industrial lord

Chapter 647 Pairing and Helping
Frederick always made a big move whenever he traveled, and the high-ranking officials of the Principality of Wessen were already on high alert.

In Budweis, after drinking his beer, Frederick immediately sent the matter of the partner city back to Weissenburg via telegram in the form of an official document.

The document is of high level, so the Supreme Ministerial Council immediately launched an emergency meeting.

Among the leaders attending the meeting, except for Minister of War Franz the Younger who was in Hammer, Minister of Foreign Affairs Christian who was setting up a vanguard for Frederick, and Minister of Culture Maria who was right next to Frederick, the three departments were represented by their deputy ministers, and the rest of the personnel gathered for the meeting the next day.

Today's meeting was chaired by Minister of Administration and First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of Ministers Frick.

He first asked everyone to spend an hour studying the document.

Everyone is familiar with Frick's meeting routine. He lets people express their opinions first, makes a decision if there are no problems, coordinates on small issues, and if big issues cannot be coordinated, takes out a book of Frederick's quotations and quotes from classics.

Outsiders thought that he knew he was incapable and that he relied on his seniority to sit in a position below only Frederick and Psyche in the Duchy of Wessen, so he just lived off the good people and waited for retirement.

The officials attending the meeting realized that he was able to influence the agenda in the direction he wanted by quoting Grand Duke Wessen's quotations.

Everyone quickly finished reading the document and began to discuss it with each other.

"Partner city?"

"Not involving politics and military affairs?"

“Is this work included in the performance evaluation of officials?”

A number of ministers and governors have taken this issue seriously, and anything related to performance appraisal cannot be taken lightly.

The Principality of Wessen is now in a period of growth. Although there has been no expansion in the past two years, the third five-year plan starting next year will also focus on internal development. But who can predict what will happen in the future?

If Grand Duke Wessen occupied a large area again in a few years, the first thing he would have to do was to transfer officials from the principality to promote them, and secondly, the vacant positions would have to be filled, and naturally, those with good performance over the years would be chosen.

Within the Duchy of Wessen, towns are divided into third-tier cities and second-tier towns depending on their size.

Under the civil service hierarchy system designed by Frederick, the principality-state-city-town system and the central-local official exchange system, a promotion channel was established: secondary officials of major municipal government departments → second-level town mayors → heads of municipal government departments → first-level town mayors → deputy officials of state government departments → third-level mayors → heads of state government departments → second-level mayors → deputy officials of principality government departments → first-level mayors → principality government ministers and governors. In principle, the appointment of new territorial officials is based on this, and officials of technical departments such as the Ministry of Railways must also serve as heads of departments in corresponding places.

To get promoted, you must have excellent performance appraisals. Those who pass can only be transferred to the same level, and those who fail will be demoted.

Ministers and governors currently have nowhere to go for promotion, but each of them has a large group of people behind them who want to support them.

The annual performance appraisal of local officials needs to be approved by the local parliament and is based on the implementation of work. Ministers and governors can operate the appraisal in government departments, but local governments do not have much control over it.

Now that new performance appraisal bonus items have emerged, everyone can only get on the new track.

When the time came, Frick first asked Father Arms, the Minister of Education, "What do you think of this matter?"

Father Arms said slowly: "My hometown has been ravaged by war for decades. The population has dwindled, the land has been barren, and the people are living in poverty. If I can get your help, I would like to thank you on behalf of my fellow countrymen."

After he finished speaking, he stood up and bowed to everyone.

Frick hurriedly stood up and went over to help him sit down.

Everyone sighed for two seconds, and immediately thought that the reason why Frederick and Maria went to Bohemia for vacation was the sudden and overwhelming appearance of articles introducing the place in newspapers and magazines, and the first article was written by Father Arms.

After helping Father Arms sit down, Frick said, "Grand Duke Wesson once said that it is our spirit to help when we can."

"13 years ago, it was because we carried forward this spirit and helped the disaster victims settle down in Wessen Territory that we have achieved our current glory."

His words set the tone for today's meeting.

When the old foxes present saw the two men singing the same tune, they immediately realized that the direction of this matter had already been set by Grand Duke Wessen, and what was lacking was only how to execute it.

Putz Governor Franz, a localist elder in the government, immediately expressed his views: "13 years have passed in the blink of an eye. In that time, we were like walking on a tightrope between cliffs. If we were not careful, we would be crushed to pieces."

"If the master hadn't gone against the crowd and helped the people affected by the flood, we wouldn't have gotten to where we are today." Governor Omet of Wessen State also said on behalf of the academic faction: "We fled from Constantine City. If it weren't for the president's help, we wouldn't know where we are now."

Then everyone recalled the past and determined the principles of supporting the actions in the Bohemian region.

Walter, deputy minister of culture and president of the Wessen Daily, pulled out a document and said, “Minister Ertal sent important instructions to the Ministry of Culture on this matter.”

Now everyone, including Flick, became extremely serious.

Now Maria is by Frederick's side, so her instructions are naturally what Frederick means.

Walter began to read the document.

"After the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Pi withdrew, a power vacuum was created in the region. Each region acted independently, and with little money and a weak population, it was difficult to organize production and restore operations."

"We should lend a helping hand, city to city, town to town, and carry out one-on-one assistance actions to help local areas restore their economy, education and medical care."

"Since the Pi Kingdom's policy towards the region is still unclear and the Ao Empire still has influence, the assistance will not involve political or military aspects for the time being."

"The municipal support is mainly in the form of loans with nominal interest, which are used to develop the local economy in line with the economic needs of the Principality. In terms of medical care, hospitals are built to provide doctors, medicines and financial support. In terms of culture, primary and secondary schools are built with the same textbooks as in the Principality, and entrance examinations are aligned with those in the Principality. Scholarships for vocational and higher education are set up, and performances by drama troupes are organized for publicity. Doctors and teachers can be assisted with subsidies, exemptions from the number of years of professional service, and other incentive policies."

"The assistance at the principality level is led by the Ministry of Culture, and a special committee has been established, led by the Minister of Culture, to promote the construction of railway and road networks, promote the abolition of the Landing Law and the Merchant Goods Sales Law for the assisted targets, promote the abolition of local tariffs for the assisted targets, and coordinate the planning, construction and management of the assistance at the municipal level."

Everyone was taking notes carefully.

No one was surprised that Maria led the committee. First of all, her level was high enough. Second, she presided over the start-up of the United Fruit Company in the South, which proved her ability to work and her experience in foreign affairs.

At the same time, officials sensed the importance Frederick attached to the matter.

After seeing that everyone else had finished recording, Walter said, “The following content cannot be recorded.”

Everyone's eyes became solemn.

This "not recordable" has only appeared in confidentiality regulations in the past, indicating that the following content is top secret and will not be recognized outside the door, but it should be used as a guiding spirit for work.

I won’t install it next time.

"The residents in the south, west and north of the region have similar language, culture and customs to ours. We can increase education and publicity efforts to increase their sense of identity with us and lay the foundation for governance when conditions are ripe."

"The language, culture, and customs of the residents in the central and eastern parts of this region are similar to those of the Piast Kingdom in the north, and they are politically inclined towards the Piast Kingdom. We can vigorously cultivate our agents in the assistance operation."

Everyone understood that Grand Duke Wesson had already planned to put this piece of meat on his plate, but the plate was currently too small to hold it, so he had to take it step by step.

If the job is done right, maybe we can swallow it up without the need for an army.

This is a good thing, but it requires a lot of manpower and material resources, and it’s ultimately a question of money.

Giovanni immediately said: "The ratio of loans to deposits in the Principality has reached a very dangerous level. No new bonds can be issued."

Then, Finance Minister Erhard noticed that everyone was looking at him. He scratched his bald head and finally gritted his teeth and said, "The treasury is tight. We can't increase revenue in the short term. We can only cut expenditure. Do you want to do it?"

No one dared to say yes.

Then everyone looked at the Principality of Wessen's pillar of support.

Psyche sat there reading a novel as she had done in previous meetings, and noticed that everyone was looking at her.
"Look at me, I have no money." Psyche shrugged. "Even if I tell you where the biggest gold mine is, you can't get there. It's about 300 kilometers away from the iron mine in Grouse Forest."

Everyone was speechless. Last winter, several people who were exploring for railways in the grouse forest were driven crazy, injured, and even killed by the endless darkness and extreme cold.

Psyche sighed and said, "I have a way to get a lot of money in a short period of time. Let's discuss it with Wesson and make a plan."

(End of this chapter)