Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 26 This winter is probably going to be very cold.

Qian Qianyi's body trembled slightly beneath his large official robe.

His eyes, which had always been as deep and unfathomable as an ancient well, now revealed an expression of disbelief and horror.

As a leader of the Donglin Party and a key minister in the cabinet, he believed that his understanding of political maneuvering and his ability to read people's hearts had reached a level of consummate skill.

He has met countless political enemies and dealt with countless crises.

But today, he found that he could no longer understand the boy on the throne.

No, that's not a boy.

That calm tone, that clear logic, that intricate and incisive structure... it was clearly a strange and terrifying presence!

Qian Qianyi originally thought they had thrown out a ball, and they wanted to see whether the emperor would kick the ball away or angrily pierce it with his sword.

But the emperor didn't accept this challenge.

He walked right over and overturned the entire pool table!

Then, in a language they couldn't understand at all, they announced a completely new set of rules that felt utterly foreign to them.

"Budget", "feasibility", "performance accountability"...

Qian Qianyi pondered these words repeatedly in his mind.

Each word felt like a hard pebble, making him feel uneasy.

He suddenly realized what a terrible intention was hidden behind those words.

The "budget" cut off their financial route of using national funds to line their own pockets and cultivate their own faction.

"Feasibility" effectively shuts down their escape route of empty talk, shirking responsibility, and perfunctory work.

The final "performance accountability" hangs like a sword over everyone's head, making it impossible for them to "be an official with ease" or "just seek to avoid mistakes"!
With these three measures, the entire civil service system will transform from a vague system relying on "rule by man" and "rule by virtue" into a cold machine relying on "data" and "results".

The sole controller of this machine is the emperor on his throne!

He's trying to... seize power!
The goal is to gradually reclaim all the power that was originally scattered across various departments and was divided and undermined by the civil service group using various "ancestral rules" and "customs" into his own hands!
Having figured this out, a bone-chilling cold shot from the soles of Qian Qianyi's feet straight to the top of his head.

He raised his head and looked at the throne again.

The morning light had already pierced through the palace gates, and a golden beam of light landed precisely on the dragon throne.

The emperor's figure was bathed in that light, the jade beads on his crown reflecting a dazzling light, making it impossible to see his expression.

But Qian Qianyi seemed to see a pair of eyes, a pair of calm, deep eyes full of absolute rationality, coldly watching each and every one of them!

he's changed.

This Prince Xin, this newly enthroned emperor, has truly changed!

He was no longer the young man who would argue heatedly with these veteran ministers over a mere anecdote during lectures.

He was no longer the new emperor who could be easily bound by grand principles such as "Heaven, Earth, Ruler, Parents, and Teacher" and "The laws of our ancestors cannot be changed."

It was as if a soul they didn't understand at all had taken up residence in his body.

"Retreat—"

The shrill announcement snapped Qian Qianyi out of his shock.

The emperor had already stood up, turned around, and disappeared behind the screen behind his throne without saying another word.

He left behind a mess and an unprecedented problem for the entire court.

The officials remained frozen in place, like a group of soulless puppets.

It was only much later that people began to whisper among themselves, their voices filled with confusion and fear.

Qian Qianyi slowly turned around and exchanged a glance with Lai Zongdao, the cabinet minister and Minister of Personnel, Zhou Yingqiu, who was standing not far from him.

He saw in their eyes the same deep shock and worry he had felt himself.

……

That day, in the afternoon.

Qian Qianyi's residence, study. This was the spiritual sanctuary of the Donglin Party members in Beijing, and the place where countless important political decisions were conceived. However, today, the atmosphere in the study was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

Lai Zongdao was pacing back and forth in agitation, his usually meticulously groomed beard looking somewhat disheveled.

"Absurd! Utterly absurd! Budget plan? Performance accountability? These are the tactics of street merchants and the methods of clerks in the Ministry of Works! How can they be used for the great policies of the nation? Does he intend to treat us high-ranking officials as accountants and foremen? This is utterly disgraceful! Absolutely disgraceful!"

Zhou Yingqiu, the Minister of Personnel, sat silently to the side with a gloomy face. He held a cup of tea that had long since gone cold in his hand, his fingers turning slightly white from the force he exerted.

He was in charge of evaluating and promoting officials throughout the country, and the emperor's "performance accountability system" had the greatest impact on him, the Minister of Personnel.

This is tantamount to establishing a separate system outside of the "performance evaluation system" of the Ministry of Personnel, where the emperor directly controls life and death.

Qian Qianyi sat quietly in the main seat, his fingers gently tapping the table.

He knew that Lai Zongdao's anger and Zhou Yingqiu's gloom were just appearances; deep down, they, like him, harbored a profound fear.

“Brother Muzhai, what do you think?” Lai Zongdao finally stopped and turned his gaze to Qian Qianyi. “What happened in court today was no accident. His Majesty… His Majesty…”

He wanted to say "a complete change in temperament," but felt that the word was no longer sufficient to describe what he had seen that day.

Qian Qianyi finally stopped tapping his fingers on the table, and slowly opened his mouth, his voice hoarse and deep.

"This is not a 'technique,' but a 'principle.'"

He looked at his two colleagues and said, word by word, "We were all wrong. From the moment Zhu Chunchen fell from power, we should have realized that we were no longer facing the Prince Xin of the past."

"What he did today may seem like a minor matter concerning the breach in Lanyang, but in reality, he is declaring war on the entire civil service. What he wants is not to resolve this issue, but to establish a new set of rules that belong only to him."

Qian Qianyi stood up and walked to the window, looking at the old locust tree in the courtyard that had lost all its leaves in the cold wind.

"Haven't you all figured it out yet? He's getting more and more cards in his hand."

"First, it's the knife handle." Qian Qianyi's voice was as cold as the wind outside the window. "That old dog Wei Zhongxian has been brought out again. The Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, those two knives hanging over our heads, are being sharpened anew by him. Zhu Chunchen's fate was a warning to others. He wants us all to know that he really dares to kill!"

"Secondly, it's the gun," he continued. "The New Army in the suburbs of Beijing, that senile old man Zhang Weixian was completely fooled by him. I heard that the army uses a training method we've never heard of before, training soldiers who are loyal only to him. This army is his biggest source of confidence to overturn the table!"

“And today,” Qian Qianyi turned around, his eyes flashing with unprecedented seriousness, “he revealed his third card—his pen!”

“He wants to take away our right to interpret the ‘rules’! He has constructed his own discourse system using ‘new terms’ that we cannot refute. In this system, everything we have relied on in the past will become worthless! In its place will be cold numbers and ruthless results!”

The study was deathly silent.

The color drained from Lai Zongdao and Zhou Yingqiu's faces little by little.

They finally understood what Qian Qianyi meant.

The emperor is systematically and deliberately undermining the foundations upon which the scholar-official class relies for survival and control of the country from three aspects.

Violence, military, system.

This is a complete closed loop!

A closed loop of power that makes them feel desperate!
"What...what does he want to do?" Lai Zongdao's voice trembled slightly. "Does he want to become the Great Emperor Taizu? To trample all of us scholars under his feet?"

“No,” Qian Qianyi shook his head, a deep weariness and determination flashing in his eyes, “He wants to do something even more terrifying than the Taizu Emperor!”

"Although Emperor Taizu was strict, he still acted within the 'way' that we are familiar with. But this man today... he wants to walk a path that we have never seen before. A path where there is no place for us scholar-officials."

"We can't wait any longer."

Qian Qianyi's gaze swept across the faces of his two colleagues.

“We cannot directly oppose him, that would be tantamount to courting death. Nor can we follow his ‘rules,’ that would be tantamount to digging our own graves.”

“The only way,” he said in a very low voice, as if revealing a most dangerous secret, “is to find a way to cut the knife out of his hand and break the gun in his hand!”

"The secret police must be contained! Those imperial guards can no longer act like mad dogs, barging into the residences of court officials at will! The new army must be brought under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War! The emperor must not be allowed to possess an uncontrolled private army! This is the bottom line!"

"As long as these two things remain in his hands, we will always be at his mercy!"

Outside the window, the sky grew increasingly gloomy, and a heavy snowfall seemed to be brewing.

Qian Qianyi looked out at the gray sky and said softly:
"This winter is probably going to be very cold!"

(End of this chapter)