Chapter 288 The Canal Governor-General's Office

Because the area to be governed by this Canal Governor-General's Office was quite extensive, and the aspects involved were many, the Ministry of Personnel generously gave the Canal Governor-General's Office an unprecedentedly large framework for Ye Tao to fill himself. If someone with deep qualifications were to become this Governor-General, the level usually granted would be Second Rank. However, Ye Tao was too young after all. Although he had served as an official in the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War for some time, his rank at that time was really quite low. Basically, it could only be regarded as an expedient arrangement after Ye Tao agreed to serve in the court. If his rank were raised too high at once, there would be a good fight in the Hall of Deliberations.

Thus, although this Governor-General had great authority, his rank was only a mere Fourth Rank. Correspondingly, the officials under him would not be higher than Fourth Rank. Ye Tao had the authority to appoint twelve Fifth Rank officials, including four military officers and eight civil officials. As for the officials of various ranks below that, a specific number was not given. Ye Tao could appoint them first and then report to the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of War for summary review. However, the Ministry of Personnel still gave Ye Tao a list of suggested official positions, listing a total of seventy-four official positions from Sixth Rank to Ninth Rank. Some of these people would inevitably be selected from overlapping titles in various places to enter the Canal Governor-General's Office, and would directly obey Ye Tao's orders in the future. However, even the official positions that Ye Tao could freely appoint amounted to as many as forty-seven.

If it were the position of other Governor-Generals that had already formed a routine, such as Peng De Tian's Yicheng Governor-General, successors would often retain most of the previous Governor-General's team, and at most adjust a few positions that were more critical to them. However, this Canal Governor-General's Office was a completely newly established institution, and this precedent would be born from Ye Tao's hands.

After figuring out these key points, Ye Tao felt a headache. He still hadn't completely figured out what the officialdom in Dongping was all about, nor had he understood how the official selection system in Dongping worked. In the current situation, to set an example and precedent for others, this work was a bit too arduous.

"Selection?" Huang Xuping was a little confused by the question Ye Tao raised. "Dongping has always selected some officials from the Taixue (Imperial Academy) and Guozijian (Imperial College), mostly outstanding scholars from poor families in various places. For the others, local officials in various places have a certain authority to appoint. No matter what the reason for being selected, as long as they can do well, they can stay in the many official positions up and down the court, and then, it depends on how much the individual can scheme."

Huang Xuping very cunningly used the word "scheme," which was very suitable for the officialdom of any era. After this explanation by Ye Tao, he understood the official system of Dongping. Like many policies in Dongping in the past, Dongping's official system was also based on the fact that the territory was not very large and it was unlikely that major deception would occur. Local officials and local gentry could recommend "talented" people to the court, and they could also select commoners to be officials within their authority. For those children of powerful families and local clans with extensive connections, their opportunities to enter officialdom through various channels were much greater than those of poor scholars. Those poor scholars, if they wanted to stand out in their careers, either had to have truly outstanding talent that could be recommended or appointed by local officials, or they had to be recommended to enter the Taixue and Guozijian through various levels of schools, and then compete for the few opportunities through this channel.

After figuring this out, Ye Tao couldn't say that he was very disgusted with the current official system. Living in modern society, there were also situations where wealthy children and children of powerful families had better development than others, and discussions about this situation in modern society were even more heated. Although networks and starting points were indeed very important, one point was still agreed upon by everyone, and that was that those who had better educational conditions and social environments were indeed a bit higher in terms of their starting abilities. However, that was in a more democratic, open, and transparent environment in modern society, and abundant ways of disseminating a large amount of information allowed more people to seize their opportunities. But, what about in this era? The information between the powerful families and the poor scholars was too asymmetrical.

The more Ye Tao thought about it seriously, the more he felt that he should do something. This opportunity to select officials was perhaps an opportunity. This time, the Canal Governor-General's Office certainly had many positions that needed to be coordinated with various parties and needed to rely on those groups of children from powerful families who were quite tricky in the open and in the dark, but more positions needed to do extremely complicated and basic work. In terms of canal construction, a considerable number of on-site managers were needed on the construction site of hundreds of miles of waterways. In the work of relocating residents and organizing labor, managers who could understand the plight of the people were needed. Poor scholars might have advantages in these aspects compared to those children of powerful families.

However, these jobs required more than just being good at studying. In this era, there was no imperial examination system to restrict these scholars with its textual exegesis and ethical system. Every scholar could learn different things according to their own interests. From this point of view, although the Guozijian and Taixue could only be regarded as very unserious, irregular, and inefficient teaching institutions, they did play the role of cultural highlands. However, in that kind of environment, there were still quite a few people who buried themselves in books, doing quite pure research work. Such people did not meet Ye Tao's requirements.

But, how to distinguish these people? Whether they had the ability to solve problems, whether they were suitable for those jobs, could not be seen at a glance.

After pondering for a long time, Ye Tao simply went to Situ (Minister of Education) Huang Xuping's house to ask for advice.

"Lord Huang, I want to ask... this, what if the method of selecting officials is a little different from before?"

Huang Xuping tilted his head and looked at Ye Tao. He knew that in the mind of this young man, whom he had always valued, there were some ideas that would never occur in anyone else's mind. He smiled and said, "What will happen? In fact, no matter what happens, those censors and remonstrating officials will definitely have opinions. Words are spoken by people. But, do you care? And will His Majesty depose you from this Governor-General position for any reason?"

Ye Tao smiled wryly and said, "His Majesty should have finally waited for the opportunity to force me to work hard. I hope His Majesty will immediately remove my Governor-General position."

Huang Xuping patted Ye Tao's shoulder kindly and said, "That's it then. Speaking of which, what rules were not made by people? Dongping's official system does not yet have a written rule that everyone can reverently follow. It is nothing more than habits, conventions, and precedents. Since others can create precedents, naturally you can too. What's more, aren't you always very good at playing such tricks?"

Ye Tao chuckled and said, "The remonstrating officials... anyway, they have been staring at me for more than a day or two. Let them quarrel, it's none of my business anyway. What I'm worried about is that I'm actually not very confident in my own ideas. I don't know if they will have any effect, or how much effect they will have. What I'm afraid of is that if the effect is not good, it will become a precedent. Sometimes, this kind of situation will become an excuse for some people to do some inappropriate things in the future, and that would not be good."

Huang Xuping nodded and said, "Actually, you are not as bad at being an official as you think you are. Being able to think of this is very rare. Don't worry."

Huang Xuping stood up, walked a few steps in the study, and said very firmly, "I can also be considered a person who achieved success at a young age. My career has been smooth sailing. I started to gain a foothold in Dongping's Hall of Deliberations at the age of forty, and became Situ, one of the Three Dukes, at the age of forty-three. Now, ten years have passed. Look at my body, staying in the Hall of Deliberations for another ten years is probably not a big problem, right? Ten years, isn't that enough for our ambitious Majesty and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to make... to make the situation more interesting? And aren't these ten years enough for me to lay some foundations for Dongping, for our eternal foundation? I don't have the ability to command a large army to conquer cities and seize territories, nor do I have the wisdom to plan and strategize for major national affairs, but it is something I can do to summarize a set of effective regulations for Dongping. Moreover, it is also what His Majesty asked me to do. Do you think that if your method is not good, I will let it go?"

Ye Tao said respectfully, "Lord Huang, you are too modest."

Huang Xuping was not as incapable as he said himself. Military affairs were indeed not something that Huang Xuping, who had only read some military books, could handle, but he had an extremely thorough and profound understanding of national affairs, economic livelihood, laws, and policies. And the reason why he had been in the position of Situ for ten years without making any progress was because there were almost no positions above him that he could be promoted to. Being able to sit firmly in the position of Situ for ten years, his political wisdom should not be underestimated.

Huang Xuping waved his hand freely, then turned around and asked Ye Tao, "Can I know, what exactly is the method you came up with?"

Ye Tao also stood up and said confidently, "Examination."

"Examination?" Huang Xuping frowned. "Like... like the kind of examination in the Taixue that tests those scholars' familiarity with the regulations?"

Ye Tao shook his head gently and said, "Of course it's different. Perhaps the examination cannot see whether a person has the ability to handle things well when encountering specific situations, but at least it can see whether a person is smart enough."

Speaking of examinations, anyone in a modern enterprise who holds a middle or senior position would be chilled by the many kinds of examinations they have experienced in their education at all levels and in the countless different kinds of training they have received after they started working. However, speaking of examinations, in this time and space, perhaps only Tan Weixin, who would definitely be excited about Ye Tao's idea, had the deepest understanding.

---------------

ps: As scheduled, today's extra update is here. It's almost the end of the month, don't save your monthly tickets, vote for me.