Chapter 141 Conditions and Remuneration

"I can have whatever I want?" Ji Chenxing perked up.

"Okay." Jun Heng vowed, "A gentleman's word is his bond. What he says is what he means."

After Jun Heng finished speaking, he looked at Ji Chenxing, his eyes moving slightly, waiting for Ji Chenxing's answer.

Ji Chenxing felt that Jun Heng's offer was very sincere. "Then it should be okay for me to have a more prominent position, right? It will save me from being slaughtered and secretly executed one day because of my lack of status and position."

Ji Chenxing was hinting at Ji Zunxing, how could Jun Heng not hear it?
Not to mention Ji Chenxing, every time he thought of this matter, he felt a lump in his heart.

The Zhou Kingdom wants to join forces with Beiliang, and the situation in Daliang is already dangerous. The Ji family has lost Ji Chenxing, and Ji Zunxing's strength has been greatly reduced. Jun Heng sometimes worries whether he can still shoulder the heavy responsibility.

Everything that Jun Heng considered was within the scope of what Ji Chenxing was thinking, so she expected that if Jun Heng gave her an official rank, the higher the better.

Sure enough, not long after, Jun Heng spoke.

"How about this? Tomorrow morning I will issue an edict to confer the title of Xihe County Princess on you and grant you a County Princess's Mansion. How do you think?"

Ji Chenxing raised her eyes slightly. She thought Jun Heng would at most give her the rank of a county lady, but she didn’t expect that she would be directly given the rank of a princess.

Moreover, in Daliang, only the daughters of the royal family could be named princesses. And Ji Chenxing was personally named princess by Jun Heng, so her status was even greater. Even Ji Zunxing's family had to pay respect to her when they saw her.

Apart from anything else, this face is enough.

Speaking of Xihe County, Ji Chenxing had passed by this place before and had some general impression of it.

Xihe is somewhat remote from the capital, and the county magistrate there is not very good at governing. The people are complaining and demanding that the magistrate be replaced.

However, the emperor is far away and the county magistrate is like a local emperor in the county, and no one can control him.

Later, Ji Chenxing arrived in Qinghe. He was so disgusted with the county magistrate who bullied men and women that he dragged him to the street and beat him up.

The people around were very happy with this meal, and the county magistrate also had a grudge against Ji Chenxing because of it.

I just don’t know if that county magistrate is still in office now.

It doesn't matter. When she leaves, just replace him.

Moreover, as a princess, her authority within the fiefdom is much greater than that of a county magistrate.

As a princess, she is allowed to recruit soldiers and horses in her fiefdom, but there are some restrictions on the number.

But this is not a problem. As long as the soldiers are elite enough, they can make up for the lack of numbers.

Ji Chenxing was thinking about the future development of Qinghe County, but Jun Heng was very anxious.

Seeing that Ji Chenxing didn't say anything, Jun Heng thought that Ji Chenxing was not satisfied with the conditions he offered.

After all, Ji Chenxing saved the people of his entire country.

Jun Heng thought about it and felt that what he had just said was indeed inappropriate, so he spoke again:

"Well, although that house is nice, no one has lived in it for a long time. In addition to giving you the house, I will also give you furniture, servants, gold and silver. How do you think?"

The fiefdom and rights cannot be increased, but the treatment can be better. Jun Heng has already spoken, so why not refuse it? Ji Chenxing nodded after listening, "Okay, then it's settled. I will go and live there when I have time."

Jun Heng’s reward had been announced, and now it was her turn to talk about strategy.

"Regarding the construction of the canal, I recommend dividing the canal into sections and hiring people nearby with compensation..."

"Regarding the officials in charge of building the canal, we must strengthen supervision over them to ensure that materials in the national treasury or local granaries do not fall into their hands and are not distributed. Officials found to be corrupt will be directly dismissed and will not be employed again..."

Jun Heng nodded, "You have a point. I have thought about it, but there are many corrupt officials. If they are all corrupt, I cannot deal with them all at once. If too many positions are vacant, it will eventually shake the foundation of the country."

"Let's start with the supervision system." Ji Chenxing paced in the study, "Set up a ladder system, punish more for more corruption and less for less corruption, so as to avoid large-scale dismissal.

"In addition, the essence of the shortage of officials is the problem of education and the official selection system. The imperial examination should not be limited to the Four Books and Five Classics. Examinations should also be arranged in history, current affairs and other aspects to select more talents. The duration should also be shortened. For example, the palace examination can be changed from once every three years to once a year..."

Jun Heng nodded, but there was more confusion in his eyes.

"If the number of imperial examinations increases, what will happen to the extra talents? There are only so many positions. Their exam scores are good, but I really have no place to put them."

"Don't worry about that." Ji Chenxing smiled, "There is another good way, which is to arrange an internship system.

“Newcomers who pass the imperial examination can first be arranged to intern at county or other government offices. On the one hand, they can learn governance from the incumbent officials, and on the other hand, they can supervise the incumbent officials.

"During the internship, the salaries of these talents can be relatively low to reduce expenses. If you are worried that it will not look good, you can establish an assessment system, and only those who pass the assessment can get a high salary..."

After Jun Heng heard this, he took a deep breath, smacked his lips and opened his mouth after a moment, and said:
"In this way, even if I suddenly remove those incompetent officials, I won't have to worry about them not getting things done later!"

After pondering and tasting it over and over again, he could only utter "Great!"

Seeing that Jun Heng had grasped the essence, Ji Chenxing also smiled.

"In order to prevent conflicts between local officials and interns, and to prevent the occurrence of situations such as 'teaching the apprentice and starving the master', interns can be arranged to other nearby places when they are converted to regular employees."

Jun Heng nodded vigorously and praised: "Not bad, not bad."

After he finished speaking, he sighed, "What a pity, none of my sons can match your talent. You are really useless."

Ji Chenxing found a seat and sat down, flipping through Jun Heng's book.

“I’ve been live streaming these days, and I’m sure you’ve seen that the difference between the two eras is very obvious, and Daliang still has a lot of room for development and progress.

"Whether it's talent or something else, if you want to grow fast, you must first develop production. Daliang is in need of development now."

Hearing Ji Chenxing's words, Jun Heng's heart rose to his throat.

In the era when Ji Chenxing went there, the country was prosperous and the people were safe, with magnificent buildings everywhere. Even though he was an emperor, he never felt that he was happier than the people of that era.

Now hearing Ji Chenxing say this, a sense of hope inexplicably rose in his heart.

"Do you want to help Daliang?" Jun Heng asked.

Ji Chenxing nodded and said seriously: "If possible, after the flood is over, I will help Daliang eliminate the surrounding threats, but I have one condition, about the prince."