The World Online

Just as Ouyang Shuo was contemplating her position, Bai Nanpu walked in and bowed, ”Monarch, Lu Bu, Gao Shun, and Chen Gong have all requested to see you.”

Ouyang Shuo was stunned. He did not expect Lu Bu to be so anxious. Ouyang Shuo raised his head and said, ”Let the three of them wait for a while.”

”Yes Monarch!”

Bai Nanpu turned around and left.

When Tsing Yi heard this, she got up and said, ”Why don’t we talk next time? I’m doing well now too.”

What a thoughtful woman.

Suddenly, a lightbulb lit up in Ouyang Shuo’s mind after he saw Bai Nanpu, and he said, ”Are you willing to do a desk job?”

”Oh?” Tsing Yi was surprised.

Ouyang Shuo’s line of thought was extremely, ”There are currently too many memorials that I need to handle. If there was someone to help me with them and write opinions on the memorials, it can make my job more efficient. Are you willing to do such a job?”

When he saw Bai Nanpu, Ouyang Shuo suddenly remembered that Bai Nanpu was the manager of a department, and he should not be at his side at every moment.

Based on modern day terms, Jia Xu as the Chief Secretary was like his personal secretary, and Bai Nanpu as the secretary was like the manager of the office. Hence, what Ouyang Shuo needed was a personal assistant.

Tsing Yi in front of him was a great choice. Although she was young, she was really calm. As she had been around Bai Hua for so long, she was extremely proficient at administrative matters.

The rarer part was Tsing Yi’s incredible intelligence.

Tsing Yi also understood.

This was a job that combined the modern day personal assistant and ancient grand secretariat. It did not seem like an important job, but it touched on all the secrets of the territory. Moreover, she could make use of her intelligence to give advice on the memorials to lessen Ouyang Shuo’s workload.

In olden times, all documents to the king would be read through first by the grand secretariat. Speaking of which, one had to talk about the ancient cabinet system.

The system was formed during the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuan Zhang removed the central secretariat and prime minister, giving the power to six departments. The emperor would take charge of the administrative duties of six departments and hundreds of divisions. In truth, the emperor was taking the job of the prime ministers; this pushed the power of the Monarch to the peak.

Although this helped to consolidate the emperor’s power, it was a lot of work for the emperor. When there were too many memorials, the emperor would even have to go through many sleepless nights.

Even an incredibly diligent emperor like Zhu Yuan Zhang could not take it. In the end, he found a few experienced elders to help him.

These people were either grand scholars or scholars.

And each one of them could only advise but could not make any decisions. Each one of them had the title of grand secretariat, but their position was extremely low, having no power to speak of.

During Zhu Di’s time, the cabinet was formed. After which, the power that originally the prime minister had was in the emperor’s hand. The rights to discuss was passed to the cabinet and the administrative rights to the six departments.

The current cabinet was just the emperor’s personal secretaries and was not an organization with power.

During Yong Le’s reign, the duties of the cabinet grew heavier, helping to run the six departments and becoming an advisory and decision making organization for the emperor. During Zhu Zhan Ji’s time, their power rose even more and became a more perfect administrative process.

All memorials in the country, be it big or small, even suggestions by the people, would go through the people and be sent to the emperor to browse. Then the matter would be handed over to the cabinet. They would then write their thoughts and send them to the emperor for approval.

With that, the power of the cabinet was similar to the power of some of the eunuchs, forming a power chain. The cabinet and the imperial service bureau where the eunuchs worked at worked together to handle the administrative matters and six departments.

Amongst which, the most famous people were Zhang Ju Zhen and the eunuch Feng Bao.

At the latter stages of the Ming Dynasty, although members of the cabinet were not ministers, they had the power of ministers.

...

When Shanhai City established their country, they would definitely need to set up the cabinet. However, how to run it to raise administrative efficiency and reduce power plays was a difficult question.

With such a transition period, Tsing Yi’s position was similar to that of a scout.

She was also a smart person and knew the importance of this role. She hesitated, ”I do not think I can do it?”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, ”You cannot do it? Yes, you can.”

”Okay, I’ll try.” Tsing Yi nodded.

”That’s great!”

Ouyang Shuo had extremely high hopes for Tsing Yi.

Zi Luolan looked at Ouyang Shuo warily, ”Oi, are you trying to make her your female secretary?”

”....”

Ouyang Shuo was speechless.

When Tsing Yi heard her friend’s words, her face turned red.

”Let’s end our conversation here today. I still need to meet Lu Bu.” Ouyang Shuo said, ”Tsing Yi you stay.”

”Ok.”

Tsing Yi nodded, officially taking the role.

************

Regarding the appointments of Lu Bu and the other two, Ouyang Shuo had a rough idea. Amongst which, it involved the adjustment of the Military Affairs Bureau structure. Since Lu Bu asked to see him, Ouyang Shuo decided to call Du Ruhui and Zhao Kuo over to hold a last minute meeting.

A short while later, all of them entered the reading room.

Amongst them, one of them was really tall and big. He had boiling blood and emitted an extremely strong aura - Lu Bu.

Just by looking at him, one could tell that he was an exceedingly strong general.

The strength of Lu Bu was something few in China’s entire history could compete with. Even Er’Lai, Xu Chu, and Ma Chao were a distance away from him.

Behind Lu Bu was a man with a full mustache. He had an extremely sincere and honest look. Needless to say, this loyal person was the troop training master, Gao Shun.

Beside Gao Shun was a scholar with a broad face - Strategist Chen Gong.

”Greetings Monarch!”

Lu Bu, Gao Shun, and Chen Gong all bowed, officially setting the master-servant relationship. After spending a period of time here, even the highly arrogant Lu Bu had nothing to say.

It was best to be able to work in such a territory.

”Please rise.”

Ouyang Shuo said whilst he checked out their stats.

Name: Lu Bu (Emperor Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Special Rank General

Loyalty: 70

Command: 72

Force: 100

Intelligence: 65

Politics: 50

Specialty: Fierce General (raises troops morale by 30%, raises troops movement speed by 25%, raises troops attack strength by 35%)

Cultivation Method: Heavens Breaking Halberd Technique (24 strokes)

Equipment: Red Hare Horse, Fangtian Halberd, Beast Face Head Swallowing Armor

Evaluation: Lu Bu has the ferocity of a tiger, creator of miracles, only brings victory.

As expected from Lu Bu, the one with unparalleled strength; his force stat had reached 100. If Ouyang Shuo fought Lu Bu now, he probably could not win.

Name: Gao Shun (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City General

Occupation: Advanced General

Loyalty: 70

Command: 88

Force: 72

Intelligence: 60

Politics: 45

Specialty: Training Troops (raises leveling speed of soldiers by 40%, raises morale of soldiers by 15%)

Special Soldier Type: Formation Crushing Unit

Cultivation Method: nil

Equipment: Six-side Han Sword

Evaluation: Gao Shun is a pure and honorable man; he does not drink and does not take bribes. He led 700 troops, and each attack broke through any trap or formation. His troops were known as the Formation Crushing Unit.

Gao Shun had truly surprised Ouyang Shuo, not only did he have a special soldier type, his specialty was also extremely overpowered, and it helped to save almost half the time of training troops.

Ouyang Shuo planned to grant Gao Shun a high position.

Name: Chen Gong (King Rank)

Dynasty: East Han

Identity: Shanhai City Strategist

Occupation: Special Rank Strategist

Loyalty: 75

Command: 70

Force: 52

Intelligence: 85

Politics: 72

Specialty: Winning by Strategy (raises success rates of strategies by 25%, raise combat confidence by 20%, reduces enemy morale by 10%)

Evaluation: Chen Gong used his intelligence to win against the enemy, but he cannot be overused in case he gets too immersed in it.

Compared to Jia Xu, Chen Gong was less famous but could also be considered a top class strategist.

Tsing Yi, who was asked to join such a huge occasion at the get go, was obviously nervous.

When she saw how Ouyang Shuo easily recruited an Emperor Rank general, a King Rank general, and a King Rank strategist just like that, she could not help but feel sad for other Lords.

Apart from the prominent Lords, the other Lords in the wilderness could only dream about gathering these three. However, they had chosen to come over to Shanhai City.

The gap was simply too huge.

If another territory gained their allegiance, one would immediately treat them as an honored guest. They would even fear that they had not treated these three well enough.

What about Ouyang Shuo? Lu Bu had to ask to meet him, and Ouyang Shuo did not even meet them one by one. He just tossed them into a meeting right away.

He had treated them a little too lightly.

However, Lu Bu and the two did not show any displeasure. They bowed after they entered; one could not see any unwillingness in their actions, and they were not unhappy.

Even an arrogant general like Lu Bu acted extremely respectfully the moment he saw Ouyang Shuo.

This was the gap.

The current Ouyang Shuo brought with him the aura of an emperor. This was not something other Lords could compete with.

In their eyes, the Monarch was their master, and they would not look down on him or be biased against him just because he was a player.