Ye Zuwen and his eldest son Ye Guoxuan had just arrived in Jingzhou yesterday, but due to Wang Zhenyu's impatience, he couldn't let his future father-in-law rest for a while, so he immediately organized this small meeting.

  Chen Shao's proposed reform roadmap has now been copied into five copies, with one copy in each person's hand. Now, everyone is carefully reading this plan book.

  Specifically, Chen Shao's overall direction for reform is consistent with Wang Zhenyu's, but there are differences:

  One is the reform in grassroots organizations, which has a similar starting point with Wang Zhenyu, both of whom plan to expand their power by adding new things on the basis of maintaining the original social structure. The difference lies in Chen Shao's slight disdain for merchants, like his teacher Wang Kuan, thinking that they are good at following the wind and cannot be relied upon.

  Wang Zhenyu disagreed, saying that merchants are also human beings who pursue profits, and there is not much difference between them and farmers. If this were not the case, why did so many farmers become merchants in later generations? The only possible difference lies in their determination. Moreover, even this difference is an illusion. Are farmers not cunning at all? Cunning is a human trait that has little to do with occupation or social class. Merchants seem less reliable than farmer brothers not because of their poor character, but because they are no longer barefooted. For people who wear shoes, it is impossible to drive them with small profits like you can with farmers who are still barefooted. If you want merchants to follow your lead and create a new situation like farmers do, you must be able to move their interests. However, with an army of less than 5,000 soldiers, a territory of only one prefecture, and relying on a mere town guard, Wang Zhenyu had little to offer to deceive these wise men.

  Timely is the political power of this state, but it's not enough to make merchants lend their full support. So Wang Zhenyu played with just a concept, from now on, as long as my influence rises, in my jurisdiction, I will have to implement democracy, I will have to hold parliament. For merchants, this is not just about power, but also a kind of hope, a guarantee for personal and property safety.

  Now that we have the concept, let's invest together. The more you invest, the greater the returns will be, of course, the risks will also increase. Want to reduce risk? Then fight with me, not for anything else, just to defend the fields that I promised to give you.

  This difference in opinion has little impact because Chen Shao's focus is on the county council:

  Within each county, 100 administrative villages were set up, and no townships were established. Instead, commercial towns were established along the trade routes (land roads). The functions of these commercial towns are: one is to purchase various agricultural products, and two is to provide various living necessities that farmers cannot produce on their own.

  What surprised Wang Zhenyu the most was that Chen Shao was somewhat different from Wang Kuan, and he actually understood some business sense. It's known that the Wang family has always been proud of themselves, looking down on businessmen, could it be that Wang Kuan has grown old and changed his ways, preparing to abandon Confucianism for commerce?

  Firstly, based on Chen Shao's investigation in Jingzhou for nearly a month, a market system was proposed. That is, within the scope of each county, ten business towns were set up, and each town had a school (primary school), a health station, a public security substation, and a road protection team, as well as various shops and markets. Every five business towns formed a small business association, which allowed any merchant to participate, and every five days, one market was held in a business town. The daily management of the business town was handled by the Chamber of Commerce of that town, the public security substation was affiliated with the county government, and the road protection team was affiliated with the higher-level road protection squadron.

  The county council is the highest authority in the county, composed of village heads, town mayors, ethnic group leaders and local social celebrities, who have the right to vote on major and minor matters in the county.

  Secondly, it takes into account the essence of social stability, which is that everyone has food to eat and the world is at peace. A commercial dividend plan was proposed, where all 40 business towns under Jingzhou Prefecture would be responsible for managing their own daily affairs, including education, health, and town construction. The annual commercial tax and operating tax collected would be allocated according to the principle of retaining four-sevenths and submitting one-seventh to the county finance bureau.

  The self-retained portion of each town's Chamber of Commerce is divided into three parts, two of which are paid to the villages and stockades within the designated radiation range of the commercial town according to the proportion of land area and population. If there are people in the village who participate in looting or attacking the commercial road that year, the allocation quota for that village will be automatically reduced by half. By linking the interests of each village with the safety of the commercial road, the cost of robbery is increased. At the same time, the method of binding benefits is used to induce all villages to participate in the protection and construction of the commercial road.

  At the same time, the prefecture and county governments allocated funds to repair the entire business road, improve the road conditions, and accelerate the efficiency of commodity circulation.

  In terms of county town construction and management, Chen improved the power structure of the council:

  Part of the county government's revenue is unified into the county finance by the County Council.

  The county magistrate is elected by the county council. The annual financial budget of each county, except for a fixed proportion to be submitted to the superior authority, shall be reviewed by the county council.

  The head of the county public security bureau is nominated by the county magistrate and appointed or removed by the county council.

  In terms of judicial power, Chen Shao suggested setting up a procuratorate and courts, adopting a vertical management model from top to bottom, forming effective supervision over local councils and governments. At the same time, it also allows governments to face dual supervision from both councils and judiciary. In Chen's view, governments are the final executive departments and directly interact with the people. As long as the supervision of governments is in place, many problems can be solved and many risks can be avoided.

  After listening to Chen Shao's statement, Ye Zuwen nodded in satisfaction and then turned to Wang Zhenyu: "Wen Zheng, where did you find such a great talent? You're so lucky!"

  Since the marriage had a clear direction, Ye Zuowen no longer called Wang Zhenyu General, but directly called him by his name. And Wang Zhenyu also stopped calling him Mr. Ye, but respectfully called him Ye Weng, and referred to himself as Wen Zheng.

  "Yeweng, this man is the favorite disciple of Wang Mengwang Kuiyun's old master. Now it is time to revive the past glories, and to have someone like Mr. Chen Shao with great talent is indeed a blessing for Wen Zheng."

  Next is the military reform proposed by Wan Yao-huang and Xu Yuan-quan. After all, the overall situation has basically stabilized now, although Wang Zhen-yu knows that the chaotic era of the Republic of China has just begun. But to really participate in the struggle for hegemony, it's not necessary to simply launch a war. You also need to consolidate your existing power, stabilize your own foundation, and then take the step of expansion, only then can you ask for the ultimate goal?

  Wan Yao-huang's suggestion is: the local security brigade commander should be directly appointed and removed by the Security Command Center.

  The security battalion is equivalent to an infantry regiment and has three companies under it.

  The first squadron was the escort squadron, which had ten under-strength platoons with 140 men. They were stationed in various commercial towns and rotated once a year, responsible for patrolling the protection of commercial towns and roads, with half equipped with cavalry.

  The second battalion is a mobile battalion, with five reinforced companies, two hundred people, all stationed in the county town, equipped with 200 military horses.

  These 340 people were all trained and organized according to regular military formations, with recruitment of soldiers and appointment of officers entirely in the hands of the garrison command. Strictly speaking, local recruits for these two battalions were not allowed to exceed 50%. Soldiers served for five years, and those who could not be transferred to field troops would be discharged after reaching the age limit. They had three options: first, they could be assigned to a public security station or a police bureau based on actual needs; second, they could be recruited into enterprises that might be established in the future; third, most of them could enter vocational schools for free and study for one year, and then find their own way after graduation. The military pay was 40% of the regular army standard, paid directly by the garrison command every month. One-quarter of the military pay for the mobile battalion was handed over to the branch department by each county government, and one-quarter of the military pay for the guard battalion was handed over to the branch department by each commercial town's chamber of commerce. The age limit for soldiers in the mobile battalion was 25 years old, and for officers it was 35 years old. The age limit for soldiers in the guard battalion was 30 years old, and for officers it was 45 years old.

  The third battalion is the militia battalion, composed of armed forces from each village, with one class per village, and a regular formation of four people. The class leader is appointed by the village head, and the weapons are issued directly by the security brigade, with periodic checks and replenishment, and damaged ones are replaced. The battalion department and squadrons are separately located in the county town and business towns. The source of officers for the battalion department and squadron department comes from two sources: one is to select the best from the transferred officers and soldiers from the other two battalions under the brigade; the second is to promote them based on their merits and performance from among the small team leaders.

  The Huimin team participates in a military competition once a year, in October's autumn drill. The officers' treatment is paid directly by the county government according to 40% of the regular army standard, while the soldiers' treatment is relatively poor, only taking 30%. These expenses are audited by the Jingzhou Prefecture Procuratorate.

  The other two teams hold two meetings a year, scheduled for May and October each year.

  Due to the needs of the war, the field army mobilized excellent soldiers from various security brigades and mobile detachments. The temporary vacancies that appeared were then filled with personnel from the escort detachments, and the vacancies in the escort detachments were filled with personnel from the civil protection detachments.

  After listening carefully to Wan Yaohuang's suggestion, Xu Yuanquan added another opinion. The mobile squad directly under the county security brigade will attend the meeting at the Town Guardian's Office every March.

  According to this standard, the number of local armed forces in each county will reach 600 people. Wang Zhenyu thought for a moment and felt that this force was basically sufficient if it was maintained locally.

  Xu Yuanquan later put forward his opinions on the reform of the field army:

  First of all is the treatment aspect:

  Soldiers' monthly salary is 8 yuan, platoon-level officers are 15 yuan, company-level officers are 24 yuan, battalion-level officers are 35 yuan, regimental-level officers are 48 yuan, brigade-level officers are 63 yuan, division-level officers are 81 yuan, and army-level officers are 100 yuan.

  The full-time salary is increased by 2 yuan, 3 yuan, 6 yuan, 10 yuan, 12 yuan, 15 yuan, 19 yuan and 30 yuan respectively according to this standard.

  The above is still the same as the treatment system announced by Ma Xi when the Hu Lao Huo team was formed, without much change. However, Xu Yuanquan's suggestion made Wang Zhenyu frown unconsciously.

  First is the establishment of military rank allowances: soldiers are paid five yuan per month, lieutenants twenty yuan per month, regimental officers sixty yuan per month, and generals one hundred yuan per month.

  The second is to establish family allowances: lieutenants are paid 10 yuan per month, captains are paid 30 yuan per month, and generals are paid 80 yuan per month.

  Thirdly, establish high-level military officer subsidies: regimental officers receive 10 yuan per month, brigade-level officers receive 20 yuan per month, division-level officers receive 30 yuan per month, and army-level officers receive 50 yuan per month.

  Fourthly, during wartime, double pay was issued, and for each injury or disability, compensation was made according to 12 times the monthly salary standard of the officer's rank, while the Garrison Command Civil Affairs Bureau was responsible for creating a register and paying 1 yuan of glorious allowance every month as living expenses for their dependents.

  In the event of death, compensation will be made at 24 times the monthly salary standard for the officer's rank. If there are children, they will enjoy nine years of free education, and ordinary residents will have six years. According to the wishes and physical condition of the children, priority can be given to re-enrolling in military school for study.

  The military academy is divided into the officer system (mainly training officers below the company level, such as platoon leaders, deputy platoon leaders, and quartermasters, selected from high school graduates and active-duty soldiers through examinations), infantry command system (cultivating infantry company-level officers from active-duty officers below the company level based on combat achievements and recommendations), artillery command system, and staff system (cultivating professional military staff personnel). In addition, a strategic research school is established to cultivate military intelligence special agents and intelligence analysts.

  This is a systematic project, not to mention the treatment, just setting up a military school requires a large number of professional talents and a huge investment of funds. However, King Zhenyu doesn't plan to give up on the military school, so what's being delayed are the military ranks, family, and high-ranking officers, note that it's delayed not cancelled, still hoping to leave for subordinates; as for wartime double pay, King Zhenyu agreed to it, because this is a must, don't be stingy with subordinates' life-saving money.

  After Xu Yuanquan recorded Wang Zhenyu's decision, Wan Yaohuang raised the issue of recruiting and training new soldiers. In fact, Wang Zhenyu had exchanged views with him privately the night before, and he also attached great importance to this aspect.

  New recruits adopt a recruitment system, new soldiers' monthly salary is four yuan, settlement fee is twenty yuan, and the term of service for new soldiers is six months.

  New recruits recruitment and training are uniformly managed by the division headquarters staff office, training office, and military equipment office (merging logistics and equipment).

  None of the above is the key point, the key point is that from now on, the recruitment power of new soldiers in the 9th Brigade has been unified and returned to the brigade headquarters, and new recruits will know who is the boss of the 9th Brigade from the beginning of their training.

  Politics and military reform plans have a clear direction, Wang Zhenyu looked at Ye Zuwen, the economy is his next concern.

  Ye Zuwen also took a look at Wang Zhenyu, and this time he came, he also brought two big gifts for Wang Zhenyu.