Above the mage

Chapter 795 The Great Revitalization of the Northwest (Part Four)

Catherine's report undoubtedly cast a shadow over what was otherwise a positive briefing.

Development in all areas of the North is progressing steadily, and the situation is clear.

However, the potential covetousness of foreign imperial powers undoubtedly planted a time bomb that could explode at any moment, jeopardizing the peace of the North.

Gao De tapped the table lightly with his fingertips, pondered for a moment, and quickly pulled himself out of his thoughts: "Starting today, strengthen perimeter security and upgrade patrol levels."

Since the official forces of the Holy Empire are likely to spend exorbitant sums to hire mage mercenaries to delve into the northern border and investigate, they would certainly not rely solely on the Black Goblin Mercenary Group.

The Black Goblin mercenary group was likely just one of the first exploratory pawns to successfully cross the Irwinaya Mountains and reach the North.

It is highly likely that other mercenary groups or small teams have already entered the Northern Territory, but have not yet been exposed.

"Have Canglan expand the patrol area," Gao De said, then looked at Quentin: "Director Quentin, see if the Animal Husbandry Office can quickly tame avian ley line creatures for use in high-altitude reconnaissance."

Besides engineering and food, combat is actually the most mainstream and core area of ​​beast taming.

However, Gaode's development strategy has led Quentin to temporarily focus its efforts on the first two areas.

In addition, the North had previously taken over the Frostwolf Clan's snow wolf pack.

This batch of high-quality war beasts, selected through generations, with stable combat power, controllable breeding costs, and adapted to the permafrost environment, is sufficient to meet the current needs of the Northern Territory, without the need to expend resources to tame a completely new type of war beast.

However, in military terms, besides war beasts, ley line creatures for reconnaissance are also an extremely important reserve.

A distinctive feature of the northern region is its terrain, which is dominated by vast, flat snowfields and open permafrost.

With few mountains and unobstructed views, the entire area can be seen from above, except in windy or snowy weather.

The strategic cost-effectiveness and coverage of high-altitude reconnaissance far exceed those of ground patrols.

The threshold for flight capability is extremely high.

For mages, reaching the third rank is required to unlock this ability.

Moreover, the number of Three-Ring Mage is limited, and it is impossible for them to undertake the monotonous and frequent routine patrol duties for a long time.

Moreover, the mage's flight spell consumes a lot of energy and has limited endurance, and the coverage area of ​​a single patrol is small, making it difficult to support a reconnaissance system.

Therefore, domesticating low-level, mass-producible avian ley line creatures is the optimal solution.

"Received. The Animal Husbandry Office will immediately launch the bird domestication project." Quentin agreed without the slightest hesitation.

Finally, Elsa gave a report, outlining the progress of the two core departments in her capacity as both the office director and the finance bureau chief.

When the office was first set up, it was a typical makeshift team with a very simple setup.

Its functions are extremely limited, only responsible for the initial screening of grassroots municipal staff, simple document transmission and filing, and the overall coordination work of Gaode and Sunaifa's dedicated secretary.

Essentially, it is an auxiliary organization for personnel management and miscellaneous tasks.

As the North expanded, the functions of the office became increasingly comprehensive.

Nowadays, all reports, applications, budgets, etc. from all departments of the city hall must first be reported to the office, undergo preliminary review, and then be submitted to Sunaifa or Gaode for approval.

The existing personnel management functions have been further refined.

In addition to recruitment, there are also detailed items such as attendance, promotion, and management of civil servant files.

The more than one hundred new entry-level staff members recently added to Ironforge and Valar Bay ports were all recruited and screened by the office, and their qualifications are highly matched with their positions.

In addition, the project progress of each department is also supervised and accounted for by the office.

Projects involving collaboration between departments are coordinated and scheduled by the office.

Finally, the talent recruitment program in cooperation with the Blue Flame Islands has been ongoing and is being specifically managed by the office.

Continue to be implemented.

Unlike the initial talent recruitment which involved stockpiling talent, this time a large number of suitable talents accumulated in the Blue Flame Islands were transported away in one go.

Subsequent talent recruitment will enter a phase of normalization and gradual development.

Every so often, several talented individuals from various professions would arrive in the Northern Territory aboard merchant ships from the Blue Flame Islands.

Although the quantity per instance is small, its strength lies in its continuous and sustained replenishment.

This is a valuable addition to address the talent shortage caused by the rapid development of the northern region.

Of course, with this routine introduction, I haven't drawn an SSR card like "Lenny Thorns" since.

However, this was just a chance occurrence, and Gaode never expected to acquire top talent through this talent recruitment program.

The goal of the talent recruitment program from beginning to end has always been to fill the gaps in the North's shortage of mid-level professional talent.

This is the level most closely related to people's livelihood and development.

This group of continuously moving mid-level talents has already taken root and flourished in Phoenix's main city, bringing new vitality to the northern region.

A large number of first and second-tier extraordinary secondary professionals were either absorbed by the city hall or started their own businesses, breaking the barbaric situation of the North's single business format and lack of services, making the ecosystem more and more complete.

After hearing the report from the office, Gaode nodded slightly in approval.

He felt awkward about not acknowledging Elsa's work, given how much he was "exploiting" her.

Moreover, it is truly remarkable that such work results can be achieved under such a heavy workload.

"In the office, we need to establish a public opinion feedback channel as soon as possible, targeting all residents in the area, to collect grassroots public opinion issues and demands, and then compile and rectify them."

"At the same time, we will launch the construction of administrative standardization. All related functions should gradually establish unified norms and issue corresponding regulations and documents."

For example, in terms of recruitment, the city issued the "Northern Border Public Employee Recruitment Standards," the "Methods for Determining the Staffing of Various Departments of the Municipal Hall," and the "Public Employee Salary Registration Form" to standardize salary standards, etc.

Gaode has finalized the next phase of its office work.

These are all basic tasks within the administrative system, and the earlier you start, the better.

"The office is the backbone of the administrative system. The work is tedious and important. You've worked hard." In the end, Gaode still added a slightly guilty remark.

However, in this formal setting, Elsa took notes and analyzed the tasks on her to-do list with utmost seriousness, without a trace of resentment.

She then gave a brief report on the situation at the Finance Bureau.

Regarding the minting of currency, the Finance Bureau, together with surveyors from the Construction Department and the Hunter Squad, conducted a systematic survey of the surrounding mineral veins, centered on Ironforge.

The permafrost in the North, which has not been exploited on a large scale, is a treasure trove of resources that has been sealed for thousands of years.

Exploration has yielded a series of major breakthroughs: multiple high-purity copper matte and iron ore veins have been discovered.

Simultaneously, two large primary gold mines, three medium-sized associated gold mines, eight large-scale silver mines, and three high-quality copper mines were established.

These precious metal veins are abundant and of excellent quality, enough to support the minting needs of the North for the next decade or more.

The Finance Bureau has completed the marking of ownership of all mineral veins as soon as possible, and has transferred all mining rights to the City Hall.

The Finance Bureau will uniformly approve mining quotas and manage their storage, thus eliminating the possibility of private mining, outflow of precious metals, and illegal minting of coins from the source.

These mineral veins are the lifeblood of the North's finance and industry.

To date, the Finance Bureau has completed two rounds of full-scale currency issuance and market release, resulting in an astonishingly high production capacity.

A total of 36,000 Ziqiong gold coins, 520,000 silver frost coins, and over 10 million copper tassel coins have been minted and legally deposited into the treasury.

This minting capacity far exceeds the official production capacity of an average medium-sized principality for half a year.

Considering that the North has only just established its first standardized minting production line and begun its own minting, achieving such results in just six months is enough to overturn outsiders' perceptions.

However, both Gao De and Elsa are well aware that the current total money supply is far from reaching the theoretical saturation point for the development of the Northern economy.

However, the current economic structure of the North is unique, with no inflow of foreign capital. Market circulation relies solely on municipal salary payments, infrastructure projects, and a small amount of local currency issued through the purchase of resources collected by residents.

All foreign exchange earnings from foreign trade were used to import overseas goods, technology, and consumables.

The circulation of currency from outside the city is strictly prohibited within the country, and the local currency is not allowed to flow out of the country, thus forming a closed and stable internal economic cycle.

Therefore, although the total amount of money is small, there has been no deflation or inflationary chaos, and the overall circulation is stable and orderly.

Corresponding to the minting and distribution of currency, the monetary system in the North was already in operation.

It can be declared that the North has officially abolished the barbaric model of public ownership and communal dining, and entered into a royal tax system, possessing a continuous and stable ability to generate revenue.

The reason why the monetary system was able to operate so quickly was that Aisha Itogaard provided guidance on taxation, and combined with her previous experience in governing her principality, she introduced the first set of simplified tax rules adapted to the North.

This means differentiating tax rates for different industries such as agriculture and commerce, avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach, ensuring national treasury revenue while encouraging the emergence of new industries.

Tax payment through trust must utilize the top-level design of the official currency market, forcibly achieving universal currency popularization, thus perfectly forming a short-term closed loop.

Thus, the national treasury came into being—although the North has not yet been established as a nation, Elsa still refers to it as the national treasury.

All infrastructure investments and public sector salaries are allocated by the national treasury.

At the end of her report, Elsa also frankly addressed the core issues of the Finance Bureau, which were also potential problems that Gaode had anticipated when it first built its system:

One issue is the inherent conflict between the department's underlying goals, which has led to the emergence of internal biases.

The goal of taxation is to increase revenue, fill the national treasury, and expand government spending.

The self-defined criteria for the commodity market sector are price stability and balance of circulation.

With the accelerated development of the northern border, the various infrastructure projects and personnel expansion brought about by the rapid development have led to a surge in fiscal expenditures.

An uncontrollable internal tendency has emerged within the Treasury to mint more coins.

Another issue is the surge in the complexity of the functions of the Finance Bureau and the lack of professionalism among its staff.

Minting and taxation, each of which is a highly specialized field, are crammed into the same department.

When the scale is small, a rough management approach can barely keep up with operations.

However, the monetary system is now operational and the tax system has been implemented, making the old, extensive model of joint offices outdated.

Splitting it off into an independent entity is imperative.

Finally, the tax system is still too crude and needs to be further refined.

Even though Gaode used the advanced tax system from her previous life as a framework, supplemented by Elsa's experience in governing the principality, the tax system she established was still relatively crude.

This requires Gaode and Elsa to further improve and refine their systems.

"Immediately establish the Northern Central Bank, separate the minting module and monetary control functions from the Treasury Bureau, and transfer all ownership of the Northern First Mint to the Central Bank."

"From now on, the Finance Bureau will only be responsible for functions such as taxation, budget, national treasury, and fiscal expenditure, and will be under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Hall."

"The Central Bank of the North is independent of the administrative system and has independent monetary policy power and independent minting power."

"Its daily operations are free from administrative interference, and its sole purpose is to maintain financial stability throughout the territory." Gao De rubbed his temples, looking somewhat troubled.

The restructuring of the system was not difficult at the institutional level; it was a natural progression and had been planned long ago.

According to his original decision, the Finance Bureau was managed by two teams from the very beginning.

The currency minting and issuance section is a separate work group;

The tax collection and administration section is a separate work group.

The two teams operate independently in their daily tasks, each performing their own duties, with Elsa handling the overall coordination.

This is to reserve the institutional interface for future splitting into independent entities.

Now that the time is ripe, restructuring and separating functions are simply a natural progression.

What truly troubles Gaode is the lack of professional talent.

The reason why these two functions were merged into the Finance Bureau was a last resort, a desperate measure.

Because in the North, there are only one and a half people who understand "finance".

Elsa is one, he's half...

The establishment of a central bank is simple, but who will be in charge and at the top level?

Judging from the current situation in the North, Elsa will still be the one to lead.

However, it is clear that the heads of the Treasury and the Central Bank of the North should not be the same person; otherwise, the separation would be meaningless.

But where in the North can you find people with financial expertise?

In the North, the so-called financial and monetary markets have only been established for a year. How can they possibly cultivate talent in these fields?

The system has already taken the lead, but there is a critical shortage of core talent to support its operation.

After a brief silence, Gaode looked around at all the municipal leaders present and gave his final concluding remarks.

"The North has made commendable progress, but this is far from enough, and some crises have already emerged."

You still need to press on with your current work so that when crises arise, the North will have the capability and the resources to respond.

This is also why he just reported the information about foreign forces that Catherine had provided to everyone.

It's not about creating panic, but rather about fostering a healthy sense of crisis, which is always the strongest driving force to overcome complacency and drive development.

After the city hall briefing, everyone left except for Flora and Elsa.

"Your Highness, the Northern Territory is currently facing a shortage of personnel in every department and every area. Given the existing shortage of personnel in the existing departments, you are now adding new departments to expand the functions of the existing departments."

"The talent gap will only widen further; the North needs more talent," Elsa said bluntly.

"That's right, and these talents can't be trained in the North in a short time, especially the staff needed by the Central Bank," Gao De said helplessly.

Both political and financial professionals require long-term accumulation, systematic training, and practical experience; it cannot be achieved overnight.

"Currently, the best solution is to rescue them from outside," Elsa said.