In the seventh year of the New Year (767), on the ninth day of March, the Tang Dynasty moved its capital to Chang'an.
When Li Longji was in power, the Tang Dynasty had two capitals, namely Chang'an in the west and Luoyang in the east, with Taiyuan serving as the accompanying capital.
When Zhou Jun arrived, the emperor only established Chang'an as the capital, while Qiuci in Anxi, Jiankang in Jiangnan and the old capital of Liangcheng were used as auxiliary capitals.
In terms of administrative structure, on the basis of the original Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Household Affairs, Ministry of Rites, Ministry of War, Ministry of Punishment, and Ministry of Works, Emperor Zhou Jun issued an order to upgrade the Xuanwen Supervisor to the Ministry of Culture, and the National and Municipal Supervisors to the Municipal Department.
Among them, the original responsibility of the Ministry of Rites for supervising the arts was transferred to the Ministry of Culture.
In addition, the Ministry of Education is also responsible for national compulsory education, government-run and private private schools, external publicity of the imperial court, censorship of books and culture, censorship of newspapers, classification of local imported products, etc. It is close to the Ministry of Education, the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Radio and Television Department in later generations.
The general existence of the General Administration.
The functions of the Municipal Department are not much simpler than those of the Ministry of Education.
For example, the management of central and local banks, the exchange of gold and silver goods, the official long-term bank of the continental ocean, the certification and coordination of commercial banks, trade with other countries, the establishment of customs, ferry, and border mutual markets, etc., are all cities.
the jurisdiction of the Ministry.
At this point, the six departments of Shangshu Province were expanded to eight. This was another expansion of centralization by the central court after military power.
The mutual trading, taxation, education, culture and other powers that originally belonged to the vassal towns and Jisi Prefecture were gathered into the central government.
The Chang'an court's control over the country was further strengthened.
However, if the imperial court seizes power from the feudal towns and frontiers, the latter two will definitely not give up.
In February of the eighth year of the New Year, because the government intervened in the education of border people and forced school-age children to enter school, riots arose among the mountain people of Lizhou and Yazhou in Jiannan Province. Yan Chao, the envoy of Jiannan Festival, led 8,000 Jiannan troops to Jidong Pass (
Today's Ya'an County), defeated the enemy's 50,000-strong army with muskets and artillery.
In September of the eighth year of the New Year, a rebellion broke out in Tianzhou (today's Baise), central Guizhou Province, because they were dissatisfied with the government's resumption of power. Nanping's military envoy Gu Zhaoling led 5,000 Puning troops and 10,000 government troops in Wulong County
Fire attacks were used to burn down the forest. The fire lasted for several months, leaving the mob with nowhere to escape. The burned victims were distributed on both sides of You'an River (today's Leli River), with tens of thousands of corpses stretching for dozens of miles.
From March to May of the ninth year of the New Yuan Dynasty, Anxi Yushe Prefecture, Yishu Prefecture, Beishi Prefecture, and Chilue Prefecture rebelled. The leaders of the small countries in the four places found that the people's hearts were drawn to the Tang Dynasty and did not miss the old country.
The Tang State seized power, so with the assistance of the Geluolu people, they organized an army of 20,000 to jointly launch a rebellion. Liu Zai, the governor of Anxi, ordered the Yanqi army to attack north. It only took 3000 Yanqi dragon cavalry only twenty days to defeat them.
After defeating the rebellion in the four states, they continued to the north without stopping and directly defeated the Geluolu people in the north and completely drove them away.
The Chang'an court gradually assimilated the vassal towns and border people in terms of mutual trade, taxation, education, and culture. It did not hesitate to send troops to suppress the rebellious forces, and at the same time used means to divide and win over the independent forces in the Tang Dynasty.
Among these methods, the first one was the private military acquisition of trading houses that was used in Anbei.
Wherever the Tang army passed, merchants followed behind.
The army captured the city and territory in the front, while the merchants used food, clothing, quilts and property to appease the local people.
On the one hand, the trading houses showed the power and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty to the people in the feudal towns and frontier peoples, and on the other hand, they used employment agreements to tie the desperate people to the capital of the Tang Dynasty.
After gaining the trust of the local people, the trading houses built houses, opened schools, built workshops, and dug mines in the occupied feudal towns and border states, so that the local residents not only received monthly salary, but also got rid of the harsh environment of sleeping in the open air.
, moved into a spacious and bright courtyard, and the tribe also came into contact with the outside world and learned more knowledge.
Under such circumstances, the local vassal towns and border residents, who were originally monolithic, gradually split into two forces due to differences in living environment.
One group is the people who fully enjoy the benefits of the Tang Dynasty and are determined to break away from the old tribe, while the other group is the stubborn people who regard the Tang Dynasty as a threat.
Under the operation of capital, more and more people among the latter are attracted by shelter, food, money and education and join the former.
As one goes and the other goes, independent forces from various places begin to be gradually absorbed by the Tang Dynasty.
Through the three-pronged approach of military, capital, and culture, the territory of the Tang Dynasty once again expanded, even exceeding the largest territory during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.
For these remote ethnic groups and local forces that had just joined the Tang Dynasty, in order to prevent the recurrence of the riots in the Anbei Protectorate, how to maintain stability became the Chang'an court's top priority.
In order to deal with this situation, Emperor Zhou Jun issued an imperial edict and established a decree.
This decree is called "Order of the Royal Court Council".
The specific content is that every three months, the imperial court will hold a "Royal Council" in the imperial city.
The so-called "Royal Council" is based on the official discussion and decision-making. Talents from all over the country, including business, education, craftsmen, farmers, etc., are invited to Chang'an, Qiuci, Jiankang and Liangcheng to participate in meetings every three months.
A parliament conducts advisory votes on some key political issues and gives its own recommendations.
The court will not specify the list of participants, but will delegate the power of selection to various states and counties.
If we really want to talk about rules, there is only one: participants cannot be local officials, and local officials cannot interfere with the list.
Specifically, people in various prefectures and counties spontaneously formed different associations and alliances according to different types of industries, and then each elected representatives to attend the royal council in the four capitals.
At the Royal Council, the imperial court will collect some key issues related to taxation, people's livelihood, mutual markets, education, trade, etc., and publish them on the bulletin board in advance, and then invite a general representative elected from each place to come to the stage to discuss no more than
The speech of a stick of incense.
After all speakers have taken the stage, all participating representatives will conduct a centralized vote, and the results will be given by counting the votes on the spot.
Finally, the results and related suggestions will be sent to the court, discussed at the court meeting, and reviewed by the emperor before making a decision himself.
Regarding the "Royal Council Order", imperial officials had different opinions.
But one voice is that since national political affairs are all decided by the imperial court, why do we need to find a bunch of ordinary people to vote and give suggestions? Isn't this unnecessary?
Regarding this question, Emperor Zhou Jun used the Anbei Protectorate as an example at the court meeting to analyze the pros and cons to the ministers.
In the beginning, just because of a trivial matter such as the ban on armor, it almost caused chaos in Anbei, and might even affect the decisive battle with the Uighurs.
However, now think about it, if the people had a channel to contact the court directly and convey their demands, would there be less trouble?
After hearing this, all the ministers felt that it was reasonable.
The people just suggested it, whether the court would adopt it or not is another matter.
Therefore, almost all the ministers in the court believed that the "Royal Council Order" was just a whim of His Majesty.
Only the Right Prime Minister Kong You knew how much influence and destruction this decree would have on the entire Tang Dynasty, and even on the thousand-year-old feudal dynasty.