Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 503: Implementation of the New System
The news that Lu Kang was going to retire spread quickly in the court. After the grand court meeting on the 16th day of the first lunar month, Lu Kang wrote a letter to "beg for his remains", and Bai Tu rejected it for the first time...
But everyone knows that Lu Kang's retirement is likely to happen in the spring and summer. Although his application was rejected this time, he will probably go through the procedure of resigning for the second time in about a month.
As for the identity of the successor, it was also easy to guess. Lu Kang did not keep it a secret. Not only did he hint to some people in private, but he also used several topics during court meetings to draw everyone's attention to Yu Fan.
The ministers were not surprised by this. After all, in terms of his relationship with the Jiangdong nobles and his loyalty to Bai Tu, Yu Fan was a rare suitable candidate. His ability was above the passing line and his qualifications were impeccable...
The cabinet is the place that gives "advice" to the King of Chu, but giving advice does not only require the use of the brain, or in other words... with Lu Su and Jia Xu, the cabinet is not short of "brains".
For example, Lu Kang and Huang Chengyan, their main task is to balance the impact of cabinet decisions on the Jiangdong and Jingzhou gentry - they can question some decisions that may cause backlash, but they are also obligated to quell the backlash for matters that can be passed by the cabinet.
Of course, compared to Lu Kang, Yu Fan's "lubricant" seems a bit frosted...
During the four years of the Chu calendar, there were still many things happening in the State of Chu. There were academic examinations in June, imperial examinations in October at the end of the year, and at the beginning of the year... the two-level system of prefectures and counties would be gradually promoted!
Since the establishment of the Chu State, Bai Tu has been "making arrangements", but because it involves a lot of things, especially the changes to grassroots officials, it will be very drastic, which is equivalent to establishing more grassroots government offices and making more detailed divisions of officials in grassroots government offices...
We have been preparing very carefully before. Now, three years have passed, and including the results of this year's imperial examination, a new group of talents will enter the official sequence of the Chu State, and the two-level system of prefectures and counties can also be started.
As for the specific divisions, the six ministries and the Privy Council have already discussed them repeatedly, and have also infiltrated the news to local grassroots government offices. Even some local-level decrees are already being implemented based on the new divisions, giving everyone a chance to get familiar with them.
The entire Chu territory will be divided into ten "daos", which are supervisory units, similar to the "zhou" of the Han Dynasty before the provincial governor system, but without a chief officer. Instead, there will be six ministries and a military division, which have no jurisdiction over each other and supervise the six ministries at the state level.
The ten roads are: "Jinling Road" where the capital Jinling is located.
"Jiangdong Road" east of Jinling.
The Huainan region was divided into two parts: "Huainan East Road" and "Huainan West Road".
It includes the southern part of Jiangdong and the "Kuai Ji Road" of the former Zhangling County.
"Wangjing Road" from Xiangyang to Wancheng.
"Jinghu North Road" in the northern area of Jingzhou with Jiangling as its center.
The northern part of Jingnan, the "Jinghu South Road" centered on Changsha and Hengyang.
In the southern part of Jingnan, there is the "Jianning Road" which is more responsible for integrating the Wuxi barbarians.
And...the "Guangxin Road" which has not been made public yet and is mainly based in Jiaozhou area.
The one that most stimulated the Han Dynasty was definitely "Wangjing Road" - not only did it make major changes to the county system, but also... Wangjing?
No matter how you look at the location of Wancheng, what you are looking at is not your own Jinling, but Guanzhong and Chang'an!
When Liu Xie first heard this name, he wanted to slam the table and ask: What are you looking at?
What has not been made public yet and is still completely in the theoretical stage is the "Guangxin Road" - Guangxin is a county in Cangwu County and the first county established after the Han Dynasty took back the two Guangdong areas.
The original meaning of the "Guang" in "Liangguang" in later generations refers to "Guangxin".
The Shi clan in Jiaozhou already had the intention to annex the territory, but the two sides were still in the stage of tug-of-war negotiations.
Shi Xie had no desire to fight for hegemony among the princes, but... he certainly hoped for more benefits. Two years ago, he had hoped that the King of Chu could fight for a title of Han Dynasty for him, and then submit to the King as a Han noble, but he was directly rejected by Bai Tu.
There was some unpleasantness at first, but not long after, Jiaozhou once again asked the State of Chu for help with a batch of grain, and presented many special products and treasures, with a subtle intention of paying tribute.
Historically, Shi Xie and his entire family submitted to Sun Quan two years after the Battle of Chibi, and still retained a certain amount of power and influence in Jiaozhou.
However, after Shi Xie's death, the descendants of Shi wanted to establish a separate regime in Jiaozhou, but were exterminated by Sun Quan, and the hostages left in Jianye were not spared either...
It can be seen that Shi Xie had no ambition to dominate. After the Battle of Chibi, when Sun Quan made it clear that he had become a separatist regime, Shi Xie had no intention of competing with him for Jiangdong. He accepted Sun Quan's appointment of Bu Zhi as the governor of Jiaozhou, and surrendered to him with his entire family. He was named the left general and still stayed in Jiaozhou.
At the same time, it can also be seen that Shi Xie’s influence in Jiaozhou was extraordinary. After his death, Shi Xie could still dream of separatism, and Shi Xie’s status in the two Guangdong provinces in later generations even surpassed that of Zhao Tuo, the King of Nanyue!
Although the State of Chu has not fought a hard battle with the North to prove its strength, but... the status of the State of Chu does not need to be proven by a hard battle.
No matter how you look at it, the current situation of the Chu State is much stronger than that of Sun Quan, who had just become proud after the Battle of Chibi.
In particular, the Chu State has been actively developing relations with the prominent families and indigenous people of Jiaozhou, and its influence among the people is not small. The entire Jiaozhou is either close to the sea or close to Chu.
Shi Xie had no other choice objectively and no other ideas subjectively.
The focus of the tug-of-war between the two sides now is how much power Shi Xie can retain, or in other words... how much interest the Shi family can retain!
Therefore, Badong was not included in the ten regions of the Chu State, but Jiaozhou was included.
As for the state level, it is slightly larger than the current county level and much smaller than the prefecture. Now in the mainland of Chu, not counting overseas ports and counties such as Liaodong, Donglai, Zhouhu, and Badong, and not counting the governor's offices in Yizhou and Danzhou, there are a total of 244 counties and 21 prefectures!
After the reform, there are only eighty-one "states", each of which has a county town as the main development area and two or three small counties.
The state level is managed vertically by the Six Ministries and the six central ministries. One person is selected from the six ministries as the "prefect" to serve as the highest official of the "state".
The principle for appointing a prefect is that the chief minister of the department that the local focus is on developing will serve as the prefect - most prefects will be the chief minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs who is in charge of local livelihood projects. However, if it is a large commercial province or a large educational province, the chief minister of the Ministry of Revenue or the Ministry of Rites will serve as the prefect. When it is necessary to focus on rectifying the administration of officials and the rule of law, or to promote the inventions of the Ministry of Works, the chief minister of the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Punishments, or the Ministry of Works may also serve as the prefect.
This ensures that there is a core official at the state level who can coordinate local development so that the country is not completely leaderless.
Seven other prefectures were set up, which were more similar to states in terms of geography, but had the same administrative level as "dao". They were the seven central development areas of the Chu State. The six ministries and halls of the seven prefectures were also directly under the central government.
The first is naturally "Jinling Prefecture", where the capital is located.
There is also "Shouchun Prefecture", a big city that trades with the Central Plains.
"Hefei Prefecture", the military and political center of Huainan.
"Wancheng Prefecture" is located deep in the Central Plains in the territory of Chu State.
"Wuchang Prefecture" is the waist of the Jingyang waterway.
"Jiangling Prefecture" is the center of Jingzhou.
And "Wufu", the most important seaport of Chu State.
In the promotion of the two-level system of prefectures and counties, the biggest change will definitely be at the most basic prefecture level - the government offices equivalent to an average of three counties will be integrated into one prefecture office.
At the same time, the supporting team of the state government office is much more comprehensive than the original county government office!
Originally, in the territory of Chu State, ordinary small counties generally had incomplete six basic departments, and were mainly part-time. This was a loophole that had been left for a long time. After being merged into "states", they would become a larger and more complete part like a puzzle.
And from the road construction plan that began after the advent of cement to the laying of railway tracks now, the convenience of transportation also means that the jurisdiction of grassroots government offices can be much larger!
Of course, the Chu State did not give up the more basic "Ting" and "Xiang", but there was no need to set up six ministries for Ting and Xiang. However, there were also township districts and Ting offices, with the township head and Ting head as the person in charge. The main officials needed to serve in the six ministries...
There are also two levels of military and prison, which are independent of prefectures and counties. "Military" is where the troops are stationed , and "Prison" is where large and important government offices or salt and mines are located.
For example, the shipyard built by Gan Ning in Shanyin was called "Shanyin Shipyard" in the planning, the garrison of the Xinye First Division was called "Xinye Army", and those important mining areas...
These are naturally under the direct responsibility of the Six Ministries or the Privy Council and are not subject to the control of local prefectures and counties. The prefectures and counties have their own small and medium-sized official offices that they support and develop.
There is also a certain number of city guards, which are fundamentally different from the garrisons managed by the Privy Council. The former are better at maintaining public security within the city. The number of Ji-zao soldiers is usually very small, only enough to set up a sentry post on the city wall, and they focus more on "public security" rather than fighting!
The garrisons in various places are the real armies that can fight and defend.
In addition to the military system reform of the military rank system, the Chu State also refined many new military regulations.
In theory, when facing a large-scale enemy invasion, the city guards can simply surrender in order to ensure the safety of the people in the city without having to participate in the war.
When the garrison troops assume the task of defending the army, they have specific requirements for the surrender conditions, such as the deadline for food shortage, the ratio of the enemy to us, etc.
However, the red line is civilian casualties - no matter what the circumstances, if surrender causes greater civilian casualties, it will be regarded as treason. In other words... if the enemy army comes with the intention of massacring the city, the defender must die in front, and the more he kills the better.
On the contrary, if we can preserve the people of Chu when the odds between us and the enemy are huge, then we will not be blamed even if we surrender. As for whether we will be deceived by the enemy... we should follow the theory of results - use the actual results as the basis for judgment.
If the surrender complies with the regulations, the State of Chu will not only not punish, but will also actively redeem the prisoners after the war, and will treat the families well if the redemption fails.
Even if they were defeated and captured, theoretically they could surrender unconditionally - no defection would be accepted, but they could also wait for the Chu State to redeem them.
How they are treated after being redeemed will depend on how the responsibility for the defeat is divided. Those who are not at fault for the defeat will not be affected at all.
Those who cannot be redeemed, especially those who were captured innocently, can be treated at the discretion of the State of Chu and allowed to defect without damaging the interests of the State of Chu. For example, ordinary government officials who were captured after the garrison was defeated and the enemy army did not accept redemption, in which case the State of Chu would not pursue their defection to the enemy. However, no matter what the situation, those who leaked the secrets of the State of Chu and damaged its interests would be held accountable afterwards.
Of course, surrendering without fighting or surrendering out of fear of fighting is tantamount to treason, and their families...it is not popular to implicate them, but young people within three generations cannot even think of entering important universities like the Martial Arts Hall, or holding important positions.
This regulation is not only about treating the Chu generals well and enhancing internal sense of belonging, but it is also "uncomfortable" for the enemy army. Because after the "crime of defeat" is detailed, the defeated generals' retreat is not cut off, and it is difficult to persuade the defeated generals of Chu to surrender.
Not only the part that was "not the fault of the war", even the generals who were slightly responsible for the defeat would often prefer to return to the State of Chu to accept some punishment rather than choose to surrender directly.
The most important thing is, when the State of Chu did not pursue the matter, who could ensure that they were not pretending to surrender?
Even if they are investigated and their descendants are implicated, there is always room for redemption as long as no actual punishment is imposed. Who knows if those who were originally demoted might one day become so depressed that they would use their position to atone for their crimes?
As for those whose retreat is completely cut off...
Basically, they have problems with their abilities and character!
We have lost the battle that we shouldn’t have lost, so what’s there to talk about surrendering?
Too much rice?
The State of Chu has already proved that even if there is really too much food, cultivation can be promoted among the people, and there is no need to keep an extra piece of waste!
At least it can extend the life expectancy of the population, and even...slightly increase the chance of conception and fertility.
Of course, when it comes to the military, the Chu State cares most about "unity between the military and the people" and "obedience to the court."
There is no need to say much about the red line of maliciously disturbing and harming the people. Detailed regulations have also been made for the temporary requisition of materials by the military, etc., and the targets stipulated are not limited to the people of Chu.
Just look at Badong County and you will know that when the Wancheng 1st Division and the Xinye 1st Division collected extra grain in Yizhou, they directly took out salt, dried meat, etc. for trade. They also wrote IOUs for the grain requisitioned from the big families when they could not pay it back for the time being.
Even in Tanzhou, the governor's office and the barbarians who did not speak the same language were all united in their trust...
After all, the Chu State implemented military pay and gave special preferential treatment to the families of grassroots generals. There was no need to use "legal looting" or "looting under implicit rules" as a bargaining chip to maintain the morale of grassroots generals in the army like other princes did.
The only "flaw" is that the cost is too high - not only the cost of paying military salaries and preferential treatment for military families, but more importantly, in order to maintain and strengthen this sentiment, it is necessary not only to carry out corresponding activities, but also... for generals who violate principles, no matter how high their military rank is, we must have the courage to separate and punish them.
The latter is the real "cost"...
Over the years, Pan Zhang was not the only general at all levels who was demoted or beheaded. There were several generals with higher military ranks than him!
And the benefits are too many...
Not only did the Chu army surpass the scope of "ancient army" in terms of military morale and belief, and had already reached the level of modern army in terms of quality, but in foreign wars, it could also weaken the civilian resistance in the occupied areas!
Yan Yan had been operating in Ba County for several years and governed Yizhou. Both the military and civilian morale were definitely much higher than the average. However, Badong had only been lost for half a year, and now the people of Badong were already "happy to leave Shu".
In Jinling's official newspaper, we often see letters of thanks from the people of Badong and complaints against the Marquis of Shu. In Badong's official newspaper, we often see the real treatment of the people of Chu. We hope that the war zone order will be lifted soon...
The specific manifestation of this in the world of Chengji is that the manpower recruited in the newly occupied territories can be directly added to one's own army, and the reduction in the controllability of the Ji-made soldiers is minimal.
