Da Ming: Father, step aside, I'll be the prime minister!

Chapter 69 What is the Imperial Medical Academy anyway?
When the emperor inquired about the situation at the Imperial Medical Academy, Zhang Cheng hesitated for a moment before finally speaking.

"His Majesty's decree arrived at the Imperial Medical Academy yesterday, and the imperial physicians naturally dared not disobey. However, the head of the academy, Gong Tingxian, said that the Imperial Medical Academy is currently busy with the plague in the city and there is really no way to deal with it. There is really no way to deal with it."

"Hmph!" Emperor Wanli snorted coldly. "So you really can't play along with my nonsense, huh? I knew these people would act this way!"

"Your Majesty is too kind," Zhang Cheng quickly explained. "Your Majesty is benevolent and wise; you would never be so careless. The Imperial Medical Academy was referring to Zhang Shiyuan. The Imperial Medical Academy has worked diligently and meritoriously, managing both the affairs of the palace and the Huimin Pharmacy. In my humble opinion..."

Having accepted bribes, Zhang Cheng naturally had to defend them before the emperor.

"Why are you being so talkative here!" Emperor Wanli glared angrily.

"I deserve to die! I deserve to die! I beg Your Majesty to punish me!" Zhang Cheng only mentioned it tentatively, but seeing that the emperor was about to get angry, he immediately admitted defeat.

"These people never take me seriously, they treat me like a child!"

Since the sixth year of the Wanli Emperor's reign, the emperor had been ruling in his own right, but the inertia of so many years meant that many ministers still regarded him as a child.

In particular, during the eighth year of the Wanli Emperor's reign, he caused a drunken disturbance at a banquet in Xicheng, and was threatened by Empress Dowager Li with the words, "The great responsibility of the world cannot be borne by you alone!"

This incident left a deep psychological scar on Emperor Wanli.

From then on, his biggest concern was whether his ministers truly regarded him as the emperor, rather than a puppet emperor under the triple control of Empress Dowager Li, Zhang Juzheng, and Feng Bao.

Zhang Yunxiu handled this very well, but the pedantic imperial physicians of the Imperial Medical Academy clearly did not realize it.

"Tell Gong Tingxian and the imperial physicians of the Imperial Medical Academy that the Imperial Medical Academy is not a government office, but a department authorized by the emperor. The highest-ranking officials there are only sixth-rank officials. I can still make decisions!"

Emperor Wanli may not be able to control the Confucian scholars in the Hanlin Academy, but could he not control the Imperial Medical Academy?

Only after a moment did Zhang Cheng realize that he had inadvertently touched a raw nerve with the emperor.

He kowtowed repeatedly, begging for mercy.

“You deserve to die ten thousand times! Under the vast sky, all land belongs to the king; on the shores of the earth, all people are his subjects! How can His Majesty not make a decision for the world! That Gong Tingxian is truly despicable!”

To save his own life, Zhang Cheng naturally betrayed the Imperial Academy Director, Gong Tingxian.

Emperor Wanli snorted coldly and said, "Zhang Banban, you've been having a lot of ulterior motives lately. If you continue like this, you shouldn't stay by my side anymore. Go to Xiaoling Mausoleum in Nanjing and get a couple of acres of land to grow vegetables."

Zhang Cheng, the "slave," was startled and immediately crawled on his knees, weeping and pleading, "Your Majesty, even if you beat me to death, please don't send me to Nanjing!"

In the past, two favored eunuchs of Emperor Wanli, one named Sun Hai and the other named Ke Yong, were exiled to Nanjing because they were involved in the emperor's drunkenness.

In recent years, in order to resist the surveillance of the harem and ministers, Emperor Wanli has placed increasing trust in Zhang Cheng, which has undoubtedly made him more arrogant and domineering, but he did not expect to run into a wall in this matter.

Emperor Wanli was annoyed by Zhang Cheng's weeping and waved his hand, saying...

"That's all!"

He actually only wanted to scare Zhang Cheng and make the eunuch behave himself. If he really sent Zhang Cheng away, did he really expect Feng Bao to do things for him?
"Remember this: if you commit this offense again, I will not let you off lightly!"

"If I offend again, Your Majesty, you may skin me alive!" Zhang Cheng was going all out; he was willing to say anything in order to regain the emperor's trust.

What use would I have for your dog skin!

The Wanli Emperor's expression twitched slightly; he was not like his father, Zhu Yuanzhang, who had a penchant for skinning people.

After thinking for a moment, his gaze gradually hardened as he spoke.

"I happen to have something to do. If you don't do it well, I'll really skin you alive. You need to withdraw 50,000 taels of silver from the imperial treasury and give it to Zhang Yunxiu for his use."

Now that this plague has struck the capital, I am determined to suppress it!
I want to show them that I can get things done without their instruction!

Everything in the world is interconnected. If it weren't for the accumulation of wealth over the years through the Wanli New Deal, Emperor Wanli's private treasury would not have accumulated more than one million taels of silver.

If it weren't for this million taels of silver, Emperor Wanli would not have been so generous as to take out fifty thousand taels of silver in one go.

With these 50,000 taels of silver, Zhang Yunxiu's "Renmin First Medical Clinic" was able to thrive as if infused with fresh water. His first priority was to find Zhao Rui of Ruijin Silk Shop and instruct him to ramp up production on his mask production lines to produce even larger quantities of masks.

With a population of one million in the capital, Zhang Yunxiu did not expect to be able to save everyone by relying solely on his own strength.

Therefore, he focused his efforts solely on Xianyi Ward and invested all his resources in this ward.

Xianyi Ward belongs to Wanping County, and the current magistrate of Wanping County is a protégé of Zhang Juzheng.

At first, Magistrate Shen Bang was somewhat worried, but later he discovered that Zhang Yunxiu had not done anything to oppress the people.

Wanping County is currently overwhelmed with dealing with the plague, so naturally they have no time to attend to Zhang Yunxiu.

Moreover, the Huimin Pharmacy in the capital has limited capacity, and compared to other medical clinics in the capital, this Renmin First Medical Clinic is much more generous.

For many impoverished people and refugees, they would only charge a symbolic few coins before providing medical treatment.

The only drawback is that this treatment method is somewhat strange, requiring people to wear masks and take some kind of allicin.

After a quick investigation, Shen Bang was immediately taken aback.

Zhang Yunxiu is such a spendthrift!

That so-called garlic extract, although the raw material garlic is relatively cheap, was actually taken with rapeseed oil in the clinic.

Although rapeseed oil is considered cheap, it is now used by many patients.

Does Zhang Yunxiu really have so much money to squander?

For a time, Shen Bang felt great sympathy for his benefactor, Zhang Juzheng.

He wrote a letter to Zhang Juzheng's residence, reporting what had happened in Wanping County, but the letter disappeared without a trace within a few days, and Shen Bang could only let it go.

Zhang Yunxiu made a big splash in Xianyi Ward, even buying up all the garlic in the entire capital and even Beizhili.

Within just half a month, many households in Beizhili (northern Hebei) suddenly ran out of garlic.

Fortunately, apart from a few people with special preferences, garlic is not a necessity for most people.

With the plague raging and lives at stake, who cares about eating garlic?
The only relevant topic of conversation was that I learned from others that there was a foolish son of the Grand Secretary in the capital, who was utterly absurd.

They actually spent tens of thousands of taels of silver to buy up almost all the garlic in Beizhili, saying they were going to make some kind of miraculous medicine.
The intention may be good, but it all looks like childish nonsense!
The common people could only mutter a few complaints to themselves and warn their children not to follow the example of Zhang Shiyuan in the capital, otherwise even if their father was the Grand Secretary and they had a fortune, they would squander it all.

Subsequently, the people took out dozens of copper coins they had saved from various corners of their homes and went to the towns and villages to seek out "miracle doctors" and "immortals" in exchange for a miraculous cure.

"In April, the day of Guiwei, the 25th is Xinsi. Auspicious for: taking office, moving. Inauspicious for: traveling, burial."

North of the Imperial City, at Beianmen.

It was later called Di'anmen, but that was the name given after the Manchus entered the Central Plains.

The Imperial Medical Academy of the Ming Dynasty was located outside Bei'anmen, near Zhaohuifang and Jinggongfang.

On an auspicious day, Zhang Yunxiu led a group of craftsmen from the workshop, all of whom were strong and healthy.

The carriage stopped directly in front of the Imperial Hospital gate, and then a group of craftsmen and Imperial Guards poured out of the carriage like a pack of wolves.

Fourth Brother Zhang Jianxiu, carrying an embroidered spring knife, still couldn't hide his arrogance despite his puffy eyes. He rushed forward and kicked open the door of the Imperial Hospital.

"All doctors from the Imperial Medical Academy, come out here! It's time to set off!"

　Note 1: Two eunuchs who served Wanli were sent to Nanjing to grow vegetables. See the entry for the eleventh month of the Gengchen year of Wanli's reign in the Wanli Dichao: "Those who repented and then descended to the sea and used small fires were sent to Nanjing Xiaoling Mausoleum to grow vegetables."

　　
　
(End of this chapter)