Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 171 - 166: Critical Case

Chapter 171: Chapter 166: Critical Case

Chu Ge sighed quietly and continued to pick up a new memorial to review.

The only piece of good news might be that the date and the memorials had refreshed, and so had his physical stamina.

The previous condition where he felt dizzy and saw stars from reading memorials had greatly improved.

Regardless, his body was now that of a seventy-year-old man, and even with a gifted spirit, it couldn’t handle as much as a typical young person could.

In modern society, many young people can’t even withstand the 996 work schedule without running the risk of sudden death, let alone an ancient person in their seventies.

Moreover, although young people are subject to 996, they can still slack off a little.

But Chu Ge, currently playing the role of Emperor Taizu of Sheng, dared not slack off at all.

The memorials piled up like a mountain in front of him; looking at one more or one less seemed to make no difference.

Chu Ge could even choose not to look at them at all, just to keep passing the time and see what the end would be.

But whether deduced from reality or from the game mechanics, such an approach would surely lead only to failure.

Ordinary employees can slack off because even if there are minor errors in their work, the people they interact with will mostly notice or prompt them. As long as it isn’t excessive, there generally wouldn’t be any serious consequences.

The disadvantage of modern corporate systems is that employees are treated like interchangeable cogs, but this is also its advantage.

Since the majority of employees are replaceable, even if an employee is unable to work due to illness, the whole company can still maintain operations.

So, slacking off is not a big deal for ordinary employees.

However, Chu Ge’s situation was completely different.

Can an emperor afford to slack off?

Of course, many emperors have slacked off.

But slacking off comes with corresponding consequences, and the consequences of an emperor slacking off are much more severe than those for ordinary people.

What if some urgent issues were submitted by officials and the emperor, being lazy and slacking off, missed the memorials and caused delays?

Of course, for particularly urgent matters, officials would surely submit multiple times or report in person, so it seems that no serious consequences would occur.

But this leads to another issue.

What if the officials chose to deceive?

Perhaps the officials did report the truth but selected only parts of it to submit, hiding other parts.

It is known that there are many influential officials in the court, and prying a bit of power from the emperor meant gaining a bit more for themselves.

The ultimate ideal of every scholar or official is to overshadow the emperor and become the uncrowned king—a tacit rule known to all but openly acknowledged by none.

If an emperor dislikes reading memorials, then his ministers, once they grasp this, will undoubtedly begin to manipulate him.

For instance, in the later period of the Great Sheng Dynasty, there was an emperor who showed little interest in state affairs. Hence, the eunuchs liked to present him with crucial memorials when he was most engaged in his pleasures. The emperor would impatiently tell them to deal with the issues themselves, and so, joyfully, these eunuchs did exactly that.

Over time, the emperor’s power was usurped.

Of course, replacing eunuchs with civil officials works the same way. Although civil officials might speak of benevolence and morality, their integrity isn’t necessarily greater than that of eunuchs when they choose to act unscrupulously.

So, could Chu Ge afford to slack?

Could he afford to ignore these memorials just because he was tired?

He could not.

Because he guessed that the key to unlocking this instance might very well be hidden among these towering piles of memorials.

Year-round scrutiny of memorials was a prerequisite for being a good emperor.

Due to the poor communication in ancient times, an emperor secluded in the deep palace couldn’t always grasp the actual situation of each official, let alone the real conditions of the state’s border areas, rural counties, or lower echelons.

The only way to obtain information was through these memorials submitted by the ministers.

Therefore, Chu Ge could only bear with patience and continued to review these memorial petitions.

Fortunately, "Dark Sand" was just a game, not actual history.

Chu Ge didn’t really need to spend decades reviewing so many petitions; by the third day of the game time, he had already come across the first crucial petition.

He knew this petition was crucial partly because, upon seeing it, he naturally thought of a major historical case, and partly because the system had prompted him.

This petition was from an Imperial Censor, whose main contention was that the civil examination results had been announced in February, yet not a single scholar from the northern regions of the Great Sheng Dynasty had passed, while all fifty-plus successful candidates came from the south.

This was the first occurrence of its kind in nearly thirty years since the founding of the Great Sheng Dynasty.

Thus, as soon as the results were announced, the court and the public were shaken, and rumors abounded. The northern scholars went to the Ministry of Rites to beat the drums and lodge their complaints, demanding that the emperor investigate thoroughly.

Hence, this petition from the Imperial Censor.

Of course, he wasn’t the only one to submit a petition; many other high officials had also submitted theirs, with quite a few hoping that the emperor would thoroughly investigate the matter, although a few sided with the chief examiners in their petitions.

As Chu Ge looked at this petition, a few brief lines of system prompts also appeared in his vision.

[The critical case in this Trial Illusion has been officially activated!]

[Make a rough decision in your mind, and the system will automatically formulate a plan to be executed by the various departments.]

[The outcome of the case handling will directly affect the future national trajectory of the Great Sheng Dynasty.]

[In the uncertain future, a number of other critical cases will arise; however, no further system prompts will be triggered for these cases.]

[The system will calculate the longevity of the Great Sheng Dynasty in real time based on how players handle the cases.]

[After the player finishes playing, if the dynasty’s longevity exceeds two hundred and thirty years, the game is considered cleared; if it falls below two hundred and thirty years, it is a failure.]

[After each case is handled, there will be an opportunity to check the expected longevity of the dynasty; if dissatisfied, one can restart immediately.]

[Special note: These cases may not completely correspond with historical events; please judge for yourself.]

Seeing these system prompts, Chu Ge finally understood the conditions for clearing the game as the ’emperor’ in this Trial Illusion.

In summary, it was all about governing a nation!

Of course, it was a simplified version of governance in the game.

In real history, after deciding how to handle a matter, the emperor still had to consider which department or official to entrust, and also had to decide on the sentencing when some officials made errors.

Was it to be annihilation? Beheading? Or exile?

These decisions were up to the emperor alone.

But Chu Ge was just a player and could not possibly possess the governing capability of a founding emperor, so the game had simplified this aspect.

He only needed to have a rough idea in mind of how to handle a situation, and the system would automatically fill in the details and execute it.

The first case Chu Ge encountered was the historically famous North-South List Incident.

The system prompt indicated that in the future, Chu Ge would encounter several other cases, but there would be no more prompts for those.

In other words, he had to dig them out of the mountain of petitions himself.

How many cases were there? Unknown. How much time was left in the future? That was also unknown.

The only certainty was that the outcome of handling these cases would affect the longevity of the Great Sheng Dynasty.

This ’dynastic longevity’ referred to the duration for which the dynasty continued.

If the dynasty lasted over two hundred and thirty years, he would have cleared the game.

Chu Ge couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.

"This instance indeed poses a high difficulty level...

"But, it’s also very interesting!"

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