The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 215 The Prince Supervises the Country
After Zhu Jianxuan finished his discussion with the old emperor, he asked someone to call his secretary Duan Yucai into the palace.

He asked the servant to place an armchair with a cotton mattress next to the kang, and to prepare a map of western North America and place it on the small seat on the kang.

After Duan Yucai arrived, Zhu Jianxuan asked him to sit on a chair and assigned him a task of conducting a transaction:

"Mr. Duan, please get ready. After the main Australian officials arrive in Shuntian Prefecture, we will set off for Spain.

"I'm discussing the trade of California with the King of Spain. Father has taken a fancy to the trees on this land."

Zhu Jianxuan picked up the Qing Dynasty's strategy for rebuilding the Forbidden City with giant North American trees and showed it to Duan Yucai:
“Because of the discovery of this particularly tall tree, my father intends to list this forest as a royal forest, which will be used exclusively for the construction of important palaces of the court.

“For Spain, this was the very edge of their American colonies.

“The key is that there is a large area of ​​desert and mountains between here and their core North American colony, Mexico.

“They have basically no control here, and no visible benefits, so they should be able to trade.

“If they’re willing to trade, then at least take this valley in the middle of the Coast Range, with the desert in the south as the future border.

“As for other places inland, Mr. Duan should check the Qinglu’s maps and exploration information and choose the appropriate borders.

“Of course, if Spain doesn’t want money but land, then Morocco can be traded except for the northern coastal areas, and Nicaragua can also be traded.

“If they want all of Morocco or all of Nicaragua, they’ll have to take over the vast desert basin behind the California Coast Range.

"At least the middle range of the Rocky Mountains should be used as the boundary, and preferably the eastern range of the Rocky Mountains should be used as the boundary.

“Although it’s unlikely, if they really refuse to make a deal, you can just mention the threat of war.

"Let them understand that we, the Ming Dynasty, are determined to take this place.

"If they are unwilling to trade normally now, then we can just rob them after our treaty with them expires."

California is a good place. The Central Valley has more than 40,000 square kilometers of plains and a natural deep-water port with excellent conditions. It is the natural core of the southern end of the west coast of North America.

California also has "San Francisco" which corresponds to New San Francisco in Australia.

Zhu Jianxuan also knew that in the great basin behind California, there were many large-scale gold mines in Nevada, which were called the Nevada gold mines.

Nevada's gold production in 2021 exceeded one hundred tons.

There is no rush to develop these places, but they must be taken in advance as a source of gold reserves for the Ming Dynasty's future.

Too much direct development may cause the price of gold to fall rapidly, affecting market and currency stability.

Spain is a relatively wealthy country in Europe, and it is likely that it will not be willing to ask for money directly, but would rather exchange it for land.

In his heart, Duan Yucai actually prefers to stay with Zhu Jianxuan. Only by staying with his lord can he continue to make his presence felt. A trip to Europe may take him more than half a year to come back.

However, considering that he had been alone with Zhu Jianxuan most of the time during the entire Northern Expedition, he already had a great advantage.

My colleagues who stayed in Australia came to Shuntianfu, and I left alone for a while, which was a kind of balance.

Duan Yucai had some thoughts in his mind, but on the surface there was no change.

He immediately stood up and bowed slightly towards the emperor and the prince who were sitting above him:

"My minister obeys."

Zhu Jianxuan arranged the tasks and asked Duan Yucai to prepare them on his own while he continued to chat with his father.

At the end of March in the 43rd year of Xianning, the main officials and scientific researchers of the Wu State arrived in Shuntian Prefecture one after another and moved into the city of Shuntian Prefecture in batches and sections.

The allocation of housing for various government offices and institutions was arranged by Zhu Jianxuan and his father together.

Zhu Jianxuan originally thought that the houses in the old city were just a temporary resettlement area, and they would have to move out when the facilities outside the city were built in the future.

There were nearly 700,000 people living in and around Shuntian City, and the houses in the city could accommodate at least 500,000 people.

The current Ming Dynasty central court and Wu Kingdom court, after all moved here, have only tens of thousands of people. It is very spacious to live in directly, and most of the places will be empty.

It's right next to the imperial palace and the government office, so just choose the most convenient place to live.

But the old emperor didn't think so. He was deeply impressed by the experience of finding a place to build a laboratory back then.

It is required that while there are few people in the city now, zoning planning and reservation should be done in advance for the land needs of various court institutions and personnel.

Zhu Jianxuan didn’t care about this kind of thing. Since the old emperor had his own ideas, he would follow his ideas.

According to the old emperor's arrangement, the imperial city was naturally for the exclusive use of the emperor.

Sufficient land must also be left around the imperial city.

One is for current and future royal family members to live in, and the other is for use by new direct-controlled institutions to be set up by the emperor in the future.

For example, institutions like the Prince Wu Laboratory, the concentrated residential area for princes planned by Zhu Jianxuan, and the Senate of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, the area west of Chongwenmen, east of Xuanwumen, on both sides and in the north of the imperial city, and all the way to the northern city wall were all reserved for the exclusive use of the royal family.

The central government offices of the imperial court were originally located outside the south gate of the imperial city, separated from the imperial city by Chang'an Avenue. Therefore, the entire area south of Chang'an Avenue was used for the central government offices in the middle, and the areas on both sides were used for the residences of all civil and military officials.

The area west of Xuanwumenli Street and north of Chang'an Avenue, that is, most of Xicheng District, was allocated for use and residence by personnel from scientific research institutions.

Part of the area east of Chongwenmenli Street and north of Chang'an Avenue was used as the imperial treasury, part was for nobles and retired people to live in, and part was reserved for future new imperial facilities.

There is a difference between new facilities at court and those established directly by the emperor.

All institutions not related to the central government, including the corresponding institutions of Northern Zhili, Shuntian Prefecture, Daxing County, and Wanping County, were all placed in the outer city.

After all the officials, personnel and equipment of the Wu State's scientific research institutions were settled in Shuntian Prefecture, Zhu Jianxuan accompanied the old emperor to accept the worship of all the officials.

The old emperor Zhu Zhonglin sat on the throne, looking at the large group of young Wu officials below, and sighed softly in his heart.

Then he issued an official decree, saying that he was now over 70 years old and in poor health, and that he should enjoy his remaining years in peace.

He ordered Crown Prince Zhu Jianxuan to act as regent and handle court affairs on his behalf.

Most of the officials in the court came from the State of Wu and were originally subjects of Zhu Jianxuan. Of course, they obeyed the imperial edict.

All the officials followed Zhu Jianxuan and bowed to the old emperor in unison:
"The ministers obey the order."

With this imperial edict, Zhu Jianxuan officially took over the administrative power of the Ming Dynasty.

In this grand court meeting of a ceremonial nature, Zhu Jianxuan did not make any additional requests or orders, and the meeting ended directly after the ceremony was completed.

The old emperor went to the Western Garden to rest, and ordinary officials returned to their departments to do their work.

Zhu Jianxuan went to Wenhua Hall and convened a meeting of the privy councilors, secretaries, and doctors in Beijing.

Zhu Jianxuan had adjusted the layout of the Wenhua Hall. Zhu Jianxuan specifically requested that a long table be made and placed vertically below the imperial desk facing north and south.

Zhu Jianxuan sat below the imperial desk, at the main seat at the top of the long table, while other important officials sat on both sides of the long table.

The layout is somewhat similar to the conference rooms commonly seen in later generations.

Zhu Jianxuan sat down first, and the other officials bowed to him and then took their seats one by one.

Zhu Jianxuan didn't waste time talking to these old subordinates and directly started to arrange specific matters:

"We must now fight for the administrative system of the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible.

"Integrate the institutions and personnel of the three systems, namely the Ming Dynasty court institutions, the Wu Dynasty court institutions, and the former Qing Dynasty local institutions, into a unified administrative system.

“To achieve true unification from the central to local level in terms of institutions.

"At the same time, we will take advantage of this opportunity to reorganize the central government departments, and adjust the unreasonable responsibilities and powers, and the inappropriate levels and jurisdictions of local institutions.

"This matter will be discussed by the central government and the local authorities."

The central court institutions of the Ming Dynasty were expanded on the system of the Cabinet, Six Ministries and Military Governorates before the Chongzhen period.

As for the central government, the first step was to slightly split up the existing large departments and set up several new departments such as the Ministry of Taxation and the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Second, for institutions whose original functions were overlapping and duplicated, the powers and responsibilities were redefined and clarified.

For example, all foreign affairs were handed over to the Honglu Temple, and the Ministry of Rites was specifically responsible for cultural and examination-related affairs.

All trial responsibilities were handed over to the Dali Temple. The Ministry of Justice and the Censorate no longer participated in judging cases. The Ministry of Justice was responsible for revising the criminal law, and the Censorate was responsible for supervision.

Third, the grade and status of institutions such as the Honglu Temple were upgraded, giving them the same status as traditional departments.

Fourthly, the functions of the East Factory, West Factory and Embroidered Uniform Guard were reshaped. The East Factory and West Factory became intelligence agencies responsible for China's internal and external affairs respectively, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard became a public security agency.

At the local level, first of all, there are the traditional three systems of the Ming Dynasty: province, prefecture, state, county, dusi, garrison, and vassal state.

In addition, there was a system of imperial farms and imperial merchants directly managed by the emperor.

The central institutions of the Wu State included the Secretariat, the Privy Council, more than 30 departments for both civil and military officials, and dozens of royal factories directly under the court.

The original local institutions of the Wu State included four types: dusi, weisuo, prefectures and counties, vassal states, and alliances with the monarch.

Although the population is much smaller than that of the Ming Dynasty, the institutions are more complex.

The Qing Dynasty's original central court institutions, as well as all provincial government offices and personnel, were completely abolished during the Northern Expedition.

There are currently three local systems: province, prefecture, state, county, general's district, and league and flag.

For most European monarchs, if they inherited the management rights of another territory, most of the time they did not need to make any additional adjustments.

European monarchs were unable to make adjustments because European regions were highly feudal and autonomous.

However, for the monarch of China, the administrative system must be unified. Otherwise, how can he prove that he has truly unified the world?

(End of this chapter)