Chapter 96

Since everything in Huayan Commandery had to be redone from scratch, everything besides the basic tax framework also needed to be reorganized quickly.

That afternoon until evening, Elara stayed in her room with Scholar Fu, discussing all matters regarding the restructuring of Huayan Commandery.

With Scholar Fu being such an efficient SP staff member, Elara's work efficiency naturally improved a lot. Scholar Fu handled the information on Huayan Commandery with ease, which gave Elara solid data to support every decision she made and reduced the chance of mistakes.

Huayan Commandery had once been the most prosperous southwestern border city in Plumera State. Its geographic position was excellent, and it had once been rich in various special products.

Before chaos spread in Plumera State, Huayan had fertile land and high elevation, producing all kinds of grains and fruits. It was one of the most developed agricultural areas and used to be a major grain production center.

When the court was still stable, Huayan also served as the top trade import and export city in the southwest, frequently engaging in trade with the nearby nation of Xuhua. That period marked the peak of Huayan's prosperity.

But once Plumera State fell into chaos, people were displaced, and bandits, natural disasters, and wars all struck at once. Tens of thousands of acres of good farmland were left untouched, the forests became wild and overgrown, and trade roads were destroyed by thieves.

In this situation, foreign trading nations like Xuhua naturally stopped coming. On top of that, people like Gao Qiong deliberately raised heavy new taxes, so Huayan Commandery ended up in its current miserable state.

Still, even though the surface was ruined, Huayan Commandery's two greatest advantages remained.

First was its location. It was still the best southwestern import-export city in Plumera. As long as the surrounding bandits could be cleared out, roads repaired, relay stations built, and trade routes secured, and word spread that the burdensome taxes were gone and only fair base tariffs remained, the trade routes could reopen very soon.

Second, the land, though abandoned, was still fertile. Currently, most of Plumera State relied on beans and grains for food. That was partly because much of the land was barren and not suitable for rice and millet, and the few good fields had been either destroyed, seized, or abandoned.

The land under Huayan's control fell into the last category, taken by force then left to waste.

Now that Elara was here, it would be reclaimed and reopened. She had gathered so many refugees along the way not only to help them settle and avoid turning to banditry but also so she would have enough manpower to carry out her plans when she reached Huayan.

Still, reclaiming such a vast area of farmland and planting crops again wouldn't be easy.

First, just like with trade roads, there were still many bandits holding the land, other than the route Elara had taken. Until they were cleared out, farming couldn't even begin.

Second, Elara naturally wanted to develop this first base of hers into the best it could be. She wanted to make it a major grain storage site for the future.

She knew she would need to go to war eventually. Even if she didn't mention far-off enemies, just the ones like Lord Gregory in Plumera Capital were eyeing her, waiting for the chance to attack.

Once she faced them again, it would likely be a fight to the death. If war was coming, then food and supplies needed to be secured in advance. Elara wanted the best results for her farmland, but there were two issues. One, the land hadn't yet been fully reclaimed. Two, she had no experts in farming.

Though Elara had once been the CEO of a corporation in her previous life and had knowledge of agriculture, she had no real farming experience. And the guidebook Basic Ancient Farming Manual from System 92 could only be unlocked after storing one million units of grain.

"Your Highness, there isn't much farmland in Huayan that can be planted right now. Most of it is still abandoned. You can start by having people open up the wasteland and meanwhile recruit people who know how to farm."

Scholar Fu sat beside her and discussed the matter. Seeing her frown, he offered some encouragement.

"Alright then," Elara said after a while. She agreed that for now, Scholar Fu's approach was the most practical. She picked up the "officials list" beside her and added a whole new section of agricultural-related positions.

Once she finished drawing them, she and Scholar Fu continued discussing the future development of Huayan Commandery.

By the time they finished, it was already dark outside. The "officials list" had been rewritten so much by Elara that it looked entirely different, practically a brand-new administrative chart.

The official positions in this era's court were chaotic and incomplete.

Back when Elara first studied the system of Plumera's government in the capital, she had already expressed confusion and frustration at how messy and crude the ranks were.

Aside from military, civil, and ceremonial posts, most other positions were disorganized. Some overlapped in duties, some were empty titles, and others were so vague that even the appointed officials didn't know what their responsibilities were.

Now that everything in Huayan Commandery was being rebuilt from the ground up, Elara had no intention of copying Plumera's confusing and bloated system.

While discussing things with Scholar Fu, Elara also combined what she knew about ancient systems from her past life and created a new chart for government positions, including seven main departments shaped by her own ideas.

The first department was the military.

A country needed strong military power to become independent and develop without fear. In this era, each kingdom had its own army, but due to the enfeoffment system, most armies were controlled by powerful families, making them more like personal forces than national troops.

Take the Qi family's army as an example. Although it was supposed to belong to the Plumera Kingdom, they actually followed General Qi's commands. If the Qi family hadn't stayed loyal through generations, those hundred thousand soldiers might have changed their allegiance a long time ago.

This wasn't good news for someone in the royal family like Elara. The outdated and divisive enfeoffment system would have to be abolished eventually, but since it affected the interests of half the court, she'd need the perfect chance to do it all at once. Right now, it wasn't the time.

Even though she couldn't deal with the enfeoffment system just yet, she had to centralize control of the army.

She planned to place full command of the new army under her direct rule once the new military department was established in Huayan County.

Generals could lead the troops on her behalf, but every soldier needed to know they were loyal only to her and the Plumera Kingdom.

This was the first major task Elara wanted to take on right away — to build a military force loyal only to her. This force would become the foundation for everything she aimed to achieve in the future. She needed her own armed power that would answer only to her.

As for the Qi family's army, she wouldn't ignore them, but since the soldiers were deeply tied to the Qi family, she couldn't take them over. Even if she could, it wouldn't help and might even backfire.

The army, trained under the Qi family's rule, would only function at full strength under General Qi or his siblings. As long as Elara controlled the Qi brothers, she would still have influence over the Qi family's army.

The second department was engineering and construction.

Elara came from a future society, so she understood that real development depended on technology and innovation.

System 92 could provide her with technical knowledge. Based on the talents available in this era, Elara planned to divide the department into several parts. These included agriculture technology, infrastructure construction, military supplies and weaponry, inventions for commerce and daily use, and eventually naval engineering once she had enough resources.

To support all these divisions, she would need people with different kinds of skills.

But the backward education system of this era could not meet her needs. That's why the third department she designed was the education department.

In her original world's ancient past, education was a privilege held by the elite. Even though there were ways to select talent like exams, most people had no access to education, wasting their intelligence and potential. That kind of system was bad for development.

Starting in Huayan County, Elara planned to build public schools managed by the education department. These schools would help ordinary people learn basic knowledge and understanding. This would ensure she always had a supply of talented individuals and also boost overall progress in society.

These three departments were what Elara wanted to set up and grow as soon as possible.

Besides those, there were four more departments: personnel, census and population, criminal investigations, and rituals. She didn't have the time or energy to refine them yet. But after a rough discussion with Scholar Fu, she removed unnecessary positions to make these departments more streamlined and easier to manage. Once she had the right people, she could fill those roles.

In just one afternoon and evening, they had outlined the duties of all seven departments. This efficiency was thanks not only to Elara and Scholar Fu being sharp and capable, but also because Huayan County was still small. The departments had clear divisions, but the tasks weren't too complicated.

The idea of the "Seven Departments" came from the six departments in feudal systems, which didn't even exist in this era yet. Scholar Fu could still follow her thoughts and understand almost everything without needing extra explanation. Sometimes, he even improved on her ideas and offered better solutions.

His amazing ability to absorb and apply new knowledge made Elara admire him even more. If they were in the modern world, she would have handed him a job contract already, letting him name his own salary as long as he agreed to stay with her.

The more she realized how useful Scholar Fu was, the more Elara wanted to keep him by her side.

But unlike in the modern world, she couldn't use contracts to bind people. Scholar Fu wasn't like Mathias either. Since the Pei Family would always support her, she didn't have to worry about Mathias betraying her.

With Scholar Fu, things were different. He had been taken by the original Elara and became a top scholar, but she had nothing to truly keep him in her control.

So after finishing their talk about the new government system for Huayan County, Elara paused when she brought up her real focus — building ironworks and paper mills.

Government systems wouldn't be useful to most people even if they copied them. As for other rulers, even if they weren't bothered by her unusual methods and could understand her ideas, it would still be very hard for them to change an entire kingdom. Without her knowledge from the future, their chances of success were too low. So Elara wasn't worried.