Although the city of Beijing in summer is not as hot as the Jiangnan area, it is also quite hot. In the era when there was no air conditioning, the only way to lower the temperature in the room was to rely on ice.

Although the tall Qianqing Palace always makes people feel cold in winter, this kind of palace with an indoor height that is much higher than ordinary residences is much cooler than the usual small space in summer.

If you add a few ice cubes, then there is a little coolness in the upper study. However, after glancing at the ice cubes that the two attendants kept fanning, Zhu Youzhen looked at the documents on the table, and couldn't help but ask Lu Qi casually: "Is the ice storage in the palace not enough?" ”

Lu Qi replied as respectfully as before: "Yes, Your Majesty." Due to the expansion of the fishing company this year and the establishment of a chemical plant, the number of places where ice is needed has increased significantly compared to last year. In order to ensure that the production of these places would not be stopped, a part of the ice storage in the palace had to be allocated.

However, the fishing moratorium in July and August has arrived, and the demand for ice has decreased a lot, so this year's ice storage in the palace can still meet the demand in the palace. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has already built ice reservoirs on the edges of the larger lakes and reservoirs in Beizhili, and it is expected that there will be no shortage of ice next summer. ”

Zhu Youzhen scratched his head with a pencil, and when it came to summer, he felt that the long hair on his head was like a steamer, and it was hot and itchy inside, making it difficult for people to concentrate. This also made him unconsciously reduce his travel after entering July. Walking in the hot sun with a dizzy head can't solve any problems.

After drawing a few lines on the document, Zhu Youzhen changed it to a brush and made an instruction. When he first ascended the throne, his most annoying thing was to review these movements, without punctuation and with many allusions, he often had to ponder a piece for an hour or two before he could understand the meaning.

It was then that he realized why the Apocalypse would give the power to approve the folds to the Inner Court. Because of the long war of the heir to the throne during the Wanli period, Tianqi did not receive a good education when he was young, so I am afraid that he is as deeply embarrassed as he is for these words on the chapter.

And most of the pieces submitted by the courtiers every day are meaningless, empty content, but smelly and long words. Apocalypse was obviously unwilling to waste his limited time on these useless recitals, so he simply handed over the power to review the recitals to his close confidants.

Zhu Youzhen went one step further and relegated the power to the cabinet to approve these pieces, retaining only the veto power of the inner court. As a result, some inconsequential or trivial matters were stopped in the cabinet. The matters he needed to deal with became some of the pieces selected by the inner court, which greatly reduced his daily troubles and left him a lot of time to deal with other matters.

Today, however, the use of vernacular script, punctuation, left-to-right writing, and the addition of a fixed tabular format have begun to become the most frequently sent documents to Chongzhen. Thanks to the movement to formalize the form, writing, and terminology of official documents, which began last fall, Chongzhen is now finally able to read these documents efficiently on his own, without having to have to explain the meaning of the cantata for him.

The implementation of the standard of official document writing also has advantages and disadvantages for the Ming bureaucracy. The advantage is that they can use these prescribed forms of official documents to better grasp the situation of various subordinate departments, and reduce the risk of being manipulated and deceived by the staff.

The disadvantage is that once there is a problem in the affairs in charge of oneself, it can no longer be easily concealed and covered up as before. The most troublesome thing is still the class of speech officials and the ministers of the Hanlin Academy. The standardized terminology makes the impeachment articles of the speech officials boring, and it is difficult to cause a sensation in Shilin, which greatly reduces the attack power of the speech officials.

For the courtiers of the Hanlin Academy, one of the main values of their existence was to draw up wills and edicts for the emperor. In other words, in addition to their qualifications, they learned how to give instructions to courtiers and local officials to assist the emperor in writing.

Now that the standard has been set for official writing, it means that the role of the Hanlin Academy has been weakened. The cabinet began to slowly change from the secretarial function of assisting the emperor in handling state affairs to presiding over state affairs under the leadership of the emperor.

This change in the functions of the cabinet has also caused the unspoken rule that non-Hanlin is not allowed to enter the cabinet has begun to collapse. Bureaucrats with experience in local administration were obviously more likely to enter the emperor's field of vision. After all, the cabinet will change from a body that makes ideas for the emperor to an agency that takes ideas, and the type of bureaucracy required will inevitably change.

After quickly processing a few documents on the case, Zhu Youjian asked Lu Qi at a moment: "How was the selection of the candidates for that incident?" ”

Although Chongzhen's question was vague, Lu Qi seemed to understand what the emperor wanted to ask without any obstacles. After a moment's thought, he said, "After a month of recruitment, the Social Research Institute has preliminarily identified three candidates. One is Lin Yuanheng, a Taoist priest who came to Beijing three years ago, and now lives in the Wanshou Temple in the west of the city. This person can do a few tricks, claiming to be able to refine stone into silver, and he is very confused by several big families in the capital.

However, under our investigation, we found that this person's so-called immortal method of refining stones into silver was nothing more than a scam. This person has a good appearance, and is familiar with Daozang and other miscellaneous studies, and his words can be quite confusing. ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said, "Those Jurchens are not good at Taoism, and I haven't heard that there are anyone who likes alchemy. Amin is not a good person, he needs a strategist who can help him come up with ideas, not some Taoist priest, I am afraid it is not appropriate to let him go. ”

Lu Qi, who had just been interrupted by Chongzhen, continued: "There is another person from the capital, who has a reputation for showing off his talents, but he has always been good at talking about military affairs on weekdays, and after seeing the recruitment of the investigation office, he came to apply. This man comes from a wealthy family, but he treats people quite sincerely, if he can train for a while..."

Zhu Youzhen also said negatively: "Since Amin privately asked the steward of the Sihai Commercial Bank to hire a scholar through his son, he will definitely not recruit people through only such a channel, and I am afraid that he will also recruit people through other channels."

In the past, King Chu Huai once said that the king who entered the customs first. The same is true today. It's rare that Amin wants manpower, and if he doesn't take this opportunity to plant people around him, when the time passes, I'm afraid it will be difficult to get close to the decision-making core of Amin's side.

Trying to train a character who can hide his mind in front of Amin is not something that can be done in a day or two. After his father and brother were killed by the slave chief Nurhachi, Amin was able to grow up safely by Nurhachi's side and became one of the four great Baylors of Houjin, and he himself was a good hand at disguising emotions.

I don't want the people sent by the social investigation to end up revealing our details. In that case, what's the point of sending out the personnel now? ”

Lu Qi was silent for a while, and finally continued: "Then there is only one last candidate left, Song Kangnian, who is from Henan, just arrived in the capital more than half a month ago, although he seems to be a scholar, but after entering the capital, he has counted his life several times, so he was about a warlock before entering Beijing.

We also found out that he seemed to be an acquaintance with Niu Jinxing, the representative of the Henan gentry, but he came to apply for the job by accident. This man is very good at talking and behaving, not only being able to hide his heart in front of several investigators, but also being able to get to the bottom of us by the side.

According to the discussion of several investigators, he can be directly sent to Liaodong, and there is a high probability that the goal we have set will be accomplished. However, we have not yet fully figured out his background, so we cannot determine how loyal he was to the Ming Dynasty. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a long time, and finally said: "I will choose him, but all contacts with him in the future must be one-line contact, and emergency plans must be prepared." If he really betrays us, we can minimize the damage.

In addition, since he is good at speaking, but he has no fame, he is obviously either from a low background or has a reason why he cannot participate in the imperial examination. The investigation center can assign him a student status, no matter what his previous background is, or what illegal things he has done. As long as he completes this mission, he will be able to start again in his current identity.

The time he spent on this mission can be counted as an official resume. If there is a meritorious performance, the court will give another reward. In addition, arrange a real family for him, even if someone goes to the local area to investigate, there will be no problem. ”

Lu Qi agreed, but soon he replied: "Then the primary goal of this mission is to assist Macau in provoking Houjin's infighting?" Or do you want to collect as much information as possible from Houjin? ”

Zhu Youzhen pondered for a while and said: "Provoking Houjin's infighting, this is not something that we can achieve by taking the initiative to intervene. The Jianzhou Jurchens laid the foundation for the country with a mere savage tribe, and there will inevitably be no shortage of internal strife, but they are also extremely vigilant against the interference of external forces.

Once Amin discovers that someone is deliberately provoking a fight between him and the other three Baylors, he may not follow our wishes, and may instead lead to reconciliation within Houjin. Therefore, it is better for him to act at the right time, and he does not have to be too deliberate.

As for the internal intelligence of Houjin, although it is important, it is not something that can be achieved overnight.

I thought that the most important goal of arranging people to go to Amin's side this time was to ensure that one of Amin and Erli must survive in the internal struggle of Houjin.

Since the Nu chieftain raised the army, it has always been my Liaodong official army and local gentry who surrendered to the Jianzhou Jurchens, but none of the noble figures in the Jianzhou Jurchens surrendered to our Daming.

It is said that Nurhaqi intended to take refuge in my Daming, but was killed by the slave chief. Therefore, if one of Amin and Erli can defect to our Daming, it will inevitably greatly boost the morale of our army and also hit the morale of Houjin.

Therefore, the first goal of appointing this person to Liaodong was to gain the trust of Amin's father and son, and when the Houjin internal struggle was too intense, persuade them to defect to the Ming Dynasty. Instead of sitting still. ”