Chapter 1673: Meng Tu! (1/2)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

The carriage quickly returned to the King of Foreign Lands Residence, whereupon Wang Chong returned to the main hall without alarming anyone. He unrolled a sheet of white paper, took up his brush, and began to write.

Time slowly passed as Wang Chong continued to write, a process that lasted for more than an hour.

Wang Chong put down his brush and called outside, ”Zhang Que, come in.”

A few moments later, Zhang Que respectfully walked in. ”Your Highness!”

”I have an important task for you!”

Wang Chong pointed at the paper densely covered in brush strokes on the desk.

Zhang Que instinctively looked down and immediately froze.

The paper on Wang Chong's desk was covered in names. Zhang Que had some vague recollection of some of the names, but he was still bewildered as to why they had all been written down.

”Your Highness?”

Zhang Que turned his mystified gaze to Wang Chong.

”These are all officials in the Three Departments and Six Bureaus, and a few people outside the court. I need you to investigate all of them, and when the time is right, I'll give you further orders. No matter what, you must keep these people safe,” Wang Chong said, a profound look in his eyes.

'The War of the Princes', 'Discord in the Court'—such things were commonplace throughout the successive dynasties, but with the calamity imminent, the Great Tang simply couldn't endure internal strife at this time.

While stopping the First Prince was important, it was even more important for Wang Chong that he save the elites of the Great Tang from being caught up in the Rebellion of the Three Princes.

The names Wang Chong had written out on the paper were all extremely important talents. While some of them may not have had high status, being almost completely unknown to the common folk of the capital, they were like screws in a massive machine. Every single one was irreplaceable.

For example, State Farm Office Secretary Luo Wen was just a minor rank-seven official, as tiny as a sesame seed in a place with so many high officials like the capital. But when the State Farm Office Secretary died in the Rebellion of the Three Princes, the State Farm Office fell into complete disarray, and there was no one capable of handling the massive piles of documents coming in from the commanderies and prefectures, nor was there anyone responsible for overseeing the planting and harvesting taking place across the four seasons.

It was only when everything was in complete disarray that everyone suddenly realized that the minor official who had been an obscure secretary in the State Farm Office for ten-some years had possessed a rare talent. He had been able to process all those documents in an orderly manner and coordinate everything so that all the orders were clearly delivered, thus allowing the Great Tang's vitality to thrive.

But purely because he had opposed the First Prince in the Rebellion of the Three Princes, he had been killed.

There was also Zhang Ce, Wang Shijie, and Wu Guangda of the Bureau of Personnel's Office of Evaluations. When the three of them died, it became known that the employees of the Office of Evaluations had called them the 'Three Worthies of the Bureau of Personnel'. It was only after a long time that people realized just how effective these three officials of rather low rank had been.

They had developed a rigorous method of evaluating the achievements of local officials and selecting talented individuals, allowing dusty pearls to shine.

These three had also been caught up in that unprecedented strife and killed.

After they were dead, the Imperial Court attempted to implement their methods in the hopes of screening and selecting talented officials who could keep this massive empire running. But the final result was not what had been desired. Not only did they fail to select true talents, the local governments were thrown into disarray, causing the massive empire to slacken and judder like a rusty machine.

There were many other talented individuals like this.

When the Great Tang was operating properly, few paid these people mind, but when these people were gone and their positions vacant, everyone finally realized how rare and precious they had been.

There were thousands of such people in the Great Tang, and Wang Chong could only do his best to remember all he could. But the names on this list were only a trifling minority of the true loss of talent suffered by the Great Tang.

Far, far too many people would be caught up in this internecine strife!

Zhang Que quickly left with the list of names.

Wang Chong had not given much detail, and just investigating the names would take some time, but Wang Chong was confident that Zhang Que was capable of investigating and properly handling all these people.

Once Zhang Que was gone, the hall fell silent once more.