Chang'an Avenue under the Chengtian Gate is cut into two parts of the imperial city, east and west, by two inner city gates.

The Six Ministries, Hanlin Academy, and Honglu Temple are all on the east side, while the Duchayuan, General Affairs Department, Dali Temple, and the frightening Jin Yiwei are all on the west side. This is a place where officials gather, and there are very few people except officials on weekdays.

People are willing to walk here, and it can be said that there are horses and sedans in the clouds, and idlers avoid it. No matter how noisy it is inside, it looks like a place of wealth and purity from the outside.

There was no need to be on duty in the palace today. Zhuang Changxin returned to the staff department as soon as the court came. It was almost the winter solstice and the official evaluation had not been completed yet. He was so busy that there was wind under his feet.

There have been quite a lot of changes in the officialdom this year. Firstly, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has recruited capable officials from various places who are good at accounting, so the local vacancies have to be filled.

Secondly, if someone audits the accounts, there will naturally be bad debts. His Majesty previously gave a time limit for the officials involved in the Taipu Temple's deficit to pay money to reduce their crimes. A total of 23 people took the initiative to hand over the money, of which 14 are still in office.

, these people were also dismissed from their official positions by His Majesty. Although the progress of the audit is not fast, there is still progress. In the past two weeks, more than a dozen people have been found to have embezzled money from Taipus Temple. There is room for them here.

Someone has to fill the gap.

The third step is that His Majesty has resurrected a group of old officials who were demoted before, and also established a review department in the Metropolitan Procuratorate. How to assign these people's official positions, how to match their colleagues, and how to attract people from all over the country who want to seek office.

There is a place for people, and the knowledge contained in it is enough to write ten books.

Looking at the roster sent by his subordinates, Zhuang Changxin looked calm and calm, but in fact he was about to get angry. Like Li Congyuan, the tea he always liked in the teapot was replaced with mulberry leaf tea, which can clear the heart and eliminate fire.

The messy personnel and affairs were like a tangled mess. After fighting for a while, an hour had passed when I raised my head again.

"Your Excellency, please have lunch first."

A small official who was walking in the official department came over with a sign for today's dishes.

Zhuang Changxin didn't even look at it: "Is there a car that cooks vegetables here today? If anyone picks up the green vegetables and cooks a bowl for me."

With that said, he stood up on his own: "That's all, I won't bother you anymore, I'll go pick some dishes to eat myself."

In the courtyard of the Ministry of Personnel, the chef of Guanglu Temple was distributing meals. In addition to the rotten meat and vegetables that the officials usually got tired of eating, there was also a small iron-wrapped car with four corners.

Cabbage, radish, bean sprouts, lotus root slices, kelp and vegetables grown in the fire room are all fresh, as well as tofu and meat slices, which are covered with thin quilts because of the cold weather.

In front of the car, there were many clerks who were bringing meals for the officials. Zhuang Changxin walked over and lifted the quilt, took a look, nodded with satisfaction, and went to the back of the queue to queue up.

The clerk in front of him quickly gave way:

"Your Excellency, please."

"No problem, step by step is the way to cultivate your heart."

When he said this, the clerk in front of him finally stopped being afraid, but he still turned sideways, not daring to turn his back to his superior.

Zhuang Changxin always had a good nature, so he started chatting with him:

“There are quite a lot of people eating from this hotpot. The refreshing dish is more appetizing than the stew in that pot.”…

The clerk quickly bowed and said, "Your Majesty's grace is so great."

Zhuang Changxin smiled.

It’s true to say that His Majesty’s grace is so great. Before, the ministers had a big pot of rice stewed by Guanglu Temple for lunch. There were many varieties and good names. As for the taste, it was not unpalatable, but it had been eaten for a long time.

Afterwards, people will feel that life is boring.

There were a lot of things going on in the DPRK this year, and several old ministers had some symptoms of discomfort one after another. Even the not-so-old Li Congyuan once had blisters on his mouth and was speechless. It happened to be cold, and the hot dishes were wrapped up to pieces. , the cold dishes are too much to eat. When all the officials were lamenting the harsh winter, Guanglu Temple seemed to suddenly have a sense of enlightenment as if someone had drilled a hole in the top of the skull with a hammer. There was such a hot and spicy food that could make people feel better. Dishes that incorporate fresh seasonal vegetables into your mouth.

Order a few green vegetables, blanch them in a pot for a while, and season them according to your personal preference. Not only people with a strong stomach like it, but also officials from two lakes, Sichuan, and Sichuan are also impressed.

"More cabbage, bean sprouts, tofu, lotus root slices, some elbow slices, and more dogwood oil and peppercorn oil in the sour soup."

Not long after, Zhuang Changxin walked to the corridor carrying a bowl of hot vegetables and a few sesame seed cakes on a tray. Some officials were standing there talking and eating, and he also raised his chopsticks.

Nothing in this world is without opposition. When the hot pot first came out, some people felt that the food was vulgar, and they also disliked the fact that the chefs were cooking in the courtyard of the Sixth Department, which was insulting to politeness.

After a few days, there were fewer people who objected. First of all, these hot dishes are not meant to be eaten directly. They also have to be poured with a ladle of boiling soup, including bone soup, chicken soup, and fresh shrimp and fish soup. Soup, and then there is Zhuang Changxin’s favorite sour soup. The soup base uses soaked sour radish, plus two spoons of dogwood oil. It is sour, pungent and spicy, which is refreshing and appetizing. Sometimes it can make him feel that he can spend the whole day again. List until things are done.

Of course, when Zhuang Changxin actually faces the roster, he will realize that his lofty ambitions just now were all an illusion.

The work is impossible to finish.

"Our majesty's stickers are really overwhelming." After taking a bite of cabbage leaves soaked in sour soup, he couldn't help but admire them.

Unbeknownst to others, Zhuang Changxin got the news from Li Congyuan. This novel way of eating that was for their benefit was personally thought up by His Majesty the Emperor, who also specially invited the chef from Guanglu Temple to come to the palace to give him instructions.

The envoy of Guanglu Temple is also a very smart person. His Majesty made such an act of caring for his ministers. He wished he could immediately set up a seal script and place it in front of the gate of Guanglu Temple. However, His Majesty only asked him to record his achievements in The few cooks are not allowed to be mentioned. Your Majesty personally improves the food for your subjects.

Thinking of this, Zhuang Changxin felt that the dishes in front of him were even sweeter, and he wanted to stay up all night to review the roster.

Because Zhuang Changxin is very popular on weekdays, as soon as he sat on the porch and had a few bites of food, someone came up to him:

"Have you heard about what happened to the Metropolitan Procuratorate today, Sir?"

"Metropolitan Procuratorate, what's going on?"

The man was also carrying a tray. Just as he was about to say something, he saw someone hurriedly walking in from the courtyard door:

"The fight has begun! The fight has begun! Princess Yueqing led a group of women to fight in front of the Metropolitan Procuratorate!"

Ouch!…

The man who had something to do put down his bowls and chopsticks and ran out, but was stopped by someone. The person who stopped him was Lu Yaohui, the right servant of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Li Congyuan loved to promote newcomers. He was not very old, but he was very mature. He did not wear a warmer on his head. Er, solemnly and neatly dressed in a red official robe with third-grade peacock patches, standing in the courtyard is like a sea-fixing needle.

When other people in the courtyard saw him, they just retreated back to the main room like a soldier and a general.

The clerk who had just delivered the message was scolded by him in the corridor with drooping eyebrows.

After training the people, Lu Yaohui raised his head and remembered that Zhuang Changxin was also in the department today.

"Where is Mr. Zhuang?"

"Shilang Zhuang?"

A clerk said carefully: "Just now, I saw Mr. Zhuang going out through the back door, still carrying his rice bowl."

Lu Yaohui: "..."

He controlled a group of little ones, but let the most naughty monkey king go?!

Wrapped in a cloak, with the dough torn into pieces and soaked in the soup bowl, the dignified Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs slid along the wall of the urn city and ate while meeting his colleagues from the Ministry of Works in a carriage going to Taichang Temple for business, so he squeezed in directly

car.

In this way, he neither missed lunch nor missed the melon after lunch.

While various government offices were waiting to see the Metropolitan Procuratorate's jokes, the Metropolitan Procuratorate was quiet.

It's too quiet.

Zhuang Changxin pretended that he had something to do and came to see Qian Zhuo, the censor of Zuodu. He was in a deserted place all the way. He even began to wonder if the eldest princess of Yueqing had arrested and killed all the people in the procuratorate of the capital in a rage.

.

If he can lead a group of women and say that he will clean up Taipu Temple's five-year accounts in one month, what can't he do?

Walking all the way to the front of the main hall, Zhuang Changxin let out a sigh of relief.

Very good, they are still alive.

He put the empty soup bowl and chopsticks aside, stretched his neck and started to watch the excitement.

The eldest princess of Yueqing was sitting at the top, wearing a red princess gown. There were maids with swords on both sides lined up in two rows, standing beside the censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

In such a large metropolitan procuratorate, more than 40 censors, including the censor of Zuodu, looked like poor scholars who had been kidnapped into the bandits' stronghold. They stood there one by one, not daring to say a word.

Seeing the red official uniform worn by Qian Zhuo, Zhuang Zhangxin felt happy.

What he experienced today must be unforgettable for Qian Zhuo.

"Today I brought the ladies from the palace to visit your place. I am very grateful for the help of Qian Zongxian* and all the censors. When I finish what your majesty has asked me to do within one month, I will definitely bring my colleagues to your door to express my thanks.

.”

When speaking, the tone of Zhao Mingyin, the eldest princess of Yueqing and the leading scholar of Duanji Palace, was very gentle and polite.

Qian Zhuo's face turned red and his throat was blocked by something. After a long while, he could only choke out two words.

"No need."

Zhao Mingyin smiled gently: "You're welcome, Mr. Qian."

Qian Zhuo took a deep breath.

A few days ago, Princess Yueqing issued a military order. Within a month, she would take a group of female accountants to sort out the five-year backlog of accounts of Taipu Temple. The first thing she did after that was to take away some of the account books from their Zuodu censor. Qian Zhuo was unwilling to do so.

For His Majesty's investigation of Taipu Temple, he offended his colleagues in the DPRK, and on the other hand, he did not want anyone to come out and steal his job, especially if this person was a woman.

Even if she is a princess, she is still a woman after all...

But Qian Zhuo did not dare to express his objection. His censors almost broke the documents with their pens, and he did not get involved.

Qian Zhuo was a little afraid, because His Majesty was obviously impatient with the slackness of the censors on the Taipu Temple matter, otherwise he would not have summoned Chu Jiyuan back to the court, and directly made him the censor of Youdu.

Your Majesty is not like he used to be able to point his finger at them in court meetings, but he has a vicious plan to draw out the firepower. When Chu Jiyuan returns to the court and establishes the review department, the greatest skill of the Metropolitan Procuratorate will no longer be to arrest people.

According to etiquette and legal principles, hundreds of officials were impeached, but there was a supervisory department to check the accounts of various places.

This is a good thing for the "Metropolitan Procuratorate", but not necessarily for the censors... In the face of real accounts, their impassioned eloquence and memorials listing the evidence of crimes are much weaker.

In the future, will the censors who join the Metropolitan Procuratorate prefer the Review Department or the original Fourth Department? Will they prefer Qian Zhuo?

When the thirteen censors discovered something illegal, should they contact their colleagues and submit a letter together, or should they ask the review department to investigate the accounts of those corrupt officials over the years?
To be continued...