Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 825 Guo Kang: If you're so capable, you write the documents.
However, Guo Kang's worries soon proved to be unnecessary.

Before he could even draft his next steps, the recruitment manager told him that the number of applicants far exceeded expectations. After two weeks of promotion, more than 10,000 people from all over Lower Egypt had signed up, saying they wanted to volunteer for the Legion.

Guo Kang was initially quite happy, so he contacted acquaintances in the corps and planned to retain more non-commissioned officers for training.

On the 33rd Army Corps side, from the corps commander down, there were a bunch of his relatives and friends. And when the conditions were right, Guo Kang himself couldn't resist using his connections. After all, having more connections can be very useful in many situations…

The court has already made arrangements for the veterans of the Eighth Army Corps. To try and retain any more soldiers at this point would be overstepping boundaries. Moreover, his power in Egypt is rapidly expanding. Therefore, Guo Kang himself dares not ask for people casually now.

Initially, like Tuohuan, he was mainly there as a figurehead, actually just for an "internship." However, while Guo Kang's fighting skills were mediocre, he excelled at handling unexpected events. Thus, in the process of organizing various measures to combat the plague, his responsibilities expanded significantly.

Toghon personally supported him throughout. Although many in the court were skeptical of his predictions about the plague's arrival and his assurances on how to combat it, they remained steadfast in their support. The court also hoped to use this opportunity to reorganize Egypt's resources and manpower. In this way, even if the plague did not occur, they could use this opportunity to strengthen their control.

To combat the plague, resources needed to be allocated as efficiently as possible. Initially, people weren't very serious, but as Guo Kang accomplished more and more, many joined in, began to follow his instructions, and participated in larger-scale planning. As a result, Guo Kang's actual "emergency power" grew increasingly greater. Eventually, not only did his role as the temporary Darughachi, overseeing various departments, gradually transform into true jurisdiction, but other units, including the provincial government and the legions that were originally his superiors, increasingly became his subordinates.

Moreover, the fight against the plague was largely driven by Guo Kang himself.

Frankly speaking, given the current knowledge and capabilities of the government, it is unlikely to be able to successfully handle this situation. Officials at all levels are well aware of this. This is not because they lack organizational and managerial abilities, but because they do not actually understand the underlying principles.

Some of the measures needed to combat the plague were understandable to the officials, but many others were beyond their comprehension. The reason for these measures was simply that everyone followed Guo Kang's orders.

However, this project was extremely complex and required meticulous attention to detail. Any oversight could potentially lead to complete collapse. But everyone was in a state of "knowing what to do but not why," and even after Guo Kang urgently trained and explained things to a group of people, the situation only improved slightly. Often, when faced with situations slightly outside the manual, the staff's first reaction was still to consult Guo Kang himself—because apart from him, almost no one else really understood. And when it came to matters of plague, almost every detail was a matter of life and death. Whether driven by the need to solve the problem or the officials' instinctive need to take responsibility, everyone felt that it was best to consult Guo Kang directly.

Therefore, in this operation, Guo Kang handled almost every detail, single-handedly dealing with all sorts of problems. This high concentration of responsibility also led to a high concentration of power. The entire Egyptian-controlled area practically revolved around him.

Before the operation began, everyone had anticipated the centralization of power. The preparations needed to combat the plague were, in fact, similar to those for war, both demanding a high level of organization, discipline, and coordination efficiency.

However, what even Tuohuan himself hadn't anticipated was that the Romans' discipline and the Egyptians' obedience were more than sufficient to meet Guo Kang's requirements—even to the point that Guo Kang found them somewhat rigid and overly strict. Organizationally, after his adjustments, they were also competent. But in terms of efficiency, there was nothing he could do; he could only personally instruct each person individually.

Therefore, power did eventually concentrate upwards, but not at the provincial level; it concentrated entirely in the hands of Guo Kang. When Guo Kang's energy could no longer meet the demands, the power that expanded was not that of the provincial government, but rather that of Guo Kang's assistants.

These people did not hold official positions; they were initially just a temporary group organized by Guo Kang to help out. Because he was overwhelmed, he deliberately bypassed official procedures and found a group of young people who had a better understanding of the plague and were more cooperative in its implementation. Many of them were junior officers, or even ordinary Egyptians; some had no administrative experience whatsoever, but they learned much faster in this area. Therefore, their power rose accordingly, even surpassing that of the government and the military.

Tuohuan was very curious about this. After discovering this phenomenon, he told others that they might have observed how the initial central government in the ancient Central Plains gradually gained authority, surpassing the existing states. The only difference was that back then it was fighting floods, while now it was fighting plagues.

As for the current situation, Guo Kang has essentially "established his own government" in Egypt. However, Tuohuan doesn't care much about this, because he really likes the Three Kingdoms stories and has always felt that Guo Kang is a figure like Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, and what he's doing even has a bit of a destiny-defying quality, the kind of thing that even Prime Minister Zhuge Liang ultimately couldn't achieve. Since that's the case, he'll just imitate Emperor Zhaolie and let him do it.

Of course, even so, some people will still be dissatisfied. After all, this matter concerns the distribution of power. In the eyes of many, Guo Kang is already like a military leader who uses war and military merit to gain higher power. Some even say that he is now the "dictator" of Egypt and is probably going to become Caesar.

However, Tuohuan suppressed these criticisms and even declared that if he wanted to be Caesar, he could be, and he had no objection. As a result, more people began to criticize him, saying he was using fictional accounts of the Three Kingdoms to govern the country and was acting like Liu Bei.

However, Tuohuan took this as a compliment, saying that in the Mediterranean world, being able to learn the military strategies and management methods from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms was already quite impressive. Besides, he genuinely admired Liu Bei; after all, his family's surname was Liu, so what was wrong with that? It was a pity he was only a member of the Liu family in spirit; if he were a real member, things would be much more convenient…

Seeing that he was in this state, no one else could say anything. These opinions remained just that—discussions.

Not long after, Guo Kang, who had been forced to exercise since childhood and whose adoptive father had described him as having "quite a lot of strength," died from overwork...

After that, Guo Kang learned his lesson. If anyone accused him of being an ambitious schemer trying to seize power, he would simply throw down the documents and say, "If you're so capable, you do it yourself." This was enough to scare most people away. However, Tuohuan still thought it best for him to stay out of the limelight. Even his trip to Dadu wasn't just to see Theodora; he also had to deal with various inquiries from the court. Under these circumstances, Guo Kang became somewhat constrained in his actions.

In the end, it was his uncle who stepped in and found some acquaintances to help him retain some of the servants from the former noble families, so that everyone could invest in training these new recruits.

However, this led to a shortage of people to train them.

The situation at the schools was similar. Guo Kang and his subordinates discussed it for a long time, and finally felt that Ali's suggestion was more valuable. Therefore, they specially summoned Ali and asked him to explain his ideas. Afterwards, they appointed him as the person in charge to carry out the preparatory work, intending to allow those who had participated in public service to study at the schools. After their batch graduated, they would start with their children and allow others to receive training as well.

However, this policy was met with a huge wave of opposition. People from all walks of life came to protest.

Guo Kang initially thought the policy was unfriendly to ordinary people who lacked information and access, thus preventing them from joining. However, the protesters this time were all influential local figures. It seemed Ali's assessment was correct; he had overestimated the situation. Therefore, Guo Kang stopped paying attention and instructed his subordinates to continue pushing the policy forward.

Once they had finished their preparations, Tuohuan sent another letter to Guo Kang, saying that since things had come to this point, they should bring more people, and suggested that he mainly bring the newly recruited people.

Guo Kang hadn't considered this approach before, mainly because he felt it would further compromise their combat effectiveness. However, Tuohuan pointed out that the combat effectiveness of his Egyptian soldiers was inherently unreliable. Even the "veterans" Guo Kang considered reliable were merely individuals who had received basic training and participated in the fight against the Black Death over the past few months. While their discipline and organization were reliable, their combat skills were far inferior to those of real soldiers.

Therefore, since these people are all unreliable, there's really no need to agonize over who to bring. The current situation is similar to when they set off with the Rus' people; participation is the main focus. As for the number of people, the more the better.

Having received this information, Guo Kang understood. Since it was just a matter of filling quotas anyway, it was better to leave the core personnel here to complete the mission and take the new recruits who needed training to the front lines. After all, Egyptians serving for the Mamluks might not have received any training at all before going to battle. Compared to that, the training they provided along the way was considered very serious by the locals…

In doing so, Guo Kang was able to recruit a large number of people.

His first step was to gather military provisions. Previously, Egypt's grain supply had been largely controlled by monopolistic merchants. The previous year's harvest had been completely plundered by them, most of it sold off, with a considerable amount still stored in warehouses. Tuohuan had eliminated a large number of grain merchants; and when Guo Kang began to mandate emergency measures across the country, he temporarily seized all privately owned warehouse reserves. Therefore, they had a relatively ample supply of grain.

Before the Black Death arrived, some wealthy merchants were dissatisfied and even secretly plotted to join forces with the remnants of the Mamluks in Upper Egypt to launch an armed uprising. However, Guo Kang quickly implemented strict management and lockdown policies, requiring all residents to comply. Under these strict controls on goods and entry/exit, the wealthy merchants could not hide anything. As a result, many were forced to flee to seek refuge with the wandering Sultan Sheikh, who was then organizing a counter-offensive in the south. Others went to nearby areas with lax controls to continue their preparations.

As a result, when the plague arrived, a large number of these people died, more than Tuohuan had killed directly back then. The obstacle that Guo Kang might have encountered was thus inexplicably resolved.

On the other hand, the locals were used to this kind of exploitation. As a result, when Guo Kang distributed the grain to them, they were incredibly grateful. Their need for grain was also very low, which made Guo Kang himself feel embarrassed. At this point, it all seems a bit darkly humorous…

However, at least in terms of the outcome, all the problems have been resolved.

This time, Guo Kang led nearly 20,000 people out to sea, including various logistical personnel. Meanwhile, many more Egyptians remained on shore, lamenting their loss of the opportunity to be recruited. Only now did Guo Kang realize that in the eyes of many Egyptians, selecting new soldiers was equivalent to selecting Mamluks; allowing locals to participate was an unprecedented act of benevolence.

Furthermore, propaganda claimed that joining the army would not only guarantee one's own future official position and involvement in management, but also provide opportunities for one's descendants to attend school. To the locals, wasn't this just the Mamluks?
Therefore, the newly recovered market was extremely lively, and all cosmetics were sold out. Men with some money dressed up in their finest attire and went to Guo Kang to submit their petitions, hoping he would recruit them as his personal guards.

Guo Kang was utterly perplexed. He asked his assistants, but either they didn't know, or those who did were afraid to speak. Only now did he realize what had happened, and even he was startled…

However, with his departure from Egypt, these messy affairs finally came to an end.

Some elders and provincial officials worried that he might not want to relinquish power and might remain in Egypt, or even, like Caesar and Antony, not want to return. But Guo Kang only felt that he was finally freed from an exhausting job…

He swiftly completed all the handover tasks, tossed piles of documents to his successors, then boarded a warship and, along with nearly a hundred Italian cargo ships that Joanna had helped him charter, sailed north towards Crete.

(End of this chapter)