409, Cabinet Formation
409, Cabinet Formation
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, it was time for the mathematics examination at the Ministry of Revenue.
Lu Mingfei personally presided over the first mathematics examination of the Ministry of Revenue, and even wrote the test papers himself.
After the first round of written test, there is a second round of interviews.
He was still the chief examiner in the second round of interviews, conducting one-on-one interviews with the 300 candidates selected in the first round, and finally selected 180 candidates from the 300.
However, the people selected in the second round are not the ones who will ultimately stay.
These 180 people also underwent a one-month training at the Ministry of Revenue. Only after meeting the requirements and standards were they qualified to stay in the Ministry of Revenue.
After the third round, only one hundred and twenty people remained.
After the third round of assessments, Lu Mingfei looked at the group of new employees he had handpicked and said with a serious expression, "I'm sure you all know that the Ministry of Revenue is an office that deals with money."
"I hope that all of you who are staying here today will remember what I have said to you today. No matter where you go in the future, you must remember one thing: do your job well. Don't reach out where you shouldn't, and don't touch money that you shouldn't touch."
"As long as you work hard and achieve results under my command, I will not treat you unfairly, and neither will His Majesty."
"If you want to get promoted and make money, I have plenty of legitimate ways for you to follow. Don't take those crooked ways. Do you understand?!" When he said the last sentence, Lu Mingfei raised his voice to remind the group.
"Yes, sir, thank you for your teachings!"
The 120 people selected included teenagers and middle-aged people in their forties.
Among this group of people, there were young masters from merchant families, young masters from aristocratic families, and young men from humble backgrounds. But no matter what their backgrounds were, they all had one thing in common: they were good at arithmetic and had a sharp mind.
Of the last 120 people selected, except for some who stayed in Kyoto Prefecture, the rest were sent by Lu Mingfei to local business.
In September of the same year, they also established a Ministry of Commerce under the Ministry of Revenue, a new office specifically responsible for managing business affairs.
All the people in this government office are new, and Ye Zhuoran's name is among them.
When the officials in the court still didn't know what this new government office was for, Lu Mingfei had already held business meetings with dozens of businessmen in Kyoto Prefecture for several days and finalized a lot of official and private cooperation.
At the same time, he also sent people to coastal ports to establish the Foreign Trade Department.
Because he was not very confident in the local officials, he asked Zhang Lingxuan and Ye Zhuoran to take people there to be responsible for the preliminary work.
If he hadn't left Kyoto Prefecture right now, Lu Mingfei would have wanted to go there himself. But he felt relieved to have Zhang Lingxuan go, so he handed Zhang Lingxuan a thick plan he had written.
As long as nothing goes wrong with Zhang Lingxuan, their treasury should be full within three years.
At the end of every year, the Ministry of Revenue has the most things to do. Lu Mingfei is basically busy from morning to night every day and has no time to rest even on holidays.
He was busy here, and Zhao Lang was also busy there. Apart from sleeping in the same bed at night, the two of them were basically busy with various things during the day.
In the past, there was a prime minister who shared some of the emperor's affairs. Now that the position of prime minister has been abolished, all the affairs that the prime minister used to be in charge of have fallen on Zhao Lang's head.
Seeing how much weight they had lost in such a short period of time, Lu Mingfei knew they were both exhausted. He was frantically looking for someone to share his workload, but Zhao Lang had to do his work alone.
Although he could sometimes share some of the work with Zhao Lang, he had a lot of work on his own, so the amount he could help Zhao Lang with was limited.
Humans are made of flesh and blood, and if things continue for a long time, they will definitely get tired. Lu Mingfei knew very well that it would be difficult to maintain the huge operation of a country with only one person's flesh and blood.
Fearing that Zhao Lang would die young due to his busy life, he proposed to Zhao Lang the idea of setting up a secretariat.
However, his proposal eventually turned into the formation of a cabinet.
***
In the twelfth month of that year, at an early morning court meeting, the emperor proposed to form a cabinet in front of all the court officials, and appointed the Minister of Justice Zhou Chunshan as the first chief minister.
"Your Majesty, obeys your command." The Minister of Justice stepped forward and took on the important task of being the first Prime Minister.
Many officials present were stunned for a moment, and many of them subconsciously looked in Lu Mingfei's direction.
Lu Mingfei felt a lot of eyes on him. He knew why they were looking at him; they were simply surprised that he wasn't the choice for Prime Minister. Perhaps some were gloating, feeling that he had lost the emperor's favor and trust.
He knew very well what these people in the court were thinking.
[However, unfortunately, you will be disappointed.] Anyone could lose the emperor's favor, but that person would definitely not be him.
In fact, Zhao Lang had originally wanted him to take the position of Prime Minister, but Lu Mingfei himself disagreed because he knew very well that if he became the Prime Minister at his age, there would definitely be people who would be dissatisfied.
Instead of trying to sit in a position that you don’t deserve, it’s better to let someone who is truly suitable sit in it.
He had previously worked with the Minister of Justice for a period of time and knew that Lord Zhou was a fair and upright man. He had never handled any cases that were wrongly convicted or miscarried. A man of such high moral character and considerable ability was the perfect choice for the first Prime Minister.
So he eventually pushed this old senior to this position.
The Minister of Justice Zhou Chunshan himself also understood that he was only in the position of Prime Minister temporarily.
Therefore, although Zhou Chunshan was chosen by the emperor as the chief minister, he did not feel that he was favored by the emperor. He was still the same as before, doing what he should do, judging cases when he should judge them, and assisting the emperor when he should assist him.
He rejected all invitations from his other colleagues.
Zhao Lang saw what Zhou Chunshan did, so he began to respect this minister who was only dedicated to serving the court and him, the emperor, more and began to really use Zhou Chunshan.
After the government stabilized, the entire country entered a period of stability and development.
After Zhou Chunshan became the Prime Minister, Lu Mingfei remained at the Ministry of Revenue, continuing to serve as the Minister of Revenue and focusing on making money. He said to their emperor, "Wait for me to make more money for you to spend, and then you can spend it however you want."
"Okay. But you shouldn't be too tired." Zhao Lang was holding his purse... the man who manages money, and he smiled happily.
As the person in charge of the emperor's purse, Lu Mingfei quite liked his position and job as the Minister of Revenue. Compared to fighting among his colleagues and vying for power, he actually preferred the feeling of making money.
He was in charge of the emperor's purse. If the Ministry of Revenue had no money, the emperor would have no money to spend. Therefore, he only wanted Zhao Lang to be the richest emperor in history, who could spend money as he pleased!
Therefore, making money for their emperor to spend at will is still a very tempting thing for him.
Lu Mingfei now has a big goal, which is to make his beloved Emperor more financially comfortable, and to allow the soldiers and civilians to live a good life with enough food to eat and warm clothes to wear.
The benefits of establishing the Ministry of Commerce are also very obvious. That is, many business matters can be handed over to this new department to handle, and the cooperation and exchanges between the court and private businessmen have become closer.
In the winter of that year, many new workshops were built outside Kyoto Prefecture. Most of these workshops were jointly run by the Ministry of Commerce and private merchants, producing some handicrafts containing some technology.
Most of the handicrafts produced by these workshops are sold abroad in addition to being sold domestically.
In the spring of the following year, the first batch of merchant ships set out to sea, carrying their silk and various handicrafts overseas, and began the journey of maritime trade.
At the same time, the Ministry of Commerce also formed a large number of caravans and started land trade.
Pingzhou City, as a transit station, established a large trade market.
All caravans departing from Dayan would pass through Pingzhou City before leaving the country.
Therefore, the caravans departing from Dayan would bring all kinds of exquisite silks, porcelains, and various handicrafts to Pingzhou City. After the first round of transactions here, they would go out of the customs and go to more distant places.
Li County and the surrounding small counties, which served as the rear base, also got a share of the pie and took this opportunity to rapidly develop the local economy.
After the New Year, Lu Mingfei received a letter from the old senior who stayed in Li County to take over his position. The senior said that he wanted to stay in Li County and did not want to return to Kyoto Prefecture.
He showed Zhao Lang the letter from Fu Zheng.
"Since he wants to stay in Li County, let him stay. But it's a waste of his talent to let him be a small county magistrate." Zhao Lang agreed to let Fu Zheng stay in Li County, but he promoted Fu Zheng from the position of county magistrate to the position of prefect.
As for the former prefect, he retired with honor.
After fighting with the Hu people for several years, the war officially stopped this year.
The wool trade that Lu Mingfei and Zhao Lang had proposed a few years ago was now officially launched after Zhao Lang came to power. In less than half a year, the Hu people's alliance was broken by them.
During this period, another incident happened. Zhao Rui was personally understood by his biological father, the retired emperor, and the spy in the Zhenbei Army was also eliminated.
It was a month later when Zhao Lang received the secret letter sent by his father.
"It's really a blessing for him to live so long!" Lu Mingfei also read the letter.
In fact, they had already obtained evidence that Zhao Rui was a spy a long time ago, but they endured it for so long in order to find out the list of other spies.
However, what surprised Lu Mingfei was that the one who attacked Zhao Rui was his father-in-law himself.
This also illustrates a point: what the superiors value is always interests. As long as it touches their own interests, even if it is between father and son, in the end it cannot outweigh the interests. Author's words: Thank you Bole 9492239 (9492239) for your support, mua! To know more exciting content, please leave me a message on Liancheng Reading
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