Judge of the Song Dynasty

A pamphlet for a pamphlet?

This idea was truly excellent.

Xu Zhiqian couldn’t help but brighten up.

She was very clear in her heart that trying to challenge Kaifeng Prefecture again this time was almost impossible.

When it came to matters of privilege, it was truly a high-voltage line that couldn’t even be touched. Since ancient times, no one had ever been able to accomplish such a thing.

It had never happened before.

They could only use a pamphlet to clarify things.

Xu Zhiqian immediately sprang into action with Zhang Fei.

Since Xu Zhiqian had only written complaint documents and had never written articles, she was at a loss for a moment. Zhang Fei could only dictate while she transcribed.

If Zhang Fei were to write it himself, he probably couldn’t manage it, but if he were to speak, he could truly go on at great length! Zhang Fei was very emotional, harshly criticizing those scholar-officials and landowners, saying that while they claimed to share governance of the realm with the Emperor, they used tenant farmers to threaten the imperial court. Such behavior made them unworthy of such treatment.

“Writing it this way absolutely won’t work.”

Xu Zhiqian put down her brush.

Zhang Fei said excitedly, “Why won’t it work?”

Xu Zhiqian looked at the agitated Zhang Fei. “You need to calm down first.”

Zhang Fei said with a grave expression, “I’m very calm right now. They’ve used this underhanded trick against Father-in-law. If I don’t strike back this time, then no matter what I do in the future, they’ll use Father-in-law to threaten me.”

Xu Zhiqian said, “If you were truly calm, you wouldn’t think this way. Everything you just said proves that what my father said wasn’t wrong either – the imperial court should indeed revoke those privileges.”

Zhang Fei asked, “Is there a problem with that?”

“Of course there’s a problem.”

Xu Zhiqian said, “If we’re going to argue about right and wrong, this pamphlet can’t solve the problem, and His Majesty would never agree to do such a thing. Since that’s the case, what’s the point of proving my father was right and they were wrong? Moreover, it would only confirm their suspicions that this was all a conspiracy by my father.”

Zhang Fei blinked and asked, “Then in your opinion, how should we put it?”

Xu Zhiqian pondered for a long while. “We should still start from the court’s concerns.”

Zhang Fei asked, “What concerns?”

Xu Zhiqian said, “Uncle Sima and the others’ worry that those great landowners would take the opportunity to dismiss tenant farmers. We could even write about the cause of that previous lawsuit, focusing on the tenant farmers rather than on the conflict with the landowners.”

She truly deserved to be his wife – even in such circumstances, she could remain so clear-headed. Zhang Fei thought this as well, then pretended to consider it. “If we write it this way, it would be somewhat difficult, because we’d have to prove the cause and effect of this matter indirectly. Can you manage it?”

Xu Zhiqian nodded very confidently. “Although my writing may not catch the eye of Academician Wang and the others, I should still be able to manage this.”

Zhang Fei nodded. “Alright then, let’s split up. You write here first, and I’ll go to the printing workshop to make preparations.”

“Mm.”

Xu Zhiqian said, “You’d better hurry.”

After leaving the Xu residence and getting into the carriage, Zhang Fei’s expression changed slightly as he muttered to himself, “Zhiqian, you can’t blame me for keeping this from you. If you knew I was leading your father in this kind of flashy operation, you’d chase me for eight blocks!”

He arrived at the Authentic Books Store.

Actually, there wasn’t much to prepare.

After spending so much money and most of half a year, not a single page had been printed – everything was still in preparation.

They had everything they needed – movable type, printing plates, you name it.

This caused Hou Donglai to nearly weep with joy when he heard there was finally work to do.

Zhang Fei felt somewhat pained by how much money he’d spent.

Now the only thing left to prepare was the design of the newspaper layout.

The current official bulletins and pamphlets were all in the form of booklets. Although the content was newspaper content, the format was similar to books.

Zhang Fei wanted to pioneer paper newspapers.

Meanwhile, the court was still in a state of anxiety.

Although Sima Guang kept explaining that this was really just a misunderstanding, Emperor Zhao Xu had just established his authority a few days ago. You say this is a misunderstanding?

Who would dare believe that!

Heaven knows what kind of medicine was being sold in this gourd.

At the Shen residence.

“Heaven is truly helping me!”

Shen Huaixiao laughed heartily.

Du Xiu asked, “Brother Shen, what do you mean by this?”

Shen Huaixiao said, “Originally, when His Majesty appointed Lu Gongzhu as Accounting Chancellor, he definitely wouldn’t have let us off the hook. I won’t hide it from you all—I had already packed my luggage. But now that they’ve caused such a commotion, the other ministers will surely support us.”

Cao Han also nodded, “I agree with Brother Shen’s assessment. We need to make a big fuss about this matter. His Majesty couldn’t possibly do such a thing. The more effort we put in, the more they’ll support us.”

Du Xiu and Tang Ji also came to their senses, exchanging glances with immense joy.

For them, this was truly a dramatic turn of events.

In the previous lawsuit, they had cheated and been caught. That His Majesty hadn’t conducted a strict investigation was already quite lenient—someone had to take responsibility, and they, as officials of the Three Financial Bureaus, naturally couldn’t escape.

After all, the Archives had always been controlled by these officials.

But now things were different. Many people believed this was a continuing drama that would expose everything. They would definitely defend their interests and fight desperately to protect them.

At the Court of Penal Review.

“Sima Guang, have you found out who was behind this?”

Wen Yanbo asked Sima Guang.

He naturally trusted Sima Guang—this was indeed a misunderstanding. What he was curious about now was who had leaked such a confidential meeting.

“No!”

Sima Guang shook his head. “With things having escalated to this point, I don’t even dare to speculate wildly. And they won’t allow Kaifeng Prefecture to investigate this matter.”

From this pamphlet, it was clear that the scholar-officials all believed this came from within. Without this pamphlet, they would still be in the dark. But strictly speaking, leaking court secrets violated regulations.

If they found out who it was, that person might face punishment.

They were all desperately protecting this person, blocking Kaifeng Prefecture from investigating the matter.

Knowing the truth, Sima Guang found it almost laughable—Zhang Fei had really played them all.

Wen Yanbo asked again, “So what do you plan to do?”

Sima Guang sighed, “No matter how I explain, they don’t believe me. I can only hurry to revise that law and promulgate it, so they’ll know we truly had no such intention.”

Wen Yanbo nodded slightly. “But His Majesty must personally come forward to clarify this matter. Otherwise, everyone will inevitably remain suspicious.”

Sima Guang nodded slightly.

Actually, he was beginning to feel some regret in his heart. At the time, he had been possessed by demons and listened to Zhang Fei’s nonsense.

He truly hadn’t expected it would escalate to such proportions, because Zhang Fei hadn’t told him he would write an article to slander Xu Zun.

That operation was indeed quite devious.

Even if Zhang Fei had done things conventionally, it wouldn’t have caused such a commotion.

He absolutely had to find Zhang Fei and demand an explanation.

Meanwhile, Xu Zhiqian quickly wrote a lengthy article. Since it started from the previous lawsuit, the content was very rich, so Zhang Fei planned to publish it in three installments.

This highlighted the advantages of movable type printing—they could quickly arrange the typesetting.

Although some characters hadn’t been carved yet, Chinese was vast and profound—so they could use different characters to express the same meaning. This wasn’t about writing beautiful prose; people would read this kind of gossip no matter how it was written.

After Xu Zhiqian left, Zhang Fei called Hou Donglai over. “Print a thousand copies first and sell them directly to those teahouses and inns at thirty coins per sheet.”

Hou Donglai asked in surprise, “That expensive?”

They had already calculated that for a thousand copies, the cost would be about five coins per sheet, since this had more text.

For three thousand copies, they could probably bring it down to two coins.

Zhang Fei said, “We’re selling to inns, not individuals. Being a bit expensive doesn’t matter—they can afford it.”

In his heart, though, he was weeping with joy. It had not been easy! Finally he could freely make money.

If he couldn’t make money soon, he’d go bankrupt.

Hou Donglai added, “But our workshop is all craftsmen—we don’t have anyone to sell newspapers.”

Zhang Fei clicked his tongue. “Can’t you find people to sell them? Do I have to teach you how to do everything?”

But as he spoke, he paused slightly. “Actually, there’s no need. We just have to spread the word, and those taverns and teahouses will come to us.”

Everyone was eagerly awaiting the continuation.

As long as the authorities didn’t interfere, this would definitely be a huge hit!

Just then, Li Si suddenly ran in and whispered in Zhang Fei’s ear, “Brother San, Academician Sima has arrived.”

Coming to find me only now—this old man really knows how to keep his composure! Zhang Fei immediately sent Hou Donglai to busy himself at the workshop, then personally invited Sima Guang into the house.

As soon as the door closed, the old man glared at him angrily. “What exactly are you trying to do, boy?”

Zhang Fei replied with great grievance, “Academician Sima, you forced me into this situation.”

Sima Guang’s heart skipped a beat. “Utter nonsense! When did I ever force you to spread rumors and slander your father-in-law?”

Zhang Fei said, “But you insisted that my father-in-law be the one to bring it up. If I hadn’t done this, people would surely have suspected my father-in-law. I made this decision after careful consideration—this way is the safest.”

After hearing this, Sima Guang’s confidence diminished considerably. “Yes, indeed no one suspects your father-in-law now, but they’ve all taken it seriously. They don’t even believe my words. What should we do now?”

He had to admit that this approach had indeed prevented anyone from suspecting that Xu Zun and his son-in-law were behind it all.

They were still desperately protecting this culprit.

Zhang Fei quickly said, “Please rest assured, Academician Sima. I made preparations.”

With that, he took out the article Xu Zhiqian had written and handed it to Sima Guang. “I plan to fight fire with fire—use a small newspaper to provide explanations.”

Sima Guang wasn’t surprised by this. He hadn’t realized that Zhang Fei’s goal was to create a newspaper, since no one really understood just how powerful such publications could be.

He read it carefully, nodding frequently, but after finishing, he frowned. “Did you write this?”

Zhang Fei replied, “No, I could never write such a good article. Zhiqian wrote it.”

Sima Guang stroked his beard. “Xu Zun’s teaching is somewhat lacking!”

“…?”

Zhang Fei looked at Sima Guang with complete bewilderment.

Sima Guang said, “The article’s intent is very good, and the reasoning is clear, but the writing style… Why don’t I help you write one instead?”

He quite liked the article’s intent and reasoning—it clearly described the court’s thinking and the causes and consequences. This was beneficial to both the country and the people, targeting only those greedy troublemakers.

It didn’t target the scholar-official class.

It was just the writing style that was truly beyond words—too straightforward, with barely a single quote from Confucian classics to be found.

Although Sima Guang’s literary skills weren’t quite on par with Wang Anshi or Ouyang Xiu, he was still a great literary figure. To him, this article was at a kindergarten level—how could it be presented publicly?

At the same time, his thoughts flowed like a spring, and his hands itched to write.

Zhang Fei quickly said, “There’s no time left. We’ve already finished typesetting, and if you write it, people will recognize your style immediately.”

Sima Guang nodded with slight disappointment, but then said, “No, I should write it.” Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on NoveIꜰire.net

“Huh?”

Zhang Fei looked at Sima Guang with confusion.

Sima Guang said, “Since I’m also involved in this matter, I naturally have the responsibility to explain everything. Have someone prepare ink and brush for me—I’ll write an article.”

This caught Zhang Fei completely off guard. He quickly explained the movable type printing system to Sima Guang—some characters weren’t available!

Sima Guang said, “No matter. If we don’t have certain characters, I can make changes.”

Seeing that the old man was determined to write this article, Zhang Fei could only let him have his way.