"Summon him."
Zi Shou rubbed his eyes. A little more rest would be nice.
Bo Yi entered the hall and immediately saw the utterly exhausted King Zhou, along with the memorials piled high on his desk.
Off to one side lay many more memorials, crumpled into balls and discarded.
Though the scene was a mess, it filled him with heartfelt reverence.
King Zhou had deliberately held a banquet during the Laji Festival and proposed days off so his ministers could rest. Yet everyone knew that once they took leave, government affairs would inevitably go unattended, making delays all too likely.
Paper had greatly accelerated the handling of government business and made things somewhat easier, but they were still short of people.
And now King Zhou was neglecting food and sleep to handle government affairs.
A ruler only needed to oversee the big picture. There was absolutely no need to go this far.
Realizing that Bo Yi might have misunderstood him, Zi Shou hurriedly picked up a memorial and handed it over. "Take a look yourself."
I'm not handling government affairs. Don't get the wrong idea!
"This..." Bo Yi looked at the memorial in his hands. It actually contained information on candidates from the Hall of Worthies.
Why was King Zhou reading records of talented candidates instead of attending to affairs of state?
Bo Yi froze, then suddenly understood.
This was the way to solve the problem!
The current problem was that officials were on leave, leaving too few people to handle government affairs promptly.
Once their leave ended and things returned to normal, they would indeed no longer be short-handed. With paper, their efficiency would even improve dramatically.
But would officials only ever take leave once?
The reform establishing the Six Ministries had added many subordinate officials. Clearly, King Zhou