Chapter 54 - Meritorious Service Division

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Jun

The Financial Division, or now… the Finance Department, had finished its report.

The Administration Secretary, Fan Zhongyan, spoke up now. “The Administration Department currently holds jurisdiction over the Agricultural Division, the Construction Division, the Salt Pan Division, and the Household Registration Office. In order to clarify the powers of the Secretary, there is a proposal on institutional adjustment, please refer to the main report.”

“Please say it!”

“Salt is a strategic resource, and should be subject to the jurisdiction of the Material Reserves Department. It was an honor to handle the salt pans under sire’s trust, yet it is time I return the salt pans to where it belongs. Please permit my proposal, my lord!” Fan Zhongyan calmly said, as if he did not know that he was throwing out a blockbuster.

As one of the most important heavyweight divisions of the territory, in charge of the territory’s economic lifeline, the importance of the Salt Pan Division need not be repeated. Fan Zhongyan had now offered to submit the Salt Pan Division to the Material Reserves Department, in essence giving them the biggest heavyweight division of the Administration Department.

The day before the Agricultural Division was taken from the Material Reserves Department, taking jurisdiction of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and animal breeding. This time, was the concession reciprocation? When had Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing formed such a tacit understanding?

This was the question of most of the people here. Ouyang Shuo didn’t believe the truth would be so simple.

As Ouyang Shuo’s first true civil servant of the territory, Fan Zhongyan was displaying his political ambitions. Sorting out the relationships between their departments, this was his first move. The arrival of Tian Wenjing brought him a sense of urgency. Therefore, he was taking the initiative to speed up the pace of institutional adjustment.

For such a benign competition, Ouyang Shuo would of course had a positive attitude, thus he agreed, “Permission granted!”

Fan Zhongyan was apparently confident of Ouyang Shuo’s permission, and continued on. “In addition, with the rapid increase in the territory’s population, the work of registering households is becoming heavier and heavier. Therefore, it is recommended that the Household Registration Office be officially upgraded to the Household Registration Division.”

Ouyang Shuo, his face without expression, “Approved, in addition, the Administration will recommend a new Household Registration Division officer. Report the candidate to me. As for the original Household Registration Officer Gu Xiuwen, there will be another arrangement.”

This was contrary to Fan Zhongyan’s expectations, giving him a surprise. Gu Xiuwen could be said to be the most important assistant in the Administration. Listening to Ouyang Shuo’s decision to transfer Gu out of the Administration Department, his lord’s decision puzzled him.

Finding someone to replace Gu Xiuwen would be really hard to do at the moment, especially for a Director’s position. Whether it was the original peasant-born households clerk Du Quan, or Fan Zhongyan’s assistant Qin Shijian, he was reluctant to have either of them promoted.

Temporarily pressing down the doubts in his heart, Mr. Fan resorted to his last proposed institutional adjustment. “With the territorial administration continually improving and expanding, including low-level government officials, the civil service system is getting larger and larger. With the wave of privatization, all kinds of temptations are following. With that, it is time to set up a special department to carry out supervision and evaluation of civil service duties.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded in agreement, this was one of his larger concerns. After privatization, he could not expect all the government officials to stay conspicuously clean and self-disciplined, with a serious adherence to duty. That kind of thinking would be complete political immaturity. In order to prevent this sort of slippage, it would have to come from inside his system, keeping his civil servants hard-working and honest, or risking punishment. That would be the best way to handle it.

Since ancient times, official rule had always had problems, disciplining themselves was always the most troublesome. Fan Zhongyan was offering to set up the Meritorious Service Division, which pleased Ouyang Shuo greatly. It was an idea worthy of Fan Zhongyan’s strictly self-disciplined public image, while also wanting to sort out the official atmosphere of the entire territory.

“I am very much in favor of this, and I very much agree to set up a Meritorious Service Division. It will be responsible for the handling of the civil service and the reconsideration of the officers, and will be under the jurisdiction of the Administrative Secretary.”

At this point, Fan Zhongyan had, through three simple steps, realized his political ambitions. With this new Meritorious Service Department hanging over the head of the civil servants like a sword, they did not dare derelict their duty. Otherwise, what was waiting for them was demotion, dismissal, or even more severe punishments.

In regards the specific work arrangements of the Administration, it was not suitable for discussion at the meeting because it was too complicated. After the meeting, Ouyang Shuo would personally see the head of that Department with a separate discussion.

After the Administration Department was the Material Reserves Division. Similarly, the Material Depository had just been established, and a lot of their work was not yet clear.

Tian Wenjing still had an unmoving face, calmly saying, “There is only 1 proposal. There are currently 200 horses available to expand the cavalry, and this needs to be further increased. Therefore, it is very necessary to set up a horse farm ranch, and more importantly, to find the right horse to cultivate more excellent horses.”

Tian Wenjing’s proposal made Ouyang Shuo think. In his past life, Lianzhou Basin had produced a good horse, the green horse.

According to legends, the green horse was the product of the ancient god of insects and a wild horse. Thus, the green horse had a divine bloodline, running like the wind, and had a strong spirit. It would be a very suitable horse.

“In fact, there is an excellent horse in our Lianzhou Basin, which, as far as I know, is mainly living in the heart of the Basin. However, you must cross the Friendship River and search on the other side.”

“However,” Ouyang Shuo continued on, “the central area of the basin is populated by a group of powerful nomadic tribes. These nomads are all soldiers, and especially good at riding and shooting. They are not easy targets. To capture the green horses, you will have to deal with them.”

At this time, Lieutenant San Gouzi of the military Intelligence Division took the initiative to stand up, loudly saying, “Sir, our military forces will be responsible for this matter!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, saying solemnly, “I agree with the Military Intelligence Division’s involvement. But I have a request. This time, the main focus is to find out the specific areas of the green horses, not clashing with the nomads!”

San Gouzi nodded hard, saying, “ Understood! Sir, you may rest assured!”

At this point, Shanhai Town’s first expansion meeting had come to an end. After the meeting, Ouyang Shuo met with the military officers to study the army’s expansion plan for the next step.

Ouyang Shuo profoundly realized the importance of having more infantry, and went right to the point. “For this next expansion of the army, the cavalry will be left untouched. We will focus on the infantry. I am ready to directly expand the infantry into a full infantry squadron.”

General Shi nodded in agreement, asked, “According to the Lord, who will be responsible for the newly formed infantry squadron?”

The sergeants of the first team were, in addition to Lin Yi, all seventh order elites. The highest of them could only serve as a lieutenant, they weren’t qualified to command a squadron.

“The newly established infantry will be set up by General Shi and placed under his command. The cavalry squadron will now be led by the new Captain Lin Yi.” Ouyang Shuo announced the new appointment calmly.

Lin Yi, barely out of his teens, was cool-headed, a flexible thinker, and a good seedling. Within only a month’s time, he had gone from sergeant to lieutenant, and had now been promoted to squadron captain. It was easy to see Ouyang Shuo’s appreciation and trust in him.

For Ouyang Shuo’s blessing, Lin Yi was naturally grateful, excitedly saying, “I would like to thank the lord for this promotion, I will not disappoint you!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, looking to the side at the envious looks of Zhang Dainiu, Zhao Sihu and the others. He smiled and said, “You do not need to envy him. I guarantee that whoever is the first among you to break through to the ninth-order elite, will be promoted to command the infantry squadron.”

This was a no-warning surprise. Ouyang Shuo had succeeded in shocking them all, making all of them all the more determined to be the first to break through to the ninth-order.

There were three who could compete for it, Zhang Daniu, Zhao Sihu and Li Mingliang. The three could break through anytime to the ninth-order elite. The former two were aggressive people and natural competitors. The more complacent Li Mingliang could only be judged to be slightly inferior to them. As for Liao Kai and Zhou Feng, the two new sergeants, they were still just sixth-order soldiers.

Therefore, it was most probable that the infantry squadron captain would be decided between Zhang Daniu, Zhao Sihu and Li Mingliang.

As for the cavalry squadron’s two vacant positions, Ouyang Shuo was in no hurry to appoint anyone. He had to wait until he determined the infantry captain to do so.

With the military expansion matters done, Ouyang Shuo headed to the Market to purchase building blueprints.

This time there were four village buildings to upgrade to the town level. Among them, the Public Bathrooms were a public building, therefore the next level’s upgrade cost 20 gold coins. This was also the highest level of the bathrooms, there were no city level or higher toilets.

For the granary, ancestral hall and private school, the town level building blueprints were priced at 50 gold coins each. The granary and private school could be upgraded all the way up to the city level, while the ancestral hall could be made into a temple.

In addition, Ouyang Shuo spent 20 gold coins, buying the Intermediate Market building blueprints, only to unlock the auction platform function in advance. The five architectural drawings cost 190 gold in total.

Speaking of building blueprints, he remembered that there were some in his storage bag. In there were the useless building blueprints from the extermination of the bandit camp, respectively the dojo, stables, weapon workshop and tower. He removed them all and sold them off in the Market, and after the 20% net transaction cost, receiving only 52 gold coins.

After the various tradings, his resulting gold was down to 372. He really hadn’t wanted to spend them...

In addition to the building plans, Ouyang Shuo was also prepared to buy other things suitable for growing in the Lianzhou Basin. He was looking for seeds or seedlings for cultivation of fruits. Eventually, he chose mangoes.

In fact, Guangxi was also rich in lychee, longans, persimmons and other fruits, but these fruits required specifically cultivated seedlings for planting. Using the seeds out of the fruit, you got truly wild plants that found it hard to bear fruits, and even then the fruit wasn’t that good.

Leaving the Market, Ouyang Shuo headed back to the Manor, where there were a lot of things waiting for him.

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