If the imperial power cannot be brought down to the countryside and managed at the township level, no matter what policy is implemented, it will be difficult to implement.
For example, the private literacy schools promoted by Su Che are currently being implemented very well at the county level, but it is extremely difficult to promote them in the countryside. Even though it is free literacy and the court has invested money and manpower, it still feels a bit thankless.
The attitude of those country gentry is very clear. There is no need to have so many literate people. If more people can read, it will have a huge impact on stability. Therefore, it is necessary to keep these people so ignorant.
Su Che was naturally not satisfied with the current situation, so change was inevitable.
The question is – how to change?
In order to control the village level, Zhu Yuanzhang's response was to register all the people, implement the baojia system, and appoint a person in charge for each village.
But even so, it only makes the collection of fiscal revenues much easier.
If a county magistrate wants to govern the local area, he still needs the assistance of clerks, clan elders, and gentry, otherwise many things cannot be accomplished.
In fact, for ancient rulers, this was enough.
Finance is the lifeblood of a central court. Everything else is trivial. After all, it has been like this since ancient times, and it is difficult for everyone to have too much pursuit.
But Su Che is different. He has more things to do, so he will naturally not be satisfied with just this.
Only by bringing imperial power to the countryside can literacy campaign be carried out thoroughly.
Faced with these deeply rooted gentry elders, Su Che thought for a long time and finally endured it. If he used his butcher knife to kill them all, it would certainly shock them for a while, but it would not last long. He couldn't keep killing them, right?
Therefore, it is necessary to find another solution.
However, for the time being, Su Che had no better solution.
He did not continue to think that a person's power has its limits, and so does the mind. Although the geniuses of this era are limited by the times, it does not mean that they are not smart enough. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
Su Che immediately summoned the cabinet members to discuss the matter.
Soon, cabinet members, including Crown Prince Zhu Biao, came to the council hall.
Su Che sat on it and gave the problems he encountered - how to bring imperial power to the countryside, strengthen the management capabilities of the countryside, and smoothly promote any policies of the court?
When the cabinet ministers heard this question, they looked at each other in confusion. After a brief silence, everyone started discussing it. Since they had already reached the center of power, the cabinet ministers, it was impossible for them to turn back and take care of the so-called Confucianists.
After some discussion, everyone came up with quite a few reliable suggestions.
First, the power of the state and county governments can be directly mobilized.
The county government would often go to the towns and villages under its jurisdiction to collect taxes, sometimes lead teams to arrest bandits, and sometimes mediate village and clan disputes and stop fights. It still had considerable influence in the local area.
Relying on the influence of the county government, permanent bases were set up in townships and villages, and a corresponding power system was established to be responsible for promoting the court's orders.
If it comes to this point and those places are still unwilling to cooperate, or even openly resist local officials, then they are confronting the imperial court.
In a word, to crack down on local evil forces, you still need to find an excuse. If the other party openly attacks court officials, then it means they are plotting rebellion. To suppress the rebellious family, you only need a list!
Except for this proposal.
Some people also gave different opinions.
More inspection offices were set up in county yamen to give local governments sufficient military force, allowing them to form the concept of "assistant and miscellaneous defense". That is, the county magistrate, inspector, chief clerk, etc., each person was in charge of a region, and through the division of assistants and miscellaneous personnel below the county level, the imperial power was extended to the county level.
However, this will also lead to corresponding problems, which is that the already bloated local official system will become even more bloated, which will bring considerable trouble to the subsequent government order system.
But many times things are like this, there are positives and negatives, there are advantages and disadvantages, this is unavoidable.
If we want to extend imperial power to the countryside, we must expand the corresponding government decree system.
In a word, the cost of extending imperial power to the countryside is very high.
Of course, once this kind of thing is accomplished, the benefits will be huge.
but.
There were also cabinet ministers who expressed the opposite opinion. They believed that instead of being wary of the gentry clans, it would be better to win them over and use their power to achieve the goal.
This is a completely different idea.
Public bureaus can be set up to win over the gentry and wealthy families, allowing the court to extend its influence into every town, township and village.
The minister explained the so-called public bureau.
It is to let the gentry and wealthy families in those rural towns get together, let them elect leading gentry from within, and then have them recognized and appointed by the state and county officials. These people will form an institution such as a public bureau to manage local affairs.
The correspondence and meeting etiquette between county officials and public offices basically followed the practices of superior and subordinate government offices.
Through the public bureau system, the imperial court could control local gentry.
Once the imperial court issued a decree, these gentry would be responsible for promoting it. If they did a good job, it would be considered a political achievement and they could continue to be promoted.
This is very attractive to the gentry and wealthy families.
Zhu Yuanzhang's policy of registering all citizens and establishing the baojia system was difficult to implement sustainably and effectively, because although the baojia system had legitimacy and had fixed staff, the dibao, they were all common people and had limited authority in the local area.
In addition, the baojia system did not have a stable source of funding and did not have armed personnel under its direct control, so the task of the local security guards was mainly to run errands, and it was difficult to completely control the village through this system.
If the public office is authorized by the government and has local legitimacy, the gentry in the office will have honors and titles, and there will be gentry working in the office. If office fees are collected in various ways, the gentry will have a fixed income.
In addition, the bureau also has militia, night guards, bureau soldiers and other armed personnel...
In this way, the public office can directly force the villagers to obey!
Su Che couldn't help but frown as he listened to the many plans discussed by the cabinet ministers. It was difficult to choose among these plans.
If we don't rely on the gentry and only rely on the county government, it will take a lot of effort to implement this matter perfectly.
If we rely on local gentry, this problem can be easily solved.
But the problem is.
Handing power over to these people is like drinking poison to quench thirst, which will lead to endless troubles!
Su Che thought for a while and finally chose the dumbest method.
Relying on the influence of the county government, permanent bases were set up in towns and villages, and a corresponding power system was established to be responsible for promoting the orders of the court!
Take back the power and influence of the countryside from the hands of those country gentry!
At the same time, more inspection offices were set up in county towns to provide local areas with sufficient military force, allowing them to form a "divided defense system with auxiliary and miscellaneous forces."
But this would cost too much.
But as long as things can be done, no matter what the cost, it is worth it.
As the meeting ended, the cabinet ministers left the meeting hall in twos and threes, and couldn't help but discuss: "Why doesn't Your Majesty agree to use the power of those gentry?"
"Yes, I also think that if we use the power of the gentry, this may be the easiest solution..."
"If we do this, it will strengthen the power of the gentry. Your Majesty is from a humble background, and probably knows better than anyone that these rural gentry are unreliable. So, he would rather seek help from afar than rely on the power of the gentry."
"Well, there are gains and losses in some things. If we rely on these gentry and let them gain power, the consequences will be disastrous! Your Majesty, you must think long-term."
At the same time, in the meeting hall.
Crown Prince Zhu Biao did not leave with the court officials, but stayed here.
The father and son were discussing another matter - to build large roads, use work as a substitute for relief , build roads from villages to towns, and then build roads from towns to county towns. After all the roads are repaired, some of the poor mountains and bad waters will disappear.
In this way, the problem of insufficient control at the bottom level can be improved to a great extent.
But opening up a large road is also a waste of money and time.
Su Che's plan was to use the continuously printed treasure banknotes to hire strong men from villages, towns and even county towns to help build roads.
However, Zhu Biao's idea was that there was no need for wages. As long as he used the treasure notes to buy spiritual rice and provided enough spiritual food, those low-level strongmen would naturally be happy to go and help build the road.
If you pay directly in treasure notes as wages, it is inevitable that some officials will deduct money in the middle. However, if you do not spend money and only provide materials, this deduction will be greatly reduced.
Of course, it's just a reduction, there's no way to avoid it completely.
After all, the world is so big and there are so many people. It is very difficult to completely eliminate those parasites. We can only formulate corresponding rules and avoid them as much as possible.
Zhu Biao's suggestion was quite good. Even in the early Ming Dynasty, it was still not easy for the lower-class strongmen to have a full meal. The spiritual rice was very precious, and ordinary farmers were reluctant to eat it. They used it to pay back their debts and then exchanged it for relatively ordinary food to fill their stomachs.
Su Che nodded, thinking that Zhu Biao's consideration was very good.
Afterwards, Zhu Biao put forward four or five opinions and ideas in succession, all of which were aimed at opening up the road. These ideas were very appropriate, and even Su Che could not find any faults with them. He nodded involuntarily, thinking in his heart, no wonder Zhu Yuanzhang liked his eldest son so much, his abilities were indeed good.
After the two discussed it, the matter was settled.
As for the issue of road construction in each state and county, someone needs to be responsible.
In Zhu Biao's opinion, he was the most qualified person to be responsible for this matter.
However, after Su Che thought about it, he shook his head and felt that it was not appropriate.
If the road construction was successful, it would definitely be a great achievement, but at the same time, it would offend quite a lot of people. As the crown prince, Zhu Biao did not need to do it himself. He just needed to sit back and take charge of the overall situation. This was what a person in power should do.
No matter how well the people below perform, it is ultimately the credit of the leaders above. If the people below do not perform well, then naturally they will take the blame. This is the so-called art of leadership.
However, Crown Prince Zhu Biao obviously did not agree with this view. Although he understood his father's thoughts, he also had his own persistence.
Zhu Biao said seriously: "Father, I know you are doing this for my own good, but there are some things that I think I should do myself. This will allow me to grow further, rather than always learning under your wings..."
After saying this, Zhu Biao asked cautiously: "Father, what do you think?"
Although Prince Yiwen Zhu Biao was already outstanding enough, it also depended on who he was in front of. In front of an emperor like Zhu Yuanzhang, he was not good enough at all.
He has always been completely , and the gap between him and his father is simply huge. The more he grows, the more he feels how exaggerated the gap is.
Even though Zhu Yuanzhang had unconditional trust in Zhu Biao and had appointed him as the crown prince, whose power had long exceeded the limit of a crown prince, the more so, the more cautious Zhu Biao became, for fear of disappointing his father.
It was this kind of mood that made Prince Yiwen Zhu Biao eager to make a career for himself. Previously, he wanted to preside over the new political reforms, and now he wants to preside over the opening of the road, all because of this idea.
Faced with Zhu Biao's insistence, Su Che was stunned. He frowned, thought for a moment, and finally nodded.
Su Che earnestly advised: "Since you want to do it, then just go for it. We will always stand behind you and support you. Don't think about what will happen if you fail. With us backing you up, no one in this world can touch you!!"
Zhu Biao was deeply moved when he heard his father's words. He quickly said, "Thank you for your help, father. I will not let you down!"
Su Che didn't say anything, just patted Zhu Biao on the shoulder, everything was said without words!
Soon, the terrifying machine of the Ming Dynasty court began to run at high speed again.
…
Jinhua Pujiang, Zhengzhai Town.
The town is named after the Zheng family, which is enough to show the glory of this family.
Zheng Qi, the founding ancestor of the Zheng family, was kind and friendly by nature. He was filial to his parents and regarded "cultivating oneself, regulating the family, and pacifying the world" as his lofty ideals.
When he was dying, he ordered his descendants to live together and not to separate. As a result, the Zheng family has lived together for more than hundreds of years, with more than 3,000 people sharing the same wealth and food!
Zhu Yuanzhang even personally named it the number one family in Jiangnan!
At this moment, several "uninvited guests" appeared in Zhengzhai Town. They were the township office staff newly appointed by the court.
When these unfamiliar faces entered Zhengzhai Town, they naturally attracted a lot of attention. Many people came over to ask them why they came to Zhengzhai Town.
A middle-aged man in a Confucian robe, named Yan Shitong, smiled and said, "I am the clerk of Zhengzhai Town appointed by the court. If you have any problems in the future, just come to me directly. There is no need for the local gentry to help mediate and handle them."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone looked at each other in surprise. Since ancient times, the affairs of Zhengzhai Town have been managed by the Zheng family, but now, things are going to change?
Among the crowd there was someone from the Zheng family, who hurried back to report to the head of the family.
At this time, the head of the Zheng family was Zheng Zhu. After hearing the report from his servants, he couldn't help but frown and muttered, "I've heard about this matter a long time ago. The court plans to strengthen its influence in the local area. I didn't expect it to come down so soon..."
Then he raised his head and said disdainfully:
"If they want a township office, then let them do it. Do we, the Zheng family, still want to hold on to this tiny bit of power?"
"Since His Majesty has named us the number one family in Jiangnan, we must set an example for being the number one family in Jiangnan!"
"Let them do it themselves!"
It was obvious that Zheng Zhu didn't take this small office seriously at all. How could the Zheng family, such a huge company, really touch him?
However, not long after, more news came that Yan Shitong of the office received an anonymous letter saying that the Zheng family had occupied more than 10,000 acres of spiritual fields, basically all of which were obtained by trickery and robbery. According to the investigation, this was true!
The office ordered the Zheng family to return the ten thousand acres of spiritual land! !