Li Shanchang, who was still the head of the hundred officials, coughed first, and then bowed and said a lot. The division of provinces has a relationship for generations. It is a matter that benefits the country and the people. We must be careful about Zhou Xiang, and benefit the country and the people...
Li Shanchang said everything, but seemed to say nothing.
But if you think he didn't say anything, Lao Li said a lot... In short, he is a cat, or Schrödinger's cat.
Everyone is not surprised that Li Shanchang has such an attitude.
Lao Li has really become more and more indifferent. He has entered the leisure mode, uploading and issuing orders. He will only express his attitude on matters that are sure to be insignificant.
He is more pragmatic than pragmatic. To put it bluntly, he just wants to be the prime minister of peace.
Lao Zhu had no good way to deal with his blatant fishing behavior. Before a replacement could be found, to rashly abolish Li Shanchang, Zhang Ximeng had to be promoted to the Central Secretary's Office.
And Zhang Ximeng couldn't live without the door. As a result, under this strange court situation, Li Shanchang's detachment was fulfilled. You can fight as much as you like. Anyway, I don't care.
If you can, let me go home and take care of my grandson!
Li Shan has been an official all his life. At this age, he has realized the highest realm and knows what it means to be strong without desire!
It also makes people sigh with emotion.
After a long silence, the first one to stand up was Yang Xian.
After seeing the ceremony, he said: "I think we can follow the Song Dynasty and use roads as provinces, and then arrange three divisions of officials to govern the place."
After Yang Xian finished speaking, there was a brief silence. It was not that he was talking nonsense, but that this suggestion actually made sense.
A total of twenty-three roads were set up in the Northern Song Dynasty. Considering the territory of the Northern Song Dynasty, these twenty-three roads, in terms of area, are highly consistent with the provinces of later generations, and many provinces of later generations originated from the Song Dynasty.
For example, in the Song Dynasty, Jiangnan East Road and Jiangnan West Road were established, and Jiangnan West Road was referred to as Jiangxi. Guangnan East Road and Guangnan West Road were also established, and the abbreviation of both of them was Guangdong and Guangxi.
However, the roads in the Northern Song Dynasty were not exactly the same as those in later generations. For example, in Hebei, Hebei East Road and Hebei West Road were established.
Hebei is the main battlefield against the Khitan, and the separation of the two roads is not conducive to defending against the enemy. Therefore, the Northern Song Dynasty will set up capital transfer envoys to command the east and west roads of Hebei.
In other words, the roads in the Song Dynasty were not complete administrative units and were very arbitrary.
In addition, the Song Dynasty also had the habit of sending prime ministers abroad. Once a famous minister left the capital to serve as a transfer envoy in charge of money, or as a pacifier in charge of the army, he would become a super boss. He would watch the local area and return to the capital at any time. , seeking to seize the position of prime minister of the two governments.
Famous people such as Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Ouyang Xiu, and Wen Yanbo have all had similar experiences.
Therefore, the local officials of the Song Dynasty can be regarded as temporary losers in the court struggle.
They accumulate strength locally, and when the time is right, they return to Beijing and kill everyone.
Under such circumstances, those local officials did not have much thought to fiddle with local government affairs. Coupled with the complicated official system of the Song Dynasty, the local government was completely handed over to wealthy families.
Yang Xian proposed to follow the example of the Song Dynasty, and sure enough, he also proposed to send important ministers to temporarily go down to supervise government affairs and take charge of local affairs.
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Ximeng suddenly spoke.
"General Yang, originally it was just a re-division of the provinces. I shouldn't have said anything about it...but you mentioned it, so I had no choice but not to say it. I am opposed to the placement of important civil servants to go to the local areas."
Yang Xian was startled, but also felt bitter in his heart. He didn't have the courage to challenge Zhang Ximeng, so he could only say: "Prime Minister Zhang must have had far-reaching considerations when he said this. This official is not thoughtful enough, so I still ask Prime Minister Zhang for advice."
"There is nothing to recommend... I think that in the future, military commanders must be the mainstay... If it is a war to destroy the country, the prince can supervise the troops, or the charioteer can personally conquer. In peacetime, or in general battles, the power of military commanders to lead troops must be respected.
In a war that spreads across several provinces, a general military officer can also be appointed to lead the troops to defend the enemy with generals. When it comes to matters such as raising food and grass, recruiting civilians, etc., only civilian officials can be arranged to serve as assistants."
"It is absolutely not allowed to place highly respected ministers in the local area to usurp the power of warriors to lead troops when there is a war. I don't need to say more about how those famous civil servants in the Song Dynasty fought!"
Zhang Ximeng said coldly, and the officials were stunned.
Because in this discussion circle, there are no military commanders participating, or most people do not think that military commanders are necessary or qualified to participate.
It seems that I can take advantage of the warriors.
But it is a pity that although Zhang Ximeng is a civil servant, he will not stand on the side of the civil servants. On the contrary, he is very guarded against the expansion of power by civil servants.
The current situation is not bad. If Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and others were leading the army, probably no civil servant would dare to supervise the division except Zhang Ximeng.
But what if it’s a lower-level general?
For example, Feng Guosheng was responsible for the conquest of Hexi... At this time, the imperial court sent an important minister with the title of political officer to be responsible for the military affairs in Shaanxi, Gansu and other places.
At this point, who has the final say?
According to the experience of the Song Dynasty, it was definitely the civil servants who had the final say. During the battle with Li Yuanhao, it was this group of civil servants who desperately gave him away.
Of course, the Ming Dynasty was not much better...
The first person who went out to lead troops was the chief military officer, who was in charge of military generals. He went out as a commander and returned to the court as a general. For example, Xu Da was the first chief military officer in the Ming Dynasty.
But the style of the Ming Dynasty soon changed... the general soldiers became permanent generals. Although they were of high rank, they had lost the qualification to command the overall situation and became ordinary generals.
Then a civilian governor was established on top of the warriors.
If the governor was not satisfied, he would set up a general strategy, supervising divisions... and the status of generals would be stepped into the dirt.
Then there was the strange scene of a second-grade civil servant being killed first and then a first-grade military general.
Therefore, Zhang Ximeng felt the need to bring up the matter of military generals here.
Things that require several provinces to deal with together include wars, flood control, canal dredging, etc... These matters require special dispatch of important ministers and dedicated personnel to take immediate responsibility. Especially for wars, military commanders and soldiers must be responsible, and civil servants can only assist. No matter what,
, and are not allowed to usurp the authority of generals.
Military and national affairs cannot be careless.
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded quickly, "Mr. Zhang's suggestion is very reasonable. Let's make it clear here. We will redefine the provinces and use the chief envoys and the inspectors to govern the local people. From now on, when the prime minister becomes a minister, he is not allowed to be transferred outside, and he is only allowed to return to his hometown for retirement.
.”
Lao Zhu's words are tantamount to cutting off the opportunity for senior officials to do whatever they want at the local level.
When an official reaches the level of minister or prime minister, his only option is to become an official and return to his hometown. Everyone has nothing to say and can only endure it silently.
The plan that Yang Xian painstakingly planned fell into disrepair after it got off the ground.
But the plan he proposed provided a reference for the subsequent discussion.
Hu Weiyong stood up and suggested that the road could be changed into a province. However, considering the complicated government affairs and the different customs in various places, Hu Weiyong thought that on the basis of Hebei East Road and Hebei West Road, Yanshan Province, Datong Province, and Shandong Province could be added.
The land was split into four provinces, Huaixi Haozhou was taken out, and the central capital was established separately, and then Huaidong and other places were turned into three provinces...
When he proposed this idea, Wang Guangyang quit before Zhang Ximeng could say anything.
"Hu Shangshu, you have divided the provinces in this way, and the places are broken and fragmented, like a plate of loose sand and mud, how can you shoulder the heavy burden of the court? You are treating state affairs as a child's play!"
Hu Weiyong chuckled and said: "Wang Shangshu said it well. If a local province can shoulder the burden of the court, why should the court do it? It is better to just stand on its own feet!"
"You're talking nonsense!" Wang Guangyang hurriedly refuted.
But on the other side, Zhou Zhen from the Ministry of Punishment and Shan Anren from the Ministry of Works actually stood up and agreed with Hu Weiyong's views. Moreover, Shan Anren said maliciously: "Wang Tianguan started from the Central Plains. Could it be that he did not want to carve up the Henan and Jiangbei provinces to leave it for himself?"
Is there no way out?"
Wang Guangyang's expression changed instantly. He naturally had this idea. Now in Jiangbei Province, Henan, he has many disciples and former officials.
In addition, he controls the personnel department and has recently placed many people in charge.
Once the Jiangbei Province of Henan is split, his power will be dispersed. Wang Guangyang originally wanted to replace Li Shanchang, but after losing control of the Central Plains, he was left with the title of Tianguan of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, without any advantage.
Already.
But Wang Guangyang also ignored the attention-grabbing hatred of his position. After Yang Xian's proposal failed, he actually turned around and attacked Wang Guangyang, making him quickly besieged from all sides and unable to resist.
Soon Wang Guangyang was defeated, and the trend of dividing the province was unstoppable!
Wang Guangyang is not an idiot. He was besieged. Zhang Ximeng didn't say a word, and neither Luo Furen nor Mao Gui spoke. Moreover, Song Lian, Liu Ji, Yao Guangxiao, and other provincial officials under his command didn't say anything to help him. They still didn't understand.
What's going on?
Wang Guangyang could only retreat and do the next best thing, and said hurriedly: "Even if we want to divide the provinces, we can't do it so unscrupulously and so finely! Otherwise, setting up chief envoys will be useless. It is better to let the prefect do things more conveniently!"
His counterattack was still useful, Zhu Sheng suddenly said, as the third veteran minister with a seat, his opinion is still very important.
"Your Majesty, a province should not be too big or too small. I think that now Yingtian can be separated into Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Zhejiang and Fujian can be separated into two provinces!"
Zhu Sheng's words directly skipped the debate and entered the stage of specific content.
After a short silence, everyone made suggestions one after another.
Obviously, from the demarcation of Dayuling Mountains and the restoration of Guangdong Province, there will be Guangxi as long as there is Guangdong.
Jiangxi suffered heavy losses due to this cut, so it simply separated part of the original Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and assigned the east of Poyang Lake, including Jingdezhen, to Jiangxi.
The purpose of this cut is also obvious. After all, the entire golden waterway from the Pearl River to the Gan River is located in Jiangxi Province. It is really inappropriate and must be divided into two.
But the next problem is a bit troublesome. The original Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces still have Huizhou, Chizhou, Taiping, Ningguo and other places, as well as the four prefectures of Susongchang Town.
These places are lined up in the south of the Yangtze River, like a jade belt, and they are all the richest places in the world.
Some people suggested that the four prefectures of Susongchang Town, which had abundant finances and taxes, could be set up as a separate province. Others thought that all these places could be attributed to Yingtian and called Southern Zhili.
In the midst of the quarrel, Zhang Ximeng said slowly: "Maybe we can establish two provinces, Huaixi and Huaidong, across the Yangtze River, taking into account the north and the south, so that we can exchange what we have and help the rich and the poor!"