Chapter 94: Roll Call

Zhu Chong was dazed and felt as if something was swaying in front of his eyes. He opened his eyes and took a closer look.

But she only saw Tang Sai'er busy doing something under the oil lamp. She looked out the window and saw it was pitch black outside. She couldn't help complaining.

"Hey girl, why are you here so busy at night instead of sleeping? Go to bed!"

"Young Master, are you confused from your sleep?" Seeing that Zhu Chong had woken up, Tang Sai'er quickly lit the oil lamp by Zhu Chong's window and took the clothes that had been prepared by the bed.

"Didn't you come back yesterday and say that the Emperor wanted you to be an official? You should get up and start your work right away!"

"On duty..." Zhu Chong huddled in his quilt, a look of despair on his face. "Sir, I'm on duty, not doing hard labor. Do I really need to get up so early? It's not even daybreak yet!"

"Young Master, you must know this!" Upon hearing this, Tang Sai'er looked at Zhu Chong with a strange expression on her face.

"That's the time you have to get up when you're on duty. I heard from my mother before that officials all have to get up at this time. Otherwise, if you're late, you'll get criticized by your superiors."

"Besides, the courtyard we live in is quite far from the Treasury and Banknotes Administration Office. Sir, you don't have a carriage right now, so it will take you quite a while to walk there!"

At Tang Sai'er's urging, Zhu Chong numbly put on his clothes with an expression of excruciating pain on his face. Only then did he come back to his senses and felt a little regretful. He should have asked Zhu Biao to move him to a courtyard closer to the Baochao Tizhusi.

Although Yingtian Prefecture at this time was not as big as his Chongming City, it was still the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

Like all capital cities, Yingtian Prefecture is divided into three major parts: outer city, inner city and imperial city.

The Imperial City is the imperial palace, where the emperor holds court in the morning and where the harem is located. It is the core area of the Ming Dynasty.

All the government offices of the imperial court were built right next to the imperial city, but the distances between different government offices and the imperial city varied depending on the rank of the official.

The higher the rank and the more important the functions of the government office, the closer it is to the imperial city.

For example, the Six Ministries, the Prime Minister's Office, etc., are the government offices closest to the imperial city.

For example, the Secretariat, which had not yet been abolished by Zhu Yuanzhang, was now located in the imperial city, and the people there could see Zhu Yuanzhang every day.

Walking out of the imperial city is the inner city, but the terms inner city and outer city were coined by the people themselves.

Of course, there is indeed a city wall separating the inner city and the outer city, but that is only for the convenience of management by the court. The court has never made a distinction between the inner and outer cities.

But the imperial court did not say so, as it could not resist people's vanity, and it could even be said to be superstition.

As long as you are a citizen of the Ming Dynasty, who doesn’t want to be closer to the imperial city?

To put it nicely, it is for greater security, but in fact it is mainly to get some of the noble's aura and prosper the family.

So as time went by, the people living in the inner city were basically either high-ranking officials or wealthy businessmen.

Ordinary people simply do not have the financial resources to live in the inner city and can only live in the outer city.

Previously, Zhu Chong’s Prince of Qin’s Palace was also in the inner city, and it had the best location in the inner city, closest to the imperial palace, even slightly inferior to the Prime Minister’s Palace.

But now it is different from before. Zhu Chong has become a commoner. If Zhu Biao had not given him a yard, he would not even have a place to live.

But precisely because of this, Zhu Chong's courtyard in the outer city was somewhat inconvenient, whether he was attending court or working.

Because if he was on duty, he had to get up an hour earlier than usual, and if he had to go to court, he had to get up half an hour earlier.

This is a bit like the later generation of people who move to Beijing. They say they work in the capital, but in fact they don’t live in the capital at all. The time they spend on the way to work every day even exceeds their working time.

But there is no way around it, such phenomena exist in every era.

Although the Baochao Tizhusi office where Zhu Chong worked was not ranked among the top offices in Yingtian Prefecture in terms of rank, it was close to the imperial city after all, and was in the completely opposite direction of where Zhu Chong lived.

So Zhu Chong naturally had to get up early. After finally finding out from Tang Sai'er how to get to the Baochao Tizhusi, Zhu Chong couldn't help but smack his lips in amazement.

It’s not that he felt the journey was too far, but from his position in the Baochao Tizhusi, Zhu Chong could be sure that his cheap father was just using the Baochao as free toilet paper.

When he had no money, he would ask the Baochao Tizhusi to do the work. Otherwise, when Zhu Chong walked all the way there and saw all kinds of shops near the Baochao Tizhusi, he knew that Zhu didn't take the Baochao Tizhusi seriously at all.

But no matter what Zhu Yuanzhang thought in his heart, now that Zhu Chong was the head of the Baochao Tizhusi, he would definitely build the Baochao Tizhusi into the most prestigious place in the Ming Dynasty.

As they got closer to the inner city, Zhu Chong noticed that there were more and more people around him, like him, carrying lanterns and hurrying on their way.

However, there are very few fifth-rank officials like him who rely solely on their own two legs to walk. Most of them sit in sedan chairs, and those who walk are all servants.

Zhu Chong felt a little unbalanced as he watched the sedan bearers carrying the sedan chairs walking briskly past him in groups.

He must ask Zhu Biao for a house in the inner city. Even a whole horse would be better than what he has now. Otherwise, when he goes to court, he will have to get up for an extra hour and then walk into the palace and stand to listen to the court. Just thinking about it makes Zhu Chong feel like he is going crazy!

By the time Zhu Chong entered the Baochao Tizhusi office, it was just past the hour of Mao.

In ancient times, the head of each government office would check whether everyone was present at the hour of Mao to see if anyone was late or absent. This was called "Dianmao".

Zhu Chong is now the director of the Baochao Tizhu Division. He is the chief officer of the Baochao Tizhu Division, and is the person in charge of roll call.

By the time he entered, everyone in the yamen had already arrived.

Seeing the new official being late on his first day in office, most of the officials present had obvious sarcasm on their faces.

Zhu Chong naturally saw it, but he turned a blind eye to it. He sat directly on the main seat and saw that the table in front of him was empty at first glance. He couldn't help but frown.

"I am the new supervisor, and from now on we will be colleagues. Please state your names and titles!"

After Zhu Chong finished speaking, the hall fell into silence and no one responded.

Seeing this situation, Zhu Chong knew it clearly. He knew that this was a common practice in all government offices to bully newcomers. After all, in such a government office, no one knew him.

Zhu Chong sneered in his heart, thinking that as a new official, he had to make three big moves!

Although Zhu Chong had never been a leader in his previous life, he was at least a veteran who had been abused in the workplace for more than ten years.

He knew very well that in this situation, if he didn't teach these people a lesson, he would probably have trouble even getting a glass of water in the Baochao Tizhuo Division.

"Is Deputy Supervisor Ye Songye here?" Zhu Chong asked directly by name.