Chapter 1 We Advocate a Lifelong Career, and Admire a Free and Unfettered Soul

"We advocate a lifelong career, and admire a free and unfettered soul..." Repeatedly chewing on these words, Jiang Yan increasingly felt that Ye Tao, Tan Weixin, and even Tan Xiaopei, who was considered by many ministers in Chunnan to be always messing around and too heavily employing and indulging young lads, were not simple characters. The seemingly unconventional strategies and policies, when viewed in connection with each other, produced an increasingly rich effect and meaning.

In Chunnan, it was unimaginable for an official to choose the field he wanted to pursue. Countless scholars stared fixedly at every position, swarming in at the first vacancy, and then trying every means to climb up the ranks within that position's system. To be able to switch to another field, unless his superiors noticed his talent in a certain area. Yunzhou allowed officials to choose their own, albeit with many restrictions, but at least it meant that Yunzhou's bureaucracy had considerable flexibility. And beyond being an official, there were more ways out, and these ways out all had different prospects, generally fair.

It took courage for an official to abandon the personal relationships he had built up, to throw away the skills and knowledge he might have spent a lot of time and effort mastering, and to start over in another field. Even more immeasurable were the interpersonal relationships between superiors and subordinates, and the interpersonal relationships between colleagues. Yunzhou's personnel adjustment order was clearly not only aimed at officials who were not doing well in their current positions. Then this personnel adjustment order actually implied a condition: during the term of suitability, in the new position, superiors would not exclude, colleagues would not deliberately make trouble for themselves, they could obtain the same competitive conditions, and they could obtain the opportunity to show their talents.

An official had to be able to hand over his position to a temporary official who came to take the position, and also take a great risk that this guy who could leave at any time would discover the mess and various loopholes he had created. In the Chunnan officialdom, the extent to which subsequent officials had to clean up the mess left by their predecessors had almost become a fixed rule, but what about in Yunzhou? For a temporary official who wanted to show off his skills in a new position, this was not a responsibility he had to bear. Thus, the conditions hidden behind this personnel adjustment order emerged: the entire Yunzhou bureaucracy was generally clean. Although Jiang Yan had roughly learned from the Yunzhou officials sent to him that the salaries of Yunzhou officials were quite objective, and that the origins of Yunzhou officials determined that most people were not short of money, was the entire Yunzhou bureaucratic system at least generally clean? Jiang Yan couldn't figure out how Ye Tao did it even if he racked his brains.

The three guys sent to Jiang Yan's side naturally also went to get a copy of the rules and explanations, chatting with great interest and exchanging opinions. The guy who had worked in the Bureau of Commerce and Trade had to explain to his two companions what the balanced scorecard performance evaluation was all about, what strategic management was all about, and what those scores meant... Jiang Yan didn't understand at all.

Thunder Cliff was a good place. Jiang Yan stayed in Thunder Cliff for a few days, taking a good tour of the winter snow scenery of Snow Wolf Lake, conducting a winter hunt with some tribal warriors, and spending two whole days at the small commodities wholesale market by Snow Wolf Lake, which was now the largest in Yunzhou, to see the internal and external trade situation in Yunzhou, especially the flourishing and clear horse market, which moved him greatly. And the explanations of the officials from the Bureau of Commerce and Trade made him understand the pricing system of the Yunzhou horse market. In addition to the standard price after grading, a horse also had several different prices depending on its different state: the ex-stable price, the market price, the in-transit price, the arrival price, the user price... Each price represented a different link in the transaction and the corresponding costs. It was reasonable for Chunnan to think that the price of horses was cheap or expensive, because the costs they had to bear also included the issue of an external sales permit, the price of which varied according to the different grades of horses, and this part of the tax was entirely obtained by the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office and the Dongping Dynasty. After Jiang Yan figured it out, he really didn't have any other ideas. This matter was really too self-evident. But those guys in the Chunnan Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War seemed to have never really understood these issues...

The supplementary regulations to the personnel adjustment order that arrived later once again shocked Jiang Yan.

Because some officials felt that the balanced scorecard had not yet been popularized throughout Yunzhou, and that the inclusion of the balanced scorecard in the scope of consideration in the adjustment of officials' personnel might cause officials in areas and departments that deployed the balanced scorecard earlier to actually obtain bonus factors, which was not very fair to those officials who started deploying the balanced scorecard later, this group of officials submitted a proposal to the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office's Secretariat, hoping to change this unfair factor. Although Ye Tao and Tan Weixin had not yet returned to Yunzhou at this moment, Feng Zi and Liu Qing of the Secretariat discussed it and felt that it made sense, and immediately issued a supplementary announcement: the evaluation results of the balanced scorecard will not be considered in this round of adjustments...

Lower-level officials questioned the decisions of higher-ups, and the higher-ups also promptly admitted their mistakes and made corresponding adjustments... This was unimaginable, not only in Chunnan, but even in most areas of Dongping. Jiang Yan was also a little hesitant about how many of these measures, as Yunzhou was Dongping's experimental field, would gradually become regular strategies in Dongping's future governance, and to what extent they could affect Dongping and even the entire political system of the Middle Earth Continent in the future... However, from this point, Jiang Yan saw the most fundamental characteristic of the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office that was completely different from other systems: face was secondary, the first thing to do was to do the right thing, to do things right...

A few more days passed, and Jiang Yan's trip to Yunzhou finally encountered the first place that explicitly refused his visit: Ye's Workshop. There was no supervisor-level person in Ye's Workshop now, only the old technicians in charge of various departments, but it was the people from the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office's Command and the Bureau of Manufacturing who came forward to refuse Jiang Yan's visit, on the grounds that Ye's Workshop Research Institute was conducting important experiments and would not receive any visitors for the time being.

What else could Ye Tao come up with that would be jaw-dropping? Jiang Yan couldn't hide his curiosity, but he had to put the idea aside for the time being and take a turn around Benlang Plain. Unexpectedly, when he returned to Ningyuan and was briefly resting to prepare for his return journey, someone from the Pacification Commissioner's Office came to ask if he originally said he wanted to go to Ye's Workshop to see, was he still going? Ye Tao had already returned to Yunzhou and had no objection to letting Jiang Yan see the major experimental project.

Jiang Yan was naturally overjoyed. Although he was a little tired, he immediately set off for Ye's Workshop. Although Ye Tao had not yet arrived at Ye's Workshop at this moment, but had to finish the accumulated official duties at Thunder Cliff first, and would probably take three to five days to inspect the progress of the project, Qian Shun had already rushed back to the workshop.

"Mr. Jiang, it's rare for us to have such a distinguished guest here. This place is not as good as Thunder Cliff and Ningyuan, and it's a bit simple. Please don't take offense." Qian Shun seemed very polite in front of Jiang Yan. People like Qian Shun now had a status and influence that was no less than that of the ministers of several departments under the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office. Jiang Yan had also heard a little about Tan Xiaopei's constant desire to have Ye Tao's fellow disciples become officials, but it seemed that only Suo Yong had been successfully "recruited" by Tan Xiaopei. And even if Suo Yong was in the Dongping Ministry of Industry, it would probably take many years to catch up with his younger brother Suo Zheng's position. As for Qian Shun, a guy who was more suitable to be an official in terms of both ability and personality, he stubbornly stayed in Ye's Workshop and refused to be an official no matter what. Perhaps it was because the atmosphere in Ye's Workshop was quite relaxed and pleasant. "It is my honor to be able to come and see this world-famous Ye's Workshop."

"Hehe, Mr. Jiang is too serious. My little fellow apprentice and I were not here a while ago, and the others did not dare to make the decision, which delayed your trip, sir. Please forgive us. Although the experiment being conducted is indeed very interesting and very important, my little fellow apprentice is right, we at Ye's Workshop are not afraid of being seen." Qian Shun's words overflowed with pride.

"Naturally, your workshop must have had another amazing feat this time?" Jiang Yan asked.

"It can also be regarded as fulfilling a dream. I didn't expect it to be done so quickly when my little fellow apprentice threw out the blueprints and a bunch of other things. It's been less than three months, and it's done, although there are still some small problems, it's already a remarkable thing. No wonder the people from the Command and the Bureau of Manufacturing are nervous." Qian Shun drew an arc with his hand and said to Jiang Yan, "Mr. Jiang, are you interested in getting a glimpse of the full view of Ye's Workshop?"

"Full view?" Jiang Yan asked strangely, "Around here? It seems..."

Qian Shun smiled and said, "There's no need to borrow the momentum of the mountains and rivers. Although the airship will have to wait for my little fellow apprentice to come before Mr. Jiang can see it, we still have the authority to put hot air balloons in the sky. Does Mr. Jiang have the courage to go up to the sky with me for a spin?"

"The sky?" Jiang Yan was greatly shocked: "Your workshop has actually manufactured a device that can fly into the sky?"

"That's right." Qian Shun nodded modestly and said, "It's not mature yet, not mature yet."

After passing through two rows of factory buildings, they arrived at an extremely open testing ground on one side of the workshop factory area. This was also the place where firearms tests were conducted in the past, and there were traces of smoke everywhere. A large pile of crossbow cannons, divine arm bows, catapults and other things were still piled in a shed on one side. And in the middle of the testing ground, taking advantage of the fine and breezy weather these days, captive hot air balloon tests were being conducted. Two hot air balloons were suspended in the air, and thick ropes swayed in the wind. The technicians on the ground were communicating with the "pilots" in the gondolas below the balloons using semaphore flags. Looking at the expressions and reactions of all the technicians, craftsmen, and the soldiers responsible for guarding the place, they were already quite accustomed to this scene...