The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 390

Chen Zhao, beaming with excitement, led his Imperial Guards to collect the silver.

Of the twenty million taels of silver, Zhou Chu kept one million taels for himself and set aside another three million taels as reserve funds for the Xuanwu Army.

As for the Tiger Legion, they are not here now, but in Datong. Zhou Chu should not worry about them too much. Those who are not in a position should not meddle in politics. Those who overstep their bounds will not have a good end.

The remaining ten million taels were transported by the Embroidered Uniform Guard to the royal bank in Shaoxing Prefecture and the nearby Zhou Mansion.

With the Royal Bank, there was no longer a need to painstakingly transport money to the capital as before. Money could be deposited directly into the Royal Bank, and then a secret report could be written to Emperor Jiajing.

The opening of the Royal Bank went exceptionally smoothly and was not negatively affected by the malicious money laundering by those Shanxi people. On the contrary, the actions of these Shanxi people demonstrated the Royal Bank's strong financial resources and confidence to everyone. As a result, wealthy people withdrew their money and deposited it in the bank.

Originally, I was still observing and hadn't even considered depositing money in a money shop. But seeing what the people of Shanxi were doing, exchanging 20 million taels of silver so easily, I no longer had any doubts. Money deposited in a money shop does earn interest, and although the interest isn't high, it's still better than burying the money underground to rot.

"Lord Zhou, you scared me to death!"

After learning of Zhou Chu's whereabouts, Zhang Cong arrived at Zhangjia Village immediately. He was relieved to see that Zhou Chu was safe and sound.

"What do you have to be afraid of? Shouldn't the one who's most afraid be Lord Yan?"

Zhou Chu joked.

“Lord Yan was indeed terrified. I even went to see him in prison, and he was very worried about your safety.”

Zhang Cong sighed.

"It's alright. It won't be long before he's reinstated. I've already submitted a memorial to His Majesty, speaking on his behalf."

Zhou Chu said while drinking his tea.

This isn't just some random gift from Village Chief Zhang Laowu; these teas were specially brought by Zhang Cong as a tribute to Zhou Chu, and they include all sorts of top-quality teas.

"Lord Zhou is truly kind-hearted. If Lord Yan knew that you had gone to such lengths for him, he would be moved to tears."

Zhang Cong flattered him.

Zhou Chu smiled when he heard this, already used to Zhang Cong's flattery.

"How is the performance evaluation system being implemented in Southern Zhili?"

Zhou Chu looked at Zhang Cong and got down to business.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Cong immediately sat up straight, realizing that Zhou Chu was assessing his performance.

"Reporting to Your Excellency, the performance evaluation system has been fully implemented in Southern Zhili. Now, the efficiency of officials in Southern Zhili is dozens of times higher than before, and the atmosphere of inaction in officialdom can no longer be seen in Southern Zhili."

"At the beginning, the officials in Nanzhili had some complaints, but as their salaries were increased time and time again, their complaints disappeared. Now the salaries of the officials in Nanzhili are twice what they used to be. Last year during the Spring Festival, in accordance with His Majesty and the officials' arrangements, each official was given a different amount of reward based on their ability and the degree to which they completed their tasks."

Zhang Cong spoke eloquently.

Zhou Chu always understood one principle: what people hate is not working overtime, but the wages and money they are paid. So, while implementing the performance evaluation system, he continuously increased the salaries of officials in Southern Zhili.

After several promotions, the salaries and year-end bonuses of officials in Southern Zhili are now several times higher than before.

In this way, apart from those corrupt officials, no one else opposed the performance evaluation system. Anyone who opposed it was seen as going against their colleagues and cutting off their colleagues' source of income.

Even those officials who occasionally embezzled small sums of money were extremely satisfied with the current allowances. After all, they used to take those money with trepidation, but now they could take them openly and honestly.

The efficiency of all officials in Southern Zhili increased many times over. All the accumulated documents from the past years were cleared away. The commercial and agricultural taxes that had been difficult to collect for many years, as well as those who evaded taxes, were handled by these officials without any prompting.

While not all taxes can be collected, most of them can be gathered.

As a result, the fiscal revenue of the entire Southern Zhili region increased many times over, creating a virtuous cycle.

This is what Zhou Chu wanted to see.

The next step for Zhou Chu was to write a memorial to the Jiajing Emperor, urging him to implement the performance evaluation system in the capital and Jiangnan, and eventually throughout the entire Ming Dynasty.

The implementation of the provincial civil service examination system in Jiangnan Province was inseparable from one person: Yan Song.

Therefore, Yan Song would not stay in prison for long.

When Yan Song learned that Zhou Chu was safe and sound, he was finally relieved.

"Thank God."

Yan Song couldn't help but murmur.