Irene actually has some resistance to suppressing the riots. If she had been notified to attend the meeting that night, she would have urged Paul to take measures such as persuasion and negotiation first. At this point, Hansel and Cecil's concerns are justified.
But what really made her very unhappy was the attitude of a group of men towards her. During the process of quelling the riots, as a senior executive of Government Affairs Council, she was once again excluded from the decision-making level, and she was unaware of this matter from beginning to end. It was not until after the riot was quelled and Chief of Staff Schroeder read the report sent by the army to everyone at the meeting that Irene found out with a confused face that such a thing had happened. She remained resentful and silent until the end of the meeting.
Irene feels that she is like a vase placed in Government Affairs Council. Men admire her for a few times when they have free time, but when they encounter an emergency, they immediately throw her away.
Paul explained helplessly, "Oh... my education director, you know that the power of tradition is powerful. Even as a lord, I can't change anything immediately."
He put on an innocent expression. In fact, he never thought of calling Betty over to attend the meeting that night.
Irene understands Paul at this point. He can withstand the pressure of other men and let a woman be in charge of the field of education. This lord is already a rare enlightened person - of course, this also hides the fact that no one except the lord takes education seriously.
When his father asked his sister to share the government affairs with him as a king, the resistance from the courtiers was also huge.
"Hmph! Sooner or later I will shut up those people like Abbott."
Paul cheered her up. "I wish you all the best!"
"So, Lord, how do you plan to deal with the rioting civilians?"
"Oh, this is not an ordinary trivial matter. There are too many people involved. It is obviously inappropriate for me to decide in one sentence like in the past. So I decided to select 5 outstanding Magistrate from Arda and Bairdin as [judges], they will form Lord's Tribunal to jointly hear the matter, Cecil and Russ Hayden will be responsible for identifying the behavior of everyone in the riot, and then submit it to the judges for review, and the judges will formulate reasonable punishment measures based on the size of the crime."
That's not bad. What Irene is most worried about is that Paul will sentence everyone who participated in the riot to death in one sentence. This situation is all too common among local lords who hold military and political power.
"I also plan to use [Lord's Tribunal] as a permanent institution, and this institution will hear all cases in the territory."
"Aren't Magistrate from all over the place not qualified?"
"It is too unreasonable for law enforcement and judicial power to be concentrated in the hands of one person. From now on, the Magistrates, or the police, can only arrest people but have no power to convict them. They must submit them to the court and judges can formally convict them before further punishment. I think this can avoid the abuse of power to a certain extent."
After listening to Paul's explanation, Irene nodded. "This is a good improvement."
Although the idea is wonderful, Paul is very troubled by how to concentrate this power on the Lord's Manor. If tax contracting is the same, in those remote rural areas, Local Gentry's private courts and private punishments are everywhere. When local people have disputes, the first thing they think of is not to go to the lord, but to find local famous people to solve the problem.
But he did not have a powerful organization in his hands that could immediately control the countryside, and could only change it slowly.
The riots named "4·15 Incident" by Paul had a huge impact on him. Not only did he need to build the [telegraph] system, he also strengthened the construction of the Internal Guards and the Department of Public Safety Gate.
As early as last year, [Department of Public Safety] was established in Government Affairs Council, led by Russ Hayden who was born in the Internal Guards Army. However, due to financial and other factors, Russ has always existed as a barebones Commander. Now Government Affairs Council plans to make this department truly effective.
Lakeheart Town plans to establish a police force of 2,000 people in the next five years. They will replace the old Magistrate system, maintain order in various towns, and extend power to the countryside when appropriate.
As for Internal Guard Unit, its original intention when it was established was to protect the personal safety of office spaces and senior personnel, so it was very small. Now Paul plans to develop them into a team similar to the armed police in the previous life. As an important part of the public security field, it is imperative to expand its scale.
There is one more thing that needs to be resolved urgently, and that is the livelihood of the salt people on the beach.
Unlike emerging industries such as porcelain, cans, and papermaking, the emergence of salt farms has a huge impact on the traditional salt industry. If no measures are taken, it will inevitably become the source of new unrest.
Therefore, Government Affairs Council proposed two methods: First, guide the young labor force among salt residents to divert to emerging industries.
The second is to open a government-run salt farm to attract salt residents to work there.
However, due to the recent war and a series of new measures, Government Affairs Council did not have much spare money to build a salt farm. Therefore, at the suggestion of Paul, Government Affairs Council only provided technical guidance, and the salt residents built the salt farm themselves, named [Collective Salt Field], and each household had a share. In order to ensure fairness, Collective Salt Field is managed by dedicated personnel from Government Affairs Council, and the profits obtained are distributed to Yan people according to shares.
The interrogation of the rioters was carried out in an intense and orderly manner. Considering that many of them were the main labor force of the family, and indeed they acted irrationally after being forced by Baden, most of them were sent home after being admonished, but they were still carrying fines that they might not be able to pay in their lifetime.
Lord's Tribunal finally identified 50 people who could not be sentenced lightly. They either committed the crime of robbing or killing innocent people, or they were the ones who took the lead in the riots.
"Sir, this is the punishment result we have initially planned. Among these 50 people, except for a person named Biso who is missing, all are already in custody."
Thomas, who was appointed Lord's Tribunal Chief Judge, presented the verdict to Paul.
"Anyone else ran away?"
"Yes, this person named Biso is very suspicious. According to the salt people, this person usually does not do his job and is idle. After the riot, he encouraged them to fight against the lord's army to the end. After the battle, he disappeared. We suspect that there may be something wrong with him."
"Well, let's leave this to Cecil to investigate. I think some of the people here are still very young, not even 16 years old. Isn't it a bit too heavy to hang them like this or do hard labor for decades."
Thomas said, "You are the lord and can decide their fate by yourself."
Paul pondered, "Let me think about these people again."