Unlike Chen Pugao who caused trouble and was recalled to report on his duties, Feng Demin was promoted to governor of Yunnan because of his outstanding political performance when he served as chief envoy of Guizhou.
The governors and chief envoys in the Tang Dynasty were different from the governors and chief envoys in the Ming Dynasty. The governors in the Tang Dynasty were not dispatched, but actual official positions. They did not have a long list of dispatch titles, and they were not dispatched by the central government.
officials, but belong to local officials.
The governor in the Tang Dynasty was the chief official in charge of the government affairs of a province. Except for military affairs, he could manage everything else. Of course, the agencies under the central departments such as taxation, inspectorate, court, and patrol department were
The relationship with the local co-administration, the actual power is smaller than that of the governor of the Ming Dynasty, but he is still a real feudal official with real power. This can be seen from his rank, but from the second rank
As for the chief envoy, he is the deputy of the governor, with a rank of third rank.
In the Tang Dynasty, although Beijing officials were more noble than local officials, the status of the governor of a province was no worse than that of the ministers of various ministries. Although the ministers of various ministries were also from the second rank, in the Tang Dynasty, the cabinet
There are more than a dozen ministries directly under the jurisdiction, and the number continues to increase. This makes the power of each ministry continue to be dispersed. Unless the ministers of each ministry are the real power departments, otherwise, a minister cannot even enter the imperial study room on duty.
.
This is true for ministers, let alone ministers. There are two ministers on the left and right of each ministry, and the number of ministers in the Tang Dynasty is about to exceed thirty. Except for the ministers in the real power departments, the ministers in ordinary departments actually have limited power.
To determine whether officials of ministries and other agencies directly under the central government have power, it is no longer possible to judge based on their official positions, but to judge whether they have entered the imperial study room. The minister on duty in the imperial study room is the real authority.
High authority, and ministers walking in the royal study room are the second echelon.
Officials who have not entered the imperial study are just ordinary Beijing officials!
Feng Demin was promoted to governor of Yunnan. Although Yunnan is currently the province with the weakest foundation under the Tang Dynasty and is not even fully controlled, it cannot hold the title of actual governor. After a few years of transition, he can be transferred to other major provinces in the future.
He has been appointed governor of the province, and a further step is to go to Beijing to serve as Zuo Shilang in the real power department, and then he will strive to serve as a minister or even enter the imperial study room.
Of course, these things are still too far away for Feng Demin.
As an official who had started his career very early, Feng Demin had sufficient qualifications, but his starting point was a bit low. He joined the Tang Dynasty when he was in Xingquan Prefecture, and at the beginning he only served as the section chief of a county.
Later, with the rapid expansion of the Tang Dynasty, as Mr. Conglong, his promotion was like a rocket. It only took him three months to go from section chief to county magistrate.
From county magistrate to county magistrate, it only took him half a year!
Then because of his outstanding political achievements, he rose to the top and was promoted several levels to become the governor of Duyun Prefecture in Guizhou. Then he skipped the third rank and was directly promoted to the chief envoy of Guizhou, the third rank.
Now, he takes over as governor of Yunnan!
Along the way, his own outstanding abilities certainly played a huge role, but more importantly, it was because he started from Long Zao and caught up with the rapid expansion of the Tang Dynasty.
This has established a new territory. If officials are to be dispatched to take over, Old Man Long will naturally be given priority.
Therefore, Feng Demin's promotion path is actually the promotion path of many senior officials in the Tang Dynasty. If he has a little ability and is from Long Dynasty relatively early, his promotion will be like being a rocket.
As for the scholars or officials who subsequently join the ranks, their promotion path will be much slower, and the later they join, the slower they will join.
When the Ministry of Personnel and even Li Xuan himself select officials, they often give priority to senior officials from the Zhengtai County and Xingquan Prefecture era, then those from the Guangxi era, and then those from the Three Provinces era.
After Jiangxi, Hunan, and Fujian were taken over, although the promotion of officials who joined them during these periods was not slow, they were no longer considered rockets.
As for the current Jiangnan period, the officials who have recently surrendered can only slowly gain seniority.
If this were not the case, then and now, who would have defected to the Tang Dynasty early, just to join as early as possible and gain the merit of being a follower of the dragon?
As for following the dragon's merit, the sooner you do it, the greater the credit will be, but the earlier you do it, the more dangerous it will be.
Therefore, the sooner those who join take on this risk, the higher the returns will naturally be.
Now that the Tang Dynasty has divided the world equally with the Ming Dynasty, it is almost impossible for you to get a high position just by joining. But when the Tang Dynasty completely defeats the Ming Dynasty and unifies China, you want to join.
If you come in, you won't get any preferential treatment. Just take your time and endure it!
As an early minister of the Long Dynasty, Feng Demin was quite satisfied to be able to achieve the high position of governor of a province today. After entering Li Xuan's office, Li Xuan naturally could not beat him as hard as he treated Chen Pugao. On the contrary
I still discussed carefully with Feng Demin how to manage Yunnan's government affairs.
At the same time, Li Xuan also made several requests to Feng Demin. One was to find out the current situation of the chieftains in Yunnan to lay the foundation for the subsequent reform of the native land and return to the local people. However, he also said at the same time that the reform of the native land and the return to the local people in Yunnan must be done.
, but you can’t be anxious, at least in recent years, to avoid any trouble.
Regarding the chieftains in the southwestern provinces, the Tang Dynasty's attitude was clear, that is, to maintain the status quo.
As long as these chieftains do not cause trouble to the Tang Dynasty, recognize the central rule of the Tang Dynasty, and pay taxes, then the Tang Dynasty will follow the example of the Ming Dynasty and recognize their hereditary status in the local area.
Of course, almost every high-ranking official in the Tang Dynasty knew that reforming the land and returning it to the locals had to be done. The process of reforming the land and returning it to the locals had already begun during the Ming Dynasty, and it had already started in Guangxi and Guizhou.
There is no reason to wait until the Tang Dynasty to reverse the course of history.
However, it was necessary to change the land and return it to the local people, but not now. At least before the Tang Dynasty unified China, Li Xuan was unwilling to cause large-scale turmoil in the southwestern region because of the change of the land and return to the local people.
In Yunnan, in addition to the serious chieftain problem, there are also several problems. On the one hand, the Ming army still occupies part of Yunnan. Dali is still under the control of the Ming army led by Duke Qian of the Ming Dynasty.
At the same time, Zhang Yue also sent troops from Sichuan into Yunnan to assist in the war.
This Duke's Mansion of the State of Guizhou is also commonly known as Prince Mu's Mansion. Of course, Prince Mu is just a common name imposed on them by later generations. In fact, no one in the Mu family has ever been crowned king during his lifetime, even after his death.
However, there were only two people named Mu Ying and Mu Sheng, who were posthumously named King Qianning and King Dingyuan respectively after their deaths.
Nowadays, if you call the Duke of Guizhou King Mu, you will scare him to death. This is a self-imposed title, and it is no different from rebellion.
In addition to posthumous titles, no one other than the royal family will be granted the title of king in the future!
Well, the same was true for the Tang Dynasty!
Now the Duke of Guizhou and Zhang Yue, together, can be regarded as controlling half of Yunnan. They are tug-of-war with the 4th Infantry Division. In this back-and-forth tug-of-war, the local chieftains are in bad luck.
Both sides are short of soldiers and food, and it is difficult to supply. For military needs, they will naturally collect food and recruit people on the spot, and often force the local chieftains to take sides. If you are not careful about taking sides, your family will be ruined.
.
Another problem in Yunnan is that the local population is too small!
Or to be more precise, there are too few local Han people.
The reason why Guangxi and Guizhou were able to convert their native lands back to their native lands, and were actually controlled by the Ming Dynasty before and now by the Tang Dynasty, is that the local Han population is very large, and at the same time, a large number of the local natives have been Sinicized.
In fact, these days there is no difference between the natives in Guizhou and Guangxi and the local Han people.
If this is not enough, the situation in Yunnan is much worse.
To solve this problem is very simple, immigration, intermarriage, Chineseization, well, generally speaking, it is a great racial integration!
Abolish their so-called traditional clothes, language, and even living habits, and it won't take long to completely Chineseize them. Our ancestors have been doing this for thousands of years, and the results are excellent!
Talking about this item, I accidentally talked for more than ten minutes. It was the secretary outside who reminded me that Li Xuan reacted. He immediately ended the meeting and asked Feng Demin to stay later and have a meal together.
lunch.
It was naturally a great honor for the emperor to give him a meal. Feng Demin immediately thanked him and left with a happy look on his face.
Immediately, several ministers from the imperial study came in one after another and started the morning meeting that had been postponed for several hours today.
However, there are usually no major matters in routine morning meetings. After they simply reported on their recent work, Li Xuan ended the morning meeting and then took a group of ministers to have lunch.
Giving meals is something Li Xuan often does, the cost is small and the effect is great.
It's just a matter of having lunch together. For Li Xuan, it's just an extra pair of chopsticks. He doesn't even have to waste his time. However, this kind of thing is usually regarded as a reward of honor.
Even if the ministers didn't actually eat much when they were given the meal, well, after all, no one dared to gobble it up in front of Li Xuan. Most of them just ate something symbolic, but what they cared about was not these, but
Li Xuan's attitude towards giving meals.
After all, the people who could ask Li Xuan to give meals were all important civil and military officials. Without enough weight, they would not be able to get this honor.
During the meal, everyone was very particular about eating and sleeping, so the scene seemed a bit silent. However, after dinner, when they drank tea and ate fruit, they also started chatting briefly.
However, at this time, whether it is Li Xuan or others, they usually no longer talk about major military and national affairs, but usually talk about small things in life.
Qian Mengjiu said that his son had just gotten married a few days ago, and lamented that time passed so quickly. A few years had passed in the blink of an eye, and his son had grown up and got married.
Hearing the word marriage, Li Xuan suddenly remembered that his sister Princess Huichen was also fifteen years old this year. According to people's concept of early marriage these days, she should have started looking for her husband's family.
But it seems that Queen Mother Bai has never mentioned Huichen’s marriage, and she doesn’t know if she has started looking for someone!