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

The twenty-second year of Yonghe, the Lesser Heat.

Wei Zhongxian sat behind the polished elm wood table in the personnel department's office.

He held in his hand a personnel transfer order that had just been copied from the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs; it was a thin sheet of paper with only a few lines of text.

"Zhao Gao was immediately transferred to the position of Attendant Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, a position of the sixth rank."

Previously, he was only acting as a court eunuch; now he has been formally appointed.

He turned the paper over and over three times, then slammed it on the table, leaned back in his chair, and stared at the spiderweb on the roof beam that had been there for three days, remaining silent for a long time.

Xiao Shunzi, who also worked in the Personnel Department, brought in tea. Seeing his appearance, he carefully put down the teacup and tentatively asked, "Brother Wei, is this... about Eunuch Zhao?"

"For him?" Wei Zhongxian scoffed, picked up his teacup and took a big gulp, grimacing from the heat, but still forced it down.

"I'm doing this for myself. Others have godfathers, but we don't. They can have Chen Ju as their godfather."

"Who should we worship? Steward Liu? If we worship him, the best we can hope for in this life is to become the head of the servants' quarters."

He slammed the teacup down on the table, splashing tea onto the transfer order and spreading ink.

He looked down at the ink stain, then suddenly grinned, his previous indignant expression vanishing, replaced by his usual warm smile.

But beneath that smile lay a shrewd calculation that ran deep.

He pointed to Zhao Gao's name on the transfer order with one finger and said to Xiao Shunzi, "Our eunuch Zhao has risen from a menial servant to the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs in less than two years since entering the palace."

"He has his path, and we have ours. In terms of martial arts talent, ten Wei Zhongxians couldn't catch up with him."

"He reached the first rank in ten days, while it took us three months to even grasp the basics of Qi. In terms of writing skills, he could write account books for Chen Ju, but I was terrified as soon as I picked up a pen."

He stood up, walked to the cabinet on the wall covered with personnel files, randomly pulled out one and opened it. The densely packed, tiny characters recorded the origins and resumes of the palace servants.

"But when it comes to judging people by their status, cultivating relationships, and finding a way to survive in the cracks, there are really few in the Twelve Directors of the Inner Court who are better at it than our old Wei."

Xiao Shunzi nodded as if he understood but not quite.

Wei Zhongxian patted him on the shoulder, saying, "Work hard, and you'll have a bright future ahead of you," before stepping out of the duty room.

He walked east along the inner court passageway, passed through the moon gate of the Imperial Garden, and walked through the alleyway in front of the Imperial Kitchen where the smell of cooking oil wafted.

After passing the heavy iron gate of the Imperial Horse Stables, I turned back and walked to the duty room of the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs behind the Qian Yuan Hall.

He would stop at each place he passed, sometimes chatting with the eunuchs on duty, sometimes just standing at the door and looking around.

Others thought he was just visiting someone's neighborhood, but only he knew that he was observing the layout of the twelve inner court offices.

It is not actually the layout of palaces and pavilions, but the layout of people.

Of the twelve directorates in the inner court, the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs was the most important. Wang Zheng, the Grand Eunuch, was the most trusted official in the inner court and the emperor's most trusted minister. His confidants were the eunuchs in charge of writing and those accompanying him in court.

Zhao Gao now holds this position, handling memorials and drafting imperial edicts for the emperor, wielding immense power.

Secondly, there was the Imperial Horse Administration, which nominally managed the imperial horses but in reality oversaw the distribution of military equipment and provisions for the capital's imperial guards. Hai Dafu, a seventh-rank cultivator, was an upright man, and Zheng He was very successful in his work there.

Then there was the Imperial Household Department, Qian Bao's territory, which managed the items used in the emperor's daily life. It was extremely lucrative and also the mortal enemy of Chen Ju and Zhao Gao.

Next are the Directorate of Palace Attendants, the Directorate of Imperial Cuisine, the Directorate of Imperial Clothing, the Directorate of Imperial Furnishings, the Directorate of Palace Guards, the Directorate of Imperial Household, the Directorate of Imperial Sacrifices, and the Directorate of Imperial Treasures. Each directorate is responsible for a specific aspect of palace affairs, and the chief stewards are all of the sixth rank or above.

In addition to the twelve directorates, there were four departments and eight bureaus.

The official in charge of firewood was in charge of the charcoal fire, and the official in charge of bells and drums was in

The Treasurer's Office manages toilet paper, and the Bathhouse Office manages bathing.

The Bureau of Weapons and Armor was in charge of weapons, the Bureau of Hats and Caps was in charge of crowns and ornaments, and the Bureau of Sewing was in charge of sewing.

The Inner Textile and Dyeing Bureau was in charge of weaving; the Wine, Vinegar and Noodles Bureau was in charge of wine and vinegar; and the Imperial Garden Bureau was in charge of fruits and vegetables.

The Laundry Bureau was in charge of laundry, and the Silverwork Bureau was in charge of gold and silver utensils.

These twelve directorates, four departments, and eight bureaus, with tens of thousands of staff and an annual turnover of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, were intertwined and entangled in a web of grudges and favors for three hundred years.

If you randomly pick any two government offices and trace back three generations, you can find several long-standing feuds or intermarriages.

By the time he returned to the personnel department's duty room after completing his rounds, it was already getting dark.

He lit an oil lamp, spread out a blank sheet of Xuan paper, and drew out everything he had memorized that day.

The names of the twelve supervisory commissions, four departments, and eight bureaus, the names of their chief stewards, their cultivation levels, their powerful backers, and the grudges and relationships between them were written on a large sheet of paper.

Then he bit the pen and stared at the picture for a long time.

Qian Bao was backed by Consort Liu, the Imperial Clothing Director Sun Ping was Qian Bao's godson, and the Director of the Imperial Household Department Ma Yong was Sun Ping's fellow townsman. This was the power circle of the Imperial Household Department.

The chief steward of the Imperial Kitchen, Eunuch Meng, was neutral but quite old, while Gao Lishi had firmly established himself there.

Hai Dafu, the Imperial Horse Supervisor, was a distant relative of the Empress and had close ties with the military group. He was at odds with Qian Bao, which was precisely why Zheng He was able to thrive there.

As for the other supervisory offices, the head of the Inner Palace Supervisory Office was old and sickly, and everyone knew that the head of the supervisory office was someone who did nothing. The Supervisory Office of the Divine Palace and the Supervisory Office of the Direct Palace seemed insignificant, but they were in charge of the palace's sacrifices and the maintenance of the palace buildings. At critical moments, they could hold the lives of many people in their hands.

He drew a circle next to each of the six government offices: the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs, the Directorate of Imperial Supplies, the Directorate of Imperial Horses, the Directorate of Palace Attendants, the Directorate of Imperial Household, and the Directorate of Imperial Seals.

The Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs already had Zhao Gao, the Directorate of Imperial Horses had Zheng He, the Directorate of Imperial Cuisine had Gao Lishi, and the Directorate of Imperial Supplies was now being targeted by Zhao Gao.

If you remove these four, you'll be left with the Directorate of Palace Attendants and the Directorate of Palace Attendants.

One of the departments in charge of palace personnel files and reward/punishment records had a function that highly overlapped with that of the Personnel Department.

The department in charge of imperial edicts, seals, and the emperor's seal was one of the inner court's offices closest to the core of power.

He stared at the two circles for a long time, until the candle flame flickered a few times and the wax dripped onto the paper, burning a small hole. Only then did he blow out the candle and lie down on the bed fully clothed.

In his previous life, when he was the Nine Thousand Years Old, all the civil and military officials had to call him Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Years Old. Now that he's starting over in this life, is he really not as good as Zhao Gao?

Two days later, at the routine morning meeting of the Imperial Household Department, Wei Zhongxian slowly unfolded an account book in front of Chen Ju and the stewards of various departments.

The oversights and risks in the personnel transfers of various prisons over the past three months were listed one by one.

He first pointed out that Qian Baoan had inserted people to embezzle the Ministry of the Interior's procurement quota, and that it was common for the various prisons to fail to return the borrowed personnel on time.

Every word he said was verifiable, and every point he made precisely addressed Chen Ju's most pressing concerns.

The entire room of stewards was completely silent.

Zhao Gao sat to the left of Chen Ju, slightly raised his eyelids to glance at him, and a look that was hard for others to notice flashed in his eyes.

Chen Ju stared at Wei Zhongxian for a long while, tapped his fingers lightly three times on the table, and then said, "In your opinion, how should we block it?"

"It's better to guide than to block," Wei Zhongxian replied without hesitation. "The reason why the prisons are borrowing people is because they are short of manpower, and the reason for the shortage of manpower is the uneven distribution of personnel."

"Why not have the Personnel Department take the lead, with the twelve supervisory commissions, four departments, and eight bureaus conducting a unified review of staffing levels, filling vacancies where necessary and eliminating those that need to be eliminated?"

"Once the positions and staffing are finalized, any unauthorized transfers are considered violations of regulations, and those who violate regulations will be dealt with according to palace rules."

These words not only pointed out the root of the problem, but also offered a feasible solution.

They also conveniently elevated the Personnel Department's power from simple file management to the level of staffing review.

Chen Ju nodded slightly: "You will take the lead in handling this matter."

After the room quieted down again, Wei Zhongxian returned to his seat, picked up his cool tea, and took a sip.

Zhao Gao's teacup made a soft clinking sound next to him. The two were separated by half a table, and neither of them spoke, but there was a tacit understanding in the air that only the two of them could comprehend.

Their competition continues, only the battlefield has changed.

After a long silence, Wei Zhongxian suddenly spoke in a low voice, as if talking to himself, or perhaps asking Zhao Gao, "Tell me, which is more worthwhile to focus on: the Directorate of Palace Attendants or the Directorate of Palace Affairs?"

Zhao Gao paused slightly in his teacup, then resumed his composure and said calmly, "The eunuchs oversee personnel matters and rewards/punishments, while the officials in charge of imperial edicts and the use of imperial seals. One oversees internal affairs, the other external affairs."

Wei Zhongxian grinned, understanding.