Chapter 0084: Nonsense-Filled Memorials, Frustrated Xie Chengze
Emperor Jian was utterly speechless.
He had finally realized that Xie Chengze genuinely disliked reviewing memorials and truly wanted nothing to do with court affairs.
He even began to suspect that Xie Chengze’s former mediocrity and incompetence were deliberate acts of foolishness – all so the Emperor would assign important tasks to the Crown Prince instead, allowing Chengze to legitimately laze around…
Such clever scheming laid bare.
Yet precisely because of this, the more Xie Chengze behaved this way, the more Emperor Jian wanted to make him work.
“Zhao Quan, grind ink for him. He must finish reviewing these today before he leaves,” Emperor Jian tapped the surface of the imperial desk, his index finger pointing toward where the vermilion powder was kept.
Eunuch Zhao froze momentarily, glancing at the Emperor again. But the Emperor’s expression remained unchanged, as if completely unaware he had pointed to the wrong place.
Vermilion endorsements with the imperial brush were exclusively reserved for successive emperors when reviewing memorials. The precious cinnabar ink symbolized imperial authority – even Xie Jinyu, despite being the Crown Prince who had assisted the Emperor with memorials for the past six months, could only use black ink for his annotations, never daring to challenge the Emperor’s prerogative.
For His Majesty to now permit the Second Prince to use vermilion ink demonstrated favoritism and indulgence that reached outrageous levels.
Eunuch Zhao sighed inwardly, then began carefully grinding ink for Xie Chengze.
Seeing the Emperor’s firm stance, Xie Chengze had no choice but to randomly select a memorial and pretend to examine it seriously.
Memorials weren’t submitted only by court officials – local magistrates throughout the empire also submitted regular or irregular reports. To maintain centralization of power, all these memorials came directly before Emperor Jian.
Admittedly, while these officials varied in quality, having been selected through the Spring Examination and Palace Examination, their calligraphy was consistently clear and distinctive, pleasing to the eye… if only they didn’t write lengthy nonsense in vertical script.
Xie Chengze strained his eyes reading two pages, only to find utterly meaningless content. He quickly skimmed through ten columns at a glance until reaching the final page, where he finally saw one sentence: “The people are peaceful and goods plentiful in such-and-such place. Your Majesty need not worry, please treasure your dragon’s health.”
Xie Chengze: …
Maddening! After all that reading, not a single important point!
If nothing’s happening, why not just write one sentence? Why waste everyone’s precious time!
Now he understood why Emperor Jian died young – sacrificing sleep daily to read such nonsense would make anyone furious enough to want to smash these memorials in the officials’ faces.
Just then, Emperor Jian gleefully patted the thick stack of memorials. “Ze’er, from now on during court breaks, you shall spend two hours daily reviewing memorials with your father.”
“Father, stop being inhuman!” Xie Chengze roared.
“I shall summon Shen Shilang to discuss matters together.”
“You’re a dragon, so naturally you do dragon things, not human things.”
Xie Chengze immediately corrected himself, then picked up the brush to dip in the freshly ground vermilion ink. With savage strokes, he scrawled in the memorial’s margin:
More nonsense = beheaded (scratched out) dismissed from office!
Hmm~ Much more satisfying now~
Xie Chengze set that memorial aside and picked up another to examine.
This time, his expression grew slightly more serious, becoming increasingly solemn as he read further. Finally, he furrowed his brow and picked up the brush, struggling to control the soft tip as he minimized his calligraphy to squeeze more comments into the margins.
Occasionally, he would lift his head with a frown, seemingly deep in thought, before lowering it again until his eyes were nearly pressed against the paper—all to shrink his characters further and write just a bit more.
It appeared he had encountered a difficult problem.
Yet judging by his demeanor, he seemed to have devised a solution. Emperor Jian thought to himself that he would review it once Xie Chengze finished. He then picked up another brush and, using a paperweight, began sketching a replica of the northeastern heated brick bed.
Time slipped away quietly as father and son diligently attended to tasks not originally theirs. Until a moment when an imperial guard entered to announce, “Your Majesty, the Crown Prince and Shen Shilang request an audience.”
Emperor Jian waved his hand. “Let them in.”
After speaking, he glanced at Xie Chengze and noticed he was still responding to the memorial, his expression growing increasingly grave, pausing frequently to ponder after writing just a few characters.
This must be an exceptionally challenging problem.
Emperor Jian thought to himself, then set down his brush and turned his gaze toward the entering Crown Prince and Shen Yuan.
Shen Yuan hadn’t expected Xie Chengze to be present. His eyes lingered on Xie’s face for a moment before shifting to Emperor Jian as he bowed. “Your Majesty.”
Xie Jinyu’s eyes brightened slightly. “Second Brother is here too.”
Xie Chengze looked up at the sound and offered a friendly smile. “Mm.”
Then he lowered his head again, continuing his life-and-death struggle with the memorial.
Only then did Xie Jinyu realize that Xie Chengze was seated at the desk reviewing memorials—and what’s more, using the Emperor’s own brush.
Father… truly indulges Second Brother to the extreme.
But so what? The throne would ultimately be his. Once Father passed, both the imperial throne and that person would fall into his hands, inherited by him alone.
This was the only truly valuable thing Father could bestow upon his own flesh and blood in this lifetime.
“Father,” Xie Jinyu said, stepping forward as his gaze cleared, “Regarding the Ministry of Rites’ proposal about the expeditionary trade mission, I’d like to discuss it further with you.”
Xie Chengze, who had been eavesdropping, immediately pricked up his ears.
Had Sheng Yiren convinced the Minister of Rites in just one night?
“Expeditionary trade mission…” Emperor Jian glanced at Xie Chengze. During court sessions two days prior, Xie had thrown all six ministries into chaos. Every minister reacted to him like mice spotting a wildcat, terrified he might propose some unimaginable idea for them to execute.
Nevertheless, those ideas had sparked considerable discussion among court officials. Particularly in recent days, the expeditionary trade mission proposal had generated the most fervent debate because it appeared the most practical—challenging yet achievable, with clear potential benefits for the Jian’an Dynasty if successful.
“I also find this strategy feasible,” Shen Yuan voiced his agreement. “Although the Jian’an Dynasty spans vast territories with abundant resources, current civilian needs remain insufficient, and people’s livelihoods still require improvement. Dispatching elite trade missions to foreign lands in search of beneficial goods would not only prevent foreign monopolies of rare commodities but also resolve many of our dynasty’s livelihood issues—truly a strategy that kills two birds with one stone.”
“Indeed.” Xie Jinyu said gravely, “Our dynasty now holds the secret of explosive gunpowder, making foreign powers naturally less daunting. However, with many among our people still suffering from poverty, rashly launching wars to expand territory in search of resources would be unwise. Instead, we could use the name of distant trade expeditions to showcase our national prestige through gentle means while seeking methods to benefit both the people and the state.”
Xie Chengze couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
Emperor Jian glanced at him sideways, “Focus on reviewing your memorials.”
Xie Chengze: …
Xie Chengze: #$%…*#$%$
Cursing Emperor Jian vehemently in his heart, Chengze had no choice but to lower his head again and engage passionately with the memorials.
Emperor Jian smiled silently, then turned to the two of them, “In that case, who do you think should be granted the authority to organize this trade expedition?”
“Perhaps it could be assigned to merchant groups from various regions…”