Supervision Department
After saying goodbye to Bob, Victor left Riverside Town with Veronica and Octavia, taking with him a prepared empty can.
Inside the carriage, Victor was still examining the canned food boxes when Veronica asked curiously, "Will this kind of canned food be useful?"
"Of course, the airtightness of this tin can and the reducing properties of tin can effectively isolate oxygen, light and moisture, significantly slow down food spoilage, and greatly extend the shelf life, well, it can probably reach more than 6 months."
Moreover, these tin cans have high mechanical strength and low transportation losses, making them very suitable as supplies for long-distance ocean voyages and military campaigns.
It's estimated that this will become another best-selling product in our territory in the future.
"Is it really that good? I'd like to try it when it's ready."
Veronica was very curious about the tin cans Victor was talking about, but she believed that Victor would come true.
It was already afternoon when they returned to Wood Fort Town. Unexpectedly, the snow that had been falling for several days stopped as soon as they arrived.
Victor had the carriage take him to the Government Affairs Office first, and then take Veronica home; he still had some work to do.
The Government Affairs Office was bustling with activity. Victor noticed that there were many people in Powell's room, guessing that Powell was busy.
Victor went straight back to his Ducal House, where his secretariat had compiled a number of documents that needed to be reviewed and processed.
After Victor sat down, he began to read the documents. His father, Wembley, had already handled the more important arrangements, so Victor only needed to take a look at them again.
Some documents that were not urgent but difficult to handle were left for Victor to review and process personally.
In particular, some of the documents were in a red box, and Victor opened the box and examined them carefully.
"These guys, are they really not afraid of death?"
After reading the documents, Victor was furious. He picked up the bell on the table and called for his secretary.
Soon a young man from his secretariat rushed over. "Sir, what are your orders?"
"Let me see this detailed investigation report on the farm manager's embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds."
"Yes!" Perhaps sensing that Victor's tone was not very good, he quickly took out a thick stack of investigation materials.
After Victor told him to leave, he picked up the materials and began to read them.
The investigation materials are very detailed, including witness testimonies and a detailed criminal record of the farm manager admitting to his crimes.
When Victor saw that the farm manager was abusing his position to resell winter supplies, especially cotton clothing and fuel, to the farm's indentured slaves, causing hundreds of slaves to freeze to death or suffer frostbite and lose their ability to work, Victor was extremely angry.
This person committed a very low and stupid act. Even in winter, when farming is at its off-season, the Department of Civil Administration would regularly draw on the contract slaves of various farms to participate in the construction of infrastructure within the territory.
This farm was responsible for building an irrigation canal near the farm, but it was discovered that the indentured slaves working there were always the same group of people, even though they were supposed to be rotated according to the rules.
This incident caught the attention of Powell's internal oversight team, who, after launching an investigation, uncovered the farm manager's misconduct.
After reviewing the investigation records, Victor approved of the supervisory team's findings. He directly wrote on the document, "The farm manager shall confiscate all property, strip his immediate family members of their Freemen status, and send them all to the mines as slaves."
After a brief pause, Victor continued, "The businessman who bought this batch of stolen goods will have all his illegal gains confiscated and will be fined five times the amount. If he fails to pay in time, he will be stripped of his Freemen citizenship."
It should be noted that, in order to make them easy to distinguish, Victor had marked the winter clothes distributed to the indentured slaves at each farm, making them easy to identify.
These unscrupulous merchants knew these were stolen goods, yet they still bought them; it was tantamount to knowingly committing a crime.
In the early days of expanding his territory, Victor dealt with many officials who had committed offenses, but the merchants involved were basically only required to hand over their illegal gains and pay a fine of one or two times the amount owed.
This time, Victor was punished five times over, which is indeed a very severe punishment.
On the one hand, it is believed that the outcome was indeed very bad, with hundreds of contract slaves suffering disabilities or even death due to a lack of winter clothing and fuel for winter, which is a very serious loss to the territory.
On the other hand, the Two Rivers Territory has been established for more than two years, and the merchants of these territories should already be aware of the territories' attitudes toward these matters.
After all, Victor would often arrange for some low-ranking civil officials to preach the laws in various parts of the territory, and both Freemen and indentured slaves could ask questions.
Previously, there were very few Freemen in the territory. Victor let them off the hook for the sake of the territory's economic development. However, these people still knowingly broke the rules and repeatedly refused to change their ways. Victor no longer wanted to forgive them.
"It seems that the laws of the territory need to be further revised, and the penalties for this type of case must be increased and made more severe."
It's also time to formally establish an oversight body; otherwise, relying solely on the internal oversight team is far too slow to react.
In the past, Victor could frequently check on the various tasks in the territory, and could quickly discover any problems that arose.
But now that his territory is growing larger and he has to lead troops into battle, he really doesn't have time to focus his energy on this anymore.
Thanks to Powell's team, they only discovered the problem and began investigating after it had escalated. In this case, the problem was only discovered after serious consequences had occurred, causing severe damage to the territory.
After Victor figured it out, he asked someone from the secretariat to inform Powell to come to Victor's Ducal House when he was done with his work.
Not long after, the secretariat staff brought Powell to Victor's Ducal House.
Victor first showed the document and his comments to Powell, asking, "Take a look and see if there are any problems with this approach?"
Powell took the document and began to read it. He knew about this, since he was always the first to review the oversight team's documents.
However, he was somewhat surprised after seeing Victor's comments, since the outcome of this case was indeed quite serious.
"My lord, I don't think there's any problem. We've been too lenient with these people in the past. If this were in the mainland, many lords would have executed these kinds of people directly."
Victor nodded. Powell's statement was indeed true. These people were essentially exploiting the territory, and no lord would let them off easily.
"I intend to establish a new Supervision Department, which will participate in the work of the territory as an independent department, with the power to investigate directly without seeking approval."
Do you have anyone you could recommend who would be suitable to lead this department?
Powell knew that this case had really angered the Viscount, otherwise he wouldn't have wanted to set up a special department. He probably felt that the oversight team under him was too inefficient.
Powell thought for a moment and then replied, "Sir, I recommend my subordinate Kublai. Although he is young, he is very hardworking and loyal to you. He is a suitable candidate."
Victor smiled. Powell had always been like this, recommending the worthy without regard to personal relationships. Orlando, the former head of the Intelligence Department, was also one of his old subordinates.
However, Victor did have some impression of this Kublai. He was a very serious young man who rarely smiled and was now the head of the supervisory group. He was indeed a very suitable candidate.
"Okay, let him take charge of this department. You can also contribute. The supervisory team will be directly assigned to this department. As for the rest of the staff, you can draw some people from the education system."
"Yes, sir."
The territory's education system serves as the starting point for most civil servants. Outstanding teachers can be directly transferred to junior civil service positions, so many new departments draw personnel from the education system when they are established.