[PS: Updated.]
Since the establishment of the territory, Ouyang Shuo had implemented a strict separation between the military and the government.
Therefore, he would never allow the commanding general and the local officials to take this opportunity to form any relationship that they shouldn't have, or to breed any chain of interests that shouldn't exist.
However, Mu Lanyue was different. The little girl admired Ouyang Shuo very much. Moreover, her ambition wasn't here. That was why Ouyang Shuo was so at ease with her.
Raising Mu Lanyue's status was also to pave the way for her in the future.
Of course, Mu Lanyue's ability was also recognized by Ouyang Shuo. Otherwise, he wouldn't have used a county as an experimental field to nurture the little girl.
Compared to Pei Ju and the other famous officials, Mu Lanyue was naturally inferior. Therefore, Ouyang Shuo specially mentioned in the official letter to Xiao He that the officials assigned to Zhen'an County must be those with rich experience.
Ouyang Shuo could be said to have given a lot of thought to Mu Lanyue.
The only problem was that once Mu Lanyue went to Zhen'an County, she wouldn't be able to use the teleportation array in Mulan City. She would have to go to Shanhai City to play with Ouyang Shuo.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to help, but he couldn't.
Forget it. How could she grow up without experiencing wind and rain?
When a young eagle grew up, it would have to soar in the sky by itself.
As his hegemony grew, Ouyang Shuo's mentality also became more and more seasoned. According to Song Jia, he was clearly a young man in his early twenties, but he already had the demeanor of a middle-aged uncle.
Ouyang Shuo already had the self-awareness of being a senior to Mu Lanyue.
The two of them were clearly only a few years apart.
It had to be said that Ouyang Shuo was really "old."
Moreover, in this past year, Ouyang Shuo didn't stay in Shanhai City for long. He basically spent most of his time outside. Thinking about it carefully, he really had a hard life.
In addition, Ouyang Shuo also transferred the magistrate of Yun An Prefecture, Cui Shousi, who had a promising future, to Zhen'an County to take up the post of Zhen'an County's administrative chief to assist Mu Lanyue in handling government affairs.
Of course, according to the administrative structure of Shanhai City, the administrative chief of a county was actually half a rank higher than the magistrate.
When mentioning Cui Shousi, one had to mention the Cui Clan.
According to the letter Song Jia sent him, the entire Cui Clan had officially moved to Shanhai City a week ago. As for Bai Clan Trading Company, they still hadn't given Song Jia a definite answer.
Who knew what Bai Gui, this old fox, was selling in his gourd.
The Black Snake Guard's search for Fan Li had a clue. According to the letter from the Black Snake, it would take at most a week to locate Fan Li and Xi Shi.
Ouyang Shuo reckoned that Bai Gui wouldn't be waiting for Fan Li, right?
These merchants had too many twists and turns in their minds. They were not straightforward at all.
After Ouyang Shuo decided on the three candidates for the county governor, the trouble had only just begun for Xiao He.
The county governor had been chosen, but it was a huge problem to appoint all the officials from the various regions.
In less than four months, Shanhai City had occupied Zhaoqing County, Wuzhou County, Xunzhou County, Zhen 'an County, and Guilin County.
Compared to four months ago, the area of the territory had expanded by nearly two times.
It was extremely inappropriate to expand on a large scale in such a short period of time. It would inevitably lead to a lack of stamina, causing the accumulated foundation of the territory to be greatly weakened.
The core problem was the shortage of talents.
Lianzhou County was the county with the deepest foundation. Although Qiongzhou County was desolate in the beginning, its foundation grew stronger day by day under the support of Cliff Mountain City's territorial characteristics.
Leizhou County, which was previously occupied, was still fine because it was ruled by overlord players.
Even Zhaoqing County had a certain amount of foundation. After occupying it, with the support of the new territorial characteristics, it could quickly keep up with Lianzhou County's pace.
However, Ouyang Shuo didn't dare to compliment the newly occupied four counties of South Sichuan Province.
Needless to say, Wuzhou County was simply a mess under Chiyou's brutal governance. Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to send an important official, Fan Zhongyan, to personally govern the county.
Under Hong Xiuquan's rule, Xunzhou County, Zhen 'an County, and Guilin County were wholeheartedly focused on external expansion. The internal affairs of the territory were also a mess.
If not for Su Zhe and the others managing it, it would probably be even worse.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had been wreaking havoc in the three counties for nearly a year, and all their foundation had been destroyed. The essence of the entire three counties had probably been gathered by Hong Xiuquan to support Tianjing City.
Therefore, it could be said that there was a long way to go to govern these three counties.
If the three counties were to all follow the bureaucratic system of Shanhai City, the number of officials needed would be extremely shocking.
In addition, during this period of time, the Administrative Office had followed Ouyang Shuo's instructions and conducted a comprehensive inspection of the officials in the territory, eliminating hundreds of unqualified officials in one go.
Therefore, even if the territory had a powerful machine like the Southwest University China Hall, it still couldn't keep up with the speed of the territory's expansion. According to Xiao He's preliminary calculations, the number of officials in the territory would reach an astonishing 1,500 people.
With no other choice, Xiao He could only personally go to the capital cities and use the reputation of the [Holy Land of the Hundred Schools] to recruit talented people with generous pay.
Of course, Xiao He definitely didn't dare to go to Xianyang City. Moreover, it would be useless even if he went.
Even so, Xiao He was only able to recruit some low-level officials. The real talents would do well in the capital and wouldn't easily take the bait.
The huge number of officials made Xiao He unable to eat or sleep in peace.
With no other choice, Xiao He could only discuss with Jiang Shang that the winter students of the Southwest University China Hall would have to undergo the graduation examination in advance. Those who passed the examination would immediately be assigned to various places.
At the same time, Xiao He also earnestly asked the Dean of the School of Classics, Meng Zi, to use the influence of the Confucian School to summon all the Confucian scholars to Shanhai City to become officials.
Xiao He also made the same request to the other Hundred Schools of Thought.
With all these efforts, the number was barely a thousand. As for the remaining vacancies, they could only think about it at length. The vacancies would be temporarily filled by the local officials.
Xiao He joked that he was "making up the numbers."
After all, the one thousand and five hundred official vacancies was calculated by Xiao He after considering the available officials in the three counties.
Therefore, the person who temporarily replaced them was really someone who was "useless".
All of a sudden, the overall quality of the territory's bureaucracy dropped a whole level.
Regarding this, whether it was Xiao He or Ouyang Shuo, there was nothing they could do.
If it wasn't for the fact that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was really too big to resist, Ouyang Shuo originally didn't want to be so eager for quick success. Unfortunately, the situation was already like this, and Ouyang Shuo had to continue.
Of course, everything had its pros and cons.
Once Shanhai City completed this round of digestion, a brand new territory would stand tall in the southwest land.
At that time, the territory would rise from the ashes.
A dynasty had already begun to take shape.
Yes, it was a dynasty.
According to the current size of the territory, other than the foundation, at least in terms of territory, there was not much difference between them and the dynasties in history.
Of course, it was also because of the huge disparity in foundation that it was only the embryonic form of a dynasty.
After dealing with the military and political affairs after the war, Ouyang Shuo prepared to pack his luggage and set off for Tianjing City. Although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had surrendered, Ouyang Shuo had to go to Tianjing City to assume command.
Furthermore, there were probably many matters in Tianjing City that required his personal decisions. For example, the disposal of the 100,000 Taiping soldiers, the settlement of the civil and military officials of the Heavenly State, the disposal of the property in the city, especially the Heavenly Emperor Palace, and so on.
Yang Xiuqing was cautious and would not make any decisions on her own.
On the eighteenth day of the eleventh month, Ouyang Shuo led his troops and left Gui Ping Pass.
Because Ouyang Shuo had already officially appointed him as the Governor of Guilin County, Pei Ju naturally stayed behind when Ouyang Shuo left Gui Ping Pass with his troops.
Pei Ju would meet up with the Leopard Tao Corps led by Han Xin at Guiping Pass and enter Guilin County together.
At the same time, there were only two Mountain Barbarian Independent Divisions following Ouyang Shuo to Tianjing City. The remaining independent division was stationed at Guiping Pass and Xuanwu Pass.
Five thousand Mountain Barbarians were stationed at Xuanwu Pass, while the rest were stationed at Guiping Pass.
Only when Han Xin and his troops arrived and took over the defense of the two passes, would the Mountain Barbarian Independent Division head south to meet up with Ouyang Shuo.
The mighty army exited the pass and disappeared into the horizon.
In the distance, there stood a huge city. It was Tianjing City.
Ouyang Shuo would stay there for a period of time to draw up and implement his grand blueprint.
It could be said that the surrender of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was an important juncture of Ouyang Shuo's hegemony.
Because of this, he could be considered to have officially stepped onto the path of a mighty lord, establishing his position in the wilderness. At this stage, ordinary setbacks were no longer able to topple Ouyang Shuo's rule.
This, was the foundation.
And just as Ouyang Shuo was planning out his territory blueprint, a sudden upheaval immediately made his plan come to nothing. It gave him a heavy blow when he was at the peak of his ambitions.
Gaia Year 2, November 19, at the northern border of Guilin County.
The morning sun shone on the vast wilderness at the border, peaceful and warm.
At this time, a huge army suddenly appeared in the wilderness. As far as the eye could see, there were flags fluttering in the wind, swords and spears standing in great numbers. There was no end in sight.
The endless army, like a ghost, suddenly charged into Guilin County.
On the day after Ouyang Shuo led his troops away from Guiping Pass, more than ten lords from the south of the Northern Sichuan Province joined forces with the hundred thousand coalition army of the [Southern Xiang City State]. Taking advantage of the emptiness of Guilin County, they brazenly launched an invasion.
The two armies totaled more than two hundred thousand. With lightning speed, they forcefully charged into Guilin County. (To be continued.)
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