Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 491 The Second Round of Reform

After Song Kun came back, all the 4000 men under his command who had suffered in the Mekong River for two years were promoted to a higher level and expanded to [-] troops. Song Kun was promoted to the chief soldier and became the tenth chief soldier under Yang Chao.

At the same time, Yang Chao contacted the Zheng family and sent another 3 people to the Mekong Colony, and selected a group of officials, headed by Huang Chong's son, Huang Yuan. Yang Chao believed that Huang Chong had been operating there for more than two years. It's easier to blend in.

So Huang Yuan became the first governor of the Mekong River.

With the appointment of this group of officials, the colony will be officially opened. This is also the third year in Yang Chao's plan, a year when the colony needs to be self-sufficient. After this year, Yang Chao will not plan to nurture this place. They have to operate independently.

Spring in March.

Four months have passed since last year's war, and Yang Chao's army has expanded to 80. Except for the new commander-in-chief Song Kun who commanded 5 people, and the artillery commander-in-chief Hu Quan who commanded 3 people, the strength of each other commander-in-chief exceeded Li Wuliu of Shandong and Wang Pu of Guide each commanded an army of 5. Zhao Kang's cavalry was also slightly expanded, with 15 cavalry.

Shandong deployed 36 troops, and Zheng Yongwang's 6 troops defended Fengyang and other prefectures. Sun Changfu's 50 troops were stationed in Huaiyang and Huaiyang. The total strength of Jiangbei reached [-].

Although the strength of Jiangnan is only 30, it is enough to overwhelm Hong Chengchou.

Therefore, Yang Chao felt that it was time to launch an offensive.

Song Kun was eager to fight, but Yang Chao felt that he had too many new recruits, and he had not fought against the Qing army for two years after returning from the Mekong River. He was worried that he would not be able to adapt to the new recruits, so he asked him to replace many men to defend Zhejiang and southern Jiangxi. , with many men as the main force to attack Guangdong across the sea, and together with Xie Fei launched a general attack on Hong Chengchou's department in Guangdong.

Taking the recovery of Guangdong as a sign, Yang Chao decided to start a counterattack against the Manchu Qing. He was temporarily unable to capture the heavily guarded Manchu confidant Bei Zhili, so he would gradually cut off his wings starting from the four weeks, and Guangdong would bear the brunt of it, compared to the Jiangxi flank. Huguang, the production center, is even more important, because this is the rear of Yang Chao's ruled area. After taking this place, there will be no threat all the way to the sea.

It's a pity that Yang Chao couldn't personally participate in the first battle of the counterattack, because Yang Chao's second round of reforms had begun.

The first step of reform is military reform. It has been doing it from the beginning, establishing discipline, formal training, and the military has been on the right track. The current army is completely a complicated machine. As long as her supply is stopped, she will continue to operate. Go down until all enemies are crushed.

The second step is economic reform, with the establishment of banks, the use of silver bills instead of copper coins, the clearing of land and acres, the collection of taxes from landlords, and the collection of business taxes as the core.The second step was successfully completed. Silver bills completely replaced copper coins, and greatly promoted circulation, and through the issuance of bonds, a large amount of money was created, which stimulated more business prosperity than in the past.Therefore, business tax has also increased rapidly, accounting for nearly [-]% of the government's finances, but it is still far behind when it exceeded [-]% and even reached [-]% in the Song Dynasty.

The third step is the reform of the administration of officials. The core is to increase the salary of officials, increase the intensity of anti-corruption, and dispatch supervisors to strictly enforce the law. The current effect is also beginning to be effective. Although officials are found to be corrupt and their homes are ransacked every month, but Compared with the past situation of no officials and no corruption, the situation is much better. The common people are full of praise, and even the gentry who are becoming more and more dissatisfied with Yang Chao have to admit that the administration of officials is a new one.

The completion of these three steps can be regarded as the completion of the first round of reform.

Next is Yang Chao’s second round of reform. The second round of reform is the stage of deepening reform. From now on, Yang Chao will divide into three steps and spend the same three years to complete the following goals:

The first step is to thoroughly form a perfect, efficient and strong government.

The second step is to thoroughly reform outdated economic systems and methods.

The third step is to completely change the education and imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty.

This round of reform has one less military content than the previous round, because the military system seems to be successful at present, and there is no need for innovation, only small repairs are needed to keep pace with the times, so the focus is Political and economic reforms.

To build a strong government is not simply to use officials as officials to maintain stability as in the past, but to create a political institution that can truly function. The strength of the whole country is gathered together.

The selection of the vanguard is the first selection of the generals. Politics and the military are interlinked, and the most important thing is people.

For this, Yang Chao intends to open the door to the imperial examination. There are more than 1 scholars in the army. Excluding those soldiers who are barely literate and do not have enough knowledge, there are still nearly [-] senior intellectuals, and they will be selected among these people. official.

The content of the imperial examination is divided into three subjects: criminal law, accounting, and military law. Officials are selected from the criminal, household, and military departments at the prefecture and county levels.

As for more senior officials, Yang Chao does not intend to use imperial examinations to select directly. Yang Chao has always believed that it is a nonsense and irresponsible system to directly push a literati with strong writing skills to a central-level official. Scholar, just because he wrote stereotyped essays and sang moral hymns well, without any practical experience, can he become an official?
So Yang Chao decided that all officials have to start at the prefecture and county level, and it can't be like before, where the actual work is handled by officials and masters. It is obvious that it is easier to manage a group of people who are knowledgeable and let the experts lead the experts.

These officials who entered the grass-roots positions such as prefectures and counties through the imperial examination will then undergo a strict examination method. The examination is held every three years. Only those with outstanding political performance can be promoted, and those with poor political performance and poor reputation may be dismissed. .As for the content of the examination, of course it is linked to their respective majors. For the household department, it depends on the tax collection work, for the military department, it depends on the conscription and training work, and for the criminal department, of course it depends on the local public security situation, including the crime rate and case settlement rate.

However, the Ming government is divided into six departments, basically the same system from the central government to the local government. It should be said that it is relatively comprehensive. There is no imperial examination selection for engineering, so the officials of these three subjects naturally have other selection methods.

Yang Chao believes that the law of the criminal department, the finance of the household department, and the art of war of the military department can basically be assessed through examinations, but the human resource management ability of the official department, the various skills of the engineering department, and the etiquette system of the etiquette department It is not easy to distinguish between high and low through simple tests.

Of course engineering, official and rites are indispensable, but Yang Chao intends to select social talents.

Needless to say, engineering, the most important thing for this position is the management and design ability of large-scale projects, such as how to design and manage the construction of a canal, the construction of a port, and so on.

Obviously, a master craftsman like Bai Lei who manages tens of thousands of people to carry out engineering construction is very suitable. He may not be as proficient in reading the four books and five classics, and may not write so gorgeous moral articles, but this ability to manage large-scale projects is better than Articles are more valuable.

So Yang Chao already has a candidate in his mind. Bai Jiangtou, who built the Xinjiangkou Wharf and managed the restoration and construction of Nanjing City, is obviously the best candidate. Of course, for the sake of fairness, he still needs to recruit from the whole society and take an exam at the same time. .

Officials select talents. This is a kind of human resource management. Obviously, the most suitable ones are those big shopkeepers who manage hundreds or thousands of employees. With dozens or hundreds of stores, how to select talents is naturally the most important and most suitable.

Therefore, Yang Chao intends to invite these shopkeepers and those directly involved in the management to participate in the official examination. As long as they have a certain level of writing and have managed a large number of personnel, they can participate in the imperial examination. Of course, the bottom line is One hundred people, less than one hundred people are not eligible to participate.

As for the Ritual Department, the Ming Dynasty’s Ritual Department is quite strange. He has three main tasks. The first is to control various ritual systems, such as royal funerals, such as the emperor’s enthronement, sacrifices to heaven and earth, etc., but he also takes care of it. The power to manage schools at all levels, the imperial examinations, and finally to receive foreign guests and send envoys to vassal states.

It is still difficult to understand the point of controlling the etiquette system, which fits the name of this department. It is a bit wrong to manage educational institutions and examinations, and it is a bit messy to take care of diplomacy. , it is not surprising.

For ancient countries, the word "li" represents not only politeness, but also a large etiquette, or system. From organizing funeral ceremonies to organizing the operation of the country, Confucianism belongs to the etiquette system, and education is Selecting talents for the country is the most important part of managing the country, and it is not surprising that it belongs to the Ministry of Rites.And for the country, the imperial examination involves the fate of thousands of people, and even the fate of the country. The importance of this kind of examination is no less than that of holding a ceremony to worship heaven.

As for the supervision of diplomacy, this is the Confucian understanding of diplomacy. For them, the most important thing in foreign exchanges is not to insult the state. Let Fanbang see what Chinese etiquette is.

But the examination for the Ministry of Rites is a bit difficult, and Yang Chao does not want to really hand over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the most important department in future generations, to a group of old masters. Yang Chao believes that the most suitable diplomats in China are strategists who understand the art of war , not a Confucian master full of etiquette.

Therefore, the selection of the Ministry of Rites only needs to consider education. Anyway, Confucius is the representative of teachers in later generations, and his greatest contribution is the educational philosophy of teaching without discrimination, rather than those idealized governance programs.

Therefore, Yang Chao's Ritual Examination is only open to teachers. These teachers are generally scholars who have failed the imperial examination many times. They work hard while teaching for a living.These people may not be very good at stereotyped articles, but do they have some teaching experience?

(End of this chapter)