Protect Our Chief

Chapter 1035 - 63: Autumn Winds Rise! The Great Emperor Misses Wang Shouzhe

Those acting cute, act cute; those massaging, massage; those responsible for amusement, amuse."You little rascals, hahaha~~ you really know how to please me. Come, come, I’ve prepared some spirit beef for you~~" In a short while, the Great Emperor surrendered, his stern face returning to a gentle smile, as if his wounded heart had been healed all at once.

...

At the same period.

At noon.

Lunchtime had just passed, and the busy officials who had worked all morning finally welcomed a rare lunchtime break. The officials either gathered in threes and twos with tea under the corridors, chatting softly and exchanging gossip they’ve recently heard from various places, or leaned on their desks for a short nap, relaxing their exhausted minds.

This was the outer courtyard of the Imperial Palace.

Using Zhenghe Hall as the center, the surroundings were where officials worked. This was also the political power center of the entire Daqian, the location of the Inner Pavilion.

The political structure of the entire Daqian adopts a cabinet system.

The Inner Pavilion directly answers to the Emperor.

Generally, there are four elders in the Inner Pavilion. One serves as the Chief Minister, and the other three serve as Vice Chief Ministers.

Of course, depending on the actual situation, occasionally there might be five or even more elders, as per the Great Emperor’s will.

Under the Inner Pavilion, there are five departments, which are: Inspectorate, Criminal Law Department, Three Talents Department, Military Affairs Department, and Engineering Department.

Among them, the Inspectorate monitors the noble families and central officials. The Criminal Law Department oversees all criminal cases nationwide. The Three Talents Department manages all lands and taxes under heaven, and incidentally coordinates weather and seasons.

As for the Military Affairs Department and Engineering Department, as the name suggests, they manage affairs related to military and engineering.

Of course, this is just the big framework; concerning specific affairs, there are many details in the division of responsibilities.

All memorials of the entire Daqian, after layer upon layer of screening, those that should be handled by the Five Departments will be directly presented to the Five Departments for direct processing.

Only those that are relatively complex, involve wide-reaching matters, or are extremely important, will be copied to the Inner Pavilion, where the elders discuss among themselves to come up with a rough handling plan and general regulations, which is then handed over to relevant departments, that is, officials in the Five Departments, to perfect the details.

Subsequently, the entire plan will be presented for imperial review, and enacted after the Great Emperor’s approval.

However, there are some matters that are not important enough, that don’t even need to be presented for reviewing, and are directly processed within the Inner Pavilion; the Emperor needs only to be informed as a record.

Thus, the power of the Inner Pavilion is indeed significant.

And the power of the elders within the Inner Pavilion is second only to Your Majesty.

Yet within the Inner Pavilion, there aren’t only the elders, but also many subordinate officials responsible for copying documents, conveying information, and filtering memorials and other auxiliary matters.

Some of these officials come from the Five Departments, stationed here in rotation, specializing in coordinating affairs related to the Inner Pavilion and the Five Departments.

Just as everyone was leisurely taking a lunch break.

A carriage pulled by a snow-stepping Spirit Horse suddenly stopped slowly by the side gate of the outer courtyard.

Soon, the carriage curtain was lifted.

An elder wearing purple official attire, embroidered with a crimson gold eagle, walked down from the carriage.

The elder presented the waist tag to the guard responsible for gatekeeping, and was let in.

The style of Daqian’s official attire is strictly regulated. Among them, purple official attire is a mark of the Upper Third Grades, while the crimson gold eagle is a symbol of Third-Grade Officials.

Seeing the newcomer, the slightly noisy outer courtyard of the Imperial Palace suddenly quieted down.

Several officials exchanged glances and then collectively went up to greet, bowing in salute. Other officials bowed from afar to the newcomer.

"Director Meng."

The newcomer turned out to be Meng Yuanbai, Director of the Three Talents Department.

The Three Talents Department controls national tax affairs, wielding immense power.

As Director of the Three Talents Department, Meng Yuanbai is one of the few Third-Grade Officials in the court, holding authority and having considerable prestige in the court.

He himself is also the eldest and strongest among the direct lineage elders of the Fourth-Grade Noble Family of Gui Long City, the Meng Family, not to be underestimated.

The subordinate officials in the Inner Pavilion, although working at the center of power, in terms of rank are mostly below the sixth grade. Most are young newcomers to the officialdom, still gaining experience, naturally far inferior to someone like Meng Yuanbai who oversees a department and can decide life and death at his discretion.

And those few officials who greeted him were the ones stationed in the Inner Pavilion from the Three Talents Department, directly under Meng Yuanbai, naturally showing exceptional respect.

"No need for ceremony~ Everyone should continue working or resting, don’t mind me." Meng Yuanbai waved his hand with a cheerful face, showing no airs of being the Director of the Three Talents Department.

After saying that, he encouraged the subordinates who came to greet him with a few words before leisurely heading towards Zhenghe Hall in the center of the outer courtyard.

The elders conduct daily meetings and handle governmental affairs in Zhenghe Hall.

As for the Five Departments, because they often need to contact officials from various places and handle many mundane affairs, their offices are set outside the palace and each has its own government office.

Typically, unless summoned by an elder or encountering particularly troublesome issues, even directors from the Five Departments rarely appear in the Inner Pavilion.

Don’t be fooled by Meng Yuanbai’s calm exterior; he’s actually a bit anxious right now.

Why did the Chief Minister Zhao suddenly summon him?

Along the way, he had already reviewed several times in his mind his recent affairs, confident there were no mistakes, which somewhat reassured him.