Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 708: Emperor Zhou: Are you not afraid of the Sixth Division? Hajimi, you...

After organizing the information, Guo Kang called a few assistants and held a meeting.

During the outbreak of the Black Death, he began to promote people with outstanding abilities from different places. Previously, in order to strengthen management, he allocated various settlements in and outside Cairo and appointed a large number of people to manage them.

These people have different origins, beliefs, and ways of being selected. There are powerful people with great prestige in the community, as well as priests with good reputations but very poor, and even small merchants who recommend themselves, and even the head of the dock porters who are elected by the community. There are Muslims, Coptic Christians, and even a Venetian who comes here to buy goods.

Since there was a real lack of management talent here and there was no stable mechanism for selecting officials, the selection of personnel was quite random. In addition, at that time, many people were still waiting and watching or uncooperative, which led to Guo Kang being forced to appoint only one person at a time, anyway, he would take over first.

Judging from the results, the abilities of these people have nothing to do with their backgrounds, and it even goes against the stereotype. Priests who chant scriptures every day are not necessarily incompetent. On the contrary, some priests do a good job in enforcing everyone to abide by the rules.

There was also a merchant who survived the punishment of grain merchants. His family was fined, but he handled things very efficiently and did not covet materials and money. On the contrary, several civilians who were promoted were found to have intercepted materials. Some even could not change their bad habit of stealing. They still stole things after becoming officials. It was hard to say what to say...

Of course, in general, the effect of this batch of promotions on the front line is quite obvious, and a group of very capable people have indeed been selected. This is not to say that Guo Kang has a good vision or that the selection method is advanced. It is simply because the Black Death is too lethal, and those who do not do well will die directly, so the remaining people are at least qualified...

Guo Kang's new assistant was called Hussein. His father was a camel caravan leader and his family had a little money, so he could follow the merchants and learn accounting and writing. And because most of the goods he delivered were sold to the Romans, he also learned the language there.

When the plague was at its worst, he organized camel caravans to deliver supplies to the worst-hit communities. However, due to strict management and compliance with regulations, no one in his team was infected. Therefore, he was rated as excellent in the previous assessment and was given an exceptional position. Now, Guo Kang asked him to recruit a group of people to help compile various documents, translate and classify them.

In addition, there were several people who were responsible for helping Guo Kang deal with the distribution and dispatch of materials in various communities. The leader, named David, came from a Coptic priest family, but he was appointed because he was recommended by the Mamluks.

It turns out that there are many factions within the Mamluks. One of the main factions is composed of the Kipchaks. A few decades ago, they were still the leaders of the dynasty, but later they were defeated by the Circassians and gradually marginalized.

When the Purple Tent Khanate attacked, the Mamluks of the Kipchak family had always been ambiguous. In order to turn things around, many people chose to cooperate, and even began to try to establish a relationship with the Khanate, saying that they were all fellow villagers from the Kipchak steppes, so they shouldn't be so distant. The government was somewhat embarrassed by this strange way of building relationships, but now everyone really needed local collaborators. Therefore, these Mamluks were retained and have been very active.

Guo Kang had previously required that those who held official positions must recommend suitable talents regularly in accordance with government regulations. Therefore, they also found several candidates. However, before the paperwork process was completed, one person encountered an accident, was injured, and could not perform his duties.

At this juncture, every quota was very important, because it would definitely affect the subsequent comparison of power. The Mamluks might not have a high level of education, but they certainly understood these political issues: if you lose one official recommended by the Kipchak family, the Circassians will gain one more. Therefore, no matter what, the vacancies must be filled.

However, the Roman government also had clear requirements. Not just anyone could be elected. The most basic requirement was that one had to understand the official language and could not rely on translation for everything. Moreover, according to Roman tradition, there was a clear political connection between the person being nominated and the sponsor. If the person being nominated performed well, the sponsor would certainly benefit greatly; but if the person being nominated was too poor or committed a crime, the sponsor would also suffer.

Moreover, the Circassians are not fools. If we just pick someone to fill the position, they will definitely be attacked. So, we can't just pick randomly. Finally, a Mamluk officer found that there was a group of Copts in his jurisdiction. Maybe because of religious reasons, these people are indeed closer to the Greeks, and there are also some educated people who know Greek. Isn't that perfect?

Although these people are pagans, whether in the Muslim or Christian world, everyone knows that pagans are often the most effective. As long as both sides are happy, then everyone will be in the same boat from now on, and there is no need to worry about these things. On the contrary, the people on the other side don't care what you believe in.

Therefore, the other Mamluks also expressed their agreement. It would be better to give this position to a pagan than to the Circassians. Besides, the Copts are also followers of Jesus and are closer to the Romans. Maybe they can get along better and help everyone.

Later, David's performance was indeed good, and he was promoted by Guo Kang along with a group of other outstanding grassroots officials to work in the provincial government. They currently do not have a formal official position, and in terms of identity, they are considered clerks under Guo Kang. Their main job is to help Guo Kang with work while also receiving hands-on instruction from Guo Kang and Wu Han, so that they can become familiar with the procedures of various affairs in the government and prepare for their official posting in the future.

Although the rank is not high, the position of these clerks is very confidential, so there are still many people who are eager for this position. Especially now that the situation has become clear, the scope of talent selection and the channels for promotion have also been figured out by everyone, and many people have begun to become active. Of course, for Guo Kang, this is just the first step, and there are more important things to follow. He is already preparing to open a grammar school and train his own officials.

In his opinion, the Roman administrative system was actually very crude, and the training and selection of officials was also very...archaic. Although the imperial court was learning to conduct the imperial examination, it had never been able to make it run perfectly. Many places still relied on this ancient system of recommendation.

Due to the limited cultural level, the official education of the Purple Tent Khanate was heavily dependent on the army. The army recruited young men of appropriate age, provided them with literacy education, and taught them to master basic laws and regulations and write simple official documents. This was the largest and most basic education system in the Purple Tent.

They don't have a special training institution for officials, anyway, it's enough to know how to write official documents. The Corps has to export some of these low-level officers and sergeants every year to fill the increasingly large bureaucracy. It's no wonder that some people say that the Corps is the father of the country, because the entire national system is carried by them.

But even if this is maintained by force, the average level of officials here is far from being excellent. Especially the grassroots officials, who have always been known for their rudeness.

Many of the hundred households in the countryside were retired military officers who brought with them the habits of the army. However, many ways of doing things were understandable in the army, but were a bit too much for the people. Therefore, being conservative, stubborn, and used to using force to intervene and resolve conflicts, and even beating and scolding the people, almost became a stereotype of grassroots officials. Every year, some people were reported to the provincial government or even the imperial court for going too far and causing a big incident.

The imperial court has been trying to improve these situations and ease conflicts and internal frictions between officials and the people, but this is the current situation, and no matter how much it changes, the effect will still be limited.

Guo Kang even felt that the reason this system could run smoothly until now without any major problems was because of the support of its peers. After all, if you tell the residents of other neighboring forces that the officials here enforce the law rudely, the French will ask you what level of rudeness is; the Alemanni will ask you which of the many laws you have to enforce; the Slavs will ask you what an official is...

However, it is reasonable to say that people always want to develop in a better direction. Hoping that society will become better is the driving force for development and progress in many aspects, and we cannot blame them for anything. We cannot say that we just want to compete with the barbarians.

So this time, it just happened to give Guo Kang a chance to see if he could at least get the system of selecting officials up and running. Although it sounds old-fashioned, it's probably not an easy thing to do here. After all, even in Guo Kang's time, few people could handle the official selection system. Most people couldn't handle the system of selecting officials at that time, let alone now...

After the pressure from the plague was reduced, Guo Kang's main task had changed from working himself to directing everyone's work. On the one hand, it was to train new people, and on the other hand, he wanted to be lazy. Before, he was literally exhausted, and today, his brother asked him to work overtime. He really couldn't hold it anymore...

Of course, in addition to these administrative tasks, the recruitment of new soldiers and the expansion of the army have also been put on the agenda. In a sense, this part may be more important to Rome.

If a system is to be implemented, there must be a stable environment. It is best to persist for a long time so that everyone can develop a habit. And all of this needs to be maintained by force. If the force is not good, or even if the Zhou emperor is defeated like the Chu State, then even if civilization really has an advantage, the speed of its impact will be greatly reduced. Therefore, if conditions permit, it is best to take both sides into consideration.

Traditionally, everyone would avoid conscripting soldiers in Egypt because their fighting power was unreliable. Moreover, war is a team activity. If you are not good enough, you will drag everyone down and become a negative effect. It is better not to bring them.

However, Guo Kang believes that although the influence of folk customs exists, it is not so decisive. The Egyptians cannot fight, mainly because no one teaches them to practice, so naturally they cannot fight.

Besides, unlike other armies, the Roman legion is a separate culture. To be precise, a hundred years ago, there were no "Romans" in the heart of what is now Romania, but only Bulgarians, Wallachians, Transylvanians, Serbs, etc. The current concept of Rome is actually derived from the "legionary".

So, if an Egyptian joins the legion, he will become a legionary, not an Egyptian. And as everyone has repeatedly mentioned, the so-called legion is the creator of Rome, so he is also a Roman. From this perspective, there is no need to worry about which nation can fight and which nation cannot. Because what we need to do is not to change the characteristics of the Egyptians, but to turn them into Romans.

Guo Kang had some experience in organizing the Russians before. Now, with the organization during the plague, it would be much easier to mobilize for war, and he could start trying.

(End of this chapter)