Chongzhen's self-mockery of himself made Wang Chengen dare not continue to talk. But he didn't want to watch Chongzhen be so depressed, in order to make Chongzhen happy, he changed the topic and said: "The minister still has one more thing to tell Your Majesty, the brother and sister that Your Majesty rescued outside the palace last time, that brother was favored by His Majesty, and finally survived." ”

Sure enough, this news did make Zhu Youzhen look a little happy. He nodded and said, "Okay, so that this young lady doesn't have to be an orphan, this young man's vitality is really tenacious." ”

Seeing that Chongzhen finally had some smile on his face, Wang Chengen couldn't help but say playfully: "The minister sees that this Zhang Niang is well-behaved and smart, and it seems to be very suitable for His Majesty's temperament, why don't you let her enter the palace as a palace maid?" ”

Zhu Youzhen waved his hand and said: "There are enough people serving me in the palace, and their brothers and sisters finally don't have to part with life and death, so let them live together." When the boy recovers, let him go to the daily newspaper office to do a chore, so that he can support himself and his sister. ”

Wang Chengen was slightly disappointed in his heart, but he was busy responding. These days, Chongzhen's spleen is very different from the past, which makes him, the old man next to King Xin, a little uncertain about Chongzhen's thoughts.

Zhang Yiniang was able to enter Chongzhen's eyes and saved her brother's life by the way. He originally planned to let Zhang Yiniang enter the palace to serve Chongzhen and become his assistant in the palace in the future. However, this plan just came to the fore, and it was snuffed out by Chongzhen.

Zhu Youzhen looked at the sky outside the window, turned back to Wang Chengen and asked, "This afternoon, is it the time for the craftsmen in the palace to learn words?" ”

Wang Chengen calculated in his heart, and immediately replied: "Yes, Your Majesty, last time the yamen agreed that every other day, the craftsmen of the yamen would have a half-day course in the empty house of the inner official prison to teach writing and arithmetic, and today happened to be the third course. ”

Zhu Youzhen suddenly became interested and said: "It's just right, now that there is nothing to do, go and see how these craftsmen are learning." ”

…

In a two-entry courtyard house near Yaojia Xiaohu on Mashiqiao Street in Mingyufang, Xicheng, Beijing, it is the residence of Yao Shiheng, the imperial historian of Zhejiang Province, in Beijing.

This third-class fellow jinshi in the second year of the Apocalypse is a native of Yunjian Huating, and is now 33 years old. He let go of a Fujian county order, and by chance, he was recommended as the governor of Zhejiang Province at the beginning of the year.

Yao Shiheng has always adhered to the concept of being kind to others, although he is a Jiangnan person, he is not a member of the Donglin Party. However, he did not show favor to the eunuch party, but only wisely protected himself from being involved in the party struggle.

There are 110 people in the Thirteen Dao Inspectors, 3 or 40 people who echo the Donglin Party, 2 or 30 people who support the Eunuch Party, and more than 30 people who ride the wall to watch the momentum over there and lean on that side. The remaining 1 or 20 people are like Yao Shiheng, who only pays attention to self-protection and does not mix everything.

If it was during the Taizu and Chengzu periods, the Ministry of Officials and the Metropolitan Procuratorate appointed people like Yao Shiheng as the Thirteen Imperial History, I am afraid that someone from the Ministry of Officials and the Metropolitan Procuratorate would be unlucky.

But in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, all the rules left over from the beginning of the country became ornaments hanging on the wall. The officials are selected either based on the amount of bribes, or they are randomly selected according to the chronological order of seniority, and the role of the officials in selecting materials for the country has become a joke in the officialdom.

Originally, according to the past, officials like Yao Shiheng who were supervising Dao mixed qualifications, generally no one would move them, because the supervision of the imperial history had the power to impeach hundreds of officials.

Moreover, although these superintendents are nominally under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Prosecutor's Yuan, in terms of the power to impeach officials, even the chief officials of the Imperial Court cannot stop them.

Because nominally, the objects of impeachment can include officials of the Imperial Procuratorate, and each of them is theoretically responsible to the emperor, not to the left capital.

Therefore, although Wei Zhongxian controlled the leaders and officials of the Imperial Palace, he could not block the voice of the Donglin Party on the road of speech, precisely because of the peculiar independent nature of the Kedao officials.

But now, Yao Shiheng and other officials have encountered a real crisis. Li Kuilong, the right deputy capital imperial history, was ordered by the emperor to rectify the science and road, and he united the left deputy capital imperial history Yang Weiyuan, the right capital imperial history Li Chunmao and others, and began to eliminate the science and road officials who refused to follow them.

Because of the support of Liu Zongzhou and Wen Zhenmeng, Li Kuilong didn't dare to go too far. Moreover, the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party fought in the court before, and the number of copies of the impeachment official chapter had long exceeded the amount set by Chongzhen.

But Yao Shiheng and their mixed qualifications are a little sad, they are good gentlemen, and they have only neglected some trivial things in the past year. Of course, in return, they also reaped a lot of benefits from the magistrates, and if they didn't clean up the Kedao, it would have been a win-win situation.

But now, it's become their talisman. Ten years or even more than ten years of hard study, just because the new emperor changed the rules, they will ruin their future, which is something that Yao Shiheng is unwilling to do.

Yao Shiheng discussed with several colleagues in the same situation that if they were cleared out of Kedao by Li Kuilong for the crime of dereliction of duty, then they would only be able to float in the state and county in the future.

If you want to change this situation, you can't do it except on these days. Since his accession to the throne, the government has been in accordance with the rules of the past for three months, making the courtiers think that this is a steady and well-kept young man.

But then His Majesty kept making trouble at the court meeting, and the changes in the government in ten months were far greater than the seven years of the first emperor's administration, but only the new policy of the original Zhang Jiangling Bingguo period can be similar.

Several colleagues who are good friends with Yao Shiheng think that Jinshang likes to talk about the new deal. Since it is impossible to find a weighty target for impeachment for a while, it is better to talk about some reform strategies to attract His Majesty's attention.

Although this is a good idea, Yao Shiheng has not been an official for a long time, and he was only a sage who only read books before, and he had no clue about the way to govern the country economically.

Although he served as a county magistrate, the customs of Fujian are very different from those of Yunjian, and even the language is very different. He was in Pucheng for three years, basically entertaining himself in the county government, and all the political affairs were decided by the two masters and the local officials.

He is a county magistrate who is relaxed and happy, but he still doesn't know anything about governing people's livelihood.

Neither understanding the economy nor how to govern people's livelihood, let him come up with a few policies to reform the disadvantages of the times, which can be said to be a sad person.

As for a few colleagues, it is already interesting enough to provide him with a direction for Shangshu, and if they want them to learn from him, it is an old cat smelling salted fish - don't think.

Yao Shiheng looked at a red maple tree in the atrium with a frown, in the past, he loved the elegant form of this maple tree the most, and he had the demeanor of a humble gentleman. But today I look at it this way, how is it not pleasing to the eye.

Seeing a yellowed maple leaf slowly falling from the branch, a feeling of depression suddenly rushed into Yao Shiheng's heart, and he felt that he might soon wither like this fallen leaf.

After being sentimental for a while, Yao Shiheng suddenly felt inexplicable grief and indignation. He slammed the table and said angrily, "Butler, where has the butler gone?" ”

An old man in his 50s, wearing a half-new blue pan-necked robe, hurriedly walked in from outside the hall with a robe under his robe.

After he saluted Yao Shiheng, he said a little breathlessly, "Does the second young master have any orders?" ”

Yao Shiheng glanced at the housekeeper who hurriedly ran in, this old housekeeper was the servant of the Yao family and the most powerful assistant by his father's side. Yao Shiheng respected him in the past, but today this nameless fire has come up, so he can't take care of it.

He pointed to the red maple in the atrium and said, "Find someone to cut down this bad tree immediately." ”

The housekeeper Yao An was a little dumbfounded, this red maple was selected by Yao Shiheng when he entered Beijing at the beginning of the year and bought this house.

It's nothing if he called someone to cut it down, but what if the second young master regretted it after his anger passed.

The Yao family is not a family in the clouds, and it has only been three generations. The first generation of the Yao family was a peddler selling Songjiang cloth in the streets, so although he made a fortune, the local gentry were not willing to be with him.

The third generation of the Yao family, Yao Shiheng's father, in order to change the dilemma of being despised by the local gentry and being blackmailed by the officials, wanted to train a child to go to school, so as to glorify the lintel of the Yao family.

Fortunately, the second young master Yao Shiheng has some reading seeds, and under the full cultivation of the family, Yao Shiheng really won the imperial examination and entered the official career.

But the result of more than ten or twenty years of hard study is that this second young master has a bit of a literati temperament, which is the so-called moodiness.

And the Yao family is counting on this second young master to glorify his ancestors, so naturally there will be no disobedience, and they will suffer from these subordinates.

The housekeeper Yao An didn't want to be scolded by the second young master afterwards, and besides, this red maple was selected from the mountains and transplanted in this courtyard, and it cost fifty or sixty gold just to be artificial.

When the housekeeper was young, he followed the Yao family master around for business, but he knew how hard it was to make money, so he was quite distressed by Yao Shiheng's behavior of using money to lose his temper.

When the old housekeeper was in trouble, a delicate young woman wearing a gold-inlaid jade black pocket, a tender yellow armor on her upper body, and a peony pleated skirt walked out of the back hall.

Before she arrived in front of the hall, a soft and glutinous Suzhou official dialect had already been transmitted, "Who provoked the old man to sulk for so long, and now he still puts his fire hair on a tree, or did the old man deliberately do it for the concubine to see?" ”

Seeing his wife walk out, the old butler breathed a sigh of relief. This second young grandmother is Shen Rong, the youngest daughter of the second young master's township test master, and in the past, the second young master was afraid of this lady like a tiger.

Sure enough, after seeing his wife come out, Yao Shiheng suddenly lost his temper, and immediately stood up, stepped forward and helped her sit down at the table. Shen Rong made a gesture to the old butler to ask him to step back, and Yao An immediately breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly withdrew from the front of the hall.