Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 376 Establishment of Shuofang Province

"The minister waits for the order."

Jian Yi, Xia Yuanji and other seven ministers who also served as cabinet attendants all stood up and bowed to receive orders.

"As for the candidate to preside over the construction of Yutong Railway, do you have a suitable person to recommend?"

After the ministers sat down again, Zhu Gaoxu asked loudly.

"Your Majesty, I recommend Kuai Xiang, the doctor of the Ministry of Industry."

Seeing that everyone was silent, Jian Yi had no choice but to speak reluctantly: "This person is the 'Kuai Luban' praised by His Majesty the Emperor back then. He is upright, prudent, and courageous in doing things. Now he is 33 years old, and he is in the prime of life."

When Zhu Gaoxu heard this, he couldn't help but fall into memories.

He had a deeper impression of Kuai Xiang than Wang Ji, because the designer and organizer of the Chengtian Gate in the Forbidden City in Beijing was Kuai Xiang!
When Zhu Di wanted to build a new capital, Kuai Xiang's father Kuai Fu was selected as the "chief carpenter" in charge of building the Forbidden City because of his superb carpentry skills.

Kuai Xiang had been exposed to carpentry skills since he was a child, and he was a hereditary construction craftsman. As a follower of Zhu Di, he went north first and participated in the architectural design of the Forbidden City.

Because of his superior design skills, he was appointed by Zhu Di as the director of the Ministry of Industry's Maintenance Office (the seventh rank), specifically responsible for presiding over the major projects of building the Forbidden City.

Kuai Xiang's first task was to design and organize the construction of Chengtian Gate as the main entrance of the palace.

After this project was completed in the 17th year of Yongle under his planning, it was not only praised by civil and military officials, but also made Zhu Di Longyan very happy and praised it as "Kuai Lu Ban".

Since then, Kuai Xiang has made many achievements in his tenure, and has been promoted from the seventh rank of the Yingxiu Department to the fifth rank of Yingqing Lisi Lang.

The Langzhong of the Camp and Maintenance Department of the Ministry of Works was in charge of the affairs of the First Department. He was a senior official of the Ministry of Works just below the Minister of Works and the Minister of Works. He was on the same level as the Tongzhi of the First Prefecture and one level higher than the magistrate. He was equivalent to the rank of the Ministry of Works in later generations. Director.

"Kuai Xiang is a young man, but he has deep qualifications. He has served in the Ministry of Industry for more than ten years. He has made outstanding achievements and can convince the public."

Jian Yi saw that Zhu Gaoxu seemed a little undecided, so he added.

"Your Majesty, I feel that Kuai Xiang may be a good man in charge of building the palace, but the railway is very different from the palace. It needs to deal with demolition, resettlement and other civil affairs matters. Anyone who is not mature and prudent cannot be qualified."

Xu Huizu hesitated again and again, and finally said: "I recommend Yang Hong, the Bo of Jing County, for three reasons."

"First, Uncle Jingxian is about the same age as Wang Ji. He is experienced and prudent in handling affairs. He is a person who can be entrusted with important responsibilities."

"Second, Jingxian County Bo has been in charge of the civil affairs in the area for more than four years since he took office as the commander of Shuofang Capital. He knows how to handle demolition, resettlement of people and other matters."

"Third, among the Yutong railway lines, Yulongwei Station and Yulongyouwei Station are both within the jurisdiction of Shuofangdu, and the section between Yulongyouwei Station and Xinghe Station is also within the jurisdiction of Shuofangdu. Jing County Bo Being familiar with Shuofang's geography and having him take charge of the construction of the Yu-Tong Railway can achieve twice the result with half the effort."

After hearing Xu Huizu's three reasons for recommending Yang Hong, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but nodded and said: "Jingxian Bo is reliable and is indeed a good candidate. Under his governance, Shuofang has changed rapidly."

"Your Majesty is wise. There are six capitals in the grassland. Only the Shuofang capital has the most convenient road transportation and the largest number of post stations. The imperial court's control over Shuofang over the years has reached the same level as Gansu."

Xia Yuanji hurriedly added: "In recent years, Shuofang's annual contribution of cattle, sheep, horses and other livestock, as well as dairy products, canned meat and other specialties, ranks first among the six grassland capitals. In my opinion, the time for Shuofang, a prefecture and county, has now come. When it matures, the imperial court may consider establishing the Shuofang Chengxuan Envoy Department and other departments.”

The grassland capital was also in charge of civil affairs, so disputes between herdsmen in various tribes were all handled by the Wei Office. In order to reduce disputes among tribes, Zhu Gaoxu re-demarcated the pastoral areas for the surrendered tribes in the third year of Qianxi.

The delineation of pastoral areas this time took a village with one hundred households as the basic status, which was fundamentally different from the large pastoral areas delineated during the Yongle period.

As the medium-sized tribes were split up and turned into small tribes, Zhu Gaoxu also canceled the policy of restraint and implemented the actual territorial defense system.

Therefore, the power of the heads or chiefs of each small tribe was greatly restricted.

In order to further weaken the power of the leaders of various small tribes, Zhu Gaoxu "housed" the herders of the grassland tribes and assigned them to the nearest guard station, which was managed by the guard station.Every ten households of herdsmen are organized into a Jia, with one Jia chief; ten Jia are combined into a village, with three village chiefs, one chief and two deputy chiefs.

That is, every [-] herdsmen households were organized into a village, referred to as a [-]-household village, which was directly managed by the [-]-household office set up by the imperial court.

Chief A is held by the heads of ten herdsmen households on a yearly basis. He is mainly responsible for urging money and grain, and taking care of official affairs.

The money and grain here are mainly converted into cattle, sheep, horses and other livestock and dairy products, which is equivalent to the land tax in the mainland.

The three village chiefs, one chief, two deputies, are all middle-aged herdsmen who are fair and capable. They have two responsibilities. One is to guide the people to do good, and the other is to resolve various litigation disputes among the herdsmen.

All household marriages, farm house fights, and fights will be decided by the three village chiefs at a meeting and reported to the Hundred Household Office for filing.

If the matter is more serious, it will be reported directly to Wei Zhenfu for processing. If Wei Zhenfu still cannot handle it, it will be reported to the capital commander's Yamen for processing.

If the village chief directly files a lawsuit against the health center without the village chief's decision, it is called "excessive lawsuit" and he will be punished with fifty canes.

There is one person per hundred households, two people in the general banner, and ten people in the small banner.

Each small flag is responsible for ten sergeants.

Each general banner is in charge of five small banners, commanding a total of 50 troops.

The camp of Baihusuo is located next to Baihu Village and has houses. On weekdays, the sergeants mainly conduct training, and the sergeants' family members and Yu Ding will be responsible for farming or grazing.

Five villages with [-] households are combined into a township with [-] households, which are directly managed by [-] households.

There is a city with thousands of households built in a place with convenient transportation, and there is a market in the city to facilitate the people of the villages to travel and trade.

The Thousand Household Stations are under the direct control of the Wei. Some geographically key places have Thousand Household Guard Stations, which are not under the control of the Wei. They are under the direct control of the Capital Commander.

Beginning in the fourth year of Qianxi's reign, key crops such as potatoes, which were originally only grown in Weisuo, began to be promoted to herdsmen.

When the imperial court formulated some policies for the grassland, Shuofang Dusi was often the first pilot area.

Yang Hong was reliable and had strong execution ability, so the policies implemented by the imperial court achieved remarkable results in Shuofang.

"I have this plan."

Zhu Gaoxu stroked his beard and said in a deep voice: "In order for the imperial court to completely control the grassland, in addition to building the Yutong Railway, Shuofang of counties and counties is also an extremely critical step."

"Your Majesty Shengming."

Xia Yuanji said respectfully.

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at the ministers and said loudly: "The cabinet drafted a clear edict for me and sent it to Jing County Bo Yang Hong. The main idea is to ask him to prepare first. The imperial court will send an imperial minister to Shuofang this month to start the matter of establishing a prefecture and county. Let him After completing the handover with the imperial envoy, I will go to Beijing to report on my duties. I have other important uses for him."

He didn't say it, but the ministers also knew that this "important use" meant Yang Hong was responsible for the construction of the Yutong Railway.

"The minister waits for the order."

Xia Yuanji, Jian Yi and others immediately stood up and bowed.

(End of this chapter)