The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 409: Unprecedented Training Arrangement

At the end of the 26th year of Tiangong, it was not as deserted as the end of previous years. It was even more lively than usual.

Because the seventeenth day of the first lunar month of the following year was Zhu Jianxuan's fiftieth birthday, all the monarchs of overseas vassal states came to Shuntian Prefecture with their families, and the princes and royal family nobles who were training abroad also returned to Shuntian Prefecture one after another at the end of the year.

Officials from outside the Ming Dynasty would return home a few days before the New Year, and would rush back immediately after the New Year to continue preparing for the celebrations.

There are also many officials who were born overseas and no longer have a real hometown in their home country, so they just stay in Shuntian Prefecture to celebrate the New Year.

On New Year's Eve, Zhu Jianxuan hosted a family dinner in the main hall of the harem of the New Palace. All of Zhu Jianxuan's descendants and family members were present. Before the banquet, they first paid homage to Zhu Jianxuan, the patriarch.

Zhu Jianxuan sat on the throne, looking at the densely packed figures below the stage, his heart filled with emotion.

Since he was 20 years old, Zhu Jianxuan summoned concubines who were in their pregnant period to sleep with him four times a month, and overall he gave birth to sons at an average rate of four per year.

After he reached the age of 40, the frequency of summoning concubines to sleep with him was reduced to twice a month, and the birth rate also slowed down slightly.

Zhu Jianxuan is almost fifty years old this year and already has a total of one hundred and three sons.

The oldest sons are almost thirty years old, and those who are twenty years old are already forty, and they already have several to dozens of sons.

Zhu Jianxuan has more than 300 grandchildren.

So even if only his sons and grandchildren came out to pay their respects, it would already be a huge crowd of people.

In another dozen years or so, Zhu Jianxuan will really have hundreds of children and grandchildren.

What role these children can play and how they and their descendants will be placed in the future are both big and small issues.

Zhu Jianxuan was thinking about something in his mind, but nothing changed on the surface.

He accepted the greetings from his children and grandchildren with a smile, said a few words of encouragement and advice, and let them take their seats to eat.

Then a live singing and dancing performance began, which was broadcast live on radio and television.

After the live broadcast on TV was launched, Zhu Jianxuan specifically instructed the officials in charge of hosting the performances to let the artists target the audience watching TV all over the world.

Normally, try to perform and speak to the camera as much as possible, rather than just to the live audience.

The host should also mention the TV audience when speaking.

The performance forms of the imperial palace gradually became closer to the New Year and Spring Festival TV galas of later generations.

The family dinner ended at 10 pm, and the people on the scene could go back and rest, but the performance would continue to be broadcast live until midnight.

The bell and drum tower rang the bells at midnight, and the stage host announced the arrival of the New Year.

Fireworks began to be set off inside and outside the palace.

Amidst the unprecedentedly lively all-night celebrations, the 26th year of Tiangong officially ended and the 27th year of Tiangong arrived.

Zhu Jianxuan slept until six in the morning, and got up and washed at seven o'clock. At eight o'clock, he took the throne in the Heavenly Palace to accept the worship of his descendants, clan members, nobles, and vassal kings.

Zhu Jianxuan asked his eldest son Zhu Jingkun to stand up and announce a customary New Year's decree, then announced the end of the court meeting and allowed them to go and have fun.

Then, on the tenth day of the first lunar month, Zhu Jianxuan once again summoned his twelve oldest sons to the palace for a meeting.

After the ceremony, Zhu Jianxuan said something that stunned everyone:

"After the Chinese New Year, you will go to Guangdong together and replace all the chief officials of Guangdong Province and Guangzhou Prefecture.

"Including the provincial governor, the chief judge, the provincial inspector, the chief commander, the Guangzhou prefect, the Guangzhou chief judge, and all the councilors.

“Because according to the rules I set, your direct superiors, subordinates, and officials of the same rank in the place where you have practiced cannot come to the capital to serve until I select a crown prince.

"Now that you have all reached the level of provincial governor, councilor, and prefect, your superiors and officials of the same level will have the opportunity to come to Beijing within ten years.

“So this time, you won’t be allowed to have ordinary officials as superiors or bureaucrats at the same level.

"I also want to see if you guys can handle the high-level affairs of the entire province without the assistance of ordinary bureaucrats."

The twelve princes at the scene paused for half a second before they reacted and bowed their heads to receive the order:
"My son obeys the decree..."

At this moment, their hearts were still spinning wildly, guessing what their father's true intentions were.

Gathering more than a dozen princes together for training had never happened before, and letting more than a dozen princes be directly responsible for the management of a place was also unprecedented.

Are these princes competing for status? Does the emperor choose his successor through direct comparison between them?
The current system of selecting heirs for nobles and feudal lords is to select from among all the sons of the nobles and feudal lords when they reach the age of sixty.

My father is fifty years old now. He should be preparing to choose a successor when he is sixty?
However, with so many official posts in a province, who will be the senior chief official? Who will be the secondary assistant official? Who can only be the low-level official and department chief?
The key point is, how can those who are prefects and councilors compete with their superiors who are provincial governors and judicial commissioners?
Can a provincial governor give an impossible order to a prefect? ​​Can a prefect take the initiative to create trouble for the provincial governor?
If I did something like this and was discovered by my father, the emperor, would I be eliminated directly?

In this case, isn't it a way to stand out if you can get brothers who have no essential difference in status to cooperate with you in their ability to do things?
Is it possible that the Emperor wants to test this ability?
It was a very troublesome problem if you just think about it. The princes couldn't think of what to do for a while.

I can only speculate whether my eccentric father will have any special arrangements.

After Zhu Jianxuan saw his sons understood what was going on, he continued to explain the more detailed arrangements he had prepared:

"The eldest is the governor, the second is the inspector of the prison, the third is the censor, and the fourth is the commander-in-chief.

"The four of you, the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth, will serve as assistants to your elder brother in the Four Departments Office, and at the same time serve as the chief officers of the subordinate major institutions.

"Old Nine, Old Ten, Old Eleven, and Old Twelve, the four of you will first hold the title of Councillor of the Provincial Administration, and at the same time concurrently serve as the prefect and chief judge of a subordinate major prefecture.

"Old Nine, you will be the prefect of Guangzhou, and Old Ten will be the chief judge of Guangzhou.

“The nominal positions are arranged in this way, but the specific matters you are responsible for in this position are not decided by you.

“Everything must be decided through discussion among you brothers.

"Even the boss with the highest official title cannot make decisions on Guangdong government affairs, and cannot order Lao Jiu and others to do things.

"It's just that when the various ministries of the imperial court need the Guangdong governor to coordinate affairs, and when the prefectures, counties and cities under Guangdong need the Guangdong governor to make decisions.

"Boss, you should come out with the title of governor and present the decision you brothers have made together. Submit it to the higher authorities or make it public.

“The positions of all other people are the same. The positions you hold are just windows and media for you to connect with the outside world, not the actual way your power is distributed.

“All of you have exactly the same power, and all affairs of Guangdong Province are decided by you together.

“And if I contact you directly, any of you can reply to us directly, and you must also submit your reports to me on time.

“Your specific tasks are, first of all, to learn and master the traditional procedures for handling provincial affairs, and at the same time to explore the methods and procedures for handling government affairs in the form of collective resolution.

"On this basis, the adjustment of Guangdong Province's local administrative divisions was completed.

"The main reason is that Guangzhou Prefecture is too large, and the proportion of its operations in Guangdong Province is too large, which has affected the overall balance of military, political and economic affairs in Guangdong Province.

“So you need to rationally split up Guangzhou Prefecture while making rational adjustments to the administrative divisions of other prefectures, states and counties in Guangdong.

"You can choose to work together or argue with each other, I only care about the final result.

“If you mess up the task I assign to you, there’s a chance that all twelve of you will be eliminated.

"If any of you brothers get sick or injured for no apparent reason, you will all be eliminated."

After Zhu Jianxuan explained the details and requirements, the twelve brothers on the scene were all stunned.

There is nothing wrong with letting them learn and master the operating procedures of provincial agencies. They should then participate in the corresponding processes.

The task of splitting Guangzhou Prefecture and adjusting Guangdong's administrative divisions is also normal.

The scale of Guangzhou Prefecture at that time was so large that it almost covered all the land in the Pearl River Delta.

Most of the areas of Qingyuan, Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao in later generations are within the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Prefecture. This area concentrates most of the important industrial industries in South China. It is not only the core area of ​​Guangdong Province, but also the real core area of ​​South China.

The status of Guangzhou Prefecture was too important, which affected the relationship between Guangdong Provincial officials and Guangzhou Prefecture officials, and there was a potential factor of instability.

As for how to divide Guangzhou Prefecture specifically, Zhu Jianxuan could refer to the divisions of his previous life, but he was not going to copy them exactly.

Too many things happened during the process of Shenzhou's transformation into the past. The various prefecture-level cities in later generations were not in the same line as the prefectures in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

During that hundred years or so, the divisions between provinces and counties have basically never been stable.

During the Republic of China, provinces were abolished and prefectures were retained, and prefectures were abolished and counties were retained. Later, administrative offices, special districts, and regions were established. The urban areas were separated and cities were developed in the style of Europe and the United States.

These divisions were repeatedly cancelled and established, renamed and split, merged and split again, split and merged again, and this happened countless times.

Now the Ming Dynasty has directly completed the rational division after industrialization based on the Guangzhou Prefecture that has been used for hundreds of years.

There is no need to tear it apart as scattered as in previous history.

However, Zhu Jianxuan did not directly arrange how to dismantle it, but instead asked his princes to investigate, discuss and make plans.

Zhu Jianxuan finally gave suggestions according to his plan.

For these princes, the rules given by Zhu Jianxuan were indeed a bit weird.

"Handle government affairs in the form of collective resolution..."

There is no one who keeps his word. Everyone has equal power, and everyone else must agree to decide anything.

If someone deliberately makes trouble, nothing will be accomplished.

If someone doesn't want to participate in the competition, is it possible to drag all twelve brothers into the water by simply delaying the matter?
But the princes are not fools. They can understand what their father wants with a little brainpower.

Let the brothers cooperate with each other and fight but not break up.

Learn to compromise collectively, instead of fighting each other to the death, or swear allegiance to each other and then fight each other after dividing into camps.

The twelve brothers thought about it for a while, and then the eldest prince Zhu Jingkun raised his hand and asked:
"Father, if some brothers agree with a matter and some brothers disagree, what should we do?"

Zhu Jianxuan made the arrangements as a matter of course:
"The twelve of you brothers vote, and if more than two-thirds of the votes are in favor, it will be directly implemented and reported to the Ministry of Public Security.

“If more than two-thirds of the people oppose it, it will not be implemented, but it will also be reported to the Ministry of Civil Affairs and sent to my office for filing.

"If the number of people who support and oppose is less than two-thirds, then report to me after the vote for the decision."

After hearing this, the twelve emperors immediately began to have all kinds of speculations in their minds.

Most of the princes subconsciously felt that their father was going to test their ability to build their network of contacts this time.

In the absence of additional support, and when everyone's status is basically equal, let others support you.

Under such circumstances, we have to complete the tasks assigned by the emperor. Just thinking about it makes me feel overwhelmed.

They felt that their father was really going to step up his efforts and conduct a more serious screening.

Most of the princes have a similar mentality and are still competitive.

There were also some princes with different mindsets, and at this time some different thoughts arose in their minds.

Especially Zhu Jingkun, as the eldest prince, he had already felt that he had little chance of becoming the heir.

The way I think about things now and the direction of my expectations for the future are slightly different from those of my younger brothers.

Zhu Jingkun speculated with some uncertainty, wondering if his father wanted the princes to figure out how to play a role when they were not decision-makers.
My father's habit has always been to make the best use of everything and everyone's talents.

And his princes, after completing their studies and practical training, were capable enough to serve as most officials. They were the new generation of elite members of the royal family.

But there can only be one emperor, and most of them cannot become emperor.

After the next generation of emperor ascends the throne, it would be a great waste if these royal elites were idle.

Zhu Jingkun guessed his father’s mentality pretty much.

Zhu Jianxuan’s ideas were different from those of most of his sons. They instinctively thought that their father just wanted to select an heir, and the others were just foils waiting to be eliminated.

But the practical training arranged by Zhu Jianxuan was for all of them to be assessed, not to select a successor.

The typical process of a prince competing for the throne in ancient history was that first, there had to be a few princes who were the most popular and capable and who would take the initiative to step forward and participate in the fight.

Other ordinary princes and ministers may choose to follow one of the princes, that is, to take sides.

After the princes had lined up, they began to fight with all their might.

Zhu Jianxuan actually didn't mean to stop them from fighting each other, it was something that could not be completely avoided.

Zhu Jianxuan mainly wanted to avoid the second point of this process.

He did not want ordinary princes to lower their status on their own initiative, nor did he want them to regard themselves as subjects and then follow and serve other brothers.

In the future, Zhu Jianxuan also plans to give all the princes a certain amount of capital so that they don’t have to force themselves to take sides.

Let the princes do things without taking sides.

And try to make the future political decision-making system of the Ming Dynasty gradually shift towards collective decision-making.

The geographical environment of the Ming Dynasty shaped a social culture that pursues unity and trusts authority.

Under this social and cultural atmosphere, it is impossible to directly realize a civilian republic, and the result of forcing changes would be chaos in the world.

Natural disasters are frequent in the country and the natural environment is extremely complex, requiring the central court to have sufficient power to coordinate the development and construction of the entire world.

At the same time, after two large-scale separatist wars, namely the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties, the sacredness of the emperor continued to decline.

In addition, as the scale of basic education continued to expand and the literacy rate of the people continued to rise, the idea that the king's power was granted by God had long ceased to convince the scholars.

Under such social reality and cultural environment, the most appropriate political structure is centralization combined with small group decision-making.

According to Zhu Jianxuan's own experience, a person's thinking and judgment abilities are limited, and it is difficult to coordinate the planning of the entire world and handle important affairs.

However, if there are too many people qualified to make child-rearing decisions, it will lead to bickering, inefficiency and even policy reversals.

Therefore, we should adopt internal decision-making in small groups with the participation of a few people, and then implement the decision together.

In fact, most countries with the responsible cabinet system in the past also followed this decision-making logic, which is a feasible solution that has stood the test of time.

In terms of policy continuity and efficiency, it is higher than the American system of directly elected president.

Zhu Jianxuan planned to choose a son to be emperor, as the core of the future Ming Dynasty's decision-making group, and then find a few capable princes to participate in the decision-making.

Then let all other princes who have completed practical training and have sufficient ability supervise from the outside.

But how to prevent them from fighting each other without breaking up and killing each other is a problem that requires further careful consideration and planning.

At the same time, we must also consider that we cannot allow too many members of the royal family to occupy important positions in the court, and we must leave enough room for ordinary people in the society to rise and jointly maintain this system.

Therefore, most princes will not be able to directly hold administrative positions in the future, but will focus on royal foundation positions and supervisory positions as much as possible.

Parliament? Senate? Procuratorate? Under these nominal public powers, there must be a basic industry and power to protect their right to speak and personal safety.

(End of this chapter)