Chapter 903: Debriefing Meeting, Physiocratic Thought

Very quickly, time arrived at the second day, and the territory department supervisor debriefing meeting, which had been temporarily canceled yesterday, restarted today.

Moreover, compared to yesterday when Xia Duo arrived suddenly and convened it on short notice, today everyone had received the news in advance, arranged their work early, and was waiting in the conference room.

When Xia Duo arrived, he was already the last one to show up; from the moment he stepped through the door, he saw everyone in the conference room bowing to pay their respects.

Xia Duo waved his hand, signaling everyone to forgo the formalities and sit down, then he walked straight toward the innermost end of the conference room to his own rather exquisite high-backed chair.

After sitting down, he swept his gaze across everyone in the conference room, and when he saw the two clerks in the corner holding paper and pens with their heads bowed as if listening intently, Xia Duo nodded with satisfaction.

Of course, it was not just this point that satisfied him; now, a long conference table had been placed in the center of the conference room, and the supervisors of the territory's various departments were seated on the left and right sides of the table.

Only Laidun, as Administrator, was seated at Xia Duo's left hand.

Naturally, those two clerks were not qualified to sit at the conference table and could only huddle in the corner; the fact that they even had seats was solely due to the special nature of their work.

……

"Administrator Laidun, begin!"

"Yes, Lord Territory Lord!"

Laidun stood up and bowed slightly toward Xia Duo, then turned to face the conference table and announced loudly: "The sixth meeting of the Daxia Territory department supervisor regular meeting is now in session!"

After finishing, Laidun sat down, his voice lowering slightly but remaining very forceful, "Everyone, the content of today's meeting is mainly to report the recent month's situation of the territory to the Lord Territory Lord, and of course, it is also necessary to summarize the work for the entire year. According to custom, let us start with the Development Department first!"

Development Department Supervisor Jiefu, although far inferior to his deputy Kelake—who was of slave origin—in managing specific development affairs, was much more outstanding than his deputy when it came to reporting and summarizing work.

Hearing Laidun call him first, he was not in the slightest flustered; he immediately stood up, first saluted the Lord Territory Lord, then greeted his colleagues, and only then began his report:

"Lord Territory Lord, in the past month, due to the arrival of new territory residents, the Development Department has successively added over 500 personnel and 32 new working groups.

"Currently, the Development Department oversees a total of 204 working groups of various sizes, with a total of over 3,100 people. According to actual development needs, they are divided into five sections: logging, cutting, transporting, burning, and leveling, all of which have rotations.

"And in the past month, which is November, the Development Department has expanded outward by nearly fifty meters; the developed area has increased by nearly half compared to October!"

Following this, Jiefu began to introduce the Development Department's specific work processes, work plans, and the number of fields cleared and leveled that could be used for sowing.

While listening, Xia Duo compared this to the meeting minutes and the Territory Document copies he had seen yesterday, and he discovered that the figures Jiefu mentioned were slightly higher than those on paper; it seemed he had truly put in the effort, even including the progress of the last few days.

After Jiefu came Jiake of the Settlement Department.

The work of the Settlement Department did not require much physical strength, but it was quite cumbersome, mainly responsible for identity registration, housing placement, department assignment, as well as information updates, file preservation, and so on.

It was similar to a civil affairs department, but not yet that comprehensive.

The information Jiake reported did not differ from what Xia Duo had learned yesterday, which showed that the relevant work should have been completed before yesterday; afterward, as long as there were no major changes in the territory, the Settlement Department would be relatively idle.

Of course, Xia Duo did not feel that listening to known information again was a waste of time; after all, what he knew before came from cold documents.

And now, a living person was reporting to him; just from the tone, one could hear quite a lot, and one could also see the subtle attitudes of the various territory supervisors toward their work.

These were not comparable to cold, emotionless document files.

……

After Jiake, the Logistics Department also began its report. The supervisor of the Logistics Department, Kaide, was originally just a farmer, but later, because of his outstanding performance, he was assigned the first wooden house in the territory.

Afterward, he was considered "favored by the ruler," and when Xia Duo was appointing the person in charge of the territory's wooden house processing workshop, he easily thought of Kaide.

Later still, the territory underwent reform and established the Logistics Department, and Kaide was successfully promoted again.

In fact, whether it was Kaide or Jiake, Xia Duo had appointed them quite casually, mainly because the foundation of the territory residents themselves was not very good.

They were either landless farmers, bankrupt small merchants, or so-called barbarians and slaves; if one wanted to find any professional talent, it simply could not be found.

However, Xia Duo believed that experience comes from practice; by first placing Jiake, Kaide, and the others in those positions, the environment would allow them to grow, as it was not highly specialized work after all.

Of course, Xia Duo's appointment of these people was not entirely random; there must have been something outstanding about them to catch Xia Duo's eye, which in itself was already a screening process, just a relatively sloppy one.

……

Kaide's report was as simple as ever, yet it was clear and logical, though even in the sixth meeting, Kaide was still somewhat nervous when speaking, his voice carrying a slight tremor.

Regarding this, Xia Duo could not say anything to him; after all, Kaide could be said to have the poorest background among everyone present, and being able to grow to this extent was already very gratifying.

Giving Kaide an encouraging look and signaling for him to sit down, Xia Duo interrupted the meeting process for the first time: "Elder Yatewude, just speak about the situation of the territory's agriculture; there is no need to speak of other things in the conference room in the future!"

The New Natural Philosophy was somewhat sensitive after all; doing it privately and bringing it up openly in a territory meeting were two very different things.

Hearing Xia Duo say this, Yatewude quickly understood and immediately stood up to reply: "Lord Territory Lord, currently Daxia Territory has opened up about 1,200 mu of plantable fields.

"Limited by factors such as seed quantity, cultivation difficulty, and the number of people planting, currently only 400 mu have completed autumn sowing, while other land has only been planted with some scattered vegetables.

"Additionally, seedling cultivation has become a necessary process for Daxia Territory's agriculture and has already been implemented in the actual agricultural production process."

After listening, Xia Duo nodded slightly; he had actually already known these situations yesterday, but hearing them again now, he still had an extra layer of feeling.

Whether it was the "people view food as their heaven" tradition brought from his hometown or the "self-sufficiency" requirement for regularization proposed by the Seven Cities Council, both drove him to value agriculture and those engaged in agricultural work.

……