Chapter 257: Reporting

After being away for a year, there were no major changes in Donghai Ling, except for the addition of a new department: the Ministry of Health.

As early as August, Zhang Zhongjing arrived in Donghai Ling with his group of disciples and several close friends.

After witnessing Donghai Ling for themselves, they were all convinced and impressed; Donghai Ling was simply the holy land they had envisioned, where the elderly were cared for and the young were nurtured.

Especially after seeing the towering granaries filled with grain, Zhang Zhongjing no longer had any doubts.

He had personally participated in the autumn harvest and knew that everything Su Fan had told him previously was not the slightest bit false.

The Ministry of Health was established, and he became its minister; although these departments were not under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Court,

they belonged to the internal administration of Donghai Ling. However, everyone knew that once their Lord conquered the world in the future, these departments under the internal administration would become departments of the Imperial Court, and those people would be figures comparable to the Three Excellencies and Nine Ministers.

The Medical Academy was also established.

Zhang Zhongjing, his dozen or so disciples, and several friends from the Taoist Sect also became the first batch of teachers at the Medical Academy.

By the time Su Fan returned, the Medical Academy had already been in session for over two months.

It had enrolled over eight hundred people, half of whom were children under the age of fifteen, with the rest being literate adults.

Under Su Fan's rule in Donghai Ling, the number of literate people was constantly increasing, and his literacy rate was the highest in the world.

Of course, it was merely literacy; true scholars were still in the minority, as literacy and scholarship were different things.

Even so, it was astonishing enough; at the very least, literacy was very useful in many situations.

"My Lord!"

"Wenruo, sit down!"

As Su Fan's chief steward and the actual Minister of Internal Affairs for Donghai Ling, Su Fan held him in high regard.

Xun Huo had come to find him naturally to report on the various matters, big and small, in Donghai Ling.

This report lasted for a full two hours, and that was only regarding the major affairs.

"Haha! Excellent. Having Wenruo is like a fish having water."

Su Fan also recited that famous saying of Liu Bei.

Entrusting Donghai Ling to Xun Huo, the latter indeed managed it in an orderly fashion; whether it was personnel or the departments under the internal administration, everything complemented each other perfectly.

The key was that efficiency had greatly improved.

It was as if his internal administration attributes had been maxed out; when Su Fan handled internal affairs himself, he wasted more time, and the efficiency was not as good as it was now.

Although he had experienced several lifetimes, he had mostly been a hands-off manager. Of course, it was not that Su Fan lacked the ability for internal administration; while he could not compare to people like Xun Huo, he was definitely much better than those mediocre officials.

It was just that he could not manage the details properly.

Xun Huo was different; he had perfected every aspect of Donghai Ling, and his methods were extraordinary. Nowadays, even the rough men in the army had nothing but respect for Xun Huo.

He had conquered everything entirely with his ability.

A talent of the highest caliber is truly different.

"You flatter me, my Lord."

Xun Huo smiled calmly and was very humble; of course, he was also full of motivation, as everything in Donghai Ling was different from what he had encountered in the past.

Yet he discovered that Donghai Ling was even more vibrant.

This also verified the Lord's words: "Without agriculture, there is no stability; without industry, there is no wealth; without commerce, there is no vitality." Donghai Ling had developed commerce, flourishing agriculture, and thriving industry, which had created the prosperity of Donghai Ling today.

"This year's grain production has broken records again, an increase of over twenty million shi compared to last year. Commandant Zao deserves the credit."

"Indeed. The Agricultural Research Institute he leads has made another breakthrough, and the yield per mu of wheat has increased again. It is truly a cause for celebration."

Su Fan nodded; when you use the right people and the right direction, the explosive power is quite terrifying.

If Zao Zhi had been placed in the territory of other warlords, even in the territory of a warlord like Cao Cao who was good at using talent, he would at most have become a Dian Nong Colonel, managing military colonies for Cao Cao and increasing grain production slightly.

But compared to Su Fan's Donghai Ling, there was simply no comparison.

Now, Donghai Ling was not just increasing production by a little, but by several times, even dozens of times.

Even if the yield per mu increased by ten jin, across these millions of mu of farmland, that equaled an increase of millions of shi.

That was enough to feed a million people for a year.

Rewards for merit and punishment for faults.

Su Fan had already rewarded Zao Zhi's contributions before he even returned. In terms of official rank, it had been elevated to the limit: Minister of Agriculture. If he waited until he unified the world, that would be equivalent to half a Grand Minister of Agriculture.

That was one of the Nine Ministers.

Besides that, there were material rewards, which Su Fan had never been stingy with.

Not long after, several military generals walked into Su Fan's government office.

These were all here to report their situations to him.

"Sit down, all of you! Since you are here, report together."

Zang Ba, Taishi Ci, and Chen Dao were the first batch of military generals to follow him, and they had also participated in the campaign against Dong Zhuo; their status in the army was the highest.

Chen Dao was skilled at training troops, so Su Fan had always kept him in charge of training the new recruits in Donghai Ling.

In terms of status, he was the closest to Su Fan in the army; after all, most of the troops in Donghai Ling had been trained by his own hands.

"Shuzhi, how are the new recruits doing now?"

With the chaotic times approaching, Su Fan's Donghai Ling had been continuously increasing its troops, from the initial tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands when he became the Prefect of Donghai Commandery, to the seven hundred thousand when he left last year.

After the autumn harvest, Donghai Ling had recruited another batch of new soldiers.

There was more and more grain.

Because of the developed fishing and livestock industries, the common people had more fat in their diet, so their consumption of grain was decreasing.

It is said that ancient people were big eaters; if they ate to their heart's content, they could eat several jin of grain a day.

How much do modern people in later generations eat in a day?

The reason for this situation was that the fat content in ancient times was very low; for ordinary commoners, whether they could eat a meal of meat in a year was a question.

Even many small landlords did not eat as well as poor families in later generations.

When Su Fan transmigrated into the world of *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer*, the idea that the landlords of Huayin County were eating meat at every meal was just wishful thinking.

Later generations always assumed those landlords were all fat and round, but in reality, that was just a fantasy.

Those landlords were actually not doing all that well.

Eating meat by the bowl and drinking wine by the bowl was a dream; at most, they just didn't starve and could eat their fill.

There wasn't much fat or oil in their diets either.

So they were all able to eat grain.

But in Donghai Ling, with the fish from the sea and thriving livestock, meat became increasingly abundant, and even ordinary families could afford to eat it.

Especially the families of soldiers, as the treatment of troops in the army was extremely good.

The more grain there was, the more Su Fan naturally needed to consume it; otherwise, the more that was stored, the more it would be wasted.

The best method was to increase the number of troops, which would not only increase his strength but also consume a batch of the surplus grain.

If other warlords were to find out about this, they would surely be in an uproar.

It is currently a chaotic era, and many warlords are severely lacking in grain.