Sword comes

Wu Wangcheng was actually a little breathless.

Shen Chen was indeed an old minister who had experienced more than half a century in the officialdom. He just quickly glanced at the emperor sitting behind the imperial desk.

Wen, a student of the Ministry of Works, lowered his head and took a sip of the iced plum soup. It was unique to the Xiaochaohui, and those with the surname Shangzhuguo could not drink it.

Yan Yongfeng, the Minister of the Honglu Temple and the current head of the Zizhao Yan family, is an old man with a very tough appearance. Here, he has always been on duty.

Ma Yuan, the Minister of Justice, stood up and pulled up a jade tablet from his waist. After a moment, a sand table model appeared in the imperial study. It was a turquoise-colored miniature building with golden characters showing different government offices. Ma Yuan opened a "di" character library from the military office in Nanxunfang on the side of Qianbu Corridor, and then found "Hanzhou House" from it. Then he found "Qiu State" in the room accurately. Ma Yuan pointed to a file that had been prepared on a desk, and the file appeared in the imperial study out of thin air, hanging in the air. Ma Yuan walked over and took it in his hand, looking at the emperor. Song He smiled and said, "Let the imperial teacher take a look first."

Ma Yuan handed the file to Chen Ping'an, and the Minister of Justice was in no hurry to go back and take his seat.

The archives of the Ministry of Justice and the shipyard for building sword boats are both top secrets of the Dali court.

If officials from other departments want to review secret records, they need to go through layers of approval and the review is extremely strict. Even within the Ministry of Justice, there are many rules and procedures, and there cannot be any mistakes.

Although there are many rules, it does not mean that you can be slow.

Are you using your power for personal gain, deliberately delaying things, trying to take advantage of the opportunity to collect unauthorized fees, or are you using slightly more sophisticated means to exchange benefits in secret? Or are you in a bad mood that day, so you give someone the cold shoulder and deliberately make things difficult for other officials? Or are you from a different family name or from a different official background, and the people above you don't like you. Today, you finally fall into my hands temporarily, and I have to give you a hard time so that I can prove to the people above how I am in the same boat later?

In the past, Cui Luo would regularly check this type of official documents every month, but this was just superficial "official documentation". The truth was that in the past three years, Cui Luo had been keeping an eye on all the words and deeds of officials in all the archives of the Ministry of Justice.

Human nature is unpredictable, but a person's strong inertia can be trained.

Three years later, Cui Luo brought up all the old scores all at once. He rewarded those who deserved it, promoted those who deserved it, and punished those who deserved it in various ways. Didn't he like to sit on that chair and use his power to the extreme?

First, take off your official hat, and forget about making any achievements in your official career in this life. Your path to becoming an official will be cut off from now on.

If you recommend an official, you will be demoted. If you find no problem with an official, don't run away. If you are a child of a noble family, all kinds of family privileges, such as the number of places in the Imperial College and the amount of farmland, will be reduced as appropriate. If it is still not enough to punish you, find the family elders who are officials in the court and reprimand them if necessary, reduce their salaries if necessary, or resign if necessary. As for returning to the official residence or the family ancestral hall, that is a family affair behind closed doors. Anyway, the specific reasons, reward and punishment regulations, law enforcement paradigms, and the court reports sent down to the prefectures and counties are all written clearly for you.

I, Cui Luo, am a complete loner. I have no Taoist tradition or cultural heritage, no students in the strict sense, no family or descendants, no relatives or friends, no like-minded scholars, no familiar Taoist friends in the mountains, no need to acquire any private property, and do not accept any rewards from the court. Year after year, my salary is just a snowflake of money.

So if you disagree with my political views, then you are wrong.

If there are different opinions on a specific matter, you can submit official documents, and Cui Luo will personally review them. If there is a reply, it means there is something to be desired. If there is no reply, it will be sent back the same way, indicating that it is all nonsense. However, the envelope containing the official documents will be stamped with an official seal of the imperial master's office. If you are more capable, you can go directly to Cui Luo and argue with him face to face. One of the prerequisites is that your official resume and the official resume of the person who recommended you to discuss matters across levels can withstand the investigation. Second, the high-ranking officials such as the Nine Ministers who personally brought you here must ensure that you will not waste the precious time of a national master.

In the past, Xiu Hu's only way to relax was to leave the crowded building, slowly walk out of the alley, and go to the top of the city alone to take a look.

The reason why Shen Chen and other important officials felt uncomfortable during this meeting was because of the previous owner of the chair, the embroidered tiger. No matter whether it was the morning court or the small court meeting in the imperial study, Cui Luo had almost no emotional ups and downs when discussing anything with anyone.

He would never express his emotions as directly and accurately as Chen Pingan did today. Of course, during the last meeting, Chen Pingan was more like an embroidered tiger.

Chen Ping'an turned the pages very quickly and read the file quickly. His expression relaxed a little. The file was not thick and was carefully compiled. Many important people and key events were marked with annotations and indexes... It could only be said that it was okay.

So Chen Pingan shook his head and denied it directly: "Royal family, frontier military generals, noble families, martial arts nobles, monks, rivers and lakes, mountains and rivers gods. There are seven major categories in total, but only ninety-three people were selected and recorded by the Ministry of Justice. The number is too small, and we must make up for it."

"The Ministry of Justice should go to the Human Character Database again and search for local gentry, rural hermits, and other items. Start working on this matter immediately. Pay special attention to searching and collecting the scholars from the opposition, those who write books and biographies behind closed doors, and those who give lectures in societies. As long as it involves the impressions and impressions of the Dali court and the border troops, don't miss anything, whether it is spoken or written, good or bad."

Ma Yuan looked at him strangely, and his mood was extremely complicated. "Master Imperial Master, have you sneaked in to take a look? Otherwise, how could you be so familiar with the inside story of the various departments of the Ministry of Justice?"

More than a dozen young officials who were buried in their papers and writing quickly stood up immediately and began to follow the instructions, checking and retrieving files from different bookshelves. At the same time, another group of young officials was responsible for screening, organizing and recording texts. After all, these materials were "directly heard by the emperor" and presented to the small court meeting in the imperial study. They had to be accurate and try to provide the most content with the least words.

Glancing at the subtle expression on the young official's face, Ma Yuan heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that his own Ministry of Justice still had some good talent.

Of course Chen Pingan did not go to the Ministry of Justice to be a knight in shining armor, but he was too lazy to explain anything.

However, as a hidden official who single-handedly completed the classification and re-archiving of all the information of the summer palace and the winter palace, this skill is something that practice makes perfect, and it is a kind of knowledge that can be mastered to the extreme. The number of slips of paper inserted in those files alone is in the tens of thousands.

Chen Pingan said: "The six sword boats temporarily under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry will be immediately launched into the air and handed over to the Dali military to go to Handanzhou."

"Then send a document from the Ministry of War to notify the Qiu Kingdom court to immediately withdraw the two border troops that rebelled without authorization."

"Send a message to the generals of Dali, Han and Wei states to immediately move out of camp and dispatch a group of elite light cavalry. The location of each garrison on the border of Qiu State can be decided by the generals who lead the troops."

"The Ministry of Rites has issued an ultimatum to all the mountain and water spirits in Handan Prefecture to return their golden statues to their temples and await the transfer order from the Dali military. Those who have dared to openly violate the ban recently will be transferred to lewd temples and their golden statues will be smashed on the spot. At the same time, if there is any clue or evidence that the civil and military officials of the Qiu Kingdom are in collusion with a certain country, report it immediately to the Dali Ministry of Justice, and allow an exception to send a message via flying sword."

“Including Handanzhou and the three bordering states, all Dali civil and military officials, no matter what methods or means, must be thoroughly investigated. Anyone who has had any interest in the Qiu State in the past five years, even if it is only one tael of silver or a painting, must be recorded in the register.

As the imperial master’s “handwritten orders” were issued one after another.

In an instant, the imperial study became busy.

Shen Chen smiled and asked, "Do we need to withdraw some of the Dali Border Army of the Qiu nationality from the wilderness?"

Zhao Duanjin nodded, "This is feasible."

Those who followed the Dali Iron Cavalry to the wild battlefield, regardless of their background or official position, all had a common identity: old soldiers.

Chen Pingan shook his head and said, "That's not necessary."

Zhao Duanjin frowned slightly, but Shen Chen was really patient and didn't say anything.

Chen Pingan continued, "The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Justice will immediately give a detailed list of all the Dali spies and assassins under the jurisdiction of both sides who are stationed in Qiu State, their current identities, hiding places, and their archived intelligence over the years. In addition, give a list of the Qiu State military officers and lieutenants who have participated in the Dali Border Army and the Battle of the Auxiliary Capital, as well as the mid-level civil servants of Qiu State. What is their attitude towards the Dali court? Goodwill, neutrality, malice, have the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Justice made similar clear markings?"

Wu Wangcheng, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, nodded and said, "The Ministry of War has it all! Not only that, the attitude changes of the neutral Qiu State civil and military officials during the war are also evaluated accordingly. The behavior and preferences of officials who seem to hate Dali are also recorded in detail."

Ma Yuan, the Minister of Justice, was speechless, but he still spoke clearly and truthfully: "The Ministry of Justice has not yet taken such measures."

Chen Pingan did not reprimand the Ministry of Justice for this, but instead said to Wu Wangcheng: "Minister Wu, remember to discuss this matter in detail with the Ministry of Justice afterwards, and then send a copy of the minutes to the Imperial Master's Office."

Wu Wangcheng nodded. Ma Yuan was obviously a little surprised.

Chen Pingan thought for a moment and said, "For that small-scale meeting, plus the officials from the Ministry of Revenue, it is not necessary for the three officials from the Ministry of Revenue to come in person, and the Yuanwailang is enough. It is too easy to make Qiuguo behave. The difficult part is how to clean up the subsequent mess. The Ministry of Revenue will have to pay out some money. Just keep an eye on those powerful eunuchs who like money, the gods on the mountain, and the famous people in the rivers and lakes. As for the group of civil and military officials of Qiuguo who have been squeezed out of power by factional disputes and severely excluded by their colleagues in the officialdom, they are always frustrated. Don't let them go. Give money to those who want money, give officials to those who want official positions, and give fame to those who want it. At most, wait for five or six years, at most ten years, and we will help this single-word vassal state to replace all of them with a group of capable officials who are loyal to the suzerain country."

"This is just one of a series of measures to clean up the mess. I will write something soon, specifically about how to 'clean up the mess', and copy it to the officials who are qualified to attend the small court meeting. I also hope that you will reply quickly at that time. There is no limit to the number of words, the more the better. It would be best to form a court rule with rules to follow, so that when dealing with similar matters in the future, we only need to follow the procedures."

Chen Pingan shifted his gaze and asked, "Your Majesty, shall I go to Qianbu Gallery to discuss the next specific matters with the soldiers and criminal officials?"

Song He said, "National Master, you don't have to move. Let's discuss the matter here. If the National Master thinks that side is more effective, I can follow him there."

Chen Pingan hesitated for a moment and said, "Then let's go to the Imperial Master's residence to handle this matter."

Song He stood up and said with a smile: "I can just take the Imperial Master to take a look over there."

Chen Pingan stood up and suddenly asked, "Is there a similar arrangement in the Imperial Master's Office?"

Song He couldn't help laughing, "Yes, it's even more spacious than the imperial study."

Chen Pingan whispered: "My senior brother is not afraid of overstepping his authority."

The ministers, who had not dared to laugh out loud when the emperor spoke, burst into laughter when they heard the imperial teacher reveal his own secrets.

Chen Pingan looked at the taciturn and capable old man, the Minister of the Honglu Temple, Yan Yongfeng, and said, "Send someone to take Han E and Liu Wenjin to wait outside the door of the Imperial Master's Office later. And ask Yan Jiaoran to go over as well. I have something to discuss with him."

Yan Yongfeng nodded.

Chen Pingan said: "Let Cao Gengxin and Zhao Yao come as well."

The two young and promising assistant ministers, Zhao Yao of the Ministry of Justice and Cao Gengxin of the Ministry of Personnel, are naturally qualified to attend the small court meetings, but they just need to meet today for something. According to the rules, the small court meetings in the Imperial Study Room can be attended by the nine great ministers including the six ministers, the nine minor ministers, the six assistant ministers, the head of the Imperial Clan Court, and the generals in charge of the security of the capital, but they do not have to attend every time. For some small court meetings, the ministers of a department can "take leave" and be absent.