Chapter 101 Send them to fight the wild jungle...
"That Minister of Personnel has a truly wonderful life. Even at his age, he still has no shame."
Wen Tao put down today's newspaper. The headline on the front page was about the deeds of that senior official. Of course, for fear that the senior official would come to the door, all the people who appeared were pseudonyms. The senior official did not say which senior official it was, but only vaguely mentioned that it was an old minister who had been in the court for decades. When the emperor was still the king, the old minister had already followed the late king for more than ten years.
There are only a handful of old ministers in the court today. Most of them have retired early and returned to their hometowns to make room for the younger generation in their families and pave the way for the future of their families.
The few old ministers who were still retained were either very capable and the emperor was reluctant to let them go, or they had been holding on to their positions because their children were not doing well and they were afraid that their family would decline if they left.
The Minister of Personnel fell into the latter category. Wen Tao had indeed never heard of any child in his family being talented. The occasional rumors were all about bad reputations like being cunning and willful. You have to know that everyone pays great attention to reputation these days. Before the imperial examination, everyone relied on recommendations to become an official. If one's reputation was too bad, one could not become an official.
Therefore, every nobleman is a master of hype and deification. Even in such a situation, they can still spread a bad reputation, which shows how hopeless people are.
"Senior Sister, are you so sure that the person mentioned in the newspaper is the Minister of Personnel?"
Qiong Yu has been working for the past two days. Her impression of the Minister of Personnel is that he is a kind old man who always has a kind smile on his face. No matter what his subordinates do wrong, he will never get angry, but will give gentle answers. Therefore, the Minister has always had a good reputation in the Ministry of Personnel.
"Who else could it be but him? Don't think he always plays the good guy now. When he first became the Minister of Personnel, he scolded those who worked under him every day and every five days. He was always looking for trouble. He also had a special dislike for those from poor families, but because the emperor liked him, he dared not show it. He only tried to make things difficult for officials from poor families, both openly and secretly. You have me backing you up, but I'm afraid you haven't experienced it. Your friend's career was not going well for her later, and it was most likely the work of this Minister of Personnel."
Wen Tao was talking about Xia Qing. Once, Xia Qing and Qiong Yu had a wonderful debate in the lecture hall, which made the whole Shengdu talk about it. Later, they both passed the imperial examination and entered the officialdom. Qiong Yu is now about to get the position of Shangshu, but Xia Qing is still struggling outside.
Xia Qing's qualifications and abilities are no worse than Qiong Yu's, but it seems that he has always had bad luck. Qiong Yu originally thought that it was really bad luck, but now after hearing what her senior sister said, she realized that it was that old guy who was behind it.
Qiong Yu frowned upon hearing this. Her friend's frustration had become a source of worry. She asked, "Can you tell Xia Qing about this?"
Qiong Yu's first reaction was to ask Xia Qing to seek justice for her.
"What's the point of telling her? It'll only add to her troubles. The old man is going to die soon anyway. He could have left a good reputation and enjoyed his retirement, but he's such a fool. He's been pretending for so many years, but in the end, he was seduced by petty gains and exposed his stupidity. The emperor hates these fools who think they're smart the most."
Wen Tao was talking about the previous incident where the Minister of Personnel impeached Gui Yang.
When this matter was mentioned, Qiong Yu hesitated to speak. She mentioned Gui Yang hesitantly and said, "The Prime Minister is going to Donghai to investigate the case. I'm afraid he will stir up another bloody storm when he returns."
"That's what they deserve. Salt and iron are the most important treasures of our country. Whoever dares to lay his hands on them will have his entire clan buried with him." Wen Tao picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip of the hot tea. Suddenly, she paused and narrowed her eyes. When she looked at Qiong Yu, a deep and dark gloom suddenly appeared in her almond-shaped eyes. "You're not so bold as to lay your hands on them, are you?"
"Junior sister, I don't dare, but I've been sending out a few letters from the backyard recently, so I'm a little concerned."
Qiong Yu hurriedly denied it. She had a premonition that if she dared to reach out, Wen Tao would chop off her arm and kill her own family for the sake of justice.
Wen Tao glanced at Qiong Yu twice more, and after confirming that Qiong Yu was not lying, he snorted and said, "Humph, they have all entered your backyard. From now on, they are your people. Just keep them under control. If anything really happens, I am here, so you won't be implicated."
"Thank you for your care, Senior Sister."
Qiong Yu stood up and bowed solemnly. As she lowered her head, she thought to herself that it would be better to send those restless people back to their homes and cut ties now than to be found out later and then have to frantically prove herself.
Wen Taoze leaned forward slightly and looked outside. The pedestrians walking on the street and the constant hawking sounds calmed her somewhat irritable heart.
Eleven years is really too long, so long that everyone has changed in this chaos.
I am no longer as youthful and innocent as I was.
Fortunately, Shengdu is still bustling with people, and the one in the palace still sits on the throne, overlooking the world and ruling over all living beings. His wish for a strong country and safe people has never changed from the beginning to the end.
Gui Yang had been away from Shengdu for more than a month, during which time there was news that he was assassinated in Linhai. Fortunately, Gui Yang had been living near the shipyard, where there were not only people from the salt field and shipyard, but also a naval base. The assassin was discovered by the navy before he even got to Gui Yang, and all the credit was attributed to the navy soldiers.
For example, assassinating an important official of the imperial court, even if he is not a soldier of the enemy country, can be counted as an equivalent military merit. Shen Zhiwei has recently been studying how to obtain military merit in peacetime. She has incorporated some possible situations into the military merit system, but she didn't expect that it would be used now.
No one knew what Gui Yang was feeling, but the navy soldiers were very happy. They heard that where Gui Yang lived, many navy soldiers were standing guard for free, and the soldiers even privately competed with each other about who would be the one to stand guard.
Shen Zhiwei saw from various intelligence reports the soldiers' desire for military merit.
Before, she had been thinking about the small country of the Western Barbarians, but forgot about the navy. In fact, the navy was much stronger than the army, because Dajing had several large ships going out to sea for business every year, and the navy had to send people on board to escort them. After leaving the scope of Dajing, it was inevitable to encounter short-sighted pirates or some citizens of small countries with strong attack power who did not speak the language. These could all become military merits of the navy.
Compared with the army which has been doing nothing for a year and has had almost no fighting, the navy is still able to fight in the wild from time to time, which is much better.
But this little bit of military merit is nothing compared to the military merit gained in conquering cities and territories when the world was in chaos in the past. It used to be a feast for the gluttons, but now it is just porridge and side dishes, and not everyone can eat it.
"Yanxia, ask the Minister of Works and the Minister of War to come over."
Yanxia responded, turned around and told someone to call for help.
The Hundred Workshops have almost been merged into the Ministry of Industry. If you want to find a draftsman, you have to call the Ministry of Industry. If you want to mobilize troops, the first place you have to go is the Ministry of War.
Originally, the two ministers didn't know what to do, but as soon as they entered the room and saw each other, they had some guesses in their minds that a war was about to break out.
Where are you hitting?
The two of them thought of the Western Barbarians at the same time. They had been making a lot of noise there recently and were very famous.
Is the Prime Minister coming back?
I don’t know, I haven’t heard about it. Isn’t it said that the salt fields are very chaotic and it will take some time to figure it out?
The Prime Minister is very capable and may be able to find out the truth in two months.
The Minister of Works and the Minister of War exchanged glances several times, both inclined to think that they should fight the Western barbarians.
Finally, they met the emperor. The emperor asked for a sea chart, and then they realized that they were going to go to sea to fight.
But what countries are there on the sea? They're just a bunch of uncivilized savages who can do nothing but yell "wa wa wa". The navy has checked before and found that many places where people gather don't have the concept of a country, but are still tribes.
That's it, there's no need to go on a serious expedition. Just send some people over and you can conquer it.
"That group of people can't speak Dajing's language, but they are human beings, not monkeys. They can learn and change. Ten years ago, they may have had nothing. Now they have been interacting with Dajing for ten years, and they still have nothing?"
Shen Zhiwei could actually understand the pride in the hearts of the people of Dajing and their disdain for the surrounding countries. Dajing is now several versions ahead of the world in terms of economic scale and national system. It is the well-deserved strongest country on the planet and can easily challenge the whole world alone.
But this kind of mentality is unacceptable. Pride makes people fall behind. If you always regard foreign countries as uncivilized places and places where monkeys gather, sooner or later you will be hit hard and woken up.
Shen Zhiwei knew how terrible the consequences of pride were. The history books she had studied were full of bloody lessons!
Those people are like a group of jackals and hyenas, surrounding Dajing. It is best for Dajing to remain as strong as he is today and never become weak. As long as Dajing becomes weaker, they will rush over and share Dajing!
Shen Zhiwei became even angrier when she thought of this. Dajing had just been established, and some of its high-ranking officials had developed such a proud and superior mindset. She had previously sent these people to the battlefield as observers, but it seemed that her approach was too gentle. She should send these people out to sea and let them get along with those "uncivilized barbarians" for a few years to let them see that barbarians are also human beings with insatiable ambitions and unparalleled learning abilities!
Seeing the anger in the emperor's eyes fade away, his eyes as clear as glass were now cold, the two ministers were shocked and hurriedly apologized, deeply reflecting on their mistakes, fearing that if they spoke a little slower, the emperor would dismiss them and throw them out of Shengdu.
Their emperor is good in every way except that his personality is far from as kind as the outside world says. The most terrifying thing is that when the emperor is angry, other monarchs will show their anger, but when the emperor is angry, he will not reveal any emotion at all.
If the emperor curses or smashes a cup, that's all good, it means he's not very angry and it's fine to vent it out on the spot. What's to be feared is this look where he doesn't seem angry at all, because he's definitely planning to settle the score later!
If they can't appease the Emperor today, they'll both be dead! Perhaps even their clansmen will die with them!
"Alright, as the head of a unit, how can you be so cowardly? Send me a detailed sea map and a detailed troop deployment plan within three days. This is confidential, so don't let anyone else know."
As soon as Shen Zhiwei opened his mouth, the two ministers thought they could escape, but they didn't expect that the emperor would give them an almost impossible task. If everyone worked together, they could barely achieve the goal, but the emperor said "confidential" and directly let the two of them and their confidants do it.
The two ministers accepted the task tremblingly, and when they left, they wanted to run away without wasting a moment.
Shen Zhiwei looked at the backs of the two men and thought, these two people ran quite fast, they should not starve to death when they go hunting in the jungle with the "savages" in the future.
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