Chapter 477-Basic Public Services
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
With money in his pocket, some of his ideas could come to fruition.
During this period of time, Ouyang Shuo had been pondering about a certain problem. The territory had developed to this stage, and they owned four prefectures of land. If this was during the olden times, their land area would be similar to a real country.
At this stage, how should he change and improve the territory?
In his past life, the scattered territory ruling experiences that Ouyang Shuo had picked up through the forums were not enough to lead and guide him to plan for the long term future of the territory.
In his past life, after five years, Di Chen’s territory reached a similar state to the current Shanhai Territory. In other words, Ouyang Shuo took less than two years to complete what Di Chen did in five.
Hence, there really was not another layer of experience that Ouyang Shuo could borrow.
At this stage, Ouyang Shuo had to rely on himself. Be it Xiao He, Fan Zhongyan, or the others, although they had knowledge of history, in terms of ways of thinking, they were still restricted to the olden times.
Hence, they could perfectly complete Ouyang Shuo’s plans if he directed them. Xiao He could finish all the work that Ouyang Shuo instructed him to do flawlessly. He would not need to worry.
However, for them to stand at the forefront and point out the direction for the Lord, that was a little difficult. Let us not mention Xiao He, even Zhang Liang would not have the ability.
They did not lack intelligence or capability. However, their way of thinking was fundamentally different to players.
This difference could be called a generation gap, but to put it in a bigger sense, it was the defining difference between the times.
In stories where the main character went back in time, the reason why the main character could rule the world was not because of his modern knowledge but because his way of thinking was superior.
As a result, they could jump out of the fences and create an unusual path.
Ouyang Shuo was currently playing such a character. Hence, no one could help him, only himself.
Ouyang Shuo had predicted such a situation to occur a year ago.
Hence, he would always bury himself in books, and he would continuously seek help from Fan Zhongyan and the others. His goal was to improve himself. He wanted to become the leader of his own destiny.
Thinking up to this point, Ouyang Shuo got up and stood at the window.
The courtyard outside of the window was silent as usual without the bustle of daytime. The moon hung high, and the pure moonlight shone gently on the courtyard.
Under the cover of the night, Ouyang Shuo seemed exceedingly lonely.
Top leaders are all lonely!
The rebirth had made Ouyang Shuo even more lonely than others.
No one to confide in, no one to share his thoughts with.
Ouyang Shuo’s current achievements had far exceeded his expectations. Compared to his last life, the situation of Bing’er and himself were like night and day.
Logically, Ouyang Shuo should feel contented and enjoy his life.
Unfortunately, he could not!
Ouyang Shuo could not feel happy about his current state. Due to his heart as a man, as he continued to progress onward, he would forever have the lingering goal of kingship.
To hold all the power in the world and grasp all the beauties.
Which man in the world had never possessed such a dream?
Now, Ouyang Shuo had such a chance.
Standing at crossroads, Ouyang Shuo did not want to miss his chance.
To become a hero, one needed the right time—time was of essence.
The wheels of history had pushed Ouyang Shuo to his current position. He already had no way back.
The road to kingship was like rowing a boat against the current. If you did not progress forward, you would end up slipping back.
If Ouyang Shuo dared to relax, numerous enemies would charge for him and tear him to shreds. He would suffer a far worse outcome than the end of his last life.
How could the road to kingship be a bed of roses?
Ouyang Shuo wanted to claim the world, so he was destined to lose his freedom.
The moonlight was like water, washing his heart and calming him down. The loneliness from before suddenly spread out in his heart and disappeared.
Ouyang Shuo closed the window and returned to the front of the table.
The military and administrative meeting during the day had only solved the important problems at hand. There were still many matters that Ouyang Shuo needed to find the related officials to discuss one by one about.
For example, after they organized the military, the problem of where to attack would surface. Should they attack east toward the weakened Jiaozhou Prefecture or Shaozhou Prefecture? Or should they continue with the old plan and head west toward Chiyou City and attack Taiping Country afterward.
Ouyang Shuo had already allowed Taiping Country to grow for close to a year now, and it had become a colossal monster. One had to say that Ouyang Shuo’s previous prediction was too confident and overly optimistic.
The current Taiping Country was not something that Shanhai City could easily overcome.
Ouyang Shuo did not expect that the recruiting ability of Hong Xiuquan would be so overpowered. Think about it, it was tough enough for Shanhai City to take down Leizhou and Zhaoqing Prefecture.
On the other hand, Taiping Country had easily taken down Zhen An Prefecture and Guilin Prefecture. It was just like collecting items for them.
Between the two, it was obvious who fared better.
This monster had already turned into a cancer for Shanhai City.
Rearing a tiger turned into a problem!
In the future, Shanhai City was destined for a tough war against Taiping Country.
Apart from that, there were the changes in the territory.
The military rank and reward system was just Ouyang Shuo testing the grounds.
The next step would be for Ouyang Shuo to make larger changes. His eyes aimed at the public services, which they had always overlooked so far.
Public services formed the core ideas of modern day public administration and governmental changes, including building public faculties, developing education, technology, culture, hygiene, politics, culture, and the like.
Throwing it into the game, everything apart from sports was relevant.
Firstly, education.
Needless to say, from the education of kids in the private schools to Xinan University, it was done with the aim to educate the people and produce talents for the territory.
Next, technology.
Technology was the first production strength. If not, what was the point of being a leader in this world? The other Lords would snatch away the various technical manuals.
Next, culture.
Culture and education were similar; they relied on one another and controlled one another.
Lastly, hygiene.
Hygiene, apart from public hygiene, included medicine and medical services.
The current territorial plans had weaknesses and even problems in these four main aspects. Before this, the territory only had a vague overview, but now, they needed to run it in depth.
Taking education as an example.
The territory education organizations like Xinan University and Army Military Academy were the highest level, even in the entire territory.
The private schools, under the help of Ouyang Shuo, had also developed quickly.
The problem was that between the private schools and the university, there was a break in the education system.
In olden times, a more complete system started from child education, county school, prefecture school, to college, and finally to the imperial college. Together, they formed a chain.
This chain, strictly speaking, was also present in the territory.
In the various Houses and counties, there were colleges that acted as the second level of education. The Xinan University played the role of imperial college.
The problem was not the college level but the type of classes.
At the primary level, items such as the three-word classics and the book of family names were normal. The Xinan University had eight colleges, so they could be considered dazzling.
However, they missed out on a prefecture grade education entity.
They had obtained the other prefectures through war. They naturally inherited the schools set up in these territories after they occupied the places.
These schools mainly taught the confucian classics.
As a result, the various prefecture schools could only send students to the economics college of Xinan University. The other colleges like law college, business college, and the others could not accept them.
The other colleges recruited students from society or from the basic level officials. These people would enter the college to learn and be molded.
This was not a long term plan.
The reason why this problem did not stand out before was because Shanhai City was only one prefecture. The Xinan University could still accept the society students in the territory.
However, the territory now had four prefectures.
Even the artisans in Zhaoqing were willing to travel thousands of miles, spending close to a month on the road to learn at the university.
Students of the four prefectures were enough to fill the university up to the brim.
Hence, they needed to build a transit ground in the middle.
As a result, in the prefecture schools, they needed to set up similar classes like calculus, business, and law. This was to let the students from there gain the qualifications to enter the university.
Similarly, if they used the various schools to group up and choose the students, only the elite ones would gain the ability to enter Xinan University.
With that, not only did it solve the problem, it would also raise the quality of students in Xinan University, making the level of the students fit the status of the university.
If not, and you asked Han Feizi and Xu Hang to teach a bunch of useless students, wasn’t that a waste of resources?
Apart from that, the moment they formed the system, it would naturally become a perfect selection chain. Through the various tests at different levels, they could choose talents. This way, they did not need an imperial exam.
Anyone who managed to graduate successfully from Xinan University would naturally be one of the most outstanding talents in the territory.
