Chapter 558: The Royal Family's Knife

"The people from the Ministry of Agriculture also come this way, but they are researchers. Everyone who participates in the cultivation of grain seeds can be promoted through assessment and evaluation. However, your promotion metrics are your achievements. Even if you are a student who just graduated, as long as you can cultivate grain seeds with higher yields or better characteristics, you can be promoted directly without needing to consider your seniority."

Geng takes this rather lightly, but his subordinates value it quite a bit. The Ministry of Agriculture is not like other departments where you can just sit in an office; they have to go to the fields to work every day, and there is not much difference between them and the common farmers.

Baifeng then said: "Good, now let us go back and talk about this. First is the construction of the surrounding towns. After the statistics and planning by the Ministry of Revenue during this period, we can build a total of three towns in our vicinity, which are expected to initially accommodate twenty thousand people. This will greatly reduce the burden on our Huaxia City."

"In the future, those towns can expand on their own; we do not need to coordinate and plan them anymore. Next is the issue of who to move there. My opinion is to prioritize letting the people in the city-edge districts move out. Their current living conditions are truly too poor, and they have also experienced a major disaster with houses collapsing so severely. They must be moved over as soon as possible, and they must move over during the spring plowing."

Yulong's expression was somewhat anxious. In the end, he could not help but ask: "Father, moving over now might not be good, right? There is nothing there right now. If those people go over, where will they live? The water has not been connected, and there is no protection from city walls. It is very dangerous."

Baifeng said in an unquestionable tone: "This is necessary because the places planned for those towns are very close to Huaxia. However, the area is relatively small, so there is no need to build them like a city and wait for the city to be built before moving people over. Instead, people should go over first, and then build them slowly."

"Water is not a problem. Just dig more water wells where they live. When the houses are built and the Ministry of Works has time, they can use waterwheels to divert water for them."

"This is also the requirement for the construction of all future towns: people go first, then build the town, especially for those close to the city. Otherwise, the pressure that these large cities have to bear is too great."

"Moreover, the Ministry of Works will provide all materials and assistance. I will also give them a better policy: allocate a sufficiently large homestead, let them build as many houses as they want, and give them a piece of permanently tax-free land to let them grow some vegetables, fruits, and the like. How about that?"

Yulong could only retort: "But, it is still a bit too rushed. Our Ministry of Revenue is not ready, and those people are not prepared either. Moving away immediately now, I fear their resistance will be very high."

Baifeng said straightforwardly: "This is the work of your Ministry of Revenue. If you do not move over now, the spring plowing will start immediately. The arable land is so far from where they live, how are they going to farm? Just the time spent going back and forth every day, how much land can they farm? Do you want the cleared land to lie fallow again this year? I fear they themselves would not be willing."

"You go and explain the pros and cons to them clearly. Living in a Tent in the spring is not too bitter. In the vast, boundless arable land, you cannot even find a few trees. No wild beast would be stupid enough to go to that kind of place to hunt, not to mention that the large wild beasts in the surrounding area have already been cleared out."

"They farm every day, and the people from the Ministry of Works build houses for them. By the time the spring plowing ends, the houses will also have taken initial shape, at least enough to ensure they can move into the houses before Winter."

"They are all people who have suffered before; even a Tent leaks wind. Now that they have such good conditions and such a bright future, why would they be dissatisfied? Suffering for a while longer to obtain a better life is a very simple principle, right? They will not fail to understand. Could my arrangement be more miserable than them struggling to survive in the wilderness?"

At this, Yulong truly had nothing more to say. However, he also understood that this was his father using the actual situation to teach him. Xiao Town is too far away, has no support, and the place is unfamiliar. Only by building the city walls and houses that can protect them can the safety of everyone be guaranteed.

But here, even for the furthest planned town, one can return to the city in half a day's walk. There is no danger, and everyone is familiar with everything around them. Therefore, moving people first and then building the city is the correct way.

"Ministry of Works, slow down the construction of Xiao Town this year. Reduce the investment, just ensure that Xiao Town does not stop work. Focus on the construction of these few towns. They are very close to Huaxia City, making it convenient and fast to mobilize manpower and materials. The difficulty of construction is smaller, and the speed of building will be faster."

Zhu hurriedly nodded in agreement. The Ministry of Works does not get involved in other issues; they just keep their heads down and work. Wherever the King tells them to go, they move the Brick there.

"There is one more point: when the construction of the few towns is about done, tear down the houses in the city-edge districts that should be torn down. Let's renovate Huaxia's water conservancy directly. Once the people have mostly moved out, the work will be easier to handle. We cannot keep dragging it out; the longer it drags, the harder it will be to handle in the future."

Zhu nodded again; whatever the King says is what it is.

"Xiong!" Baifeng called out to him.

Xiong hurriedly looked at Baifeng.

"After the meeting ends, immediately begin the military system reform. Once you have finished the reform, and after waiting for the spring sowing to end, immediately begin conscription. This time, female soldiers are also needed. In any case, build me a full Army. Then, send some troops to Lema City now and let them fall under the jurisdiction of Lema City. The troop strength of Lema City is still somewhat insufficient. Lema City also needs to conduct conscription within Lema City. From now on, the conscription of the two cities will be independent and will not interfere with each other."

Xiong and the head of the Ministry of War in Lema City—now one could say he is a Deputy Army Commander, because Lema City is half a rank lower than Huaxia—both stood up and saluted.

Changchi's heart was quite excited. He possessed the power of conscription, which meant that the number of troops in Lema City would gradually increase in the future. Although it would not exceed Huaxia City, it would definitely not be like it is now, not even half of Huaxia City. Moreover, his status had also improved imperceptibly. He had always been in the shadow of Xiong and Chi, and even inferior to any person Baifeng valued in Huaxia, like Yishang or Lu.

Throughout the entire meeting, the Ministry of Justice could be said to have not been involved at all, or rather, it was only mentioned once when talking about the issues of the Ministry of Personnel, but there were no reform changes for the Ministry of Justice.

When all is said and done, the Ministry of Justice is Baifeng, the Knife of the Royal Family, specifically used to kill people who are unfavorable to him. Therefore, Baifeng knows very well what the Ministry of Justice is like. The Ministry of Justice is bound together with the law, but the legislative power is in Baifeng's hands. Baifeng has basically set the framework for the law, and in the future, it will only need to add some things into it. Therefore, there is no need for any reform of the Ministry of Justice for the time being.

As for when it is time for reform in the future, Baifeng has already formulated a plan for Yulong.