Chapter 174 Diligent Government Hall

The Hall of Diligent Governance was rarely used. According to Ye Tao, the Hall of Diligent Governance had a problematic functional positioning. It didn't have the spaciousness of a Hall of Deliberation to accommodate the numerous personnel of daily court assemblies, nor was it like the imperial study, where the monarch conducted his own affairs and occasionally summoned individual close officials and celebrities, requiring the minimization of formality. Currently, the function of the Hall of Diligent Governance was roughly that of the "Dongping National Government Yunzhou Special Project Team." The Yunzhou sand table from the Blood Kirin Army camp was moved to the Hall of Diligent Governance, occupying about half of its area. A large number of documents related to Yunzhou, as well as various basic documents of Yunzhou that the Dai family had given to Dongping, were also placed in the Hall of Diligent Governance. A whole row of filing cabinets from IKEA, owned by the Ye Family Workshop, was placed against the wall, filled to the brim. In the remaining space, there was a long table surrounded by chairs with genuine leather backs and cushions, also from IKEA.

Ye Tao couldn't help but smile at the pervasive reach of IKEA in the furniture field when he entered the Hall of Diligent Governance, but he didn't know that, apart from IKEA, other established furniture brands were indeed skilled in traditional furniture craftsmanship and design for household use. However, for modern office furniture, none were as familiar and knowledgeable as IKEA, led by Ye Tao's design team. The Grand Eunuch Li Sishu casually handed over matters like procuring furniture to his adopted son, Li Mian. Although Li Mian didn't want to show favoritism because of his good relationship with Ye Tao, apart from IKEA, all other furniture stores lacked suitable items... Although this order might no longer be significant for IKEA, which was now making money hand over fist, and for the Ye Family Workshop, whose business focus had shifted to more distant and vast areas, IKEA's ability to enter the Hall of Diligent Governance still left an indelible impression on many furniture manufacturers in Danyang.

Ye Tao's initial position upon entering the Hall of Diligent Governance was the fourth seat on the monarch's right. Due to the large amount of documentation required to arrange matters related to Yunzhou, and the lengthy duration of each meeting, the meetings in the Hall of Diligent Governance were now quite similar to modern meetings in Ye Tao's mind... just without computers, projectors, and PowerPoints.

This time, not only were Dongping's ministers in attendance, but also two members of the Dai family: Dai Ye, whom Ye Tao already knew, and Dai Zhe, the overall person in charge of the Dai family's affairs in Danyang, whom he had not yet met.

As an official who had just returned from the front lines of Yunzhou, Ye Tao's account of the current situation was highly valued by everyone. Furthermore, some deployments that Ye Tao and the Blood Kirin Army had already made at the front were in line with the tribal policies that Ye Tao had envisioned. Naturally, Ye Tao's approach of creating accomplished facts to pave the way for his formulated strategies was greatly disliked by those officials who already didn't like him. The criticisms raised by the civil officials, led by Grand Scholar Pang Rong of the Yong'an Hall, were mainly two: one was that acknowledging the equal status of the tribes, promising their political rights, and the distribution of spoils of war in the future were not in line with tradition and had no precedent. The other was that such a large-scale adjustment of tribal policies, combined with the formation of regular tribal cavalry and the numerous Yunzhou strategies already decided, would put too much financial pressure on Dongping within a few years, which Dongping could not afford.

"Then, apart from doing this, what other way is there to make the tribes feel that being governed by my Dongping is better than being governed by the Dai family in Yunzhou? Since Lord Pang said that they are uncivilized people, who have always been unyielding to royal authority and can only be persuaded with benefits. Then, what benefit is greater than providing an environment conducive to the survival and development of the tribes?" Ye Tao said, looking at the two elders of the Dai family sitting on the side with somewhat complex expressions. He said, "It's not because the Dai family hasn't fulfilled its responsibilities. On the contrary, the Dai family has always made good use of various resources in Yunzhou, treated all tribes and families in Yunzhou equally, and persistently ensured the safety and development of Yunzhou. It is precisely because of this that the Dai family has always been respected and loved by the people of Yunzhou. In this situation where Yunzhou is besieged on three sides, only a small number of people have chosen to betray. Most people are standing on the side of the Dai family. There are many things that the Dai family doesn't have the time, energy, and financial resources to do, nor the applicable resources. But my Dongping has them. What my Dongping is paying is actually very little. It's just that in the first few years, we will provide considerable guarantees in the supply of tea, salt, grains, and other crops as food and seeds. And these are things that my Dongping can easily do. As for changing the derogatory terms for the tribes in the imperial documents, isn't that the most basic respect for the people under the rule of my Dongping?"

Ye Tao naturally dared not imagine that there could really be an idealized government of the people, by the people, and for the people in this era. Even in the space-time he came from, this was just an idea. The elite political model was still the mainstream of the world. But insisting on using derogatory terms like barbarians, savages, and wild men to refer to the people under his rule was a bit ridiculous.

Pang Rong snorted coldly and said, "It's easy to say, but where will the minimum expenditure of several million taels of silver per year come from? The sages divided the world into four classes of people: scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, established the nine provinces and seven kingdoms, and distinguished between the Central Plains and the barbarians. Since then, through the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and thousands of years of reproduction, it has always been so. If the imperial court rashly changes the precedents of documents, where will we scholars have the face to face the sages under the nine springs in the future?"

Ye Tao curled his lips and plagiarized a very famous saying: "Is it right just because it has always been like this?" Ye Tao said indifferently, "The sages' nine provinces and seven kingdoms have not all survived to this day. The furthest that the feet of the sage of Lu, who divided the Central Plains and the barbarians, reached was around the current Qingluo Plain. At that time, this place and the current Yunzhou and Benlang Plain were separated by two countries, and he never had any close contact. As for the division of the four classes of people, scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, it's probably because this sage, who was born with knowledge, had never seen herdsmen, nor had he seen sailors who, with the development of technology, the abundance of population, and the accumulation of people's determination to conquer nature, could even cross the ocean... There have been too many changes in the past few hundred years. Lord Pang, if we are to formulate tribal policies based on your statement, the basis is actually a few words from a person who probably... hundreds of years ago had never really seen the grasslands, don't you think it's ridiculous? Is it right just because it has always been like this?"

Questioning the sages!? This was almost unimaginable for most officials from scholarly backgrounds in this era. Even Huang Xuping, who felt that what Ye Tao said made sense, remained silent at this time. Although in this space-time, the status of those sages was far from that of figures from roughly the same historical period in Ye Tao's original space-time, and there was no single dominant school of thought like the 理教 (Li Jiao, School of Principle). Scholars who revered those sages were indeed everywhere, but those who questioned them were also numerous. Even in the Hall of Diligent Governance, there were many people who secretly applauded what Ye Tao said. At least, Grand General Zhuo Mang, who had been whispering next to Tan Xiaopei, greatly admired Ye Tao's courage. The reason why Huang Xuping was reluctant to speak was largely because Pang Rong, as a well-known and learned scholar in Dongping, had a great influence among ordinary scholars. He, as a purely civil official, really didn't want to stir up that hornet's nest. Brainwashed scholars are a very troublesome problem in any space-time.

Pang Rong was so angry that he blew his beard and glared, pointing at Ye Tao and saying with heartache, "You... you... what does a court jester like you understand? His Majesty's great cause of unification, His Majesty's years of effort to attract scholars from all over the world, will be ruined by people like you."

Ye Tao's expression was indifferent, even somewhat contemptuous. This kind of rebuttal, which elevated the matter to the level of principle, was actually even more powerless. He said, "The great cause of unification is not only about civil administration but also about military achievements. The premise of unification is the prosperity of a certain country, the great power of a certain monarch, but it also includes an era's pursuit of common goals." Ye Tao looked askance at Pang Rong and said, "Since Grand Scholar Pang is a learned man, he should at least understand that the so-called trend of the world, long divided must unite, long united must divide, is definitely not due to the so-called cycle of heaven."

"Why did the four countries and one zhou on my Middle Earth continent split from a unified country in the first place? That's because the country failed to resolve the various contradictions within the country. The contradictions between powerful clans and wealthy households and the poor people, the contradictions between highly developed wealthy areas and backward areas, the contradictions between the central territory that regards itself as the Central Plains and the border ethnic groups with great differences in all aspects... I haven't read many books, but I also know that the split began with Bei Liao, simply because many ethnic groups in Bei Liao who had transitioned from nomadic to agricultural lifestyles were not valued, and Bei Liao was always regarded as a remote area, existing as an area for the central government to raise horses. If the Dai family of Yunzhou hadn't always maintained a good relationship with the tribes, treating all the people of Yunzhou equally, how could the tribes in northern Yunzhou have supported the Dai family at that time and turned against their own clansmen? Since Lord Pang has always regarded them as barbarians, don't use the bullshit reason of yearning for royal authority to fool people. These tribes simply feel that they can be respected and live better by following the Dai family. And now, what these tribes want to obtain from Dongping, and what we can provide, is precisely these." Ye Tao simply made his point clear, anyway, he had disliked Pang Rong for a long time, and he didn't care about tearing off the pretense and making him unable to step down.

"And now, why does Dongping position itself as a country with the potential to carry out a war of unification? It's not simply because of civil administration, not because Lord Pang, you used the genealogical record *Thousand Year Lineage* to prove that the Dongping royal family has blood relations with that thousand-year-old family, and even less because of the derivatives and developments of the doctrines of the saints, but because this continent we are on has once again produced a strong internal cohesion."