Chapter 1641: Inspecting the Territory

With matters handed over to Yulong to handle, Baifeng was happy to be at leisure. His three good grandsons, because he had been away for too long, no longer recognized him. Even Qihu had forgotten Baifeng and did not remember who this dark-skinned adult was.

This truly hurt Baifeng's heart. He doted on Qihu so much, yet after being away for over half a year, his precious grandson had forgotten him, which left Baifeng feeling sorrowful for several days.

However, after hearing from Sui and the others how sadly Qihu had looked for his grandfather when he had first left, Baifeng felt a bit better. After all, he could not be too harsh on a small child; he was still too young to remember things. Baifeng himself did not remember how he had suddenly seemed to gain memories of his life; he must have been four or five years old then. Before that, it was as if he only had one or two scenes imprinted in his mind, and the rest of the time seemed to be in a state of loading.

Fortunately, after staying at home for a few days, Qihu recalled this grandfather he liked and began pestering him every day again. Baifeng took the opportunity to put aside his government affairs and spent every day taking his grandson to inspect his territory.

Baifeng conducted surprise inspections and temporary assessments of every department. Overall, things were acceptable, and he was relatively satisfied.

To prevent his intelligence system from failing to deliver information in a timely manner, he had an opinion box set up outside every department, where people could offer opinions on work conditions, file complaints, or report misconduct.

The opinion boxes were locked, and only Baifeng had the keys. They were collected every five days for review. When collecting them, he had people bring the entire box back, and Baifeng would open them with his key to view the contents, which minimized the chance of the letters inside being swapped.

Furthermore, the opinion boxes were placed in very open locations where anyone could drop a letter. Even those who wanted to complain about a superior but feared being discovered and retaliated against could find a child to help them slip it in, as no one was allowed to guard or watch over the opinion boxes.

Once delivered to Baifeng, he would have someone verify and handle the contents. If an opinion box were set on fire or intentionally damaged, that department would be thoroughly investigated from top to bottom.

Because you can find ways to prevent being investigated, destroy evidence, or shift blame, but you must never burn the celery, otherwise, you will end up in trouble even if you were innocent.

But truth be told, the first time he collected the opinion boxes, he discovered some major problems. First was that those who worked diligently could not compete with those who sucked up and flattered, leading to difficulties in promotion and having spots stolen; then there were those with connections who used the back door.

As long as it did not have a major impact, Baifeng would handle it lightly and give appropriate punishments, but he would not show leniency toward embezzlement, bribery, or fraud.

However, regarding this type of behavior, Baifeng's intelligence system was still playing its role; it could be said that the letters did not mention it at all.

But there was one exception. A key member of Baifeng's intelligence system, having been promoted quickly after repeated meritorious service, had been entrusted with heavy responsibilities by Baifeng. Yet, he was reported by many subordinates for fraud, throwing his weight around, and suppressing subordinates. The circumstances were quite severe, and he had completely concealed these matters himself because he had used his status to hide this information.

Upon learning this, Baifeng stripped him of his position entirely without mercy. However, in view of his past contributions, Baifeng gave him one more chance and sent him to a remote Village to serve as the village chief. As long as he could do his job well, there would be a chance to return in the future, but he would not be able to enter major departments again because he had a criminal record and knew about Baifeng's intelligence system, so even if he returned, it would only be as a grassroots cadre in a peripheral department.

Another problem originated from the military. Some new recruits reported that some veteran Squad leaders had bullied and beaten new recruits and demanded favors in exchange for their care.

Regarding this situation, Baifeng had zero tolerance because it undermined his military morale. He immediately sent people to investigate, conducted mass questioning that same day, and confirmed the reports were true. Subsequently, he dismissed the involved individuals from their posts, discharged them from active service, and sent them to court for sentencing. The entire process took no more than five days; the speed was extremely fast.

After the sentencing results were released, internal publicity was conducted throughout the entire army, including in Lema City, where opinion boxes had just been set up but not yet checked. The military camp in Lema City had also been established for a very short time and should not have encountered such a situation yet.

Afterward, Baifeng reformed the interior of the army, strictly prohibiting corporal punishment without cause, beating soldiers, and demanding favors or bullying. There had to be a fixed limit for physical training; exceeding that line was considered excessive.

Although the incident was an isolated case, it at least made the interior of the entire army better, and the possibility of future problems became smaller.

Besides these, Baifeng also inspected every town and the Villages under their jurisdiction. He went to every Village, which shocked the villagers. Baifeng also provided some guidance, listened to the villagers' appeals and feedback, and understood their expectations, which Baifeng promised to address.

After the inspection of Huaxia City was completed, it was time for Lema City. Baifeng had not been to Lema City for a long time, but he was shocked by this visit. Yu's ability was truly beyond reproach; he had built Lema City very beautifully. Some reform measures were completely ahead of their time, the changes were immense, and some policy innovations were closely following Huaxia.

For example, Huaxia decided to support commerce at the end of last year, and this year Huaxia's commerce had shown slight improvement, but Lema City had also transplanted the business model into Lema City. The scale of commerce in Lema City was now on par with Huaxia City.

If it were not for the fact that Huaxia City was the political center, Baifeng would not dare to imagine whether the future Lema City would surpass Huaxia City.

The current development of Huaxia City was already a bit stagnant. The initial planning was a bit small, and since it could be said to be an industrial city, there was not enough space or land for continued expansion.

Unless one were to abandon industry, animal husbandry, and agriculture to build a purely political and commercial city, and relocate other industries elsewhere.

But calculating it, the cost was truly too high, and Huaxia City had only just built up its industrial scale. If it were to be relocated, it would inevitably cause a major impact. By comparison, choosing a new site and building a new capital would be more cost-effective.

Now that Huaxia's territory had expanded further, Huaxia City was no longer on the border, so there was no need to move the capital to the cold west where summers were short; it should move toward the east or south, to warmer and more humid places.