Qing Yao

Chapter 26 This Can Also Be Outsourced

The county magistrate personally instructed Zhao An to do it, and he had no choice but to do it. It was better to make the craftsman suffer than to make the county magistrate suffer.

After all, one or two taels of silver would at most make the craftsman sad for a while, but if the county magistrate lost it, he would hang himself, and a large group of his subordinates would also jump into the river.

Human life is at stake, what does conscience matter?
Let’s put it aside for now. If you are poor, you should take care of yourself. If you are rich, you should help the world.

It is not without reason that poverty breeds evil and wealth breeds conscience.

After Master Ji, who had accurately conveyed the "spirit of the instructions" to the county magistrate, left, Zhao An thought about the matter seriously in the duty room. The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed to him. So he picked up his pen and drafted a tentative draft of "a method to grant craftsmen in the county the right to be trusted by the people."

It sounds quite awkward, but it is quite formal.

The method clearly stipulates that the certification fee is one thousand wen. Taking into account the special circumstances of some craftsmen, several standards for fee reduction and exemption are also listed.

For example, disabled people can have their fees reduced by half, and people from extremely poor families can also have their fees reduced or exempted.

In short, the method is still humane.

Just not much.

There was no other way. From the tone of Master Ji, the county magistrate was counting on getting 20,000 to 30,000 taels from the craftsmen as an emergency measure.

How can we accomplish this task if we have to reduce or exempt all of them?

Besides, if you can’t even handle small things, how can you handle big things?
You, Zhao An, sympathize with the people, but no one sympathizes with you.

I can only calm down first.

After reading it carefully, Zhao An called all his subordinates over and pretended to brief everyone on the county magistrate's instructions to the department.

The five words "The County Master told me" appear quite frequently, which not only shows that the County Master is highly concerned about the work of the Certification Department, but also shows that the County Master highly recognizes Zhao An as the person in charge.

In addition, with the personal attendance of the county magistrate and the close relationship between Master Ji and the ambassador, Zhao An did not need to deliberately show off his "official power" or make an example of others. He naturally had authority in the eyes of his subordinates, and they were willing to obey his orders.

Of course, this is also because these people were originally small errand boys who had to obey orders in their original units. Now they have no connections or background to rely on in the new units. What else can they do if they don't obey? They can't ruin their own jobs.

These days, there are so many people scrambling to get a job at the government office!

After the formalities, Zhao An got down to business. He did not mention that the main task of the Certification Department was to make money by selling honorary titles of famous products and well-known trademarks. Instead, he took out the plan he had just drafted and circulated it among everyone.

"Ambassador Zhao, does the county want us to charge the craftsmen in the city?"

The person who spoke was Wang Yishan, who was transferred from the Household Affairs Office. He was in his early thirties, had a student degree, and was a relatively honest person. However, because of his honesty, he had not been promoted to a clerk after working in the Rites Office for thirteen years.

Zhao An had previously come into contact with Wang Yishan when he was a temporary worker in the household department, so they were not strangers to each other.

Zhao An obviously didn't like the idea of ​​charging money randomly, so he immediately corrected Wang Yishan: "How can this be called charging money randomly? We charge certification fees. If he can't pass our certification, we won't accept the money even if he wants to."

A subordinate who was transferred from the etiquette room asked curiously, "Ambassador Zhao, what does certification mean?"

"Certification means we give him a certificate to prove that his craftsmanship is first-class and his service attitude towards customers is good."

Zhao An explained this, then added, "But we can't certify him for free, so we'll charge a symbolic fee of 1,000 wen."

"Isn't that just absurd charges?" Honest man Wang Yishan couldn't wrap his head around it. He simply shook his head and said, "Ambassador Zhao, craftsmen are hard workers. How much can they earn walking around the streets in a year? The county just charged them a thousand coins without asking any questions. How can they pay? What will the people think of this?"

"Yes, one thousand coins is too much. It's really hard to accept this."

"If we collect this money, won't our certification department be severely criticized by the people?"

"."

After hearing this, the other people nodded in agreement, saying that the money could not be collected. Even Liu Xiaolou said that the county was not doing the right thing, and if their certification department really wanted to collect the money, they would be criticized and criticized.

Zhao An knew very well that it was not easy to collect the money, but this was a task assigned by the county magistrate himself. He was already on the fire, so how could he just jump away?

What everyone says is not without reason. If we can't even do the internal ideological work, how can we do the external work?
Zhao An, having come up with a clever idea in a hurry, used his wisdom gained from two lives. He raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and then said, "Everyone should understand that this 1,000-wen certification fee is not collected casually, but is collected as a deposit."

What is the deposit? Zhao An explained that if the craftsman harms the interests of the people while working, the people’s losses will be compensated from the deposit.

For example, if a barber cuts someone's head and refuses to compensate the person, the certification department will step in and pay the compensation from the 1,000-wen deposit.

In short, the only purpose of the deposit is to ensure that the interests of the people are not harmed.

"Also, this thousand coins can be refunded."

Zhao An made another positive patch to the certification fee. Regardless of whether the refund is real or fake, as long as there is a statement that it can be refunded, the resistance encountered when actually charging will definitely drop exponentially.

These are the crystallizations of the wisdom of the public servants in previous lives.

What, you really want to quit?

Line up to get the application form and register first. After registration, go home and wait for news. If there is no news, it means the leader is not there.

If you can delay it, do so. If you really can’t, I’ll give you a discount and refund.

Who dares to say that he has no problems at all?

After Zhao An's packaging, the one thousand Wen certification fee instantly became a great thing done by the government for the people. The thinking of the newly transferred certification personnel also changed collectively, and they all praised the county for finally doing something practical for the people.

Now that the internal staff have reached a consensus, Zhao An, as the person in charge, will naturally arrange the specific work.

Zhao An had already thought of how to arrange it, which was the piecemeal contract system.

Each of the eight subordinates is responsible for an area, and they strive to exceed the task assigned by the county magistrate within half a month.

Unexpectedly, when everyone heard that this task had to be completed in half a month, they all looked reluctant and felt that it was really difficult to accomplish.

Wang Yishan stood up and spoke on behalf of the crowd, "Ambassador Zhao, we're not complaining, but Yangzhou City is so big, there must be at least 10,000 or 20,000 craftsmen. It would take forever for just a few of us to collect all the money. If Ambassador really wants to complete this quickly, I'm afraid he'll have to talk to the county and ask them to send more people to our department."

There probably isn't anyone in the county who can be assigned to Zhao An because everyone is busy.

Moreover, Zhao An didn't want the county to send anyone to him anymore. It would be troublesome if they really sent someone to help him.

The problem of insufficient manpower must be solved, and it must be solved immediately. So after thinking about it, he nodded to everyone and said, "What you said is true. We don't have enough manpower in our company. How about this, let's outsource this matter."

(End of this chapter)