In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 296 Never be a fool emperor

In the days that followed, Lin Rui focused almost all his energy on the establishment of the Royal Military Academy and the Royal Female Teachers College, not even caring about the cheating Zhang Yan.

Namuzhong also implemented the rewards for the Mongolian cavalry, and then allowed the tribes to return to the Hetao grassland to reproduce, leaving only more than 1 standing cavalry, [-]% of which were Horqin cavalry who had just joined.

It's not that Lin Rui didn't want to keep these Mongolian cavalry in Beijing and continue to go south to pacify the world, but the population of the Hetao grassland had already suffered heavy losses. Keeping so many people and horses in the pass for a long time would inevitably have a great impact on the grassland. The reproduction of humans and animals, after all, the future western expedition to Central Asia will still be dominated by Mongolian cavalry, supplemented by Han infantry.

Therefore, Lin Rui has never thought about restricting the development of the grassland population, nor does he intend to imitate the Qing Dynasty's tricks of reducing the Mongolian population.

Because with the size of the Han people, there is no need to limit the Mongolian population.

Secondly, the south is not conducive to cavalry operations, so the Mongolian cavalry actually plays a small role.

Originally, Lin Rui planned to wait for Na Muzhong to rest for a while and then directly lead the three legions south to unify the world. But now that the five southern emperors are about to start fighting, he plans to simply wait until next spring before heading south in a big way. .

The Royal Arms Academy is divided into four classes: junior class, intermediate class, advanced class, and advanced class.

The junior class will first recruit two thousand civilian children aged 6 to 10, who will learn from scratch. The four-year education will not be divided into subjects.

After four years of study and graduation, those who pass the examination will enter the intermediate class and study for another three years. The intermediate class will be divided into preliminary subjects. Those with excellent results will enter the advanced class for further study for three years. At the same time, they will have to practice in the military for a period of time every year. After graduation, When assigned to the army, one starts with the rank of flag general.

The refresher course is prepared for active military personnel and lasts for half a year. In the future, when young officers with good performance want to be promoted, they will need to attend the refresher class for half a year.

In order to prevent the emergence of a family of military officers from monopolizing military power in the future, Lin Rui also made clear restrictions on the enrollment of the Armed Forces Academy, that is, one size fits all.

Each group of young students must be subject to strict political review. Seventy percent must be from civilian families, and no more than [-]% must be from general families.

And in the future, Lin Rui also plans to impose a one-size-fits-all restriction on job ranks, that is, for example, there are a total of 1000 generals in China, and the number of generals in a family of generals must not exceed 300.

As for how to define a family of generals, it is easy to calculate. I am a general, and my son and grandson are all considered a family of generals. This can not only ensure that civilian generals and officers make up the majority in the army, but also allow the families of generals to involuntarily compete for those families. Quota for 300 generals.

When the time comes, Lin Rui of the School of Law also plans to use this model to restrict it, so as to put an end to the familialization of the judiciary.

Even for future imperial examinations and official promotions, the thresholds must be clearly set and one-size-fits-all.

For example, if I become a second-rank official, my son will only be below the second rank in his life, and the prime minister can only be a commoner. If I become a first-rank prime minister, my children and grandchildren will only be able to reach the seventh rank.

After setting up the general framework of the two colleges, it was already winter, and Lin Rui finally relaxed.

The cabinet has also initially completed the administrative division of each province. After Lin Rui's approval, China's future administrative structure will be divided into five levels, namely the highest administrative level center, the second administrative level province, the third administrative level prefecture, and the fourth level. level administrative level counties, and five-level administrative level production brigades.

Counties were abolished and replaced by prefectures. From now on, there are three types of prefectures. The highest level is Zhili prefecture, which is equivalent to the second-level administrative level of the province. The second is autonomous prefecture, which is equivalent to the third-level administrative level of the prefecture. The last is scattered prefecture. Equivalent to the fourth-level county level.

Hua State temporarily governs two Zhili prefectures and six provinces, namely Shandong Province, Shanxi Province, Hebei Province, Hetao Province, Tongliao Province, Liaodong Province and two Zhili Prefectures of Jingzhou and Yunzhou.

The jurisdiction of Shandong Province has basically remained unchanged, while Datong Prefecture has been removed from Shanxi Province. Due to reform reasons, the three prefectures of Shuozhou and Xuanfu of Datong have directly established a separate Zhili prefecture, Yunzhou, with Datong as its seat, under the direct jurisdiction of the central government.

The Hetao area, including Ningxia, was changed to Hetao Province, the administrative seat was naturalized, and the counties within its jurisdiction were also changed to state capitals.

The jurisdiction of Tongliao Province includes the Liaohe area, Horqin Department, Hulunbuir Grassland in the north, and the Great Wall north of Jizhou in the south.

Liaodong Province is bounded by the Greater Khingan Mountains and Shanhaiguan Mountains in the west, Heilongjiang River in the north, and Yalu River in the east.

The last step was to separate the capital city and several nearby counties to form the Zhili Prefecture of Jingzhou. The remaining prefectures and counties in the northern Zhili Province were Hebei Province, and the seat of Hebei Province was chosen to be Baoding.

Of course, Lin Rui also gave guidance on this administrative division. In Tongliao Province, like Hetao Province, all Mongolian tribes under its jurisdiction implement chiefs' autonomy.

Since Liaodong Province has been completely deserted, Lin Rui plans to practice the farm enfeoffment system by then, so he does not plan to immigrate there on a large scale. Instead, he plans to let each farmer recruit his own manpower to open up wasteland and farmland.

"Your Majesty, due to the poor harvest this autumn, a large number of hungry people have appeared in various places in Shandong, as well as Daming Prefecture, Hejian Prefecture, and Baoding Prefecture. If relief is not provided in time, many people may starve to death and freeze to death this winter."

"How much food does Hong Aiqing think is needed to ensure that the hungry people will not starve to death and can survive until next autumn harvest?" Lin Rui said in a deep voice. Regarding the disasters in various places, the Bureau of Statistics and Investigation has already had a clear understanding of the situation.

"Your Majesty, if you want to completely ensure that the hungry people do not starve to death, the Ministry of Revenue has calculated that at least 500 million dan of grain must be allocated to last until next autumn harvest."

Hong Chengchou said honestly, feeling helpless to the extreme. The Prime Minister was indeed very happy, but he was only short of money and food.

The Ministry of Revenue does not have a penny of food now, and His Majesty refuses to collect taxes. It is really difficult for a clever woman to make a meal without rice.

Lin Rui frowned when he heard that it cost 500 million stones. He could still come up with 500 million stones if he squeezed it.

After all, no less than 400 million shi of grain were seized in the capital city alone. This year’s autumn harvest of rented grain collected in Datong and purchased by various shops amounted to almost 200 million shi, while the Wuyuan area also had a surplus of more than 400 million shi, which added up to a total of more than [-] million shi. Tens of millions of stones.

It's just that the 400 million stones in the Wuyuan area are stored locally. It would be too wasteful to transport them to Hebei and Shandong. It is better to store them there to prepare for the future Western Expedition.

In this case, only 200 million shi from Datong and 400 million shi from Beijing are left. If 500 million shi are taken out to deal with the earthquake disaster, only 100 million shi will be left. Next year's military rations will definitely not be enough. After all, the south is no longer full. Then transport food to the north.

"This matter is for me to consider and discuss later!"

Lin Rui thought about it and decided to let the Bureau of Statistics calculate it before making a decision. After all, the urinary nature of officials in the Ming Dynasty was obvious to all. He didn't believe the nonsense from the Ministry of Revenue. In such a short period of time, even if Hong Chengchou wanted to make changes, he couldn't. Probably everything.

"It's Your Majesty."

Hong Chengchou naturally knew that His Majesty still had some doubts about the ability of the eight ministries of the cabinet.

After thinking about it, he said: "Your Majesty, although the common people everywhere do not have food in their hands, the big gentry families do have food. How about collecting some land tax?"

"Humph, who will collect it? Are there any grassroots officials who will collect it? To put it nicely, it is a land tax that goes to the wealthy gentry, but in the end I am afraid it will have to fall on ordinary people again."

"No taxes are allowed. Before I give my consent, officials and yamen at all levels are not allowed to collect any taxes for any reason. Anyone who violates this will be charged with deceiving the emperor and having his family and clan destroyed!"

Lin Rui snorted coldly and said sternly as he slapped the table at the end.

The Ministry of Agriculture directly issued notices on the rents of various production teams in Datong to each production team, and then the team members themselves delivered the grain to the royal shops in each county, just like the public grain in later generations.

The reason why Lin Rui asked the shopkeepers and wives to collect the food on their behalf was that the officials and the agricultural officials of the production team colluded to deceive the people into collecting more grain.

Therefore, he will never collect taxes until the royal shops are completely spread throughout the north, or before a specialized tax department and system are established and perfected.

If there is no tax, the grain in the hands of the landlords and gentry will not watch the people starve to death, but will lend some to the people to survive.

After all, the population in the north has suffered serious losses. If we do nothing to save the people, the people will starve to death. Who will farm for them next year?

"Your Majesty, things are different from the past. Landowners in various places have already learned about the imperial court's new policy and want to nationalize all their land. I'm afraid they won't provide food to help the people anymore!"

Hong Chengchou could more or less guess Lin Rui's plan, so he had to sigh and remind him again.

"Right!"

Lin Rui also reacted and secretly thought that he had overlooked this point. From this point of view, he really had to get all the food from the hands of the landlords.

But he still didn't trust that it would be handled by the yamen in various places, so he waved his hand again and said: "I'm thinking about this matter, Aiqing, please go and get busy first!" This kind of insulting the emperor made officials at all levels feel full. He won't do anything stupid.

"Yes, minister, leave!"

Hong Chengchou had no choice but to resign and leave, lamenting in his heart. His Majesty was so wary of civil servants that he even refused to collect taxes. What should he do?

(End of this chapter)