For the chancellors who had received the orders, these few days in late March were a mix of joy and unease, as the Zhao Emperor's departure from the city stretched for a full three days.

The Imperial Guard Middle Army numbered twelve thousand. Zhao Jiu made a round of inspections of the so-called Wang De's division, Fu Qing's division, Huyan Tong's division, Qiao Zhongfu's division, Zhang Jing's division, Xin Xingzong's division, and Xin Yongzong's division. In addition to reissuing military pay, he took the opportunity to review the shortages, draft rough rosters, and promote some grassroots officers. He also watched a dozen sumo matches, two Cuju games, and witnessed countless bizarre tattoos... Finally, he personally wrote a rough set of military medical regulations, such as prohibiting the drinking of raw water, spreading quicklime on the ground, and boiling bandages in hot water, before returning to the city contentedly.

However, as soon as he returned to the city, before even entering the palace, the Zhao Emperor encountered Yan Xiaozhong, the Acting Prefect of Nanyang, whom he had only separated from two days prior, and learned from Yan Shao-yin about an absurd matter.

"I... what does this mean?" The weather was slightly gloomy, but there were many pedestrians and officials in Nanyang Prefecture's main street who were hastily bowing and paying respects. Although they were not looking up at this moment, they were all listening intently. The Zhao Emperor's face was flushed, and he was stunned for a long time, unable to react.

"What I mean is," Yan Xiaozhong replied solemnly, cupping his hands. "Your Majesty has just arrived in Nanyang, and the people of Nanyang are seeing Your Majesty for the first time, so the whole city is curious and everyone is watching Your Majesty's every move. At this time, I implore Your Majesty to be careful, so as not to cause rumors."

"That's not what I meant," Zhao Jiu regained his senses and looked at the dense crowd around him, feeling particularly helpless. "What I meant was, I absolutely did not order anyone to seek out famous beauties in Nanyang! You, Yan Xiaozhong, were clearly with me distributing military pay outside the city these past few days, how could you not know? As for marrying all the women of Nanyang to the Imperial Guard... even if I did issue an edict asking the chancellors to be mindful of arranging marriages for the soldiers to put their minds at ease, how could you believe such rumors?!"

"I naturally know," Yan Xiaozhong stamped his foot in front of the horse and said loudly. "And I naturally don't believe it! It's estimated that when the matter first started spreading, those who passed on the message were just treating it as a joke, but as it spread more and more, 'three men make a tiger', naturally some people came to believe it! And in my opinion, the matter was not necessarily caused by the usual issue of soldiers' marriages; there must be some eye-catching twists and turns in it... Your Majesty, the reason I came here to wait is because there are rumors that more than a dozen famous beauties, along with the newly selected hundred or so palace women, are already waiting in the palace!"

Zhao Jiu was dumbfounded, but he looked at Yang Yizhong and Feng Yi, who were accompanying him.

The latter two understood and immediately went to the palace first, and after only a moment, they hurriedly returned, whispering to the Zhao Emperor.

Only then did the Zhao Emperor understand, and he issued an edict in public, summoning all these beauties and palace women out of the palace.

And so, after waiting for a full half an hour, everyone watched as seven or eight small curtained carriages, each surrounded by ten or so maids and servants, drove out of the palace. Only then did the Zhao Emperor shake his head repeatedly, and then pull his horse forward, personally addressing the pile of curtained carriages:

"Ladies, it's not that I don't appreciate your beauty, nor is it that I don't want to enjoy tenderness, but the country is in danger, the Jin people may come at any time... It's not a matter of 'how can one have a home if the Xiongnu are not wiped out', but rather that I may have to frequently travel on military affairs like these past few days, and not come to stay in the palace... And if I'm not here, you've also stayed in this palace for a few days and should have seen how desolate this palace is, and how scarce the things are, probably not even as good as an ordinary wealthy family. So why should so many of you waste your best years in such a place for nothing? You must know that even my original concubines have been settled in Yangzhou before Empress Dowager, and have not come here. Therefore, I will make the decision for you today. Those who want to go home can go home, and those who don't want to go back, I will arrange a good marriage for you! What do you think?"

After a while, other than laughter coming from two of the curtained carriages, there was no other movement. Even the many trusted close officials behind him were all looking at their noses, pretending not to hear a thing, because such matters were not supposed to be interfered with by officials, and the only good opportunity for officials to interfere had been snatched by Yan Xiaozhong, so they could only pretend not to see.

Seeing this, the Zhao Emperor simply stepped forward and pointed at them, assigning the eight curtained carriages in turn to Han Shizhong, Yuwen Xuzhong, Lü Benzhong (Lü Haowen's eldest son, the newly appointed Drafter of the Secretariat), Zhang Jun, Hu Yin, Lin Jingmo, Yan Xiaozhong, and Liu Ziyu... Except for Han Shizhong, all were ministers, famous scholars, and close officials without many family members accompanying them, meaning that he was hoping that these people, being scholars, would be more considerate and treat these women better.

However, Liu Ziyu knelt down again, declaring that he was in mourning for his parents, so the carriage assigned to him was reassigned by the Emperor to Yang Yizhong.

Having dealt with this mess, the Zhao Emperor finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then led everyone outside the palace into the palace.

Since he had entered the palace, the Zhao Emperor had no intention of pursuing Lan Gui and others. Instead, while changing his clothes, he hurriedly issued an edict, summoning the various chancellors, the Censor-in-Chief, along with the Imperial Guard Commanders and the Staff Officer of the Ministry of War under the Privy Council, as well as the Drafter of the Secretariat, the Academician of the Jade Hall, the Supervising Secretary of the Palace, and other close officials, plus Yan Xiaozhong, the Acting Prefect of Nanyang specifically, to gather in the hall to discuss matters of state.

This was basically all the core officials of the so-called provisional capital.

Those who had originally accompanied him to the palace were naturally not mentioned. The other chancellors and key officials hurried to arrive, naturally knowing about the events outside the palace on the way. However, with so many important military and state affairs before them, although everyone in the hall looked at each other awkwardly, they couldn't say much for the time being.

"Chancellor Lü is the prime minister of the provisional capital, so let's start with a summary!" Dressed in ordinary clothes, with a normal expression, the Zhao Emperor strode into the hall as if nothing embarrassing had happened earlier. After plopping down onto the cold throne, he didn't care about the continuous cooing sounds outside the hall, but instead directly began to discuss matters.

"Reporting to Your Majesty," Lü Haowen stepped forward awkwardly, taking several deep breaths to steady himself before reporting on the work. "The matter of land registration is being overseen by Chancellor Xu, and a rough proposal has already been drafted. However, this matter involves a great deal, and the various departments, temples, and institutes of the central government are severely understaffed. Many local officials have also been lost in the battle from last winter to this spring, so this matter can only be communicated to some stable military prefectures, allowing them to do it roughly first. If you want to come up with a proper proposal and handle the matter properly throughout the land, I'm afraid it will have to wait until the personnel are complete before speaking..."

"I understand this matter in my heart," Zhao Jiu still didn't change his expression, but paused slightly. "On the way here, I realized that our single-minded resistance against the Jin, the most important thing is to be able to fight, and if we want to fight, in addition to selecting generals and training soldiers on the front lines, it's also about how to gather grain and money in the rear. And if we want to properly gather grain and money, we also have to divide it into two categories: one is to increase revenue, and the other is to maintain stability... The matter of land registration is both to increase revenue and to maintain stability, and is a long-term plan. We will do as much as we can, and it's not that we want you to succeed in March and handle it properly in May."

"Your Majesty is wise," Whether it was because the words 'increase revenue' and 'maintain stability' hit the mark, or because the Emperor's unhurried attitude put people at ease, or perhaps because of some embarrassing things in their hearts, Lü Haowen's attitude was extremely good today, and he even said words like "wise."

"However, regarding this matter, I still want to specifically mention two points," Seeing the other party's praise, and coupled with the fact that he had a great time outside the city these past few days, the Zhao Emperor couldn't help but feel a little cocky, so he recalled his high-end online novel knowledge and said a few more words. "One is to set up Pacification Commissioners and Pacification Envoys... In short, in places where troops are stationed, they must be properly handled. On the one hand, we must recognize their need to do some things like enticing refugees in order to support and appease the troops, but on the other hand, we must adhere to the major principles and not allow them to do anything excessive. We can't control the distant ones now, but if Han Shizhong and Zhang Jun do anything outrageous, don't worry about it, directly impeach them to me, and I will talk to them myself! You must know that they may be rascals, but in the end they will not have any wild ambitions!"

At this time in the hall, aside from Yang Yizhong and Liu Yan, who were like wooden figures on the left and right, and excluding a few eunuchs, those who were qualified to speak and discuss politics, other than the Imperial Guard Commander Wang Yuan, were actually all civil officials... And hearing these words, everyone had different thoughts. Some felt that the Zhao Emperor was thoughtful and knew how to guard against these military generals, while others felt that the Zhao Emperor still trusted Han and Zhang too much.

But for a time, other than Lü Haowen bowing his head and saying "Understood," there was no other sound, as if waiting for the second point.

"The second is the issue of clerks," Zhao Jiu looked at the hall full of civil officials and hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth and saying, "The separation of officials and clerks is like fire and water, and is a common problem in local areas. If officials can't suppress clerks, they will be deceived by them... I don't understand local affairs, but that should be the case, right?"

"Yes!"

"Exactly."

Yan Xiaozhong, Liu Ji, and other officials from local backgrounds responded sporadically.

"Just now you said that local officials are understaffed," Zhao Jiu sighed. "And most of the administrative affairs are handled by clerks. At this critical time, can we give them some benefits in terms of political strategy?"

"What does Your Majesty mean?"

"I think that during this national crisis, can we take advantage of this land registration opportunity to exceptionally allow some clerks with significant merits to advance to the positions of magistrate and vice-magistrate?" Zhao Jiu tentatively asked.

The hall was quiet for a moment, and this quietness was not the same as the previous quietness... In fact, as soon as the Zhao Emperor spoke, he realized that he was a little impatient, and then regretted it slightly.

Again, the bureaucracy of the Song Dynasty generally had conservative traits. This had nothing to do with the New Party or the Old Party, the pro-war faction or the peace faction, but rather was due to the ethos of the scholars, the national policy, the trends of Confucianism, and the political traditions formed by the successive Zhao Song Emperors and the scholar-official group, all of which jointly built the political ecosystem.

Although the New Party frequently gained power, and the Emperors did things under the banner of the New Party, there were many things that everyone felt were wrong at heart, let alone this particularly excessive act?

This was openly using clerks to seize the root of the scholar-officials' livelihood!

Even Lü Haowen, who came from hereditary privilege, didn't dare to say a word about such a thing... Actually, such officials were not unheard of. There were so-called "selected men," in other words, Zhao Jiu's strategy was not without precedent. However, those were generally found in remote military prefectures in the South and Guanzhong, and it was basically impossible for them to successfully transition to regular capital officials through means other than the imperial examination. And the military prefectures that needed to be registered were either the large prefectures along the Huai River and Jingxi, or the wealthy military prefectures behind them. These positions were originally exclusive to capital officials, so how could it be the same thing?

Here, ignoring theory, there was only the reality of "once a clerk, always a clerk."

In the end, the regular civil officials of the Song Dynasty, the so-called capital officials, were mainly from the imperial examination and hereditary privilege, mixed with a small number of scholars like students from the Imperial Academy. And among them, the proportion of officials from hereditary privilege was extremely high, and they could also reach top positions. But it is worth mentioning that scholars were scholars, scholar-officials were scholar-officials, and those from hereditary privilege could also be scholars, not to mention students from the Imperial Academy, so the group boundaries were extremely clear. Even those from hereditary privilege had to have enough learning to be accepted by the scholar-officials.

And returning to the present, it was fine for scholar-officials to be squeezed by the incompetent ones among the hereditary privilege officials, and even now, during this national crisis, there was a prime minister like Lü Haowen who came from hereditary privilege, but was that not enough? What were clerks, and could they also be appointed as regular magistrates and vice-magistrates on a large scale?

"It's just a temporary measure, just to deal with the emergency for the time being, and only limited to this basic national policy of land registration," After a moment, Zhao Jiu suddenly laughed. "Besides, isn't it you who are saying that there is a shortage of personnel? And didn't we also use the Han Dynasty's recommendation system on the way here? Would we continue to use it forever? When things stabilize and the threat from the Jin people is lessened, we will eventually hold imperial examinations to recruit scholars. How about, limiting it to magistrates?"

Everyone was slightly relieved... So they would just consider it as the Emperor specially granting hereditary privilege to a batch of people.

And after looking back at the expressions of several chancellors, Lü Haowen once again bowed his head and said, "I understand."

After the matter of land registration, Lü Haowen wanted to present the matter of Fan Qiong, but was pressed down by the Zhao Emperor, who instead started from Guanzhong. Lü Xiangong also quickly presented Yuwen Xuzhong's memorial on Chen Fang, which, in addition to the usual strategies such as "reinforcing Wu Pass and being careful to move forward" and "sending envoys from Hanzhong to inquire," also listed a valuable list of Western Army generals!

It is said that this was the result of Yuwen Xiangong's hard work for several days, inquiring from various sources and consulting the qualifications, merits, and troops of the Western Army generals who might still be alive, and ranking them accordingly.

It can only be said that these chancellors were not without ability. When a task was assigned to them, they could still squeeze out some results.

As for the subsequent case of "Sun Mo," Liu Ji proposed posthumously honoring Sun Mo and simultaneously transferring Pei Dez