From the perspective of some officials, the main reason why Guo Jin caused the storm of integrity was Zao Zhi's excessive actions.

Previously, when the Northwest Crisis just occurred in the Western Regions, Zao Zhi joined forces with the opposition officials in the court to put too much political pressure on the emperor.

He repeatedly submitted a letter to the emperor to dismiss the Northwest Business and refused to agree to the emperor's rescue measures.

The emperor wanted to rescue the Northwest Business. He took the lead in causing trouble, resolutely refused to admit or support it, and also made the Minister of Finance Wang Can refute it at all, and retreated in a mess, becoming a laughing stock in the court.

But everyone knows that the emperor himself is the one who instructs Wang Can.

After the northwest crisis spread to the two prefectures of Yongliang, Zao Zhi's reaction became even more intense. He connected the opposition officials in the court to submit a statement to the emperor, took turns to submit a statement, and kept reporting it, carrying out information bombing.

It is to put political pressure on the emperor.

One by one, it finally broke through the emperor's bottom line and bottomed out and rebounded.

His father's blood flows in the body of the current emperor.

Now, Guo Jin was forced to get anxious. He ignored Cheng Yu and killed everyone. The loose atmosphere in the court was gone forever, and he returned to the terrifying and murderous era of Guo Peng.

The high-ranking officials and nobles were silent and dared not say a word, for fear of angering the emperor, so that the emperor's spearhead was pointed at them.

The life of middle and lower-level officials also became difficult. Supervision officials scattered everywhere, and the terrifying monks wandered around, telling them that they could not eat well and sleep well, for fear that they would be taken away by the monks at any time and thrown into the imperial prison to survive and die.

This is all Zao Zhi’s fault!

If Zao Zhi didn’t bully and oppress the emperor, the emperor would not have been forced to follow Guo Peng’s old path!

Now, everything is over. The emperor is awakened and Guo Peng is back!

Zao Zhi himself and his old ministers lost their glory, and everyone's good days no longer exist.

Zao Zhi can really do such things that harm others and do not benefit himself.

For a moment, most of the frightened officials complained, hated, and secretly scolded Zaozhi.

They did not dare to be angry with the emperor, nor did they think that the emperor made the first mistake, so they simply transferred the target of catharsis and gathered fire and jujube.

The officials who went to send imperial edicts to the Ministry of Civil Affairs did not have a good expression on Zao Zhi. After reading the imperial edict to dismiss Zao Zhi with a happy expression, he felt like he was revenge, and he even shook his face when he left.

Before, the Ministry of Justice was the department that everyone hated the most, but now the Ministry of Civil Affairs has become the department that everyone hates the most.

When many officials learned that the emperor was going to dismiss Zao Zhi, they were even a little relieved and felt that Zao Zhi was officially finished and that everyone could survive again.

Zao Zhi received the imperial edict and saw the emperor's treatment of him, and felt extremely sad.

He looked around, but the subordinates of the Ministry of Civil Affairs rarely felt sad.

He could even read a strong resentment from their eyes and a sense of relief.

Am I wrong?

Is this all my fault?

If I don't do this, will those people die?

Could it be that they died because of their corruption, but because of me?

Zao Zhi became a little confused for a moment.

He couldn't figure out why everyone was blaming him, and he obviously did nothing wrong.

He felt as if he had lost everything in an instant, like a blind man who was at a loss, not knowing where to go and what to do next.

Even when he returned to the office and sat down, Zhuge Jin was the only one left beside him.

Looking at Guo Jin's imperial edict, Zao Zhi looked depressed and at a loss.

"Tiyu, is it all my fault? Is it because I did the wrong thing that led to all this now?"

Zao Zhi began to doubt himself.

Zhuge Jin hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.

"No, it's not the fault of the tribe, it's the corrupt officials who make their own mistakes. What does it have to do with the tribe? Even if the tribe has done nothing, shouldn't corrupt officials be punished?"

Zhuge Jin's words allowed Zao Zhi to regain some of his self.

"Yes, I just feel strange. Why is it my fault that corrupt officials were punished? I am just considering the country, and I am just opposing northwest business. Is this wrong?"

Looking at Zao Zhi's confused look of self-doubt and frightening, Zhuge Jin sighed indecisively.

Does it really have nothing to do with Zaozhi?

From his perspective, if he hadn't forced the emperor so much and engaged in political offensives, the emperor wouldn't have been so cruel.

But now, he really couldn't bear to sprinkle salt on Zaozhi's wound.

Zao Zhi was pretty good to him and was very supportive of him. When he was an amateur in civil affairs, Zao Zhi was very helpful to his tips and helped him quickly gain a foothold in the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

"Teido is right."

He calmed down his emotions and let himself say this.

Zao Zhi looked up at Zhuge Jin.

After a while, Zaozhi lowered his head and smiled bitterly.

"Forget it, forgot it, now that things have come to this point, what else can I say... Ziyu, I'm sorry, this time, I almost implicated you."

Zhuge Jin shook his head repeatedly.

"Jin is upright, sitting upright, not corruption and bribery, and not tax evasion. No matter how Cheng Zhongde investigates, he will not be able to find Jin. Even if he finds out, it is not the fault of the ministry. It is Jin who made a mistake himself, so what does it have to do with the ministry?"

———

"Tiyu..."

Zao Zhi pursed his lips, stretched out his hands tremblingly, and held Zhuge Jin's hand: "From the future, you will be the only one in the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Remember what I said, don't change your will."

"Jin remember."

Zhuge Jin said silently.

Zao Zhi tried hard to smile and nodded.

Then he admitted his destiny, received the imperial edict, and waited for the arrival of this destiny moment.

Guo Jin did not give him much time, and soon took advantage of the victory and started his own actions.

He realized that some central departments have too heavy responsibilities and too great power, and they are left to one person to be responsible. Even if they do not have military power, they will have political authority. Once the political struggle comes, they will put him in great pressure and make him feel uncomfortable.

So he decided to split the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

In the eighth year of Yande, Guo Peng began to consider splitting the Ministry of Civil Affairs, splitting the work on household registration and land, and setting up a separate Ministry of Agriculture to summarize all agricultural work across the country, so that the Ministry of Civil Affairs would be responsible for household registration as its name suggests.

Otherwise, he also felt that the Ministry of Civil Affairs had too heavy power and had a wide range of responsibility.

But at that time, he considered that Zao Zhi worked diligently for so many years, and splitting the Ministry of Civil Affairs during his tenure was a bit of a pain to the old minister. He obviously did not make any mistakes but wanted to reduce his power and did not respect people very much, so he put this idea aside.

To this day, Guo Jin can no longer bear the political pressure exerted by an absolute political authority on himself, and decided to take the opportunity to split the Ministry of Civil Affairs and remove the excessive powers of the Ministry of Civil Affairs so that it no longer has political threats.

On the sixth day of the second year of Xingyuan, with the end of the era of Zao Zhi, the first Minister of Civil Affairs, the Emperor Guo Jin ordered the Ministry of Civil Affairs to be divided into two.

The old one is still the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the new one is the Ministry of Agriculture, the old one is responsible for the management of the household registration of the former Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the new one is responsible for overviewing the land and agriculture work across the country.

Guo Jin also transferred the appointment form of officials from various places from the Ministry of Personnel, and personally selected the governor of Pingzhou, Lu Su, to return to the Dynasty to take over as the new Minister of Civil Affairs. The new Minister of Agriculture was Zao Zhi's original subordinate, Zhuge Jin, who was responsible for agricultural work within the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Pingzhou is one of the four border prefectures, and the governor Lu Su is also one of the four governors who truly possess the power of the governor.

He served in Pingzhou for many years. He was originally a close minister around Emperor Guo Peng. Later, he was released from the border and presided over the state affairs in Pingzhou and held great power.

During his tenure, he successfully built Pingzhou from a remote and cold place that needed state financial subsidies to a place where taxes could be paid in turn to the central government.

In the tenth year of Yande, Pingzhou was basically self-sufficient. In the twelfth year of Yande, Pingzhou paid tribute to the treasury for the first time. When Guo Peng abdicated in the thirteenth year of Yande, Pingzhou had already had a household registration of 1.1 million and a population of more than 5.5 million.

Pingzhou has a vast land and a sparse population, with a population of 5.5 million only initially completed the population laying, but the land area is very large.

Guo Peng's policy of plowing the grounds was firmly implemented by Lu Su, and the boundaries of Pingzhou included the original Liaodong to the Great Wall, and then the original Three Han lands, as well as the hometowns of Fuyu and other countries.

Through the operation of plowing the caves, the Wei army went deep into the Dalin Sea in the eastern part of Pingzhou and intensively operated in the outer Xing'an Mountains and the Ussuri River.

Then he continued to go east and north, and did not stop acting for more than ten years, constantly explored and strangled, and finally wiped out the fishing and hunting tribes in the sea of ​​forests.

Such actions have obtained a certain amount of labor for the development of Pingzhou. A large number of fishing and hunting tribes that survived here were wiped out, which can be said to be very effective for Pingzhou's safety.

It was precisely because of this action that the Wei central government learned that so many fishing and hunting tribes were hidden in this land and had not been discovered. If this were time to go by, I still don’t know what serious consequences would be.

Many people originally thought that Guo Peng implemented the policy of plowing and sweeping the caves just to maintain the combat effectiveness of the army and give it some benefits to prevent the army from being so idle. Now it seems that Guo Peng is far-reaching.

It is now said that Lu Su has expanded the boundary of Pingzhou to the shore of the eastern sea, and found a large island across the sea. He sent people to inspect the occupation and set up boundary monuments. The Wei Navy also had patrol fleets to build military ports there.

The newly reclaimed land in Pingzhou is very large. Although only some crops that are relatively cold-resistant and drought-resistant and have very low yield per mu are planted, because the land area is large and the population is not large, at least the central government's financial subsidies are not required.

Moreover, Pingzhou has developed animal husbandry and medicinal materials planting. These two agricultural economic activities have brought relatively rich economic benefits to Pingzhou, provided funds for the construction of Pingzhou in Lusu, and made the lives of Pingzhou people barely pass.
Chapter completed!