novelraw Chapter 202
Chapter 202
Chapter 202: Memorial Format
Whenever there was something beneficial for the soldiers in the army, Lord Grand Commandant would spare no effort to push it into the troops.
This operation was not only familiar to Emperor Wei; the officials were also used to it.
Emperor Wei calmly said, “Minister Du, don’t worry. As for the telescope, of course, I will make sure all the soldiers in the army have one.”
Du Xing was satisfied, but Pei Zhi remained silent.
[This reckless man, once he opens his mouth, doesn’t this mean the Ministry of Works will have to suffer even more?! Sigh, the Ministry of Works has really been busy these past few months. I was even hoping to sleep well today.]
Emperor Wei felt guilty and silent.
Apparently, ever since that unfilial son stepped forward, the work for the Ministry of Works did seem to have gotten heavier and heavier.
Thinking of Wei Yu, Emperor Wei glanced around.
All his sons were present, except Wei Yu. There was no need to ask; Emperor Wei already knew exactly where that unfilial son was.
He was definitely curled up at his desk, sleeping and not yet awake!
Wei Yu was awakened by the courtiers' exclamations.
He sleepily lifted his head from the desk, stared at the crowd chattering and blocking the main gate, listened for a few seconds, and understood what was going on.
This was the moment when the public gathered to see something novel and amusing.
It had nothing to do with him. Alright, better to go back to sleep.
Wei Yu went back to sleep.
And he ended up sleeping right until the court session.
As usual, after waking up, Wei Yu would first go to the duty room for a round, greet his superior, and then sneak over to the Hall of Mental Cultivation to quietly help his dad handle a batch of verbose memorials; only after finishing the reviews could he return home to be a lazy fish.
Going to the duty room wasn’t worth mentioning. It was time to register attendance. As a prince, no one dared to make things difficult for Wei Yu, as long as he didn’t make major mistakes giving his dad reason to catch him.
After making a round in the duty room, Wei Yu headed toward the Hall of Mental Cultivation along the familiar route.
Outside the hall, Su Gaosheng enthusiastically came to greet him, as usual asking whether he wanted the dan-yu milkcake and misty tea.
Wei Yu agreed, then after a moment asked for a plate of melon seeds.
Probably through all the dynasties, only Wei Yu dared to eat melon seeds in the Hall of Mental Cultivation like this.
But Su Gaosheng didn’t show any sign of difficulty; rather, he smiled and complied.
After all, by now, who among the palace attendants in the Hall of Mental Cultivation didn’t know that His Majesty trusted the Wise King so much that even the previously favored Eldest Highness and Second Highness couldn’t compare!
The Wise King dared to privately call His Majesty “Dad,” joke and play around in front of Him, and even if sometimes breaking etiquette, His Majesty never blamed him. Furthermore, for memorial approval, which was only supposed to be done by the Crown Prince, His Majesty also made an exception for the Wise King.
Such trust and favor meant that no palace attendant in the Hall of Mental Cultivation believed that His Majesty’s intended Crown Prince candidate wasn’t the Wise King!
But everyone kept this notion to themselves, as no one dared to spread it.
After all, loose lips in the palace, especially those serving directly under the Emperor, would never end well.
After entering the hall, Wei Yu first greeted his dad. Once his dad called on him, he leisurely walked to his small table.
“Sigh, these memorials are the same every day. I don’t even need to read them to know they’re all just a lot of meaningless words.”
Once seated, Wei Yu looked at the pile of memorials and shook his head. Then he looked at his dad and couldn’t help but say, “Dad, after reading all these years of bureaucrats’ nonsense, don’t you find it tiring? How about we change the format for writing these memorials?”
Emperor Wei, already worn out, paused.
He looked at Wei Yu, “What ideas do you have?”
Sensing his dad’s quiet eagerness, Wei Yu immediately demonstrated what modern civil servants’ work reports looked like.
He found an example on his tablet and wrote down the format on paper.
“Dad, look. Future officials in countries are called civil servants. When they report upwards, they write memorials; however, the contents have clear formatting requirements, so it’s easy to judge and avoid mistakes or omissions. Look at this format…”
The so-called title + salutation + main text (introduction + body + conclusion) + signature + date… After explaining the format, Wei Yu casually picked up a memorial to use as an example.
“Look at this one. If we used the new format, the title would be ‘Asking His Majesty About Your Health.’ The rest wouldn’t differ much; the only part that needs change is the main text… This Huzhou Prefect is too verbose, flattering you with a bunch of useless praise—all of which can be deleted. The core content is just, ‘I see the weather is very good and wish to ask His Majesty about your health.’ Two sentences suffice.”
After explaining in detail to his dad, Wei Yu looked at him expectantly, “What do you think? This new writing format would be so much simpler, right?”
Emperor Wei thought it over carefully.
The new format was indeed good. Excluding the redundant lengthy passages would save him a lot of time. It shouldn't be a problem to have the officials switch to the new format, but…
“Officials always love to quote classics when writing. Although you think those words are useless, courtiers don’t see it the same way. Even if the format changes, the content will likely be similar to what they write now,” Emperor Wei shook his head.
“That’s easy to solve!” Wei Yu found this very simple.
“If we want officials to speak plainly and clearly, just set word count limits for the main text.”
Word count limits?
Emperor Wei was stunned.
Wei Yu explained, “Different types of memorials have different word count limits for the main text. Except for memorials reporting important matters, the other types aren’t significant; their word count can be limited to under a hundred characters. For memorials reporting affairs, since the details vary, the word count can be expanded to a maximum of 800 characters, like the imperial examination…”
Hearing this, Emperor Wei almost understood.
His eyes lit up, and he couldn’t help but slam the table in approval, “This method is good! Limiting to one hundred characters is excellent. This will definitely make those who love to write nonsense suffer!”
Emperor Wei was overjoyed.
Served right!
After all these years, he diligently reviewed memorial after memorial every day, and who knew how many useless flattering reports he had read. In the words of the unfilial son, they were all just meaningless garbage!
The more rubbish they wrote, the longer he spent at the desk. Over the years, his shoulders and back ached fiercely.
If it had been in the past, as Emperor, thinking of how previous emperors lived, he wouldn’t have minded the fatigue. But ever since Wei Yu came along, seeing that unfilial son so carefree and delighted really grated on him!
Even he, as the father, never enjoyed such comfort, yet this son lived better than him!
How could he bear it?
He was still the Emperor!
Emperor Wei didn’t care about how many officials, accustomed to long-winded memorials, would frown when they had to cut down the word counts after this decree was issued. The next day, he announced it at the court.
Whether the officials were hurt or not was none of his concern.
Why did no one think about how hard it was for him to review memorials!
Cutting down the word counts was actually for their own good!
Anyway, he shouldn't suffer alone.