At the beginning, his wife came to him, and he became rich by selling kidney treasures.

However, Chen Lang and his men did not give up, and went to find Prime Minister Zhao Ping'an and Imperial Censor Chen Hui.

I hope you two can take the lead and advise His Majesty to abolish the establishment of the four departments of the Ministry of Revenue so that they can be reinstated.

But Censor Chen was a fence-sitter who sided with Ren Hao and didn't want to help them at all, so he asked the housekeeper to send them away on the grounds that he was not at home.

In desperation, they had to go to the prime minister.

Although Chen Lang was a disciple of the Prime Minister, he has lost power and is of no use now, so Zhao Ping'an does not want to help them.

However, considering that the Ministry of Revenue has been replaced by the Four Departments and the Shangshu has been abolished by the Sikong, if Ren Hao can achieve effective political achievements through the reform of transforming the Ministry of Revenue into the Four Departments, then the remaining five departments will follow suit.

In the end, I'm afraid that even I, the prime minister, will be deposed by Ren Hao.

Zhao Ping'an immediately summoned the other five ministers, including Censor Chen.

After the situation was explained, the Ministers of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Justice, led by Censor Chen, did not want to follow them in taking the risk of making suggestions at first. However, when they heard that their future ministries would be reformed into several departments like the Ministry of Revenue, and their positions as Ministers would be abolished by the Minister of Works, they all chose to follow them in making suggestions. Even Censor Chen, a fence-sitter, no longer supported Ren Hao, but decided to take the risk of making suggestions.

Zhao Ping'an summoned the five ministers and took Chen Yushi to the palace to advise the emperor.

The reason was that Ren Hao abused the emperor's trust and established the Four Departments, which was suspected of using public power for personal gain and supporting retainers. It was suggested to cancel the establishment of the Four Departments, dismiss Ren Hao from the post of Sikong, and restore the official positions of Chen Lang and others.

How could Wen Yan not know what these old ministers were thinking? Their advice, seemingly for the good of the country, was actually just out of fear of being banned.

"Your Majesty, please think twice and take back your order."

Under the leadership of the censor and the prime minister, all the ministers knelt on the ground and shouted, trying to put pressure on the emperor to compromise in this way.

But Wen Yan at this moment was no longer the weak emperor he was in his youth, who would allow them to put pressure on him.

The old eunuch looked at the ministers kneeling at the steps, and returned to the pavilion to report: "Your Majesty, they have been kneeling outside the pavilion for more than three hours."

"Tell them that I have made up my mind and will not take back my order. If they like to kneel, they can keep kneeling." Wen Yan put down the military book in his hand and gave instructions.

"Yes." The old eunuch nodded, and went out to convey the message to the ministers.

But the ministers turned a deaf ear and continued to shout, "Your Majesty, please think twice and revoke your order."

But Wen Yan was already tired of all this nonsense, so she stood up, moved the table away and went into the secret passage.

While Zhao Ping'an joined forces with the other five ministers and Censor Chen to put pressure on His Majesty, Ren Hao had already begun to direct the officials of the four departments to start their work step by step.

The first step to be taken is to accurately divide all the files of the Ministry of Revenue into the four departments and re-copy them all.

The dates on the files are all marked with capital numbers and are written inside the files, making it very difficult to find them when looking through them.

Ren Hao had everything rewritten, with all dates marked outside the files. In addition, wherever numbers were needed, they were marked with lowercase numbers to facilitate identification and save writing time.

"Master Sikong, what is this... this so-called lowercase number? And how do you write it?"

Not only were the officials of the four departments confused, but even Li Shiji and Shen He were confused.

It is normal that they don't know the so-called lowercase numbers, which are also called Arabic numerals. Taking Ren Hao's previous life as an example, the Arabic numerals were invented in ancient India, then introduced to Europe by the Arabs and modernized, and finally introduced to China during the Yuan Dynasty.

Whether in Ren Hao's previous life or the era in which Ren Hao is now living, there is no such thing as lowercase numbers, all uppercase numbers are used.

But writing capital numbers is really inconvenient.

Ren Hao no longer cared about the so-called theory of civilization evolution. Anyway, the era he was in was not the world of his previous life, so he could just copy it.

"Write it like this."

Ren Hao quickly taught them the writing combinations of Arabic numerals and the correspondence between uppercase and lowercase.

The officials were a little confused at first, but after they became familiar with it, they all praised this writing method as being very wonderful and simple and convenient.

"Lord Sikong, where did you learn such convenient and simple numbers?" Shen He asked humbly.

Before Ren Hao could speak, Li Shiji beside him had already learned to answer: "Is this what you learned while traveling, and was it taught by some learned old gentleman?"

"It's really not this time." Ren Hao shook his head and shamelessly lied that he invented it in his spare time and called it Sikong's Number.

After all, it is not appropriate to say every time that this is what he learned while traveling around the world.

"Sikong's numbers are great. From now on, we can use lowercase numbers to solve problems, which will greatly reduce time and paper."

"Master Sikong, your invention is really great."

All the officials began to flatter Ren Hao and gave him thumbs up.

"Stop flattering me and get to work." Ren Hao waved his hand and took the lead in picking up the brush and pretending to work.

After all, what does the saying go? When leaders take the lead, benefits double.

Just as Ren Hao copied two lines, a voice rang out from outside the door and asked, "Ren Hao, why are there so many people here?"

The person who came was none other than Wen Yan.

Wen Yan only knew that Ren Hao was in charge of the Fourth Division, but she didn't expect that he actually recruited so many people.

Looking at the people crowded in the house and the yard, there was no place to even step. There must be at least a hundred people.

The salaries of these hundred people, no matter how little, would amount to more than three thousand taels of silver per month.

Not counting other things this year, the salary alone cost more than 30,000 taels.

If all the six ministries were to be divided into four departments according to Ren Hao's plan, they would have to recruit so many people, not counting the salaries of Sikong, Shilang, Langzhong, and Yuanwailang. The annual salary of the lower-ranking officials alone would be around 250,000 taels. If the miscellaneous expenses of each ministry were to be taken into account, it would be at least 500,000 taels.

The salaries of lower-ranking officials increased several times, which increased the burden on the national treasury.

But once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back. Wen Yan can only hope that Ren Hao can achieve political achievements in the reform and not let her trust down in vain.

At this time, all the officials looked up at Wen Yan who had arrived, and were all attracted by her stunning beauty.

Before they met Wen Yan again, the woman they had in mind was the most beautiful person in their hearts.

But after seeing Wen Yan's beauty today, all those worries in my heart disappeared instantly, leaving only the stunning beauty that made me fall in love with her at first sight.