owlsbooks Chapter 165 Reform
Chapter 165 Reform
Chapter 165 Reform
On January [-], the fifth year of Tiansheng's reign, as a baby's cry echoed across the earth in the Imperial Forbidden City, the heavy snow that had fallen in Kaifeng for several days finally stopped. Fortunately, except for a few cats and dogs who froze to death, The people of Kaifeng are intact.
Inside the Chongzheng Hall, Kaifeng Governor Xue Kui said: "Officials! Although it has been snowing for several days in a row, fortunately, the official has the foresight to ask the ministers to distribute a free quilt to every household in Kaifeng. , so as of today, no one died of freezing.
Now that the heavy snow has stopped, the sun is shining brightly, and a princess has been born to the official family. The common people spontaneously walked to the Suzaku Gate to kowtow to the official family and pray for the safe and healthy growth of the little princess.The official family has a kind heart and cares for all the people. The emperor's grace is great and all the people care about it. The country of the Song Dynasty will last forever. My minister Xue Kui congratulates the official family! "
"The emperor's kindness is mighty, all the people return to their hearts, and the ministers and others congratulate the officials!"
Several assistant ministers in Chongzheng Hall worshiped one after another.
After all the ministers complimented him, Zhao Zhen couldn't help but feel a little elated. I have to say that it was very rare for these civil servants to take the initiative to praise him.
Previously, Zhao Zhen insisted on attacking Dangxiang, and most of the courtiers opposed it, but no one seemed to have thought that this young emperor of the Song Dynasty, who had only been on the throne for only five years, had his first personal expedition. Not only did he defeat Dangxiang, but he also regained He visited Lingzhou, Youzhou and other places, and also demonstrated excellent military commanding capabilities.
On the issue of party governance that has plagued the Song Dynasty for many years, today's officials are calm, proceed from the fundamentals, and persuade many ministers to use the barbarians to control the barbarians' governance policy, showing excellent management skills.
Everyone can vaguely see the shadow of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin from today's officials, capable of writing and martial arts.
"It has been snowing heavily for three days. Now the sun is shining brightly and it is the time for the snow to melt, but the temperature is still a little low. In order to prevent someone from slipping and falling, I will order to mobilize the people of Kaifeng Prefecture to clear the heavy snow on the official road, and I will use 10 yuan from the inner treasury as a reward. I will leave this matter to Xue Qing, and I will send Jin Yiwei to assist him to ensure that it is implemented!"
Zhao Zhen thought for a while and said again.
"The minister takes orders!"
Xue Kui bowed hurriedly.
Prime Minister Zhang Zhibai said: "Officials! Can the party governance policies formulated before be issued and implemented!"
Zhao Zhen said: "This is not urgent for the time being. The important thing now is to determine the division of Lingzhou, Youzhou, Jingzhou and other places. It would be inappropriate to place them under the jurisdiction of Shaanxi Road as usual, so I want to draw and manage it alone."
Lu Zongdao, the political advisor, said: "I don't know if the officials plan to set up a mansion for management, or a road for management!"
Li Di, Minister of the Ministry of War, said: "Officials! Since the first emperor unified the six countries, the Qin and Han dynasties implemented the county system, and in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the system of roads, houses, and counties was implemented. The local management system of the state, the state, the army, the prison, the county, etc., the officials are messy and numerous, and a decree is often issued after being reviewed by many people. efficiency."
Zhao Zhen came from a later generation, so he naturally knew that the centralization of authoritarianism in the Song Dynasty reached an unprecedented level, basically eliminating various factors that caused feudal separatism and threatened imperial power.
In order to prevent the dictatorship of six types of people, including civil servants, generals, female queens, relatives, clans, and eunuchs, the Song court formulated a complete set of systems for centralized political power, military power, financial power, and judicial power.
However, due to incompleteness, there are many names of official positions and many overlapping parts of power, which affects administrative efficiency. In addition, the Song Dynasty excessively restricted the power of generals in order to prevent the disaster of the late Tang Dynasty. Civil servants can't even fight against bandits, let alone open up foreign territories.
Li Di's reform of the local management system was prompted by Zhao Zhen. After returning from the crusade against the party, Zhao Zhen has been thinking about the reform of the local system. The reform of the central court involves the interests of too many people, so Zhao Zhen plans to start with Change the place, step by step.
Seeing this, Zhao Zhen said: "The reason for reforming the local administrative system is to improve administrative efficiency. Only by improving administrative efficiency can the people of the world understand the government's policy in a timely manner, and the country can operate normally and smoothly.
All the ministers are important ministers of the imperial court. I hope that after returning, the ministers can actively write a letter to me about this matter in accordance with the local management system of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but there is one premise that no matter how you change it, you can't break away from Taizu's stipulations. The ancestral system, so those who are unrealistic and of no value should not be written in Zhazi, so as not to make people laugh! "
"Your servants will obey the orders of the officials!"
The ministers below all paid their respects one after another. They knew that the officials were planning to take action against the local system, and now they were just asking for their opinions. However, the ministers were all arrogant. They all knew that since the officials said this, they were only afraid of the consequences. There is already a general method.
The reason why they wrote a letter to discuss this matter is, on the one hand, to gain a foothold in the group training to rule the world with the scholar-officials, and on the other hand, I want to know what needs to be paid attention to in the reform of the local system, such as the interests of some people are temporarily out of reach. touch.
In the Zizheng Hall, Zhao Zhen has been staring at the territory map of the Song Dynasty for a long time. The Song Dynasty now has a land area of about 400 million square kilometers. It has occupied Taiwan Prefecture in the south, Dengzhou in the east, and Daizhou in the north. , west to Xining Prefecture.
There are many reasons for the low administrative efficiency of the Song Dynasty, mainly two points. One is to draw lessons from the fall of the Tang Dynasty, divide administrative powers, and establish a huge administrative system.Secondly, a large number of new subjects were introduced to recruit scholars, and the number of bureaucrats expanded rapidly.
As an important part of the political system, the administrative system is the pillar supporting the state apparatus.The administrative system of the Song Dynasty was already equivalent to the separation of powers.
However, due to the Song Dynasty's implementation of the civil service policy of strong officials and weak officials, emphasizing literature over military affairs, it caused extremely serious consequences and was one of the reasons for the Song Dynasty's weakness.
Administratively:
There are many branches of government, low efficiency, and the weakening of the power of the prime minister, and the strengthening of Taiwan's power to admonish, so that there are many branches of government, mutual buck-passing, and low efficiency.
Officials were conservative, not enterprising, and redundant officials filled the court, resulting in low administrative efficiency, increased redundant expenses, and financial constraints. In order to limit the power of local officials, the Song Dynasty added many official positions, making the bureaucracy huge.
Military:
Civilian officials command the army, soldiers are impermanent and handsome, handsome and impermanent divisions, internal and external maintenance, upper and lower systems, ranks are different, soldiers are many but weak, lack of training, frequent dispatch of forbidden troops, and weak local soldiers make the Song Dynasty's martial arts weak and unable to resist the invasion of foreign enemies. .
Under Zhao Zhen's instruction and Li Di's letter, this reform of the local management system and bureaucracy was debated in the court for nearly a month before the tone was set and all parties reached agreement.
On February [-]th, the fifth year of Xuanwu, Zhongshumen officially issued an edict. There are two edicts, one for the division of local regional management.
The Eighteenth Road of the Song Dynasty will be reorganized and divided, and the supervisory, prefecture, and military management systems will be abolished, and it will be divided into road, government, county, and three-level management systems.
According to the memories of later generations, after a month-long discussion, Zhao Zhen divided the territory of nearly 400 million square kilometers in the Song Dynasty into Henan Road, Hebei Road, Shandong Road, Shaanxi Road, Shanxi Road, Gansu Road, and Qinghai Road. , Jiangsu Road, Anhui Road, Zhejiang Road, Hubei Road, Hunan Road, Fujian Road, Guangdong Road, Guangxi Road, Guizhou Road, Jiangxi Road, Chongqing Road, Sichuan Road, Hainan Road, Taiwan Road, a total of 21 roads.
The second edict is the reform of the local official system.
On the basis of the separation of the three powers, administratively, each road has a governor, a second-rank official, who has an overview of the administrative power of the road, and is assigned a number of corresponding officials.
There is a governor in the military. From the second-rank officer, you can take a look at the military all the way. The main duties are to suppress bandits and defend the soil, and the general will be the governor. However, the civil servants of the court are against this, and they have a lot of trouble with Zhao Zhen. In the end, Zhao Zhen had to adopt a compromise method in order to carry it out smoothly. He was originally the governor of the second rank, but was changed from the governor of the second rank, and an additional military staff officer was added for each military route. .
In the judiciary, there is one criminal officer for each road, and from the second-rank officer, you can have an overview of the criminal and prison affairs along the road.
Military, judiciary, administration, although officials have different ranks, they are not subordinate to each other, and there is no relationship between superiors and subordinates. That is to say, if you are a governor, your purpose is to find ways to settle people's livelihood and develop the economy, and you can do everything else Never mind, the division of responsibilities is clear.
The chief officers of the military from all walks of life are directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, and the final power is in the hands of Zhao Zhen.
The judicial chiefs from all walks of life are directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Punishment, and the final power is in the hands of Zhao Zhen.
The various administrative officials were directly under the control of Zhongshu's sect, and were ultimately decided by Zhao Zhen and his ministers through consultation.
The official position of Zhizhou was abolished, and all were changed to prefects, but the names of various places remained unchanged. For example, Hangzhou was originally called Hangzhou, and Jiangning Prefecture was still Jiangning Prefecture.
Each prefecture has a prefect, a general soldier, and a promotion department, who are in charge of administration, military affairs, and justice.The magistrate is the official fourth-rank official, the chief soldier and the promotion department are the fourth-rank officials.
Previously, counties in the Song Dynasty were divided into large counties and small counties according to their population, and the salaries of officials were also different. As a result, many officials were unwilling to become officials in small counties.
Each county is divided into county magistrates, county magistrates, and county lieutenants who are in charge of administration, justice, and public security.
This time the reform was not thorough, because the power of the civil service group was too great, so it could be seen that the administrative system was always trying to overwhelm the other end, but it finally achieved Zhao Zhen's inner goal.
What is different from the past is mainly the administrative power. Zhao Zhen gave the officials below some independent powers. For example, the local officials can keep a small part of the taxes collected every year to encourage land reclamation, build roads, canals, etc. It can even be used to purchase the surplus grain in the hands of the people, and it can be used to balance prices in famine years.
Of course, it will also bring some other problems, that is, corruption, but the problem of official corruption is still a problem that is difficult to completely cure even now.
When the water is clear, there will be no fish, and when people come to watch, there will be no thugs. Zhao Zhen also understands that official corruption is inevitable. What Zhao Zhen can do is to set up a supervisory agency to avoid the appearance of black apples as much as possible. He blatantly changed the imperial government's decree. He originally charged ten coins, but in the end it was changed to one hundred coins.
Therefore, Zhao Zhen followed the example of the Ming Dynasty and established subordinate divisions of Jinyiwei all over the country, such as hundreds of households in the county and thousands of households in the government. However, the Jinyiwei in various places only enjoyed the power of investigation, and the power of arrest and review were firmly held by Zhao Zhen. Zhen's hands.
In addition, the personnel of the Royal Chamber of Commerce across the country also play a certain supervisory role to avoid the birth of the Tu Emperor to the greatest extent.
The reason why this expedition against party items went to the end, and Zhao Zhen finally chose to negotiate a peace and cease the troops, was because of the long supply lines. A large part of the military supplies were consumed on the long supply lines. The efficiency of the war was too low and the cost was too high. , is also a problem that troubled the Song Dynasty when it wanted to conquer the world.
In ancient times, marching cavalry relied on war horses, while infantry and infantry could only rely on two legs. Due to the prosperity of commerce, the traffic roads in the Song Dynasty were very developed.
From Kaifeng to the east, it can be divided into two "official roads".First, through Caozhou, Ji (Juye), Dagon (Gunzhou), Qi (Jinan) and other states, directly to the Shandong Peninsula; second, through Nanjing (Shangqiu), Xuzhou and other places, directly to Haizhou (Lianyungang) .
From Kaifeng to the west, through the Xijing Luoyang, it goes directly to Chang'an in the Guanzhong, and then turns to the northwest to go directly to Qinzhou (Tianshui, Gansu) and other areas, and turns to the southwest to reach Bashu and other places.
From Kaifeng to the south, it can be divided into several ways: first, from Kaifeng to the southwest, passing through Xu (Xuchang), Tang (Tanghe), Deng (Dengxian) and other states, arriving at Xiangzhou (Xiangyang), and then from the west Transfer to Hanzhong, or go south to Jiangling, Gong'an, Lizhou (Lixian), Dingzhou (Changde), Anhua, Xinhua, Shaozhou (Shaoyang), Qiyang, Yongzhou, Quanzhou, Xing'an, Guilin.Second, from Kaifeng to the south, via Caizhou and Xinyang, east to Shouchun Prefecture, southeast to Nankang, Hongzhou (Nanchang), south to Yuezhou, Tanzhou (Changsha), and finally to Guangzhou .
However, the roads inside the city are mostly paved with blue bricks, while the roads outside the city are all dirt roads. Therefore, it is difficult to march in rainy weather, and it is often difficult for supplies to reach the front line.
When soldiers are fighting on the front line, logistical supplies are a very important issue, so after the conquest of the party is over, what Zhao Zhen thinks about is road construction.
There is a proverb in later generations, if you want to get rich, build roads first, what road is best to use?The answer is naturally cement roads. If the official roads across the country can be converted into cement roads, it will not only benefit business prosperity, but also give the Song Dynasty inherent advantages in marching speed and logistical supplies.
The ancient times are different from the modern times. There are large trucks with super heavy loads driving on the cement road, so a cement road may be crushed in a few years. However, the Song Dynasty did not have such developed transportation technology, so it is possible that a cement road can last for hundreds of years. possible.
At this time, Li Yuanhao, who was entrenched in Suzhou and Ganzhou, was fighting inextricably with Li Chengwei, who was entrenched in Liangzhou and Zhuoluo Prefecture. Therefore, the western border was very stable, and the Liao Kingdom had just finished suppressing the rebellion. Zhao Zhen Jin Yiwei has received news that the Liao Kingdom sent envoys to celebrate the Qianyuan Festival, which is his birthday, and it is said that they brought a lot of gifts. Song and Liao are in the honeymoon period of their relationship.
The world is at peace, and there is no pressure on national defense for the time being, so Zhao Zhen has thought about building cement roads. In his previous life, he has seen many protagonists travel to ancient times and make cement, but when he really started to study cement, he Discovered that is not the case, manufacturing cement is more difficult than imagined
(End of this chapter)