Chapter 346 Local System
Zhou Tieyi temporarily stayed in the Baizhishan mining area, and the political and economic focus of the entire Shantong Prefecture shifted unknowingly.

First, He Qigong brought the news of the newspaper back to many officials in Shantong Prefecture.

This is actually a good thing.

In particular, Zhou Tieyi fully opened up the method of manufacturing steam printing presses, and Shantong Mansion had no shortage of Mohist and Gongshu monks, and was able to quickly produce enough printing presses for Shantong Mansion to use.

Therefore, the cost of the newspaper was reduced at once. How could the officials of Shantong Prefecture not agree to this powerful tool for accumulating word of mouth and controlling the right to speak out?

It's just that they were short-sighted before, and like He Qigong, they didn't realize that Zhou Tieyi not only wanted to publish a newspaper in Tianjing, but also allowed hundreds of families to publish newspapers and even allowed local areas to publish newspapers.

This is a voice that local governments never dared to think about before.

Now that Zhou Tieyi has come, he has also brought it to Shantong Mansion.

Therefore, the prefect Chu Shengyan immediately submitted a document to the governor, and at the same time quickly asked He Qigong to organize the "Shandong Newspaper Bureau" of Shantong Prefecture, so that the newspaper of Shantong Prefecture would not only be distributed in the prefecture, but also cover at least Taihang Prefecture, and even the three surrounding prefectures!
This is the struggle between the prefect Chu Shengyan and the surrounding county governments for the right to speak.

But if he does not fight for it, his voice will be weakened. When others make political achievements, how will the people above view him?

So in Chu Shengyan's eyes, this was indeed an opportunity given by Zhou Tieyi. If he didn't produce something, it would be like he was refusing to take what heaven had given him and would suffer the consequences!
Apart from the Shantong Newspaper Bureau, Zhou Tieyi did not say where the money for the new houses he wanted to build would come from, or whether he would expand this plan to the entire Shantong Prefecture or even Taihang Prefecture.

But with the newspaper bureau as bait, Chu Shengyan still asked the person in charge of the Construction Bureau to build new houses in the Baizhishan area as quickly as possible. In this process, he might be able to test Zhou Tieyi's attitude more.

In just two days, a large number of Mohist and Gongshu monks were quickly transported to the Baizhishan mining area by airship. Just as the head of the Industrial Construction Bureau said at the beginning, if it was just to build houses in one area, he could satisfy Zhou Tieyi within a month and a half.

The head of the Industrial Construction Bureau was himself a sixth-rank practitioner. He personally led a team to check the maps around Baizhi Mountain overnight. These maps were extremely accurate, and even marked the geological composition of each location. This was the result of 300 years of experience accumulated by the mining area.

At the same time, the head of the Industrial Construction Bureau also issued an order from the Shantong Prefecture to levy corvee labor locally.

So two days later, when Zhou Tieyi finished his work and walked out of the house of the person in charge of the Baizhishan Mine, he could see a large number of prepared construction workers, prepared inkstone machinery, and even construction materials temporarily piled up on the open space in the mine at a very fast speed, allowing Zhou Tieyi to see the real efficiency.

A smile appeared on Zhou Tieyi's face.

This was also the reason why he did not object to the flattery and mobilization of resources by officials at all levels as soon as he arrived in Shantong Prefecture.

Officials are also human beings, and they also have subjective initiative and enthusiasm.

Even for the sake of official positions, once their subjective initiative and enthusiasm are mobilized, they can burst out with far more firm beliefs than ordinary people.

In his previous life, Zhou Tieyi knew the type of officials who could go to the front line of flood control and who could also be extremely corrupt. There is no contradiction. Qi Tongwei in "In the Name of People" is also of this type.

In the final analysis, uprightness is also a sense of belief that has reached its extreme.

Therefore, although Zhou Tieyi had to deal with the administration of officials, he did not discourage the enthusiasm of officials, even if this enthusiasm was not positive at the beginning.

But it can only guide, not eliminate.

Otherwise, if the officials have no enthusiasm, it would be a fantasy to mobilize the enthusiasm of the people.

After all, governing a country is not done by one person alone, but by a group of people.

What he showed to the people was certainly that officials were corrupt and eventually brought down, but what he wanted to show the officials was that those who were brought down did not stand in line properly or follow orders, not because they were corrupt.

Seeing Zhou Tieyi smile, the head of the Industrial Construction Bureau also smiled immediately. He did the right thing, so it was completely worth it for him to not sleep for the past two days!

"Lord Zhou, according to your request, we have already explored seven locations around Baizhi Mountain, all of which are suitable for building houses. Take a look."

The head of the Industrial Construction Bureau ran up to Zhou Tieyi with a stack of maps.

He first took out the largest one, which had seven locations circled on it. Each location was annotated with a large amount of information using pens of different colors. The papers below contained the specific location information of the seven locations.

Zhou Tieyi picked up the map and looked at it carefully. "The area should be large to facilitate future expansion."

The head of the Industrial Construction Bureau immediately checked out three places.

Zhou Tieyi thought for a moment and said, "The surrounding areas need to include mines, ironworks, coal plants, and the center of Xiaoshi Town."

The director of the Construction Bureau immediately ruled out two more places, and then decided on one of them. He asked cautiously, "Is this place okay?"

Zhou Tieyi smiled and said, "Is there any problem with the specific construction?"

The director of the Bureau of Industry and Construction patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, Lord Zhou. If there is any problem, Lord Zhou can ask me!" Zhou Tieyi nodded and took another look at the director of the Bureau of Industry and Construction. "What's your name?"

The head of the Industrial Construction Bureau suppressed his inner ecstasy. Wasn't this the opportunity he had been waiting for?
There are so many officials in Shantong Prefecture, but Zhou Tieyi can’t remember many of their names!

"Your humble servant is Qian Bingrui, the director of the Shantongfu Industrial Bureau."

"That's right. Come with me to the place you chose. By the way, are all the people I summoned here?"

He turned to look at Qin Yu beside him and handed the document in his hand to Qin Yu. Qin Yu was now temporarily serving as Zhou Tieyi's clerk, following Zhou Tieyi and conveying Zhou Tieyi's intentions to the outside world.

"Everyone is here."

Qin Yu replied respectfully that the "construction team" that came with the airship this time also included the head of the Huwei Military Workshop of Shantong Mansion and some other military workshop heads.

The economic structure of Shantongfu is very peculiar. Compared with Tianjing, Shantongfu is both open and closed.

The reason for the opening is because of the Inkstone. The Inkstone is related to the foundation of the entire Daxia, so the noble families of Shantong Mansion cannot completely monopolize the profits from the Inkstone. This requires Shantong Mansion to be open, and the top noble families of Daxia have all supported their own "agents" in Shantong Mansion.

Just like the He family and the Zhou family.

But the local families were supported. Even the top families with the support of Tianjing, there is an old saying: the emperor is far away and the sky is high.

Moreover, even at the peak of his power, the glory of the Great Xia Emperor could not reach Shantong Prefecture, which was six thousand miles away. Therefore, the noble families supported in Shantong Prefecture took the inkstone as their foundation and evolved into the four surnames of Qian, Zhao, Li, and Wang. The He family was not even considered the top family in Shantong Prefecture, just like the Huwei General's Mansion was only a second-class general's mansion in Tianjing.

These noble families have their own interests in mind and control all official positions in Shantong Prefecture except those appointed by Tianjing.

For example, the prefect of Shantong Prefecture was appointed by Tianjing, but when the prefect selected the heads of various departments, he had to consider the attitudes of the local families, otherwise the prefect would not be able to manage the prefecture well.

This political structure itself is a reflection of the co-governance of the imperial power and the aristocratic families, and is also a product of the Confucian patriarchal system of hereditary rule.

The "family empire" here does not only refer to the hereditary monarchy system. The emperor is the father of the world, but the emperor's "father" status is different from the father in the ordinary family concept.

It is more like the position of the patriarch or clan leader of a surname. Under this patriarch, the same surname is divided into various small branches. Although the patriarch has almost all the power, when governing the family, he still needs to distribute property and power to the 'father' of each small branch so that they can manage their wives and children.

Especially in this world where cultivation is possible, even when the Holy Emperor was alive, he had no ability to prohibit the lower levels from practicing. Being able to practice means mastering power, and mastering power naturally requires authority.

This made the Great Xia clans more powerful than one could imagine, equivalent to the gentry of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and they had their own private armies!

This alone is enough to show how powerful the family is.

But at the same time, it is constrained by the power of the Emperor of Central Daxia.

A political balance and compromise was formed between the two.

Therefore, when it comes to the appointment and removal of local officials, the central government only focuses on the appointment and removal assessment of the chief officials, while allowing the chief officials and local clans to negotiate the appointment and removal of their deputy officials to achieve the goal of co-governance.

The underlying logic of this kind of politics is that ordinary people can practice cultivation!

Therefore, a central military family like the Zhou family would choose to open the Huwei Martial Arts School, which would spread to various parts of Tianjing, to win over and absorb some local talents. Through these local talents, on the one hand, they would enhance their own foundation, and on the other hand, in turn restrain the local clans that monopolized resources and prevent them from going too far.

Confucianism, Mohism and other nine schools of thought in the court would also open academies and establish the earliest private school system, breaking the clan politics based on blood ties and forming a scholarly politics based on cognitive consensus, so that people at the bottom would have the opportunity to rise. Even if this opportunity was not great, it was better than the complete aristocratic system of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, which prevented the world from forming a system similar to the Nine-Rank System.

Because the construction site of the new type of house was chosen in a central location, it is not far from the Baizhishan mining area and can be reached in a short walk. There is also a small reservoir nearby, from which you can overlook the settlement of Li Jianhu and his group.

Along the way, Zhou Tieyi also saw what kind of houses ordinary miners built.

The houses built by ancient farmers were shabby enough, let alone these "hooligans" who didn't even have land.

It was really a place where people could sleep, made of several pieces of soil put together.

Zhou Tieyi remained silent, and even Qian Bingrui, who was in high spirits just now, was silent for a while. However, Zhou Tieyi did not say much during this process. This was determined by the era itself.

Even though the upper class has a lot of technology, and even though the Mohist airships can already fly freely at an altitude of ten thousand meters, the upper and lower classes are not completely separated, but they are almost separated, so that the upper class cannot see the lower class, and the lower class cannot see the upper class.

Therefore, even if there is technology, it is impossible to achieve the grassroots liberation of productivity, because they have not put forward a corresponding production system theory, and there is no one capable of implementing it.

(End of this chapter)