The World Online

Compared to his brother, Pei Yun could be said to have received both praise and blame.

Wei Yang recommended Pei Yun because he saw the latter’s experience in civil administration. Pei Yun definitely had the ability to take control of the department, but in turn, he might cause other problems.

The only difference with history was that Pei Yun still lacked a position in the core of the territory.

”Let the Official Ruling Department evaluate him. If everything is okay, appoint him!” Ouyang Shuo decided to trust Wei Yang’s suggestion.

”Yes, my Monarch!”

Official Ruling Director Zhang Tingyu nodded and accepted the orders.

This was not a good task to him. From the Monarch’s expression, Zhang Tingyu had no way to deduce the Monarch’s attitude toward Pei Yun.

If they truly decided to use him, it would be due to the face of Wei Yang. However, if the evaluation results were different from what the Monarch wanted, he would be in for a tough time as the director of the Official Ruling Department.

Ouyang Shuo did not bother about his little thoughts and continued the court assembly, ”Minister Wei has raised up the suggestion of recruiting people from the imperial city, and it is a good plan. But even so, there’s still a huge shortfall. Do any of you have any other ideas?”

The officials all exchanged glances with one another.

Small random suggestions would not be raised at such a court assembly.

The Monarch desired a well-thought out plan.

But such a plan would not be something that anyone could think up on the spot.

What had happened to Du Quan reminded all of them that in the court assembly, one could not speak simple. If not, losing face would be the least of their worries.

”Why, is there really no one that can split the worries with me?” Ouyang Shuo’s tone turned serious.

This scared and terrified everyone as they bowed, “We are useless, Monarch please do not be angry!”

”It’s okay!” Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, looking a little disappointed, “Since you cannot think of any other ideas, let’s just bring in players. Shanhai City will be open to players; lead them to move in.”

”Monarch, this....” Shanhai Magistrate Zang Wenzhong started to speak but stopped.

”If you have something to say just speak.”

”I’m worried that the large influx of players could pose a huge challenge to the law and order of Shanhai City.” Zang Wenzhong said carefully, “Furthermore, the city protection legion is not here so....”

When Ouyang Shuo heard these words, he was furious; his voice was not loud, but it was suppressive, “Why, is the law and order so bad that you cannot even control players?”

Instantly, a mountain-like pressure descended onto the court assembly; it was like thunder and lightning during a sunny day.

All the officials felt uneasy.

Zang Wenzhong’s face turned ashen white as he trembled, “This official did not do his job, please punish me!”

Ouyang Shuo did not bother with Zang Wenzhong, turning around to look at Wei Yang, “The territory law system pushed out by the Internal Affairs Bureau will treat both natives and players the same. Even like this, do you still have no confidence about keeping the players in check?”

”Of course, there will be no problems.” Wei Yang did not dare to give the military order.

Ouyang Shuo nodded, his expression relaxing, “Ministers, you must remember that the army is used for war and not to act as bodyguards for the city. Today, even if the City Protection Legion returned, they would not guard the city; instead, they would move outside the city. The law and order would remain under the hands of the Internal Affairs Bureau, the power of the bailiffs.”

”Yes, my Monarch!”

The ministers all bowed in unison.

In the court assembly, any word and action of Ouyang Shuo was read into by them.

When the Monarch was angry, it was like lightning striking down.

They could truly feel that after this half a year, the prestige and might of the son of god had been formed.

The aura of the Monarch.

This came from Ouyang Shuo’s calmness and training, related to the dragon vein, the imperial seal, the Yellow Emperor Cultivation Technique, the fate dragon, and more; all these factors added together.

All of these factors had caused a qualitative change.

The prestige of the Monarch was as high as the mountains and as deep as the sea.

Only such a Monarch could talk about establishing a country.

If not, even if Shanhai City managed to upgrade to capital city, it would just be a dream in the end.

At this moment, Xiao He and the other officials could truly see that a new empire was rising in the wilderness; a bustling and vibrant empire, shocking all four corners of the land.

”A new era has arrived!”

At this moment, apart from emotional, there was no other way to describe it.

Some officials teared up.

If Ouyang Shuo went to check their loyalty stat, he would be shocked to find that the stat would have risen by 5 to 15 points.

This was all due to the prestige of the Lord.

……

Ouyang Shuo turning his attention from the army to putting more focus on the bailiffs was not something random without basis.

In modern day society, the police maintained the law and order of the city. Apart from special times or during war, the army would not enter the city.

If not, it would not be considered a prosperous time but a time of chaos.

In truth, the ancient times similarly had a police force. However, they were termed as bailiffs instead. Specifically speaking, the ancient bailiffs had three different types.

Each type had their own specific role.

One was called constable. Their jobs ranged from bringing in the accused, witnesses, tracking down and arresting suspects, and searching for evidence. They had similar work to the modern-day frontline cops.

Constables belonged to the Procuratorate Division under the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Another was the Yamen Runner, similar to the marshals in modern day.

Their main role was to follow their officials around and guarding their paths. During the court session, they would stand at two sides to maintain order, protecting the accused and executing the punishments.

The Ming Dynasty set that these Yamen Runners would wear square hats and had a peacock feather stuck at their ear.

Based on the records of the Ming Dynasty’s ‘Three Talents Meeting’, the dressing was based on how the Semu people from the Yuan Dynasty dressed. Zhu Yuanzhuang used this as the dressing as a sort of a way to lookk down on the Semu people.

After which, the color changed to green, but the name remained the same.

Yamen Runner was under the Security Division under the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Third was Minzhuang, which were in charge of guarding the city gates, Yamen, important storages, jails, patrolling the streets, and the like; they were similar to the modern day armed police.

Before this, the role of the Minzhuang was taken by the city protection forces. After Ouyang Shuo’s suggested change, this role was under the jurisdiction of the Internal Affairs Bureau.

With that, it was not hard to conclude that if the olden bailiff structure was in place, they would be able to maintain the law and order of the entire territory.

The problem was that in olden times, bailiffs were listed as shameless jobs like that of prostitutes and dancers. Normally speaking, people were not willing to marry them.

The ancient bailiffs did not receive a salary and only had small amounts of expenses.

Even so, there were still many people who wanted to be bailiffs. Helplessly, this job was hereditary and passed down from one generation to next.

Why did such a job hold such attraction?

The only reason was that while they were doing their duties, they had too many methods to rip off the people to earn money. Hence, they did not bother about whether or not they had salary.

Such a con about the job; naturally, Ouyang Shuo had a clear understanding of it.

Hence, since building the Security Division, bailiffs were mainly chosen from the army. They were people with quality and received salaries like basic people from other jobs.

With that, it restricted the bailiffs from doing as they wished and fooling around.

……

Before this, Ouyang Shuo had already given the order to expand the bailiff forces. Now, it seemed like the various city magistrates were still worried about players and wary toward them.

The source of this problem was related Ouyang Shuo’s attitude toward the players.

Speaking of which, he truly could not blame others.

”Upgrading Shanhai City, the population booming, the bailiff forces must also be expanded.” Ouyang Shuo changed his tone to a gentler one and said to Du Ruhui, “Get the Military Affairs Bureau to calculate if they can disband the Lianzhou Garrison Division and hand over all defenses, including the Mulan Stronghold in the basin, over to the city protection legion.”

”There should not be a problem.” Du Ruhui nodded.

The current city protection legion was a full strength five division legion. Along with the training at Stone City, they possessed exceptional combat strength. As for defending Lianzhou Basin, Du Ruhui was still confident in doing so.

”That’s good.” Ouyang Shuo nodded; he loved the quickness of Du Ruhui’s response, “The Lianzhou Garrison Division had a total of 13 thousand soldiers; they would be changed to bailiffs and merged into the Internal Affairs Department.”

”Do you have confidence now?” Ouyang Shuo looked at Zang Wenzhong, who had been looking unsettled.

”Thank you, Monarch, for your good grace!”

Zang Wenzhong did not know what else to say, simply nodding his head.

The matter was settled just like that.

In truth, opening up Shanhai City was something that Ouyang Shuo had planned early on.

He only lacked the opportunity.

Shanhai City upgrading once more was that opportunity.

Conservatively speaking, the number of players he would recruit this time would be no less than 400 thousand.

Him taking such action would unavoidably attract and ‘recruit’ the spies from various territories, causing many more problems and uncertainties in the territory.

However, the ones willing to move in would mostly be commoner players. Ouyang Shuo was the representative figure of the commoner players in China; numerous people dreamed of moving into Shanhai City.

But Shanhai City’s checks were too strict, and it was basically closed off from the outside world.

Currently, those who moved into Shanhai City could be split into two types. First, the members of the Fallen Moon Guild; they were all recruited work occupation players.

Secondly, the scientist groups, and the highly intellectual people and their families.

The next step would be for Shanhai City to open up to commoner players.

During the prosperous Tang Period, Chang An City accepted everyone from everywhere. Shanhai City should not lack the confidence and courage to accept other players.

With that, a more open and inclusive Shanhai City would slowly rise.