Chapter 355- Shenjuan Moving Forward
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Nora
Gaia 2nd year 2nd month 23 day, 3rd day of the Lunar New Year.
On the third day of the New Year, Ouyang Shuo had a totally packed schedule.
In the morning, Ouyang Shuo had arranged to meet the three directors, as well as the Yongye County County Magistrate, Shen Zhui.
After the grassland tribes submitted, Shanhai needed to build a city in the grasslands to strengthen their rule over the area. Fortunately, Friendship County had three tier 2 subsidiary territories that had not been used.
Ouyang Shuo planned to build Shenjuan City beside the Shenjuan Lake. Additionally, he would also build two cities on the east and the west.
With three cities as the base, they would build Shenjuan House.
In the future, Shenjuan House would become the largest House in the entire Lianzhou Prefecture.
Ouyang Shuo's choice for prefect was naturally Shen Zhui.
Ouyang Shuo always held high hopes for Shen Zhui. Since he had trained in the Material Reserves Department and had taken the role of County Magistrate, he had enough in terms of both skill and experience to become the prefect of Shenjuan House.
In contrast to the other Houses, Shenjuan House would practically start from scratch.
Early in the morning, Ouyang Shuo and the three directors started to make a four point planning of Shenjuan House.
Firstly, all of the grassland tribes would move into the three cities.
On the grassland, including the Tianfeng Tribe, there were a total of one large-scale tribe and eight medium-sized tribes. Their total population was about 130 thousand men. After the Battle of Lianzhou, excluding the dead soldiers and the cavalry that were reorganized, they had less than a hundred thousand people remaining.
The Shenjuan House had a vast amount of land but a small population. Husbandry was their livelihood. They gathered the herders into the city with the intentions of ending their current scattered state. They wanted to change to building large-scale farms and ranches.
Secondly, the building of city walls.
The future Shenjuan House would be a place where the various grassland tribes and other people coexisted. The prerequisite of building a city would be the construction of a solid city wall.
Only with that could they attract agriculture experts to merge into the nomad culture.
There were no wooden resources on the grasslands and no stone resources either. Hence, it was a huge test to build a city wall here. Luckily, the grasslands had plenty of red dirt that could be used to make large bricks.
Shenjuan House's city wall would mainly be formed from dirt, while the outer layer would be composed of green brick.
The inner city buildings would mainly consist of brick. It would include the various specialties of the grassland tribes. One could consider making a special region in the inner city to allow the nomads to build yurts.
The crossing of two different cultures would be a future specialty of Shenjuan House.
Similarly, this would also be a huge test for Shen Zhui.
Ouyang Shuo even suggested to choose talents to take up roles in the House and County.
Even the noble grassland families who lived in Shanhai City, if they possessed great ability, they could also be placed at high positions.
The workings of the Shenjuan House would still be closely linked to the various tribes.
This job needed Shen Zhui to work together with the Administration Department and the Internal Affairs Department to complete.
Of course, the people they chose had to move to Xinan University to undergo three months or even half a year of training. After graduating, they would receive appointment and roles.
Thirdly, the development of the industries in the grassland.
Husbandry was the core of the grassland, but it was not enough to support the economy of Shenjuan House. As the Battle of Lianzhou had ended, various Chamber of Commerces had started to turn their eyes to the vast grasslands.
The merchants purchased the fur and animals that the herders had spent so much on at low prices.
Ouyang Shuo naturally would not allow this to continue.
Adding work and different industries was the only way for the grasslands to prosper.
Be it leather, goat fur, milk, goat milk, they all needed processing. Goat fur could be made into carpets, leather could be made into coats or boots.
Even milk could be made into cheese and other dairy products.
Fourthly, the protection of the natural environment. They also needed to ensure that Qingfu Horses could still grow and prosper.
The future Shenjuan House's greatest contribution to the territory would be the Qingfu Horses. Ouyang Shuo would utilize the nurturing and development of the Qingfu Horses on a strategic level.
Shen Zhui needed to gather up all the Qingfu Horses and build a large-scale horse breeding farm.
The Shenjuan Lake breeding farm would be farm bigger than the Jifeng Valley Horse stables.
To ensure the number of Qingfu Horses, they needed to protect their growing environment. The development and building of the Shenjuan House was done without hurting the environment.
After setting the development direction of Shenjuan House, Ouyang Shou would not interfere with the remaining members, resources, and financial distribution. Shen Zhui had to coordinate with the departments himself.
Before he left, Ouyang Shuo gave him the three black-iron village creation tokens.
A merger token had not been used on the three tokens. It was directly obtained from the Friendship City Stone Steele.
At this point, the nine tier 2 subsidiary territory city building tokens were all accounted for.
The Beihai City ones were used on Tianfeng City, Yishui County, and Broken Blade City. The ones from Friendship City were used on Shenjuan House, while the ones from Qiushui City were still lying in Ouyang Shuo's bag.
After settling all these matters, it was already noon.
Ouyang Shuo left the reading room and went to the back hall to eat his lunch.
"Brother, you're back!"
Bing'er was waiting to start the meal. After cultivating the Unsullied Heart Sutra, there were no observable differences, other than her appetite increasing.
Ouyang Shuo knew nothing about the heart sutra.
He could only observe the changes quietly.
Based on Zisu’s words, apart from three meals a day, Bing'er also often ate cakes. Sometimes, before meal time, she would grumble that she was hungry.
However, she also wanted to wait till Ouyang Shuo returned before eating together.
Ouyang Shuo was helpless; he could only end work on time.
After the meal, Ouyang Shuo went back to his room for a little nap.
In the afternoon, he still had an important meeting that needed him to be well-rested for.
2 PM, main hall.
Three departments, twelve divisions, a total of fifteen main officials had all gathered.
Ouyang Shuo sat at the lord’s seat and helped hold the first administrative meeting after the Lunar New Year.
It was unknown when meeting was changed to administrative meeting.
The difference of one word changed the entire meaning.
Administrative denoted the fact that civil servants were now proper. They had status and power, becoming totally separate from military affairs.
At the same time, it also announced that the power and prestige of the lord was growing.
It represented that Ouyang Shuo had split his position as the lord and the civil servant group into two different levels.
As compared to the meetings from before, these administrative meetings were totally different.
Firstly, the number of things that the divisions and departments needed to work together on had increased. As the territory grew bigger, some things were beyond what a single department or division could handle.
For example, the building of the Lianzhou Prefecture road network. It involved the Building Division, the Auditing Division, and the Four Seas Bank.
The Building Division was in charge of planning, the Auditing Division calculated costs, and the Four Seas Bank obtained the funds and paid for the operation.
Apart from that, many other divisions were dragged in. For example, the building of relays along the roads would draw in the Law and Order Division and the Culture and Education Division.
Needless to say, there would be numerous settlements along the way. Which the road intersected and which settlements it didn’t wasn't something done simple by calculations.
The matters involved were highly complicated, and it was not something that one could imagine during the town or county stages.
While it was a test for the various officials, it was also a huge test to the three directors.
As the matters were highly complicated, there was a huge amount of concern regarding the interests involved.
During the administrative meeting, Ouyang Shuo would take the role of listener most of the time. He would not express his views.
This stance was also the second change.
Ouyang Shuo had slowly changed his role.
From a participant to a pure strategist.
Unless it was a huge strategic decision, under normal circumstances, Ouyang Shuo would let the directors and the secretaries decide. He would not interfere in their work.
With that, the power of the three directors climbed quickly.
Their positions also faced a huge change.
Before the meeting, Ouyang Shuo normally made all decisions. The directors just performed their roles and followed his decisions.
Ouyang Shuo totally overshadowed their shine and glow.
Now, they finally had the ability to make decisions and show their skills.
To Fan Zhongyan and Tian Wenjing, the chances to show their skills had finally occurred.
In the future, as both of them each led a department, what kind of great achievements could they bring about?
Only time would tell.
To the various secretaries, life was about to become a little tougher.
Power and trust could never coexist.
While Ouyang Shuo gave them more power, they also had larger responsibilities. If they failed and cost the territory profits, they naturally would have to answer for it.
Those mistakes that were not so serious would result in a lower grade in the year end evaluation. Serious situations might even lead to their removal from their position.
Out of the twelve secretaries, three to four were not very stable. They all had a common point—they grew up in the wilds and had limited capabilities. Naturally, they faced problems and challenges.
The current Household Registration secretary, Chang Duquan, tax secretary Qian Lifei, and Business Division secretary Du Xiaolan had the most shaky positions.
As long as the time was right, Ouyang Shuo would shift them under some Houses.
As for the Meritorious Services secretary Qin Shijian, Agriculture secretary Sun Nongyan, and Construction secretary Hao Jiancheng, these three were still under evaluation.
As for the other six, be it ability or experience, they were the standouts. Temporarily, they were fine.
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