On a summer night in the capital, the heat on the ground was quickly wiped away. It was the time for Geng Ruyu to work hard.
The light from the whale oil lamp illuminated the study as if it were daytime. Geng Ruyu bit the penholder and tried to figure out an article that his father had just revised with a grimace on his face. His father was sitting across from him, reading letters and writing replies. Geng Ruyu glanced at the clock from time to time, wishing that the hands would fly by then.
Just as he was worrying about how he would answer his father's question later, he suddenly saw Geng Dingxiang throwing the letter in his hand to the ground, angrily. Then two lines of tears flowed down, and he slapped the table and said: "It hurts to kill someone!"
Seeing that Geng Dingxiang's face was like gold paper, Geng Ruyu put down his brush and said in a panic: "Father, what's wrong with you?" Geng Dingxiang said nothing and pointed to the letter on the ground.
Geng Ruyu was afraid that bad news would come from his hometown, so he hurriedly picked up a few pieces of letter paper on the ground. He didn't read the content, but first read the signature. He saw that it read, "Foolish brother Chu Cheng pays my respects."
He breathed a sigh of relief, raised his head and asked, "But Zhang Liqing, the official who has been appointed to the law for a long time?" Geng Dingxiang nodded while crying. Geng Ruyu read the content again and ignored all the polite words in the letter. There were also two philosophical questions in the letter, which he also ignored.
Then he saw the words that made Geng lose his composure: "I traveled here last year and saw that the people were haggard and no one died on the road. This spring and summer, I passed through this place again, and the corpses of people who died of starvation accumulated on the road. Travelers often cut the bodies of the dead. The meat is cooked and eaten by the roadside... people will die of hunger in the fields!"
Geng Ruyu's heart skipped a beat, and he didn't know what to say for a moment. He could only look at Geng Dingdi and said, "Father, this kind of thing is bound to happen in bad years. Why do you have to do this?"
Geng Dingxiang snorted and said: "What a 'prosperous age'! How many years has this been mentioned in the newspaper? Emperor Wanli was in peace..." There was also the word "year" in his mouth, which was in his son's frightened voice. Without vomiting in his eyes, Old Geng wanted to shed tears again when he thought of the tragic situation of the victims of the disaster and the tragic situation of selling their wives and children.
Geng Ruyu said: "Father, it has been more than 200 years since Taizu established Jiji. My son has never heard that such a disaster can survive. Especially in Shanxi, there have been nine droughts in ten years in southern Shanxi and nine floods in northern Shanxi. This year." There are also drought locusts, and although the imperial court has food, it cannot transport it in, so it can only do nothing."
Geng Dingxiang calmed down his emotions and glared: "You're such a poor guy, why don't you ask someone to fetch water!" Geng Ruyu hurriedly ran to the door of the study and gave orders to his servants. Before he could turn around, he heard his father say quietly from behind: "If he didn't pass the provincial water conservancy test, why would Hou Yu Zhao release food and work for relief during the small disaster last year? If he didn't pass the water conservancy test, he would be finished. Why should we hide our warehouses and store up the treasures when we are waiting for Zhao to lead to this tragic disaster?"
Geng Ruyu was surprised when he heard this: "In order to complete the expedition, Hou Yuzhao didn't buy grain and put it in the warehouse?"
Geng Dingxiang nodded first, then got angry again: "A harsh government is more ferocious than a tiger. How many people can a tiger eat? According to me, a chaotic government is more ferocious than a harsh government! Nowadays, the refugees are wandering the roads and wandering in the ravines, and the dead are eaten by others. Otherwise, it’s not because of chaos in government!”
Geng Ruyu's heart skipped a beat, and he turned pale and said, "Father, be careful what you say!"
Geng Dingxiang glanced at his son with disdain, but he opened and closed his mouth a few times and stopped speaking loudly. He sat there with red eyes and sighed.
After a while, he murmured: "It's better to ask for it!" He pushed the letters on the table to the ground, took out a blank memorial, and wrote quickly.
Geng Ruyu's heart skipped a beat again, and he said tremblingly: "What does father want?"
Geng Dingxiang shouted angrily: "I will impeach myself!"
Geng Ruyu took a deep breath, sat down to read the paper, and said no more. Geng Dingxiang held a brush in his hand and glared at his son: "You traitor, why don't you ask me why I am impeaching you?"
Geng Ruyu tried his best to keep a straight face and said: "My father is a scholar of heaven and man, so there must be a reason for doing this. Besides, if you don't agree with Taoism, you can't conspire with each other. My father has suffered enough over the years, so it's better to resign. Let's go back to Huang'an's hometown. , the father writes books and lectures, and the son takes the initiative, this is also the way to maintain the family for a long time."
Although Geng Dingxiang was furious, he calmed down after writing, hoping that his son could persuade him. Seeing him looking down at the paper, he could only snort and say: "Pretending!"
Geng Ruyu: "...".
That night, Geng Ruyu told his wife about his father's resignation. Liang Xin said happily: "That's good. The capital is hot in summer, cold in winter, and the sky is full of yellow sand in spring and autumn. I am impatient to socialize with those officials and their wives, so I will go back to my hometown." That’s good, I’ll give you a baby.”
Geng Ruyu: "..."
The next day, Geng Dingxiang handed over the memorial to impeach him. There is a sentence in the memorial: "Conscience changes three times, and one cannot refrain from talking about the faults of chaos in government." Zhang Siwei's tongue stuck out halfway. He thought to himself: "Is this old Geng losing his mind and going crazy?"
Because Geng Dingxiang was famous all over the world, there was a fear that the government would not be able to accommodate others and use talents if it failed. Zhang Siwei criticized Huang and said calmly: "This argument of 'not allowing one's true power' is a failure in the government and should be criticized and blamed." But, why bother to ask for it? If the impeachment is not allowed, please ask for the Holy Judgment."
Because a third-grade high-ranking official wanted to go, Zhu Yijun would definitely have to pass. The day after Zhang Siwei criticized Huang, the emperor marked the word "ke" on Geng Dingxiang's memorial. Because except for this word, Zhu Yijun did not circle the yellow comments as he was used to, which made Zhang Siwei scratch his head. He had to call Xu Honggang, the new secretary of the Attendant's Office who was responsible for collecting and sorting out the emperor's instructions, to the political hall and asked him: " Does the emperor agree with Lao Geng's resignation or with my opinion on criticizing pornography?"
Xu Honggang scratched his head and stared for a long time, then said: "The Emperor should not allow him to resign. This means I agree with you."
Zhang Siwei asked: "Can you get it right?"
Xu Honggang smiled and said: "The emperor must have hesitated for a long time, and he didn't have time to talk nonsense with him."
Zhang Siwei breathed a sigh of relief at first, and then scolded: "This person who defends morality is so hypocritical! He has no way of doing things, but he is just seeking fame!" [Note 1]
Although Xu Honggang had great power, he was still far away from the top officials in the civil service. At this time, it was rare to hear Zhang Siwei commenting on Mr. Tiantai, so he boldly asked: "If this grain enters the Jin Dynasty, the imperial court Don’t have a good idea yet?”
Zhang Siwei has been in a good mood in the past two days. Hearing this, he did not think that this seventh-grade official was rash, so he smiled and said: "There is already a way. It was proposed by Prime Minister Liang. The grain will be transported from Zhangjiakou to the grassland by large carriages. Go around the border wall and enter Shanxi from Datong Town - it turns out that the government and the public are surrounded by the border wall, so there is grassland beyond northern Shanxi, and now it has become a thoroughfare!"
Xu Honggang praised it! Then he asked worriedly: "Where did that carriage come from?"
Zhang Siwei smiled and said: "The imperial court will issue a decree tomorrow to requisition large private carriages. It is estimated that in the capital alone, there are more than 3,000 four-wheeled carriages that can pull 4,000 kilograms, and can transport 12 million grains at a time. Jin - after deducting the loss of 4 million jins, the 8 million jins of grain entering Shanxi is enough for them to chew grain for a while!"
After saying that, Zhang Siwei laughed and was in a very happy mood. Then he lowered his face and said: "I'm afraid, the day when these life-saving grains arrive, it will be the time for those black-hearted people to divide the fat. - Humph, whoever dares to touch a grain of rice from the hometown folks this time, I will tear them apart." You can’t kill him!”
