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The servants immediately opened the wooden chests, which were full of shimmering silver. Looking at the silver, Lu Chen muttered to himself, “Trading 70,000 taels of silver for several hundred thousand, this business isn’t losing out at all.”

He had only allocated 70,000 taels of silver to the officials of North City for their salaries, but before the salaries had even been distributed, the officials of North City had handed over several hundred thousand taels of silver.

Lu Chen crouched down, picked up a silver ingot from one of the wooden chests, and then continued, “Li Rui really isn’t honest, just the officials from Yan County can hand over several hundred thousand taels of silver, yet he came to me for salary just a few days ago.”

With that said, Lu Chen turned his head and said to the servants of the Prince’s Mansion, “Count it, see how much silver there is.”

Upon hearing Lu Chen’s words, the servants of the Prince’s Mansion immediately began to count the silver.

Lu Chen didn’t stay in the great hall of the Prince’s Mansion. He had a maid fetch Mu Zixuan to take care of the silver, and then he himself returned to his study to continue drafting the reform proposal for North City.

When Mu Zixuan saw the several hundred thousand taels of silver in the great hall of the Prince’s Mansion, she was incredibly shocked. Inquiring about its origins only added to her surprise; the poverty-stricken North City’s officials had managed to embezzle four or five hundred thousand taels of silver.

However, Mu Zixuan did not discuss this matter further with Lu Chen afterward. After all, it was a matter of state affairs, and it was Lu Chen’s responsibility to deal with it. As for the silver, it was all to be placed in the royal treasury, as they were about to set one up soon.

A few days later, the minor assembly of North City officially began. Since the Hall of Political Affairs hadn’t been completed yet, Lu Chen had no choice but to use the outer court’s grand hall of the Prince’s Mansion as the venue for the assembly.

Not only did all the officials from North City attend this meeting, but the military generals also participated.

In the morning, after Lu Chen got up and had a simple breakfast, he headed to the Prince’s Mansion’s great hall, where the officials and military generals had already arrived.

Facing this meeting, the officials of North City were very nervous, while the military generals stood around as if nothing was bothering them, casually watching the officials discuss the meeting.

At that moment, the voice of a Jinyiwei Guard was heard from the entrance, “The Prince has arrived!”

Upon hearing this, the originally noisy great hall of the Prince’s Mansion fell silent in an instant, as people shut their mouths in anticipation.

Lu Chen then made his way through the crowd and took his seat directly opposite the main door.

Li Rui immediately took the lead and said, “I pay my respects to the Prince, long live the Prince, long live, long live!”

Lu Chen indifferently replied, “Dispense with the formalities.”

Then Lu Chen said, “I believe everyone has heard that 1 have summoned you all to the Prince’s Mansion to discuss politics, mainly for the matter of reform in North City.”

“I have been in North City for over a year, and as is customary, I ought to establish my own team. However, due to other matters and the Southern incursion of the Barbarian Army on two occasions, I haven’t had the time until now.”

“After contemplating these past few days, I have decided to make some adjustments to North City.”

Having said that, Lu Chen turned his head to a Jinyiwei Guard by his side and ordered, “Read it.”

At Lu Chen’s command, the Jinyiwei Guard took out a lengthy scroll and began to read.

“Effective immediately, North City is officially disbanded. North City will be known as North Country, and North Country will establish the Ministries of Personnel, Household, Rites, War, Criminal Justice, Works, Commerce, and Education. North Country will adopt a policy of separating military and civil governance. The Ministry of War will be managed solely by the North Prince, and the military forces of North City will also undergo reform. The military reform of North City is as follows…”

As the Jinyiwei Guard read the “reform measures,” the hall was quiet, with everyone listening intently to what closely concerned them.

After half an hour passed, the Jinyiwei Guard finally finished reading the contents of the scroll. Once the Jinyiwei Guard stopped reading, Lu Chen spoke up, “Now, if you have any questions about the reform measures, or if there’s something you disagree with, feel free to bring it up.”

Hearing Lu Chen’s words, the civil officials looked at each other, but none of them stood up.

Of course, they had many questions internally, but most of them were minor officials. How could they dare to speak out about such reform measures?

Just then, Li Rui stepped forward and said, “Prince, since ancient times the court has had six ministries, so why does North City need to add the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Education? I’ve heard what the Jinyiwei Guard read, and 1 find that the Ministry of Commerce could be merged into the Ministry of Household and the Ministry of Education into the Ministry of Rites. There is no need to set up two additional ministries. If two more ministries are established, I believe it will lead to an excess of officials.”

Lu Chen replied, “The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Education are set up in anticipation of North City’s future needs. They will be managed by me alone for the time being.”

Hearing this, Li Rui no longer dwelt on the issue. Since they were preparatory departments, it didn’t involve him.

However, another issue concerned Li Rui greatly. He promptly said, “Prince, among your reform measures, there is a rule stating that all the land in North Country legally belongs to you, the Prince. No one has ownership, only the right to use. This could provoke protests from the common people.”

The issue of land consolidation was something every dynasty paid a great deal of attention to, but no dynasty had dared to directly proclaim all the soil of the realm to revert to the court or to be handed over to the Emperor.

While nominally the entire country belonged to the Emperor, it was only in name.

Taking back the ownership of the land would certainly displease the landlords, and the common people would not agree either..