850 Country Embarks (1/2)

Chapter 850 – Country Embarks

Within the Imperial Reading Room.

Ouyang Shuo solemnly took out the imperial seal, taking a last look at the three imperial decrees before personally stamping it. With that, the imperial decrees were set and could not be changed.

When Tsing Yi saw that, she took out a cotton box and carefully placed the imperial decrees inside.

At this very moment, a court lady reported, ”My king, the auspicious time has arrived!”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, smiling as she said to Tsing Yi and Jia Xu, ”Let's go, to the court.”

...

8 AM sharp, Xia Palace main hall.

The auspicious time had arrived, and Ouyang Shuo sat on the throne and started the first court assembly of the Great Xia Dynasty.

Ouyang Shuo looked down at the civil servants and generals and seriously said, ”A new dynasty has been establishing and must be ruled properly. I've ascended to the throne, and I'll remove all chaos, setting up a system to rule the wilderness.”

The officials all bowed, ”The king is wise!”

Ouyang Shuo said, ”Decree!”

Secretary Bai Nanpu who was standing not far from Ouyang Shuo respectfully took out the cotton box and started to read the imperial decree upon hearing the order.

Bai Nanpu had been around Ouyang Shuo for a long time; he was stable in his work. Although he was placed in the Secret Document Pavilion, his role was more like the manager of the eunuchs, and he was in charge of reading the imperial decrees.

To Bai Nanpu, it was the king showing him a lot of gratitude and thanks.

The first decree to be read was the Great Xia Dynasty title system.

Based on the system, any children of the Great Xia Dynasty, be it soldiers, students, artisans, or merchants, as long as they did well in their fields, they could be awarded a title.

To the dynasty, soldiers killing on the battlefield were contributing, merchants paying tax and opening up trade routes were contributing, teachers educating were contributing, artisans inventing were contributing....

Since one contributed, one needed to be rewarded.

The lowest title was the 1st class baron. The titles were further split down into nine grades, 1st class as the highest and 9th class as the lowest. Each occupation had their specific class standards.

The title given by the dynasty was only an honorary one; it did not come with any salary increase or monetary reward. However, anyone with a title would have a higher status than civilians and would be treated with more respect.

Hence, it gave people who contributed to the dynasty a lot of respect.

After reading the title system, Bai Nanpu followed by announcing the list of the first group of people granted titles. Apart from the few during the ascension ceremony, all the generals and civil servants present were given titles one by one.

Based on Ouyang Shuo's request, the titles were not given based on appointment but by their contribution to the dynasty. Hence, the longer the official served in the territory, the higher their title.

Take Culture Division Secretary Xu Shuda as an example; he was given the title of 3rd class earl. Even if newcomers had high appointments, they might just become a viscount. For example, Kou Zhun and Di Renjie were given the titles of 3rd class viscount.

With that, it rewarded the old guard while also giving the new ones pressure to give their all for the dynasty.

...

After announcing the list of people who were given titles, next would be to announce the organizational structure of the Great Xia Dynasty as well as the appointments.

During this reorganization, apart from adjusting the original organizations, 20 odd support organizations were made to perfect the system.

The new support organizations included the imperial medical court, imperial academy, and the like.

The Xia Palace used court ladies to replace eunuchs, setting up 12 offices.

Apart from that, in the inner palace, there were also four new divisions and eight bureaus, merging into the 24 Yamen of the inner palace. The court ladies also had six bureaus, paying attention to the palace, rituals, food, sleep, and the like. Each bureau had four divisions under them.

However, since only Ouyang Shuo, Song Jia, and the underage princes Bing'er lived in the palace, Ouyang Shuo did not like excessive extravagance and ordered the 24 Yamen to make it simple.

If not, it would be hard to maintain the running of the dynasty.

With the support organizations being set up one by one, the aura and appearance of a dynasty appeared.

Of course, the most core adjustments were in the original Nanjiang Governor-General House. These organizations were the true core to maintaining the running of the dynasty and had to be treated seriously.

Setting up the cabinet to take charge of administrative matters, there would be one Grand Secretary and one assistant. Jiang Shang was officially appointed as the Grand Secretary and Kou Zhun as the assistant to help Ouyang Shuo.