Unsheathed

The altercations between scholarly and military officials, the trend of the scholars of the younger generation abandoning their scholarly pursuits to join the military, the blurring of the lines between scholarly and military officials of the imperial court... These were all good things as far as he was concerned.

The Ministry of Works, which had the closest ties with the foreign Mohist cultivators, was also a significant contributor behind the scenes.

In contrast, the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel, which were supposed to have been the two most prestigious ministries of the six, were going to be in a rather awkward position when it came time to rate contributions and assign rewards.

This was why the officials of the Ministry of Rites were so eager to involve themselves in the matters concerning the new Northern Mountain of the Great Li Empire and the forging of the alliance with the Great Sui Nation. With the battlefield drawing closer and closer, the Ministry of Rites was inevitably going to lose ground over the next century, and there was a very good chance that it would be infiltrated and eroded by the other five ministries.

After all, the Ministry of Justice was still making undeniable contributions when it came to gathering intelligence and recruiting cultivators.

Hence, the Ministry of Rites was doing all of this because it was afraid that while all of the other ministries were expanding their territories, it would be completely left behind in the dust when it had once been the most prestigious of the six ministries. If that were to happen, then how would it be able to continue to enjoy the power and wealth of serving as the Great Li Empire's number one ministry?

That left only the Ministry of Personnel, which was already in a state of internal turmoil. However, due to the supervision of the Guan Clan's patriarch, regardless of how fiercely the officials bickered and argued with one another behind closed doors, they remained professional and reserved in the presence of outsiders in public.

On the subject of the Peace and Safety Tablet, the Ministry of Rites was vehemently requesting that all of the procedures, including nomination, inquisition, certification, file-keeping, and evaluation, be placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites.

At the moment, the Ministry of Justice was responsible for overseeing roughly half of these procedures, and the Ministry of Rites was very eager to change that, but the Guan Clan patriarch refused to give a present a definitive stance on the matter, resorting to all types of stalling tactics to maintain his ambiguity.

In the end, he had even gone as far as to apply for sick leave. Everyone knew that he was as healthy as an ox, and that he was even fitter than some of the officials of the Ministry of Rites that were in their prime years, so it was very apparent that this was nothing more than a stalling tactic. It seemed that the older the fox grew, the more shameless it became.

The minister of the Ministry of Rites was technically half of the disciple of the Guan Clan patriarch's, yet it was said that even he couldn't help but erupt into a fit of rage upon hearing this news, accusing the Guan Clan patriarch of shamelessly using his age and seniority to his advantage.