Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 379: Lü Duan is not foolish in major matters

Chapter 379: Lü Duan is not foolish in major matters (Special thanks to the book friend 2017…8585 for the 2 monthly tickets!)

Morning court on March 22, the 29th year of Kaixi.

After several days of discussion between the emperor and his ministers, it was decided to go to Liuzhou and Xiaoliu to seek officials such as the governor to govern the country.

The first batch of 500,000 people from the Great Zhou who were recruited to volunteer to settle in Daliu and Xiaoliu were agreed to gather at the two docks of Yangzhou and Jiangling before May 1st and be transported there by Royal Navy warships.

The Deputy Minister and Minister of Personnel Li Hang came out and said:

"Your Majesty, our Great Zhou inherited the Tang system, and the administrative divisions were originally divided into three levels: prefectures, counties, and prefectures.

Because the country was small during the time of Taizu, and was surrounded by dangerous countries, the prefectures were not set up, and a two-level system of prefectures and counties was used to facilitate military attack and defense.

Your Majesty is an eternal sage monarch. Since you ascended the throne, you have spent ten years caring for the people, another ten years unifying China, and another ten years expanding the territory. Once the prefectures of Liuqiu and Xiaoliu were established, the number of prefectures in our Great Zhou has now exceeded 1,100.

Due to the large number, the imperial court felt somewhat overwhelmed both in terms of official appointments and taxation.

In my opinion, it would be better to restore the three-level system of prefecture-prefecture-county, and have the prefecture take charge of local government affairs, which would seem to improve the current administrative efficiency.

Only Your Majesty knows it clearly. "

In the Tang Dynasty, the system of Dao and Fu was first established in terms of administrative divisions. However, the administrative divisions at the Dao level did not have much actual power, and the administrative jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty was mainly controlled by the Zongguanfu, Dudufu, Jiedushi, etc.

In the first year of the Zhenguan reign, Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, divided the country into ten regions, which from north to south included Hebei, Hedong, Guannei, Longyou, Henan, Shannan, Huainan, Jiangnan, Jiannan, and Lingnan.

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the country was divided into 15 circuits.

In the 640th year of Zhenguan (360), there were ​​prefectures (prefectures) in the country, with counties under their jurisdiction. During the Kaiyuan period, Shannan and Jiangnan were divided into east and west, and three more prefectures were set up, namely Jingji, Duji and Qianzhong, forming a pattern of prefectures. Prefectures and prefectures were set up in prefectures and counties were set up under prefectures and prefectures. At the end of the Kaiyuan period, there were prefectures and counties in the country.

The Anshi Rebellion broke out in 755 AD, which greatly weakened the central authority and power of the Tang Dynasty. From then on, the Tang Dynasty entered an era of separatist rule by military governors.

These separatist military governors were the chief officials of each circuit: Jiedushi, Guanchashi, and Dufuyushi.

There were many ethnic minorities in the Tang Dynasty. In order to effectively manage the Turkic, Uighur, Tiele, Shiwei, Khitan, Mohe and other ethnic groups, six major protectorates were established, namely Anxi, Anbei, Andong, Annan, Shanyu and Beiting, as well as a large number of military governorships and vassal states affiliated to the six major protectorates.

When the Tang Dynasty was strong, they could control it with ease; after the Tang Dynasty declined, these military governorates and vassal states immediately became independent.

When Guo Wei, the founding emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty, invaded Bian Jing and seized power from the Later Han Dynasty, the territory only had the five prefectures of the Tang Dynasty and was not complete.

Therefore, in the three-level administrative system of prefecture, county and prefecture-county, the prefecture became a nominal entity while the prefecture and county exercised real power.

Since Chai Zongxun ascended the throne, he has vigorously expanded the territory, not only unifying China, but also incorporating Liao, Central Asia, Dali, Korea, Beiming and other places that did not exist during the Tang Dynasty into his territory. The area of ​​the country has far exceeded the 12 million square kilometers during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, reaching 30 million square kilometers.

With the huge increase in territory, the two-level management system of prefectures and counties made government affairs complicated. Even though the six ministries had more than doubled their officials in recent years, such as the Jieshizhong and Xingxing, they were still too busy to handle the work.

Therefore, the Minister of Personnel Li Hang proposed to restore the administrative system at the Dao level throughout the country to improve local administrative efficiency.

As soon as this proposal came out, the ministers in Chuigong Hall discussed it a lot and immediately split into two factions. The supporters believed that with the vast territory and large population of the Great Zhou, restoring the Dao-level division could reduce the number of prefectures directly under the court and improve the efficiency of governance.

The opposing faction believed that the chief officials of the Tang Dynasty, such as the Jiedushi and Guanchashi, were the culprits for the separatist rule of the warlords.

When the imperial court was strong, these Jiedushi and Guanchashi were honest and obedient. However, once the imperial court's control weakened, these provincial governors, because of their great power, could easily become the source of rebellion and independence.

Wang Dan, the Minister of Revenue who supports the restoration of the Dao-level administrative division, was on duty:
“Your Majesty, I think that in order to make administration more efficient and prevent separatist regimes, we can adopt a compromise method: establish more prefectures.

For example, in the Tang Dynasty, there were ten to fifteen circuits. Our Great Zhou is much larger, so we can set up fifty to one hundred circuits. In this way, the court will be able to effectively govern the current 1,100 prefectures without giving the circuit chiefs too much power.

Chai Zongxun knew that due to the super-powerful weapons he had created and the advanced military management concepts, the military strength of the Great Zhou was far superior to that of other countries of that era, and therefore the speed of expanding territory was extremely fast, causing the growth rate of government affairs that the central court had to handle to far exceed the growth rate of officials and the limit of handling government affairs.

Therefore, among the important officials in the court, three-fifths of the cabinet members agree to restore the establishment of the Dao.

After hearing Wang Dan's proposal, Chai Zongxun was slightly moved. When he was hesitating, a minister from the second row of civil officials came out and said:

"Your Majesty, you must not re-establish the Dao! This would be a repeat of the Tang Dynasty, when the world was torn apart!"

Chai Zongxun turned his head and saw that the person who spoke was Lu Duan, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

Chai Zongxun said:

"What is your opinion, Lord Lu? Tell me in detail."

Lu Duan said:
“Your Majesty, if the Dao is re-established, the military, political and civil power of each prefecture will be concentrated in the hands of a minister, who can be called a frontier official!

Whether there are fifty paths or one hundred paths, the essence remains unchanged.

In this way, as long as the control of the imperial court weakens a little, how could these officials not want to establish themselves in the face of the temptation of power and wealth?
I predict that if the Dao system is restored, the catastrophe of the separatist regimes and endless fighting during the Tang Dynasty will surely be repeated in our Great Zhou!"

Upon hearing this, Chai Zongxun suddenly realized that in the early years of his reign, he, Li Tao and Wang Zhuo had spent a lot of effort to replace the garrisons in various places and win over the Jiedushi headed by Fu Yanqing and Li Yun. They finally abolished the Jiedushi system and brought all the prefectures and cities under the direct jurisdiction of the court.

How can we now, just because the expansion was too rapid and the officials of various departments of the court were overwhelmed, start again the policy of so-called restoration of "Taoism" but in fact revive the Jiedushi system?
Chai Zongxun was very pleased and said:

"Lord Lu's analysis is thorough and gets straight to the point!
"Lord Lu is confused about small matters, but not about big matters!"

After pondering for a moment, Chai Zongxun said:

"The current situation in which there are too many prefectures and cities and officials in the court are overwhelmed must be resolved, but it does not mean restoring the "dao" level of division.

Jurisdiction can only be dispersed at the central court, and power over several states must never be concentrated in one person at the local level.

I have decided to add several "departments" to the six ministries, each of which will be responsible for the political, military and civilian affairs of ten to fifty prefectures, depending on the region and customs of the people. "

(End of this chapter)

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like