"Admonishment and Suggestions on Politics" is an ambitious article that requires careful reading. When I first read it, Zhu Cixiang was only thinking about eating, so he didn't think it was very good. But now, when the problem of eating has been temporarily alleviated, and the matter of taking care of a bunch of ghosts and snakes in Xiangxi and Guangdong is now in front of him, Prince Zhu can appreciate the value of "Remonstrances, Recommendations, and Political Essays".
Because he discovered that the real purpose of "Admonishing Feng Suggestions and Politicians" is not to promote feudalism in China, but to regulate the existing feudalism!
There is a view in later generations that Ma Zhe's so-called feudal society division does not apply to China. Because ancient China had been a unified, centralized empire for a long time, there was no feudal society. However, after Zhu Cihong served as the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty for two and a half years, he had realized that there were irregular feudal systems everywhere in the Ming Empire, a unified and centralized empire.
Feudal system and bureaucratic rule are not antagonistic. There is probably no lasting feudal state in the world that does not have a bureaucracy at all - this means that the monarch does not directly govern the land, but enfeoffs the entire land and people, and the lower-level vassals also adopt the same approach. The method is divided downwards until the bottom layer.
Most of the time, feudal monarchs hoped to expand their direct territories, while compressing the territories of lower-level vassals, and dividing large vassals into small lords as much as possible.
The territory directly under the jurisdiction of a feudal monarch was land governed by bureaucrats whose lords could be replaced at any time. At the same time, it is also the most reliable power and financial foundation for the feudal monarch!
In other words, those who can be directly governed should be governed as much as possible, and those who cannot be directly governed should be enfeoffed to small lords as much as possible. Only when it is impossible to do so can they recognize large lords as their vassals... Most feudal rulers in the world are probably With this idea, few feudal lords would take the initiative to reduce their direct territories.
Therefore, feudalism is a passive rather than active method of governance.
Therefore, the existence of central bureaucratic governance does not mean that feudal society does not exist. The proportion of central bureaucratic rule in the entire imperial territory only shows the strength of the emperor's authority in domestic political life as the largest feudal lord. In extreme cases, the emperor of China may also establish the rule of exiled officials throughout the territory. However, such a situation is extremely rare. It is more common for emperors who cannot leave the capital with their decrees.
So basically, feudal society existed in ancient China. It's just that for a long historical period, the emperor's direct jurisdiction was very vast, and the areas and populations ruled by vassals were small, which gave people the illusion that the supreme ruler of the central empire could govern everyone in the entire country. A corner.
Unfortunately, this is just an illusion!
The current supreme ruler of the Ming Dynasty, Prince Fujun Zhu Cihong, could not completely hold the remaining half of the Ming Dynasty in his hands.
Yes, Zhu Cixiang has indeed created a new direct army that is more capable of fighting. The total number of active generals now exceeds 200,000. Sixteen cities including Huai'an, Yangzhou, Fengyang, Jiangpu, Anqing, Jiujiang, Wuhan, Yuezhou, Jingzhou, Xiangyang, Nanchang, Changsha, Hengzhou, Guangzhou, Fuzhou (not yet established), Hangzhou (not yet established) In the next one or two years, the General's Mansion will be able to provide at least another 200,000 new troops to Zhu Cihong, thereby increasing the number of new troops directly under the Ming court to 400,000.
About half of them can be modeled and become a field army with strong combat effectiveness. It is impossible to model all 400,000 new troops. On the one hand, central garrisons are needed in various places to maintain public order; on the other hand, modelization requires a large number of mobile artillery and Cavalry requires a large number of horses, but the number of horses Nanming will obtain for a long time in the future will be very limited.
There is no cavalry and mobile artillery, and the training level is far inferior to that of the new garrison army of the Model Army. At best, it can only deal with low-intensity security warfare. They can be used to intimidate local areas (scare people), but there is no way to use them to bulldoze areas with strong local separatist power (really fighting is not possible).
Therefore, even if Zhu Cihong's army reached 400,000 people as expected, he still did not have the ability to establish a strong bureaucratic rule throughout the territory.
The 400,000 troops only seemed like a lot, after half were allocated as field troops to deal with the Qing soldiers in the north and the rogue bandits in Sichuan. The remaining 200,000 people will be stationed in thirteen provinces including Jiangbei, Jiangnan, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shandong, and Henan (the Ming Dynasty also has territory in Shandong and Henan), plus Wuhan , Yingtian and the two capitals, if divided equally, each province or capital only has more than 13,000 people... This army is placed along the Yangtze River and the Huaihe, Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers where the field model army is concentrated. In the Jianghan area, we can rely on the main force to support the effective rule of the central bureaucracy - considering the current situation, the main force of the Ming Dynasty's field army cannot be too dispersed. It is best to deploy along the Yangtze River, Canal, Han River, and Huai River, which can be quickly assembled through waterways, so that when needed, a large army can be assembled immediately.
However, Xiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan are places where it is impossible to deploy large numbers of model troops, as well as Shandong (including Huaibei) where powerful warlords exist. It is impossible to support the unified rule of the central bureaucracy with only a garrison of more than 10,000 people.
Therefore, cooperation and coexistence with local feudal forces is a last resort... And if we want to cooperate and coexist, we cannot do without rules and regulations.
...
"Your Highness, I have carefully read the "Admonishment and Feng Suggestions on Political Commentary"..." After He Tengjiao received the "Admonishment and Fengfei Suggestions on Political Commentary" handwritten by Zhu Cihong, he read it carefully with his staff.
After reading it several times, he understood that his tenure as governor of Hunan was coming to an end - because the problem in western Hunan was not that big, there was no need for a capable person like him, and Guangdong was where he could show his talents.
He Tengjiao considered it and said: "I think that the native guest clans in Guangdong live together as a group and occupy one area, and they can be regarded as scholars or nationals. Therefore, the minister who governors Guangdong should be patient and careful in allocating land and land to the native guest clans in various places. Water sources, reasonable showdown of military service and taxes. The governor's ministers should also limit private feuds among clans and fairly adjudicate disputes between clans...
In addition, the government should also order powerful clans from all over the country to build mansions in the city of Guangzhou, so that the elders of each clan can live in Guangzhou for a long time and represent the clan in discussing politics. When it comes to the affairs of the native guest clan, the ministers should fully listen to the opinions on the affairs. "
Zhu Cixiang nodded repeatedly. This He Tengjiao was indeed an expert in internal fighting. He should also know a lot about the affairs of the powerful clan (the same thing happened in Guizhou). He was the governor of Guangdong.
Then Prince Zhu turned to look at Cao Youyi, the future general of Guangzhou and admiral of Guangdong military affairs, and asked with a smile: "How does the deputy military advisor think the court should control Guangdong?"
The Ming court in Guangdong could not just have clan enfeoffments, and there was no territory under direct jurisdiction. The places that could be under direct jurisdiction should be managed as directly as possible.
What supported the Ming Dynasty's official governance in Guangdong was, of course, the one to two million Northland refugees who were about to go there to eat and the more than 10,000 new garrison troops selected from them.
Cao Youyi already had some idea of his "money path". After listening to Prince Zhu's words, he immediately replied: "Your Highness, in my opinion, the imperial court's method of governing Guangdong should be to occupy Guangfu, seize Sanjiang, and subdue Hao'ao, strict control over customs.
Guangfu is the heart of Guangdong, the three rivers in the east, west and north are the blood of Guangdong, and Hao'ao and Customs are the great commercial ports of Guangdong. By occupying the heart, bloodline, and financial resources, the benefits of Guangdong will naturally belong to the imperial court. "
Zhu Cixiang smiled. This answer is quite satisfactory, but it is easy to say but difficult to do!
He pondered for a while and then said: "He Qing and Cao Qing, both of them are the heroes of the imperial court and are the heroes in overcoming difficulties. The affairs of Guangdong depend on your sincerity... Remember to unite sincerely. Don’t rush it.”
