Chapter 884: Chapter 44: The Heavenly Destiny List and Creation Plate, Interception!
Zhao Xing explained: "More than a thousand civil officials died in the Bright Moon Prefecture, and the officials who have been promoted are not very familiar with their duties and do not dare to overstep their authority, so they must ask Prefecture Lord for approval."
"Even if those people hadn’t died, Prefecture Lord, your workload wouldn’t have decreased."
Ye Yuxong showed a bitter expression.
Zhao Xing didn’t want to make it difficult for him either, but there really was no way.
To implement the policies of the entire prefecture, Ye Yuxong’s handwritten approval and the Prefecture Lord’s official seal are required, otherwise, they can’t take effect. Some departmental storerooms can’t even be opened!
To be honest, the current chaos in the Bright Moon Prefecture is partly due to having Ye Yuxong, a martial artist, placed in the position of Prefecture Lord.
His presence in this position has led to the accumulation of many documents, and work can’t be carried out.
Of course, this can’t be blamed on Ye Yuxong.
Just speaking of peaceful times, the workload of a Prefecture Lord is not something that a Martial Arts Dean from Bright Moon Academy can compare to.
Moreover, this is in wartime, with so many civil officials dead.
How could Ye Yuxong manage it?
It’s not that the court really wanted him to do it; it was just that, at that time, the civil and military powers had to be handed over to Ye Yuxong.
After finishing the morning workload, Ye Yuxong couldn’t help but complain to Zhao Xing:
"Chen An, I really don’t want to do this anymore. I had a good reputation when I was the Dean."
"In less than two months as this crummy Prefecture Lord, I’ve been scolded as if I was a dog, even my ancestors are shadowed in gloom!"
"Last night, my father came to me in a dream and scolded me for being an idiot, saying I didn’t even know to do a background check before employing someone, just focused on hiring experts."
"Why did the court insist on having me take on this Prefecture Lord position?"
Zhao Xing answered honestly: "Because the Prefecture Lord must be of the third rank to also be the Dean, and must have worked in the Bright Moon Prefecture for over ten years. At that time, only you met these requirements."
"But I really don’t understand how to do this Prefecture Lord job." Having someone to listen to him, Ye Yuxong started to pour out his grievances.
He took out one of the backup documents and said: "For example, seven days ago."
"The main official of the Six County Skywork Department under the Prefecture City Mechanism Bureau, Huang Shanggong, submitted documents requesting a batch of consumable materials for the eastern four counties of the Bright Moon Prefecture."
"I told him to act at his discretion and decide for himself, was there anything wrong with that?"
At this point, Zhao Xing could only comfort him: "Nothing wrong at all."
"If it were general materials, fine, Huang Shanggong could decide on his own."
"However, this batch had over three thousand types of materials and needed to be drawn from the Yuanfeng Storehouse under the Minister of Agriculture Supervision."
"At the time, I wondered what Yuanfeng Storehouse was and why they had to ask me?"
"Only after checking did I realize that the Yuanfeng Storehouse involved seventh-rank materials, which not only required the Prefecture Lord’s personal seal but also needed me to first issue an order to the Yuanfeng Storehouse under the Minister of Agriculture Supervision."
"But that’s not all, I also had to coordinate the Inspection Bureau and the City Guard Army to escort it."
"Just deploying some materials involved several departments."
"I thought issuing the order would be the end of it, but even then, when Huang Shanggong took the order, the Yuanfeng Storehouse doors couldn’t be opened without the main officials of these places coming to verify with me as the Prefecture Lord."
"I said, why don’t you main officials just discuss among yourselves?"
"Guess how the head of the Yuanfeng Storehouse replied?"
"How did he reply?" Zhao Xing asked, playing along.
"He said, without the Prefecture Lord, for a subordinate like myself to open the Yuanfeng Storehouse, how would that be any different from rebellion?" Ye Yuxong, excitedly slammed the table, "Can you believe he couldn’t speak normally, it’s just moving some materials, how is that related to rebellion?"
Zhao Xing was at a loss for words.
In fact, the head of the Yuanfeng Storehouse wasn’t wrong.
It’s impossible for Huang Shanggong and the Minister of Agriculture Supervision’s people to just decide to open the Yuanfeng Storehouse and draw seventh-rank materials.
Trouble? If it were possible to bypass the Prefecture Lord, then these seventh-rank materials wouldn’t be secure at all.
Necessary procedures and processes must be there, for the transfer of such valuable materials, safety must take precedence over convenience.
Otherwise, what if rebel forces obtained seventh-rank materials? How dangerous would that be?
"With everything aligned for smooth communication, it still feels troublesome." Ye Yuxong said, "What’s scarier is when main officials have differing opinions."
"I thought once the order was issued, it should be settled."
"In the end, the consumables Huang Shanggong needed were not available in the Yuanfeng Storehouse."
"Even with an order, the Yuanfeng Storehouse couldn’t supply such a quantity of consumables."
"However, the head of the Yuanfeng Storehouse and Huang Shanggong again asked what to do."
"How would I know what to do? We still need to ask someone, right?"
"Then ask someone!"
"So I had to bring these two department heads over for questioning."
Recalling, Ye Yuxong said: "Then Liu Qing, the head of the Yuanfeng Storehouse, said opening the Inner Treasury might have the materials Huang Shanggong wanted."
"I said then just open it."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Xing was left speechless.
The Inner Treasury is even more important than the Yuanfeng Storehouse; how could it be opened just like that?
"Liu Qing said he checked the Inner Treasury’s archives and indeed there were backup materials, but not many. If there were more important uses later, there would be none left. Huang Shanggong didn’t seem very urgent, it shouldn’t require so many materials."
"I thought he made sense, and then suddenly Huang Shanggong got angry."
"Not urgent? How can it not be urgent? It’s a burning issue, how can it not be urgent?" Ye Yuxong mimicked Huang Shanggong, raising his voice.
"These two were at an impasse, so they asked what I should do."
"What did you do?" Zhao Xing asked.
"I thought what Huang Shanggong said made sense, so I opened the doors of the Inner Treasury and the Yuanfeng Storehouse, letting Mr. Huang use them first."
Ye Yuxong sighed: "As a result, five days later, the same problem arose in the western six counties of the Bright Moon Prefecture, and it was even more urgent. Ultimately, due to a lack of materials, the array couldn’t withstand the natural disaster, leading to tens of thousands of people being affected."