fifth form

Chapter 2145: Revenge and Resentment

"Your Majesty, the civil officials in our court don't look like civil officials, and the military officials don't look like military officials. There are no rules or regulations for their attire. I suggest that the court wear uniforms. Officials with different ranks should wear different clothes. Officials with lower ranks should not wear clothes above their ranks. Anyone who wears the wrong clothes will be punished!"

It is not unreasonable for Zhang Xuezhou, as Taizhong Daifu, to set up a system. The court distributed clothes for everyone to wear, and everyone would be happy to have two more sets of court robes.

Although Zhang Xuezhou found fault, apart from those officials who did not like restrictions on clothing freedom, there were actually quite a few officials who agreed with this reform.

However, Zhang Xuezhou's discussion of punishing people for making dressing mistakes still sparked widespread discussion.

When people in the court did things wrong they would be fined, demoted, or even lose their heads, but no one expected that one day they would be punished for making mistakes in dressing.

"His Majesty……"

"Your Majesty, you must not do this!"

"Your Majesty, this matter still needs to be discussed!"

At one time, more than ten people stood up to raise objections.

This made Zhang Xuezhou feel satisfied when he saw those who spoke out against him, and the new emperor thought about it for a few seconds and knew how Zhang Xuezhou was looking for trouble.

Three months later, Zhang Xuezhou entered the court for the first time and participated in the court affairs. Unexpectedly, no one jumped out to impeach Zhang Xuezhou, even though the Imperial Censor Zhuang Qingzhai was the first to be criticized, he did not say a word.

This situation is rare in the court. Even the new emperor has to admit that Zhang Xuezhou really has no enemies. Until now, no one has jumped out to criticize him.

Perhaps it was because there was no powerful force behind Zhang Xuezhou, or because Zhang Xuezhou was used as a scapegoat, or for other reasons, the fact that Zhang Xuezhou was absent for three months was turned a blind eye, and no one impeached this Taizhong doctor for it.

This made Zhang Xuezhou choose to escalate his search for trouble in a short period of time, starting with the Imperial Censor Zhuang Qingzhai and spreading his attacks to others.

Zhang Xuezhou's clean-up of the dress etiquette system was fine at the proposal stage, and everyone's opposition and agreement were just empty talk. When the punishment for actual non-compliance with the rules came, some people would inevitably resent Zhang Xuezhou and find fault with him, or even impeach him.

If you want to quickly remove Zhang Xuezhou from his position, this is indeed a better way to do it.

"I think what Taizhong Doctor Dongfang Shuo said makes sense!"

Sitting on the throne in the main hall of Weiyang Palace, the new emperor looked at the ministers sitting below and spoke slowly.

"A country needs its own rules. Without rules, there will be no order." The new emperor said in a deep voice, "If you can't even unify the court dress, what else can I expect you to do?"

"I wonder how Your Majesty will punish according to the rules?" Prime Minister Xu Chang paused for a few seconds before standing up and asking.

"What is the opinion of the Grand Master?" the new emperor asked.

"The punishment depends on the degree of the offense," Zhang Xuezhou said, "For example, the prime minister is wearing first-class court clothes, and I am wearing fourth-class court clothes. If I wear court clothes inappropriately and ride on your face, you can laugh at me, scold me for not knowing the rules, or scold me. You can also ask Your Majesty to fine me my salary, or if you don't like me, you can demote me from my position!"

"Oh, what you mean is that it's fine if you don't pursue it, but if you do, the consequences will be serious or serious," Xu Chang replied.

"If the Prime Minister has a better method, I am willing to listen to it!"

Zhang Xuezhou was making enemies with the Imperial Censor Zhuang Qingzhai, hoping that he would impeach him quickly. However, he was not reckless enough to contradict a prime minister again, especially since the other party was a superior official in charge of his department. This made him extremely polite when responding to Xuchang.

Xu Chang looked at Zhang Xuezhou several times, his old face slowly became solemn, and he bowed slightly to the new emperor on the throne in the hall, and then chose to sit down directly.

It is obvious that Xu Chang was not willing to go beyond the scope of his authority to do regulatory things, nor was he willing to formulate etiquette rules to avoid being criticized in the future.

"Young people are so stubborn!"

Beside Xu Chang, Imperial Censor Zhuang Qingzhai whispered.

Zhuang Qingzhai had seen many officials, but he had never seen such a Taizhong doctor who formulated many etiquette systems for officials as soon as he entered the court. In addition to standardizing clothes and looking more pleasing to the eye than the current messy clothes, Zhuang Qingzhai could not think of any other use of this system.

On the contrary, for those who advocated the system, there is no reward if everyone dresses correctly, but they will be punished if they dress incorrectly. After being punished, they will inevitably resent the makers of the system.

This is a case of not doing half of the good things and taking all the bad things on yourself.

Of course, Zhuang Qingzhai must also say that formulating the court dress system is within the scope of the Taizhong Daifu's authority, and it is even a matter of etiquette that the Taizhong Daifu should do. However, in the past, the Taizhong Daifu has always been working towards the groups below, such as stipulating what soldiers should wear, what palace maids should wear, what to wear when attending large-scale sacrificial activities, etc., and has never been in charge of the court or themselves.

"It does cause some hatred and resentment," Xu Chang replied with his head down.

"Marquis Wu'an, why didn't you standardize our clothing when you were the Grand Secretary?"

Zhuang Qingzhai exchanged opinions with Xu Chang, and then asked Wu'an Hou Tian Fen who was watching the excitement on the side.

"Zhuang Yushi, I have always been kind to others and never blocked their eyes!"

Tian Fen muttered something in a low voice and turned his head to reply.

Tian Fen was of average aptitude and low accomplishment, and he was able to rise to prominence only with the help of the Empress Dowager in power.

He had always been cautious in the past, so he would never dare to cause trouble like this.

Tian Fen had no choice but to smile apologetically, indicating that he had never been so stubborn in the past, and even now he would not do such an outrageous thing.

"This is the era of young people," Tian Fen said with a low laugh.

"Of course not, our Majesty is still young!"

Tian Fen said something to Zhang Xuezhou in a sarcastic tone, while Zhuang Qingzhai whispered something.

Many ministers looked at Zhang Xuezhou from time to time, and asked questions about the uniform dress from time to time. Zhang Xuezhou's responses were very stable and comprehensive.

Young people like Zhang Xuezhou naturally have the energy to get things done, but the decisions are made by the emperor.

"I wonder if His Majesty will use this incident to push forward and regain power?"

While many people focused on the unified court dress system, Zhuang Qingzhai was more concerned about the new emperor's movements.

After several years, Zhuang Qingzhai still remembers the large-scale personnel changes that took place right after the new emperor ascended the throne. Now the new emperor seems to be making a comeback again.

But Zhuang Qingzhai felt that several years had passed and the new emperor still seemed to have not learned his lesson.

If changing clothes was not such a small matter, there would be almost no chance that the new emperor's change of rules and regulations would be passed.

But even so, Zhuang Qingzhai felt that he needed to go to Anle Palace to report after the court meeting to see what the Empress Dowager of Anle Palace's attitude was towards this matter.

He calmed down and turned to his colleagues with a smile.

"Look at what Censor Zhuang is wearing. He is very inappropriate. This..."

When Zhuang Qingzhai turned his attention to Zhang Xuezhou, he heard him talking about his court robes again, mentioning various irregularities.

This inevitably made him feel a little depressed.

The Grand Censor supervises all officials in the country, and everyone usually respects him. But now, Zhang Xuezhou actually dares to criticize him and even point out his faults.

If Zhang Xuezhou had not been approved by Anle Palace as the Taizhong Doctor, and barely counted as a member of their camp, Zhuang Qingzhai would have had to find something to hold against him and report him to the emperor.