The low-key prince summons trainees from the Imperial Household Department at the start of the game.

The 21st year of Yonghe, the Beginning of Winter.

Another half year has passed.

The moss on the palace walls faded to dark brown in the autumn frost, the ginkgo trees in the Imperial Garden lost their last golden leaves, and the north wind, carrying fine snowflakes, swept across the glazed tiles, making a soft rustling sound.

For this 300-year-old Great Zhou Palace, half a year is nothing more than a few drops of water flowing through a bronze water clock, but for some people...

Half a year is enough for an inconspicuous seedling to grow into a dense forest that no one can ignore.

The first one to mention is Zhao Gao.

He held the position of Assistant to the Chief Steward of the Imperial Household Department for less than three months.

It wasn't because he couldn't do it well; on the contrary, he did it too well, so well that even Wang Zheng, the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, noticed this young man.

The incident stemmed from a batch of palace satin, more than two hundred bolts, that had been stored in the deepest part of the warehouse for over three years and was on the verge of being destroyed by insects.

Zhao Gao searched through the archives of various palaces in the inner court and discovered that this batch of palace satin was a birthday gift prepared for a deceased old concubine.

After the Dowager Empress passed away, no one cared about her, and according to the rules, she should have been destroyed or sold off cheaply.

Zhao Gao did not follow the rules.

He ordered the palace satin to be re-washed, ironed, and cut into uniform sizes. He then distributed it to the needlework bureau to produce a batch of winter clothes, which were distributed as year-end rewards to the imperial guards on duty in the three battalions.

When the news reached Emperor Wu of Zhou's ears, Zhou Qian was reviewing memorials in the Qian Yuan Hall. Without even looking up, he asked, "Who did this?"

Wang Zheng bowed and replied, "Zhao Gao, the adopted son of Chen Ju of the Imperial Household Department."

Zhou Qian hummed in approval, wrote "Approved" on the memorial, and then added, "Let him come to the Directorate of Ceremonial to see me."

Three days later, Zhao Gao was officially transferred to the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs as a court eunuch, a position of the sixth rank.

The Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs was the central hub of power within the inner court, and the Grand Eunuch Wang Zheng was the emperor's most trusted inner court official.

The eunuch Liu Quan was in charge of drafting the imperial edict.

The eunuchs in charge of the emperor's daily edicts were responsible for recording the emperor's daily pronouncements, organizing the memorials submitted by the cabinet, and relaying the emperor's latest instructions between various government offices.

This position wasn't the highest in rank, but it was extremely close to the emperor. Serving before him daily, they were able to know immediately what memorials the emperor had read, what he had approved, who he had met, and what he had said.

All decision-making information in the Great Zhou court would pass through the hands of the eunuchs in charge.

When the news reached the Imperial Household Department, Chen Ju was so happy that he drank half a pot of wine, which was unprecedented for him.

With a radiant smile, he said to the old eunuch beside him, "My adopted son has a limitless future. Sooner or later, this position will be his."

The old eunuch offered a few flattering words, but in his heart he was thinking, "Your position? I doubt they'd even consider it."

The office of the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs was located on the west side of the Qian Yuan Hall, right next to the Imperial Study.

Zhao Gao's daily work began at the hour of Yin (3-5 AM). He would get up before dawn and go to the Imperial Study to check whether the day's memorials had been properly arranged according to their urgency.

Then, check the record of yesterday's imperial edict for any omissions, and wait outside the Imperial Study, ready to be summoned at any time.

His predecessor had worked in this position for three years and accumulated a thick stack of notes, all of them fragmented records, with messy handwriting and disorganized entries.

After taking office, Zhao Gao spent less than ten days reorganizing these notes, compiling them into volumes according to five categories: the Six Ministries, military affairs, personnel, local affairs, and diplomacy. Each entry was marked with the date, the people involved, and subsequent developments.

When Wang Zheng happened to see this booklet, he stared at it for a long time, then closed it, glanced at Zhao Gao, and said meaningfully, "The younger generation is truly formidable."

In terms of martial arts cultivation, Zhao Gao's breakthroughs were even more astonishing than his rise in his official career.

The martial arts talent bestowed upon him by the system—his meridians were naturally unobstructed, and his blood and qi circulated without any hindrance—was fully revealed during the past six months of diligent training.

His "Pure Yang Qi Technique" was a cultivation method personally passed down by Chen Ju, so his foundation was solid. In addition, his understanding of the human body's meridians and acupoints in his previous life far surpassed that of ordinary martial artists in this world, so he hardly went through any detours in his cultivation.

He broke through to the third rank in May, and to the fourth rank in September. On the eve of the Beginning of Winter, he broke through the bottleneck of the peak of the fourth rank in one go and steadily stepped into the fifth rank.

A sixteen-year-old fifth-rank martial artist is a rare find, even in the entire history of the inner court.

Upon learning the news, Chen Ju rushed to the duty room of the Directorate of Ceremonial overnight, took his pulse on the spot, and then remained silent for a long time before saying only one sentence: "I am proud of you."

His eyes were a little red.

Wei Zhongxian thrived in his position as head of the personnel department.

His martial arts talent was not as dazzling as Zhao Gao's, but he still broke through to the second rank in the past six months, although the rank was not high.

However, combined with his ability to read people, which he had honed in his previous life by interacting with people on the street, it proved to be more useful in the personnel department than his martial arts talent.

He was in charge of the files and transfers of tens of thousands of palace staff throughout the inner court.

No one knows better than him who is whose godson, who is whose fellow villager, and who is backing whom up.

He reorganized the personnel archives, rearranged them according to the palace affiliation, and marked each file with related personnel and transfer history, effectively creating a complete chart of personnel relationships within the inner court.

If any palace or department wanted to mobilize manpower or place their cronies, they all had to go through him.

What is even more commendable is his character and conduct. He never puts on airs with his subordinates, and he is always willing to lend a helping hand to anyone in need. During holidays, he pays out of his own pocket to add extra dishes and drinks for his subordinates.

However, they are never ambiguous on key issues; they never turn a blind eye to personnel transfers that should be handled properly, and they never conceal any files that should be checked.

After half a year, when people inside and outside the palace mention the name "Steward Wei," eight out of ten people will give him a thumbs up.

Even Chen Ju privately told Zhao Gao, "Your colleague Wei Zhongxian is a capable man. You can trust him more than anyone else with the personnel matters of the Imperial Household Department in the future."

Gao Lishi was also promoted in the Imperial Kitchen.

As the head of the Imperial Kitchen, Eunuch Meng was getting old, he devoted most of his energy to preparing medicinal meals for the emperor, and the daily food preparation was gradually handed over to Gao Lishi.

The Imperial Kitchen was in charge of the food supply for the entire palace.

The emperor's daily meals, the empresses' and concubines' rations, the daily supplies for each palace, and the preparations for palace banquets—none of these could be taken lightly.

Gao Lishi spent nearly two years honing his skills in the kitchen, becoming thoroughly familiar with the characteristics of ingredients, tributes from various regions, and the taste preferences of the imperial concubines.

The menu for each banquet was perfectly arranged, catering to everyone's tastes without being extravagant.

Once, after a meal, Zhou Qian unusually praised the dishes, saying, "Today's dishes are quite good."

Eunuch Meng immediately pushed Gao Lishi forward, saying that this dish was invented by Gao.

Zhou Qian glanced at him and casually asked a few questions about ingredient pairings. Gao Lishi answered them one by one, neither humble nor arrogant, and with clear reasoning.

Not long after, he was officially promoted to Deputy Chief Steward of the Imperial Kitchen, a seventh-rank official.

Although its rank was not high, the Imperial Kitchen was one of the few government offices in the inner court that could legitimately have access to all the imperial concubines and princes.

The daily meal planning was an invisible map of the harem's relationships. No one could hide from the Imperial Kitchen staff which concubine had a good appetite recently, which concubine had a poor appetite, or which prince preferred which flavor.

Zheng He remained the keykeeper of the Imperial Horse Stable's storeroom, in charge of the armory's entry and exit registration and daily maintenance.

In terms of rank, he was inferior to Zhao Gao; in terms of connections, he was inferior to Wei Zhongxian; and in terms of the convenience of being a close attendant, he was inferior to Gao Lishi.

However, his position in the Imperial Horse Administration became increasingly secure because he did one thing: standardize the armory.

The Imperial Horse Administration was in charge of the allocation of military equipment and provisions for the Imperial Guards in the capital. The armory contained tens of thousands of weapons and armor of various origins and specifications.

Routine maintenance and wartime allocation are both major challenges.

Zheng He spent three months re-inventorying, classifying, and numbering all the weapons, armor, and firearms in the warehouse.

Each item is labeled with its place of origin, date of entry into the warehouse, maintenance cycle, and applicable military unit. A detailed process for entering and leaving the warehouse and a regular maintenance system have been established.

This matter sounds simple, but in the hundred years since the establishment of the Imperial Horse Stables, no one has ever accomplished it.

Hai Dafu personally inspected the warehouse, and after a moment of silence, patted Zheng He on the shoulder and said, "With you in charge of the warehouse, I am at ease."

Afterwards, Zheng He was promoted to the position of Vice Director of the Imperial Horse Administration, a seventh-rank official, while still in charge of the armory.