The discussion between Zhu Jingyuan and Xiao Jinan determined the management ideas for the Nanyang Reserve.
However, Zhu Jingyuan did not give targets to all levels of government offices. Instead, he set a rule to deal with problems at any time.
Moreover, when Zhu Jingyuan himself served as governor, all migration actions had to be reported to Zhu Jingyuan.
If Zhu Jingyuan does not respond, he will wait three months before migrating.
If Zhu Jingyuan responds within three months, the matter will be dealt with according to Zhu Jingyuan's orders.
However, in fact, in the early stages of relocation operations in the reserve area, Zhu Jingyuan usually responded with "immediate execution."
Therefore, in the early stages of this operation, all relocation orders required Zhu Jingyuan's approval.
After the relocation of the reservation becomes a daily routine, Zhu Jingyuan will no longer respond.
In fact, it will become a practice to wait for three months after the relocation order is issued.
This three-month period can be used by the corresponding personnel to correct errors.
After Zhu Jingyuan basically finalized this matter, he began to consider another issue.
After Zhu Jingyuan officially took office as the Governor of Johor Province, when he began to directly participate in various affairs of Johor Province, he received a series of approvals from the central court.
These are basically applications from before this year, or even the first half of last year.
This includes the approval of Johor’s review application last autumn.
The death row inmates who were supposed to be executed after last autumn simply lived through the entire fall and winter of last year.
It's summer now. The Ming Dynasty's practice is to execute death row prisoners before spring and after autumn. They are not executed in spring and summer.
So these prisoners on death row lived an extra year.
Zhu Jingyuan was a little stunned after seeing these documents.
"This response is too slow. The matter of Xintianfu will definitely not be delayed until the next year..."
So Zhu Jingyuan went to check more documents, asked the clerical staff from the government office to the chief envoy's office, and briefly calculated the speed of transmission of various official documents.
Then Zhu Jingyuan discovered that the upload and delivery speed of most official documents in Johor Prefecture, Malacca Chief Executive's Office, and even the entire Nanyang region was far lower than that of Xintian Prefecture.
Many of the more outrageous ones have gone beyond the previous regulations and practices of the imperial court.
For example, the Qiu Jue review.
However, after careful analysis, Zhu Jingyuan also found that the situation has gradually improved in the past two years.
Especially after I came to Nanyang, the efficiency of almost all affairs has improved.
Including the approval documents that I didn’t know when they were issued, they were implemented directly when I took office.
This obviously has the influence of one's own personal identity.
But even so, Zhu Jingyuan felt that this efficiency was still not enough and could not be compared with Xintianfu.
After Zhu Jingyuan had a basic understanding, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart:
"The efficiency of the bureaucracy is really low. Under such circumstances, Xiao Jinan still says there are no problems here?"
With this judgment and emotion, Zhu Jingyuan sent someone to contact Xiao Jinan, wanting to know more about the situation and hear the chief envoy's explanation.
Are these officials who came from the vassal state qualified to hold positions in the Ming Dynasty?
Is it because there is really a lack of bureaucracy that unqualified corpses are left to eat?
Zhu Jingyuan is now Xiao Jinan's subordinate, but he is also Xiao Jinan's immediate boss.
Coupled with Zhu Jingyuan's status as the prince, Xiao Jinan, the chief envoy, came to see him immediately after receiving the news.
After the two parties briefly greeted each other and the servant served tea, Zhu Jingyuan directly talked about his discovery.
Xiao Jinan immediately panicked after hearing this, and quickly explained and asked:
"Your Highness should have discovered it by now. The situation in this regard has actually improved."
Zhu Jingyuan nodded lightly:
“I did find that the affairs two years ago were in a relatively chaotic state from top to bottom.
"The situation has improved a lot in the past two years, otherwise we wouldn't meet like this."
Xiao Jinan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then immediately continued to explain and explain the situation:
"Due to the great expansion of the Ming Dynasty's territory and the large-scale withdrawal of vassals and the establishment of provinces, there was a shortage of officials everywhere a few years ago.
“Those of us officials who were transferred from vassal states were a little at a loss when we first took over the affairs of the Ming Dynasty’s central court system.
“Now, we officials from vassal states have basically adapted to the logic of the central court’s affairs.
“The expanded number of college students enrolled in the first year of the armistice has also begun to graduate in the past two years and has quickly been added to the ranks of officials.
“At the same time, the imperial examination has also been expanding its enrollment in recent years, so the official system has been basically replenished.
“So the operational efficiency among the internal levels of government agencies at all levels is also rising rapidly.
"After His Highness Te Bin came, all the documents that needed to be decided by the court were quickly responded to.
"The situation will definitely continue to improve in the future, so I didn't report this situation at the beginning."
Zhu Jingyuan frowned slightly after hearing this:
"Then Xiao Buzheng has not considered how much of this is caused by my personal influence?
"What if I leave? Will the efficiency of all levels of government offices here drop off a cliff?"
Xiao Jinan hesitated for a few seconds:
"Your Highness, I'm sorry to say that our local affairs in Nanyang may not be greatly affected.
"However, matters that need to be contacted and approved by the court will definitely be affected."
Zhu Jingyuan suddenly thought of something:
"What Xiao Buzheng means is that the key issue limiting the current efficiency of the government is the court's response speed?"
Xiao Jinan knew that this topic was relatively sensitive.
But it is this special topic that this special prince really cares about.
Only with his status can he really intervene in this kind of affairs.
If you can play a role in this matter, you can leave a good impression in his mind.
This will definitely be very beneficial to your future career.
So Xiao Jinan carefully considered his words and carefully explained his judgment to Zhu Jingyuan:
“Your Highness, with the continuous promotion of the policy of abolishing vassals and establishing provinces, the number of chief envoys and prefectures in our Ming Dynasty has doubled several times in the past few years.
“In the old vassal era, most matters within the vassal state were decided by the king of the vassal state.
“Including issues such as the autumn review.
“There are not many issues that require direct response from the court, and most of them are handled by Honglu Temple.
“After the vassal state became the chief envoy, there were a large number of matters that needed to be decided by the court.
“A typical example is the issue of the review of the Autumn Judgment.
"Looking at the Qiu Jue review, the number of review documents and cases that need to be processed by the relevant government offices has also increased several times, even more than ten times, in the past few years.
“Originally, the scale and configuration of the corresponding institutions of the imperial court were to deal with the more than 20 chief envoys directly under the direct jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty.
“Now it seems that it is no longer enough to cope with the current new situation.
“So I believe that the local policy of abolishing vassals and setting up provinces has reached a critical point, and it is time to adjust the various ministries and agencies of the imperial court and the local administrative divisions.
"Our local officials have no room to comment on this kind of matter, but His Highness can."
Zhu Jingyuan had already fallen into deep thought.
What Xiao Jinan said obviously makes sense.
He promoted the abolition of vassals and established provinces, turning the vassal states into chief envoys. The number of chief envoys in the imperial court soared.
Ordinary officials in the Ministry of Personnel and Household Affairs of the central court may no longer remember how many chief envoys there are, let alone the officials and general situation of each chief envoy.
These imperial agencies could no longer handle the information and files sent by the Chief Envoy.
Otherwise, the Qiu Jue matter could not be postponed until the next year.
It is very likely that he came to Nanyang, so the relevant yamen singled out the Nanyang matter and solved it in advance.
In fact, the administrative efficiency of Xintianfu was high before. In addition to the fact that the local area was originally an imperial village and the density of grassroots officials was originally higher than that of other chief envoys, it was probably also due to the fact that the imperial court took care of the places it managed. exist.
This issue is indeed important, and it cannot be determined rashly.
So Zhu Jingyuan continued to discuss with Xiao Jinan for a while, asked for more details, and then asked him to go back.
Then Zhu Jingyuan himself sent a telegram to his father, Emperor Zhu Jianyan of the Ming Dynasty.
Confirm the accuracy of the relevant information directly with the central court.
The next morning, Zhu Jingyuan received a long telegram.
Zhu Jianyan first confirmed the guesses of Zhu Jingyuan and Xiao Jinan.
Now the central court is indeed unable to handle the daily affairs of its subordinate chief envoys.
This has been the case for a long time, starting with the large-scale withdrawal of vassals and the establishment of provinces, but it has only recently been recognized as a problem.
Previous years were overshadowed by a lack of officials.
Previously, Zhu Jianyan himself, as well as the people in the government offices headed by the official department, all took it for granted that the government offices at all levels did not have enough hands, so they could not manage it.
After several years of full-scale recruitment, the number of bureaucratic positions at all levels has been basically filled.
Although the level of middle and low-level officials is still not fully guaranteed, at least there are already people filling the positions they should have.
Then the imperial court discovered that even after all levels of yamen had people, they still couldn't control it.
There are really too many files to process.
In fact, even if more people are added to the central government office, their superiors will not be able to manage them.
In the past, finance-related departments would set up a Cleaning Department for each Chief Envoy Department.
Now that the number of civil affairs departments has increased several times, the officials in charge cannot recognize who is in each department.
As a result, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has recently made suggestions to abolish and merge some of the Chief Envoys' Departments and expand some of them.
For example, the three administrative offices of Zhejiang, Fujian and Haidong were merged, and the three administrative offices of Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiaozhi were merged.
The three chief ministers of Burma, Nobles, and Yunnan were merged, and the two chief ministers of Korea and the fourth chief ministers of Japan were merged.
Northern Zhili officially established the Chief Envoy Department, which merged with Shandong, and Southern Zhili established a separate Chief Envoy Department.
The northern and southern Zhili provinces of the Ming Dynasty were not two provinces, but a large number of "direct government offices". The reform of the administrative affairs department could reduce management pressure.
All in all, the Ministry of Personnel’s suggestion is to reduce the number of chief envoys.
Zhu Jingyuan now asked about administrative efficiency, and Zhu Jianyan directly raised the question.
Ask Zhu Jingyuan what he thinks of this reform proposal.
Zhu Jingyuan started to think after reading it.
It is very difficult to adjust the structure of the central court and the local administrative divisions.
In actual operation, it is definitely not something that can be solved by changing a few names on a document, adding a few departments and personnel, or drawing a few lines on a map.
The key is that the current Ming Dynasty is completely different from any dynasty in history and any dynasty and country in later generations.
In the history before and after myself, I can no longer find a completely corresponding situation, so I can only directly learn from historical experience.
Zhu Jingyuan could imagine that Emperor Shizu could not leave direct guidance.
At most, it is to impart modern management experience to future generations.
According to the modern management experience in Zhu Jingyuan's memory, it is most efficient for an organization to manage five to six subsidiaries, but the cost will also be relatively high.
Usually it is more appropriate to manage about ten subsidiaries, but it is more difficult to manage more than 20 subsidiaries.
As for the more than thirty or even more than fifty subordinate organizations, it is basically impossible to manage them.
The current number of chief envoys in the Ming Dynasty has far exceeded this level.
There are usually two directions and ideas for reference in the solutions that later generations of management can provide.
One direction is grading.
For example, if there are thirty-six subordinate institutions, then six branches will be set up, and each branch will manage six subordinate institutions.
This will inevitably increase the number of management personnel and correspondingly reduce the overall operating efficiency.
After all, it is an extra layer of middle layer that conveys information and commands.
It corresponds to the centralized power in ancient times to the unified system in modern times.
Another direction is decentralization.
Give subordinate agencies more power and leave some matters that are originally under the jurisdiction of superior agencies to subordinate agencies to decide on their own.
Reduce the number of things the parent organization needs to deal with.
This will inevitably reduce the control of the parent organization over the subordinate organizations.
Originally, because there were so many subordinate organizations, the relevant personnel of the higher-level organization could not remember who was there.
Delegate power to the lower level and reduce the chances of the lower level coming to the upper level to gain a sense of presence. After a long time, each can go their own way.
Corresponding to the ancient feudal state-building system and the modern local self-government system.
After the Qin Dynasty destroyed the Six Kingdoms, the dynasty's ruling area expanded on a large scale and truly controlled all the core areas of China.
However, institutionally, the county system is still implemented across the country.
That is, two levels of administrative divisions.
Just after unification, the Qin State had a total of thirty-six counties, which later increased to more than forty.
At this time, it was difficult for Qin Shihuang's central court to accurately control the situation in all counties.
The reason why Qin Shihuang made frequent patrols during his period was to intuitively control the place.
In the Han Dynasty, in the early days, feudal states and the system of prefectures and counties coexisted. In fact, the method of enfeoffment and decentralization was adopted to help control the vast land that was difficult for the central court to directly control.
In the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the country was officially divided into thirteen divisions (states), and each division began to have a governor.
The governor was originally a supervisor sent by the central court. In the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, he gradually became a local chief executive, and his name was changed from governor to state pastor.
So far, the administrative divisions in the core areas of China have officially shifted from two levels to three levels.
From then on, the emperors of all dynasties who were more fond of great achievements tried to change the three levels back to two levels more than once.
Because they all know that two levels are more efficient than three levels.
But without exception they all failed in some way.
At the same time, the process of transforming centrally dispatched agencies into local administrative agencies continues to be repeated.
"Tao" in the Tang Dynasty, "Road" in the Song Dynasty, "governor" and "governor" in the Ming Dynasty.
Originally they were all dispatched agencies, but they eventually became local agencies.
At the same time, the planned two-level administrative divisions were simultaneously transformed into three levels.
The last attempt to change the three-level to two-level was when Datou first changed the government to a road, and Baldou tried to abolish the road and retain the provincial and county levels.
The final result was that the government was changed to a road, and the road was finally changed to a city.
There is no practical effect except that the "Fucheng" as it is traditionally called in history is gone.
County towns and provincial capitals can be said to be natural, but city towns are awkward to say because they were originally called prefecture towns and prefecture towns in history.
Now, in order to reduce the number of chief envoys, officials in the Ming Dynasty naturally merged the existing chief envoys.
But doing so will expand the scale of the Chief Envoy's Department, causing the number of states and counties under the Chief's Envoy's Department to skyrocket.
This shifts the pressure from upper management downwards.
In the past, the number of government offices managed by a chief envoy usually ranged from a few to a dozen, which was smaller than the chief envoys under the direct jurisdiction of the central court.
However, we must also consider that the level of local officials in the Chief Envoys Department and the ability of officials in the central court are incompatible. The number of more than a dozen prefectures is already quite large.
If several densely populated Chief Envoys are merged, the number of subordinate offices of the Chief Envoy will exceed twenty or even thirty.
This way the government will definitely not be able to control it.
In order to manage subordinate governments that have exceeded their management capabilities, the Chief Envoy needs to set up internal dispatch agencies, such as the "Tao" used by the Yuan Dynasty in the provinces.
The end result is likely to be an additional level of administrative machinery below the Chief Constable.
From the three levels of chief envoy, prefecture, and county, to the four levels of chief envoy, province, prefecture, and county, except for the provinces, which became the chief envoy, the rest returned to the Yuan Dynasty model.
After researching graphics cards for most of the day, I realized that now is not the time to buy a graphics card.
