Chapter 27 I Want to Reform Government Institutions

  As soon as Zhong Hanqiang returned from Tianjin and saw Kang Fan, he excitedly said: Kang Fan, we're starting to make money!

  Kang Fan smiled and said: "Old Zhong, we weren't short of money to begin with."

  Zhang Hanqiang said: What I mean is that our company has started to make real profits. This is different from your way of making money: this is an absolutely safe and long-term legitimate business activity.

  Oh. Kong Fan's calm and collected attitude was very disappointing to Zhong Hanqiang.

  Now, the concept of Ma Fang Township Industrial Park is no longer timely. With Ningwu County and surrounding areas as the center, the good development of state-owned enterprises in four counties has driven the rise of private enterprises in this region, and the interdependence and complementarity between state-owned and private enterprises have promoted the overall economic prosperity of the jurisdiction. Moreover, the industrial construction of Ningwu Prefecture is still ongoing, and its scale will continue to expand, which will inevitably drive the prosperity of various industries in this region due to its huge demand for materials, commerce, and services. This prosperity has brought considerable tax revenue to Ningwu Prefecture. Although Yu Hao has repeatedly lowered the industrial tax rate since taking office to benefit economic development, making it the lowest in Shanxi Province, to an extent that outsiders find hard to believe, this year's total tax revenue still reached a record high due to the expansion of the overall economic scale. With the profits earned by state-owned enterprises and farms, Kang Fan can do more to improve local people's livelihoods.

  Of course, there are many things that need to be done within the jurisdiction of Ningwu Prefecture, which requires a perfect, efficient, progressive and civilized government agency to implement them one by one. To establish such a government, it is necessary to reorganize the current official institutions, and those corrupt officials and mediocre people should roll up their bedding and get out of here.

  Yu Hao strongly supports Kang Fan's approach, but also expressed his own concerns: as the saying goes, "a tall tree in the forest will be blown down by the wind." Uncle is now a high-ranking official, still afraid of being targeted, fearing that he will get into trouble. Kang Fan, a small county magistrate, doing so will undoubtedly encounter great difficulties.

  But Kang Fan had to do this, it was an important move related to the healthy and good development of Ningwu Prefecture in the future. After the intelligence team of Qing Shengying was established, they had been thinking about people's lives. Therefore, the family background, moral character, academic knowledge, and work ability of all personnel in all government departments in Ningwu Prefecture were thoroughly investigated. In the case of knowing oneself and others, Kang Fan could formulate feasible disposal strategies for those unqualified personnel, such as using the evidence in hand to threaten them with transfer, resignation or direct dismissal; For those without obvious evidence, adopt intentional framing, coercion and inducement to achieve the goal, making them know it's difficult to stay. Overall, Ningwu Prefecture and its subordinate counties, regardless of whether they entered the government through buying, donating, or other channels, had official positions or not, most could handle affairs impartially and conscientiously, and could be retained. Among them, those corrupt and lawless elements, although a minority, often held important positions, such as salt control and tax collection, which were truly harmful and had a bad influence.

  The next thing is the living problem of students. After the basic living facilities such as water, electricity and heating in Ningwu County were perfected, Kang Fan was ready to repair and transform the buildings in the county seat, such as repairing roads and city walls, adding lighting, drainage, garbage disposal, greening and beautification and other public facilities. The next step is to build a primary school and a middle school in each of the four county seats, and to build a vocational technical school with multiple disciplines and a university with multiple majors near Ningwu County seat, adopting a compulsory education system, improving the educational level of local people, and reserving talents for future development. While these works are being carried out, the county government will be renovated to provide students with a truly safe and comfortable home, so that everyone can always be under protection and care, and Kang Fan and Zhong Hanqiang can also be completely at ease. Ningwu County seat is located in a mountainous area with lush vegetation, and its surrounding environment is not as beautiful as Ma Fangxiang Industrial Park and Fenheying Camp, but it is more prosperous and bustling, and daily life is also more convenient. It is also very beneficial for these students who came out of the reinforced concrete forest in the 21st century to live here.

  All the mining enterprises in the plan are scattered throughout Ningwu Prefecture, all outside the county towns. Government offices, residential areas, schools, hospitals, post offices, shops, restaurants, hotels, markets and other public facilities are concentrated in the county towns, making it easier to manage personnel. At night, once the city gate is closed, the residents inside the county town are quite safe. As for the safety protection of important military and civilian facilities outside the city, it was left to the newly formed internal guard troops to do. The official roads connecting the four county towns have been cleared and repaired, making it convenient for horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians, as well as workers commuting to and from work, which has also driven the development of passenger and cargo transportation industries. The official roads outside the city are different from the roads paved with bluestone inside the city, they are all simple hard earth and gravel roads, but were designed by students to be very humane: there are lush green belts and drainage ditches on both sides of the road, and an official post station is built every 5 kilometers. The local area is mainly mountainous, and each official road winds through the mountains, with high mountains, dense forests, desolation, and frequent appearances of wild beasts, making it very dangerous to travel at night. Therefore, these official post stations guarded by the internal guard troops provide travelers with the most urgently needed food, rest, and shelter, and are also beneficial for the maintenance of the official roads, and have received enthusiastic support from the local people. And this enthusiasm turned into conscious action, the daily maintenance work of the official roads undertaken by each official post station, even food and other things, were often done well by the nearby villagers without waiting for the government to consider it.

  The security work outside the county seat has always been handled by the cavalry regiment, but with the increasing number of outsiders, the security situation within the jurisdiction has become complicated. How to properly manage the growing number of outsiders has posed a significant challenge for the police stations in each county. Therefore, measures such as expanding the police force, improving personnel quality, increasing law enforcement efforts, and perfecting the household registration system should be implemented as soon as possible. However, just doing a good job on security work within the county seat is not enough, the vast Ningwu Prefecture also needs a large number of armed forces to strengthen management, which is why Kang Fan established an internal guard force.

  Kang Fan planned to directly recruit those with military experience, combat experience or military academy graduates from the voluntary recruits into the Ningwu Fu garrison, while ordinary civilians would be received by the internal guard troops. The internal guard troops are a secondary armed force between the patrol team and the first-line garrison, mainly assisting local governments in maintaining social order, cracking down on illegal activities, protecting important military and civilian facilities, natural resource monitoring and protection, border patrols, inspections, personnel management, and undertaking local disaster relief, important personnel escort and other tasks. Regardless of which task is performed, all personnel must receive basic combat skill training and pass the assessment before formally becoming internal guard troops soldiers to perform various tasks. If you want to join a first-line garrison with better treatment, you must serve in the internal guard troops for at least three months to be eligible for recruitment. In this way, after the internal guard troops are established, the Ningwu Fu garrison will no longer need to recruit soldiers from society, but instead directly recruit from the internal guard troops, and the recruitment procedure will become simpler, and the quality of soldiers will also be greatly improved. The task of the Ningwu Fu garrison, which was expanded and established based on the cavalry regiment, can be greatly reduced, focusing on military construction and territorial defense.

  Kang Fan's goal was to form a garrison of 10,000 men and a standing army of 3,000 men. Once the war broke out, he would have an armed force at his disposal that could be used as a division-level unit. If he were to equip his troops with new-style weapons designed by himself in the future, it would greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of Ningwu Prefecture's officers and soldiers in defending their homes and people. With the expansion of the armed forces, Qing Shengying must be expanded and improved to meet the needs of the garrison and undertake the training tasks of the internal defense force. Correspondingly, new internal defense force barracks should be built in various parts of the jurisdiction to facilitate the execution of various tasks by the troops in their respective areas.

  Of course, all the above plans can only be carried out in the same way as the industrial development plan after the beginning of spring. Therefore, 1897 was the most critical year for the development of Ningwu Prefecture. If all the plans could be implemented smoothly, Ningwu Prefecture would enter a period of great change and development from 1898 onwards. And by then, Kang Fan's heart, which had been fluctuating since he came to this era, would get some relief.

  Hu Pingzhi was a knowledgeable scholar who advocated for the reform of traditional education system in Shanxi, vigorously promoted new schools, sent young talents to study abroad, developed industry and commerce, and improved agriculture. He opened up Shanxi's path towards modern civilization and gained the respect of Emperor Guangxu, who also advocated for reform. Kang Fan's measures to develop Ningwu Prefecture coincided with Hu Pingzhi's ideas, so he naturally received Hu's support. This made it much easier to implement the development plan from an administrative perspective, making Kang Fan feel very fortunate.

  After the Spring Festival, through Hu Ping's efforts, the Datong Coal Mine, Lüliang Aluminum Mine, Yun Cheng and Taiyuan Chemical Raw Material Base, Datong Building Materials and Graphite Base, etc. jointly established by Ningwu Prefecture and local governments began to be constructed one after another, while various mineral points in the locality also started construction simultaneously. After these mineral raw materials are mined, they will all be sent to various factories in Ningwu Prefecture for processing into various industrial products, playing their due role.

  The advanced industrial equipment parts designed by the research center were also transported back from abroad in large quantities after the spring began, and were assembled at the research center. Due to the huge workload, the students in charge of this task led a team of workers day and night. Zhong Hanqiang tried every means to improve the living conditions for the students. As the financial director, he didn't care about anything else now, as long as it was helpful for the physical and mental health of the students, regardless of the price, everything was bought.

  "With your spending habits, how can I trust you to manage our finances well?" Kang Fan sneered.

  Zhong Hanqiang smiled and said: If it were you, who knows how you'd spend it? You come tell me.

  The comprehensive rollout of the large-scale industrial development plan turned the entire Ningwu Prefecture into a huge construction site! A massive labor army poured in from provinces, municipalities, prefectures, counties, and even foreign countries, bringing enormous consumer demand to the local area while participating in the construction, stimulating the rapid development and growth of various industries. The sales volume of light industrial enterprises such as pharmaceuticals, food processing, daily necessities, and textiles near Ma Fang Township, as well as the business volume of the county hospital, rose rapidly like a mercury column in a thermometer dropped into boiling water.