Chapter 168: Master Zhao gives a lecture
Chapter 168: Master Zhao gives a lecture
The north gate of the imperial city, outside Xiuwen Hall.
A horse-drawn carriage cut through the night, entered the imperial city in the sight of the imperial guards, and stopped outside the government office which had been newly established one day ago.
Zhao Duan lifted the car curtain and stepped down, only to see that it had become completely dark.
There was no light in the sky, and the thick night enveloped the capital. The stars were looming in the sky, and the full moon was hanging high in the sky.
Looking forward, the lanterns hanging outside Xiuwen Hall embellish the night.
Coincidentally, Zhao Duan arrived with another car coming from the south, that is, the direction of "Palace City".
Mo Chou got off the carriage, and the two of them looked at each other on both sides of the yamen gate. They were both stunned for a moment, and said in unison:
"How did you come?"
Then they said in unison again:
"Of course I can come!"
silence.
The corner of Zhao Duan's mouth twitched, and he glanced towards the palace:
"Your Majesty is not here?"
He did not see the empress's royal carriage.
Mo Chou, who was nicknamed "Female Prime Minister" but actually looked more like a maid, said calmly with a straight face:
"Your Majesty is in seclusion for training... You haven't told me yet, why are you here again?"
The time in the morning was "imperial permission", but this time it is impossible that His Majesty allowed him to come.
Retreat? How long... Zhao Duan was stunned for a moment, a little surprised, but facing the other party's questioning eyes, he just said:
"Master Dong invited me here, so what do you think?"
If you don't agree, bite me.
Will the Grand Tutor invite you?
The first female official, dressed in neutral attire, opened her eyes wide, obviously unbelieving, but when she caught a glimpse of the Grand Tutor's entourage beside the carriage, she hesitated again.
It was totally incomprehensible why this literary giant, who had always disliked cruel officials like Zhao Duan, would invite him.
"Hey...wait for me."
Just when I was about to ask, I saw Zhao Duan had already stepped into the hall, so I had to chase after him.
I was very confused about the sudden summons from the Grand Tutor tonight.
……
The museum is brightly lit.
When the two pushed open the door, they saw that the room was still arranged in daytime, except that the lampshades on the table were all lit.
At this moment, sitting at the head of the room was an octogenarian with white hair and beard, dressed in a bright red university scholar's robe.
Next to him was Han Zhou, Han Banshan, who looked like a modest gentleman with neatly combed hair and a gentle temperament.
In addition, there were four other scholars who were obviously summoned in a hurry.
Not all the people have arrived yet...
But this time, Zhao Duan was no longer the one who was late.
Considering the distance between the Zhao family and Xiuwen Hall...
This means that Master Dong might have been the first one to summon him, followed by the others.
Zhao Duan already had some guesses in his mind.
"brush--"
At this moment, many eyes were cast over, with different expressions.
Except for Grand Tutor Dong, the other scholars all looked surprised.
Mo Chou's arrival was not surprising. As it involved an important matter, the empress could not come in person, so she had to send a trusted "ear" to eavesdrop.
but……
"Why is this warrior here again?" No one said this, but the expressions they showed clearly meant this.
Han Zhou was also surprised, but then seemed to have figured something out and immediately smiled and nodded at him.
The "Guo Jieyuan", who had an extremely ordinary appearance, the temperament of a veteran official, and was very good at finance, also smiled.
His eyes moved between Han Zhou and Zhao Duan, as if he could see the changes in their relationship.
"Grandmaster." Mo Chou took a step and walked straight over:
"I wonder why you are summoned to this gathering at night?"
Master Dong raised his head, took his eyes off the memorial, and nodded to Mo Chou, who represented the empress:
"There are some changes regarding the new policy. Please take a seat first."
then……
His eyes turned to the invisible Zhao Duan, who suddenly pulled out a stack of papers and shook them:
"This...was written by you?"
As expected... it was the manuscript that gave him the idea. This old man has a pretty good eye...
Zhao Duan smiled and said:
"I just sat in on the class during the day and wrote down some random thoughts... they are not worth mentioning."
The tone is relaxed and casual.
Everyone could not hide their curiosity, including Han Zhou, as no one knew of the existence of this manuscript.
"Yes," Master Dong paused with a sharp gaze, nodded slowly, and suddenly looked around at everyone, saying:
"No more waiting, let's start the meeting."
The scholars were stunned, thinking that there were still several people who had not arrived, so why didn’t they wait?
Well, I guess the Grand Tutor is waiting for Mo Zhaorong, so it makes sense for Miss Mo to arrive...
The scholars became solemn and sat up straight. The atmosphere in Xiuwen Hall became serious and dignified at night.
Tsk... It feels like an emergency meeting late at night to work overtime... Zhao Duan took a step and came to the corner again, sitting down next to the registrar.
The latter was holding a pen and was about to take notes, but when he saw him coming, he nodded for the first time with a complicated look in his eyes.
"I have urgently summoned you all here tonight because of the new policy. Scholar Han came to me this afternoon and asked me to withdraw the ten strategies." Grand Tutor Dong said shockingly.
Everyone was shocked and confused. Han Zhou stood up, looking ashamed: "I am really ashamed. I just felt that the ten strategies I proposed were not appropriate after being pointed out by others..."
Then, he frankly described how he "chance met" Zhao Duan at noon, how he was pointed out by Zhao Duan during the meal, and how he noticed something wrong. Due to space limitations, he did not describe the details:
"Mr. Zhao's words awakened me from my dream. I deeply feel that the ten strategies are wrong, so I ask to rewrite them."
After he finished speaking, everyone present was stunned.
They instinctively thought it was absurd and bizarre. What exactly did that cruel and brutal official, whom they ignored and looked down upon, say?
How could it make Han Banshan like this?
Without waiting for the crowd to discuss, Master Dong raised his hand to suppress it, looked towards the corner, and said calmly:
"I am quite curious about the ideas you wrote. Since you can point out the fallacies in Han Banshan's policy, I think you also have your own unique views on the new policy. How about you come up and tell us about it?"
How about telling me about it?
The Grand Master... is inviting a cruel official? To discuss the new policy?
Everyone was stunned again. The pace of this night meeting was too fast and Han Zhou's speech seemed to be just a formality.
Before they could react, the microphone was handed to Zhao Duan.
Zhao Duan raised his eyebrows and smiled at the surprised glances.
If it is in the morning, he may not have a clear idea in his mind and may refuse.
But after an afternoon of sorting out, some basic ideas have taken shape.
Originally, he planned to follow the example of Zhang Juzheng in history and write a memorial to the empress to read and scare her.
Unexpectedly, Master Dong’s call came suddenly.
Yeah.
"Haha," he chuckled, stood up, and walked straight around the long table.
Glancing at the empty chairs, I felt uncomfortable.
He glanced around and said in deep thought:
"Master, can you please lend me a screen, a large piece of paper, a pen, and some ink?"
Master Dong nodded slightly.
The registrar stood up, moved a screen in the room to the end of the table, found a large blank paper, and covered the screen as Zhao Duan requested.
In this way, we have a barely usable "blank slate".
Zhao Duan stood in front of a folding screen with white paper, with one hand behind his back, holding a small brush and dipping it in ink.
In a trance, it seemed as if I had returned to my previous life, when I used to give reports and explain slides in meetings.
"call……"
Letting out a long breath, Zhao Duan smiled as he faced the scholars on both sides of the long conference table and the confused eyes of his rival Mo Chou:
"The Grand Master asked me to speak, but I don't have any ideas, so... let's start with the administration of officials."
This was the first issue to be discussed during the day.
Zhao Duan talked freely:
"In the pursuit of justice, the most urgent thing is to ensure people's livelihood; the key to ensuring people's livelihood is to review the administration of officials..."
"In general, the affairs of the world are not difficult to make laws, but difficult to enforce them; not difficult to listen to advice, but difficult to make sure that the advice is effective. If you inquire about things without examining their end, and start things without repeated reflection, and there is no clear-headedness to review, and people are willing to make do, even if there is a sage ruler above and wise ministers below, it is difficult to achieve results and success."
The opening remarks were a quote from Zhang Juzheng's original text of "Please Check the Memorials and Evaluate the Results in Order to Improve Practical Politics", with some modifications to the details.
As soon as these words were thrown out, everyone was stunned, surprised:
This military and cruel official is surprisingly good at writing.
And those who are perceptive have already captured the key words hidden in these clear opening words.
Zhao Duan turned around, picked up his pen, and wrote on the white paper behind the screen:
Official administration, assessment, and performance appraisal system.
Turning back, he smiled and said:
"I agree with Grand Master's words that the administration of officials is the most important thing for the new policy. Without clear administration of officials, no matter how good the method is, it will be useless. However, compared with the strategies you mentioned, I think the most effective one is still the art of assessment...
The ancient system of Dayu already had the method of recommendation, but I think that the times are different now and the old method is no longer sufficient to cope with the current situation. Therefore, I have conceived a new method, called "Kaocheng". As the name suggests, the purpose of the assessment is to focus on the results of the tasks of officials at all levels..."
"The spirit of performance appraisal is to set deadlines for reviewing matters and hold people accountable for the matters... To implement it, the six ministries and the Censorate shall set deadlines for the matters that their officials should handle and record them in three account books. The six ministries and the Censorate shall keep one as the base book, send one to the six departments, and submit the third to the Cabinet...
The six ministries and the Censorate shall register the accounts and check them monthly. For the tasks undertaken by officials, they shall record them once completed, otherwise they shall report them truthfully; the six departments shall also register the accounts and order the six ministries to report them once every six months... Those who violate the rules shall be punished according to the case; the cabinet shall also register the accounts and verify the audit work of the six departments..."
Zhao Duan was speaking and everyone in the room was listening.
Master Dong frowned and said nothing.
The octogenarian had worked hard all day and was already exhausted, but at this moment his eyes were bright and he seemed to be lost in thought, deducing this method in his mind.
Han Zhou looked confused. He originally thought that it was the Grand Tutor who asked Zhao Duan to talk about the drawbacks of his ten strategies.
In this way, the scholars can study and discuss it.
But the development of things was completely beyond expectations, and Zhao Duan didn't even mention a word about the Ten Strategies.
Instead, he started by talking about the administration of officials which had been deadlocked in the morning and could not be advanced.
As for Mochou...
The maidservant beside the empress was completely confused. Zhao Duan? That uneducated warrior?
In the future 'cabinet', will you be teaching civil service to a group of scholars?
She pinched her thigh secretly and it hurt a lot, so it wasn't a dream.
But it is more absurd and false than a dream.
At this moment, she suddenly recalled that in the morning, Zhao Duan asked her about the assessment. Thinking about it this way, she indirectly helped him find an idea?
However, at that time she didn't care at all and didn't even notice what he wrote or drew.
At this time, footsteps were heard outside the door and the door creaked open.
Then, Wang You, who looked like a nobleman, the son of the Minister of Personnel, and a scion of a powerful family, who had been so arrogant that he didn't even bother to look at Zhao Duan at the restaurant at noon, came late.
"too……"
Wang You stepped over the threshold with one foot, and then saw the scene in the house and was stunned.
He subconsciously pulled his foot back, closed the door, raised his head and looked around to confirm that it was Xiuwen Hall.
"I must have opened the door incorrectly..."
Wang You laughed at himself and pushed the door again. Then, the worldview of this great talent from the aristocratic family collapsed.
(End of this chapter)