The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 131

After hearing Zhou Chu's method, Jiajing fell silent.

"Isn't this going too far?"

Jiajing asked somewhat uncertainly.

"No, Your Majesty, rest assured. These civil officials have a common problem: they like to use intrigue and schemes, and they like to play under the table. Although killing these palace maids will affect their interests, on the surface, the palace maids have nothing to do with them. Besides, these were all done by assassins. What does it have to do with Your Majesty? What does it have to do with the Embroidered Uniform Guard?"

Zhou Chu said nonchalantly.

The true character of these civil officials in the court is crystal clear. To put it bluntly, they are bullies who prey on the weak and fear the strong. The better you treat them, the more they take advantage of you. On the contrary, when the Manchus treat them like dirt, they are grateful to them.

As the saying goes, scholars fear authority more than morality; morality has very little binding force on these people, and they can always find excuses to justify themselves.

For example, Xu Jie, a disciple of Wang Yangming, verbally believed in Wang Yangming's philosophy of mind and emphasized the unity of knowledge and action. However, the unity of knowledge and action became his excuse. He could be greedy and embezzle at will. In his view, wasn't this also a kind of unity of knowledge and action? Xu Jie didn't even have the slightest psychological burden.

Therefore, Zhou Chu always knew very well that Wang Yangming's unity of knowledge and action was never suitable for ordinary people to learn; if ordinary people tried to learn it, they would only go astray.

As long as the Empress Dowager is alright, killing some palace maids is fine. Even if everyone knows who did it afterward, no one will dare to turn against Zhou Chu. They might even try to make amends for Zhou Chu.

Of course, this is on the premise that only palace maids and certain eunuchs are killed.

Nobody cares whether these people live or die.

“Your Majesty, Heng Qi is right. Since ancient times, a kind heart cannot command an army, and a righteous heart cannot manage finances. Your Majesty must not put yourself in danger because of a woman’s kindness.”

Lu Bing, who was standing nearby, also chimed in with words of advice.

After hearing this, Jiajing thought about it and finally made the decision.

"Alright, let's do it this way. Go ahead and do the weighing. I'll take care of the rest. Oh, and after you're done, please invite a Taoist master to perform a ritual. Otherwise, the resentment in the palace might get too strong."

Jiajing thought for a moment and then said.

"Your Majesty, rest assured, I will find you a Taoist master. I know a great Taoist physician."

Whether for the needs of religious ceremonies or for other reasons, the emperor needed a true master physician by his side, just in case.

Otherwise, he might die from those quack doctors at the Imperial Hospital again sometime later.

The most ridiculous thing is that the medical guidebook of the Imperial Medical Academy was actually written by Liu Wentai, and it was completely nonsensical and wrong in every way. If you treated patients according to this medical book, they would all remain silent.

Later, Li Shizhen entered the Imperial Medical Academy. It was after reading the medical books left by Liu Wentai that he found them all to be incorrect. This led him to resign from his position as an imperial physician, travel all over the country, and write the Compendium of Materia Medica.

Many people say that Li Shizhen ruined traditional Chinese medicine, making the Wenbing school of thought the mainstream.

In fact, long before Li Shizhen, traditional Chinese medicine had already been almost completely ruined by people like Liu Wentai.

The Wenbing School was not Li Shizhen's fault. Li Shizhen was a highly skilled doctor and could cure people with this method. However, there were many unambitious quacks in the folk. The main characteristic of the Wenbing School was that it did not seek to cure you, but the medicines used were relatively mild and mostly tonics, which were acceptable to the patient's family. Even if the doctor could not cure you, they would not blame the doctor.

As a result, more and more people adopted the mentality of seeking no merit but avoiding mistakes, leading to an increase in the number of people belonging to the Wenbing school and a decrease in the number of people belonging to the Jingfang school and the Fuzi school.

As the saying goes, ginseng can kill without consequence, while aconite can save lives without merit.

The main idea is to prescribe some mild tonics for you first, no matter what illness you have.

After Zhou Chu left the Imperial Study, he withdrew all the Imperial Guards except those surrounding the Imperial Study from the palace.

This left the palace defenses severely weakened for a time.