"Don't worry, I won't kill them."

A glint of coldness flashed in Jiang Chen's eyes: "Aren't they unwilling? Then I'll grant their wish!"

Feng Jin's eyes widened, and he looked at Jiang Chen in disbelief.

What did His Majesty mean?

From His Majesty's words, it seemed he wasn't planning to harm these people.

But looking at His Majesty's expression, he definitely didn't have any good intentions.

What exactly did this mean?

But at least he wasn't going to kill these people, so Feng Jin followed Jiang Chen's order and copied down all the names on these joint letters.

Five days later, an imperial decree was once again distributed from the capital to various places.

The local governments that received the decree were all stunned by the news.

"His Majesty actually wants to establish an additional Agricultural Affairs Department?"

"The Agricultural Affairs Department is under the Ministry of Works, with six Circuit Supervisors of the department in various places, ranking third grade. Each prefecture under its jurisdiction will have two Prefectural Supervisors, ranking fifth grade. Each state will have two State Supervisors, ranking seventh grade. Each county will have two County Supervisors, ranking ninth grade. The rest will be Village Supervisors, specifically managing the arrangement of shared farm tools and cattle in various places?"

A series of official positions stunned everyone.

Especially the scholars and aspiring scholars in various places, their eyes lit up after seeing this news.

What were they burying their heads in books for?

Wasn't it to become officials?

But everyone knew that wanting to become a *juren* (successful candidate in the imperial exam) and become an official was more than just squeezing onto a single-plank bridge.

But now, there was such an opportunity to directly become an official.

For them, it was a complete windfall!

The imperial decree clearly stated that in the early stage of the Agricultural Affairs Department's establishment, the State Supervisors and above would be temporarily held by ministers of the Ministry of Works, but the County Supervisors would be selected from scholars, and the Village Supervisors could be scholars or aspiring scholars!

Most importantly, all promotions within the Agricultural Affairs Department in the future, including the Circuit Supervisors, would be generated internally!

In other words, as long as you did well enough, even an aspiring scholar could be promoted to a third-grade Circuit Supervisor!

This opportunity drove all the scholars and aspiring scholars crazy.

The gates of the county government offices in various places were crowded with scholars and aspiring scholars, inquiring about how the County Supervisors and Village Supervisors were selected.

The county magistrates in various places were frightened by the enthusiasm of these scholars and aspiring scholars and quickly inquired with their superiors.

The various prefectures and states also quickly reported to their superiors.

Snowflake-like inquiry memorials fluttered to the capital.

Feng Jin carried these memorials to Jiang Chen's desk and couldn't help but shake his arms.

His arms were sore!

"Go see if Yang Yongqi and Wei Zhengli have arrived." Jiang Chen said while flipping through the memorials.

"Yes."

Feng Jin went out and quickly brought the two in.

"Greetings, Your Majesty."

Yang Yongqi and Wei Zhengli saluted Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen waved his hand and then looked at Yang Yongqi first: "Minister Yang, do you have any objections to the sudden increase in official positions?"

A slightly unnatural smile appeared on Yang Yongqi's face, and he shook his head and said, "This minister doesn't mind."

"It's good that you don't mind."

Jiang Chen chuckled.

He knew that Yang Yongqi actually minded quite a bit.

After all, increasing the number of official positions was the responsibility of him, the Minister of Appointments.

Even if he couldn't have the final say, he didn't know about this matter from beginning to end and only found out about it after seeing the notice from the capital's government office.

This made him feel somewhat unhappy.

Jiang Chen didn't care about these things.

Although Yang Yongqi hadn't made any major mistakes, his score in Jiang Chen's heart had plummeted when he could only give the suggestion of considering it more when facing those joint letters a few days ago.

Jiang Chen then looked at Wei Zhengli: "Minister Wei, do you have any objections?"

Wei Zhengli's face was full of smiles, and he shook his head repeatedly: "This minister doesn't mind!"

This matter was a good thing for him.

It was naturally a good thing to have more people under his management.

Especially since the promotions within the Agricultural Affairs Department in the future would be decided by the Ministry of Works itself, this was a great thing for him!

Especially since last year, Jiang Chen had intervened in several matters of the Ministry of Works, which made Wei Zhengli a little panicked at first.

But now he understood that Jiang Chen's intervention in the affairs of the Ministry of Works showed that Jiang Chen valued the Ministry of Works very much!

For Wei Zhengli, the Minister of Works, this was a good thing that couldn't be better.

After all, the Ministry of Works before was just a foil for the six ministries, and he, the Minister of Works, was one level lower than the other five ministers.

Now, his status had completely risen.

"Well, since both of you ministers don't mind, then I'm relieved."

Jiang Chen smiled and then casually took two memorials and asked Feng Jin to give them to the two: "Two ministers, take a look at these memorials."

Yang Yongqi and Wei Zhengli opened the memorials and read them quickly.

Jiang Chen then said with a smile, "I really didn't expect that as soon as the decree of the Agricultural Affairs Department was announced, the scholars of my Great Wei would be so enthusiastic, it gave me quite a shock."

Yang Yongqi, who had already finished reading the memorials, was a little speechless.

His Majesty was showing off!

However, although Yang Yongqi was a little unhappy about Jiang Chen not informing him about this matter, he still had to admire Jiang Chen's method.

Merely establishing an Agricultural Affairs Department that only manages public farm tools and cattle had allowed him to carry out an order that was almost opposed by all the scholars in the world.

Such methods were unheard of!

Wei Zhengli then said with a smile, "This shows that the scholars of Great Wei are loyal to Your Majesty!"

"Hahahaha—"

Jiang Chen laughed a few times, then looked at Yang Yongqi and Wei Zhengli, and said, "Two ministers, you have both read the memorials. What are your thoughts on how to select the Village Supervisors and County Supervisors in various villages?"

Wei Zhengli immediately said, "Your Majesty, this minister believes that the selection of Village Supervisors and County Supervisors cannot be based on the previous selection methods."

As soon as he said this, Yang Yongqi's face showed a hint of displeasure.

The selection of officials had always been a matter for his Ministry of Appointments.

Wei Zhengli was a little presumptuous.

What made him even more unhappy was that Wei Zhengli's words were clearly denying the selection methods of his Ministry of Appointments!

Yang Yongqi turned to look at Wei Zhengli and said, "Minister Wei, if we don't rely on knowledge to select, then how should we select?"

Wei Zhengli felt Yang Yongqi's displeasure, but he didn't care at all.

This time, he wanted to firmly grasp the power of appointment for the Agricultural Affairs Department in his own hands.

Wei Zhengli didn't answer Yang Yongqi's question but instead said to Jiang Chen, "Your Majesty, this minister believes that since the Agricultural Affairs Department is responsible for managing shared farm tools and cattle, it should naturally have some understanding of farming."

Yang Yongqi's expression immediately changed.

Wei Zhengli was trying to go against him!

As everyone knew, those who could pass the imperial exam and become officials were basically scholars from wealthy families.

These scholars naturally didn't know anything about farming.

Wei Zhengli's suggestion was to exclude these people!

In this way, the rural scholars and aspiring scholars who were promoted by Wei Zhengli would definitely be grateful to Wei Zhengli.

This was a great threat to him, the Minister of Appointments!

Jiang Chen frowned.

He had called these two people to discuss how to select, not to let them fight for power and profit!