He knew that in order to achieve the emperor's goal of "subduing Japan and forcing them to act according to the court's conditions," he had to rely on the Department of Foreign Affairs. Only the Department of Foreign Affairs would have those who were proficient in Japan's situation and could act accordingly.

expertise. As long as the Secretary for Foreign Affairs takes this opportunity to demonstrate his

If you play an important role in getting what you want for the emperor and the court, then rewards will definitely follow. You can even use this opportunity to fulfill your long-cherished wish and convince the emperor and the prime minister to upgrade the Department of Foreign Affairs to a member of the cabinet.

, let yourself become a member of the cabinet ministers and enjoy the treatment of important ministers.

When he thought of himself dressed in fine clothes, sitting at the desk of the cabinet meeting, discussing state affairs like other important ministers, Kong Zhang couldn't help but feel hot in his heart. This kind of fire even dispelled the cold air around him and made him more energetic.

"Zhihe, this is the chance for the Prime Minister to meet you in person. You have to take advantage of this opportunity that I fought hard for!" He turned around slightly excitedly and looked at the young subordinate who was following him, "That's right.

You should go through some of the provisions in your mind and think about how to respond to the Prime Minister's inquiries, so as not to be caught off guard when you see the Prime Minister later."

"Sir, I understand." The young man in black bowed repeatedly, "I have been preparing relevant matters these days, and I already have a draft in my mind. Although I cannot guarantee that I will satisfy the Prime Minister,

There should be no problem in dealing with it.”

"That's good, that's good." Kong Zhang nodded repeatedly, "Zhihe, I have actually read your statement. I personally feel very satisfied with it. You have put your heart into it. However, this matter is very important to our Foreign Affairs Department."

You must know how important it is. I

Let me tell you clearly, this is an errand assigned by the Emperor. As long as you can handle it well, the day will come when our Foreign Affairs Department will be proud. Even for you, are you afraid that you will not have the opportunity to rise to the top? Take advantage of it, Zhihe.

…”

"Thank you for your cultivation!" The young official expressed his gratitude to Kong Zhang respectfully. "In order to handle the emperor's errands well, for the honor and disgrace of this company, and to repay your trust, I will do whatever I want to do without hesitation!"

"As long as you understand." Kong Zhang smiled and nodded.

This young official's name is Zhou Pu, also known as Zhihe, and he is an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs. He is from Dengzhou Prefecture in Shandong Province. Both his father and his father have been engaged in maritime business and smuggling, and have accumulated some land. Therefore, their family has been relatively well-off since childhood.

It's considered a good thing. In his generation, because the elders feel sorry for their family,

Compared with those families with fame, Li suffered a lot without the protection of officials, so he made up his mind to send him to a private school. Therefore, he learned a lot of knowledge from his teacher since he was a child. Even the name Zhou Pu and

The nickname Zhihe was also chosen for him by his husband.

He originally dreamed of gaining fame and honoring his family by being named on the gold medal list, but little did he know that at this time, the Ming Dynasty was plunged into a final crisis. Natural and man-made disasters continued, thieves emerged from all over the country, and the Ming court seemed to be in danger, and his family was also in danger.

A lot of money was lost during these turmoils.

Under the pressure of this environment, he cruelly gave up his ambition to gain fame in the imperial examination and went to sea to help his father in business. With his quick mind, he quickly learned Korean and Japanese and made great contributions to his family's business career.

He made a lot of contributions. In those years, he traveled frequently in Seoul and Nagasaki and was very familiar with the situation in the two countries.

Not long after starting business, the rapidly rising power of Xuzhou quickly annexed the outside world, taking the entire Shandong into its pocket, and sweeping the world at a staggering speed. Soon, a new dynasty was established, and under the control of the new dynasty

, the originally restless world slowly calmed down.

The world is gradually calming down, but Zhou Pu's heart is getting more and more excited. After all, doing business at sea is a knife-edge life, and the life is very difficult. He grew up studying, how could he like to live this kind of life?

In addition, it is still difficult to do business at sea now.

To compete with Yunshan Xinglai, they are a small family with little strength. It is becoming more and more difficult to continue doing business like this. He is not a person who studies to death, and he has no idea of ​​being loyal and filial to the Ming Dynasty. In this kind of

Under the circumstances, he quickly thought of serving the new imperial court.

He originally thought that the new dynasty would hold imperial examinations, so he picked up the scriptures that he had thrown away and started studying them again. However, he did not expect that after Ding Ding, the new dynasty did not immediately hold imperial examinations to stabilize the world's scholars like the previous dynasties.

On the contrary, the imperial examination has never been held, and the people who have honored the past and the Conglong team are still reused.

He did not become discouraged like some scholars who felt hopeless or cursed the new dynasty openly or covertly. Instead, he rushed to the capital, observed the situation, and tried to find a way to find an official position for himself.

After many activities, he got acquainted with Kong Zhang, who had become the director of the Department of Foreign Affairs at that time, through some fellow villagers. He and Kong Zhang recommended themselves. Unexpectedly, Kong Zhang did not take a fancy to the sage's subtle words and righteousness that he had memorized from school.

Taking advantage of his proficiency in Goryeo and Japan, and after several examinations, Kong Zhang recruited him into the Department of Foreign Affairs, making him officially a member of the Han Dynasty.

Although his rank is not high and he is the yamen responsible for foreign affairs, for the Zhou family that has been wallowing in the land and sea for several generations, Zhou Pu can be regarded as the proud ancestor. At least when his father heard the news, but

I was so excited that I shed tears.

While Zhou Pu was secretly rejoicing, he couldn't help but feel a little doubt in his heart. He didn't understand why the new dynasty had never opened a subject to recruit scholars, and even relied on this method to recruit officials.

It wasn't until he had a drink with his boss Kong Zhang that he heard his explanation.

It turns out that the New Dynasty started in Xuzhou, and then developed step by step to the Jianghuai area, then occupied Shandong, and finally swept the entire north and took over Jiangnan. Therefore, the New Dynasty must take care of the interests of the people in the Longxing area.

Because of years of disasters and wars, these places cannot be said to have a prosperous literary style. If we start the imperial examination now, we will never be able to pass the Jiangnan test. If we start the imperial examination now, we will soon be the same as before.

Same as Ming

Due to the situation, the Jiangnan gentry filled the court with much better imperial examination results, and finally crowded out other forces. The Donglin Party, which arose in the last years of Wanli and later dominated the government and influenced the three generations of the Ming Dynasty, relied on these Jiangnan gentry and landlords as their

Basic.

This dynasty replaced the former Ming Dynasty, so it would naturally summarize the lessons of the former Ming Dynasty's demise one by one. Things like the Donglin Party should naturally be prevented from the beginning. In order to avoid this situation, we might as well just stop the imperial examination first.

Zhou Pu was able to successfully enter the Department of Foreign Affairs through meritorious recruitment of officials (in other words, priority was given to recruiting people from Xuzhou, Jianghuai, Shandong), precisely because he, like Kong Zhang, was born in Shandong.

Of course, this admission method cannot be sustained for a long time, so over the years, the imperial court has been increasing investment in education in various places, especially in the Longxing area. When the education level in these places improves, it will slowly liberalize the imperial examination.

, let official admissions be conducted in as fair a way as possible - of course, the examination

The scope of the examination will not be limited to the Four Books and Five Classics. As we all know, because of the lessons of the previous Ming Dynasty, the emperor hated the Confucian style, and even more disliked scholars who could only talk empty words. Maybe in the future imperial examinations, astronomy and geography will also be included

Even military strategy will no longer be as limited as the previous eight-legged essay.

However, now that he has squeezed into the imperial court, Zhou Pu no longer cares about such things. He only wants to do his job well, win the favor of his superiors, and at the same time advance his official position to several levels.

.

Thanks to the care of Director Kong Zhang, he was given the power and responsibility to handle Japanese affairs as soon as he entered the department. Therefore, he has been dealing with Japanese affairs in the past two or three years. After several experiences, he can now be said to be

The biggest Japanese expert in the department. It is for this reason that when the Prime Minister

After learning about the emperor's plan, Kong Zhang immediately thought of his capable subordinate. As soon as he returned to his office, he specially called him over and gave him a hard warning, telling him to quickly collect relevant information.

Regarding Japan’s affairs, come up with an action plan to convince Japan as soon as possible.

After his boss handed over this task, despite the pressure, Zhou Pu naturally felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so he simply threw away everything else around him and plunged into this task in the past few days, trying every possible means.

After several days of hard thinking about how to fulfill the above expectations, he now has a lot of ideas in his mind.

I didn't expect that I would get the opportunity to meet the Prime Minister in person so soon... Although this young official remained calm on the surface, he was already in a state of upheaval in his heart. The opportunity to rise to prominence was just around the corner, and how many people could do it?

Not moving?

Calm down, calm down! Zhou Pu reminded himself as he followed Kong Zhang into the grand and tall Wenhua Hall.

The Wenhua Palace they refer to is actually the collective name for a group of palaces. The front hall is the Wenhua Palace, facing south, five rooms wide and three rooms deep, with yellow glazed tiles resting on the top of the mountain. In the bright room, there are six three-fold and six-bowl water chestnut fans.

The door, secondary room and top room are all sill windows, each with four openings and six openings.

There are windows on the Wanling Huaguan. There is a window on the east and west gables. There is a platform in front of the hall, and there is a corridor that leads directly to the Wenhua Gate. The back hall is called the Lord Jing Hall, and the rules are slightly similar to the Wenhua Hall, with a slightly deeper and slightly shallower one.

They are connected by corridors. The east and west side halls are Bunren Hall and Jiyi Hall respectively.

The prime minister summoned them in the Bunren Hall, the East Side Hall.

This side hall is very spacious. It originally contained many imperial objects used by the previous royal family. However, the prime minister was afraid of being impeached for overstepping his bounds, so he ordered people to move them away and rearrange them. It was only used for summons and the furnishings were very simple.

Zhou Pu was left outside by Kong Zhang first, and he walked in alone.

"Your Majesty, please see the Prime Minister." As soon as he saw the Prime Minister, he bowed and saluted.

*************
Chapter completed!