Chapter 1 Jiang Yan's Trip to Yunzhou

Jiang Yan directly proposed to Ye Tao that he wanted to visit Yunzhou, which puzzled Ye Tao. It wasn't that he was afraid Jiang Yan would understand anything. Even if he did, he didn't believe Jiang Yan could bring about any transformation to Chunnan. He was just puzzled about how to arrange it. In the end, Ye Tao sent several people with Jiang Yan to assist in arranging all aspects of his travel and accommodation, and to coordinate and arrange any visits or inspections Jiang Yan wanted to make. These people were naturally not simple either; they were all from prominent Dongping families and had practical experience in Yunzhou's administrative institutions.

When Jiang Yan arrived in Yunzhou, Ye Tao was still on the road. Jiang Yan certainly needed to arrange a series of preparations for taking Tan Weizai back to Yuhang, but Ye Tao had even more to do. After Guan Haishan and Qian Shun arrived from Yunzhou, and Zhao Dazhu arrived from Yicheng, Ye Laogeng, Ye Tao, and several of Ye's fellow disciples finally gathered together. It seemed that these opportunities were becoming increasingly rare in recent years. The rise of Ye's Workshops, especially since Ye's Workshops had long replaced the Gao family's position as the leading manufacturer in Dongping, had made Ye's fellow disciples and Ye Laogeng increasingly important, and they were also becoming increasingly busy.

This time, they gathered together to discuss the development of Ye's Workshops in the coming years, determined the first batch of personally taught disciples each would take, and also held a farewell dinner for Suo Yong. This time, Suo Yong would become a member of an elite team secretly infiltrating Xiling, trying to find ways to obtain that batch of secret documents and treasures. From the time he told Ye Tao his idea until before his departure, he had been researching and also intensifying the training of a group of Forbidden Army soldiers to carry out earthwork operations. Now, even gathering a large number of people could sneak into Xiling through various means, and although the time would soon be chaotic with war, which might not be a good time for merchants, it was a great opportunity for these opportunistic fellows. At least, the chances of being discovered while secretly tunneling into the royal hunting grounds were greatly reduced. Of course, once they succeeded, it might be more troublesome to transport everything out, but Dongping's deployments in Xiling were becoming increasingly rich and diverse. They could even just transport the goods to Taizhou and leave it at that; the rest would naturally be handled by the Lei Yin Demon Sect's system of communication and connection with Yunzhou. The secret transportation system from Taizhou to Yunzhou currently had a very high monthly transportation volume, and it would be a waste of resources to have it return empty from Taizhou to Yunzhou.

Although all parties did their best to guarantee success, especially Ye Tao, who tried to persuade Wu Ping'an and Bi Xiaoqing to join Suo Yong's group for this treasure hunt. The defensive forces around Ye Tao were now unprecedentedly strong, especially since Jin Ze, Tan Weishi's head bodyguard, had also joined this magnificent bodyguard group. Whether out of consideration for seniority or to give Bi Xiaoqing a better way out, putting Bi Xiaoqing on this somewhat risky team was a good choice. If they could retrieve these things, Suo Yong, who had already been highly regarded by Tan Xiaopei, would naturally be able to start his career from the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works without any controversy, and everyone who participated in this trip could receive generous rewards. By then, Bi Xiaoqing and Wu Ping'an could choose suitable positions in the military, intelligence bureau, or other fields...

Jiang Yan naturally did not need to know that Dongping's layout for Xiling had already unfolded in multiple ways. In fact, as soon as he arrived in Yunzhou, he was completely confused by the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office's baffling actions.

The people accompanying Jiang Yan naturally answered everything they knew and spoke without reservation, and the arrangements along the way were even more meticulous and appropriate. If Jiang Yan wanted to view the governance of Yunzhou from a lower perspective, they would travel in plain clothes and simple carriages, disguised as travelers. And since Jiang Yan was not in good health, the "Like Home" chain of inns, belonging to the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Road and Bridge Department but personally managed by Ye Tao's good friend Du Fengchi, discreetly and thoughtfully arranged all the accommodations along the way, so discreetly that other guests didn't even notice any difference between the meals and accommodations arranged for Jiang Yan and themselves. However, Jiang Yan was always able to eat well and sleep well in this inn known for its affordability. The arrangements for Jiang Yan's pampered followers were not nearly as attentive, which had nothing to do with snobbery; it was simply that some of those guys were too garrulous.

Traveling all the way to Thunderclap Cliff, Jiang Yan felt an increasing fondness for Yunzhou. A person like him would not look favorably upon someone simply because of thoughtful food and accommodation arrangements, but the way Yunzhou was governed, so different from anywhere else in the world, shook him. In Yunzhou, at this time before spring began, irrigation systems being built and maintained and various preparations being made before planting could be seen everywhere along the way. Yunzhou, located in the north of the Central Earth Continent, was actually more meticulous and thoughtful in its farmland preparation work than Chunnan, which had always been known for producing rice. In particular, the scenes of officials talking cordially with the people deeply touched him. In Chunnan, such things would mostly not be organized by officials; the focus was on the degree of attention paid to such matters, which were closely related to the harvest, by the large landowners with thousands of acres of fertile land. And when organizing such projects, the organizers would not be polite to the working farmers, and the farmers would not be so willing to work hard...

The transportation capacity of Yunzhou, which was gradually being noticed by the outside world, was even more shocking when seen with one's own eyes than what one heard or read in spies' reports. Along the way, in the freight yards outside the post stations and Like Home chain inns, he often saw the carriages of the two logistics giants, Federal Express and DHL Worldwide Express, which had always baffled the ministers of Chunnan as to how they had developed. Several times, he also encountered teams from the logistics battalion engaged in long-distance transport. The close and smooth handover work and the efficiency of changing horses without changing carriages or people, with the entire freight yard going from silence to noise and back to silence in less than half an hour, left Jiang Yan, who was used to manpower and ox carts for transportation, speechless. He believed that Ye Tao had no reason to deliberately arrange anything to show off to him, nor was it necessary, but the panic in the face of such a huge gap made Jiang Yan toss and turn several times, unable to sleep.

When he traveled to Thunderclap Cliff, he happened to arrive just as the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office issued an order for personnel adjustments. Jiang Yan was quite experienced in such matters; a large part of his work in assisting the Chunnan monarch was providing advice on personnel matters, and it was precisely this that made him a popular "middle-level" official among the ministers. However, the Yunzhou personnel adjustment order made Jiang Yan even more confused.

This personnel adjustment order was also one of Yunzhou's series of measures that served both internal adjustment needs and the function of deceiving external enemies. When officials at all levels and departments in Yunzhou were originally appointed, not much consideration was given to everyone's aspirations; mainly, whichever department was short of people, newly joined officials to the Pacification Commissioner's Office would be assigned to that department. Because Ye Tao and Tan Weixin had always attached great importance to pre- and post-employment training, most officials were competent and had also learned many new skills. There were certainly many officials who fell in love with this type of work as a result, but there was also a considerable number who felt that their current work did not allow them to fully display what they had learned, and some had a sincere curiosity about a certain type of work and wanted to try it. Now that the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office was operating relatively smoothly, personnel adjustments were a natural step.

Officials who wanted to change jobs had one month to decide their preferences, and could fill out three job preferences in order, attaching a resume and evaluation to the preference form. Departments and regions that had already implemented the balanced scorecard attached this evaluation. Then, the Pacification Commissioner's Office would make arrangements based on the intensity of the preferences, the comprehensive evaluation of the officials, and the needs of each department. After determining the list and destinations, officials would participate in simple training for the corresponding job during non-office hours. Officials working in cities and densely populated areas would attend classes in a concentrated manner, while officials in more remote areas would take correspondence courses. During and after the training courses, they could change their minds as they learned more about the new job.

After that, there would be a three-month probationary period. After three months, if they were willing to stay in the new position, it would depend on factors such as evaluation results. As for returning to the original position, arrangements would also be made depending on the circumstances. In principle, both the military and civil service systems would only exchange positions within their respective systems. Generally, the exchange would be at the same level, according to the distribution of positions within the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office. For highly specialized positions within the Road and Bridge Department, the Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Bureau, the Economic and Trade Bureau, and the Manufacturing Bureau, examinations would be conducted before and after the probationary period. However, positions at the level of Department Head, Deputy Department Head, and Director, as well as some positions involving confidential information, would be directly controlled by the Pacification Commissioner's Office.

For popular destinations, demotions might be considered for the exchange, while for unpopular or difficult destinations, temporary promotions might be considered. However, in any case, no adjustments would be made to officials' salaries during the three-month probationary period. However, position allowances and travel allowances would be issued according to the temporary position. And changing positions did not mean that the previous responsibilities and problems no longer existed. The order especially emphasized that there would be no changes to the pursuit of accountability for job responsibilities, and that in the event of a major liability accident during the probationary period, leniency would not be granted due to lack of experience or seniority.

The entire personnel adjustment order and implementation measures were printed into a twelve-page booklet, which was distributed at the offices of various levels of government and institutions under the Pacification Commissioner's Office. All civil servants under the Pacification Commissioner's Office could register to receive it. And at the end of the entire booklet, in order to allow everyone to make a decision after comprehensively considering various factors, a very seductive slogan was printed:

We admire a career dedicated to a lifetime, and even more so a free and uninhibited soul!