The Empress's No.1 Lackey-Chapter 189 - 168, Mr. Zhao gives a lecture in the hall

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

A carriage sliced through the night and entered the Imperial City under the watchful eyes of the imperial guard, stopping outside the newly established government office.

Zhao Douan lifted the carriage curtain and stepped down, only to see the sky had completely darkened.

There was no light on the horizon, and the dense night enveloped the Capital, with stars intermittently visible and a full moon hanging high and clear.

Looking ahead, lanterns hanging outside the Xiuwen Pavilion dotted the night.

Coincidentally, arriving with Zhao Douan was another carriage that came from the south, from the direction of the "Royal City."

Mo Chou stepped down from the carriage, and the two of them met eyes at either side of the government office entrance, both stunned, saying in unison,

"Why have you come?"

Then, once again in unison,

"Of course I can come!"

Silence.

Zhao Douan’s mouth twitched slightly as he glanced toward the Royal City:

"Did Your Majesty not come?"

He did not see the Empress’s royal carriage.

Referred to by the nickname "female chancellor," yet more like a major maid, Mo Chou kept a straight face and said lightly,

"Her Majesty is in cultivation... You still haven’t said why you’ve come again?"

The morning was by "imperial decree," but this time it could not possibly be with her permission.

In cultivation? For how long... Zhao Douan paused, slightly surprised, but meeting her questioning gaze, he simply said,

"Grandmaster Dong invited me here, how about that?"

Not satisfied? Bite me.

The Grandmaster would invite you?

The first female official, dressed neutrally, widened her eyes in disbelief, but catching sight of Grandmaster’s attendants by the carriage, she hesitated.

Unable to understand completely, it was a puzzle how the Grandmaster, who typically disliked officials like Zhao Douan, would invite him.

"Hey... wait for me."

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Just as she was about to ask, she saw Zhao Douan already stepping into the pavilion and hurried after him.

Perplexed by the Grandmaster’s sudden summons tonight.

...

The pavilion was brightly lit inside.

When the two pushed open the door, the room was still arranged as in the daytime, only now every desk lantern shone brightly.

At this moment, at the head of the room sat an old man in a bright red Grand Scholar robe, with white hair and beard, feeble with age.

Beside him sat Han Banshan, a gentle and scholarly man with neatly combed back hair and a frail demeanor.

Additionally, there were four other scholars, obviously also summoned hastily.

Not everyone had arrived...

But this time, Zhao Douan was not the last one.

Considering the distance from the Zhao family to the Xiuwen Pavilion...

It suggested that Grandmaster Dong might have called him first, and then the others.

Zhao Douan had already begun to conjecture in his heart.

"Shhh—"

At this moment, various gazes came his way, each with different expressions.

Aside from Grandmaster Dong, surprise appeared on the faces of the other scholars.

It was not unexpected for Mo Chou to come, as when big issues were involved and the Empress could not attend in person, a trustworthy "ear" was necessary to listen in.

But...

"How did this Martial Artist get here again?" No one voiced this question, but their expressions clearly conveyed this thought.

Han Banshan was also surprised but seemed to recall something shortly thereafter and smiled, nodding in greeting to him.

Guo Jieyuan, a man of very ordinary appearance with a worldly and adept financial official aura, also smiled.

Eyes shifting between Han Banshan and Zhao Douan, it seemed they sensed a change in their relationship.

"Grandmaster," Mo Chou stepped forward, walking straight over:

"What is this urgent nighttime summons about?"

Grandmaster Dong looked up, his gaze shifting from the memorial, first nodding toward Mo Chou representing the Empress:

"There are some changes in the new policies. Please take a seat first."

Then...

His gaze turned to the seemingly transparent Zhao Douan, suddenly pulling out a stack of papers, shaking them:

"Is this... yours?"

Indeed... it was the manuscript that attracted attention, old man still has sharp eyes...

Zhao Douan responded with a smile,

"Some... scattered thoughts I noted down while listening during the day, not worth mentioning."

His tone was casual and light.

Curiosity could not be contained by the crowd, including Han Banshan, who were unaware of the existence of this manuscript.

"Um," Grandmaster Dong’s sharp gaze paused for a moment, he slowly nodded his head, then suddenly looked around at everyone, saying:

"Let’s not wait any longer, let’s start the meeting."

The scholars were stunned, thinking that several people had not yet arrived, so why not wait?

Um, it made sense for the Grandmaster to wait for Mo Zhaorong, Miss Mo’s arrival... was reasonable.

The scholars straightened up solemnly, the atmosphere inside the Xiuwen Pavilion turned suddenly serious and somber.

Tsk... it feels like those late night emergency meetings...

Zhao Douan stepped forward, moving to sit next to the recording official in the corner.

The latter, holding his pen, about to make a record, saw him coming, and unprecedentedly nodded, his gaze complex.

"Tonight’s urgent summons of you all is still because of the new policy. Han Scholar sought me out in the afternoon, requesting to withdraw ten strategies." Grandmaster Dong startlingly began.

Everyone was greatly startled, not understanding why.

Han Cong stood up with a look of shame on his face. "I am truly ashamed. The ten strategies I had previously proposed were only revised after someone pointed out their inappropriateness…"

Then, he candidly described how he "coincidentally" met Zhao Douan at Noon, how he received advice during the meal, and realized the inappropriateness of his proposals. Due to the limited space, he did not elaborate on the details:

"Mr. Zhao’s words awakened me from a dream, and I deeply realized the errors in the ten strategies, hence I requested to rewrite them."

After he had finished speaking, everyone in the room was momentarily stunned.

They instinctively thought it absurd and bizarre. What could that Martial Artist, whom they had ignored and looked down upon, have possibly said?

That Han Banshan would be so influenced?

Before anyone could discuss it, Grandmaster Dong raised his hand to quiet them and turned his gaze to the corner, calmly saying,

"I am quite curious about the ideas you’ve written. Since you were able to pinpoint the flaws in Han Banshan’s strategies, you must have a unique perspective on the new policies. Why not come up and share your thoughts?"

Share your thoughts, how?

Was Grandmaster Dong… inviting a Martial Artist to discuss new policies?

Everyone was confused again. The pace of this nighttime meeting was too fast. Han Cong’s speech seemed like just a formality.

They had not regained their composure when the microphone was passed to Zhao Douan.

Zhao Douan raised his eyebrows and smiled in the face of the surprised looks.

If it were this morning, when his mind was not clear yet, he might have refused.

But after an afternoon of organizing, some basic ideas had taken shape.

Originally, he planned to emulate Zhang Juzheng from history and write a memorial to shock the Empress.

Unexpectedly, Grandmaster Dong’s summons came all of a sudden.

Well then.

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

Glancing at a few empty chairs made him feel uncomfortable.

He looked around and mused,

"Grandmaster, may I borrow a screen and large paper and ink?"

Grandmaster Dong nodded slightly.

The recording official got up, moved a screen to the end of the table and found a large blank paper, covered the screen with it per Zhao Douan’s request.

Thus, a makeshift "whiteboard" was set up.

Zhao Douan stood with one hand behind his back, holding a fine brush dipped in ink, and positioned himself in front of the paper screen.

For a moment, it felt like he was back in his previous life, presenting slides during a meeting.

"Sigh..."

Taking a deep breath, Zhao Douan faced the scholars sitting on both sides of the meeting table and Mo Chou with her puzzled look, and smiled,

"The Grandmaster asked me to speak, yet I have no prepared script. Let’s start with governance."

This was the primary issue discussed during the day.

Zhao Douan started to talk,

"To govern well, there is nothing more urgent than securing people’s livelihoods, the crux of which is in examining governance…"

"In all affairs under heaven, it is not difficult to make laws, but difficult to ensure the laws are followed; not difficult to listen to advice, but difficult to ensure advice is heeded. If one inquires about affairs without examining the outcomes, initiates projects without thorough reviews, lacks clear oversight in the higher ranks, and people harbor tentative intentions, even with a Holy Emperor above and wise ministers below, it is still feared that without solid achievements, success would be hard to achieve."

The opening remarks were adapted from Zhang Juzheng’s original text, "Please inspect and examine the reports incidentally to reform the actual politics," with modifications.

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was taken aback,

This Martial Artist spoke with surprisingly good eloquence.

And the perceptive ones caught the key terms hidden in his opening statements.

Zhao Douan turned and wrote on the screen:

Governance, assessment, Examination Method.

Turning back, he said,

"The Grandmaster considers governance a priority in the new policies, and I strongly agree. Without clean governance, no strategy is effective. However, compared to the strategies mentioned by the others, I believe the most effective is still to focus on the technique of assessment…

In Great Yu, inspections have already been established as part of our ancient system, yet I believe that today is different from the past, and the old methods are no longer sufficient for the current situation. Therefore, I conceived a new method, called the Examination Method, which as the name suggests, focuses the purpose of assessment on the results of tasks assigned to various officials…"

"The essence of the Examination Method is to establish limits for examinations and hold people accountable for their tasks... Specifically, the six ministries and Imperial Court of Supervision would set deadlines for official tasks which are due, register them in three ledger books, keep one copy for themselvesvidence Deep panels, send one to Cabinet...

Whether accomplished or not, a new task should be registered as completed while the unin Righteous Lodge is given the responsibility of auditing the work of these bodies based on the ledgers recorded..."

As Zhao Douan spoke, everyone in the room listened.

Grandmaster Dong furrowed his brows, not uttering a word.

The elderly man, already exhausted from a long day, now had piercing eyes as if deep in thought, contemplating the method in his mind.

Han Cong looked lost, having originally thought that Grandmaster Dong had invited Zhao Douan to discuss the flaws in his ten strategies.

So that the scholars could study them further.

But the development of events completely exceeded his expectations, Zhao Douan did not mention the ten strategies at all.

Instead, he started talking about the governance issue that had reached an impasse in the morning.

As for Mo Chou…

The big maid at the Empress’s side was completely dumbfounded. Zhao Douan? That uneducated Martial Artist?

Was he lecturing a group of scholars from the future ’cabinet’ about governance?

She secretly pinched her thigh hard, and it hurt. This was no dream.

But more absurd than a dream.

At that moment, she suddenly remembered that morning, Zhao Douan had asked her about the assessment, and in a way, she had inadvertently helped him find a direction?

At the time, she had not paid any attention to what he was writing or drawing.

Just then, footsteps were heard outside, and the door creaked open.

Then, a gentlemanly figure, the son of the Minister of Personnel from a prestigious family, who at the restaurant at noon had looked down upon Zhao Douan with disdain, barely even giving him a glance, Wang You, arrived belatedly.

"Grand…"

Wang You had just stepped over the threshold when he saw the scene inside and paused.

He instinctively withdrew his foot, closed the door, looked around to confirm it was the Xiuwen Pavilion.

"Definitely, I didn’t open the door correctly…"

Wang You mocked himself with a smile, pushed the door open again, and then, the worldview of this talented member of a prominent family, collapsed.