Chapter 321: Loyalty to the Emperor and the Country, Nothing More Than This

As the sun rose, wisps of golden sunlight passed through the double-eaved hipped roof. The light from the sky poured down through the glazed window grilles and landed on the mirror-like golden bricks of the hall, making all the people wearing red and purple clothes in the hall shine brightly and illuminating the Golden Throne Hall.

The ministers' praises continued one after another. The Emperor of Daxia waved his hand in annoyance. The Yulin Army presided over the court ceremony, and Zhou Tiege began to stop the ministers from continuing to sing praises.

When the Golden Palace was quiet again, His Majesty of Great Xia saw Mei Juncang kneeling on the ground, blaming all the faults on himself, and suddenly laughed, "You wrote a good article. Saving one's father is filial piety, and serving one's king is loyalty. For such a loyal and filial person, it would be inadequate to show morality if he is not rewarded. What do you think, my dear ministers?"

All the officials pondered for a few breaths, came back to their senses from the recent political struggle, and immediately began to carefully consider a new political struggle.

Today, the Confucians and the Governor of the Grand Canal started to cause trouble, but Zhou Tieyi came up with a brilliant idea. Even though he was not in Beijing and even though he did not ask Zhou Tiege to make a memorial, he only asked his apprentice Mei Juncang to take action, and the crisis was resolved invisibly.

This kind of method can be described as unpredictable.

What everyone is unsure about now is how the Emperor of Daxia will reward us.

If Mei Juncang is rewarded, it means that Mei Qingchen will not have to kneel outside the Meridian Gate. This will undoubtedly be of great benefit to Confucianism. No matter what, it is always a good thing to free a third-class seed of Confucianism from a dead end.

Therefore, the Confucians would not stop this matter, but they just didn't know how much the price should be paid. How should the reward be? Should they continue to create a "Little Zhou Tieyi" in the court?
The Legalists smiled, because Mei Juncang was studying law, so no matter what the reward was, as long as it was a reward, it was a good thing for them.

The military heroes' eyes fell slightly on Zhou Tiege. They knew the news that came out a few days ago that Mei Juncang had an argument with Zhou Tieyi because of the road. When Zhou Tieyi was saying goodbye, he even handed over many things in Tianjing to Hao Ren in front of everyone.

This was definitely not a simple self-torture tactic, because Zhou Tieyi's sphere of influence was extremely large. By announcing it publicly in front of thousands of people, he was identifying a new leading cadre and marginalizing Mei Juncang. At least the ordinary people below would believe that Mei Juncang, their disciple, had fallen out of favor and would not get close to Mei Juncang.

By then, the fake will become true, and Mei Juncang will be squeezed out of Zhou Tieyi's core interest circle.

But at today's court meeting, everyone hesitated again, because Mei Juncang at least supported Zhou Tieyi in his actions. Although he was resolving his father's predicament, he was also resolving the Zhou family's crisis.

The officials remained silent for a while, but the Queen suddenly spoke up and said, "Your Majesty, such a loyal and filial person should be rewarded generously."

The Emperor of Daxia remained expressionless, "What do you think the Queen should reward me with?"

The Queen Mother pondered for a moment, "He was originally a minor official of the God-Slaying Division, and is considered a close minister to the Emperor. It would be better to reward him with the title of Imperial Study to serve as a writer..."

The position of Imperial Study Clerk was a nominal position, of the sixth rank, similar to Zhou Tiege's position as Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Yulin Army and Imperial Study Attendant. The latter position of Imperial Study Attendant was a nominal position used to show that the emperor valued him. He did not manage specific affairs, but only had the power to meet the emperor alone.

The Great Xia Emperor smiled, understood what the Queen meant, and said, "The position of Xiaoqi of the God-Slaying Division is a bit too easy. Now that Zhou Tieyi has left the capital, I am not at ease with someone else managing the affairs of the Supervisory Office. Why don't you take over the management temporarily?"

All the officials were slightly stunned. The Confucian officials showed joy on their faces, the Legalist officials were surprised and happy, and the military officials were silent.

Generally speaking, when the chief officer of each department or agency temporarily leaves Beijing for inspection, his daily duties will be taken over by his adjutants, leaving the position of the chief officer temporarily vacant, and it is rare for someone to take over directly.

Because there will be a problem when a temporary person takes over. If the temporary person does a good job, how should he be rewarded?

Moreover, Zhou Tieyi had obviously arranged everything before leaving Beijing. At Zhou Tieyi's request, the editor-in-chief of Tianjing Daily, Hu Wenlang, was promoted to deputy director of the Supervisory Institute and temporarily helped Zhou Tieyi manage the affairs of the Supervisory Institute.

Now the Emperor of Great Xia has sent Mei Juncang, his disciple who had just had a dispute with Zhou Tieyi on the path of Taoism, to take over temporarily. His intentions are self-evident.

If we put an outsider in, it may not be possible to tear apart Zhou Tieyi's inner cliques. Only by putting someone inside Zhou Tieyi's organization in, can we tear apart Zhou Tieyi's cliques from the inside.

It was really interesting when Zhou Tieyi was not in Tianjing, and his adjutant and his apprentice fought with each other.

Mei Juncang's deep eyes showed obvious surprise and doubt, and then he bowed firmly and said, "I accept your command and thank you."

When the officials, especially the Confucian officials, saw Mei Juncang accepting the order, they looked a little unnatural. They certainly hoped that Mei Juncang and Zhou Tieyi would drift further and further apart, but this kind of apprentice who seizes the master's position has always been the most hated by Confucianism.

It can be said that after Mei Juncang received the order, he could not turn back to Confucianism, nor could he turn back within Zhou Tieyi's team. He could only go down the path of Legalism to the end.

At this time, the Emperor of Daxia finally revealed a sincere smile. He was about to speak, thinking that after the court session, he would let his son Mei Juncang pull up his conservative father.

This is the real reward.

Then let's settle this matter privately. Although it is different from the "heart-destroying method" originally proposed by Zhou Tieyi, and it doesn't completely help me vent my anger, it can be regarded as an end to the whole matter.

The Great Xia Emperor thought that even if he was the supreme ruler of the world, not everything could go his way, and it was already good enough if he could be satisfied with eight out of ten things in life.

His forward-leaning body leaned back slightly, no longer in the posture of a tiger eating a man.

"On the Infallibility of Kings and Fathers".

It is a wonderful article after all.

At this time, Zhou Tiege suddenly stepped out from the crowd and said, "Your Majesty, I have two matters to report on your behalf." "What are they?"

Zhou Tiege first presented two memorials and asked the eunuch to pass them to the throne. He was already familiar with the contents of the two memorials, and he spoke first, "The first thing I reported is a private matter. I know that my disciple Mei Juncang saved his father, and I also know that Your Majesty is wise and will reward those who are both loyal and filial. But my brother said that he and Minister Mei have a private bet for one year. He will personally pull Minister Mei up from in front of the Noon Gate and have him come to the palace to admit his mistake and admit that he was inappropriate in front of Your Majesty. This is originally a private matter, but there are no private matters in front of Your Majesty. He cannot stop his disciple from saving his father, which is not conducive to Daxia's promotion of filial piety. But he does not think that Mei Qingchen should not be punished, so he wants to tell this matter in the court and let Your Majesty and all the officials witness it."

Zhou Tieyi’s first memorial has arrived.

To the surprise of all officials, this first memorial was not used to restrict Confucianism, but to restrict his apprentice Mei Juncang!
All the officials fixed their eyes on Zhou Tiege, and on his appearance which was 70% similar to Zhou Tieyi.

If Zhou Tiege hadn't looked serious and smiling.

They could even imagine how bright the smile on Zhou Tieyi's face would be and how much he would deserve a beating if he made a report at this moment!
Let’s get back to the memorial itself.

After listening to this, His Majesty the Great Xia Emperor looked at the memorial written by Zhou Tieyi himself, which contained similar contents.

Indeed, just as Zhou Tieyi said.

Mei Juncang wanted to save his father, he must have known about this a long time ago. Even if Mei Juncang didn't say that he wanted to save his father today, Zhou Tieyi would probably have guessed it with his intelligence.

If you can’t guess it, it means there is something wrong with Zhou Tieyi.

It was both surprising and reasonable to guess that Zhou Tieyi would respond in this way.

Everyone knows that the Emperor of Daxia wants to use Zhou Tieyi to kill Mei Qingchen, the Confucian sage!
Zhou Tieyi was clearly already doing it, and doing it very well, and he was only halfway done.

Now the Emperor of Daxia says he doesn’t want to play around anymore and he wants to pardon Mei Qingchen’s sins.

It is true that we, your subjects, are willing to fight to the death, so why did Your Majesty surrender first?

He sold Zhou Tieyi, a loyal minister, to the Confucianists. In addition, the Great Xia Emperor had just asked Mei Juncang to temporarily take over the position of the director of Zhou Tieyi's inspection office...

This is not a very nice thing to say.

His Majesty the Great Xia focused his eyes on the memorials, and behind the pearl curtain his expression showed a hint of embarrassment.

Because he was the one who wanted to be executed, and now he is the one who wants to be pardoned, Zhou Tieyi really can't be blamed for making a report, otherwise how would he let his subordinates do their work in the future? Would his subordinates dare to do their work with all their heart?

The second interesting thing about this memorial is that Mei Juncang's act of saving his father was filial piety, and no one in the world, including the emperor, could openly oppose it, so Zhou Tieyi used the private bet between him and Mei Qingchen to decide the matter.

At the same time, the concept of Mei Qingchen's crime of deceiving the emperor was changed to the crime of misconduct in front of the emperor.

This not only saves the emperor's face and avoids the emperor's intention to kill him, but also restrains the disciple and gives the disciple's father a way to survive.

Kill four birds with one stone!
Zhou Hou’s methods are really unexpected.

All the officials sighed in their hearts.

Even when it was a political struggle or a party dispute, Duke Zhou always took the overall situation into consideration.

The Great Xia Emperor did not answer immediately. Instead, he put down the first memorial, picked up the second memorial, and while reading it, he asked Zhou Tiege, "What about the second thing?"

Zhou Tiege bowed and said, "The second thing is state affairs. I am the director of the Inspection Office of the God-Slaying Department and have been entrusted by the emperor to reform the God-Slaying Department..."

When he said this, he paused deliberately. All the officials could not help but look up slightly to see the expression of the Great Xia Emperor behind the twelve-tasseled crown. Although the Great Xia Emperor had mostly blocked his expression with memorials and the pearl crown, everyone could guess that the Great Xia Emperor's expression must be very interesting.

Zhou Tieyi is not like Mei Qingchen, who would never say a word to deceive the emperor.

What he said were all facts, which were what His Majesty the Great Xia Emperor wanted to say and do.

Now let’s use these facts to slap His Majesty the Great Xia in the face.

I, Zhou Tieyi, walk upright and sit straight.

Even if you are not in the position, you still have to do your work and think about the affairs of the family and the country. What are you doing when I am not in the court?
You guys are all fighting for power, do you really think I don't know?
Zhou Tiege continued, "The Queen of Heaven is holy and nourishes the loyal souls of our Great Xia with the dark moon, allowing the loyal souls to relieve the suffering of hungry ghosts. Therefore, I have submitted a petition to request that the ghost soldiers of our Great Xia Bingzhong patrol Tianjin at night to prevent the evil spirits."

These two things, one is a private matter, but it is the private matter of the Emperor of Daxia, and the other is a public matter, which is the public matter of the people of Tianjing and the military spirit of Daxia.

Being loyal to the emperor and serving the country is nothing more than this.

(End of this chapter)