Chapter 306: The New Structure of the Government

A country cannot go a single day without a ruler, nor can it go a day without an army. Currently, the patrol troops of the Huaxia State are effectively "temporary workers," not even "Contract Worker" status; in their country, they have no formal Establishment System. Baifeng has already clearly explained to the Ministry of Finance that for every day someone patrols, they are issued one day's worth of food and supplies; it is not to be issued on a monthly basis anymore.

Although the country has inherited the overall model of the former Baifeng Tribe, there are actually many areas that need to be changed. For example, their officials were previously just some Leaders who were selected by Baifeng for being diligent in their work, and the entire administrative system is neither reasonable nor perfect. To achieve better development, institutional reform is required.

Fortunately, their country is very small, and the main members of the entire government number no more than a few dozen. Breaking them all up and reorganizing them now will not cause any major damage, and to improve efficiency, Baifeng has also decided to increase the number of officials.

As for the government structure, Baifeng decided to apply the Three Departments and Six Ministries system of later generations. However, the "Three Departments" are unnecessary because he does not yet need such a massive team. He has simplified the three departments directly into two, retaining the Department of State Affairs and the Secretariat. Furthermore, six ministries are not enough; he has chosen to expand to nine, adding the newly created Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Health to the foundation of the six ministries.

The Department of State Affairs is only responsible for Baifeng's daily government affairs, including the transmission of policy orders, scheduling for Baifeng, recording and reminding of tasks to be done, and organizing documents.

The Secretariat is responsible for Baifeng's daily travel, security, and so on. It sounds quite grand, but in reality, it is just Baifeng's daily personal guard, and its power is not high.

Baifeng also established the position of Prime Minister separately, with responsibilities and powers not much different from those of later generations. The original intention of establishing the three departments in later generations was to disperse the power of the Prime Minister, but Baifeng has merely borrowed the names and partial duties of two of the three departments. He has not granted much power, and for the time being, Baifeng still makes all decisions alone. He is not at all afraid that the power of his Subjects will affect his royal authority; his royal authority has been at its peak from the very beginning, so there is no need to deliberately reclaim it.

Furthermore, given the intelligence and cognitive level of people in this era, and comparing the new generation with his own sons, after Yulong becomes king, he will still be able to wield power exclusively just like him. He will also leave books for his descendants, telling them how to deal with problems that will arise in the future. History has provided solutions for every problem.

Under the two departments and one prime minister are the nine ministries: Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Works, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of War, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Health. In the current Huaxia State, although the status of the six ministries is equal, their power and scale are completely different.

For example, the Ministry of Rites can be said to have a negligible role. If it were not for the fact that the Ministry of Rites is also responsible for supervising all officials, Baifeng would have intended to let Wu, who has already been designated as Prime Minister, concurrently serve as the Minister of Rites. However, Wu needs to concurrently serve as the Minister of Personnel. Baifeng is currently in a state of having no one to use; his Subjects are too dull, otherwise, how could Wu have managed to reach a high position?

Yu is the candidate Baifeng has identified as the future Prime Minister—intelligent, capable, and earnest. It is just that his seniority is insufficient, so Baifeng has placed him in the Department of State Affairs to help handle government affairs.

Baifeng has not yet found a candidate for the Ministry of Rites, but he already has a rough target. He will choose from among the few people who stood in front of him when he encountered danger in the wild at that time. He wants to choose someone who is smart but also upright; otherwise, he would not be able to handle diplomatic affairs when they arise. As for the others, Baifeng will place them in the Secretariat. Having been verified through life-and-death situations, Baifeng trusts them very much.

The choice for the Ministry of War is beyond doubt, but currently, the Ministry of War does not have a single soldier. As the future Minister of War, Xiong, and the Vice Minister of War, Chi, the two need to undergo Baifeng's military training before they can officially take office, because although Baifeng holds the supreme power over the army, he cannot personally conduct the daily training.

The Minister of Revenue will be served by Chou, the best apprentice brought up by Wu. Chou is currently the person actually responsible for the property accounting of the Baifeng Tribe. Because Wu has all kinds of miscellaneous matters to attend to, he is only responsible for supervising finances, while daily statistics and issuance are left to his apprentice and his subordinates.

The current Ministry of Revenue is not primarily responsible for household registration or labor issues, but for taxation and finance. It is completely different from the former Household Registration Department. The Ministry of Revenue has merged the Household Registration Department and the Ministry of Finance, but with people from the Ministry of Finance taking the lead, and the person formerly in charge of the Household Registration Department becoming the Minister of the Household.

The composition and daily work of the Ministry of Works remain largely unchanged, and this truly cannot be changed recklessly. The Ministry of Works cannot be moved significantly. In the current Baifeng Tribe, construction matters cannot be interrupted for a single day. The person in charge, the Minister of Works, is still Zhu, while the Vice Minister is another excellent Worker who is relatively more flexible in his thinking than Zhu, but sometimes he is too flexible, which makes him unsuitable for a high position.

The Ministry of Justice is one that Baifeng believes needs to be strengthened, and the emergence of the Ministry of Justice means that "law" must also appear. Everyone has absolutely no concept of law; there are no guidelines for conduct, and everything is left to the will of Heaven, so it is quite chaotic. Fortunately, there will not be too many strange things happening in this era, so the law is also easy to formulate.

The Code of Hammurabi is carved on hard basalt... Baifeng wants to carve the laws of the Huaxia State on stone right now.

The Ministry of Agriculture, as the name implies, is everything related to agriculture. Although ancient times valued agriculture, if agriculture were under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue, it would naturally be difficult to receive strong support at the national level. Therefore, Baifeng established the Ministry of Agriculture to promote the rapid and long-term development of their Huaxia State's planting, animal husbandry, and fishing industries. Moreover, the Ministry of Agriculture is the top priority of their Huaxia.

Although industry is also very important, agriculture is, after all, the fundamental lifeline of the country. Agriculture must be used to support industry, and then industry must be used to feed back into agriculture.

The composition of the Ministry of Health is simple, and there will not be too many things to do: daily medical treatment for the people of the country, and of course, the continuously developing medical education, doctor training, veterinary research, the digging and processing of medicinal herbs, and the future promotion of hygiene and cleanliness, dietary cleanliness education, and so on.

The Ministry of Education is a department opened by Baifeng based on the fact that there is no talent in this era and all disciplines are blank. Especially after long-term communication with his two sons, he felt the importance of promoting Science, especially Natural Science. As long as a few talents emerge in Natural Science, it will be extremely important for the development of their country. But for now, just being able to cultivate more people who can read is enough to make Baifeng happy.

Among those old enough, those who are literate are basically already officials. During the period of the Baifeng Tribe, Baifeng did not ban writing and encouraged everyone to learn, but there were few learners. Those who could recognize and write hundreds of characters were all heavily used by Baifeng. Now that the country has been founded, ordinary people see the benefits of literacy, but it is a bit late to learn now. Baifeng has already set his cultivation target on the next generation.

For the new generation, regardless of gender, as long as their intelligence is normal, those who have been in school the longest already recognize nearly a thousand characters. Baifeng is waiting for them to get a little older before he employs them, and those who are even younger actually have better potential. Baifeng is just waiting for them to grow up now.