Chapter 307: Perfecting the System

Now that it has become a nation, everything must follow a process; all matters must be made reasonable and compliant so that the operation of a nation is less likely to encounter problems.

Thus, Baifeng convened a Chaotang in their conference room, where all officials were present, including those who should have been working at construction sites or conducting experiments in the fields; this matter was of great importance, and Baifeng had to make them temporarily set aside their current work.

Their conference room was too small to seat so many people, so a great number of people also sat outside the door; after today, Baifeng would have to arrange for a construction site, select a location to build a giant conference room, craft conference tables, and produce notebooks, with funding allocated by the Ministry of Revenue, which counted as the first test for the new national government.

The meeting started in the morning, and Baifeng arranged the composition, responsibilities, and staffing of each department; however, for each department, Baifeng only selected the two highest-ranking officials—the Minister and the Vice Minister—while the remaining officials needed to be selected by these two heads of the department, who would then submit the information to the Ministry of Personnel, which would, together with the Ministry of Rites, examine these individuals, summarize the results, and submit them to the Department of State Affairs; the Department of State Affairs would first filter out documents with formatting issues or obvious non-compliance and return them for review, after which they would submit the compliant ones to Baifeng, who would make the final decision and set the list of officials.

These officials would henceforth have their food, clothing, and housing provided by the nation, with salaries issued by the Ministry of Revenue at levels determined by Baifeng; furthermore, Baifeng also established a tax policy for these officials, using a progressive tax system where the more one earns, the more one pays.

The officials did not understand this at all; since Baifeng could simply pay them less to begin with, why go through the trouble of paying them more only to collect a portion back? Was that not an unnecessary step?

On the surface, it indeed appeared so, and it increased the unnecessary workload of the Ministry of Revenue, because Baifeng could have easily kept the officials' salary levels below the tax threshold he had set.

But Baifeng did this to pave the way for the privatization of property and comprehensive taxation across the nation; their Huaxia nation was neither large nor small, but Baifeng had zero experience regarding taxation, and everything had to be explored from scratch.

Furthermore, if implemented comprehensively, the Citizens might have resistance due to a lack of understanding; it was better to start with the officials, first to let the management layer understand the significance of taxation, and second, to let the Ministry of Revenue practice, allowing them to figure out the tax burden for these two hundred or so people before tackling the massive tax burden of tens of thousands.

Baifeng did not dare to ignore a single problem now, fearing that if they did not clarify things in the Chaotang, problems would arise in their own Government Affairs Department; thus, they spent the entire day constantly raising questions, and Baifeng answering them.

By noon, no one had rested, because Baifeng needed to quickly build the framework of this government and train the heads of each department well, so that they could then go and train their own subordinates.

At noon, Baifeng had his family's cook prepare meals for so many people and bring them to the conference room; after everyone finished eating, they continued their deliberations.

From the mere act of eating, Baifeng immediately thought of a troublesome point, which was the issue of dining while working; Baifeng decided to establish a public canteen to provide three meals a day to the officials; of course, it was not free, and they would need to submit a portion of grain at the beginning of the month based on the number of meals they ate, though this grain was symbolic and very little, with the main portion being allocated by the Ministry of Revenue, which counted as an excellent benefit for the officials.

They deliberated without sleep or rest for the entire day, and after the sun set, they lit Torches and continued to deliberate, because everyone had too many doubts to ask, and this matter could not be dragged out until tomorrow; tomorrow, each of their departments would have to start selecting their own personnel, and they still had a huge pile of troublesome matters to handle.

When the last question was answered and Baifeng asked again, no one raised any more doubts; Baifeng stood up wearily and said the meeting was adjourned; as he left, he still had to tell them to observe the meeting hall discipline, not to disperse in a swarm, to leave in an orderly manner, and to put their chairs back in their original places instead of just leaving them thrown about.

Baifeng sighed and walked home while supporting his waist; although he had sat for a day, he did not feel relaxed at all, and his throat was hoarse; Yu, being very observant, came up to support Baifeng; Yu had also sat there for a day, and as the Head of the Department of State Affairs, Yu could be said to be exhausted; after all, he had to record everything Baifeng arranged, otherwise, if other departments had problems to report later, they would have to find him first, and if he, as the Head of the Department of State Affairs, knew nothing, he would not be able to do his own job, let alone find Baifeng.

In Baifeng's eyes, Yu was still a child, so he urged him to go back and rest well; he truly had no one else to use, which was why he had placed a child in such a demanding position.

After repeatedly urging Yu until his own throat could no longer speak, Yu finally left slowly; Baifeng also returned home quickly; his wife and children were all fast asleep, so Baifeng returned to his room quietly to sleep; the moment his head hit the pillow, the world spun, and he immediately entered dreamland.

The next day, Baifeng wanted to sleep in, but he could not; a whole mess of a situation was waiting for him; today was the day the Ministry of Personnel would first announce the candidates for the officials of the two provinces, one chancellery, and nine departments to all Citizens; during the two-day announcement period, if any Citizen felt there was a problem, they could come directly to Baifeng; after two days, the notices would be taken down, and the official positions of these people would be completely set and could not be changed again unless they committed a mistake, were promoted, or were transferred; otherwise, it would remain like this.

Baifeng also had to have the Blacksmith cast Official Seals; all documents had to be stamped with each department's seal to be effective, requiring the department's Official Seal and the Private Seal of the directly responsible official together; the shape and style of the Official Seals all had to be designed by Baifeng one by one.

Another thing was military power, which required the use of a Tiger Tally; the Tiger Tally was the most useful thing Baifeng could think of, and this was also a must.

While Baifeng was drawing diagrams seriously in his office, Yi knocked on the door and entered; he brought a cup of medicine for Baifeng, because he had heard yesterday that Baifeng's throat was hoarse, but it was too late in the evening, and he knew Baifeng needed to rest early, so he only brought it now.

Baifeng also felt that his care for Yi had not been in vain; this medicine was a true timely rain, as he could not even speak a single word now.