"Look! Look! Look at how they act as officials. Ningyang County suffered from drought in the spring, locust plague in May, and heavy rain in July, but from February to October, they reclaimed more than 50,000 mu of wasteland!"
“If it were just clearing out wasteland, that would be one thing, but they also kept a clear record of everything that happened in Ningyang County throughout the year. The number of people in each household was accurate to the individual, the number of acres of land in each household was accurate to the cent, and even the number of livestock was accurate. As long as we look at this report, we can know what Ningyang County is like.”
Emperor Zhu Chongba, with a look of utter disdain, picked up a memorial submitted by some county magistrate. "Take another look at this," he said. "What the hell is this nonsense? No matter how much he praises us, we still know nothing about the areas under his rule. At most, we know how many people and how much land there is. What else can we possibly know?"
Sheng Yuanfu felt wronged and wanted to grab the emperor by the collar and yell back, but when he thought of his wife, children and elderly parents, he could only swallow his anger and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, please calm down. I will send all the orders back to the counties and make them redo them."
Although Emperor Zhu Chongba's anger had not subsided, he suddenly remembered what his second and third sons had once said: they had learned from Magistrate Yang in Ningyang County that punishing without teaching is cruelty.
Suppressing his dissatisfaction, Emperor Zhu snorted and said, "Don't send it back to be redone. They didn't think of doing this kind of year-end summary and work report beforehand, so it's really not their fault. We'll have someone make copies of Magistrate Yang's 'Year-End Summary' and 'Work Report', and after the New Year, we'll send a copy to each of your government offices and localities. You should all study them carefully."
After criticizing the Ministry of Personnel, Emperor Zhu turned his attention to Yang Siyi, the Minister of Revenue: "And your Ministry of Revenue, is it really that difficult to collect data on the population and land area of all the prefectures and counties in the country? Starting next year, the Ministry of Revenue will begin to collect data on the population and land area of all the prefectures and counties in the country, just like the household registration books and land registers submitted by Ningyang County."
Immediately afterwards, Emperor Zhu set his sights on Shan Anren, the Minister of Works: "The construction of a road from Ningyang County to Yanzhou Prefecture, the manpower, animal power, food supply, estimated completion time, and all estimated expenses are all clearly written in the budget. All current expenses are also clearly written in the progress schedule. Your Ministry of Works should know what to do, right?"
Minister of Rites Qian Yongren, Minister of War Chen Ning, and Minister of Justice Zhou Zhen hid to the side, trembling with fear.
Emperor Zhu glared at the three of them, then snorted coldly and said, "Alright, you can all go about your business now."
After the six ministers were all dismissed, Li Shanchang, who had been sitting to the side pretending to be dead for most of the day, finally spoke up: "Your Majesty, I have something to say, but I don't know if I should."
Emperor Zhu laughed heartily and said, "Brother Shanchang, please speak freely. We, as ruler and subject, rose from humble beginnings together. Why should we have so many complicated rules?"
Seeing Li Shanchang's conflicted expression and his repeated hesitation to speak, Emperor Zhu couldn't help but ask, "Brother Shanchang, what's wrong? Is there something you can't tell us?"
Li Shanchang hesitated for a while before stammering, "When you're in a high position, it's good to be a little oblivious. A year-end summary as detailed as Magistrate Yang's is certainly good, but if he does that, I'm afraid every official in the court, high and low, will hate him. This..."
Emperor Zhu stared at Li Shanchang for a long while, then suddenly laughed and said, "Brother Shanchang, when did the wrong become right, and the right have to compromise with the wrong? If one day all the civil and military officials oppress the people like the officials of the Tartar court, will we still have to compromise?"
Waving the "Work Summary" and "Year-End Report" in his hand, Emperor Zhu laughed and said, "Since this scoundrel can write such a 'Work Summary' and 'Year-End Report,' does Brother Shanchang think he didn't expect to incur the hatred of all the officials?"
Li Shanchang was slightly taken aback, and Emperor Zhu continued, "He knows that the officials will definitely resent him, but he also knows that our Zhu Chongba will protect him, so he is so unscrupulous in causing trouble for the entire court. Brother Shanchang, why don't you guess how he knows that our Zhu Chongba will protect him?"
Upon hearing Emperor Zhu's words, Li Shanchang immediately fell silent.
How could Li Shanchang not guess the reason why he was able to rise to the position of prime minister?
However, it's one thing to be able to guess, but it's completely impossible for Li Shanchang to actually emulate Magistrate Yang.
Besides being constrained by his position as prime minister, the more important reason was that Li Shanchang could not betray his class, and dared not gamble on whether Zhu Chongba would discard him after he had served his purpose.
Seeing Li Shanchang remain silent, Emperor Zhu simply smiled and did not make things difficult for him further. Instead, he said with a smile, "Alright, Brother Shanchang, think it over carefully when you get back. We, as ruler and subject, started from humble beginnings and have supported each other all the way to where we are today. We will continue to walk together in the future, don't you think?"
Li Shanchang stood up, bowed to Emperor Zhu, and said, "Your Majesty is right. I will think about it carefully when I get back."
After Li Shanchang left, Emperor Zhu Chongba narrowed his eyes slightly.
After a long silence, Emperor Zhu ordered Erhu, "Go and fetch Biao'er for us."