Although before going to the northwest, Chi Fei had already handed over most of the affairs to his subordinates such as Tongzhi, Tongju, and Tuiguan, but they didn't dare to make some more important decisions, so they could only wait for Chi Fei to come back to deal with them.

After returning to Jiujiang, it took Chi Fei more than half a month to deal with all kinds of accumulated things.

As his friend, Jian Shuqi is a two-ranked jinshi, and he is also a third-ranked Tanhualang, so he is naturally qualified to participate in the official examination in the northwest, and he doesn't need to start as a clerk.

Moreover, Jian Shuqi was also personally appointed by Ning Zhiyuan, the general of the Northwest, and is now the director of the Agricultural Affairs Department of the Northwest Household Department of Zhengliupin, with full responsibility for the promotion and planting of potatoes in the northwest.

It's just that the potato breeding work is not yet complete, and the northwest side still has to deal with various post-war matters, so he does not need to go to the northwest for the time being, and will not set off until after the beginning of spring tomorrow.

During this period, Jian Shuqi has been assisting Chi Fei as a staff member, learning how to handle local government affairs to gain practical experience.

While assisting Chi Fei with government affairs, he found that his friend was completely different from the local officials he had known before.

He is lazy, but he knows a lot of things, and even knows which things are where they are now.

And he is not lazy, but he leaves most of the things to the people below to do, and he almost does not touch his hands at all.

It was the first time that Jian Shuqi had seen an official like his friend, who was able to delegate power so thoroughly even to the prefect level.

But it was this way of herding sheep and eating grass, and the people under him were extremely efficient, which couldn't help but surprise Jian Shuqi, so he asked him how he did it.

After Chi Fei heard his question, he took out a homemade notebook to show him.

When he opened the book, Jian Shuqi was surprised to see that the book was densely recorded in the form of a table, and there were all kinds of annotations on it.

For example, on the issue of preparing to build a large vegetable market in the eastern district of Jiujiang, Chi Fei commented in detail on when a meeting was held to decide to build the market, and who was to be entrusted with this matter at that time.

When the meeting was held again half a month later, the official in charge of the matter reported on the progress of the project, estimated when it would be completed, and encountered difficulties.

On the matters that have been completed, he also left a personal assessment of the official in charge of the matter.

These evaluations from the top have played a very important role in the future promotion of this official.

After reading this book, Jian Shuqi knew why his friend was able to know all kinds of things about the people under him without interfering.

"No wonder you dare to delegate authority and let the people below do things, so that's the case." Jian Shuqi returned the book to him with some admiration.

Chi Fei shook his head and said, "This book is just to record the progress of various things, so that I can know it in my heart."

It's not the book that's really going to play a key role, it's accountability. ”

"What is accountability?"

"To put it bluntly, it's actually very simple, it's to hand things over to specific officials, not to a group of people to do.

The advantage of this is that once things are not done well, there is no way for the people below to pass the buck to each other.

I will directly hold the official in charge accountable so that he cannot shirk his responsibility.

For the sake of their future careers, those officials will definitely not dare to slack off, and will do things well with their hearts.

That's the biggest benefit of accountability. ”

"It's a great accountability." Jian Shuqi couldn't help but applaud.

"In addition to promoting accountability, I have regular meetings to listen to the voices of the officials below me, and that's called feedback.

Through the feedback from the officials below, I can know what difficulties and problems they have encountered when doing things, and how far things have progressed, and really know what to expect.

In addition, such a regular reporting system can also exert invisible pressure on various officials, so that they dare not neglect and slack off, and want to get things done as soon as possible.

But fast is not enough, but also take into account the quality of the finish.

At this time, it is necessary for the Integrity Society to play a supervisory role, and the officials of the Integrity Society will conduct unannounced visits from time to time to see if there is any case of cutting corners and committing fraud.

Through this dual role of pressure from the top and supervision from the bottom, officials will not be worse off, if not the best in handling things. ”

Jian Shuqi said excitedly: "Okay, great, I didn't expect that you, this kid, could come up with such a good method, it really opened my eyes."

Will your new system also be implemented in the Northwest and Northeast like the new tax laws? ”

"Yes, there is a plan, but we can't rush it now, let's try it for a year or two. It's not too late to consider large-scale promotion when you've tried it. ”

"It's really clever to talk about the new tax law that was enacted two years ago.

Although the three positive taxes of land tax, poll tax and average silver were raised, various local miscellaneous taxes such as fire consumption, Lianyong silver, and cabinet fees were abolished.

In this way, not only has the central government's tax revenue increased, but the pressure on the people in various places has also been reduced a lot, which is indeed a win-win strategy for killing two birds with one stone. ”

Chi Fei sighed and said: "Things are not as optimistic as you think, overall, it is indeed a tax cut, but a lot of pressure has shifted from the local to the central government."

In fact, in some places, miscellaneous taxes are not entirely created by local officials who want to exploit the people, take fire consumption as an example.

The so-called fire consumption means that after the local provincial governments collect taxes, they will smelt the broken silver handed over by the people and then cast them into silver ingots.

Due to the varying purity and quality of the broken silver of the common people, there was usually loss in the process of smelting the ingots. Therefore, when the local provincial government collects taxes, it will collect more taxes from the people on the grounds of 'fire consumption' to make up for the loss.

However, there is usually no rule for this to be used as a filler, and local officials often have the final say on how much to collect, which can easily breed corruption.

Now that the central government has abolished local fire consumption, these losses can only be borne by the central government.

This is true for fire, and the same is true for miscellaneous taxes elsewhere.

Although it is true that there is a lot of corruption, there are some places where miscellaneous taxes do have to be paid.

The core function of the new tax law is to nationalize the vast majority of local taxes, rather than falling into the pockets of local officials.

Although this method is good, this raises a problem, that is, if the local government wants to build roads and bridges or build a large vegetable market or something, who will pay for it?

You must know that with the abolition of various local miscellaneous taxes, the local government basically has no money to build relatively large projects. ”

"yes, that's what I've been figuring out, so let's hear it."

"The solution that Mr. Zhang Wenxuan and I came up with is that local officials should apply to the central government for funds to build the project, so that the funds can be earmarked.

For example, if Jiujiang wants to build a bridge, I, as the prefect of Jiujiang, need to apply for funding from the central government to build it.

After receiving the application, the central government will first send someone down to investigate whether it is necessary to build the bridge and what its purpose is.

If, after investigation, the central government agrees to build the bridge, I will formally submit a budget for the project. That is, how much silver it would cost to build the bridge.

The central government will review my budget plan by the Ministry of Industry, and if there is no problem, it will allocate funds to build a bridge for me, and ask me to report on the progress of the project regularly.

This project budget is not fixed, but only a rough estimate.

If the funding is insufficient during the project, I can apply for a second or even third grant until the project is completed.

After the start of the project, the local anti-corruption society intervened and supervised from time to time to try to eliminate corruption.

After the project is completed, the central government will also send special personnel to come down for acceptance to ensure that there is no problem with the quality of the project.

Only the project that has passed the acceptance of the Ministry of Engineering can be regarded as truly completed, otherwise it will be rebuilt.

After the completion of the project, it is necessary to balance the next project funds and return the excess balance to the central government.

That's pretty much how it goes.

By applying for funding from the central government and earmarking the funds for this purpose, corruption and waste can be minimized.

I tried the new tax law in Jiujiang for nearly two years before it was gradually implemented in various parts of the northeast, and finally it was the turn of the northwest.

After all, tax matters are so important that they can affect the whole body, so we have to be careful. ”

"I see, it's really amazing." After Jian Shuqi finished speaking, he looked at his friend in front of him with complicated eyes.

After listening to his friend's words, Jian Shuqi, who thought he already knew Chi Fei very well, once again had an unfathomable feeling of being a friend in front of him.

Almost all of the genius ideas of a new system for the selection of officials, a system of clean and honest society, a new tax law, a system of full-time judges, a stamp duty system, and accountability were all the brains of friends.

And all of them have been successfully implemented, and none of them have missed, such a wizard does not dare to say that there is no one to come, but it is definitely unprecedented.

It is no wonder that the great general Ning Zhiyuan would give his friend almost unlimited governing power, and follow him to try out various new policies in Jiujiang.

This is not only because he is the general's son-in-law, but perhaps the general is more interested in the incomparable talent of his friend.

Chi Fei didn't know that his friend had such a high opinion of him, otherwise he would really have to laugh.

Most of his policies actually come from the modern society in which he lives.

Many of these policies have been running in his world for many years, and they are very mature systems.

What he has done is simply to copy some of the systems that have matured and workable into the world today.

In order to avoid the problem of water and soil adaptation, he would try to run in pilot areas, such as Jiujiang for one or two years, and felt that there was no problem, so he asked his father-in-law Ning Zhiyuan to gradually implement it step by step in various places.

This kind of trial operation in the pilot cities and then the whole country is exactly what the government of his country is best at.

The so-called is in its position, seeking its government.

Since he is the prefect of Jiujiang and is deeply trusted by his father-in-law Ning Zhiyuan, of course he wants to help the Ning family achieve a great cause.

Chi Fei didn't plan to engage in any democracy, because it was simply unrealistic in this imperial society, and it was not what he should do.

Moreover, the democratic electoral system, which is regarded as a canon by many modern Westerners, is not really as rosy as Westerners preach.

Western politicians tend to go to great lengths to win votes from their constituents.

Either by suppressing and smearing opponents by various means, or by promising more benefits to voters.

If the economy is good, even if it is a high-welfare society, Western countries will be able to sustain it.

But if the economy is bad, these high-welfare systems, which have been in operation for many years, will become a heavy burden on the entire country.

But do those elected through democratic elections dare to arbitrarily abolish these high welfare systems?

No, they don't dare.

Because once they do this, it will be difficult for both the rulers and the parties they represent to get a large number of votes in the next election, and they will naturally lose their ruling power and status.

So for the sake of votes, they have to bite the bullet and maintain this high welfare system, which has overwhelmed the whole country more and more.

And those contenders, in order to wrest power from them, often promise higher benefits to the public in order to win votes.

In this way, a vicious circle is formed, and eventually the whole country will be dragged down by this constantly piling up high welfare system, until it goes bankrupt.

This kind of sign has become more and more obvious in many Western countries where the economy is gradually declining.

In Chi Fei's view, whether it is an imperial society or an independent politics, as long as the people under his rule can live and work in peace and contentment, with food and clothing, no one will actually care about this.

For many people, the most important thing is whether the tax is light or heavy, and whether the current life is good or bad.

What politics, ideals, and ambitions are the wishes of the scholars, and where will the people at the bottom care about these.

As long as the country can maintain an open attitude and integrate with the whole world, with the development of science and technology, the rise of people's wisdom, the optimization of the system, the supervision of public opinion and other aspects of the system, the Han country, which is known for its intelligence and hard work, will eventually stand at the peak of the world's forest and stand out from the crowd.

What Chi Fei has to do is to do his best to help the Ning family achieve a great cause, and then use his influence to make the Ning family not embark on the road of seclusion and seclusion in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Because closing the country is definitely a dead end, and sooner or later it will be ruthlessly beaten by a large number of foreigners who have entered the industrial revolution.

Chi Fei only hoped that in his lifetime, he could help the Ning family vigorously develop industry and commerce, as well as improve the overall level of science and technology, especially the level of military weapons.

In this way, once the Han people have to face the foreign guns and cannons of foreigners in the future, they will at least have the strength to fight, and they will not repeat the shame of being arbitrarily bullied in modern Chinese history.

Chi Fei didn't know what step he could take, he could only see walking steps and doing his best.