Three Kingdoms: Start by buying a governor.

Liu Chen picked up the list, which bore his father's handwriting... The list clearly stated: First round, rotation in eight ministries. Personnel, Rites, Revenue, Commerce, Agriculture, Justice, Works, and War—eight ministries in total, with each ministry requiring three to six months of service.

If you don't start as a high-ranking official, you're not allowed to be a clerk or a doctor. You have to follow the clerks and do all sorts of odd jobs, such as checking accounts, copying documents, running errands in the countryside, and investigating cases.

"You'll go to the Ministry of Revenue first, for six months." Liu Ce leaned against the table and explained to him, "The Ministry of Revenue is the empire's purse bag, and also the place where the most falsified accounts are concentrated in the whole country. When you go there, you'll follow an old clerk named Chen from the Bureau of Clerks. He's forty-four years old, has been working in the Ministry of Revenue for more than ten years, can recite the accounts by heart, and is also greedy, but he's greedy in a measured way. I find him easy to use."

Liu Chen was stunned for a moment, his eyes widening: "Greed... still keeping it?"

"Are corrupt officials useless?" Liu Ce raised an eyebrow, as if he were talking about something perfectly ordinary. "If the water is too clear, there will be no fish. This old fellow, back when I ordered the Royal Statistical Audit Office to investigate the national treasury, he embezzled several thousand coins of ice and charcoal tribute. He should have been dismissed from his post."

I thought his accounting was excellent and he was a talented person, so I gave him a dozen or so strokes of the cane, leaving him to atone for his crimes. Over the years, he has been diligent and conscientious, never touching a penny of the national treasury's silver, only accepting some festival gifts from the provinces, prefectures, and counties below. He is a corrupt official who "knows the rules."

Learn three things from him: First, learn how to falsify accounts; second, learn how to detect falsified accounts; third, learn where the bottom line of corrupt officials lies, knowing what money they dare to take and what money they dare not touch. When you become emperor, you can't expect all officials in the world to be honest, can you? You need to know how to use corrupt officials, and you also need to be able to control them.

Liu Chen was stunned. He opened his mouth, but it took him a long time to close it.

His maternal grandfather taught him to "be close to virtuous ministers and keep away from petty people," while his father taught him that "corrupt officials can also be used; the key is how to use them."

This shock to my values ​​was even more intense than when I was nine years old; it was like a bucket of ice water being poured over my head.

"Six months later, submit to me a 'Report on the Verification of Provincial Taxes, Grain Transport, and Disaster Relief Funds' from the Ministry of Personnel," Liu Ce continued, his tone calm, as if assigning a routine task.

"I don't want you to write official documents, I don't want you to say 'the accounts are accurate.' I want you to tell me... how much of the ten or twenty thousand coins on the books, after being transferred from the national treasury, passes through the provincial, prefectural, and county levels, and finally reaches the ordinary people? How much was skimmed off at each level, why were they able to skim off, and how can this be prevented?"

Liu Chen's eyelids twitched.

This task sounds ten times harder than writing a three-thousand-word policy essay.

Policy essays can also cite classical texts, but this kind of thing requires digging out the real tricks from the books, and you have to outwit and outmaneuver the seasoned and cunning Manager Chen. If you're not careful, you'll be led astray.

"After the Ministry of Revenue comes the Ministry of Justice, six months later." Liu Ce counted on his fingers, as if he were taking a roll.

"Don't stay in the Ministry of Justice in the capital. Go to the prefectures and counties in Jiangnan to observe trials... Remember, you're not there to judge cases, you're there to 'watch the show'."

Only by understanding the play can you see where the judicial system is malfunctioning and leaking, and only then will you know how to fix it. Otherwise, if your subordinates hand you a muddled account in the future, you won't even be able to understand it.

"Then comes the Ministry of War, six months. Go to the Zhuozhou camp in the north to check military registers, verify rations, and count soldiers. Check how many soldiers are listed on the books, how many are actually capable of fighting, who is embezzling the pay, how much sand is mixed into the horse feed, how much old and moldy rice is in the military rations... If you don't do these things yourself, you'll be the one to take the blame when war breaks out in the future."

Don't think that just because you're good at archery and horsemanship, you understand military affairs. The tricks on the books are far more dangerous than those on the battlefield. If your soldiers are fighting on empty stomachs, your riding and archery skills are useless.

"The remaining ministries—Works, Personnel, Rites, Commerce, and Agriculture—you will take turns serving the first three before being assigned to other ministries. After each round, you must write a report on your performance, which I will personally review and expose any shady dealings you may not have noticed."

For example, if Old Chen from the Ministry of Revenue deliberately asks you to "help" change a number, you need to be able to tell whether he's testing you or genuinely trying to drag you into it.

Liu Chen: "..." He suddenly realized that this rotation of eight departments was not for learning, but for passing tests. There was an old fox waiting for him at each test, waiting to see him make a fool of himself.

"What, scared?" Liu Ce looked at his expression, raised an eyebrow with a smile, and had a mischievous look in his eyes.

"It's not that I'm afraid." Liu Chen folded the list carefully and tucked it into his sleeve. He looked up at his father, the Emperor. The sixteen-year-old boy had an unusual calm in his eyes, like his mother Cai Yan, and also like Liu Ce in his youth. "I want to go. It's just... there's a problem."

"explain."

"What about my maternal grandfather..." Liu Chen hesitated for a moment, his fingers unconsciously twisting his sleeve. "If he asks me why I stopped studying the classics and went to the yamen to work as a clerk every day, what should I say? I'm afraid my maternal grandfather will get upset."

The last time he went to the Ministry of Works to tighten screws, his grandfather was angry for three days, saying, "The heir apparent should be learning the great principles of governing the country, how can he go to the Ministry of Works... it is improper."

Now that he's going to work as a minor official in the Ministry of Revenue, spending all his time buried in account books, my grandfather will probably be so angry he'll blow his beard and glare at me. He might even come to the palace to argue with my father.

Liu Ce chuckled, waved his hand, and gave him a look that said, "I knew you'd ask that."

"I'll talk to your maternal grandfather; you don't need to worry about it. Just say twelve words... 'Investigate things to acquire knowledge, first investigate facts, then acquire the words of sages.' Although your maternal grandfather was a great Confucian scholar, he wasn't confused."

Over the years, he has watched me tinker with steam engines, build railways, and establish new schools; he understands it all perfectly well. He also knows that relying solely on benevolence and morality cannot fill the people's stomachs or stop foreign invasions.

He teaches you benevolence so you won't become a tyrant; I teach you methods so you won't become a foolish ruler. With benevolence as your foundation and methods as your protection, you can become a good emperor.

Your maternal grandfather and I, one draws the target for you, and the other makes the arrows for you—there's no conflict.

Liu Chen paused for a moment, then smiled.

It was a genuine, relaxed smile, not the usual formal, princely smile; his eyes were even curved at the corners.

He was always afraid that his maternal grandfather and father's ideas would clash, leaving him caught in the middle and in a dilemma.

It turns out that the two elders had already tacitly understood each other and paved the way for him.

"That child... should report to the Ministry of Revenue's Department of Personnel in a week?"

"Okay, I'll go in a week." Liu Ce nodded, picked up his teacup and put it down again. "Go back and tell your mother in the next few days to pack your things, so she doesn't think I sold you to the Ministry of Revenue to be an accountant."

"......yes."

After the father and son chatted for a few more minutes about the details, Liu Chen bowed and took his leave.

As I stepped out of the Imperial Study, the late autumn wind blew in my face, carrying the lingering fragrance of osmanthus blossoms. It was cool and refreshing, and felt very comfortable on my face.