Zhang Yue's heart tightened when he heard that Xu Wu was inquiring about him.
The most feared thing about the impeachment memorial is that the news will be leaked. How many people have done so in the past and present, and the most important thing is that Zhang Yue still does not have the power to directly report to the emperor.
Directly reporting memorials to the emperor was the power only ministers under two systems or above had. They could use Zazi to report matters to the emperor, allowing the memorials to go directly to the emperor's imperial court. This avoided the situation in the Tang Dynasty when the emperor was sidelined by the prime minister.
In addition to this, there is Taijiao, who can report to the emperor at any time.
As for officials of two or more systems reporting to the emperor, like Zhang Yue, they had to write a form and submit it to the superior officer. After that, they went through a series of procedures before finally being handed over to the emperor's desk.
Such news would definitely leak out, and Ren Shouzhong, who was by the emperor's side, would find out about it, and he would be in terrible trouble by then.
So this is very annoying. Zhang Yue wants to impeach the people around the emperor, but he can't see the emperor or have the power to speak out.
However, Zhang Yue had already thought of a way, which was to use Tai Jian to persuade him on his behalf.
Zhang Yue's desk contains a list of current Taiwanese admonishing officials.
They are Tang Jie, the censor in the middle, Gong Dingchen, the censor who knows the miscellaneous affairs, Zhao Zhan, the censor in the palace, Fu Yaoyu and Zhao Ding, the censor in the palace, and Lin Danian, the censor in charge.
As well as admonishing officials Sima Guang and Lu Jie.
If you don't want to remonstrate with officials through Taiwan, there is another way, which is to use Zha Zi to report.
Of course, the problem with using Zhazi to submit memorials in person is that it is seen as disrupting the order of use of official documents. In the past, officials who did this were punished by being demoted.
Of course, there is another one that is the most impossible, which is to meet the official or the Queen Mother in person and hand over the memorial!
Therefore, Zhang Yue returned to the original option and chose someone from the admonishment platform to be his adviser.
Among the admonishment ministers in Taiwan, such as Tang Jie, Sima Guang, and Lu Jie, they were all well-known. Zhang Yue thought that the chance of these people having contact with Ren Shouzhong was very small.
Among the three people, the only one Zhang Yue had any friendship with was Sima Guang.
When the two first came to power in the officialdom, it can be said that they gave them a heavy push.
Sima Guang left two impressions on Zhang Yue. One was that he had a great sense of justice and responsibility. He had the habit of speaking out in public every month, otherwise he would be regarded as incompetent.
Some Taiwanese admonishers are very perfunctory and talk about irrelevant things.
But Sima Guang was different. He had something to say time and time again, and he was the most daring person in Taiwan's remonstrances.
Another is political sophistication.
When Emperor Renzong made up his mind to make Zhao Zongshi the prince at the Sutra Banquet, Zhang Yue wrote a big word of "submission" to Sima Guang in his heart.
At the same time, Sima Guang and Ren Shouzhong became mortal enemies in supporting Zhao Zongshi.
At that time, Emperor Renzong was about to enthrone Zhao Zongshi, but Ren Shouzhong said a few words and wanted to cheat. Sima Guang said directly to Emperor Renzong in front of him that there must be a villain here to give advice to His Majesty, saying that Your Majesty will have a prosperous Spring and Autumn Period and thousands of descendants. Billion, why bother considering this unknown matter. Such a villain is not without foresight, but harbors evil intentions... Then he compared Ren Shouzhong to Ma Yuanzhi.
Finally, Emperor Renzong made up his mind and alienated Ren Shouzhong because of this. This move really killed two birds with one stone.
Therefore, Zhang Yue wrote the memorial and prepared to hand it over to Sima Guang. The next day happened to be the tenth day, which was also the day when officials took a bath.
When Zhang Yue was about to go out, he learned that Han Zhongyan, Wang Zhichen and others had made an appointment with him for a drink at Fanlou that same year.
Zhang Yue thought to himself that if he failed in his affairs, it would be deeply implicated, so he had better not involve these same years. Therefore, Zhang Yue did not go to Fan Tower, but went directly to Sima Guang's home.
Zhang Yue was wearing casual clothes. When he went out, he saw Xu Wu cleaning in front of the steps. He saw him and said with a smile: "Master, go out. I will hold the horse for you."
Zhang Yue said: "That's fine."
Xu Wu brought the horse to Zhang Yue and said diligently: "I fed the horse last night, so it will be energetic today."
Zhang Yue nodded and said: "Of course, the horse will not get fat without the night. I am taking advantage of the rest today to go out for a drink."
Zhang Yue has the habit of going out and drinking some wine alone.
Xu Wu also knew it, and when he saw Zhang Yue taking the initiative to tell him, he smiled and said: "Master, drink less, otherwise my wife will be unhappy."
Zhang Yue smiled and said, "Don't worry, just don't talk too much."
After saying this, Zhang Yue got on his horse and went to a wine shop near Sima Guang's house.
Zhang Yue tied his horse outside the wine shop and asked for a private room. He asked Zhang Gong to guard the door and not allow anyone to enter, while he left through the back door of the wine shop and headed for the back door of Sima Guang's house.
Zhang Yue knocked on the back door and entered. An old servant led Zhang Yue to see Sima Guang.
Although Sima Guang is now a high-ranking official, his house is still very small and dimly lit.
When Zhang Yue saw Sima Guang, he was wearing a shabby robe and was fetching water to wash his face in the courtyard.
It hasn't rained in the past few days, but the ground on the patio is very wet, but Sima Guang calmly twists the towel and washes his face.
The old servant wanted Zhang Yue to wait at the door, but he heard Sima Guang say: "He is not a foreigner, he is an acquaintance of mine. Just let him in."
Zhang Yue heard this and walked to Sima Guang's side. He saw that Sima Guang was busy washing his face, wrung out the towel and then rubbed his face, repeating this three times.
Zhang Yue thought that compared to his good friend Wang Anshi, Sima Guang was a clean person. Sima Guang put the towel into the basin, and the old servant took the basin and left.
Sima Guang invited Zhang Yue to the study. After entering, Zhang Yue felt that there was a musty smell in the study, which was obviously due to the lack of sunlight for too long.
Sima Guang suddenly said to Zhang Yue: "Du Zhi, you won't come to me if you have nothing to do. You can still go through the back door, but what rumors should you tell me?"
Zhang Yue said to Sima Guang, "I have something to report."
Then Zhang Yue handed Sima Guang the memorial he had written.
Sima Guang did not read the memorial, and then said to Zhang Yue: "A clean face is the foundation of my ministers. I used to not pay much attention to appearance, but after I became an admonisher, I often thought about the principle of treating people as mirrors. If there are flaws on the mirror, How can you dress someone appropriately?"
"Du Zhi, when you first become an official, you must remember these. We officials must be upright, so that we can dare to speak out. As an admonisher, I am the intermediary between the official family and the public sentiment, so I will treat everyone who wants to This is what I say to people who speak to officials."
Zhang Yue said: "The essence of an official's listening and speaking is to listen to and read at the same time, and to get the facts based on the facts. Back then, I heard that Bachelor Sima once said that as long as you don't worry about people's inappropriate words, you will suffer from people's mistakes. Those who remain silent.”
"I said so."
Sima Guang took a deep look at Zhang Yue, then opened the memorial, read it, and pondered.
Sima Guang said: "Is everything you said here true? Although the officials allow me to say what I have heard about the official customs, we cannot really hear what I say. We still need to find out the actual evidence."
Zhang Yue said: "I will report back to the bachelor and ask my subordinates to verify the facts one by one..."
At that moment, Zhang Yue told Sima Guang the ins and outs of his investigation.
Sima Guang nodded frequently after listening to Zhang Yue's words, but still said cautiously: "It seems credible now, but whether it is true to what Du said, I still need to verify it carefully! I will give you an explanation when the time comes. ."
Zhang Yue thought to himself, "Oh no, it turns out that Sima Guang is a chronic man. I don't know how long it will take for him to find out."
