I Just Won't Play by the Book - Chapter 252
Chapter 252: Are You Flaunting Your Wealth to Me? 1
After choosing option 3, Jiang Beiran put down the memorials and said to the side, “Qifu, go and send Zhang Jin to me.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
After saying that, Shen Qifu immediately left the Serenity Hall and looked for Zhang Jin.
Taking out a new memorial and opening it, Jiang Beiran could not help but shake his head and sigh.
Jiang Beiran had once thought that the emperors had stayed up all night correcting memorials because of the importance of government affairs, so they had no choice but to finish it quickly.
However, when he corrected the memorials himself, he realized that these memorials were even more useless than those comments in the online forum.
The memorials that annoyed Jiang Beiran the most was the following type:
Official A, “Your Majesty, how are you?”
Official B, “Your Majesty, how are you?”
Official C, “Your Majesty how are you?”
“What the heck…”
Moreover, according to the grand tutor, he had to reply “I’m very good” politely to these memorials. If he replied something else and stopped them to write these unnecessary content, those officials would be panic all day long and they could not do their jobs properly.
However, Jiang Beiran did not care about this. Therefore, Jiang Beiran would ask them not to use such meaningless words.
There was also someone who liked to be a weather reporter.
A certain supervisor, “Your Majesty, this is the weather situation in Yongli County and other places. The first day was sunny, the second day was rainy, and the third day was rainy…”
Then, he really wrote down the weather report for a whole month.
Jiang Beiran really didn’t understand what the point of the weather report was. They should just report the big storm and drought to him.
Other than the lazy memorials that made Jiang Beiran furious, the memorials that were written in thousands of flattery words also made Jiang Beiran feel disgusted.
These memorials were just all filled with excessive and insincere praises to the emperor. For things like eternal longevity, boundless longevity, longevity and heavenly harmony, they had to start with a set of memorials and then add some eulogies, in just a few hundred words, Jiang Beiran had finished reading the memorials.
This type of memorials had no real content at all. Reading them was just a waste of time.
Usually, after reading such memorials, Jiang Beiran’s first reaction would be, “I killed you all!”
Although he had already told the officials not to submit such memorials, there were always some who had not received the news or thought that they were not flattery enough. They were unaware that they had already angered the emperor were still submitting such memorials.
For example, the one in front of Jiang Beiran was one of them.
“Emperor has issued a decree of grace, and I am extremely grateful. It is difficult for me to comprehend it. The emperor’s grace is boundless. No matter how I express it, I am also unable to express my gratitude. I look up to Emperor’s grace, and it is higher than the sky, deeper than the earth, and the grace is remade…”
Seeing this, Jiang Beiran felt that something was not right. After reading through the memorials, he could not help but sigh.
“Good guy…”
This memorial actually came to thank him for forbidding officials from presenting sycophantic memorials again. Then, he used this sycophantic memorial to express that he would no longer make sycophantic memorials in the future.
“Very good. Next time, I’ll punish you as a warning to everyone.”
Throwing the memorials to the side, Jiang Beiran took a new one.
An hour later, Shen Qifu ran back to the Serenity Hall and knelt down, shouting, “Your Majesty, Official Zhang is waiting outside.”
“Send him in.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Send Official Zhang in!”
Following Shen Qifu’s summons, a minister walked into the meditation hall and knelt down, saying, “Zhang Jin greets Your Majesty, long live the Emperor.”
“Take off your official robes.” Jiang Beiran said without raising his head.
Zhang Jin was stunned, and he felt a little puzzled. He raised his head to look at the emperor, then at eunuch beside him, but no one told him the reason.
“I wonder what I have done to anger…”
“Do you want me to say it again?” Jiang Beiran put down the memorial and asked Zhang Jin.
“I… obey the imperial order.”
Zhang Jin stood up and started to take off his official uniform. Although he was very angry, he didn’t dare to show it on his face.
When Zhang Jin took off his official uniform, Jiang Beiran glanced at him and said, “Keep going.”
Zhang Jin was stunned again, but he didn’t dare to say anything this time. He directly took off the cotton-padded clothes inside.
Until Zhang Jin took off only a single piece of clothing, Jiang Beiran said, “Shougui.”
“Yes.” Wang Shougui answered immediately.
“Go and open all the doors of the palace.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Without any doubt, Wang Shougui immediately opened all the doors of the Serenity Hall.
“Huff, huff, huff”
Gusts of cold wind blew into the room. Zhang Jin was an ordinary man, and he was middle-aged. Without winter clothes, how could he withstand the cold? Soon, he curled up his body and shivered.
“Achoo!”
After Zhang Jin sneezed first, Jiang Beiran raised his head again and asked, “Are you cold?”
“Yes…” Zhang Jin answered with trembling lips.
Jiang Beiran threw the memorial to Zhang Jin and shouted, “In the memorial you submitted, it said that you hope to slow down the cotton supply to Zhangyun County. Very good. As long as you can kneel down like this until I come to court tomorrow, I will grant your request!”
Zhang Jin’s eyes widened, and he kowtowed. “Your Majesty, this is not what I wish. I really can’t find so much cotton to provide to the people in such a short period of time.”
“Can’t find it? If I can find someone else to complete this matter, what will you do?”