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Military officers and deputy officers are specifically responsible for large countries like Zhou, Liang, and Ning, or specific regions like Lingnan, Xinan Yi, overseas, etc.

Commanders and deputy commanders are in charge of major states within large countries or specific states within regions.

As for ambassadors and deputy ambassadors, like lower-ranking officials and assistants, they don’t have specific duties and mainly depend on the arrangements of their superiors.

As for the number of personnel and horses under the North Department officials at all levels, they are determined according to the South Department’s needs.

However, the North Department of the Imperial City mainly covers the neighboring countries of Chu, like Zhou, Liang, Ning, Lingnan’s two countries and one prefecture, Xichuan, Hanzhong, and various Xinan Yi countries.

In total, there are six military officers responsible for six jurisdictions. As a result, the total number of personnel is less than a thousand.

In addition, there are 300 people at the headquarters of the North Department.

In terms of scale, it is temporarily lower than the South Department.

However, as Great Chu becomes more active internationally and communicates more with other countries, the military officers in various jurisdictions will be established, potentially surpassing the South Department in numbers.

Of course, all of these figures are still only on paper.

The entire Imperial City Department, whether north or south, is a newly established office that only exists on paper and needs to be built from scratch.

It would be unthinkable to achieve the aforementioned scale without three to five years, or even ten years.

Just like the navy, it is a long-term project.

For such an important department, which holds the power to control a country’s ears and eyes, Lu Yuan naturally couldn’t trust outsiders to take charge.

Therefore, to appoint the heads of these two departments, he selected two of his named disciples, Qu Su and Yue Quan.

These two had decent abilities and were quickly approaching top-level strength, so Lu Yuan granted them the Divine Blood Elixir to help them break through to first-class realm and then promoted them to true disciple status.

He then appointed Yue Quan to be in charge of the North Department and Qu Su to be in charge of the South Department, dividing responsibility for domestic and foreign affairs.

As for the specific personnel of the Imperial City’s two departments, a portion was filled by Lu Yuan’s named disciples as eyes and ears to monitor the two leaders.

Another portion was recruited from experienced officials in local government offices or transferred from scouts and spies in the military.

The remaining vacancies were filled with martial artists with the necessary skills from Jianghu, developed into personnel for the Imperial City Department.

With this three-pronged approach, the basic framework could be put in place.

After making these arrangements, Lu Yuan didn’t pay much attention to this aspect anymore.

The seed of the Imperial City Department had been planted, and all it needed now was to take root, germinate, and grow. He didn’t need to interfere too much.

However, it must be mentioned that from the command generals down to the lowest-ranking assistants, the salaries of all officials in the Imperial City Department were paid by Lu Yuan’s own funds and did not go through the court’s accounts.

In essence, it was severed from the court.

In order not to let them be influenced by external factors from court officials, Lu Yuan used his own money to support such an intelligence system, which belonged exclusively to the royal family’s private soldiers.

While this approach increased the burden of royal expenses, he who was used to making extra preparations still chose to make this additional expenditure.

After all, maintaining both the North and South Imperial City Departments, a total of about five thousand people, and considering various expenses, would only cost about 500,000 silver taels per year.

This amount of money was affordable for Lu Yuan.

…

After completing these two major tasks of military expenditure reform and setting up the Imperial City Department, Lu Yuan did not do much during the second year of Shenwu.

On the contrary, the aftermath of these two major events caused quite a stir at home.

Firstly, in the Xichuan Prefecture, local Linjiang Mansion soldiers, composed of the original Xichuan Prefecture militia and the reorganized surrendered soldiers from the Zhou people, were in an uproar upon receiving news that their wages and benefits would be greatly reduced.

Some of the rebellious elements even started to lead riots, killing officials and rebelling.

However, as soon as these signs of rebellion appeared, they were immediately quelled by the left general and Xichuan Prefecture governor Han Shun, who personally led troops to suppress them, beheading hundreds of rebel soldiers and severely deterring the local area.

From now on, the prefectural and county soldiers in various parts of Xichuan Prefecture no longer dared to cause trouble and obediently accepted reality.

Similar disturbances occurred in other places such as Xiangyang Prefecture and Dongting Prefecture, but they were all quickly quelled as well.

By the end of the year, as the troublemakers in various regions were cleared away, prefectural and county soldiers finally accepted reality, and local areas were completely restored to peace.

Then, there was the matter of the imperial court.

Regarding Lu Yuan’s establishment of the Imperial City’s North and South Departments, many court officials felt uneasy and vigilant.

These self-proclaimed scholars who had read books of sages have always had a deep-seated aversion to the Imperial City Department, which was seen as a watchdog of the court.

Thus, feeling a sense of crisis, they continuously submitted appeals to the court to abolish the Imperial City Department, arguing that the Honglu Temple, which specializes in diplomacy, would be sufficient for intelligence gathering.

In response to these memorials, Lu Yuan, upon seeing them, naturally ignored them and reprimanded those who spoke too much.

For those who remained stubbornly ignorant, he directly dismissed or impeached them.

Did they think he would not know what these civil officials had in mind?

Isn’t their objective to blind and deafen the king so that they can deceive and reap benefits at will?

He had no patience for those who viewed him as a fool.

As for the nonsense they said about what a sagely monarch or wise monarch should be like, he sneered at it.

He became the king of a country by relying on absolute martial power, being an Inborn Grandmaster, and commanding hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

These civil officials were merely servants he had hired to help manage his household.

Now, these servants want to rebel, turn over their masters, and bully him, their former master.

This could only mean…

They really underestimated him as the founding monarch and as an Inborn Grandmaster, thinking he wouldn’t dare to kill people anymore.

After dismissing dozens of officials and even punishing more than ten, the establishment of the Imperial City Department finally proceeded.

The court, which was initially in an uproar, eventually became silent as all opposition disappeared.

However, one thing must be mentioned.

Throughout this entire debate on whether to establish the Imperial City Department, the highest representatives of the court’s civil officials, the two chief ministers divided between the left and the right, Cui Changqing and Sun Siwen, never expressed any opinions.

They neither supported nor opposed it.

Instead, they chose to remain silent.

However, this inaction was the greatest support they could give to Lu Yuan.

Otherwise, if they both came out in opposition, he wouldn’t know what to do.

After all, he couldn’t dismiss or demote his good friend and his close associate Cui Changqing, could he?

If they were both gone, where would he find people to replace them?

It’s not that easy to find a prime minister who can be trusted and believed in absolutely.

However, this stance of the two has also led to much controversy among the literati.

They say that the two chief ministers of the country are bowing down to the king, which is truly a disgrace to scholars.

The reputations of both Cui and Sun suffered a significant blow after this incident.