"Vice Director Wei has laid out his argument point by point. Having heard it, even I find it penetrating."
Court tablet in hand, Shen Duan stepped slowly out of the ranks, walked to the foot of the Vermilion Steps, stopped, and bowed.
"How could I be ignorant of the abuses festering in the military farmland?
I have occupied the office of chief minister for years, undeserving though I am, and enjoyed His Majesty's trust. In your eyes, am I truly a man blind in both eyes and heart?"
Shen Duan paused here, straightened, and held his court tablet across his chest before turning his argument:
"Governing a realm is like tending a house. When the roof leaks, you patch it; when the house collapses, you rebuild it.
The fields of Ningxia leak, but have not collapsed. The frontier garrison system is worn, but not broken!
Vice Director Wei, Wei Nisheng! Today you ask to change the ancestral institutions...
Do you mean to patch the leaks? Or tear down the house?!
Before the demolition is finished, wind and snow will arrive...
Heh, I fear the people living inside will freeze to death first!"
Silence fell over the hall again.
These words carried the steadiness and caution of age, and the veteran ministers throughout the hall nodded inwardly.
Shen Duan raised his eyes, slowly swept his gaze across the purple-and-scarlet robes filling the hall, and continued:
"And the very day Vice Director Wei asks to change the ancestral institutions is the day Ningxia has just suffered defeat, the Tangut invades our frontier, and Lanzhou cries for help!
When wise sovereigns of old encountered calamities and ominous portents, they reduced their meals, dismissed their music, cultivated virtue, and examined themselves!
Never have I heard of anyone seizing upon a calamity to change the