Whether an official could regularly attend deliberations in the Imperial Study marked the dividing line between being counted among the Great Li court's foremost ministers and not.
Whether he had visited the National Teacher's Manor and received Cui Hun's personal instruction was also clear proof of whether an official could be called capable and effective.
The former meant he was already a pillar of the Great Li court, a minister at the pinnacle of power. The latter meant he stood at least a good chance of joining their ranks.
The new National Teacher's Manor had been expanded, but immortal-family methods had done the work. Officials in the offices lining the nearby Thousand Pace Corridor felt no sense that a vast construction project had taken place.
Near the end of the mao hour, Zhang Ding and Yan Yi, the two newly appointed Secretary Officials of the National Teacher's Manor, arrived early to report for duty.
The manor was not far from the government offices along the Thousand Pace Corridor where they had worked before. Even at a slow walk, the trip took a quarter of an hour at most.
Yet they found a great crowd of pillars of the Great Li court already gathered in twos and threes on the square between the street gate and the manor gate.
Yan Yi got the fright of his life. He was stunned beyond words.
Even Zhang Ding was shaken and uncertain. What momentous affair could require the National Teacher's Manor to summon so many high-ranking Great Li officials for deliberations?
Could it be... the court had decided to march south?!
Few senior officials remained at the Ministry of Revenue. Minister Mu Yan had been imprisoned, implicating a whole swath of its higher-ups. When the few upright officials still standing learned that Zhang Ding