Daming 1805

The central court of the Yuan Dynasty actually had very poor control over the local area.

In addition to the poor efficiency of the four-level administrative division itself, the scale and power of the local first-level administrative division provinces are also an important reason.

In the end, the Yuan Dynasty could only be regarded as a grassland regime, and it never fully controlled the Central Plains area, nor did it fully integrate into the Central Plains area, just like the traditional Central Plains dynasty never fully controlled the grasslands.

In fact, the Yuan Dynasty did not need to implement four-level administrative divisions. At most, the three-and-a-half-level model of the Qing Dynasty can be used to manage it.

In the Qing Dynasty, there were three levels of provincial capitals and counties. Later, the middle level of Taoist priests was added. They were the provincial dispatched agencies. They served according to the actual situation and were not completely fixed. They were similar to modern commissioners.

But now the size of the territory of the Ming Dynasty has far exceeded the size of the Qing Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, and it is already an order of magnitude higher than all the traditional Chinese dynasties including them.

Daming has now passed the critical point, and now he has to make a choice.

Either increase the level of administrative divisions, or feud the state again to establish a country, or give local governments decentralization and autonomy.

The reference object for adding administrative divisions is actually the Yuan Dynasty, and the reference for the feudal state and the founding of the country is the previous Ming or Han Dynasty.

The reference object of local self-government is the United States of Zhu Jingyuan's previous life.

There are fifty states under the Commonwealth of America, and normal-sized states usually have dozens to hundreds of counties.

Texas has the most counties, with 250 and four.

There is no intermediate level between states and counties, which are de facto two levels of administrative divisions.

The basis for the United States to maintain two-level zoning is a comprehensive and thorough original ecological local self-government system.

The upper-level government of the United States is an organization composed of multiple lower-level local agencies.

Lower local institutions are the main body of politics.

On the contrary, the parent organization is only a public coordination platform similar to the association.

In a megacity like New York, several counties in the urban area unite to set up organizations to manage public affairs.

This New York City government is not an oriental government office at all.

The state governments of the United States have no right to adjust the administrative divisions of counties unless the county itself agrees.

The same goes for the federal government to the state governments.

There have been undetermined state boundaries between states for a long time, and there have even been wars for land.

Michigan was bullied by Indiana because of the small number of people in the early days, and gave up part of the land by Lake Michigan.

Michigan meanwhile bullied less populated Wisconsin, claiming a chunk of Wisconsin's pioneering land across the lake.

At the same time, Wisconsin also ceded territory to Minnesota and Illinois, which is indeed a big injustice in the Great Lakes region.

For civil wars and disputes of this level, the federal government can only mediate.

When cities and counties go bankrupt, the state and federal governments have no obligation to bail them out.

It is a natural result to go bankrupt and reorganize itself like a company.

This tradition of self-government actually originated from the British colonial management policy.

In the colony development itself, there were a lot of commercial elements in the early days, and there were also various models.

In addition to the land developed by the royal family, there are also many colonies built by commercial companies and even immigrants themselves.

The British native population is small, and the British royal family has undergone a bourgeois revolution, and its power has been restricted.

Faced with a complex and vast colony, neither the royal family nor the imperial court can completely directly govern it.

Therefore, Britain took the initiative to adapt to the colonial system, actively promoted the establishment of local assemblies in the colonies, and promoted local autonomy.

But Ming's political tradition is very different from that of Britain and America.

It is unlikely that the Ming court and royal family, which are withdrawing their feudal domains and setting up provinces, would be willing to go back and continue enfeoffment.

The Shenzhou dynasty also did not have the tradition of actively delegating power to local governments.

When this idea came up, Zhu Jingyuan suddenly realized that his first phase of administrative training was actually at the township level.

The mainland of China is not completely devoid of local self-government traditions.

Before Emperor Shizu rebuilt Daming, except when Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, most of the feudal dynasties in the past were in a state where imperial power did not go to the countryside.

Locally, it is actually a state of self-government by the gentry.

In other words, China traditionally had local autonomy, but it was below the county level.

After Emperor Sejo, he officially turned the township into an official administrative level.

The current Daming is actually at the fourth level of the provincial capital, county and township.

So now there seems to be another way.

The township directly under the central government was revoked, and the state of imperial power not going to the countryside was returned.

After Zhu Jingyuan had this thought for a while, he quickly dismissed it.

The fact that the imperial power does not go to the countryside is essentially a low ability to govern, not that it will not go down, but that it will not go down.

Now that I can go to the countryside, there is no reason for me to give up.

Only when the imperial power goes to the countryside, can the most basic contact be established between the emperor and the people at the bottom.

Only in this way can the bureaucratic system and the people check and balance each other and slow down the corruption of the bureaucratic system.

So in the end it is necessary to increase the level of administrative divisions.

But exactly how to add it is still a big problem.

Zhu Jingyuan was thinking about this issue in the days to come, when he was free.

After thinking about it for half a month, Zhu Jingyuan finally felt that this matter had to be handled in a compromise.

Although the central or higher-level dispatched agencies are likely to gradually become de facto local agencies in actual work.

But in the early days, it was indeed able to operate in the form of dispatched agencies for a long time.

Theoretically, there is no "provincial" administrative division in Ming Dynasty.

For example, the official name of Shandong is "Shandong and other places", and there is no such level of organization.

The three agencies of Chengxuan Zhengshi, Tijuan, and Judgment, and Commander and Commander are established side by side, rather than subordinate agencies of provincial government offices that do not exist in name.

Therefore, before the Renwu Dynasty, Daming actually had three levels of divisions, but nominally it was two levels of administrative divisions.

Now to adjust the administrative divisions, we can implement the "province" and then add "half level" to the province.

Although there is no direct reference object in the original history, I can put together the solutions of countries and dynasties that have experienced similar problems, and integrate suggestions for the current situation.

After another half a month of careful consideration, Zhu Jingyuan finally began to formally write a reply to his father.

First of all, it is suggested that in this adjustment of administrative divisions, the official name of "waiting places" be formally designated as provinces.

The emperor and most of the officials in the folk, the official, and even the imperial meeting, are called "waiting places" by the province on a daily basis.

It's just that the names of Sansi and other places are still used in official documents.

Instead of continuing to separate the actual system from the official document system, it is better to adapt the official document system to the actual situation for the convenience of officials and common people.

Today's Ming Dynasty no longer needs to be jealous of the former Great Yuan Dynasty.

There is no need to use the title of "province", Daming can directly use the word "province".

At the same time, in order to reduce the impact of name changes, provincial institutions can continue to use titles such as Sansi and Xunyan Yushi.

Secondly, I personally support the formal establishment of provinces in the north and south of Zhili, and support the merger of some local provinces that are too small.

Haidong Province can be merged into Fujian, Jiaozhi Province can be merged into Guangxi, the two provinces of North Korea can be merged, and the four provinces of Japan can be merged into two.

However, merging provinces should not be used as the primary means of reducing directly administered provinces.

The merger of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Cochin provinces is too large. Over time, sub-organizations must be established under the provinces. That is repeating the old things of the past.

Then, my suggestion is to consider dividing all provinces into about ten large regions, and arrange corresponding central dispatched agencies to be responsible for the main affairs of each major region.

The name of this large area can refer to the Duhufu in the Tang Dynasty, or directly use the "domain" of the "Western Region" in the Han Dynasty.

For example, the Protectorate of Xianbei, the Protectorate of Nanyang, the Protectorate of Tiannan, the Protectorate of Tianzhu, the Protectorate of Dashi, the Eastern Region of Mozhou, the Southern Region of Mozhou, the Western Region of Mozhou, the Southern Region of Yinzhou, the Central Region of Yinzhou, and the northeast of Yinzhou Domain, Northwest Domain of Yinzhou.

In the future, the central government office will directly connect with the dispatched agencies in various regions to reduce the number of affairs that the central government office needs to deal with directly.

The organization method of the dispatched agencies can refer to the bureaucratic system of the original chief minister, or the bureaucratic system of the two levels of road and road agencies in the Tang and Song dynasties.

The four systems of military affairs, government affairs, punishment and prison, and censor are separate, independent and directly responsible to the Central Government Office.

Finally, there may not be a Duhufu or Dayu in the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, and the local provinces are directly under the jurisdiction of the Central Government Office.

The identity of the native province is similar to the former Zhili Prefecture.

After the adjustment of the entire division, it is equivalent to expanding the administrative division of the Ming Dynasty before the Renwu Dynasty by an order of magnitude.

Zhili Prefecture became Zhili Province, and other provinces became Dayu or Duhufu.

Two capitals and thirteen provinces became one capital and twelve regions.

The adjustment of administrative divisions is a matter of great importance. These personal ideas are just a way of thinking and direction. How to plan and implement them will need to be discussed and decided by the emperor and the old gentlemen.

Zhu Jingyuan sent his thoughts to the Daming capital.

No matter how busy the yamen of the capital was, Zhu Jingyuan's own news always had the highest priority.

There was no hesitation in this report. After being transcoded, it was sent directly to Emperor Zhu Jianyan of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Jianyan thought for a long time after reading it, and then asked people to call his main staff, that is, the academicians, and several most important and familiar ministers to discuss.

In fact, within the Central Government Office of the Ming Dynasty, another reform has become more and more urgent.

As the number of central government offices increased, it was difficult for the emperor himself to name all the ministers at once.

In the original history, during the nearly 600 years of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Central Government Office maintained a structure of six departments for a long time. At most, it added several other important institutions, and the total number was usually around ten.

The current emperor of the Ming Dynasty had to face more than fifty officials of the same level.

As a result, on occasions that were not particularly formal, when the Emperor Ming wanted to discuss some matters privately in advance, and consulted on how to deal with certain matters and how to deal with them, he began to habitually rely on his academician staff again.

Can the ministers of the outer dynasty be notified to participate in the discussion, and whether they have a deep impression on the emperor's mind.

For example, Zhu Jianyan was born in Honghe Temple, and the current secretary of Honghe Temple, Shen Fu, was his former deputy. Originally, the main task of the secretary of Honghe Temple was diplomacy, but in such internal consultation and discussion meetings, Zhu Jianyan would usually call him come over.

At this time, Zou Bingtai, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, Liu Quanzhi, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, and Wang Niansun, Shangshu of the Ministry of Households in Zhu Zhongliang's era had all retired.

Huang Yue, Minister of Rites, and Dai Quheng, Minister of Military Aircraft, are still there, but they are already 60 years old this year.

Most of the other ministers have also been withdrawn and replaced.

Lu Yinpu, who used to be the political envoy of Beimo in the Great Food Kingdom, was directly promoted to the Minister of the Household Department after serving as the chief envoy for one term.

Although the current Minister of the Ministry of Households does not care about finance and taxation, but only cares about civil affairs and household registration, the importance has dropped significantly compared to the traditional Ministry of Households.

But after all, it is also a department that exposed the traditional No. [-] name, and is regarded by senior officials as a place with higher honor and status.

And Lu Yinpu just turned 50 this year.

Now many officials in the court have realized that in addition to the officials who had worked with Zhu Jianyan themselves were promoted quickly, the officials who had worked under Zhu Jingyuan were also promoted very quickly.

The main reason is that it is easy to impress Zhu Jianyan by working first in Zhu Jingyuan.

Therefore, Lu Yinpu, the new Minister of the Household Department, also received this notice and went to Wenyuan Pavilion to attend the meeting together.

While the relevant personnel rushed over, Zhu Jianyan arranged the documents around him, briefly processed the contents of Zhu Jingyuan's documents, and printed out a few copies of the main suggestions.

After these officials arrived and saluted each other, Zhu Jianyan asked someone to send the printed document:

"This is Jingyuan's views and suggestions on the current difficulties encountered by the court. What do you think?"

Shen Fu, who was most familiar with Zhu Jianyan, spoke first:

"His Highness's idea...is still the same as before. At first glance, it is very unexpected, but after careful consideration, it will be quite reasonable. The key is that it is unbelievably mature and prudent.

"Everyone knows that reducing administrative levels can improve administrative efficiency, but in practice it often backfires.

"During the hundreds of years of the Three Kingdoms, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, the separatist regimes fought endlessly, and a large number of prefectures and counties changed hands repeatedly, causing the number of prefectures and counties to surge to the point of flooding.

"After Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty unified the world, he began to withdraw and merge the prefectures and reduce the number of counties, which is in line with the trend.

"However, Emperor Sui Yang intends to abolish the state department and only retain the county and county administrative levels, which is obviously a great feat.

"In the Tang Dynasty, supervisory roads had to be established, and the Song Dynasty also continued to set up roads, forming a de facto three-level division.

"Now the territory of my Ming Dynasty is ten times that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and even a third-level division can no longer support it, so adding a first-level administrative division is also a very reasonable choice.

"I think His Royal Highness Prince Dashi's suggestion is feasible."

Lu Yinpu, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, as an official with a highly relevant function, followed Shen Fu and said:

"His Highness's suggestion is equivalent to enlarging the divisions of the traditional Ming Dynasty as a whole, and at the same time listing the mainland as an area directly under the imperial court.

"While accommodating the actual situation, while reducing unnecessary changes as much as possible, this is indeed a mature and prudent plan.

"I also think that it is feasible, and we should start to make adjustments as soon as possible to reduce the burden on the various ministries and offices of the imperial court.

"However, the question that still needs to be considered is how to arrange the ranks of Dayu's officials."