Chapter 46: Twelve Political Departments The waterways along the way had already been carefully checked, and there were ships in front and behind to explore the way. Xun You and his party had a smooth journey and soon arrived in Liaodong. Tian Ze had been looking forward to the arrival of these four people for a long time. Before the boat docked, he had already dressed neatly and led all the civil and military officials to welcome them warmly. Xun You, Dong Zhao and Guo Yuan, who had not yet entered officialdom, were deeply moved when they saw this scene. Even Tian Feng, who was of a straight-forward character, couldn't help but become much kinder in his attitude. Tian Ze knew very well that these four were all extremely talented and had excellent character. Although he personally led a group of civil and military officials to welcome them with full sincerity, he did not hold a grand banquet. Instead, he led the four people to visit and inspect various places in Liaodong. From the counties and villages, the Hu tribes, to the military camps, the four were amazed by what they saw and heard along the way. Among the four, Tian Feng resigned and returned home because he was disappointed with the court. Dong Zhao did not have much identification with the court. Xun You was content with the status quo and his ideas were similar to Jia Xu. Guo Yuan focused on farming and wanted to verify his governance philosophy in practice. Although Tian Ze was cautious and did not show them the villages in the Liaodong Mountains, but the prosperity that appeared on the surface of Liaodong alone was enough to shock them. In the end, under Tian Ze's sincere invitation, the four people, like Cheng Yu and Chen Gong, successfully joined Tian Ze's team. After these four talented people joined, Tian Ze's team became much more complete.
I was finally able to let go and further vigorously promote reforms, and once again put forward some of my own ideas. The management system of prefectures and counties is relatively complete, but Tian Ze takes into account that the current "Three Dukes and Nine Ministers" system of the Han Dynasty is already lagging behind, so he plans to directly propose the design plan for the future top-level management system and gradually improve it to facilitate future promotion and development. Referring to the three-province and six-department system of the Tang Dynasty, key tasks such as agriculture, education, craftsmanship, and public security were singled out, government affairs were divided into twelve categories, twelve ministries were set up, and a reasonable division of labor was made among the people. Jia Xu was in charge of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Commerce, and was responsible for propaganda affairs, intelligence gathering, management of the Hu people, as well as business operations, commercial tax collection, and money shop management. Chen Gong was in charge of the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Finance, and was responsible for the management of craftsmen, transportation roads, engineering construction, as well as fiscal and tax auditing, and financial management. Cheng Yu was in charge of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Security, and was responsible for military construction, logistics support, militia management, and public security. Dong Zhao was in charge of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Education, and was responsible for the management and selection of officials, their assessment and promotion, as well as educational work. Xun You was in charge of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Justice, and was responsible for civil affairs and customs, birth and health, as well as criminal penalties and the review of criminal names. Tian Feng was in charge of the Discipline Department, responsible for supervising and punishing officials. Guo Yuan was in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture, responsible for agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery, water conservancy development, etc. With everyone performing their duties and displaying their abilities, the governance level of Liaodong was instantly raised to a higher level. After two years of idleness, Tian Ze became busy again and began to provide guidance and suggestions for the work of various departments. "Ministry of Rites. It is not appropriate to fully launch the newspaper business for the time being, but some brief reports can be provided to county and village officials at all levels to help them understand the situation and policy changes in their counties and learn from them. Students from the academy can be asked to copy them, but the printing technology should not be exposed for the time being." "We must start the ideological propaganda and education mobilization work for the people as soon as possible, especially for the Hu people under our command. We should train more scholars who are good at propaganda, and create some dramas and songs that are popular with the people based on the actual situation..." "For the Ministry of Commerce, the first task is to promote money houses. Wen County has already carried out a pilot project, but we still need to act with caution and must not damage the credibility of the government." "Secondly, we can select and train a group of businessmen with good character and outstanding abilities to serve us and strengthen trade exchanges among various regions..." "Ministry of Works. There are many places in Liaodong, such as houses, tunnels, roads, forts, checkpoints, etc., that need to be renovated. Nowadays, most people in Liaodong live in poverty, so we can take this opportunity to build a large-scale project and provide relief through work. Don't worry about wasting money and grain..." "As for the Ministry of Finance, we must do a good job in the overall planning of fiscal expenditures, budgeting, and supervision of expenditures of various departments. At the same time, we must vigorously cultivate a group of professional talents, standardize the tax collection and financial expenditure of various counties and villages, and prevent officials from seeking personal gain from it..." "The Ministry of War needs to further improve the treatment and protection system for soldiers, strengthen the renewal and storage of military equipment, and also do a good job in protecting the families of retired soldiers and sacrificed soldiers..." "As for the Ministry of Security, we must fully staff all local yamen runners, do a good job in selecting and training local militiamen, strengthen safety inspections and emergency drills in counties and villages, eliminate hooligans and beggars, and make those who eat for free work..."
"In the Ministry of Personnel, all officials must first be assessed and tested for their abilities, and then employed according to their abilities. We must strengthen the training of officials and conduct regular assessments. We in Liaodong do not want people who only talk big. The real ability is to do their job well and let the people live and work in peace and contentment..." "As for the Ministry of Education, we must comprehensively promote early childhood education and literacy work, with children receiving full-time education for at least three to six years, to ensure that the people under our rule can recognize some commonly used Chinese characters and understand and speak Mandarin." "At the same time, we should also set up colleges by level, select those with outstanding academic performance for further training, and continuously refine the training direction. We should also do a good job in compiling educational books. In addition to Confucianism, they should also cover mathematics, law, engineering and other aspects..." "The Ministry of Household Registration should further optimize household registration management, encourage people to have more children, and provide corresponding protection and incentive measures. Appropriately postpone the age of marriage for men and women to avoid the risks brought by premature childbearing." "We must vigorously train a group of qualified physicians and military doctors, open clinics in various places, and strengthen management. We must improve the level of health care, widely popularize health safety knowledge, and effectively protect the health of the people..." "As for the Ministry of Justice, we must improve the laws according to local conditions, standardize the case-judgment process, do a good job in popularizing the law to the people, and increase the training of legal talents in counties and villages." "For some common cases, we can sort them out and classify the same types of cases as much as possible to improve the efficiency of case handling..." "As for the discipline inspection department, we must enforce the law impartially, establish a proper incentive system, and conduct strict and detailed supervision of officials. If there is any clue, we must investigate it thoroughly." "The salaries of our officials have been greatly improved. Even the petty officials in the village can provide for their families. I did this in the hope of achieving high salaries and maintaining integrity. If they are still not satisfied, don't blame me for being ruthless..." "As for the Ministry of Agriculture, we must speed up the collection and integration of land and the cultivation of improved varieties, make reasonable distribution of new seeds, oxen and farm tools, and develop agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery according to local conditions. Focus on the construction of canals, public warehouses, stabilization of grain prices, and storage and preservation of grain..." …… It took several days for Tian Ze to elaborate on some ideas that he thought could be implemented at the moment, and he and everyone else preliminarily finalized various government affairs. Everyone was amazed at Tian Ze's extensive knowledge and insight, and looked up to him as a figure like Jiang Shang and Shang Yang. However, Tian Ze felt a little uneasy, worried that the ideas he proposed were inappropriate or contained omissions. (End of this chapter)