CHAPTER 506: CHAPTER 484 THE ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM OF THE POPE COUNTRY

"Achoo!"

With a loud sneeze, Harbin interrupted Horn’s speech halfway through.

Seeing everyone’s eyes on him, Harbin chuckled awkwardly, "Sorry, sorry, I couldn’t hold it in."

Horn just laughed heartily, "It’s already September, the weather is indeed getting cooler. Everyone remember to wear more clothes, don’t catch a cold."

After returning to Joan of Arc Castle from Autumn Dusk Island, this was Horn’s first regular meeting.

And this meeting would announce the new tax system, which had become the biggest topic in the Savior Pope Country over these past two days.

"So, does everyone agree on the proposal to rename Kush Territory to Red Maple Village?" Horn put the documents aside and looked up to ask.

"Agreed."

"I agree first."

"I frigging agree wholeheartedly!"

Seeing the silly smile on Saint Jeanne’s face, it’s estimated that no one would dare dissent at this moment.

"Alright, with this proposal concluded, we move on to the next topic: ’1445 Church Monastery Bureaucratic Restructuring Plan.’

The opening topics, as usual, were trivial matters; the highlights often came last.

The bureaucratic restructuring plan ranked second to last was definitely one of the heavyweights.

Given the current internal and external situation, Horn knew they couldn’t establish a constitutional system and could only choose an absolute centralized government system.

He originally considered himself inexperienced and intended to leave the establishment of a centralized government to the scholars.

But Horn discovered that the scholars had no understanding of what centralized power was, and their suggestions were a complete mess.

There were suggestions for local councils or appointing a village head in each village, or even regressing to hereditary Hundred Households Captains.

In the end, Horn was shocked to find that they didn’t know how to establish a centralized government system.

Even the so-called monarchy of the Falan Kingdom hasn’t fully achieved a centralized system till now.

So now, Horn, who used to deliver food, has become a political scholar.

After all, in this era, no one understands centralized power better than him.

There was no other choice but to do it himself, which led to the current plan.

Horn has always believed that the first step in any so-called political reform is to govern the officials.

No matter how good the law is, if the executors fail, it only results in three outcomes:

Formalism, hypocrisy, and over-enforcement.

The Salvation Army currently manages effective administration firstly because of the small territory and secondly because of a group of blindly obedient junior generals that Horn has.

Of course, his enormous prestige and the propaganda effect of the Armand Truth Department also play a role.

But this means Horn is a charismatic leader, like a khan on the grassland.

The whole country is glued together by him, and if he dies or loses political power, the Salvation Army would collapse within a few years.

This is actually a common problem for most peasant rebel armies.

So Horn brings forth this specially revised bureaucratic system, turning the government into a machine rather than a reflection of a person.

"The first point of this new plan is the division of administrative regions, which has a great connection with our newly launched bureaucratic system." Seated behind the round table, representatives from various government levels sat on benches, listening intently.

"This bureaucratic system is quite simple. Let’s take the example of Kush Territory, um, Red Maple Village..."

According to the current census, each Hundred Households District has about 450-600 people. Red Maple Village currently has 512 Hundred Households Districts, totaling around 200,000 people.

Previously, these Hundred Households Districts were directly managed by Joan of Arc Castle, and the Districts and Towns were on the same level.

But with Horn’s current territorial expansion, the government team can hardly cope.

Red Maple Village has 200,000 people, Ibe Village 180,000, Jinhe Town 250,000, Dog Fox Village 150,000, Zhuanghe Town 320,000, and Daze Village 50,000.

The territory currently governed by the Salvation Army spans 32,000 square kilometers, with a population of nearly 1.2 million.

Red Maple Village’s 200,000 people almost wore Horn out, and now with a sixfold increase, it’s definitely beyond the current administrative capacity of the Salvation Army government.

So the first step of this ’1445 Bureaucratic Restructuring Plan’ is to subdivide the administrative regions and establish a Priestly Order.

The so-called Priestly Order consists of Deacon Orders formed by several Hundred Households Districts’ Wandering Cultivators, responsible for the political and economic work of an entire area, and electing a Monastic Leader.

For example, a Priestly Order might oversee 70 Hundred Households Districts and 1 Town, implying 8 Wandering Cultivators.

From the 8 Wandering Cultivators, an upper-level monastery will select 1 Monastic Leader. The selected Monastic Leader no longer tours each Hundred Households District but is stationed at the Deacon Order, managing daily tasks.

The 10 Hundred Households Districts he was in charge of will then elect or be appointed new Wandering Cultivators by the Pope’s Palace.

These 9 people form the main administrative force of a Deacon Order.

Of course, this doesn’t mean they are the only ones responsible for implementing Horn’s laws, as a Priestly Order manages thirty to fifty thousand people.

The Priestly Order will set up a church for administration, usually in towns, and hire assistants themselves.

A Monastic Leader, besides overseeing daily work, can also nominate civil servants to upper-level monasteries, such as clerks, finance officers, and judicial officers.

These civil servants only assist with daily administrative tasks, serving as assistants.

Actual decision-making is done by voting in a meeting of Wandering Cultivators, and any decision must be voted on in the meeting.

Each Priestly Order will also send two or three secretarial monks from the Holy Father Association.

They do not participate in any administrative work, doing only one thing: recording each meeting and making copies to be sent to the Pope’s Palace and higher monasteries.

In case of any mishaps in the future, these meeting records will serve as crucial evidence in the blame allocation sessions.

As a result, the 512 Hundred Households Districts in Red Maple Village have been transformed into 7 Priestly Orders, and the 180,000 people in Ibe Village have become 487 Hundred Households Districts, and 6 Priestly Orders.

Horn now has to manage 13 Priestly Orders instead of 999 Hundred Households Districts.

However, that’s not all; all the Priestly Orders in a village must also form a Village Monastery.

Taking the example of Ibe Village, the monastic leaders of 6 Priestly Orders and one appointed Priest-in-Charge will form a Village Monastery.

The Priestly Orders are accountable to the Village Monastery, but the Village Monastery cannot appoint monastic leaders; it can only appoint wandering cultivators and civil servants.

The Imperial Cardinal Conference can appoint monastic leaders.

The Village Monastery is accountable to the Imperial Cardinal Conference, but the Imperial Cardinal Conference cannot appoint Priests-in-Charge; it can only appoint monastic leaders and village civil servants.

Horn can appoint Priests-in-Charge.

Furthermore, the Holy Father Association, Saintess, Imperial Cardinal Conference, Cheka, and all armies are all accountable only to Horn.

In the future, if Horn has to manage multiple counties, there might even be monasteries at the county level.

"...thus making the hierarchical division apparent." Under the focused gaze of everyone, Horn raised his fingers one by one, "Wandering Cultivators—Monastic Leader—Priest-in-Charge—Imperial Priest—Cardinal."

Since the hierarchy is exclusively appointed and formed by the Salvation Army Government, the Hundred Households Captains or Town Mayors elected from below are not part of the hierarchy.

If these grassroots officials and civil servants perform well, they may be nominated by superiors and enter the Saint Father Academy of Autumn Dusk Island.

After graduating, they are automatically granted the status of Robed Cultivators, similar to the Sword-carrying Cultivators for officers.

They, like other nationals of the Salvation Army Country, are monks.

The difference is that the former are responsible for administrative work, while the latter are responsible for military work.

"Your Eminence, but I would like to ask, what’s the difference compared to before?" Hakuto couldn’t help but raise his hand to ask.

This was also the question on the minds of most people present; the original system of the Salvation Army Government was pretty good, why change it?

Horn smiled slightly, "Previously, I would make a proposal, for example, to build canals across the village, indicating which district should construct what.

Alright, everyone would take their tasks and get to work... what do you think about that?"

"What’s wrong with it?"

Other attendees were surprised instead.

"It’s too rigid like that, fine for a village, but what if it’s a county? What if it’s the entire Thousand River Valley?" Horn tapped his fingers on the table, "By that time, I’d spend a whole day just listening to reports and a whole day issuing orders!"

"You can appoint governors for each village," suggested some clever person loudly, "let them decide these matters, wouldn’t that be better?"

"Foetentes soni, stulta verba (in Ancient Aier)," Catherine couldn’t help but whisper to the side.

"Aren’t you afraid he’ll rebel and start a civil war with us?" Busak stood up, scolding towards where the voice had come from.

"Couldn’t we send someone to supervise him?"

"How can you ensure the supervisors won’t be turned against us?"

"Or we could send more people; let them check and balance each other."

The crowd buzzed with various opinions, but most of these issues had been discussed in the Imperial Cardinal Conference by Horn, so the cardinals rebutted them one by one.

"Silence! Silence!" Thomas hammered the table, commanding the crowd to quiet down with his Saint’s Great-Grandson identity.

Horn calmly continued,

"You’ve all found the shortcomings of the old system. Now, listen to the new process.

I propose a strategy; if the Imperial Cardinal Conference deems it feasible, it’s passed down for departments to formulate concrete implementable laws.

Once laws are set, the Imperial Cardinal Conference breaks it down into task objectives and evaluation criteria for the Village Monasteries and distributes it, who further break it down for the Priestly Orders.

For instance, if I propose developing agriculture at the start of the year and the Imperial Cardinal Conference believes it should be completed in three years,

then in the first year, develop water conservancy, setting it as an evaluation criterion distributed to the Village Monasteries.

The Village Monasteries could propose constructing an irrigation channel for the entire village, issuing tasks and indicators to the Priestly Orders.

The Priestly Order’s wandering cultivators break it down further; when it reaches each Hundred Households Captain, the task becomes constructing a small section of an irrigation channel by them.

At year’s end, the Imperial Cardinal Conference verifies the Village Monasteries’ results, and Village Monasteries verify the Priestly Orders’ achievements, while wandering cultivators check the Hundred Households Captains’ outputs.

This way, the specific decision-making power, the ’how to do it,’ is delegated to local levels, while we simply decide ’what to do,’ significantly reducing decision mistakes and workload.

If tasks are done well, there’s a promotion. Done poorly, a demotion.

It’s just that simple."

"Apostolic Vision!" After pondering for some time, numerous high-level attendees nodded in agreement one after another.

Yet among the chorus of praise, Qianqian frowned, sharply recognizing the most critical point.

He looked towards Catherine, only to find her looking at him meaningfully.

Qianqian hesitated for a moment, then stood up,

"But Your Eminence, where do the people come from? How is the money managed?"