The first year of Zhang Wu came to an end amidst much excitement.
At the end of the year, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei returned to Luoyang. Although the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty did not gather together, they still had a happy New Year.
Everything in the imperial court was in order, and the promotion of the restructuring of officials in various places was going smoothly.
It is impossible not to go smoothly. Except for a few officials who can use the acquired territory, most officials, such as county magistrates in Jizhou, Guanzhong, Nanyang and other places, have been deposed.
The replacements are all officials from Qingzhou. These people have long been familiar with the Qingzhou system. After taking office, they each perform their own duties. The chief and deputy county magistrates and the chief and deputy county prime ministers are in charge of people's livelihood, economy and agriculture. The Weiyuan, Dali Yuan, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are in charge of the legal system.
The separation of politics and law promotes the development of various localities.
In fact, places in the Han Dynasty were not as complicated as later generations. The main reason is that the place is now large and the population is small. There are tens of thousands of people in one county, so there are relatively few conflicts and disputes. There is more land, and a large number of refugees have been resettled and assigned fields, so there is no problem of survival.
Local problems are often more about security and governance. The Han people are full of martial arts, tough people, and have a strong sense of knights. Sometimes they fight with weapons, which may lead to large-scale wars between villages.
This is a great test of the abilities of county captains, deans of Dali Yuan and deans of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
In terms of management, there is the problem of water diversion for irrigation. There may be many fields, but the water source is not stable. Especially during the Little Ice Age, the water flow is easy to dry up in winter and summer. This will test the management level of the local county magistrate and county magistrate.
For example, when Chen Deng was managing farmland in Xuzhou, he cultivated a large number of canals. Digging and building canals was also a skill. It was definitely not enough to just learn theoretical knowledge in the academy. Practical skills were required.
Fortunately, Liu Bei was not so stupid as to replace all county-level officials and let those who had just graduated from Taishan Academy to serve as officials. He sent those who had graduated earlier and worked at the Qingzhou Government Affairs Office and various counties in Qingzhou.
A low-level official for many years.
For example, there are many middle-level officials at the county level who previously served in various counties as county captain, deputy county captain, dean, deputy dean of Dali Yuan, dean of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, dean, deputy dean, dean of the Civil Affairs Yuan, and deputy dean.
Will be transferred to other states and counties.
In the past, the rank and file officials, township heads, lower-level public prosecutors, prosecutors, and officials in Qingzhou counties, as well as Cao Cao, Cao Shi and other low-level officials at various levels, were often transferred to other prefectures, counties and yamen to serve as mid-level officials.
Chen Mu has not yet carried out the nine-rank reform. The official rank still follows the Eastern Han Dynasty's practice of calculating the number of shi based on the amount of grain per month. The official hierarchy is not obvious.
Therefore, in the spring of the second year of Zhangwu, Chen Mu formally presided over the restructuring of the nine-rank system, dividing officials into nine and twenty grades to clarify the system division between superiors and subordinates.
certainly.
Some people may wonder, shouldn't the ninth grade have eighteen levels?
Why are there twenty levels.
The reason is very simple. The two lowest levels are officials, which are not included in the nine-grade system and are equivalent to ordinary clerks and section staff.
Just like if you are admitted to the civil service examination, you are not considered an official. Only when you become a section chief or section chief can you be considered a formal and powerful official.
The 20th and 19th levels are the township officials, the lower-level civil servants in the states and counties, including the mencao soldiers under the current county captains. In the Han Dynasty, these people were often regarded as officers and soldiers. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, they were called
Third class yamen servant.
Such people had a very low status and were almost equal to criminals during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They also had no income and often had to rely on blackmailing merchants and extorting prostitutes and butchers to make ends meet, which was called fees.
But Chen Mu knew very well that their role was actually the police. If those who maintained public order were regarded as criminals, then one can imagine how bad the security situation in this place would be.
For example, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, three squads of government officials were a major hazard in the local area. They oppressed the people at the bottom, accepted bribes, protected criminals, and created countless unjust, false and wrong cases.
Therefore, it is imperative to improve the status of mencao soldiers and put them into the ranks of officials so that they will not be discriminated against and have room for advancement.
Many people think that the government agencies in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were simple and simple. A county only had less than 10 high-ranking officials such as county magistrate, county magistrate, county captain, chief secretary, inspection and edict, etc. It seemed that the number of officials was not large.
But this does not count the officials. It is common for a county with a population of tens of thousands to have hundreds of officials and thousands of government officials.
Liu Heng, who was the magistrate of Ba County, Sichuan during the Qing Dynasty, recorded that when he took office in Ba County, there were as many as 7,000 government officials, who were almost ready to form an army.
Therefore, to truly streamline an organization, we do not look at how many officials there are on the surface, but to clearly define the number of civil servants.
For example, Qingzhou now has a population of 100,000 people in a large county due to its large number of refugees.
But including the assistant officials in each township, the lower-level fighting officials, the three-shift police officers, the Cao officials in various ministries, and the ordinary officials in the Dali Yuan, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Li Zhi Yuan, there are only three to four hundred civil servants in total. Even if we include the shortage of manpower
The number of business editors employed at that time was less than a thousand.
There are only a few hundred administrative personnel to govern a city of 100,000 people, and the ratio of officials to citizens is probably more than 1:100.
Such a ratio of officials to civilians is relatively small. Don’t look at the historical ratios of 1 to 3,000 and 1 to 1,500 in the Tang and Song dynasties, but that does not count officials. If officials are included, the ratio of officials to civilians in the Song Dynasty may reach
1 to 10, far exceeding the ratio of all civil servants in the past dynasties.
Therefore, from this point of view, clarifying the division of responsibilities, improving the remuneration of civil servants, and systematically classifying the powers of all levels. The civil servants in which departments are in charge of the civil servants in which departments are actually far better than a grass-roots team, and then recruiting hundreds or thousands of yamen to govern the local government.
, it is much better to let the people of a county grow wildly without any plan.
At least at present, a county magistrate in Dahan does not have many civil servants directly subordinate to him. However, these civil servants are located in various villages in the county, understand the needs of the people, and carry out unified planning and management.
Chen Mu wrote many books on how to be a good civil servant when he was in Qingzhou. To put it simply, the first thing emphasized in local governance is people's livelihood. First, take care of the people's stomachs, and then take advantage of local development, such as industrial production.
If you are in a grain area, you can develop agriculture advantageously. If you are close to a mining area, you can organize mineral production. If you are close to the seaside, you can vigorously develop fishery.
Those who farm, those who mine, those who chop down trees, those who fish, those who rely on the mountains to eat, and those who rely on the sea to eat the sea. We do not seek to get rich, we just hope that the current people do not have to worry about three meals a day.
In the future, when the country vigorously develops the transportation industry and builds cement roads and trains, we will then consider getting rich.
As for the ecological environment?
Except for the large-scale felling of trees along the Yellow River, there are no protective measures in other areas.
Talking about ecology in the face of human survival problems is a joke.
The officials above the civil servants are similar to the ninth-rank officials in the Ming and Qing dynasties and later generations. For example, the eighth- and ninth-grade corresponds to the department level, the sixth and seventh grades correspond to the county and department levels, the fourth and fifth grades correspond to the city and department levels, the second and third grades correspond to senior officials, and the first grade corresponds to senior officials.
Naturally it is national level.
Like the county magistrate of an ordinary county, the county magistrate is equivalent to the senior county official and county magistrate. The county magistrate is from the sixth rank, and the county magistrate is from the seventh rank. If it is a large county with a larger population, the county magistrate is from the sixth rank, and the county magistrate is from the sixth rank.
Sixth grade.
There are also two chief registrars, the county captain, the dean of the Dali Yuan, the dean of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the dean of the Civil Affairs Yuan, and the teaching edicts, all of whom are from the seventh rank or seventh rank, equivalent to two deputy county magistrates, public security directors,
The president of the court, the president of the procuratorate, the political and legal committee, the director of education, etc. probably have such a function.
The deputy county captains, deputy deans, and deputy teachers below them naturally range from the seventh to the eighth rank, and then there are the lower-level officials from the eighth to the ninth rank, such as the chiefs, Cao Li, and Cao officials under each department.
They are divided into different categories, each with its own authority.
In the Han Dynasty, there were distinctions between large and small counties. A large county like Luoyang County had a population of hundreds of thousands. Naturally, the county magistrate could not be calculated by ordinary grades, so he had to raise his grade.
For example, the division at that time was that the county magistrates of large counties had ranks of Qianshi, such as Luoyang county magistrates, Tangmuyi magistrates, Daoling magistrates, etc.
The magistrate of a middle county is six hundred shi, and the magistrate of a small county is 400 shi. The county magistrate is called the county magistrate.
Therefore, if there is a one-to-one correspondence, the rank of the magistrate of a large county must be improved. A county with a population of more than 200,000 is called a county magistrate. The rank is from the fifth rank, which corresponds to the deputy department level. For example, in the current Linzi City of Qingzhou,
With a population of more than 400,000, the county magistrate's rank is naturally high.
The names of county magistrates in large counties with a population of more than 100,000 were changed to magistrates, six grades, corresponding to the director level. For example, there are many counties in Jizhou and Qingzhou whose population exceeded the 100,000 mark, so such large counties were under the rule of the imperial court.
Still a lot.
The name of the magistrate of an ordinary county with a population of less than 100,000 is called county magistrate, starting from the sixth grade, corresponding to the deputy director level. Such counties are the most common and the most common county-level cities.
As for the Luoyang Order, the fourth rank is equivalent to the department level. His immediate superior is the Sili Xiaowei, the second rank, ministerial level.
certainly.
The so-called department level, county level, city hall level, senior official, and national level are just for Chen Mu's own convenience to understand. The real actual situation is still very different from that of later generations.
For example, a sixth-grade county magistrate corresponds to the chief division level, a sixth-grade county magistrate corresponds to the deputy division level, an eighth-grade deputy county captain and a subordinate eighth-grade township chief correspond to the department level and deputy department level, and a ninth-grade pavilion chief and a ninth-grade county magistrate correspond to the deputy division level.
Zuoli Dou Shi corresponds to the rank and deputy rank, so what do the seventh rank and the seventh rank correspond to?
So that’s just the general meaning, it doesn’t mean that the official system will be completely applied to later generations.
Including Chen Mu's reform of the Nine Ranks, he was also progressing in the direction of the Tang Dynasty, first reforming to the large ministry system step by step, and then developing to the political system of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, instead of becoming fat in one bite and directly copying the systems of later generations.
It’s just that Chinese civilization has never been cut off. The official hierarchy system has become relatively complete in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and reached its peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Therefore, in a certain form, the nine-level system in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the twenty-level civil servant system in later generations are somewhat different.
Just like.
The local official system was reformed, and the same was true for prefectures and counties. Each department had a superior officer directly under the state and county level. Judiciary, education, criminal justice, military, transportation, construction, agriculture, supervision, and taxation all formed their own systems.
Officials at all levels are under the dual leadership of the system and local governors. For example, the county lieutenant of a county is not only under the jurisdiction of the county lieutenant, but also subject to the triple supervision of the county magistrate, county magistrate, and official administration court, which relatively avoids certain
The problem of official abuse of power.
Although minor troubles are still inevitable, they are at least much better than the dark officialdom of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The dark and satirical officialdom recorded in "Water Margin" is not only the Song Dynasty, but also a lot of officialdom situations in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties.
A county magistrate covers the sky with one hand, destroys families and destroys families, local officials protect each other, and deals with powerful people for money. The people are complaining, but there is no place to speak out. Since ancient times, there have been countless such examples.
Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the power of local officials and clarify their responsibilities.
And now is the best time to do this. The population is small, and there are only so many people in a county. Everyone knows what happens to the folks in the countryside. It is easy to manage and supervision is easy to put in place.
Above the county level, the chiefs at the state and county level are basically between the third and fifth ranks. The highest a state pastor can be is the third rank, but there are exceptions. For example, the Sili Xiaowei is a senior official in charge of the six counties of Sili.
The rank is similar to that of Jiuqing, who reaches the second rank of Zheng. As for the three princes and generals, they are of the first rank.
The first rank is Taishi, Taifu, Taibao, which is an honorary rank, so it is basically the end of the first rank for officials with real power. As for the large number of other honorary casual official positions, there is no need to go into details. The purpose of the imperial court restructuring is to
Advance step by step to the Tang and Song Dynasties.
In addition to the restructuring of officials, there was also the restructuring of administrative regions. There were thirteen states in the Han Dynasty, and each state covered a very large area. For example, Yangzhou covered the later Anhui, a part south of Jiangsu, and the entire three provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang.
In addition, Jingzhou includes Hubei and Hunan provinces, Yizhou includes Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and parts of Guangxi and Myanmar, and Liangzhou is similar. One state includes several provinces in later generations.
Therefore, it becomes very necessary to redefine administrative areas and conduct geographical and geological surveys.
In fact, Chen Mu's actions were not without purpose. The administrative divisions of the Han Dynasty were too general, which resulted in the power of the governors of prefectures and counties. A state has a huge territory, and the governors are like princes. And if the territory is large, it will not be easy to govern, and it will also
This led to a situation in which the feudal lords were separatist.
Therefore, during the Cao Wei period, there was an administrative division, adding Sizhou, dividing the original Hedong County into two, and adding Pingyang County. From then on, Caowei Sili became Sizhou.
Yongzhou was added, and the Guanzhong area that now belongs to Sili, as well as Beidi County, Anding County, Hanyang County, Longxi County, Wudu County and other five counties south of Liangzhou were merged into it to become a large state. From then on, Guanzhong
The area is also called Yongliang.
There have been countless restructurings like this throughout the dynasties, and large-scale restructurings often occur when the old era is shattered and a new era is born.
The prefectures and counties in the Han Dynasty, Daozhou County in the Tang Dynasty, Luzhou County in the Song Dynasty, the Thirteen Chief Secretaries of the Two Capitals in the Ming Dynasty, and even the provinces in the founding period of our country were completely different from the more than 20 provinces that followed, and they were all caused by this continuous division.
.
Therefore, reasonable restructuring must have its purpose. For example, the reason why Chen Mu is embarking on restructuring now is to strengthen centralization and weaken local power.
Moreover, he plans to continue to use the state, county and county system, which is just a name for states and counties. In fact, it is no different from provinces, cities and counties. He also plans to reduce the administrative areas of states, counties and counties, and rationally plan the area of each place, including the population, agriculture, and economy of each place.
It also needs to be re-coordinated.
However, this is a huge project that cannot be solved in a year or two. Therefore, Chen Mu is not doing a one-size-fits-all approach at present, but is taking it step by step, first letting professionals from the Qingzhou Institute of Geology explore the terrain and draw maps of various places.
The whole process has just begun. Even the Samhan Peninsula, which has been fully occupied, has not been officially incorporated into this administrative system. It has only added the three counties of Mahan, Benhan, and Chenhan.
In the future, it may take more than ten years or even decades to completely re-divide the entire thirteen prefectures of Han Dynasty, including more than 100 counties and more than 1,000 counties.
And as the area of Dahan becomes larger and larger, more and more states and counties will be under its jurisdiction.
Just one bite will not make you fat. All of Chen Mu's plans are for the future. Except for the ninth-grade restructuring, there are no major restructurings. The administrative planning is just the beginning of the exploration map. The only way to improve productivity is to promote Champa Rice.
Items, and the industrial revolution didn’t even begin.
However, if people always stick to the present and do not look to the future, then it will obviously be much too late to wait until the world is stabilized before starting to take action. Obviously there are many things that can be done while conquering the world while looking forward to the future, so why should we follow the steps step by step?
It is definitely right to take one step at a time, but at least you have to have a clear direction. Otherwise, if you take it one step at a time and take the wrong path, in the end it will be nothing but a futile effort and you will not be able to escape the fate of the feudal dynasty.