The Holy Emperor of Ming

Chapter 148 A Reward of Million
An undercurrent quietly began to flow throughout almost the entire land of Lu.

Few people in the capital, thousands of miles away, knew about it.

In the second year of Shengwu, on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, all officials in the court resumed their busy work, even busier than last year.

Because they presented a plan for this year to Your Majesty before the New Year.

The plan contains the goals they are going to achieve.

Because of this matter, the Cabinet, the Military Council, the Ten Ministries, the Dali Temple, the Censorate and other departments were all reprimanded by His Majesty.

They say they have short-sightedness, lack ambition, and set goals that are too small.

It was revised at least once before it was approved by His Majesty.

Now the goal is set. If we can’t achieve it, haha.

The senior officials of various departments of the court do not think that His Majesty will let them off easily.

As a result, they all felt stressed during the Chinese New Year.

Department heads are under a lot of pressure, and their subordinates, of course, are under even more pressure.

As soon as the court officials started their duty, they vaguely felt that something was wrong in the atmosphere.

The pressure from the superiors increased.

The senior executives of various departments were not wrong. On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, Zhu Houzhao held a grand court meeting.

At the court meeting, he spoke frankly about the matter.

“Years ago, each department of the court submitted a plan to me, which included the goals that each department would achieve this year.

Wei Jinzhong, you come and read out the goals planned by each department to all officials." Zhu Houzhao said with great interest.

Many officials felt a pang in their hearts.

Your Majesty really wants to make a big fuss about this matter.

Wei Jinzhong responded and read it aloud to thousands of officials.

"The Ministry of Personnel's goal this year is to assess the performance of all civil servants..."

Thousands of officials, including many high-ranking ones, are mostly unaware of the specific plans of other departments and have only heard about them.

When many officials heard the first point, they felt their scalps tingling.

Now the authority of the Ministry of Personnel to evaluate officials has obviously been taken away by the Censorate and the Six Ministries. The Ministry of Personnel is getting angry.

Anyway, Your Majesty has not abolished the assessment authority of the Ministry of Personnel, so we should take back the Ministry of Personnel's status.

It’s hard for the officials.

The assessments we face will be more stringent.

The officials from the Censorate and the Six Ministries all changed their expressions slightly and looked at the officials from the Ministry of Personnel with hidden hostility.

How can I let go of the power I have obtained?

"The Ministry of Revenue's goal this year is to conduct a preliminary review of the taxes collected by local government offices..."

"The goal of the Ministry of Rites this year is..."

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Wei Jinzhong read out the statements one after another, and the faces of many senior officials changed several times, which did not look good.

When he looked at the officials around him, there was a flash of unclear meaning in his eyes from time to time.

The general meaning is, you, a guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes, actually set such a high goal.

Don’t you want the officials to live?

The objectives of the Cabinet plan are read out last, after all the civil service departments have read out theirs.

Because the cabinet is equivalent to the prime minister and is responsible for the overall situation, the goal set is to make the overall situation of the Ming Dynasty 10% better.

How this one percent is assessed depends mainly on Your Majesty.

After the civil officials come the military officers.

The situation for military officers is even simpler. It is all about reorganizing the army, which is the most important thing for them now.

The only commander-in-chief of the military cabinet is still organizing the troops in Jin.

The military officer's goal this year is to carry out a preliminary reorganization of the garrisons in northern Zhili, Shandong and Yunnan.

After all the departmental planning goals were discussed, most officials felt a wave of pressure, like a mountain and a sea pressing down on them.

Just thinking about it makes them feel dark and gloomy.

At this time, Zhu Houzhao stood up under everyone's gaze, as if the dragon throne made him uncomfortable sitting on it.

Every time they saw him stand up, the civil and military officials felt nervous, and had a premonition that His Majesty was going to cause trouble again.

"I have already kept in mind the goals planned by various departments of the court. This goal is not just set for me.

It is also set for yourselves and the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Can you do it? I am watching, the court and countless people in Ming Dynasty are watching, and they are supervising you.

Do you understand?" Zhu Houzhao shouted loudly.

"We understand." Many officials responded in unison, sighing helplessly in their hearts.

Having said that, if you can't do it, how can you have the face to continue staying in your position?
Your Majesty is blatantly forcing them.

"Well, let each chief secretary submit a report on this year's planning goals as soon as possible, and all reports must be submitted before mid-February.

Let the cabinet supervise it." Zhu Houzhao ordered.

"Yes." Liu Jian thought to himself, as expected, His Majesty did not let go of the provinces.

"By the way, I would like to remind you and all Ming officials that if someone, in order to achieve their goals, resorts to fraud or harms the people, they will be punished.

Humph, I will definitely skin him alive." Zhu Houzhao said arrogantly.

None of the civil and military officials present dared not to believe it.

Because Your Majesty really did skin some officials alive, including princes and high-ranking officials of the second rank.

After the court meeting ended, the atmosphere in various departments in the capital became more solemn, like a running carriage, moving quickly and no longer as leisurely as before.

Zhu Houzhao didn't care what the officials thought. He was very happy anyway. He continued to go to Emperor Wu's Dragon Cavalry Camp, supervise various departments, and practice martial arts. Ten days passed in a blink of an eye.

The situation is different for the various departments of the court that are accelerating.

The cases of officials in Jin that were jointly reviewed by the Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard were finally concluded in a flash with much less wrangling.

Overall, there are certainly unjust and wrong cases, but they are only a very small minority and do not affect the overall situation.

After the review is completed, a series of things can continue.

Zhu Houzhao just opened his mouth and generously gave out a reward of nearly 100 million taels.

The second cleanup in Jin brought the court a total of nearly 2 billion taels of silver.

One twentieth of it is nearly 100 million taels of silver.

Of course, even the Ming Dynasty court at that time would not be able to come up with nearly 100 million taels of cash.

Therefore, 70 million taels of silver were exchanged for real estate, martial arts, antique calligraphy and paintings, etc.

This did not disappoint the factory guards and the corresponding personnel.

Because what many people want most is not money.

The most precious thing is to learn martial arts that suit you.

Many people are very fond of antique calligraphy and paintings, and some people want real estate, such as the Changwei people in Jin.

There are also those who want guidance from experts, those who want treatment for their relatives, and so on. The resources that the Ming Dynasty court now has are enough to meet the needs of most people.

Therefore, the middle and senior management who received the rewards this time basically received physical rewards of corresponding value.

Only the lowest level people mostly get silver.

In the end, the total reward was worth nearly 100 million taels of silver.

The Jinyiwei received nearly 50 million taels, accounting for the largest share.

The Jin army obtained about 19 million taels, ranking second.

The East Factory received about 13 million taels.
The Qinglong Society received about 10 million taels.

The Western Factory received about three million taels.

The rest of the departments received a total of about three to four million taels.

When the real rewards were distributed, not to mention other departments, the factory guards were completely excited.

Too much!
Many people still find it unbelievable.

Then it was crazy.

No matter how many assurances and imperial edicts were given before, they were not as genuine as the reward this time.

The top level is excited, the middle level is boiling, and the bottom level is crazy.

The people from the imperial guards in the capital immediately sharpened their knives, their eyes seemed to turn red, and they looked at every official as if they were looking at money.

The factory guards in other places also soon learned the news and could no longer hold back.

The eunuchs who took action against officials quickly spread to almost the entire Ming Dynasty.

Fortunately, the senior management of the factory security department were sober and knew not to act recklessly.

In addition, most of these senior executives and masters are new members, most of them are upright and cautious, and they can control the factory guards from doing anything reckless.

In addition to the factory guards, many people in the martial arts world were also jealous.

Most of them are individual tourists.

The imperial court is so generous now that it seems that there is nothing wrong with being a court lackey.

Those are all real money, peerless martial arts, guidance from experts, wealth and glory, and so on.

With Northern Zhili as the center, more and more people from all over the country wanted to join the Jinyiwei.

There are many people from righteous forces.

The senior management of the factory had been waiting for this moment for a long time. They seized the opportunity and began to recruit experts and expand.

"Brother Li, have you heard? The Three Swordsmen of Taihang have joined the East Factory. They are all innate masters, but I didn't expect that they would be willing to be lackeys of the imperial court!"

"What! The Taihang Three Swords joined the East Factory?"

"Yes, I used to think they were heroes, but I never expected that they would become lackeys of the imperial court."

"How did they join? They have killed many people from the righteous forces. It is said that the Emperor of Shengwu does not tolerate any injustice and those who kill people must pay with their lives."

"I heard that as long as they don't harm ordinary people, the Holy Martial Emperor doesn't care about the fighting between the martial artists."

"Okay, okay, that's how it should be, hahaha!"

"Li, Brother Li, what's wrong with you?"

"I want to go to the factory guard too."

"Brother Li, are you crazy? How can you be a lackey of the imperial court?"

"No, you are too stupid. How can he be a lackey of the imperial court? He is obviously an official who brings honor to his family.

Who the hell would want to be a lone traveler when you can be an official, earn a lot of money, learn peerless martial arts, and marry and have children openly without fear of retaliation?

Are you stupid? "

"Brother Li, Brother Li, what you said seems to make sense!"

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The wave of people from the martial arts world who wanted to join the factory guards was very fierce.

The top brass of the factory guards were all pleasantly surprised. The innate masters who were rare in the past now appeared in front of the factory guards one after another and recommended themselves.

This momentum immediately suppressed the rebellion caused by the royal family members in Lu.

Many people cursed in their hearts that they were willing to be the court's lackeys!

But some people couldn't help but start thinking that joining the court might be a good idea.

Some people are just thinking about it, while others take direct action.

(Chapter 3, thank you for your support.)
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(End of this chapter)