SEHE Chapter 86.1

Drunkenness (part 1)

A glimmer of light flashed through Pei Yanci’s eyes, like a meteor streaking past in an instant.

“Establish separate education bureaus within the twenty-four Military Governor regions across all of Great Yu, with the prefecture managing the provinces, provinces managing the counties, and counties managing the townships, all under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Academy, to regulate official schools.”

“Little Brother Pei, this step you’re taking is quite bold indeed.” Sui Lu smiled without warmth. “Don’t strain your back at such a young age—you should at least consider your peaceful life in your later years.”

Wasn’t this blatantly seizing power from his Bureau of Ceremonies?

Though there wasn’t much power to begin with.

Their attitude toward official schools in various provincial capitals had essentially been laissez-faire. Schools were just one part of the Bureau of Ceremonies’ duties. After so many years of development, the imperial examinations and related systems had basically taken shape. The court interfered far less in local education compared to other government affairs, only occasionally issuing directives through them. The quality of education in any given place was actually credited to the regional governor, with little impact on their own achievements. Many officials didn’t even bother mentioning it during their performance reviews, so local education depended entirely on whether a provincial governor paid attention to this area.

“If elder brother backs me up, how could I possibly strain my back?” Pei Yanci said.

“Where would I get such great capability? I’m merely someone who passes messages up and down.” Sui Lu patted his hand and said, “For the sake of today’s banquet, elder brother will give you a word of advice—this isn’t a children’s game where you can do whatever your heart desires.”

“What do you mean?”

Sui Lu said, “It’s not that elder brother won’t help you, but even the cleverest housewife can’t cook without rice. You’ve just arrived and don’t understand—every bureau is tightening its belt to get by. Where would the money come from for you to make such a grand undertaking and establish a separate education bureau?”

He didn’t need to find any other excuses—one phrase, “no money,” was enough to make Qi Xiang and Fang Qingdu run around hitting walls countless times.

Three knocks sounded outside. After receiving permission, over twenty beautiful maidservants entered one after another, removing the delicacies that had barely been touched with a chopstick or two, and replacing them with a completely different selection of dishes.

Sui Lu clicked his tongue inwardly. The dishes just now were rare premium goods hardly seen even in Anjing’s major restaurants. When he had accompanied the Minister here before, they had eaten those same dishes, and he had thought Hongtu Restaurant was deliberately creating a gimmick to raise its prestige.

These current dishes were simply unheard of—things that flew in the sky, ran on the ground, swam in the sea. He was like a country bumpkin who couldn’t even name them. These dishes maximized the characteristics of the ingredients, exquisitely garnished with decorations, spread before him like paintings, allowing one to feast to one’s heart’s content.

It was as if he had entered a magnificent culinary dreamscape.

But the dishes at such banquets were never meant to be eaten—eating wasn’t the main point.

Startled for a moment, he glanced at Pei Yanci, who looked completely composed, clearly long accustomed to such things. His eyes only watched Sui Lu as he took a light sip of wine, concealing his own discomfort.

“Sui Daren can rest assured, we’re not spending the Ministry of Rites’ money,” Fang Qingdu said.

“But the money you spend still goes through the Secretariat’s Ministry of Revenue accounts. How could those above possibly agree? If we submit such an outrageous proposal, I’ll be the one cursed bloody, while you hide behind my back, never having suffered the difficulties from above.” Sui Lu’s back hunched considerably—he had already shouldered too much for the Imperial Academy. “I’ve said it countless times, you old scholars shouldn’t always work behind closed doors with your flights of fancy, thinking up one scheme after another. Hasn’t the Imperial Academy been tormented enough by you?”

“I understand the difficulties of each bureau, so little brother has thought of a solution.” Pei Yanci said. “We’ll only issue directives, informing each provincial capital of this matter. We won’t manage anything else.”

“How can you not manage it?” Sui Lu frowned.

“We’ll let each provincial capital organize their own personnel. Originally, the governors oversaw all local education, with several deputies helping them handle affairs. Now we’re simply making them independent. Officials familiar with the work are already there, and they can figure out office space and funding themselves—they had money and places to work before, so they can’t suddenly have none now. Why would the court need to allocate additional funds to them?”

“Changing from the previous system of governor oversight to direct Imperial Academy jurisdiction means localities will no longer act independently, which is beneficial for cultivating talent throughout Great Yu.” Fang Qingdu chimed in, raising his wine cup to toast Sui Lu. “I hope daren will give this more consideration.”

Sui Lu savored the lingering taste of wine and meat in his mouth, then said, “Little brother’s thinking is comprehensive and thorough. When you suddenly brought this up just now, I momentarily thought wrongly. But I think, after all, the Imperial Academy is itself an official school, same as anywhere else. How can an official school manage official schools? Wouldn’t that be chaos? In my view, which court bureau these provincial education bureaus ultimately report to—we can decide that later.”

Originally, the Bureau of Ceremonies had weak control over local education, and local governors didn’t prioritize it either. Pei Yanci’s establishment of separate education bureaus would greatly strengthen the court’s emphasis on and management of education, naturally increasing the authority of whichever bureau had direct oversight.

He had provided a ready-made solution—how could the Bureau of Ceremonies not seize it directly?

“That’s not urgent,” Pei Yanci pressed down on his hand. “For the above measures to be implemented, the prerequisite is getting localities to figure out their own funding. This will certainly draw complaints from provincial capitals. Each locality could also shirk responsibility, saying they don’t have the money and can’t do it. Then when the court’s directive has already been issued, the implementing bureau will be caught in the middle, neither up nor down, not knowing how to save face.”

“Does your Imperial Academy have the ability to make all provinces obediently comply?” Sui Lu said disdainfully.

“Whether we have that ability or not doesn’t need to trouble elder brother.” He drank some wine to moisten his throat and said, “A proper official bureau is quite different from the handful of people working under a governor. Once independent, from top to bottom, several important positions in each provincial capital will inevitably open up. Which officials at court are familiar with education and can handle heavy responsibilities? Won’t the Ministry of Personnel need to consult with you and me? When that time comes, the Imperial Academy will be busy organizing the bureaus and won’t have time. Elder brother can just steadily select people with the Ministry of Personnel—we’ll handle the dirty and tiring work.”

One was power, the other was money. Sui Lu wanted both, and the two didn’t conflict at all. But he also knew that Pei Yanci wasn’t easy to fool—he had obviously long been guarding against the Bureau of Ceremonies, and local education bureaus could only be under Imperial Academy jurisdiction.

“I’ve been pondering this for quite a while.” Pei Yanci clinked glasses with him. “Rest assured, what I mentioned earlier was just the general measures. I’ll implement the specific details later under the Imperial Academy’s name after the measures are promulgated. If elder brother can persuade the Secretariat to let these measures be implemented, I’ll be able to handle this matter both efficiently and properly.”

“Pei Yanci, to complete your own achievements, you’re instigating Sui Daren to sell offices?” From diagonally across, Fang Qingdu’s sharp, clear voice tore away the outer garment of Pei Yanci’s smooth words. Beyond his shock, his face flushed red with anger.

Everyone understood this matter tacitly, but his saying it directly made Sui Lu’s expression turn ugly at once.

“Fang Daren seems quite drunk, saying such wine talk. You should go rest and sober up.” Pei Yanci stood to help him.

Fang Qingdu twisted his body away, also realizing “selling offices” was too serious. He said, “Pei Daren, if people recommended by Sui Daren take posts in local bureaus, will they listen to the Imperial Academy or the Bureau of Ceremonies? You’re simply confused! Wasting time arguing with him now—we’ll be the ones running around everywhere later, and in the end we’ll get nothing!”

Sui Lu’s good mood for the evening instantly plummeted. “Fang Daren, those words are unpleasant. The Imperial Academy falls under my Bureau of Ceremonies’ jurisdiction. Don’t make it sound like I’m competing with you for power and profit.”

“Fine, then give us the local education bureaus. As for what personnel the provincial capitals below need, let the Ministry of Personnel come ask us. Which great scholars at court are knowledgeable and good at education—no one understands better than our Imperial Academy.”

Sui Lu heavily set down his chopsticks. “I have never seen such a greedy person as you! You keep saying the Bureau of Ceremonies does nothing, but what about your Imperial Academy!”

He was about to say more when three knocks sounded outside the door again, timely interrupting his anger.

Fang Qingdu also sat down, sulking on the side.

Over twenty beautiful maidservants entered, replacing the barely cooled dishes with yet another new table of food.

Sui Lu’s belly full of wine looked at the dazzling wealth before him, his heart somewhat numb.

In a trance, he felt that even an emperor’s enjoyment was merely this.

The atmosphere in the room lost its clamor and fury, leaving only some oppressive silence.

After everyone left, the wine cup he raised to his lips paused. “Little Brother Pei, for the sake of your sincerity today, rest assured about this matter—elder brother will handle it. I hope you won’t go back on your word either.”

“Naturally.” Pei Yanci walked over to pour him wine, then clinked glasses again. “Fang Daren is also thinking of the court. Our Imperial Academy lacks silver, so we can’t do anything. He’s anxious too. And hearing that the Bureau of Ceremonies wants to change the five-year training period for Imperial Academy students to three years, he developed misunderstandings about the Bureau of Ceremonies and Sui Daren, thinking you know nothing yet love to interfere blindly.”

“The national treasury can’t spare the money.” Sui Lu’s lips held a cold smile—it was still the same line. “If we don’t shorten the training time, how can we continue to sustain it?”

“What if our Imperial Academy could earn money ourselves? The Bureau of Ceremonies and Secretariat couldn’t stop us, could they?”

“What do you mean?”

“When did the Imperial Academy start earning its own money?” Fang Qingdu had an ominous premonition.

“Didn’t we previously let several students in through bribes?” Pei Yanci said.

“You want to sell admission slots?” Fang Qingdu jumped up again. “No, I don’t agree, and everyone at the Academy won’t agree!”

“You’ve already done it, and the rumors exist,” Pei Yanci pressed down his hand. “Rather than hiding and covering it up, letting others speculate endlessly and speak ill of us, tarnishing our reputation, why not just make it public? Set aside ten or twenty fixed slots from the annual admissions purely based on who pays the most silver, and we’ll admit them. One person per year could bring in tens of thousands of taels at least, greatly reducing expenses. I’m sure the Ministry of Revenue would be pleased to see this.”

“This method is good.” Sui Lu said. He had always supported anything that damaged the Imperial Academy’s reputation.

“Then we’ll also have considerable silver to circulate, to show proper respect up and down.” Pei Yanci said meaningfully. “Sui Daren will be the great hero of this matter—how could we forget you?”

Sui Lu thought that this group of stubborn old men at the Imperial Academy had never known how to work things properly—in the future, others would definitely come asking him for favors.

“But there’s one problem,” Pei Yanci said. “If people’s learning isn’t good enough and they get in through bribes, wouldn’t that be too unfair to those noble heirs who enter through family privilege and real learning?”

Sui Lu became contemplative. “What’s your view?”

“Since we’ve taken the lead in breaking the strict admission conditions and qualifications, making the threshold no longer fair to aristocratic families, why not go all the way to avoid arousing their displeasure? Let’s unify admissions based purely on academic merit, no longer using family background as a criterion.”

If Pei Yanci had initially proposed changing admission qualifications to target all people of Great Yu, Sui Lu definitely wouldn’t have agreed, because this damaged aristocratic families’ interests, and he would certainly have to speak for them.

The national treasury had no money, so the Imperial Academy opening part of its slots to collect fees—this had already been done. Once this opening was made, it would only grow larger, so better to explicitly stipulate the specific number of slots and requirements before it got out of hand, to stop the bleeding in time.

This would certainly anger the aristocratic clans. They were born noble—attending the best academy in all the land was their due. They studied hard, earned their place by displacing other less academically accomplished heirs from among the powerful, and rightfully deserved the best teachers. And now someone could buy these slots with money, possibly from among their fellow nobles, their former defeated rivals, or perhaps the sons of merchants reeking of copper—how could they tolerate being classmates with such people?

The aristocratic families would inevitably harbor resentment.

At such times, the aristocratic families would stand on the opposite side of Sui Lu’s interests.

“What does Sui Daren think?” Pei Yanci asked the deeply thoughtful man.

“Let me think about this matter more.” He said hesitantly.

“Once the specific slots measure is announced, the aristocratic families won’t dwell on what the Imperial Academy’s admission qualifications have become.” Pei Yanci said. “Sui Daren can rest assured.”