The county yamen was where all the county's civil officials worked. The county magistrate, assistant magistrate, chief clerk, registrar, and other officials each had their own separate residences.
Inside the assistant magistrate's residence, nearly a hundred officials and clerks had gathered, occupying more than half the courtyard.
Assistant Magistrate Tao Dingnian, constable chief Lu Hong, Academy Lord Wen Gu, and several other ranked officials stood at the entrance, while the unranked clerks remained outside.
Ninety percent of Ning'an County's officials and clerks had gathered here!
"A mere acting county magistrate actually dared to put the chief clerk on trial right there and then. This precedent cannot be allowed!"
"If Chief Clerk Shen is found guilty, the Left Prime Minister will certainly be enraged. We will all be implicated!"
"Exactly. If he can try Chief Clerk Shen whenever he pleases and convict him whenever he pleases, will there still be any place for us in Ning'an County?"
"Right, we absolutely cannot let County Magistrate Fang have his way!"
"Oh, right. I have a friend at the workshops. He said Fang Yun was preparing to implement some kind of performance evaluation. His trial in the workshops is only a cover; what he truly wants is to reform the civil official system and earn a first-class grade in administrative governance!"
"What performance evaluation?"
"I do not know the details either. He has simply come up with new tricks on top of the Ministry of Personnel's assessments. It mainly restricts the authority of officials and clerks, then uses special evaluation methods to rank them, deciding who gets promoted, who remains in the same post, and perhaps... persuading some clerks to leave!"
"Outrageous! Is this the Jing Kingdom's realm, or Fang Yun's realm? How did the workshop workers react?"
"Some complained, but some praised it.