Wei Nisheng returned to his duty room and sat at his desk, with a memorial bearing the title
[Memorial Reporting Discrepancies in the Grain Reserves of the Southern Capital Ever-Normal Granary] spread before him, but he did not immediately take up his brush.
It was not that he could not write it, but that he had to decide how.
Even though he had already drafted this memorial in his mind no fewer than ten times.
Each version was more comprehensive than the last, yet each made him feel more keenly that every word weighed a thousand tons.
It was not the weight of the language, but the weight of the consequences.
Once this memorial went up, the Ministry of Revenue would explode, and Shen Duan would leap to his feet.
And how would the emperor see it?
Would he consider Wei Nisheng loyal to the state, or see him as Feng Yan's blade, using the grain issue to cut down Shen Duan?
A blade could be handed over, but it must not look like a blade.
Especially in light of that reminder from Director Academician Liu Chongyan:
[A Hanlin official who submits a memorial on affairs of state performs the duty of an upright minister; he must harbor no thought of personal gain.]
And so Wei Nisheng paused for a long time before finally lowering his brush to the paper.
[Your servant, Wei Nisheng, Compiler of the Hanlin Academy, respectfully submits this memorial requesting an imperial decree to investigate the quantity of grain held in the Southern Capital Ever-Normal Granary.]
This was the opening of the memorial: proper, measured, and beyond reproach.
The phrase was "requesting an imperial decree to investigate," not "impeaching."
Not "reporting wrongdoing," but "requesting an imperial decree."
He was asking the emperor to order an