Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The reason why Feng Quan was appointed has to do with Zhou Yanru.

In April of this year, because of complaints from the Guanglu Temple about holding banquets, Zhu Youjian took the opportunity of holding the Qionghua Banquet for the new Jinshi to stir up public opinion in the newspapers and thoroughly investigate the malpractices of the Guanglu Temple.

Zhou Yanru, the Left Shaoqing of the Guanglu Temple who was in charge of temple affairs, was naturally the first to be affected.

He had no choice but to follow Wen Tihen's arrangements. Not only did he declare his property on his own initiative, he also ordered all Guanglu Temple officials to declare their property.

This practice caused a great uproar in the capital, especially after Wen Tiren followed up and implemented property declaration in all the yamen of the Ministry of Rites. The officials of the yamen in the capital hated these two people to death.

However, Emperor Zhu Youjian was very happy and praised the two men. He also instructed Wen Tiren to recommend Zhou Yanru as the Chief Censor and let Zhou Yanru act as the position of the Anti-Corruption Agency vacated by Geng Ruqi after he was transferred to the post of Governor of Shanxi.

Zhou Yanru was very proud of this and took control of the power of property declaration. Many officials, no matter how much they hated him, had to choose to go to the ICAC and take the initiative to declare their property.

In their anger, they dug up all the past events of Zhou Yanru and Feng Quan, and even wanted to put Zhou Yanru on the list of traitors to prevent him from turning over.

Although Zhou Yanru was on good terms with Feng Quan, he could not be considered a member of the eunuch party because when the eunuch party was in power, his parents died one after another and he had been in mourning at home.

How could he be included in the eunuch party when he hadn't even submitted a memorial praising him?
Because of this, the more Zhou Yanru was impeached, the more the emperor trusted him.

Feng Quan was noticed by the emperor because of this, and after instructing Zhou Yanru to declare his property, he was transferred to Hong Kong to work.

Although it has no rank and cannot be called a restoration, Hong Kong’s parliament is one of the pilot parliaments.

If Feng Quan can achieve results, one can imagine his influence in the future.

The officials of the Donglin Party did not want to see this. However, the emperor regarded Xiangjiang Island as an overseas martial law zone, and all personnel appointments could be decided directly. No matter how much they objected, they could not change the emperor's decision.

In order to prevent the eunuch party from gaining a voice in future parliament, they urged Liu Zongzhou to find a place in Shuntian Prefecture to conduct a pilot project as soon as possible.

After much deliberation, Liu Zongzhou finally chose Zhuozhou.

This state was under the jurisdiction of Shuntian Prefecture, and there was only one county in the state. It was higher in rank than a county and could house officials of higher ranks.

Liu Zongzhou recommended Wen Zhenmeng, the top scholar of the second year of Tianqi and a lecturer in the Hanlin Academy, as the fifth-rank prefect, Liu Lishun, the top scholar of this year's exam, as the sixth-rank co-magistrate, and Shi Kefa, the third-rank scholar, as the seventh-rank judge.

Except for Wen Zhenmeng, all other positions were selected from newly-appointed Jinshi graduates according to the emperor's request.

Zhu Youjian had no objection to the three men, but he thought that it was too rough to have only a few officials in the state. So he ordered Zhuozhou and Zhuoluwei, Zhuoluzuowei and Zhuoluzhongwei to be merged into Zhuolu District, and three offices were set up in the same way as the three districts in the capital.

(A diagram showing the locations of the three guards in Zhuozhou and Zhuolu, from a map of the Dusi guards within the borders of Northern Zhili drawn by Ningnan Zuohou in the 30th year of the Wanli reign)
At the same time, a garrison camp was set up, and the elite were selected from officers and military households to be responsible for local garrison.

The jurisdiction of the military officers of the garrisons over the military households was taken away by the Government Affairs Office, and judicial affairs were transferred to the Supreme Court, while law enforcement was transferred to the Imperial Guard Office.

Apart from being able to inherit official positions, they no longer had the power to govern military households. Even to serve in the army, they had to be demoted three ranks. A hereditary centurion of the sixth rank could only start from the ninth rank.

This caused opposition among many hereditary officials in the Three Guards of Zhuolu. They all used their connections to petition the emperor to revoke this decree.

However, the Five Military Commandery in the capital had basically lost its power to govern the garrisons. The nobles were also planning how to open up territories overseas, so they had no time to care about this matter.

Especially when the emperor was talking with the Duke of England and other nobles, he mentioned that he wanted to dispatch some garrison officers to help them open up their territory.

These people realized that the emperor wanted to change the Wei Suo system and relocate all the disobedient Wei Suo officials overseas.

Therefore, they kept silent about the matter, fearing that if they spoke out against it, they would be targeted by the emperor and immediately sent overseas.

The hereditary officials of the three guards of Zhuozhou wanted to mobilize the hereditary officials of other guards to oppose. But before they could act, the Jinyiwei sent to the Weiwei Office in Zhuolu District found out some people's illegal and criminal deeds. The serious ones were demoted to hereditary official positions, and the less serious ones were exiled overseas.

About half of the hereditary officials of the three guards of Zhuozhou were therefore relocated to Dongning Island. As the name of the guards indicated, they were sent to hunt deer in a place similar to the ancient Zhuolu Wilderness.

The remaining hereditary officials were all silent and actively cooperated with the reform of Zhuolu District, and even handed over the occupied garrison land.

Zhu Youjian had no scruples about these people because he had already figured out their details when he asked Xu Guangqi to select new troops from the garrisons around the capital in the first half of the year.

Knowing that the three guards of Zhuolu were not strong enough to fight, he relocated a large number of hereditary officials who opposed the reform. He also took back the land of the guards and redistributed it, allocating hereditary fields to these officers according to their hereditary positions and ancestral merits.

The reason why they were not called lords of nobility like overseas hereditary officials was that their hereditary officials were not converted into titles. Zhu Youjian did not want to place a lot of lords of nobility in the local area, which would be difficult to control in the future.

The remaining land was distributed to military households, and those who did not receive any land were allowed to become civilian households.

As soon as this order was issued, many military households in the three guards of Zhuolu gave up their land and requested to be transferred to civilian households. They were oppressed too harshly by the hereditary officials and did not want to stay in the army for a moment.

Seeing that the garrison camp might not be able to recruit enough troops if this situation continued, Zhu Youjian could only follow the policy of Dongning Guard, promote outstanding military households to sergeants, and redistribute the remaining land of the three guards in Zhuozhou to them.

Just like the Yan'an Guards who were relocated to Dongning Island, the time their ancestors had been military households and their past meritorious service were calculated. However, because there was less land in the mainland, the requirements were higher. A soldier in Dongning Guard who could be allocated 500 mu of land could only be allocated 50 mu of hereditary land here and be awarded the rank of first-class soldier.

However, even so, as an old guard post, Zhuozhou had many hereditary sergeants, who chose to stay in the army after being allocated hereditary fields like officers.

This ensured that the Zhuolu garrison had enough soldiers, so that they could be used as the backbone to organize the people's defense in the future when wars occurred.

In addition, the people of Zhuolu also had to take on an additional military service. Every year, some of their corvée time had to be set aside for militia training.

Military service was managed by the military commander of the Zhuolu Garrison, and a military department was established in the garrison. Modeled after the military department of the Beijing Camp, it consisted of the Department of Administration, the Department of Officers, the Department of Logistics, the Department of Equipment, and the Department of Training, responsible for the military and political affairs of the garrison.

Military service falls under the category of training mobilization and is assigned to the training department.

The succession of officers, non-commissioned officers and military households was supervised by the Official Section.

When a soldier breaks the law and needs to be tried, the Guards must follow the system to decide whether to have the case tried by a military court or transferred to the local court of justice. When the court of justice is tried, the Guards must also send someone to attend. This is to effectively protect the soldiers from being bullied by the local authorities.

This policy made the officers feel more at ease, knowing that they would still have some preferential treatment and would not be arbitrarily oppressed by the local authorities.

Not to mention that in order to appease them, the emperor stipulated that hereditary officials and heirs could be transferred to civilian military officers as long as they passed the etiquette and mathematics examinations. In the future, they might even be transferred to the Weiwei Office or even the Tingwei Office or the Political Affairs Office. This meant that the positions they could hold were not limited to the military.

The civil officials had some opinions about this, but they were even happier about the incorporation of the garrisons and their jurisdiction over them.

Although the Colonel of the Guard was a civilian officer, civilians needed to join the army to transfer to this position.

But no matter what, the power of civil officials began to penetrate deeper into the garrisons, and they had unprecedented control over this system that they had previously been unable to interfere with.

This made Liu Zongzhou and others feel that the matter was of great importance, because the reform of Zhuolu District not only affected the future National Assembly, but also the reform of the garrison and the complete control of the civil officials.

So they recommended capable officials to serve as officials in Zhuolu District.

Finally, Wen Zhenmeng was appointed as the mayor of Zhuolu District. The rank of this mayor was set at the sixth rank. Wen Zhenmeng served as the mayor of Zhuolu District concurrently as the sixth rank lecturer of the Hanlin Academy. This was equivalent to the former prefect of Zhuozhou, with a half-rank reduction in rank. Under the mayor, there was a deputy mayor, whose rank was set at the sixth rank, equivalent to the former co-prefect of Zhuozhou, with no change in rank.

Zhu Youjian appointed Liu Lishun, a sixth-rank editor of the Hanlin Academy, to take up this position concurrently. At the same time, Liu Lishun also served as the director of the Government Affairs Office, responsible for the government affairs of Zhuolu District.

The head of the Supreme Court Office was Shi Kefa, a seventh-rank editor of the Hanlin Academy. He passed the imperial examinations for both the Jinshi and Mingfa examinations, and had a certain understanding of judicial affairs.

All three of them were still working in the Hanlin Academy, and their positions in Zhuolu District were part-time, which made it easier for them to promote the reform of Zhuolu District as reserve prime ministers.

The three also joined the Center for Ritual and Law Studies to study the reconstruction of ritual music.

It can be said that the emperor placed high hopes on them and made preparations for future national reforms.

Li Ruolian was appointed as the director of the Weiwei Office. He was a military scholar of this subject, and his father had served as a centurion of the Jinyiwei. He was granted the rank of seventh-rank junior lieutenant by Zhu Youjian and served as the acting director of the Weiwei Office of Zhuolu District.

Chen Renxi, who presided over this military examination, was also awarded the rank of sixth-rank colonel of the imperial guard and served as the imperial guard of the Zhuolu garrison.

The military positions of the Zhuolu Garrison Camp were filled by capable people selected from among the hereditary officials and soldiers of the Three Guards of Zhuolu.

Some of the officials under the three offices of Zhuolu District were selected from the three districts of the capital, some were Jinshi or deputy Jinshi in this subject, or scholars who were willing to be clerks.

Liu Zongzhou was appointed to concurrently serve as the governor of Shuntian Prefecture, specifically responsible for Zhuolu District and preparing for the establishment of the Zhuolu District Advisory Council.

It can be said that Zhu Youjian handed over all the power of Zhuolu District to them to see what they could accomplish and whether they could explore a new system as a model for governing the world.

This made Liu Zongzhou very nervous, as he knew that the success or failure of the Zhuolu District's reform depended largely on the re-establishment of rituals and music.

This is something he is risking his reputation and even his life on, so he has no choice but to be cautious.

Therefore, in the past few months, he has been traveling back and forth between the capital and Zhuolu District, and even sent his disciples Chen Hongshou, Huang Zongxi and others to Zhuolu District to keep an eye on the situation.

All matters, big or small, happening in Zhuolu District would be quickly reported to him via the post road.

Chen Hongshou was his student, very good at calligraphy and painting, but now he was only a student. He was not willing to be an official, so Liu Zongzhou gave him the status of Zhuolu District Counselor to help him keep an eye on the area.

After Huang Zongxi finished his mourning period, he returned to the capital and studied at the Imperial College.

Under the guidance of his grandfather Huang Yuezhong, he did not give up his hatred, but his emotions became much calmer.

Liu Zongzhou was satisfied with his changes and often sent him to Zhuolu District to help him inspect the area.

Huang Zongxi was quite interested in this and wrote many articles about the reform of Zhuolu District and published them in newspapers.

This made the events in Zhuolu District more popular and attracted a lot of attention.

Especially the college students in the universities in the capital, when they don’t have classes, they like to discuss this issue the most.

Zhang Pu was keenly aware of the potential of Zhuolu District. After consulting the emperor, he opened a special edition on Zhuolu District in Ming Pao and invited scholars to discuss it.

These scholars put forward various ideas, many of which were adopted, and some were even invited by Wen Zhenmeng to conduct research in Zhuolu District.

It was under such circumstances that Gu Jiang, also known as Gu Yanwu in later generations, was invited to Zhuolu District.

He is only sixteen years old this year, but he passed the examination for a scholar two years ago, and thus was qualified to take part in the joint examination of various universities.

After passing the preliminary and re-examinations, he and his classmate Gui Zhuang were admitted to the Normal School. Now they are studying under Sun Qifeng, learning how to be a teacher.

There are many people like him, Fang Yizhi, Zhu Zhiyu and others also made the same choice -

After all, Sun Qifeng was a juren and could guide them in their studies.

Few people chose other schools. Only scholars like Fu Qingzhu, who were quite interested in medicine, chose to enter the Imperial Medical School.

The Neifujian Industrial and Commercial School and the Shaofu Temple Wensi School selected the least number of people, and some of them did not even recruit enough students.

Many scholars would rather join the army in the Naval Academy than become craftsmen.

After Gu Yanwu came to the capital, he met many like-minded people. Because of the openness of the current emperor's accession to the throne, many new things appeared in the capital. He and Gui Zhuang's "Gui Qi Gu Gu" were not considered anything in the capital.

He and Gui Zhuang even enjoyed great success in the newspapers because of their good writing skills.

This time, because of an article he wrote about the reform of Zhuolu District, he was invited by Wen Zhenmeng to conduct research in Zhuolu District at the suggestion of Huang Zongxi.

After Gu Yanwu came to Zhuolu District, he had a deep understanding of the reform of the three guards in Zhuolu. After returning, he wrote an article "On the Military System", arguing that "if the law is not changed, it will not save the present", and even openly said that "the law of Emperor Gao is dead", and suggested that the land of the soldiers in the guards who were not competent should be taken back and replaced by new soldiers, so as to restore the two million soldiers at the beginning of the country.

This caused widespread discussion among scholars, and more people paid attention to the reform of the Wei Suo system and put forward various suggestions.

Among various suggestions, the scholars from the guards found that the emperor's policy was better. At least they did not directly deprive them of their hereditary official positions and lands, but only conducted a thorough investigation and sent those with problems overseas. Only those who committed serious crimes could be deprived of their hereditary official positions.

This prompted many people to write letters to their families, asking their fathers and ancestors to support the emperor's policies, to make up for the wrong things they had done before, and even to voluntarily donate the extra land they had occupied.

Some people envied the overseas titles and proposed to their ancestors to move overseas and open up their own territories.

It can be said that the reform of the Wei Suo system gradually became a consensus among newspaper discussions.

Everyone knows that the Weisuo system needs to be changed, but there is still a lot of controversy about how to change it specifically.

In order to make a louder voice, some scholars from the garrisons organized and established the "Guardian", which, with the approval and support of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, specifically discussed the garrisons and military affairs.

This newspaper even received support from some nobles, who had not spoken out before because they were worried that they would be immediately exiled overseas by the emperor. But they still had many relatives who were also officials in the guards.

Seeing that the reform of the garrisons had become a consensus among the literati, these people began to speak out in newspapers in order to protect their own interests.

It can be said that after the emperor used newspapers to stir up public opinion and investigate the corruption case of the Guanglu Temple, more and more people realized the importance of newspapers and began to make efforts in this industry.

There were more and more types of newspapers, and their circulation was also increasing. Most of them chose to use lead printing, so the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry and the Shaofu Temple received a lot of patent fees.

This gave the officials of the Ministry of Works and the craftsmen of the Shaofu Temple more motivation. After perfecting the wax and clay plate casting lead plate printing, they explored paper mold casting lead plate printing.

The entire printing industry is developing in the direction pointed out by Zhu Youjian. (End of this chapter)