Chapter 172 Chongzhen rescues people
"You bastard, you didn't even bother to bring a distinguished guest to the backyard to have a seat and tea!" Although Chongzhen was traveling incognito, Liu Zongzhou still felt that he was too negligent, so he deliberately slapped the bailiff in the face as an apology to Chongzhen.

Chongzhen watched coldly, his expression unchanged.

Although he succeeded to the throne at the age of sixteen, he is still just a teenager now.

But he has loved reading and meditating since he was a child, carefully thinking about the principles in the books, and he grew up under the shadow of a treacherous and changeable world. The pressure in the deep palace has made him no longer an ordinary young man.

How could he not see Liu Zongzhou's intention? However, in order to prevent the other party from being too nervous, he nodded slowly.

Liu Zongzhou then breathed a sigh of relief and quickly invited Chongzhen and Wang Chengen to the back hall to have tea.

However, Chongzhen was concerned about his brother's safety and did not have the leisure to do so. He smiled and said, "I dare not trouble Lord Liu to worry about this. I am here today just to ask for justice from Lord Liu!"

Liu Zongzhou was shocked when he heard this. How could the emperor seek justice from him, a third-rank governor of Shuntian Prefecture?
His mind raced as Liu Zongzhou immediately guessed that something unfair must have happened in Shuntian Prefecture under his jurisdiction, which led to the so-called justice.

Missing each other, Liu Zongzhou immediately turned around and waved to the other yamen runners, secretaries and others, indicating that everyone should leave.

After making sure that there was no one else in the hall, Liu Zongzhou immediately knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "Your Majesty, I, Shuntian Prefecture Governor Liu Zongzhou, pay my respects to Your Majesty. Long live the emperor!"

After the ceremony, Liu Zongzhou did not dare to stand up, but bowed his head and said in fear: "Your Majesty, I really don't know what you are seeking justice for. Please tell me clearly!"

Seeing Liu Zongzhou's upright attitude, Chongzhen felt a little better. He walked to the lobby and sat on Liu Zongzhou's main seat. He casually pulled out a stick from the stick holder and played with it, saying, "Excuse me, Lord Liu, do you know that there is such a treacherous businessman in Shuntian Prefecture who uses the name of pawning to switch things and forcibly embezzle other people's property?"

Chongzhen kept calling him Lord Liu, so Liu Zongzhou knew that Chongzhen was angry. He was deliberately putting him on the spot in a sarcastic way, and was thinking hard in his mind.

The fact that the truth mentioned that items were switched in the name of pawning shows that the unscrupulous businessman he mentioned is related to the pawn shop.

Although he had only been in office as the governor of Shuntian Prefecture for a short time, he had indeed heard some things from his staff, but his duties were so complicated that he had not had the energy to spare to learn the details.

After thinking it over, Liu Zongzhou said carefully, "I have heard of these illegal merchants, but I just took office in February and the government affairs have not been sorted out yet. I have not been able to free up my hands to bring these merchants to justice. I have been derelict in my duty and I ask Your Majesty to punish me!"

Chongzhen was an emperor who only looked at the results and not the process. This was somewhat similar to the ruthless capitalists of later generations. Although it was a bit annoying, only what Liu Zongzhou said was true.

So he suppressed his anger and said angrily: "The capital is the best capital. I can understand that you have only been in office for a short time and may not be able to do everything well, but..."

Chongzhen paused and said sternly, "But if you can't even rectify the rules and discipline in Shuntian Prefecture and eliminate the evil and promote the good, how can you deal with it even if I forgive you?"

"This..." Liu Zongzhou was horrified. It was not difficult to hear that Chongzhen's words meant the corruption of officials in Shuntian Prefecture.

For an official in court, this was undoubtedly a very severe accusation, as it showed that the government office he governed was corrupt and had a chaotic discipline!

What’s more, the one who made such criticism was not an ordinary censor, but the current emperor!

If this statement came from the Golden Palace, who knows how many sycophants would follow the emperor's words and submit a petition to impeach him. Liu Zongzhou considered himself to be honest and upright, and he did make great efforts to rectify Shuntian Prefecture since he took office, but he had not been in office for long, so there was not much effect.

Therefore, Liu Zongzhou felt aggrieved and terrified. He did not know what the clerks under his command had done to anger the emperor. He was terrified and said:

"I am incompetent and have failed your Majesty's cultivation. Please allow me to retire and return to the countryside!"

Chongzhen frowned slightly when he heard this, and said unhappily: "Back then, you were dismissed from office for impeaching Wei Zhongxian. When you returned home, you were only the third-rank right minister of the Tongzheng Department. I thought you were upright and unwilling to go along with the corrupt, and you were one of the few upright ministers in the world, so I ignored the opinions of the public and directly promoted you to the position of Shuntian Prefecture Governor!"

"Shuntian Prefecture is the capital of the emperor, and the prefect of Shuntian Prefecture is far superior to the local prefects. It is such an honor to be a third-rank official! How dare you not cherish it?"

"And I have also admitted that you have only been in office for a short time, so it is understandable that you have not been able to do everything well. I just criticized you for not being able to put things right quickly, and you are threatening to resign?"

Chongzhen became angrier and angrier as he spoke. He slammed the table and said, "Do you really think the court can't do without you, and that I can't do without you?"

Liu Zongzhou, who had just straightened up from the ground, immediately fell to the ground again. His gray beard trembled and he felt suffocated in his heart.

He had studied the teachings of sages all his life and wanted to serve the court and help the country, but he did not expect that this was the image he had in the emperor's mind. He felt sad for a moment and thought that Chongzhen was not a benevolent monarch.

If there were other people present, they might think that Chongzhen’s reaction was a bit too much, but Wang Chengen completely understood.

Thinking that Liu Zongzhou had just been revived, he immediately wrote a letter to Chongzhen titled "A Memorial to the Emperor in Which I Express My Apologies in Advance and Express My Responsibilities in Order to Make Him Like Yao and Shun".

After reading the whole article, there is only one meaning, which is that he hopes Chongzhen can follow the example of Yao and Shun, take benevolence and righteousness as the basis, get close to Confucian officials and practice the way of a benevolent monarch, cultivate virtue and establish his mind, and there is no need to rush to recover Liaodong.

However, at that time, natural disasters, man-made disasters, bandits, border troubles, food and salary issues in Daming were on Chongzhen's mind.

What Chongzhen needed was a pragmatic and capable minister who could come up with feasible plans, rather than a moral gentleman who was well-educated and boastful but was of no help to the current situation. Therefore, he thought that Liu Zongzhou's remarks were too pedantic and empty, so he didn't like him very much.

However, from Liu Zongzhou's perspective, everything he had learned throughout his life told him that a qualified emperor should be a benevolent and righteous monarch. Therefore, he also hoped that Chongzhen could become a benevolent and righteous monarch and firmly occupy the moral high ground.

After all, who among the subjects of the world does not want their emperor to be a benevolent and righteous ruler?

But can benevolence and righteousness influence the Jiannu?

Can it satisfy the greed of the Mongolian Tartars?

Or can you conjure up silver and food out of thin air?

Can it feed the hungry during natural disasters?
Or could it be that if Chongzhen were a benevolent and righteous monarch, he would be able to make all the corrupt officials in the world feel ashamed and turn over a new leaf?
Benevolence and righteousness can be the moral standards of wise rulers in prosperous times, but they can never appear on emperors in troubled times.

(End of this chapter)