The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 218 Northeast Korea North America Mongolia South Zhili

Zhu Jianxuan slowly finished talking about his new idea, watched the officials write it down one by one, and then continued to arrange other things:
"All provincial governors were demoted to the third rank, on par with vice ministers; all prefects were demoted to the fifth rank, on par with doctors; all prefects were set at the sixth rank.

"The five provinces of Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Liaodong will remain in their current state for the time being, and their administrative agencies will be rebuilt according to Ming standards and placed under the unified jurisdiction of the imperial court.

"The Northern Zhili region also established a Sansi agency to govern it, and the Sansi Yamen was stationed in the outer city of the capital.

"The Qing army set up Jinghai Province in the Jilin General's jurisdiction, and established Jinghai Prefecture in Vladivostok as the seat of the Jinghai Sansi Yamen.

"The Heilongjiang General established the Heishui Province and Fuyu Prefecture in Qiqihar as the seat of the Heishui Sansi Yamen.

"In the Siberian region north of the Greater Khingan Range, coastal outposts are under the jurisdiction of the Jinghai Dusi, while inland riverside outposts are under the jurisdiction of the Heishui Dusi.

"Korea will abolish its feudal domains and establish provinces, and establish the Joseon Palace in the Joseon capital as the seat of the three Joseon secretaries.

“The northern border of the Chosun Province will be placed at the narrowest part of the Korean Peninsula, with suitable mountains and rivers chosen nearby as the boundary.

“In the area to the north, the area east of the Central Mountain Range is under the jurisdiction of Whale Sea, and the area west of the Central Mountain Range is under the jurisdiction of Liaodong.

“The American Province is established in the North American territory, and the American Prefecture is established in the North American Camp (Seattle) as the headquarters of the three American divisions.

"The Mongolian regions, including the area around Beihai, were unified into the Mongolian Province, and Guisui Prefecture was established in the two cities of Guihua and Suiyuan as the seat of the Mongolian Three Departments.

"Whale Sea, Black Water, Mongolia and other places where prefectures and counties can be established should set up prefectures and counties. If it is not suitable, set up guards.

“In official documents, the league was changed to guard, and the flag was changed to station.

"The easternmost part of Inner Mongolia, Jirim League and its east are under the jurisdiction of Heishui Province, the southeastern part of Zhuosuotu League is under the jurisdiction of Liaodong Province, and the westernmost part of Hetao, including Alxa League and Ejin Banner, is under the jurisdiction of Gansu Province.

"The Northern Company established a subordinate Mongolian Company and set up trading posts in Guisui, Ordos, Zhangjiakou, Chifeng, Fuyu and other places.

"We sold ironware, salt, tea, jewelry, cloth and other civilian supplies needed by the Mongols, and purchased grassland products such as cattle, sheep, horses and wool.

"We built wool textile factories, canning factories, and meat jerky factories in the area, and connected the area with the capital by train.

"Through the trading grounds, we maintained commercial exchanges with the grasslands, allowing the Mongols to regularly go to these places to buy and sell goods according to their respective guard posts."

Zhu Jianxuan paused again here to let the officials record the situation and see if they had any questions.

Grand Secretary Yao Nai actually raised a question:
"Your Highness... Are you saying that in the future, we in the Ming Dynasty will completely open up to private trade with the grasslands?"

Zhu Jianxuan knew the underlying meaning of Yao Nai's question and directly answered his implicit concern.

If it were before the Chongzhen period, Zhu Jianxuan would definitely have hesitated about this issue.

The issue of trade with the grasslands is not a simple trade issue, but will affect the military power gap between the Central Plains Empire and the grasslands.

Whether the Central Empire can rule the grassland depends on whether the empire has sufficient military force. If it does not have sufficient military force, nothing you say will be of any use.

If the military force is sufficient, it depends on whether the imperial court is interested in managing these places.

The resources on the grassland are scarce, and compared with the agricultural areas in the Central Plains, the income under normal circumstances is really not worth mentioning.

The cost of large-scale household registration is not cost-effective and it is easy to turn it into a losing business.

If the compensation was too much, the officials in the court would lose interest.

From the perspective of Zhu Jianxuan's later generations, the plan to maintain these places is nothing more than increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.

Provincial capitals, states and counties were only established in places with a large settled population, and garrisons were set up in key strongholds. Most places maintained a high degree of autonomy.

Reduce governance costs, proactively maintain trade, and increase economic benefits.

Before the industrial age, trade could certainly make money, but trade would also enhance the fighting power of the grassland peoples.

Because in the agricultural era, there was no clear distinction between military workers and civilian workers. If a craftsman could make farm tools, he could also make weapons; if he could forge an iron pot, he could also make armor.

The simple iron weapons, coupled with the large number of war horses of the Mongols, made them robbers that caused great headaches for the Central Plains dynasties.

Therefore, during the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, "trade sanctions" were imposed on the grasslands for a long time.

The Ming Dynasty struggled intermittently for more than two hundred years, and exhausted the Mongolian tribes, but in the end they were taken advantage of by the Qing invaders.

Now the Ming Dynasty is entering the industrial age, especially the army has fully entered the industrial age, and the military industry has completely separated from handicrafts.

Now the military industry of the Wu State system is all state-run, and all products are prohibited from being sold to the public or abroad.

Now, exporting Ming Dynasty's conventional handicraft products to the grassland will no longer significantly narrow the military equipment gap between Ming Dynasty and the grassland.

Even if Mongolian blacksmiths could forge muskets or even rifles, they could not equip the army in large quantities or mass-produce fixed bullets. The various luxury goods of the Ming people could also drain the wealth of Mongolian princes and nobles, leaving them with no funds to organize a large-scale army.

Therefore, private trade between the Ming Dynasty and the Mongolian grasslands can now be completely liberalized.

As long as the status of the chiefs on the grasslands remained basically unchanged, and as long as they could earn money and luxury goods through trade, there was no need for them to rebel against the Ming court.

The traditional Mongolian nomadic army, facing the modernized Ming army, would not be able to affect the Ming Dynasty even if they rebelled.

So Zhu Jianxuan gave a direct and definite answer:
"Yes, except for the clearly specified military supplies, all goods circulated among the people in the Ming Dynasty can be sold directly to the Mongols as long as they can pay.

“The weapons and equipment of the Ming main force are now all produced in large-scale mechanized factories. Even if the Mongols have craftsmen, they cannot imitate them.

"Even if they have craftsmen, they can only make flintlock rifles. They can never make smokeless gunpowder and bolt-action rifles."

After Zhu Jianxuan gave a brief explanation, Yao Nai and other officials reacted.

To put it bluntly, times have changed.

Now the power balance between the Central Plains and the grasslands has completely widened, even greater than the gap between the Central Plains and the grasslands during the Han Dynasty.

With the existing organizational capabilities on the grassland, even if the Ming Dynasty opened its technology to them, they would not be able to produce what the Ming Dynasty factories produced.

Unless they also organize a more modern state apparatus in the way of the Ming Dynasty, this requires them to settle down.

Once the nomadic tribes settled down, they would no longer have any advantages against the Central Plains Empire.

The nomadic lifestyle is incompatible with industrialization.

Yao Nai said quickly:
"I understand."

Zhu Jianxuan continued to arrange other things:

“The administrative divisions of the areas directly under the former Ming Dynasty central government will remain unchanged as much as possible.

“However, the former Nanzhili region is too scattered, so three provincial governments can be set up to govern it.

"The Huaihai Provincial Administration was in charge of Fengyang, Yangzhou, Huai'an, Yingzhou, Xuzhou, Haizhou, and Tongzhou.

"The Jiangnan governor was in charge of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, and Taicang. All prefectures under the jurisdiction of the prefecture were changed to directly governed prefectures under the governor.

"The governor of Yingtian was in charge of Yingtian, Zhenjiang, Chuzhou, Hezhou, Ningguo, Guangde, Luzhou, Lu'an, Anqing, Chizhou, and Huizhou.

"Formally establish Hubei Province and set up the Hubei Three Departments. The areas controlled by other vassal states will be cleared up next year."

The Ming Dynasty was not the Qing Dynasty. Nanzhili was not too big, but too scattered.

The Southern Zhili of the Ming Dynasty was not a province, but fifteen directly-governed prefectures and three directly-governed states, all of which were directly under the command of the Six Ministries of Nanjing.

There is no other direct relationship between the two prefectures except that they are both part of the Ming Dynasty's territory.

They were originally pure bulk.

Historically, after the Qing Dynasty entered the Pass, it did not intend to treat Yingtian Prefecture as Nanjing, so it directly established the Jiangnan Province in Nanzhili.

It was equivalent to a dozen municipalities suddenly becoming a province, which was too much for the Qing government to bear.

It could only be split again into Jiangsu and Anhui provinces.

So the discussion at the meeting now is to integrate Southern Zhili into several regions, rather than dividing it into several regions.

Zhu Jianxuan's integration plan was to remove Yingtian and Zhenjiang from the part of Jiangsu south of the Yangtze River in the previous life and add Songjiang to form the smallest Jiangnan Province.

The southern part of Anhui Province together with Yingtian and Zhenjiang formed Yingtian Province, which can also be said to be a newly established smaller version of Nanzhili.

The northern part of Anhui and the part of Jiangsu north of the Yangtze River form Huaihai Province.

However, they do not nominally have these three identities. They all still nominally belong to the Nanzhili region of the Ming Dynasty.

The three offices of the Ming Dynasty were not completely corresponding. The provincial administration office could actually extend beyond the province where it was located. Liaodong once belonged to the Shandong provincial administration office.

Of course, it can also be smaller than the province, with multiple provincial governments set up in one province.

Not all three departments were necessarily present. Originally, Liaodong only had a Dusi but no Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office. In name, civil affairs were under the jurisdiction of the Shandong Provincial Administration Commissioner.

(End of this chapter)