The First Lackey Under The Empress

North Gate of the Imperial City, outside the Xiuwen Hall.

A carriage cut through the night, entered the Imperial City in the sight of the Imperial Guards, and stopped outside the newly established yamen.

Zhao Du'an lifted the curtain of the carriage and stepped down, only to see that the sky had completely darkened.

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There was no light on the horizon, and the rich night shrouded the capital, with stars faintly visible in the sky, and a clear round moon hanging high.

His gaze turned forward, and the lanterns hanging outside the Xiuwen Hall dotted the night.

Coincidentally, another carriage arrived with Zhao Du'an, coming from the south, that is, the direction of the 'Palace City'.

Mo Chou stepped down from the carriage, and the two looked at each other on both sides of the yamen gate, both stunned, and said in unison:

"Why are you here?"

Then they said again in unison:

"Of course I can come!"

Silence.

Zhao Du'an's mouth twitched, and his gaze glanced towards the direction of the Palace City:

"Has Your Majesty not come?"

He did not see the Empress's royal carriage.

Mo Chou, who was nicknamed "Female Prime Minister" but was actually more like a big maid, said with a straight face:

"Your Majesty is in seclusion… You haven't said why you came again?"

The last time in the morning was a "royal privilege", but this time it was impossible for His Majesty to allow him to come.

In seclusion? How long will it be… Zhao Du'an was stunned for a moment, slightly surprised, but facing the other party's questioning gaze, he only said:

"Grand Tutor Dong invited me, so what?"

If you don't agree, come bite me.

The Grand Tutor invited you?

The first female official, dressed in a neutral manner, widened her eyes, obviously not believing it, but hesitated when she caught sight of the Grand Tutor's entourage beside the carriage.

She couldn't understand at all how the literary giant, who had always disliked Zhao Du'an and other cruel officials, would invite him.

"Hey… wait for me."

Just as she was about to ask, she saw that Zhao Du'an had already stepped into the hall, so she had to chase after him.

She was very puzzled by the Grand Tutor's sudden summons tonight.

…

The hall was brightly lit.

When the two pushed open the door, they saw that the layout of the room was still the same as during the day, except that the lampshades on the table were all lit.

At this moment, at the head of the room, was a white-haired, white-bearded old man in a bright red academician's robe.

Beside him was Han Zhou, Han Banshan, who looked like a modest gentleman with his hair neatly combed back and a weak temperament.

In addition, there were four academicians, all of whom were obviously summoned in a hurry.

The people haven't arrived yet…

But this time, Zhao Du'an was no longer the one who was late.

Considering the location of Zhao's house from the Xiuwen Hall…

It shows that Grand Tutor Dong may have summoned him first, and then the others.

Zhao Du'an already had some guesses in his mind.

"Shua — —"

At this moment, gazes were cast over, with different expressions.

Except for Grand Tutor Dong, the rest of the academicians showed surprise on their faces.

Mo Chou's arrival was not surprising. Involving major events, the Empress could not come in person, so she always needed to send a trustworthy "ear" to listen in.

But…

"Why is this martial artist here again?" No one said this, but the expressions they revealed clearly meant this.

Han Zhou was also very surprised, but immediately seemed to have thought of something, and immediately smiled and nodded to him.

The "Guo Jiexian", who had an extremely ordinary appearance, had the temperament of a worldly official, and was extremely good at finance, also smiled.

His gaze wandered between Han Zhou and Zhao Du'an, as if he saw the change in the relationship between the two.

"Grand Tutor." Mo Chou stepped forward and walked straight over:

"I wonder what is the matter for the urgent gathering at night?"

Grand Tutor Dong raised his head, his eyes pulled out from the memorial, and first nodded towards Mo Chou, who represented the Empress:

"There are some changes regarding the new policy. Sit down first."

Then…

His gaze turned to Zhao Du'an, who was like a little transparent person, and suddenly took out a stack of paper and shook it:

"This is… you wrote it?"

Sure enough… the manuscript attracted attention. This old man has good eyesight…

Zhao Du'an smiled and said:

"I was listening in during the day, and these are just some… scattered thoughts I jotted down, not worth mentioning."

His tone was light and casual.

Everyone couldn't hide their curiosity. Including Han Zhou, they didn't know about the existence of this manuscript.

"Well," Grand Tutor Dong paused his sharp gaze, nodded slowly, and suddenly looked around at everyone, saying:

"Let's not wait, let's start the discussion."

The academicians were stunned, thinking why not wait when there were still several people who hadn't arrived?

Well, it seems that the Grand Tutor is waiting for Mo Zhaorong, Miss Mo's arrival… which is also reasonable.

The academicians straightened up, and the atmosphere in the Xiuwen Hall at night suddenly became serious and solemn.

Tsk… it has the feeling of an emergency meeting and overtime late at night… Zhao Du'an stepped forward and came to the corner again, sitting down next to the recording officer.

The latter was pinching the pen, about to record, and when he saw him coming, he nodded unexpectedly, with a complex look in his eyes.

"The reason for urgently summoning you all tonight is still for the sake of the new policy. Academician Han found this old man this afternoon and requested to withdraw the Ten Strategies." Grand Tutor Dong's words were astonishing.

Everyone was shocked and puzzled.

Han Zhou got up, with a look of shame on his face: "I am really ashamed. The Ten Strategies I presented before, after being pointed out by someone, I realized they were inappropriate…"

Then, he frankly described in brief how he "coincidentally" met Zhao Du'an at noon, and was pointed out by him during the banquet, and realized the inappropriateness, limited by space, without detailing the content:

"Lord Zhao woke me up from my dream with a single word. I deeply feel the fallacy of the Ten Strategies, so I request to rewrite them."

After saying a word, everyone present was stunned.

They instinctively thought it was absurd and bizarre. What exactly did that martial artist and cruel official, who they ignored and looked down upon, say?

To make Han Banshan like this?

Before everyone could discuss, Grand Tutor Dong raised his hand and pressed down, his gaze turned to the corner, and he said calmly:

"This old man is quite curious about the ideas you've written. Since you can point out the fallacies in Han Banshan's strategies, it seems you also have unique insights into the New Policies. Why not come up and share them?"

Share them, how about it?

Grand Tutor… is inviting a cruel official to discuss the New Policies?

The crowd was stunned again. The pace of this night meeting was too fast, and even Han Zhou's speech seemed like a mere formality.

Before they could recover, the microphone was already handed to Zhao Du'an.

Zhao Du'an raised his eyebrows, met the astonished gazes, and smiled.

If it were this morning, when the draft in his mind was not yet clear, he might have declined.

But after an afternoon of sorting things out, some basic ideas had taken shape.

Originally, he planned to imitate Zhang Juzheng in history, write a memorial, and present it to the Empress, giving her a shock.

Unexpectedly, Grand Tutor Dong's summons came suddenly.

That's fine too.

"Heh heh," he chuckled softly, stood up, and walked straight around the long table.

Glancing at the few empty chairs, he felt uncomfortable.

His gaze swept around, and he pondered:

"Grand Tutor, may I borrow a screen and some large paper and ink?"

Grand Tutor Dong nodded slightly.

The recording officer stood up, moved a screen in the room to the end of the table, and found blank large paper, covering it on the screen according to Zhao Du'an's request.

In this way, there was a barely usable "whiteboard."

Zhao Du'an stood in front of the white paper screen with one hand behind his back, pinching a small writing brush and dipping it in ink.

In a trance, it seemed like he had returned to his previous life, to the years of reporting and explaining slides at meetings.

"Huff…"

Letting out a long breath, Zhao Du'an smiled at the scholars on both sides of the conference table and Mo Chou, his love rival, who had a puzzled look:

"The Grand Tutor asked me to speak, but I have no draft. Then… let's start with official governance."

This was the primary issue discussed during the day.

Zhao Du'an spoke eloquently:

"In governing, nothing is more urgent than securing the people's livelihood; the key to securing the people's livelihood lies in examining the official governance…"

"For the affairs of the world, it is not difficult to establish laws, but difficult to ensure that the laws are enforced; it is not difficult to listen to words, but difficult to ensure that the words are effective. If one inquires about matters without examining their end, and initiates matters without repeated reflection, if the superiors lack clear supervision and evaluation, and people harbor thoughts of complacency, even if the superiors are wise rulers and the subordinates are virtuous ministers, I am afraid it will be difficult to achieve success."

The opening remarks quoted Zhang Juzheng's original text from "Please Examine the Chapters and Memorials, Follow Matters to Evaluate Achievements, and Repair Practical Politics," with slight modifications to the details.

As soon as this passage was thrown out, everyone was stunned, surprised that:

This martial artist and cruel official's writing was not bad.

And the astute ones had already captured the key words contained in this clear opening statement.

Zhao Du'an turned around, picked up the pen, and wrote on the white paper of the screen in sequence:

Official Governance, Assessment, Performance Evaluation Method.

Turning back, he smiled:

"The Grand Tutor said that official governance is the most important thing in the New Policies, and I strongly agree. Without clearing official governance, even the best methods are useless. However, compared to the strategies you mentioned, I believe that the most effective one still lies in the art of assessment…

The spirit of performance evaluation lies in setting deadlines for assessing matters and holding people accountable for matters… The specific implementation is that the Six Ministries and the Censorate will set deadlines for the matters that their subordinate officials should handle and register them in three account books. The Six Ministries and the Censorate will keep one as a base copy, one copy will be sent to the Six Offices, and the third will be presented to the Cabinet…

The Six Ministries and the Censorate will check month by month according to the account books. For the matters handled by officials, one item must be registered upon completion, otherwise, it must be truthfully reported; the Six Offices will also report to the Six Ministries once every six months according to the account books… Violators will be punished according to precedents; the Cabinet will also register according to the account books and verify the inspection work of the Six Offices…"

Zhao Du'an was speaking, and everyone in the room was listening.

Grand Tutor Dong frowned tightly, without saying a word.

The old man, exhausted from a hard day, was already tired, but at this moment, his eyes were bright, as if he was immersed in thought, deducing this method in his mind.

Han Zhou's eyes were blank. He originally thought that the Grand Tutor invited Zhao Du'an to talk about the shortcomings of his Ten Policies.

In order to let the scholars refer to it.

But the development of the matter completely exceeded expectations. Zhao Du'an didn't mention a single word about the Ten Policies at all.

Instead, he started talking about the official governance matter, which was in a stalemate and could not be promoted in the morning.

As for Mo Chou…

The head maid beside the Empress was completely stunned. Zhao Du'an? That unlearned martial artist?

Giving a lecture on official governance to a group of scholars in the future 'Cabinet'?

She secretly pinched her thigh, it hurt, it wasn't a dream.

But it was more absurd and false than a dream.

At this moment, she suddenly recalled that Zhao Du'an asked her about the assessment in the morning. Thinking about it this way, she indirectly helped him find ideas?

It's just that she didn't care at all at the time, and didn't even pay attention to what he was writing and drawing.

At this time, footsteps came from outside the door, and the door creaked open.

Then, Wang You, the son of the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, a son of a prominent family, who looked down on Zhao Du'an at noon in the restaurant, arrived late.

"Grand…"

Wang You stepped into the threshold with one foot, and then saw the scene in the room, and was stunned.

He subconsciously retracted his foot, closed the door, looked around, and confirmed that it was the Xiuwen Hall.

"It must be the way I opened the door was wrong…"

Wang You smiled self-deprecatingly, pushed the door again, and then, the worldview of this talented man in the gentry collapsed.