Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1406, Official Reform

"Boom~Boom~"

Accompanied by the waves of fireworks and firecrackers, the [-]st year of Hongzhi has arrived.

Liu Jin sat in his study, thinking quietly.

With the new year approaching, many things have to be dealt with.

One of the things that is giving Liu Jin a headache now is about government reform.

The traditional government work in the Ming Dynasty was very simple. It was nothing more than trying cases, maintaining local law and order, and providing relief when there was a famine.

In the traditional feudal society, there is naturally no problem.

It is already a high-spirited thing for the common people to be an official, so don't expect to be able to do much for the common people.

However, with the rapid development of capitalism in the Ming Dynasty, the cities of the Ming Dynasty began to expand and swell rapidly. Not only did the scale of the city become larger and larger, but the population of the city also began to increase rapidly, and a large number of people went to the city to work. began to gather in the city.

Take Beijing as an example.

Before the capital city, although it was very large, it was also one of the largest cities on the entire earth at this time, with a population of over one million.

However, after just a dozen years of rapid capitalist development, the population of the capital has now exceeded [-] million, which is six times the previous population.

In the traditional sense, the capital surrounded by walls has no way to accommodate such a large population. A large number of people are distributed here in the new districts in the four directions of the capital.

The influx of a large number of people and the high concentration of the population will naturally bring about many problems.

Such a series of problems as public livelihood, public order, transportation, medical care, housing, etc. are problems that the government has never encountered before.

It is obviously not feasible to continue to manage such a huge city in the way it used to be.

This time, Liu Jin also walked around the capital during the Chinese New Year, and saw many urgent problems that needed to be solved.

Although roads extending in all directions have been built, most people have no awareness of traffic, so that there are a lot of traffic problems, traffic jams are still trivial, and traffic accidents often occur in many cases. hurt.

The sanitation in the city is very poor, defecation and littering are very common, and the garbage is not cleaned up in time, and it piles up like a mountain. In some places, it even forms a spectacular mountain of garbage, which emits a stench, and people can't avoid it.

In addition, the large concentration of population will inevitably lead to public security problems. There are a lot of petty crimes, and even rampant, gangs are rampant, and robberies and fights are endless.

These problems have become more and more serious, and have begun to affect the operation and image of the entire capital, which is also a problem that needs to be solved urgently.

However, Daming's current government settings cannot effectively deal with these problems.

Even the Shuntian Mansion at the foot of the capital has a higher level than ordinary state capitals, more officials, more officials, yamen servants, and official posts.

But after all, the number is limited, and from the very beginning, they are officials and lords, and they have no awareness of providing many services and conveniences for the common people. Their main task is to try cases and maintain law and order. As for other things, I really don’t think about it do it.

What kind of sanitation did you ask the government to do?
Doesn't this make people laugh to death?
How can it be that he has worked so hard to be an official and come here to take care of this kind of hygiene.

Keep the traffic order. If there is congestion, you can solve it yourself. If someone is killed or injured, you can go to the government to file a lawsuit, and they will come out for trial.

Anyway, it's just a sentence, they are high-ranking officials and lords, and they don't have the awareness of providing services to the people at all, and there is no such content in the traditional government duties.

But even so.

With the expansion of the capital's population, the trial of cases alone has made Shuntian Mansion extremely busy.

The population is six times that of before, and there are also a large number of migrants. There are countless cases of various kinds, and there are endless cases to be tried and things to be dealt with every day.

In the past, there might only be a few murder cases throughout the year, but now, there may be murder cases every now and then. The workload of Shuntian Mansion has suddenly increased, so how could it not be busy?

This is also the reason why Shuntian Prefecture Yamen has no time to worry about other things, because they are indeed too busy.

There is a serious shortage of manpower in the government. The key is that the division of responsibilities is not clear. Yin Linpan of Shuntian Mansion is in charge of too many things alone.

I have to try cases and investigate various things every day. In addition, I have to attend various activities held by factories, workshops, commercial firms, schools, etc. It can be said that I am busy going around every day, so I don’t have time to care about other things. things.

Generally speaking, the population is increasing, the scale of the city is increasing, and things are changing more and more. However, the government has a small number of manpower and unclear division of responsibilities. Naturally, it cannot adapt to the development and changes of the city. Corresponding measures must be taken. reform.

"Big cities must carry out reforms, set up departments related to public health, public safety and order, and public services, subdivide the powers of officials, and add more officials, yamen servants, and servants, etc. division."

"However, this will easily lead to the phenomenon of redundant officials in future generations~"

Liu Jin pondered carefully.

The reform of the government in big cities has reached the point where it is imperative.

However, Liu Jin was very worried about whether it would be changed, and the phenomenon of later generations would appear after the change. In a small county town, there are dozens of departments, large and small, and there are a lot of people who do everything. Don't be an official.

"Big cities need to carry out corresponding reforms, and small places can still use the previous system. There is no need to support so many officials in a small county."

Liu Jin took out a pen and wrote it down on paper. When he remembered that a small county with less than [-] people had dozens of large and small departments and thousands of officials in later generations, Liu Jin I also feel that there seems to be nothing wrong with the current system.

There is no need to set up so many yamen and officials in a small place. It is enough to have a county magistrate with dozens of officials.

"Government offices in big cities are subdivided. With reference to the settings of later generations, it is enough to subdivide them into six offices: police bureau, tax bureau, lawsuit bureau, health bureau, industry and commerce bureau, and education bureau."

"The Police Bureau is responsible for public safety and order, the Tax Bureau is mainly responsible for the collection of local taxes, the Litigation Bureau is mainly responsible for the trial of civil and criminal cases, the Health Bureau is responsible for public health and safety, and the Industrial and Commercial Bureau is responsible for business-related matters. , the Education Bureau is in charge of education.”

Liu Jin wrote out six subdivided yamen on paper, but after thinking about it, he suddenly felt that it seemed a bit insufficient. Compared with the dozens of subdivisions in later generations, it seemed really not enough.

"The six yamen are all under the jurisdiction of the state capitals of each city. There are one chief official, two deputy officials, officials, and official officials. It depends on the size and level of each city. The chief official with a population of less than one million is the seventh grade. If the population exceeds one million and is less than five million, the adjutant is at the sixth rank, and the deputy is at the sixth rank. In a megacity with a population of more than five million, the chief officer is at the fifth rank, and the adjutant is at the fifth rank, and the scale is based on the population Scale, correspondingly increase the level and number of people.”

After dividing the yamen, it is naturally the setting of officials.

This involves the number and rank of officials. Compared with the settings of later generations, Liu Jin also set them accordingly.

The rank of officials in big cities in later generations is higher than that in small cities and small places. Naturally, this is also set according to the size of the population.

On this point, the current system of the Ming Dynasty is also the same.

Like the chief officials of general state capitals, they are all officials of the fifth rank, but because Shuntian Prefecture is under the foot of the emperor and manages the land of Jingji, the rank of the Governor of Shuntian Prefecture is a third-rank official, which is a few degrees higher than the officials of the local state capitals. levels.

In a big city with a larger population, the level of officials will naturally be raised accordingly, and there will be more yamen, and there will naturally be more officials and bureaucrats, yamen servants, servants, etc. set up.

Liu Jin thought about it and recorded it in detail. With reference to the institutional settings of later generations, he could only divide, rank, etc., and quickly wrote a memorial, ready to wait until the first morning of the new year to report to Emperor Hongzhi. Play on the side.

"Da Ming, Daming~"

"The territory is really too big. It is really not an easy task to manage it well. Various things are happening in this vast land every moment."

"Fortunately, the country is peaceful and the people are peaceful, the country is rich and the people are strong, there are few things to do, and there are not many headaches."

"Sometimes I really admire people like Zhang Juzheng and Li Hongzhang. It's really, really hard to do something under complicated circumstances."

After writing the memorial, Liu Jin looked at the huge world map, most of the areas were already the territory of Ming Dynasty, and the Pacific Ocean has now become the inner sea of ​​Ming Dynasty.

With such a vast territory and a huge population, Daming can still flourish and become more and more prosperous and powerful.

Think about some famous figures in history textbooks learned by later generations, and then think about your current position, which is also high and powerful. If you change yourself to be in the position of the other party, I am afraid that you really have no way to be like these Great people generally make some achievements.

The higher the position, the more wisdom is needed, especially in the face of various difficult situations, in order to truly reflect a person's wisdom and talent. In contrast, the current life is simply too comfortable.

　Among the famous ministers in ancient times, I think those who dare to reform are the real heroes, although basically they all ended badly, such as Shang Yang, Zhang Juzheng, etc.~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)