Wang Shanxi, as a retired Army Major General and former Deputy Director of the Military Intelligence Department, his greatest contribution is not that he has made many achievements in the field of military intelligence, but that he discovered and explored the route to Australia.
Since Wang Shanxi discovered Australia, he was awarded the title of Baronet and promoted to Army Brigadier General.
Subsequently, Wang Shanxi continued to lead the exploration fleet to explore the ocean as an active army brigadier general. Although it is a bit nonsense to let an army brigadier explore the ocean and call him a navigator, but this is the reality.
Wang Shanxi's position in the Military Intelligence Department is only temporary. His main job has always been to explore the ocean!
After finding Australia, he led the exploration fleet to explore around Australia twice. The first time he successfully circled Australia and found Tasmania, and the second time he found it.
New Zealand Islands.
In addition, he led the fleet to continue exploring in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, and successively discovered many islands in the Pacific Ocean, visited North and South America, and entered the Atlantic Ocean via Cape Horn.
At present, many of the islands discovered by the empire in the Pacific and South Pacific were basically discovered by him with the exploration fleet led by him. And the above-mentioned islands, without exception, were all thrown away from the territory of the Tang Empire by Wang Shanxi
Although most of the above-mentioned islands are beyond actual control, they are all included in the territory of the Tang Empire.
After the last exploratory voyage, Wang Shanxi fell ill. Although his life was not in danger, he was no longer suitable to continue sailing. He instead joined the Military Intelligence Department, but it was only a temporary position.
In view of his merits, he was promoted to Army Major General and granted the title of Viscount.
A year ago, he officially retired from active service
Naturally, no one would have any objection to such a person being granted the title of Viscount, but for him to be granted the title of territory in the first place was beyond the expectations of many people.
However, there is not much profound meaning here. The main reason is that Li Xuan has been paying more attention to navigation and exploration before. Not only Wang Shanxi, but also several other outstanding navigators in the empire, Li Xuan has always paid attention to it.
When I was selecting people, I happened to think of Wang Shanxi and learned that Wang Shanxi's condition was already quite serious and she probably had only a few years to live.
Therefore, Li Xuan decided to make Wang Shanxi the first batch of nobles to grant territories.
In addition to Wang Shanxi, there were four other people who were also granted territories, but the remaining four people all had barons. One of them was granted the title of Dongsu County (eastern Sumatra Island) in Sumen Island, Banten Prefecture.
One person was granted the title of Zhongshan County in Ryukyu Prefecture, one was granted the title of Mindao County in Luzon Prefecture, and the other was granted the title of Ezo Prefecture in Fuso Islands.
The above five people, whether it is Wang Shanxi or the other four barons, the territories they were granted have the same nature. They are all overseas territories. No one was granted a local territory, even the bitter cold land of Northeast Province.
No one can be granted a title, let alone the prosperous land of the Central Plains in China.
In the domestic mainland, especially the areas currently occupied, Li Xuan does not plan to enfeoff to nobles, because places such as Hefeng Province and Northeastern Province are too important.
Hefeng Province is actually the Hetao area and Fengzhouchuan area. It has been a battleground between the Central Plains dynasties and nomadic peoples since ancient times. The Tang Empire regarded this place as more important than its lifeblood, and even built a war-ready railway.
Now, they will take it out and grant it to the nobles.
As for Northeastern Province, it is not too important due to its geographical location. However, Li Xuan's positioning of this place is also an important part of the empire and cannot be easily enfeoffed. Another reason is that this poor place is currently too weak.
It was too bitter and cold. You must know that the Northeastern Province of the Tang Empire was not the three Northeastern Provinces of later generations.
The Northeast Province of the Tang Empire covers the areas north of Heilongjiang, east of the Ussuri River, and east of Lake Baikal. There are only a few people in these poor places now. The total population of such a large Northeast Province is only 200,000!
If you really want to enfeoff it, it won’t be enfeoffment, but allotment!
Several other overseas territories have been occupied by the empire for many years and have been the places where immigrants have migrated for many years. After years of immigration and development, they have become more suitable for living and living. In addition, there are now steam engines and passenger ships, so this distance does not count.
too far.
At present, these places are actually relatively good.
In addition, the fiefdoms of the above five people, and the fiefdom salaries they received were also determined by Li Xuan personally at 0.5%. In addition, each of them was given a large amount of land. Of course, the land given was all undeveloped.
The barren mountains and forests, or those still in the hands of the natives, belong to the local official land in nature.
As for the fields that have been developed by the immigrants, they are the lands of other immigrants. If you want to deprive them of their land, you have to ask whether the swords and guns in their hands will answer!
Although the land for immigrants is said to be distributed free of charge by the government, in fact, in overseas territories, free distribution depends on the situation. Only a very small part of it is land that the government has prepared and distributed free of charge. In fact, more
The immigrants still need to seize it themselves with swords and guns.
If the government takes back the land that people exchanged for their lives and gives it to the nobles, the immigrants will not be able to shake things up, and the local militia might even break out.
The enfeoffment of these five people was also an attempt made by Li Xuan, which was experimental in many aspects.
At the same time, he also hoped that this noble who had obtained a fief could give a good start to the subsequent nobles and develop their respective territories.
Although they do not have administrative rights over the fiefdom, as local lords and they themselves are the imperial elite, it is impossible for you to say that they will not bring influence to the local government. This kind of thing is
inevitable.
Therefore, although they cannot directly participate in administrative management, they can certainly influence various affairs in the territory through exerting influence.
Then, they were also granted a large amount of land. For example, Wang Shanxi was granted the title of Banten Prefecture, which is the entire Banten Island, and the land he was given was also very terrifying, occupying the total area of Banten Island.
More than one-twentieth of.
How should I put it? Li Xuan gave Wang Shanxi all the land on Bandan Island that was not actually controlled by the Tang government and was still under the control of the local indigenous people.
From now on, these lands will be the private lands of the Wang Shanxi family, the kind with title deeds.
In addition, many nobles in the empire are not actually hereditary. They are either reduced to hereditary status and then reduced to nobility, or they are the lowest barons and directly reduced to nobility after death.
Although this non-hereditary system can control the number of nobles and maintain the renewal of the noble group, it also raises another problem, that is, after the death of a noble without hereditary authority, what should be done with his fief?
In this regard, Li Xuan also made certain adjustments to the existing aristocratic system, and appropriately relaxed the conditions for hereditary reduction of rank!
Supplementary provisions were also formulated to stipulate several types of title inheritance systems.
First of all, regarding the hereditary system, Li Xuan once again made it clear that under no circumstances will any hereditary title above baron be granted. This is a permanent rule.
The highest level of the hereditary system is the baronial title for three generations. After three generations, the hereditary title is reduced to baron, and then the hereditary baron title. The second level is the ordinary hereditary title of baron, which is reduced to baron and then hereditary baron title.
Either of the above two types of hereditary titles is hereditary after being reduced to baron and then hereditary. It is truly the same as the country. It is also the only title in the Tang Empire that can be truly hereditary.
Then there is the ordinary hereditary reduction of rank. After the rank is reduced to baron, one level of lord is added, that is, after the rank is reduced to lord, the rank is reduced.
After the Lord reduced his rank, the fiefdom was taken back, but the land originally given was not taken back.
Because the fief is a fief, you can get the tax revenue from the fief, but the land given is treated as normal private property. Since it is private property, there is no reason to take it back.
In addition, these lands can be bought and sold freely. If Wang Shanxi is willing, he can actually directly sell off the large amount of land that has been granted.
But naturally no one is willing to do this kind of thing.
In fact, when Wang Shanxi was first granted the title, he established family rules. Wantan Island is the place where the Wang family settles down and lives. Later generations are not allowed to sell the land. He has also made a will. After his death, all the family's wealth will be lost.
, including the massive land occupying more than one-tenth of the area of Sudan Island, will be inherited by the crown prince alone.
And this inheritance system is the family rule of the royal family, and future generations must abide by it!
Leaving all wealth, especially land, to heirs is also a common practice of many nobles and even ordinary gentry, in order to maintain the prosperity of the family, rather than saying that after several generations of continuous family division, the family will not have much wealth.
Well, in the end, the heir may only have a noble title, but not even a manor to live in.
This was to ensure that his heirs would have sufficient financial resources to maintain the dignity of the nobility.
It makes sense for Wang Shanxi to do this, because their Wang family will coexist with the empire for a long time in the foreseeable future, because before Wang Shanxi was enfeoffed, he also received a special honor,
That is his viscount title. After being reduced to a lord, the lord's son can continue to inherit the lord's title after passing the official assessment. With this accumulation, each generation of the lord's son can continue to inherit the title after passing the assessment.
The title of Lord.
This is a small opening that Li Xuan opened up to reduce the hereditary status.
And this small opening can be closed at any time, and it has great flexibility, because whether you pass the test or not is actually a word from the emperor. If the emperor approves, then you will naturally pass. The emperor does not want to see you.