Yes, Madam Prime Minister

Page 324

“I like a quote from Seris,” Dinia said. Her Seris language wasn’t very good, but she spoke this particular quote fluently.

All eyes turned to them.

Dinia uttered four words, "Acting on behalf of Heaven."

Liu Menglong's eyelids twitched; he was certain now, this was a bandit.

No wonder people say foreigners are barbaric. If even bandits can become officials, how can they not be barbaric?

“Brother Liu, my wife didn’t learn this properly. What she really meant was to uphold justice,” Ronan explained.

"Really?" Liu Menglong asked.

“Definitely,” Ronan replied.

After chatting for a while, Ronan introduced his women to Liu Menglong. Liu Menglong never expected that most of these women had held official positions. Of course, Ronan didn't tell the whole truth. For example, he only said that Dinia had been a "county magistrate," Agustina had been a "head constable," and Elena had been a "tax collector."

After these pleasantries, it was getting late, so Ronan took his leave and the group returned to their lodgings.

That evening, in the rented house, Ronan helped Ambrina take a bath.

Ambrina started by talking about the delicious food she had enjoyed during the day, but then she started talking about her son. She didn't care about the country, but she still cared about her son.

Ronan wasn't too worried. "It's not a big problem. Although the various forces in the central government are temporarily out of balance, our son can still hold onto power firmly thanks to the inner court forces formed by his mistresses, secretaries, and the Queen. No faction can stand up to the power of the royal family. On the contrary, the real problem is that our son's power is too stable."

Ronan arranged for his son to be surrounded by a group of female elites who represented different classes and factions. However, they were essentially just lovers, not officials, and their power depended entirely on the king.

With them, Lucien could firmly grasp power.

“My original intention was to create a balance between the inner court representing the royal family, the reformist representatives, and the representatives of various old forces. However, Lucien seemed unsatisfied with maintaining the status quo and wanted to do something. Therefore, he planned to further expand the power of the inner court and deepen the centralization of power, even at the cost of sacrificing the reformists.”

“He doesn’t like the people we keep, but he actually dislikes the old-fashioned ones even more. If I’m not mistaken, he’ll come back for another purge in a few years. He prefers engineers who are similar to him and whom he considers very pure.”

Ronan analyzed.

In fact, all three parties are striving for reform. It's not that the old forces won't reform. The Kingdom of Fas has embarked on a "path of growth." The Seine cannot flow backward, and similarly, no one can stop that forward trend.

But who will make the changes, and how will they be made? That is the question.

If Lucien Jr. still needed to consolidate his power, he couldn't rush it even if he wanted to. The problem was that Ronan and Ambrina's actions had made his power too stable, giving him the right to act recklessly. Now he could take action against whichever side he wanted.

"Ugh."

Ronan sighed. In fact, he had long expected that Lucien would do this one day, but he didn't expect it to happen so soon. In the end, it was his own doing.

"He's only making more enemies by doing this. He's as stupid as Dinia." Ambrina seemed angry at her son's lack of ambition, but at the same time, she was also relieved. She was angry that her son was neither like his mother nor his father, but she was also relieved that he was neither like his mother nor his father.

“Unfortunately, he can’t do it,” Ronan added.

"Hmm?" Ambrina asked.

"It's not that officials are a reflection of people, but rather that people are a reflection of officials. That's the system," Ronan continued.

The system's distortion of a person's abilities is no joke. Is it useful for young Lü Xixian to believe that a certain type of person is more reliable? No. Placing one's hopes on those who share the same ideals is ultimately a youthful naiveté. Treating bureaucrats as objects rather than people, and making the best use of them, is the quality a mature ruler should possess.

"Never mind, as long as he's alright, that's all that matters." Ambrina smiled with relief.

As long as my son is doing alright, that's good enough. As for my descendants, that's their own business.

Chapter 750 Another leader surnamed Wang, no more, no less, an unreasonable leader.

Time flies, and a week has passed in the blink of an eye.

Liu Menglong, along with his wife, daughter, several maids, his trusted old servant Zhuo Lao, and several guards and servants, left Guangzhou with Luo Nan and his party, heading towards Foshan.

Foshan is not far from Guangzhou, and soon the convoy arrived in Nanhai County.

Interestingly, the first people they encountered were not the officials who came to greet them and lead the way, but several servants dressed in very fine clothes. This group of people stepped forward and said that their master, Wang, hoped that Liu Tongzhi would grace them with his presence and have the honor of seeing his demeanor. Of course, not now, but after Liu had finished his handover and officially taken office, Wang would come to invite him again.

Wang? Upon hearing this surname, Liu Menglong felt uncomfortable.

The guy who almost killed him before also had the surname Wang.

After finishing their business, the servants left.

However, the person left, but the carriage they were riding in did not leave; it remained on the road.

Ronan went over to inspect it and found a large box inside the carriage. The first thing that caught his eye was a stack of scrolls. He picked them up and saw that they contained introductions to various prominent local families, academies, and military officers. Underneath the scrolls were piles of silver, not too much, but not too little either, a total of two thousand taels.

Liu Menglong glanced through the documents recording the various local powers and looked at Ronan. "Is this Master Wang planning to pledge allegiance to me?"

"Does seeking refuge with an honest official require paying bribes?" Ronan countered.

"Does he know I'm an honest official?" Liu Menglong wondered.

Dressed in a Seresian sage's attire, with his hair tied up, Ronan shook the folding fan in his hand. "Since he was able to time it perfectly, delivering such a gift on your way to your new post, it's impossible that he didn't mention inquiring about and investigating you."

Since an investigation has been conducted, it must be known that Liu Menglong was an honest official.

"So he's trying to drag me down with him?" Liu Menglong asked again.

“No, two thousand taels of silver, is that a lot?” Ronan countered.

Liu Menglong shook his head and then nodded, saying with a hint of self-deprecation, "It's a lot. My annual salary as a fifth-rank sub-prefect is two hundred taels, or two thousand taels of silver. I'll be doing this for ten years."

A salary of two hundred taels was not low. A well-off family in Guangzhou would spend about twenty taels a year, and in the countryside, it would not exceed ten taels.

However, two thousand taels of silver was really nothing to the officials in charge of this manufacturing and trade center.

Ronan closed his folding fan. "It was just a test. Maybe he was testing himself, or maybe he was testing on behalf of a group of people. Two thousand taels, no more, no less, just to see if you are a truly honest official. There are ways to deal with corrupt officials, and there are methods to deal with honest officials."

“I now believe that Brother Luo is indeed an official from the West, and I also believe that it is the same there,” Liu Menglong said with emotion.

“The rules of the game may differ, but people are all the same,” Ronan said with a smile.

The little incident has come to an end.

Before long, the group encountered officials and constables who came to greet them.

After a brief examination of the documents and seals, confirming that Liu Menglong was indeed the new master, the official in charge of welcoming him first gave Liu Menglong a fawning smile, then ordered his officers to raise flags and lead the way to escort Master Liu into the city to assume his post.

At this time, the group had not yet entered Foshan territory, but such ostentatious behavior was not considered a violation.

Because the Foshan Coastal Defense Sub-Prefecture governed Foshan, it was not a county government, but it was more powerful than one. Moreover, all the officials in the sub-prefecture were highly appointed, giving it a bit of the feel of a municipality directly under the central government. For example, Lord Liu Menglong, who governed only a county, was officially called Tongzhi, a fifth-rank official, and could manage government affairs, civil affairs, economy, public security, engineering, military equipment, and so on.

The journey wasn't long; we arrived in Foshan.

But not far from the yamen, Luo Nan made Liu Menglong stop and pulled him aside.

“Sir, it’s come to this point, shouldn’t you show me the note?” Ronan said.

"A police officer? What police officer?" Liu Menglong looked completely bewildered.

Ronan was also bewildered, then explained, "You jumped from the eighth rank to the fifth rank. Even if it's to reward your achievements and as compensation for your suffering, it's ultimately the work of those above. Someone or a few people above must have had their own intentions in bringing you here. The most important reference for what you should do when you get to Foshan is the intentions of those above. You're a newcomer and don't understand 'cantonese,' so they won't use cryptic language in their letters to hint at things to you, lest you misunderstand. Instead, they'll use relatively straightforward and simple guidelines to tell you what to do."

Standing to the side, Old Zhuo looked at Ronan with a face full of shock. He really didn't expect that Ronan, this foreign devil, would be so knowledgeable about the ways of officialdom.

Liu Menglong gave a wry smile. "Uh, there's no such thing. I don't even know who sent me here."

Ronan rubbed his temples. "This is getting interesting. If I'm not mistaken, you're here to reserve a spot for someone else."

"Huh?" Liu Menglong exclaimed in surprise.

"Now it seems that it wasn't your teacher's connections that got you promoted."

"Whether it's the pro-war or pro-peace faction, you weren't their original choice. But their preferred candidate was found to have shortcomings by the other side, mostly inexperience or some flaws. In the end, you unexpectedly rose to the position. But in a year or two, they'll find a way to remove you and replace you, since the position in Foshan is very important. That's why they don't want you to know who recommended you. Think about it, generally speaking, why would a leader promote someone without letting them know? Is he just bored? If we're being malicious, they might even be hoping you, this newcomer, will make a mistake so they can replace you."

Ronan offered his analysis, which contained some alarmist elements, but was mostly true.

It's unreasonable for a leader not to convey their intentions or let you know that they promoted you.

"So that's how it is," Liu Menglong exclaimed. "What can they do if I don't do anything? At most, they'll accuse me of neglecting my duties during the biennial evaluation and then transfer me to a lateral position."

Local officials at the county level and above in the State of David are evaluated every two years.

Now that Liu Menglong knows the situation, he just wants to give up.

"Brother Liu, can you really do nothing?" Ronan asked.

"Sigh." Liu Menglong sighed. His teacher, Yu Daoheng, had high hopes for him, his father-in-law was still working on the frontier, and although his wife never said anything, she also hoped that he could hold a high position. He couldn't just lie down and relax.

"But I'm just a pawn in this game, what can I do?" Liu Menglong asked with a hint of helplessness.

Ronan's eyes were firm and resolute. "Of course, we will do our best and leave the rest to fate. Your teacher has influence. If we do well, even if we have to leave, we will be promoted."

A pawn? Wasn't he just a mere secretary-general in a special city on the southern coast of the Kingdom of Fas back then? He went from being a pawn to a player.

Foshan has a much better infrastructure than Xinhai City; it has everything you could possibly want.

I, Ronan, am here. Foshan should be secretly happy.

"Then let's do our best and leave the rest to fate?" Liu Menglong said with some hesitation.

“That’s right, exactly,” Ronan replied.

However, there is another saying: "My fate is in my own hands, not in the hands of heaven."

Chapter 751 Handover, Shocking, This is Going to Get Into It

The handover process lasted a week. Foshan is different from many counties in Seris. It is an important industrial and commercial city, while many counties in Seris are just rural areas. The county town is just a logistics and transfer center. The county magistrate has nothing to do most of the time and can travel around every day without any problems. But this is absolutely not acceptable in a place like Foshan. The prosperous industry and commerce give the magistrate a lot of government affairs to deal with. And industry and commerce also have another problem, which is that they will breed a lot of disputes. If they get out of hand, the county magistrate will have to deal with them.

In just one week, Liu Menglong had only one feeling: this so-called Foshan Coastal Defense Sub-Prefectural Magistrate position was truly inhuman; it would take at least ten people to do it.

Liu Menglong was unaware of this; he was shocked, and even more shocked were the officials under his command in Foshan.

They never expected that Liu Menglong would be able to complete the handover smoothly within a week.

They didn't set any traps during the handover process. They wouldn't dare to set any traps for the new master before they had weighed his worth. The handover process itself was a good way to do that.

First, look at their background; second, look at their capabilities.

Foshan Prefecture is nominally under the jurisdiction of Nanhai County. If Liu Menglong has a powerful backer, he can definitely get Nanhai County to convey some information to help him complete the handover.

The truth is, no.

From this perspective, Liu Menglong did not have a strong backing. Although he became a fifth-rank official at a young age, it was due to the help of influential people, but he also relied mainly on himself.

Without a powerful backer, things get complicated. Local officials aren't afraid of parachuted-in personnel being capable; they're afraid of them having too strong a backer.

And that ability is what many officials can't understand.

Judging from Liu Menglong's own performance, he seemed like a complete novice. His advisor was even more absurd, as he was a young woman. What's even more absurd is that this female advisor was accompanied by an extremely tall, blonde, blue-eyed foreign woman who claimed to be her servant.

But it was precisely this team that managed to complete the handover work within a week.

Foshan is truly different from other places; the officials here have so many things to deal with.

Liu Menglong's predecessor brought five advisors with him when he took office. The handover of work went poorly from the start, and he lost his temper. He immediately tried to make a big show of things, but a year later, he gave up. Why? He looked defeated from the beginning and didn't understand the principle that you can win if you don't kill, but you lose if you do.

"Liu Menglong is no good, and the female advisor is also a fake; there's another expert behind them."

This statement is now a consensus among the leading officials of various departments of the Foshan Coastal Defense Sub-Prefecture.

The first day after the handover was completed, in a courtyard.

Ambrina bought this house. There's one advantage to places with a strong commercial atmosphere: money can buy a lot of things. If this were the interior of Seris, would a foreigner want to buy a house? He might as well hope for a new emperor to ascend the throne tomorrow and grant a general amnesty.

"Why did you send Yingqi and Lili to the front desk?" Dinia asked.

“She’s a Seresian, and even as a woman, she’s still more convenient than a foreigner like me,” Ronan said.

That's right, Liu Menglong's female advisor was Zhao Yingqi. For convenience, she even changed her name to Zhao Yingqi, a homonym. And the tall, blonde, blue-eyed woman beside her was Astrid.

In Seris, there are also women holding official positions. The reason is simple: if there are female superhumans, the court may refuse to appoint a virtuous and cultured person to an official position, but it will refuse to appoint a person with knowledge and martial prowess. Otherwise, there will be serious consequences.

"Aren't you afraid of making mistakes when you're directing things remotely like this?" Dinia asked again.

Ronan didn't see anything wrong with it. "Elena started running errands for me when she was thirteen. Back then, Elena was still semi-illiterate. Yingqi is twenty-three this year. She has been taking classes with Lucien and Ina for more than ten years. Those were classes I arranged for the Crown Prince. What's this little thing? Not to mention Lily, she's a very good henchman."

“I don’t think you can hide this for long. A little investigation will reveal that you’re the one behind it all,” Dinia said.

"I didn't say I was going to hide it. Anyway, Yingqi is the nominal advisor, so as long as they can't find fault with it, that's fine." Ronan smiled and said that as long as he wasn't Liu Menglong's advisor in name, there was no problem.

Dinia sat opposite Ronan. She truly embodied the idea that beautiful people look good no matter what. Her forehead was completely exposed, her hair was tied up in a bun, adorned with small gold and silver flowers, and two long strands of hair fell over her shoulders. She wore gold and pearl earrings and had a completely Seris-inspired hairstyle and makeup. She was still incredibly beautiful. On her wrist was an Annamite jade bracelet. She wore a long silk dress in a misty, sky-blue color, with small orchid embroidery around the hem. Her crossed legs revealed a section of her calves covered in gray stockings, and she wore a pair of light pink embroidered cloth shoes.

At this moment, Dinia, who was getting a little anxious, switched legs, now with her left leg on top and her right leg on the bottom. It was a pity that her skirt was too long, otherwise Ronan might have witnessed something at that moment.

Although Ronan had already seen every inch of Dinya's body, he was still captivated by the sight of her changing legs.

“Tsk, this Seres dress is just too long and not fitted enough,” Ronan sighed, then added, “Sooner or later Seres will have to undergo an industrial revolution, and then the clothing will have to change.”

The changes in clothing tailoring and style in Western countries largely stemmed from the ongoing wars that made military uniforms a popular trend. Kings of various countries wore military uniforms, which influenced the clothing of upper-class women and subsequently the entire urban population.

The changes in Seris, however, likely occurred only after the Industrial Revolution, when a large number of women entered the city to work, leading to the creation of work clothes and subsequently influencing society.

"What am I supposed to do?" Dinia finally asked the question she wanted to ask.

"Two choices. Lily won't stay with Yingqi for long. Her purpose in coming with us was to study at Seris. So, the first choice is for you to go to the academy with her. The second choice is for you to take over her role as Yingqi's assistant. Elena and Tina will also come with you then."