Having said this, she immediately divided half the memorials for the Emperor, telling him to review and approve them.
The young Emperor: …
The young Emperor had his own seat in the hall. Under Zhao Hanzhang’s gaze, he walked forward with difficulty and respectfully received the memorials with both hands.
As soon as Zhao Hanzhang released them, his arms sank, and the twenty-odd memorials actually pressed his spine down a bit.
Zhao Hanzhang said with a smile, “Go ahead. If you encounter anything you don’t understand, you may consult the Grand Tutor.”
The young Emperor’s lips trembled. Holding the memorials, he returned to his seat. Attendant Dong serving at his side was both happy and worried. Zhao Hanzhang was unexpectedly generous toward the young Emperor. Previously she only had him read memorials, but now she was directly letting the young Emperor approve them—did this count as taking power into his own hands?
Unfortunately, the young Emperor could hardly appreciate his joy. Opening the first memorial, it was a petition to repair waterways.
Zu Ti submitted a memorial saying that there had been a great drought in the northern regions this year. Old farmers indicated that next year’s rainfall might be unusual. He had also asked some people versed in astronomy and celestial patterns, and they all said that next summer and autumn there might be major flooding.
Jizhou had always been a key area for flood disasters in that section of the Yellow River basin, so he requested the court allocate funds to repair waterways and reinforce embankments to prevent floods.
Of course, requesting money from the court naturally couldn’t be written in just this little bit. His memorial was thick, but the handwriting had changed. It contained detailed methods for managing waterways, as well as various numerical calculations—all estimates of required materials, approximate numbers of laborers, projected work periods, and so on.
Finally, these data aggregated into a number that made the young Emperor dizzy just looking at it.
The young Emperor stared blankly. Of this memorial, aside from the first tenth which he could understand, the remaining nine-tenths he read with complete bewilderment.
He recognized most of the characters, and for those he didn’t recognize, he could ask Attendant Dong and then know them. But when these characters were strung together, he couldn’t understand them.
Oh, he understood the last sentence—Zu Ti was asking Zhao Hanzhang for money to manage the waterways.
It was a number that made the young Emperor tremble just reading it.
He knew the national treasury was short of funds, because half a month ago, his meals had changed from white rice to wheat rice mixed with wheat grains.
Zhao Hanzhang didn’t have the mentality of sparing anyone but the Emperor from hardship. She wanted shared suffering, so if she ate wheat rice, the young Emperor had to follow suit and eat meals mixed with wheat grains.
Even so, she had Attendant Dong say in the young Emperor’s ear, “Of all the people under heaven, nearly ninety percent don’t even have wheat rice to eat. The Grand General can only eat wheat rice, so for Your Majesty to now eat half white rice and half wheat rice is already extremely good.”
Now, looking at this figure, the young Emperor’s first thought was: how could he refuse Zu Ti without offending him?
The young Emperor held his brush, thinking and thinking, but still couldn’t put it down. He quickly turned his head to look at Zhao Hanzhang. Zhao Hanzhang was lowering her head, earnestly approving her own memorials, and didn’t look up at him.
The young Emperor agonized for a long time. Watching time pass bit by bit, it was nearly time for the midday meal. He couldn’t help but grow anxious. After the midday meal, he could only rest for two quarters of an hour before he had to study “Mencius” with the Grand Tutor. Today he was to study “Gaozi II,” Chapter One. The Grand Tutor had told him to memorize it, but last night he still had homework to write and only roughly memorized it. If he didn’t reinforce it, he definitely wouldn’t be able to recite it…
The more the young Emperor thought about it, the more nervous he became. Sweat appeared on his forehead, and the hand holding the brush began to tremble slightly.
Attendant Dong was also somewhat anxious. Seeing him spend a full hour on just one memorial, when would he finish these twenty-odd memorials?
After thinking it over, he picked up the teapot and stepped forward, carefully pouring him a cup of tea while reminding him, “Your Majesty, if this memorial is difficult, why not look at the next one?”
Only then did the young Emperor remember—he could start with the easy ones first! He quickly set down his brush, closed Zu Ti’s memorial, and picked up the next one.
This one was from Youzhou. The county magistrate of Wuzhong County in Beiping Commandery, Youzhou, was filing a complaint against Youzhou Governor Shi Le, saying he had colluded with the Duan tribe of the Xianbei in smuggling, was raising private troops, and intended to rebel…
The young Emperor’s hand shook, and the memorial fell onto the table with a thud.
Zhao Hanzhang lightly lifted her eyelids to look at him.
The young Emperor immediately rolled up the memorial and rushed forward, anxiously saying, “Grand General, Shi Le, Shi Le is going to rebel!”
Zhao Hanzhang only glanced at the memorial and smiled. “What does Your Majesty think should be done about this matter?”
The young Emperor said, “Naturally we should immediately dispatch troops to suppress Shi Le and escort him back for interrogation.”
Zhao Hanzhang burst into hearty laughter at this, then put away her smile and looked at him. “Since Your Majesty thinks this way, then approve it accordingly.”
But from where could he dispatch troops to reach Youzhou more quickly?
The young Emperor opened his mouth, always feeling something wasn’t quite right, but couldn’t figure out what.
Attendant Dong beside him had already dropped to the ground with a thud, prostrating himself completely, trembling all over.
Although very busy, they couldn’t miss the midday meal. Zhao Hanzhang glanced at the time and mercifully said to the young Emperor, “Your Majesty should go have your meal first. However, the memorials I gave you must be approved and sent to the court ministers by dawn tomorrow, otherwise it will delay state affairs.”
The young Emperor finally left with his body stiff as a board.
As soon as he left the main hall, he immediately lifted his robe and ran toward the rear courtyard. In the rear courtyard, Grand Tutor Xun Fan was already waiting. He would accompany the young Emperor for meals while examining yesterday’s lessons, then take a brief rest before beginning today’s lessons.
Oh, the young Emperor not only had cultural classes today, but also martial arts classes.
As an emperor, how could he not know how to ride horses, shoot arrows, use a sword, or drive a chariot?
In case of personally leading a campaign, he wouldn’t even be able to flee properly. So these courses were distributed across every day of a ten-day cycle. Today was sword practice, and teaching him swordsmanship was Zhao Ming.
He heard that after going to Luoyang, Zhao Ming’s son Zhao Shen would replace him as his new martial arts instructor. The father and son’s swordsmanship was recognized as excellent.
The young Emperor naturally didn’t dare complain to Zhao Ming. He could only pour out his grievances to his maternal uncle Xun Fan. He didn’t even care about the midday meal anymore. As soon as he saw Xun Fan, he grabbed his sleeve and cried painfully, “Over twenty memorials—I only looked at two all morning and still couldn’t make decisions. How can I possibly finish on time by tomorrow?”
Xun Fan’s face looked rather unpleasant as he hurriedly asked, “Two memorials—how did Your Majesty respond?”
The young Emperor shook his head with red-rimmed eyes. “I haven’t responded yet. I don’t understand Zu Ti’s memorial. He’s asking for too much money, and I don’t know how to refuse him.”
“Shi Le is going to rebel. I told the Grand General, wanting her to dispatch troops to suppress him, but she told me to respond myself.” The young Emperor said with great grievance, “But Uncle, I don’t have the power to deploy troops. From where can I dispatch troops to attack Shi Le?”
Xun Fan looked at him with a complicated expression, very grateful that at this time, the one in power was not the young Emperor but Zhao Hanzhang. Otherwise, the northern regions would fall into a new round of warfare.
—