Manbao looked sympathetically at the Crown Prince, who furrowed his brows and glanced down at her, asking, "So why did you submit the morial?"
"I submitted to impeach Wang Ji and others."
The Crown Prince raised his eyebrows slightly, looked Zhou Man over, and asked, "Arguing with the Censorate?"
Manbao said seriously, "Your Highness, how can it be an argunt? I’m doing this to make the court, Imperial Hospital, and nation better."
The Crown Prince nodded perfunctorily, "Indeed, good impeachnt. But if you can’t win the argunt, don’t cry."
"Am I that type of person?" Manbao said with ambition, "As long as I’m reasonable, I won’t lose."
The Crown Prince curled his lips, thinking she was too naive. In this world, especially in court, winning or losing was never about reason.
The Crown Prince glanced at her and then sped up his pace, passing Zhou Man and heading to the backyard where he lived.
Eunuch Wu hurried to catch up, and Manbao, trailing behind, caught him and whispered, "What does His Highness an?"
Eunuch Wu murmured, "He ans you can play on your own."
After saying that, he imdiately freed himself from Zhou Man’s grip and jogged to catch up with the Crown Prince, trailing three steps behind.
Manbao scratched her head and couldn’t help but mutter, "I was already planning to play on my own, you’re the one who called ."
She shrugged, turned, and went to Chongwen Pavilion.
When she arrived at Chongwen Pavilion, Bai Shan and the others were just finishing their lessons.
Manbao thought of sothing, imdiately jogged to find Mr. Zhuang.
Mr. Zhuang was gathering his copied manuscripts to go ho. Seeing Manbao rush in, he smiled and asked, "Why are you running?"
Manbao said, "Sir, please tell my sister-in-law that I want to eat lamb bamboo shoot noodles tomorrow morning."
Mr. Zhuang asked, "Aren’t you supposed to have breakfast before leaving the palace tomorrow morning?"
"I can eat a little less and save my appetite for the noodles at ho."
Mr. Zhuang raised his hand to tap her head and agreed.
At this ti, Mr. Zhuang didn’t know that Manbao had submitted a morial and argued with people, so he responded with a smile. It must be said that most of the court officials, including the Censorate, were still unaware.
The morials were submitted to the Imperial Secretariat late, and everyone was preparing to leave. So unimportant morials were piled up there, selected by those on duty, and then decided whether to send them to the Central Secretariat and the Emperor for review.
Zhou Man, a fifth-rank editor, impeaching Wang Ji and others wasn’t a top priority, so her morial was left with others in the backlog.
It was only because Wei Zhi, who was on night duty, got bored and had people categorize these morials to send the important ones to the palace for the Emperor to review the next day.
That’s right, most officials, especially grassroots ones, could have ti off, but upper-level ones had rotation duty regulations.
The Emperor didn’t have ti off either; he could skip morning court if officials were on leave, and have fewer morials, but he still had to work every day.
Zhou Man’s morial was also sorted out, and Wei Zhi happened to be reviewing recent impeachnt morials.
Impeachnt morials have always been critical to overseeing the official behavior, from these morials you could tell which official went to a brothel to get drunk; or which official or family mber committed sothing corrupt or illegal...
Wei Zhi always believed that the integrity of governance could be seen in whether impeachnt morials could be submitted freely.
The day speech officials dared not speak was when governance had decayed substantially. Although there were cases in the Censorate where officials impeached for personal gain, he still didn’t advocate forbidding the Emperor from them.
Because people seek benefits and avoid harm, once speech officials are punished without evidence, it greatly impacts open communication channels.
He flipped through several morials, most of which he placed in the right, aning they didn’t require the Emperor’s attention, only submission to the Central Secretariat; only one was in the left, needing the Emperor’s direct view.
He casually picked up a morial, opening it, seeing the dense words gave him a headache, though they were neatly written, but so many words...
How many tis have he said it, even for an impeachnt, be concise, avoid excess talk, those in the Censorate just don’t get it... huh?
Wei Zhi beca alert, sitting up slightly, returning to read from the first line...
Wei Zhi spent quite so ti finishing the morial, thought for a while, and placed it on the left.
Imperial Secretariat’s selected morials were sent to the Emperor’s desk early the next morning.
However, the Emperor wasn’t in the mood to be diligent that morning, so after breakfast, he spent half the day playing in the Imperial Garden with his daughters and sons, relaxing until he finally went to review the never-ending morials.
Seeing Zhou Man’s morial, the Emperor couldn’t help but happily slap his desk, laughing aloud at it, telling Gu Zhong, "This child is not bad, her scolding is brilliant, how did I not know she had this talent?"
Gu Zhong smiled while pouring tea for the Emperor, casually asking, "Which little official are you referring to, Your Majesty?"
"It’s Zhou Man, yesterday Wang Ji submitted a morial to impeach the Crown Prince and the Imperial Hospital, today she submits one against Wang Ji," the Emperor shook his head smiling, "Just not sure if she does this to vent for the Crown Prince or to stand for the Imperial Hospital."
The Emperor hadn’t finished reading it, barely halfway through, he laughed while sipping tea, continuing to read, gradually losing his smile, making Gu Zhong stand apprehensively without daring to express.
The Emperor tapped the desk, after a while, smiling dryly said, "Turns out I underestimated her, send this morial to Libationer Kong’s estate, considering she wrote it as a fifth-rank editor of Chongwen Pavilion, Libationer Kong is the head, it’s his responsibility."
Gu Zhong didn’t know what was written in the morial, nor dared to peek, bowing to take the morial into a box, instructing his apprentice to send it out of the palace.
Libationer Kong seldom had ti off, at ho enjoying a drink with friends, leisurely playing chess.
Receiving the palace-sent morial, he curiously unfolded it.
County Duke Yu, playing chess with him, noticing his prolonged silence, lifted his eyes to look at him, asking, "What’s the matter?"
Libationer Kong stroked his beard, smiling contentedly, "Nothing, just an official submitted a morial impeaching so officials."
"What big issue did they commit for His Majesty to send the morial specifically for you to view?"
Libationer Kong chuckled, placing the morial back in the box, carelessly saying, "Not a big deal, County Duke, it’s my turn now, isn’t it?"
County Duke Yu didn’t press further, responded with a smile, and after finishing the chess ga, left for ho.
After County Duke Yu left, Libationer Kong reopened the box to glance at the morial, then turned to his study, telling a servant, "Invite State Duke Zhao and Minister Guo over."
State Duke Zhao was the Emperor’s uncle, who always had good relations with the Crown Prince, and Minister Guo even more so, as he was the head of the Office of Palace Affairs.
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