For once, Zi Shou attended to state affairs in a side hall, reviewing memorials.
The emergence of paper, fertilizer, and biogas forced him to tread carefully.
Fortunately, thanks to his efforts, West Garden Fertilizer and lü gas had been kept firmly under wraps without a word leaking out. Only paper circulated on the market.
Zi Shou let out a gentle breath and looked over Zhang Da's memorial.
Several batches of new officials had already been selected, and substantial subsidies had been distributed.
Just then, Chong Yingbiao hurried into the hall. "Your Majesty, something terrible has happened!"
The Dark Phoenix Guard excelled at gathering intelligence and made excellent helpers for an incompetent ruler. They let Zi Shou keep track of his ministers' movements so that whenever something went wrong, he could promptly set things crooked and turn order into chaos.
"Take your time." With his hands behind his back, Zi Shou motioned for Chong Yingbiao to explain slowly.
Chong Yingbiao was gasping for breath. "General Lu threw all the arsenal officials into the river!"
Zi Shou's eyes lit up. "Oh?"
A clash had broken out!
The arsenal officials were all new appointees selected by Zhang Da. Some might even have been spies planted by the feudal lords and nobles, yet their salaries were higher than Lu Xiong's. A dispute was perfectly natural.
Everything was going according to plan!
Zi Shou asked, "Why did General Lu do that?"
Chong Yingbiao stammered, "Now that we have paper, General Lu wanted to guard against trouble before it happened and conduct a thorough inspection of the arsenal's weapons. So he checked the numbers, but who could have imagined that the inspection would uncover trouble..."
Zi Shou frowned. "Wasn't Lu Xiong on leave?"
"Uh..." Chong Yingbiao could not keep up for a moment. King Zhou's thoughts