Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 391: Two-Level System of Prefectures and Counties
Although what Bai Tu saw along the way were all old scenes and he had not yet reached Jingzhou, he also felt some of the shortcomings of the county system...
Firstly, in the turbulent times, the integrity of the counties was put to a new test; secondly, the emergence of a large number of workshops in the State of Chu made cities increasingly important, the population dependent on cities increased dramatically, and the large counties became larger and the small counties became smaller; thirdly... the roads became more and more convenient , and the speed of transmission of news and government orders increased day by day.
Therefore, the previous county system was obviously unable to keep up with the pace.
Bai Tu had been thinking about it for a long time, and the new administrative division was not made on a whim, but was based on the experience of later generations.
It’s just that... Bai Tu’s ideas are quite different from those of the historical Cao Cao, and are even completely opposite.
In history without the White Rabbit Effect, after completely replacing the Yuan family and occupying the north, Cao Cao began to vigorously promote the Great Nine Provinces Plan, which was to redivide the thirteen states of the Han Dynasty into nine states.
But what Bai Tu was thinking of was a two-level system similar to the prefecture and county system during the Song Dynasty...
The official positions in the Song Dynasty were defined in history textbooks as "redundant officials", which means that the official system was too large and redundant.
What is the specific local official system like?
During the Han Dynasty, prefectures and counties were established locally. Each prefecture had a prefect and each county had a county magistrate. Even the "county chief" of a small county had great real power, so he had the "nickname" of "Bai Li Hou".
The prefect was even more of a local official. During the chaotic times of the Eastern Han Dynasty, before Liu Yan fooled Emperor Ling and came up with the provincial governor system, the province was merely a supervisory unit and the governor did not have the actual power to interfere in local affairs!
In contrast, the Song Dynasty took a big step forward in decentralization and centralization, absorbing the experience of the Tang Dynasty...
The smallest local administrative unit is still the county, but the "state" above the county is usually set up with three or four counties. During the Northern Song Dynasty, there were more than 200 states and more than 1,000 counties in the country!
In other more important places, "prefectures" were established, which were on the same level as "states" but were more important.
As for the "Lu" above the state, it was also just a supervisory unit. Compared with the "Zhou" of the Han Dynasty, the "Lu" of the Song Dynasty seemed to have similar legal rationality, but there was one biggest difference - there was no supreme chief.
Instead, it was divided into four parts: the "transportation envoy" in charge of grain transport and finance, the "judicial officer" in charge of criminal cases, the "pacification envoy" in charge of military affairs, and the "constant envoy" in charge of storage. In theory, each state was supervised from four aspects, and each prefect had to face four chiefs...
The population of the Eastern Han Dynasty was far smaller than that of the Northern Song Dynasty, but its area was much larger than that of the Northern Song Dynasty. However, the number of counties was only half of the "states" in the Northern Song Dynasty, which shows that the local areas had been cut into pieces during the Song Dynasty.
Although the local official system of the Song Dynasty was redundant, it was undoubtedly ranked very high among the feudal dynasties in terms of political stability. It was undoubtedly very satisfactory in terms of the court's centralization of power into the local areas and the mutual checks and balances among local departments.
However, its flaws are also obvious. On the one hand, there are "redundant officials". On the other hand... small and medium-sized counties at the grassroots level have to face the dilemma of incomplete official establishment, which leads to low administrative capacity.
That is to say, power was divided into small pieces, but small and medium-sized counties were not merged, resulting in weak nerves at the terminal end. If the official system of the Song Dynasty was bloated, it was probably like the centripetal obesity of a fat man - he weighed more than 200 pounds, but his forearms and calves were still "slender".
However, it is undeniable that the local official system during the Song Dynasty was more suitable to be borrowed from the six-department vertical management system, and the "supervision" of the Song Dynasty can also be regarded as the prototype of the official workshop.
The "Jian" in the Song Dynasty was a large workshop for smelting, grazing, and salt making run by the imperial court. Some of them were at the same level as states, and some were at the same level as counties. They were all administrative units.
Historically, Cao Cao implemented the "Great Nine Provinces" plan, which was actually a step to strengthen his own Jizhou. After replacing Yuan Shao, he began to use the north as his base camp, while weakening the Xu Du court.
Bai Tu's current Hundred States Plan is also aimed at strengthening the centralization of the Chu court.
Although the population was not as dense as in the Northern Song Dynasty, the convenient development of transportation and the trend of population concentration in towns and cities laid the foundation for the differentiation of local powers and the centralization of the court, and also strengthened Bai Tu's determination to gradually launch the "Hundred States Plan".
The massive expansion of county-level officials is already laying the groundwork...
According to Baitu's plan, it would take at least five years to accumulate sufficient talent reserves and gradually improve the functions of local government offices.
After five to ten years, the complete abolition of counties and their replacement with states will be achieved. Based on the current territory controlled by Chu, one hundred states will be established - there will be one state for every two or three counties. "Prefectures" will be set up in key areas, and the army and official offices will be housed there with reference to the military and supervisory system of the Song Dynasty.
With states and prefectures as the end of the vertical management of the six ministries, that is to ensure that the state level has a full set of subordinate offices of the six ministries. In fact... it is equivalent to the current large county being promoted to a "state" or "prefecture", dragging two small counties, like a prefecture-level city and its subordinate county-level city, which is a disguised merger to avoid incomplete local official system.
At the same time, counties would no longer be established, and "roads" would be divided into supervisory units, serving as intermediate-level institutions for the vertical management of the six ministries.
As for the county magistrate after the Baizhou Plan, he is truly a "small official" and has nothing to do with Baili Hou anymore.
After Bai Tu proposed the two-level system of prefectures and counties, he and the staff drawn from the six ministries also conducted targeted inspections along the way...
Whenever we visit a county, we will sample data from all aspects and compare the changes brought about by the increase in the number of workshops, in order to compare the feasibility and necessity of the two-level system of states and counties.
Bai Tu raised this matter, and currently only some core officials from the six ministries knew about it. Most of them were taking a wait-and-see attitude or slightly resisting.
After all, the county system has been in place for so many years and is already very complete compared to before. Moreover, after Bai Tu pushed the six ministries to establish direct county offices, a rough version was completed. In theory, that should be enough, right ?
After all, changes in administrative divisions are undoubtedly one of the biggest causes of political instability.
If the person who proposed this was not Bai Tu, he would probably have strongly resisted it, and some people would have even died on the spot.
But the white picture...
This is the trust that has been accumulated bit by bit since the establishment of the six ministries in the General's Mansion!
There were also unwritten rules in the court of Chu. Everyone could argue with the King of Chu, but please use current data and not use the names of ancestral laws. Otherwise... Ni Heng would answer on behalf of the King of Chu.
Therefore, although many people are cautious, they are carefully seeking verification.
Because there was no official announcement yet, the counties were shocked and thought that the King of Chu was conducting a surprise inspection. However, they later discovered that the bosses only asked for the data of the counties and conducted a simple observation.
The contrast became even more obvious when we entered Jiangxia.
In the areas of Wujun and Poyangjun, the larger the county town, the more workshops there were around it.
Jiangxia County is different, because it was still a war zone a year ago, and most of the local wealthy families are not sensitive to the development of workshops, which can be regarded as a "primitive" comparison.
…
On the eighth day of June, not long after Bai Tu entered Jiangxia County, he happened to encounter a family migration.
Although the other party seemed to want to hide in the cracks in the ground to avoid being discovered by Bai Tu, Bai Tu still ordered him to go forward and ask.
It doesn't look like we are fleeing from a disaster, and there is no disaster to escape from in Jingzhou. Although... it is not a big deal for a few hundred people, as the King of Chu, I still have to ask about it since I have encountered it.
After all, this kind of large-scale exodus often indicates suspicion of harsh governance in the area...
