Lu Yi was an official in the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office, in the Second Civil Affairs Department. The work of the Second Civil Affairs Department was emergency disaster prevention, and what Lu Yi was responsible for was even more crucial. He was the person in charge of the largest granary of the Second Civil Affairs Department in southern Yunzhou. Even though it was all grain, Yunzhou had three different types of storage: military, Second Civil Affairs Department, and major aristocratic families. Exactly how much grain Yunzhou had stockpiled was one of the highest secrets of the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office. Lu Yi's responsibilities didn't extend to such profound matters; he was just responsible for managing the warehouse.

Grain storage was troublesome, requiring protection against mold, moths, water, insects, and rodents. Almost everything that could damage the grain had to be considered. And no matter what measures were taken, it was impossible to preserve the grain without any loss; it only reduced the amount of spoilage. The Yunzhou Civil Affairs Department's grain storage replacement period was five years, much longer than the military's three-year cycle. Because, when these grains needed to be used during a disaster, presumably, people wouldn't be too picky about the taste of the grain. And to maintain Yunzhou's ability to cope with disasters at all times, the cost was considerable. Even if Yunzhou could make more money, even if Ye Tao, Tan Weixin, and others invested more capital in Yunzhou, it probably wouldn't be possible to reduce spending in this area. However, thanks to the efforts of everyone in the Second Civil Affairs Department, the same expenditure could be made more valuable.

On this day, an official from the Yunzhou Communications Bureau delivered a kraft paper envelope to every official and clerk in this warehouse, including Lu Yi.

Lu Yi opened the envelope. Inside were two booklets and a letter printed using woodblock printing. The woodblock of the letter was completely copied from the handwriting of Ye Tao, the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner. Although it didn't have the effect of a modern copier, it could still give people a rough idea of the style of Ye Tao's handwriting. In the letter, he proposed to everyone the initiative of "Everything for Yunzhou, Everything for Dongping," hoping that everyone could exert their abilities in their respective positions and transform every ordinary job into a force that made Yunzhou stronger. At the end of the letter, Ye Tao sincerely thanked every official and employee of the Pacification Commissioner's Office who had been working diligently in ordinary positions for a long time... This kind of thing had never happened in this time and space, not even a hypocritical statement from superiors. Just like the first time Ye Tao did everything, this replica of the sincere handwritten letter and the final thank you touched many people. Many low-ranking clerks working in humble positions were moved to tears.

One of the two booklets in the envelope explained the mechanism of something called a "balanced scorecard," and the other was an "balanced scorecard" execution manual. Not entirely in accordance with the modern concept of a balanced scorecard, this balanced scorecard system, specially designed for Yunzhou, divided each official's assessment and self-assessment into four aspects: integrity, service, efficiency, and development. Because this time and space lacked the tools to collect data in a unified manner, the balanced scorecard first relied on personal self-evaluation for implementation. Then, the manual included evaluation and scoring methods for the four indicators. Officials would summarize the data in the manual to their superiors once every three months. This data would be processed by a specialized department based on a large amount of basic accounting, and then some qualitative conclusions would be drawn. Then, it would become one of the references for the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office to evaluate its performance in this quarter. Was the balanced scorecard a powerful performance evaluation tool? Indeed. But the balanced scorecard was also a powerful strategic management tool. It could achieve consistent coordination between top and bottom goals through various scoring designs and through linkages with incentive mechanisms. And Ye Tao's sincere gratitude to everyone only accelerated this process a great deal. After seeing this letter, quite a few more low-ranking officials bowed down to Ye Tao's command and became Ye Tao's loyal followers. The carefully designed balanced scorecard execution manual also made many people start to face their performance at work and seriously consider "What has Yunzhou done for me? What have I done for Yunzhou?"...

From the first page of the execution manual to the last page being closed, almost every piece of copywriting inside was carefully thought out by Ye Tao, Tan Weixin, Feng Zi, and others. Sentences that resembled compilations of famous quotes could shock people's hearts, especially in Yunzhou's young, and also young people's, bureaucratic system. Those who really wanted to do something to prove their value and to get a higher position would be even more touched by these things. And even those with ulterior motives would have to start weighing whether they could really get what they wanted in Yunzhou's system. And being able to do these things meant that the plan had basically succeeded.

As a senior economist in those years, Tan Weixin knew various management tools very well. Precisely because of this, she chose the balanced scorecard system, which had extremely high requirements for later data summarization, to deploy throughout Yunzhou. And the time, energy, and money that the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office invested in this area was considerable. Just the printing of two booklets and a woodblock letter would take a lot of time. And the execution manual could also be used as a work manual and calendar. It marked the various major festivals and anniversaries in Dongping, as well as the various important festivals of the various ethnic groups in Yunzhou. But this kind of booklet also determined that it could only print things for a period of time, and it was itself a kind of consumable. Although the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office didn't have any redundant staff, there were still several thousand people up and down, plus Yunzhou's military officers, local village elders, gentry, and so on. This time, the printing volume was as high as 20,000 sets, costing several thousand taels of silver. As for the distribution costs, there was no need to mention them.

But what was unexpected was that the officials at all levels in Yunzhou were very interested in this means of assisting in managing performance and evaluating work performance. Although this manual was intended to be used starting next year, some situations had already begun to emerge in the trial data feedback. For example, in Yunzhou... or rather, in the Zhongtu Continent, which routinely practiced humility, everyone was always a little too modest. In a five-point evaluation system, very few people gave themselves five points.

Lu Yi gave himself five points on the evaluation items related to his work. In the busy and trivial warehouse management affairs, he sorted out various articles to regulate the management here, as well as many small methods for preserving grain, and wrote a thick book. Because Lu Yi and his group had always been so diligent, the granary had unprecedentedly reduced grain loss to an unprecedented level. Lu Yi was still satisfied with himself. He felt that he was worthy of himself and worthy of the salary that Yunzhou paid them. And he was also one of the few people in the entire south who felt that he was doing a very good job. People like Lu Yi, even if they felt that their performance at work was very outstanding, would be touched by the copywriting in the execution manual and start to consider another question: What exactly do I want? And how can I combine my goals with Yunzhou's development strategy?

To be able to see the function and effect of the balanced scorecard, it was estimated that it would take at least half a year. But the uproar caused by the deployment of this thing could very well cover up the adjustments Yunzhou was making in both military and political aspects. Many problems could be pushed to the aftereffects caused by the deployment of the balanced scorecard. Anyway, these kinds of things were difficult for outsiders to see.

Officials like Lu Yi would not understand that in some places, such as Changshiguan, Zijingguan, and Suiyuan near the Xiling border, this set of things was not only used for performance evaluation and strategic management, but also used to combat the increasingly arrogant Daoming Sect missionaries.

The Daoming Sect's missionaries were becoming more and more rampant. Originally, they were just spreading their beliefs quietly, but now some people even dared to pile up a few boxes and give sermons on top of them. And this kind of fanatical temperament had an adverse effect on local stability. But the slogan "Everything for Yunzhou, Everything for Dongping!" was different. In addition to this slogan, another booklet was distributed to all personnel entering and leaving Yunzhou. The booklet proposed the concept of personal career planning, and used sharp language to question everyone who read this manual: What do I want? Although there was no way to assess everyone, and there was no way to promote performance evaluation and the balanced scorecard to everyone in Yunzhou, at least don't let these people become the opposite of the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office, right? When writing those booklets, Ye Tao and Tan Weixin thought so helplessly. Originally, they were planning to use extremely complex and effective means similar to advertising promotion to eliminate the religious influence caused by the Daoming Sect and the Leiyin Demon Sect that followed the Daoming Sect into Yunzhou. But now that there was a new plan, it seemed that this idea was no longer necessary. Once the attack on the Zhenbei Military Command was successful, all the problems would naturally be solved. Lei Huang couldn't wait to see this day.

And Lei Huang was soon informed about Yunzhou's plan to attack the Xiling Zhenbei Military Command. As the Pope of the Leiyin Demon Sect and as Sun Boping's son-in-law, it was necessary for him to learn of such news as soon as possible. What he didn't expect was that Lei Huang originally planned to use the martial artists he had gathered to carry out several meaningful assassinations, but assassinations came to them instead. A high-ranking priest of the Leiyin Demon Sect was blessing the parishioners when a group of strong men rushed in. After assassinating the priest and injuring several parishioners, they left swaggeringly. Along with this incident, large-scale assassinations and attacks began. At first, it was still in the area where Taizhou and the Zhenbei Military Command bordered each other, but later, this kind of assassination and attack gradually spread to the entire Taizhou. At the beginning, it was aimed at the Leiyin Demon Sect's public preaching and some mid-to-high-level priests, as well as those who had a relatively influential position among the parishioners. Then, it spread out. As long as it was related to the Leiyin Demon Sect, or even those who were relatively kind to the Leiyin Demon Sect's followers, they were all within the scope of the assassinations and attacks. Then, the attacks began to appear in the south of Taizhou, and began to appear in the hinterland of Taizhou, with a very obvious trend of penetration from the surrounding areas to the center.

Lei Huang was furious. He knew that Sun Boping would definitely not be able to use the power of the government to investigate this matter thoroughly. On the one hand, there was no way to investigate this kind of thing to the end. Those who carried out the attacks had not been caught, but at first they committed suicide after being caught. Then, these assassins would commit suicide as soon as there was a possibility of being caught. They all had specially prepared sugar pills with them. A very small iron caltrop full of thorns was coated with a deadly poison and wrapped in a white sugar pill, with a thin layer of fruit wax on the outside. This carefully designed little thing had many ways to kill people, and those who carried out the attacks would not hesitate to choose to die.

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Shao San pulled me to Paulaner to drink, and I was accidentally drunk. The update was late, but at least it's still today...