Shen Shixing smiled: "Since ancient times, many emperors, generals and ministers have received strict teachings from saints since childhood, and there is no lack of guidance from famous teachers and Confucianists. As a result, there are still virtuous, foolish, loyal and traitors. It can be seen that many things cannot be avoided if you want to avoid them. , but maybe it will be better.”
Wang Jiaping nodded and looked outside with a sense of loss.
It was the autumn of the 14th year of Wanli. The sky was high and the air was crisp. However, it had not rained for a long time, and the green leaves in front of the window had withered more and more, becoming black and shriveled as if they had been roasted by fire.
Wang Jiaping couldn't help but frown.
And when he thought that according to Shen Shixing's statement, the emperor had to have his own opinions and do whatever he wanted, Wang Jiaping felt even more disappointed.
"The drought is so serious, your Majesty, what should you do?"
Therefore, Wang Jiaping couldn't help but ask again.
"Didn't you ask Pan Wucheng to regulate rivers and floods to alleviate the drought?"
Shen Shixing replied with a smile.
Wang Jiaping said: "What I mean is that your Majesty should personally pray for rain from heaven and ask all officials to reflect on themselves, so that the world can see that your Majesty has the country in mind."
Shen Shixing nodded: "That makes sense! You can make suggestions on this, and it depends on whether the emperor is willing. However, if the emperor is not willing, we should not force it. It is just a formality after all."
Wang Jiaping: "..."
After Wang Jiaping pondered for a moment, he couldn't help but said to Shen Shixing: "I still disagree with the Duke's statement. The country and country of our ancestors are not the responsibility of your majesty alone! We have received the favor of the country and we should be loyal to your majesty's country. Rather than just obeying His Majesty’s orders! Therefore, if Your Majesty is unwilling to pray for rain and let the world know his sincerity, we should persuade him until the Emperor is willing!”
"You don't even need to ask whether His Majesty wants you to be loyal to the country or to Himself."
Shen Shixing was stunned after hearing this, and then laughed.
Wang Jiaping stood up directly, turned his back to Shen Shixing and said, "We are not His Majesty's slaves, and we don't have to consider whether His Majesty is willing or not!"
"You say you are loyal to His Majesty's country. I'm afraid the real reason is whether you can keep your family stable and prosperous for a long time, right?"
Shen Shixing asked coldly at this time.
Wang Jiaping turned back to look at Shen Shixing: "Isn't it wrong to cultivate one's moral integrity, manage one's family, govern the country, and bring peace to the world? For the sake of the peace of the family and the country, one should be loyal to His Majesty's country instead of flattering the emperor?!"
Wang Jiaping looked away again as he said this: "It's better than some people who don't care about the change of dynasties. They only know who is the master of China and are loyal to whoever they are. They feel that the death of the Ming Dynasty has nothing to do with them. Anyway, the children of their own family can continue to serve as officials in the new dynasty." Be nice!”
Shen Shixing blushed and looked at Wang Jiaping with cold eyes.
A long while passed.
Shen Shixing said: "The country and country you mentioned are just words!"
"And His Majesty is a king-father who is flesh and blood and has his own thoughts. If we want him to treat people in the world with kindness, we must first treat him with respect. We must really treat him as a king-father, care about his feelings and know his thoughts!"
"Even if he doesn't listen to our advice, we still have to respect his opinion. If even the emperor can't have his own opinions, then everyone seems to be responsible for the safety of the world, but in fact it will only become everyone's responsibility. No one can be held responsible for it!”
"Since you have inherited destiny, you should accept its weight!"
"Your Majesty has no choice. We cannot be disloyal to the emperor because he kills others, and the emperor cannot think that we are traitors because we do not flatter him!"
After Wang Jiaping said this, he waved his sleeves and left Shen Shixing.
Shen Shixing sighed, then shook his head.
…
Zhu Yijun started walking in the garden after the dynasty. Shen Shixing's words during the morning dynasty were very helpful to him. He felt that his opinions were really respected and he was treated as an emperor.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun chose to keep Shen Shixing in the morning court. He did not abuse imperial power and dismissed Shen Shixing regardless of whether the evidence was conclusive.
Because there are too few ministers who care about the emperor's personal thoughts.
Even Zhang Juzheng is actually more loyal to his country and doesn't care so much about his personal feelings. Otherwise, Zhu Yijun would not have had a scene of overturning the table in Zhang Juzheng's era.
Of course, Zhu Yijun also knew that ministers who cared about his personal feelings were not necessarily good people.
As the saying goes, good advice is hard on the ears. People need to maintain some sense to achieve success, otherwise they will be deceived by flattering people.
Zhu Yijun naturally understood this truth, so he also wondered whether Shen Shixing would be more considerate of himself as the emperor, but relatively speaking, he did not care so much about the long-term interests of the entire country and the country.
But Zhu Yijun has not noticed yet that Shen Shixing is not caring enough about the long-term interests of the country.
Zhu Yijun felt that perhaps it was because Shen Shixing had changed in this life because of his attitude as the emperor, so he did not show that although he cared about the emperor's opinion, he was not so concerned about the long-term interests of the entire country and the country.
In any case, Zhu Yijun had no intention of changing his chief assistant easily. He promised to give Shen Shixing ten years, so he had to give Shen Shixing ten years to let Shen Shixing use time to prove whether he was worthy of the emperor's trust in him.
At least for now, Zhu Yijun feels that Shen Shixing is worthy of himself and the entire Ming Dynasty.
First, Haojing and Daning were recovered.
Secondly, the whole people have indeed received benefits from foreign mining and foreign trade, and then the large number of refugees caused by the disaster were finally solved through migration, instead of the previous era that needed to be solved by extermination.
In short, Zhu Yijun is still very satisfied with Shen Shixing and is not affected by the current natural disaster.
Who told Zhu Yijun to come from later generations? The education he received prevented him from believing that natural disasters were really related to a person's lack of morality.
Therefore, like many ministers, he does not really think that frequent natural disasters are caused by treacherous officials in the government.
But there are indeed many people in this era who believe in "influence between heaven and man", and idealism is indeed widely believed.
Various natural disasters will indeed make many people in this era think about human affairs issues. Many great Confucians always believe that the teachings of saints can really affect matter, and matter and truth are one and the same. Therefore, Wang Yangming also once looked at bamboos in order to gain enlightenment. Unreasonable behavior.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun knew that it was inevitable that many people would question Shen Shixing and slander the court because of frequent natural disasters.
The drought in Gyeonggi is indeed intensifying now.
Even the water pool in the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City exposed all the stones under the water, and Zhu Yijun couldn't help but frown because of this.
Although he knew that according to the development of original history, the climate would only get worse and worse from ten years after Wanli, to the point of intensification during the Chongzhen period to the point where there would be major disasters every year, which was called the "Chongzhen Abyss" by historians, but after putting himself in his shoes In an environment where it had not rained for a long time, Zhu Yijun still hoped that the drought would be relieved soon after learning through Jin Yiwei that people in the capital were fighting for water to the point of killing people and exterminating their families.
At this time, Wang Jiaping, a bachelor in the cabinet, went to Shu and asked him, the emperor, to personally go out of the city to offer sacrifices to heaven and pray for rain.
(End of chapter)
