Liang Shixian sighed inwardly.
Back then, He Fengsheng had looked like such a spirited and upright man. Now the fellow had somehow turned greasy. His figure had gone soft, his belly bulging forward, and the sharp, scholarly air he once carried had long since vanished.
Before Liang Shixian could say anything, He Fengsheng enthusiastically grabbed his arm.
"Brother Liang! Come, come. Let us walk and talk."
The two men entered the capital together on foot. Guards surrounded them, gently pushing back the crowd and creating a small moving corridor so the two officials could speak privately.
Lowering his voice, He Fengsheng said, "Bringing you into Shuntian Prefecture this time was something I did out of sheer desperation."
Liang Shixian raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? What sort of trouble has Brother He run into?"
He Fengsheng let out a long sigh.
"To be honest, I never wanted to sit in the position of Grand Secretary in the first place. Serving beside the emperor is like sleeping beside a tiger. And our current emperor… well… his temper is rather impatient."
Calling the emperor "impatient" was already a very polite way to phrase it. If he spoke more bluntly, it would sound closer to: the emperor is constantly messing things up.
He Fengsheng continued in a whisper.
"Being Grand Secretary under such an emperor is dangerous. I am genuinely afraid I might not survive long enough to retire. So these past few days, whenever the emperor asks me about state affairs, I pretend that I know nothing."
Liang Shixian blinked.
"You pretend you know nothing?"
"Exactly." He Fengsheng nodded seriously. "Since taking office, I have made absolutely no policy suggestions."
Liang Shixian stopped walking for a moment.
"What? You have offered no advice at all? Is that really how one serves as Grand Secretary?"
He Fengsheng shrugged helplessly.
"It may not be ideal. But it is better than losing my head. If I do nothing, I cannot make mistakes. Even if I am dismissed from office, at least I will still have my head attached to my neck."
Liang Shixian stared at him, speechless.
Completely speechless.
After a moment he finally said, "Then why exactly did you pull me into the position of Deputy Prefect of Shuntian?"
He Fengsheng lowered his voice even further.
"Brother Liang, I heard that during your ten years as County Magistrate in Chengcheng, you never once delivered the full amount of tax revenue to the court. Because of that, the Ministry of Personnel has always given you terrible evaluations."
Liang Shixian nodded calmly.
"That is correct."
He Fengsheng suddenly brightened.
"Then I chose the right person!"
Liang Shixian stared at him.
"?"
He Fengsheng continued enthusiastically.
"You served as magistrate for ten years without ever causing a peasant uprising. Chengcheng County remained peaceful the entire time and suffered no war disasters. That alone proves your ability."
"Even more impressive is this: despite failing to deliver full tax revenue year after year, no one ever impeached you. Neither the Shaanxi Provincial Governor nor the Provincial Inspector ever submitted a memorial accusing you. You handled your superiors with ease while keeping the common people under control."
He clasped Liang Shixian's hands.
"Your ability to quietly drift through officialdom without attracting trouble is unparalleled in the entire empire."
Liang Shixian's face twitched.
He Fengsheng bowed deeply.
"Brother Liang, please teach me how to drift through my position as Grand Secretary. I must avoid angering the emperor above while also preventing chaos below. I need to remain invisible in official circles so no one will impeach me."
He lowered his head further.
"My life depends on your guidance."
Liang Shixian almost burst out laughing.
So that was it.
He had assumed He Fengsheng promoted him in order to build a political faction.
Instead, the man had dragged him to the capital just to learn how to slack off.
Slack off.
The Grand Secretary of the entire Ming Empire wanted lessons on slacking off.
The country was truly finished.
Liang Shixian waved a hand impatiently.
"To hell with slacking off. Listen to me. Build schools. Build factories. Get things moving."
He Fengsheng froze.
"What?"
"Collect commercial taxes!" Liang Shixian said boldly. "Raise the blade against the merchants. What are you afraid of?"
He Fengsheng blinked.
"What?"
"Stop limiting foreign trade to Macau, Quanzhou, and Fujian. Open the entire coastline. Lift the maritime ban completely!"
He Fengsheng stared at him.
"What?"
"Re-measure all farmland. Investigate hidden estates. No more tax exemptions for nobles and princes. Everyone pays taxes. Just do it!"
He Fengsheng finally panicked.
"WHAT?!"
He lunged forward and clamped both hands over Liang Shixian's mouth.
"Brother Liang! Brother Liang! You must not say such things!"
Any one of those policies, if implemented, would shake the entire empire.
If they pushed several of them together, the two of them might end up executed by dismemberment.
Liang Shixian struggled.
"Mmmph! Mmmph!"
He Fengsheng whispered nervously, "I will let go, but you must promise not to say such things again."
Liang Shixian nodded repeatedly.
"Mmmph."
Only then did He Fengsheng cautiously release him.
Liang Shixian took a deep breath.
"Look at you, trembling like this. What is there to fear? Just do it."
He Fengsheng shook his head violently.
"None of those policies can be implemented. If we try, officials across the entire empire will impeach us. Anyone who attempts it is courting death."
Liang Shixian smiled slightly.
"I do not think so."
He Fengsheng frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"In my opinion, the number of people who would oppose those reforms is actually quite small. At most, officials in the capital, those in Beizhili, and a portion of the Jiangnan region would object. The rest would obey."
He Fengsheng looked horrified.
"I do not believe you. Oh no. Did I accidentally release a giant catfish into the fishpond by summoning you to the capital?"
Liang Shixian chuckled.
"Fine, fine. I was only joking earlier. Slacking off cannot be done like that. That would get us killed immediately."
He Fengsheng exhaled with relief.
"Yes, yes. Please teach me the real method."
Liang Shixian nodded.
"If you want neither your superiors nor your subordinates to trouble you, there is only one method."
"Money."
"Wealth moves people's hearts. If you keep everyone's stomach full, no one will oppose you. In Chengcheng County, I served ten years without paying full taxes yet never faced impeachment. The secret was simple. I greased the wheels above and below with money."
He Fengsheng frowned.
"But where does the money come from?"
Liang Shixian answered casually.
"From the common people, of course."
"I possess something called fertilizer. Once applied to farmland, next year's harvest will double."
"If crop yields double, the people will not starve and will not rebel. They will obediently pay taxes. Then instead of handing all that money to the court, we quietly use part of it to grease our superiors."
He Fengsheng leaned closer.
"You mean…"
"You are the Grand Secretary," Liang Shixian said. "Your only superior is the emperor. Give him some extra silver for his private treasury. Once the emperor benefits personally, he will protect you."
"When that happens, who will still care whether the tax quota was fully met?"
Liang Shixian knew that the bold reforms he mentioned earlier were far too radical to present all at once. He Fengsheng would never dare.
So he chose the safest entry point.
Agriculture.
For five thousand years, China had always been an agrarian society. Even the most conservative officials were willing to experiment with anything that improved farming.
Compared with building factories, agricultural reforms were far easier to push forward.
Sure enough, He Fengsheng's eyes lit up.
"Brother Liang actually possesses such a miraculous thing? How do we produce this fertilizer?"
Liang Shixian grinned.
"My advisor understands the method. I will have him take charge."
"You are the Grand Secretary. As long as you give the order, every bureaucratic obstacle can be cleared easily. We will find a plot of land in Beizhili and conduct trials for a few months."
He Fengsheng nodded eagerly.
"Good. Let us try it."
The two men laughed together.
What He Fengsheng did not realize was that although he had firmly decided to slack off in office, he had already been dragged into the opening movement of a massive reform.
History would remember him as the first Grand Secretary who attempted to slack off so thoroughly that he accidentally transformed the entire nation.