Chapter 1285 – Removing the House Level

Zhang Liang’s tone changed, and he said, “Of course, although our mainland is basically safe, overseas, especially East Africa, America, and even Nanjiang are facing risks and all sorts of challenges exist.”

When those present heard that, they fell deep into thought.

As they say, “A crisis is also an opportunity.” Zhang Liang meant that in the 8th year of Gaia, the mainland would mainly focus on defending, while in Africa and America, they would focus on expansion.

If it were not for the Indian Empire requesting help from Great Xia, even the America Continent would be one of the targets of the Empire.

Ouyang Shuo expressed, “China and Nanjing have just been unified, and it is time for a good rest.”

China had destroyed six countries in a year and needed some time for the digestion process that would slowly remove the barrier between the people and let the six countries forget their past, viewing Great Xia as the motherland.

From now on, Great Xia and China would be two sides of the same coin.

After Nanjiang was unified, they would spread Chinese culture to let the Nanjiang civilians recognize the orthodoxy of China rule. It was a long term policy that needed a relatively stable internal environment.

If they ran the mainland and Nanjiang well, the Empire would have a stable backline.

In the future global battlefield, the Empire would be able to attack and defend and stand at an undefeatable position.

In history, America was able to rise up after World War II partially because the war was far away from their home soil but stimulated their industrialization, making them the biggest winner of the war.

This was a really good model.

The eyes of Jiang Shang and the other officials lit up as they nodded their heads in agreement. Meanwhile, unwillingness flashed across the eyes of Li Jing, Wang Jian, and Li Mu. Wang Jian seemed especially disappointed.

However, this was the decision of his majesty, and they had no reason to disagree.

The state of the union address by the Administrative Mentor Court was of a really high standard and made everyone believe in it. Behind it was the support of the Administrative Mentor Court, Black Snake Guards, and Shanhai Guards.

All strategies were built on the basis of sufficient intelligence.

When Du Ruhui saw that, he smiled and said, “If Silver Hand and Azure Badge really have internal wars, there will be a lot that we can do in Africa and South America.”

Everyone present was intelligent and saw through this point.

The situation in Africa had basically stabilized. North Africa was occupied by the Egypt Dynasty, the south was occupied by the Bantu Dynasty, the East was Great Xia, and the west was the European dynasties.

Apart from Congo in the middle, the rest was occupied by the Dawson Dynasty.

If they wanted to light up the flames of war in Africa, Congo would be the battle between Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty. If one thought back to the South America Continent, the matters would be much more interesting.

The head on confrontation between Great Xia and the Dawson Dynasty would be in the 8th year of Gaia.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo was looking forward to. The Dawson Dynasty was one of the central pillars of Silver Hand, so they needed to crush the Dawson Dynasty in order to destroy Silver Hand.

This was the premise.

“As such, we have to prepare in advance.” Ouyang Shuo looked at the generals on the right and said, “I have decided to move the Hanoi legion corps from the Nanyang warzone to the America warzone and rename it as the North America legion corps.”

Wuqi and Han Xin both nodded their heads; they were mentally prepared for this.

Along with Nanjiang being unified, although it had to face the threat of the Darkness empire, there was no need for the Nanyang warzone to keep four legion corps. Having the Dragon, Heluo, and Nanjiang legion corps was enough.

The Dragon legion corps could defend Hanoi and Hetao Province. The Heluo legion corps could defend Luzon and Heluo province and the Nanjiang legion corps would defend Australia Province.

If it were not for the Darkness empire, moving one more legion corps would be possible.

It was the America warzone that needed strengthening.

After moving the North America legion corps over, along with the Tiger legion corps and the South America legion corps, the America warzone went from a rough structure to a strong warzone. They could start waves in South America at any moment.

Furthermore, in the Battle of Java that had just ended, Great Xia had captured 1.1 million prisoners. The Imperial Court decided to select 600 thousand to form the Australia construction formation.

The formation would be housed on the south plains of the Australia Province to develop the continent; they could also act as the reserve force against the Darkness empire.

The Lieutenant General would be Deputy Legion General of the 5th legion of the Imperial Palace Guards, Tang He.

Thanks to the support of Tang He, Lin Jing basically had the ability to be a Legion General. Next would be testing him in actual battle. Moving Tang He over was a reward for him.

Furthermore, Tang He also had the ability.

…

After Zhang Liang reported that, Ouyang Shuo looked toward Jiang Shang and said, “Now, it is time for a simple introduction of the Cabinet’s reorganization of the local offices.”

“Yes, my Emperor!”

Jiang Shang cupped his fist and started to describe one of the large-scale organizational adjustments of the Imperial Court.

The reason for this reorganization was the map being reset. One could say that this adjustment was done in line with the game’s development.

Apart from the Governor-General House, the local offices were split into Province, Prefecture, House, County, town, and village. As the village level had villagers under self-rule, there would be five level of offices.

Back when the game map was 10 times larger than Earth, such an arrangement was really important because the provincial scale was just too huge.

If they did not take such measures, they would not even manage to keep up.

Along with the game map’s reset and the territories been reduced in size, having the five level structure was a bit too much.

Hence, removing the House level was a move supported by Ouyang Shuo.

This seemed like a simple matter, but it was a huge headache to execute.

Based on the Great Xia system, the Province had four to six Prefectures and each Prefecture had three to five houses. Under each House, there were several counties.

With that, one Province would have about 10 to 30 Houses.

From a management standpoint, the best way to remove the Houses would be to upgrade some to Prefecture offices and reduce some to county offices.

Accordingly, some of the counties that had not been developed would be dropped to the town level.

With history as a gauge, normally speaking, a province would have eight to 12 Prefectures under it. As a result, following that plan, they would have to double the current number of Prefectures that they had.

One Prefecture would have four to nine counties under it.

As for the specific number, it would depend on the situation of the province.

After the adjustment, the Province, Prefecture, and county levels would basically reach a delayering management method.

Along with this would be the most difficult personnel problem. Following this plan, only a small number of Prefects would be promoted to Prefecture Governor. More of them would be demoted to County Magistrate.

County Magistrates that were sacked would not even continue to be an official.

“This is also a good matter, squeezing out the useless parts of the Imperial

Court to make it more efficient.” Jiang Shang was really optimistic and explained, “Who to promote and who to demote would be based on the year end evaluation.”

“Evaluation?”

Ouyang Shuo’s expression was hard to read as he said expressionlessly, “I’ve heard that during the evaluation of these past two years, there have been many suspicious points.”

The evaluation was all done by people after all.

Since that was the case, there would be areas, especially on the Prefecture, House, and county levels, that the Imperial Court could not manage to deal with.

During these past few years, how many officials were promoted based on the evaluations?

Ouyang Shuo had a rough idea in his heart.

Even in the Empire where the Shanhai Guards were everywhere, they could not keep everything in check.

If the situation did not grow too bad, Ouyang Shuo would not wish for the Shanhai Guards to spread its reach to the local layers because that would only give rise to a monster.

The Shanhai Guards mostly paid attention to the Imperial Court and the Provincial Governors.

When Jiang Shang and the others heard that, their hands broke out into cold sweat. One must know that the emperor was trying to wake up the Cabinet and the Imperial Court.

“The Cabinet and the four courts as well as the Censorate will send groups to the provinces into the local offices to monitor this evaluation.” Jiang Shang represented the Cabinet as he said this.

Ouyang Shuo nodded; he knew that this was the most that the Imperial Court could do. After that, he said, “The regulatory squads sent by the Imperial Court will be restricted to the Jingji and mid plains regions. The four Governor-General regions will be left to the Governor-Generals.”

When Bai Hua, Mulan Yue, Wufu, and Gong Chengshi heard that, they all nodded with varying expressions.

Without a doubt, the role held massive power that could decide the promotion and demotion of the entire region and decide the new situation of the region.

That was originally the power of the Imperial Court.

For the emperor to give the power to the Governor-General House was an unprecedented.

This was both a sign of trust and a test.

If their adjustments made the Governor-General House into a mess, they would not have the face to return to the imperial capital.