"Should Zi'an need anything, I shall grant it with all the resources of the Ministry of Revenue and in Duke Lai's name."
Hearing this, Wei Nisheng dispensed with ceremony. He set down his teacup and raised his head:
"Since Lord Kou has shown me such kindness, I shall hold nothing back."
"I wish to recommend someone to Lord Kou."
"Who?"
"The acting prefect of Suzhou, Zhang Zai, Zhang Zihou."
Kou Yuan knew something of the man:
"Zhang Zihou... I have heard of him.
He cleared the arrears in Daming and put the Granary Depot in Suzhou in order. A capable administrator indeed."
"What do you intend by recommending this talent, Zi'an?"
Rather than answer, Wei Nisheng rose, picked up the teapot, and poured Kou Yuan a cup.
A slender stream of tea fell into the cup, steam curling upward.
"Forgive me, Lord Kou, but I shall venture to speak a few words from the heart."
"Chancellor Shen presides over the Grand Secretariat, putting 'stability' before everything.
Yet what that word keeps stable is his own position, not the Court.
Peng Ding was his man, but when the defeat came, he was the first to impeach him.
The frontier garrisons' accounts have been muddled for thirty years, yet he hopes to cover them over with a single 'let us discuss this later.'" Wei Nisheng shook his head, then turned the conversation.
"But with Lord Kou at the helm of the Ministry of Revenue, substance comes first in everything.
It was Lord Kou who raised the matter of Suzhou.
It was Lord Kou who took the lead in exposing the shortfall in the Ever-Normal Granary.
The true state of the realm's tax grain and silver is held firmly in Lord Kou's own hands.
The Book of Changes says: 'The gentleman, in undertaking