Chapter 47 Beware of the Sharp Knife

The God-Slaying Division is located in the northern corner of Xuanwu City, facing Xuanwu Lake. It can overlook the thousands of ships competing on the Yellow River and Luo River, and guards the largest gateway to Tianjing.

The headquarters of the Zhushen Division covers a vast area and has its own prisons and military camps, which are independent of the Tianjing Guards that manage the prisons and the Four Elephants Army that guards the four cities.

In the past, this place was a place hated by gods and ghosts, and even birds were unwilling to fly over it.

However, since the emperor's old illness relapsed a few years ago, the God-Punishing Division has become slack. In the past few months, the emperor has not even attended the morning court, and the atmosphere of the God-Punishing Division has become increasingly decadent.

The next day, Zhou Tieyi took the documents and went to report with A Da and four others.

Ah Er has successfully cultivated his spirit these past two days and gained a talent of Fuxi, called Bowen.

Although this talent does not directly increase combat power, it is a growth talent with great potential. It can increase the practitioner's wisdom and understanding.

This is also the reason why when Zhou Tieyi looked at the qi at that time, he saw that Er's golden luck was stronger than Ada's.

As soon as I arrived at the entrance of the God-Slaying Division, I saw a minor official coming to greet me and asked with a smile, "But is it General Zhou who is here in person?"

Zhou Tieyi handed over the appointment document, and the clerk took Zhou Tieyi to report to the Left Commander.

Logically speaking, above the general flag-fighter Zhou Tieyi are the sixth-rank centurions, the fifth-rank thousand-householders, and the fourth-rank pacification officer, and after them are the fourth-rank assistant commander and the third-rank commander of the God-Slaying Division.

But in fact, there is a serious problem of official replacement within the Zhushen Division.

This led to a situation where even if some children from wealthy families were collecting salaries without doing anything, they would still be promoted as long as they made contributions to their family.

Take Zhou Tieyi as an example.

The reason why he was promoted to the seventh-rank general flag was not because the Zhou family had not accumulated enough merits. On the contrary, the Zhou family had been in charge of the army for generations. Zhou Tieyi’s grandfather died for the country in his early years, leaving behind only one son, Zhou Qinlong.

During Zhou Tieyi's generation, his brother Zhou Tiege made great achievements on his own, so he enjoyed all the honors and favors from four generations of military merit alone. Therefore, the official position he was awarded at the beginning was better than that of other wealthy families with many descendants.

As long as Zhou Qinlong has made meritorious contributions and the emperor cannot find a suitable reward, he will promote Zhou Tieyi to a higher position in the Zhushen Division.

There are some similar cases, so when someone is appointed as an official, the highest rank he or she can start with is only the seventh rank, for fear that it will be difficult to be rewarded later.

This is how a large number of centurions and thousand-householders in the God-Punishing Division came into being. Even many centurions and thousand-householders in Tianjing did not even know which way the gate of the God-Punishing Division faced, they were just there to hold official titles.

In the God-Slaying Division, those who truly have power and can get things done are those in positions above the rank of Zhenfu.

"Greetings, Commander Gongsun."

After entering the Government Office, Zhou Tieyi saluted the commander-in-chief who was sitting in front of the screen with flying eagles and beasts.

Gongsun Chou was born in an orthodox sect of the God-Slaying Division, but he did not rely on his ancestral influence. Instead, he fought his way up from the Lingnan border, starting as a lowly night patrolman, to Tianjing and taking the position of Left Commander-in-Chief.

His temples were slightly gray, and he wore a robe with a fire cloud pattern and a three-clawed python dragon, and a black cloud gauze crown with gold on his head. He was about forty years old, with a calm smile, and was quite elegant. There was no sign of the ferocity of the man who was once called "Gongsun Wutou".

Holding Zhou Tieyi's application document, Gongsun Chou took a look at it, then put it aside and said with a smile, "You are a martial arts genius of the imperial dynasty, but it is a pity for you to come to the God-Slaying Division. If you have nothing to do on weekdays, you can practice martial arts in your mansion and don't have to report to the God-Slaying Division to avoid wasting time. The small flags under your command are all troublesome and difficult to discipline. It is better to hang this list with me to save you the trouble."

"Don't dare."

Zhou Tieyi replied that the political wisdom from his previous life made him understand.

In official circles, there are many things that can be done but cannot be said.

For example, the problem of people drawing empty salaries within the Zhushen Division, everyone did this, but Gongsun Chou, as the assistant commander, should never say it out loud, especially to himself, a newcomer who had just reported.

If the leader says something that should not be said, either the leader’s level is not good enough, or he needs to be weighed.

Zhou Tieyi thought the other way around.

How do you appear to others?
A second-generation rich person with a good background.

Recently, he was praised as the first martial arts genius of the country. Such a second-generation ancestor with a proud heart and little wisdom is most suitable to be used as a knife.

Thinking of this, Zhou Tieyi smiled in his heart.

It seems that from the emperor to the noble families, everyone thinks that their Zhou family is a useful knife. They just don't know whether someone's hand holding the knife is steady and whether they will hurt themselves.

"We must be loyal to our emperor and serve him. My Zhou family has received favors from generation to generation. We should repay the country and never give up even if it means death. I would like to ask Commander Gongsun to give me the list of the small flags under my name."

Gongsun Chou looked a little embarrassed, "You really don't want to consider it?"

Zhou Tieyi raised his head, his face showing pride, "I want to see who is difficult to discipline."

Gongsun Chou nodded and said, "Okay then."

Then he smiled and praised, "Eat the emperor's salary and be loyal to the emperor. This sentence is very well said!"

After saying that, he took out five documents and asked the clerk to hand them to Zhou Tieyi.

Zhou Tieyi took the document away, and Gongsun Chou tapped the table with his index finger. Now, everyone in the court and the country knew that the Zhou family was a useful sharp weapon.

The officials in the court wanted to use the eldest son of the Zhou family to warn the Queen Mother, but his rank was not that high, so they just used the second son Zhou Tieyi to stir up the stagnant water in the God-Slaying Division.

As a seventh-rank general flag bearer, Zhou Tieyi naturally does not have a separate residence to work in the headquarters of the God-Slaying Division.

He first went to the Logistics Office to receive his official uniform, token, Lingxi horn and other items. Then when he was taken to the mansion where the general flag officers worked, he felt that it was almost the same as a single room. There was no one in the partitioned offices of the general flag officers, making the entire office mansion exclusive.

Zhou Tieyi asked the clerk beside him, "Is there usually no one here?"

The clerk replied, "Tianjing is under the feet of the Saint. Even if we, the God-Slaying Division, want to catch the evil gods, we can't find them. In the past few years, the Saint used us to open spies, but in recent years, the Saint hasn't issued an order for a long time... Instead, the God-Slaying Divisions in various states are quite busy."

After the clerk showed Zhou Tieyi his office location, he thought Zhou Tieyi would leave immediately, but Zhou Tieyi stopped the clerk and said, "Go and get six sets of the rules and regulations of the God-Slaying Division."

"what?"

The clerk was a little surprised for a moment, but seeing Zhou Tieyi's look, he knew he had said the wrong thing, and before Zhou Tieyi could say anything else, he quickly said, "I'll go get it right away."

After a while, six sets of "The System of the God-Slaying Department" were brought over. Five of the books were brand new, and one was a bit old.

Zhou Tieyi flipped through the old book with neat handwriting on it. He asked the clerk in front of him, "Is this book yours?"

The clerk bowed and replied, "I am preparing for this year's judicial examination. I am willing to present my daily notes. If there are any mistakes, please correct them, Mr. Zhou."

Within Daxia, various schools of thought governed the country.

Corresponding to the imperial examination was the judicial examination held by the Legalists.

Although the Legalists are one of the top nine schools of thought, they are still very different from the Confucians.

Therefore, there is a saying among the people of Daxia, "Imperial examinations select officials, and civil servants are selected through civil service examinations."

The saying in the previous life that the poor are good at literature and the rich are good at martial arts is also applicable in Daxia. It is much more difficult to enter the three schools of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism than to enter any of the other hundreds of schools of thought. It also requires enormous resources and ordinary families cannot afford it at all.

Therefore, many Confucian scholars would turn to Legalism midway.

Zhou Tieyi looked above the clerk's head, where there stood what looked like an execution platform amidst the red smoke.

He smiled and said, "The judicial examination is good. Those who pass it are all talented. What's your name? Are you willing to be transferred to my command?"

The clerk hurriedly bowed and said, "I am Wu Qian, courtesy name Gongchen, and I am here to see the general flag."

(End of this chapter)