On February 25th of the second year of Shaoming, after extensive discussions and even soliciting opinions from the Wubao clan in the countryside around the sacred capital of Luoyang and Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo, Zhang Zhou's political system reform was fully implemented.
At the central level, among the existing three provinces, the Zhongshu Ling of the Zhongshu Province is no longer permanent, nor is it the official of the Zhongshu Province. It is a nominal position, equivalent to the honorary chairman of later generations.
Zhongshu Sheng gave up the supervisory positions and corresponding functions such as the left and right Sanqi Changshi, the left and right Sijian, and the left and right Zhengyan, and handed over all the power of supervision and admonishment to the Menxia Sheng.
Since then, the supervisory power of Menxia Province has been expanded, but the power of Fu Baolang, the Chengmenlang of Menxia Province, who is in charge of the capital, the imperial city, and the seals, issuance of edicts, and rewards, has been given to Zhongshu Province.
The Zhongshu Province, headed by Zhongshu Shilang, has in fact become the emperor's personal staff. Below Zhongshu Shilang, the responsibilities are divided into two parts.
One part is called Zhangtai, which is the emperor's staff and secretarial agency. It is headed by Zhongshu Zhigao. There are six Zhongshusheren who are responsible for the affairs of the court, and there are also several chief officials and officials.
The other part is called Luantai, which is in charge of the emperor's personal property and personal army. It consists of the Jinyi Personal Guard Commanding Department, the Guard Mabu Personal Army Commanding Department and the Internal Affairs Office.
The royal guards are divided into northern and southern armies. The northern army is responsible for domestic investigations, detecting rape, and acting as the emperor's guard of honor.
The Southern Army is responsible for external intelligence work and information collection, with one chief and three deputy commanders.
The bodyguard Mabu's personal army command department is in charge of the emperor's remaining personal army, the Seven Guards and Hanshandu.
The commander of the guard Mabu Qinjundu is not permanent, and the commanders of the left and right Habayashi guards, the left and right Jinwu guards, the left and right Ryuxiang guards and the left Qianniu guards of the pro-army, as well as the commander of the Kanshan capital, take turns.
Whoever's turn it is to stay at the guard station will be the guard, horse and army commander.
The Internal Affairs Office is the steward of the emperor's personal assets. The leader is the Internal Affairs Order, which is in charge of the emperor's sugar, rock sugar, cotton, Hexi Commercial Road, Lanruo Bank, and the imperial estates in various places.
You see, the Zhangtai and Luantai that Zhongshu saved were actually the emperor's ceremonial supervisor and Dongji office.
Moreover, it seems that the high-ranking ministers cannot manage the affairs of Luantai without the authorization of the emperor. This prevents the minister of Zhongshu from becoming the general who founded the government like the Eastern Han Dynasty.
And through such two grasps of the government and the army, Zhang Hao firmly grasped the core power in his own hands.
And the inner court can be used to form a siphon of talents from the outer court. Even the road to the imperial examination will be separate from now on. Any great talents will first go to Zhongshu Province to listen to them, and then be sent to the outer court to win over talents.
After the Menxia Province took control of the power of supervision and admonishment, Zhang Gao did not abolish the Yushitai in order to prevent all supervisory powers from falling into the hands of the servants.
Instead, the Yushitai was responsible for supervising senior Beijing officials and sending Yushi to visit local areas, and the Menxia Province was responsible for admonishing, refuting, and accepting decrees from the emperor, as well as supervising low- and middle-level officials in Beijing.
Of course, the Menxia Province also has the power to supervise senior Beijing officials. Zhang Gao deliberately allowed the two sides to have a slight overlap in their powers to prevent each from dominating one side.
The Shangshu Province was precisely the party that benefited the most from this reform. Zhang Xian gave up his concurrent post as Shangshu Ling because he was actually already Zhongshu Ling, so Zhang Xichong was able to serve as Shangshu Ling.
In the Shangshu Province, the Shangshu Ling was in charge of all government affairs and became the de facto prime minister, uh... or should be the first assistant bachelor of the Ming Dynasty.
Because in terms of supervision, his subordinates and Yushitai also share the power.
In order to strengthen the power of Shangshu Ling, Zhang Yan also decided to add subordinates to Shangshu Ling, so that he could take charge of the affairs of the provinces and Yushitai to a certain extent.
Otherwise, the Shangshu Ling, who is the head of the dignified government affairs, has no supervisory power at all, and will be hampered in everything he does. That would be too ugly.
At the same time, the official position of left and right servants in the Shangshu Province was abolished, and the six ministers, Zuo Shilang, were directly upgraded to Shangshu, and then the left and right ministers and other assistant officials were established.
As for Dali Temple, an institution that had been basically paralyzed in the fifth generation, Zhang Yan also moved out and was mainly responsible for the final ruling of important cases in local states and counties as well as Gyeonggi cases.
The Yushitai, Dali Temple, and the Ministry of Punishment are the three legal divisions. This is to divide the power of the Ministry of Punishment of the Shangshu Province, so as to prevent the Ministry of Punishment from being too strong.
In addition, Zhang Zhang also established the Salt and Iron Department, a professional position to make money. The salt and iron envoys, the Duzhishe people from the Ministry of Revenue and the Zhongshu Province were responsible for the expenditures, and they were jointly in charge of the national finances.
The last priority is the Privy Council. In addition to the seven guards and one capital of the pro-army, the Privy Council has jurisdiction over all the imperial troops, town troops, state and county soldiers, etc.
The chief officer of the Privy Council is the Privy Council Envoy, and there are a number of Privy Council Deputy Envoys. However, only the Privy Council Left Envoy and the Privy Council Right Envoy are appointed to manage affairs, and the rest are additional officials.
There are also three Privy Council Scholars who take turns serving the emperor so that the emperor can communicate with the Privy Council.
At this point, this independent and overlapping government system has been formed that combines a large number of characteristics of the Song and Ming Dynasties, is still in line with the current situation, and is independent of each other.
This was actually a reform of the emperor's centralization of power. Through Zhongshu Province, Zhang Yan transformed the imperial court into an inner court and an outer court.
The inner court is directly subordinate to the emperor and can have a hand in almost everything. The outer court is responsible for specific government affairs, but it can no longer do whatever it wants.
The country's prime ministers are composed of ministers, ministers, privy envoys, and two to four officials with the title of shenzhi.
Those who can join the title of Zhizhi can be the six ministers, the imperial censor of Yushitai, the minister of Dali Temple in Dali Temple, the privy envoys of the Privy Council, or the salt and iron envoys of the Salt and Iron Department. It all depends on who can get the title of emperor. of favor.
At the local level, Zhang Chang changed the current three levels of road, state, and county into the model of province, prefecture (prefecture), and county.
The full name of Xingsheng is to govern a certain place by holding a festival and to write down the Tongping regulations in the province.
For example, in Hedong, it can be called the Governor of Hedong and the Provincial Pingzhangshi in his trip to Hedong, which is referred to as Hedong Province or Hedong Province.
The province has a Pingzhang who is in charge of all affairs, and has three envoys: the chief envoy, the inspection envoy, the defense envoy, and the non-permanent salt and iron envoy.
Generally, Pingzhang also serves as the chief envoy to handle government affairs.
The inspector general is responsible for supervision, inspections, criminal law and other matters.
The defense envoy is in charge of the defense of the entire province, and the state and county soldiers, Yicong and unity athletes in each prefecture (prefecture) and county are all under the management of the defense envoy.
Below the defense envoys, the state and county military officers in each state are military supervisors, and the county united athlete officers are county captains.
At the same time, inspection departments were set up in important locations in various states and counties to organize brave volunteers to detect rape, arrest thieves, and set up checkpoints to protect important areas. The inspections conducted by the inspection departments were also managed by the defense envoys.
The biggest purpose of establishing inspections is to make up for the lack of military mobilization in the countryside after township officials are transferred to military service.
Inspections are generally selected from retired low-level officers with meritorious service, and have the authority to organize paramilitary organizations such as bow and arrow clubs and gun and club clubs.
From these societies, elites are selected as righteous followers, and the state gives them a certain amount of money to maintain local stability.
At the same time, the establishment of inspection inspections also had an important symbolic meaning, that is, it showed that the emperor only wanted to reduce the power of military envoys, not the power of military personnel.
This world still belongs to warriors!
Among the provincial leaders, Pingzhang of each province was a member of the Zhongshu Province and was directly responsible to the emperor. At the same time, because of his concurrent role as chief envoy, he was also under the jurisdiction of the Shangshu Province to a certain extent.
The envoys are directly responsible to the Menxia Province and are also under certain jurisdiction of Yushitai and Dali Temple.
The Defense Envoy is directly responsible to the Privy Council. Special envoys of salt and iron are sent selectively by the salt and iron department under the order of the emperor, and they can also be served concurrently by the chief envoy.
The unit of government was specially set up for Jiedushi.
From now on, states with Jiedushi will be upgraded to prefectures.
For example, the Xuzhou Zhongwu Army was changed from Xuzhou back to Xuchangfu.
Songzhou was renamed Guide Mansion when it was returned to the German Army's Jiedu Envoy.
Dengzhou, the envoy of Dengzhou's Wei Sheng Army, also returned to Nanyang Prefecture.
As for Jiedushi, this unit still exists, but the full name has been changed from Jieduzhi to "Chijie Zhenfu Military and Horse Officer of a certain mansion and Yin of a certain place".
For example, the full name of Xuzhou Zhongwu Army Jiedushi became "Chijie Zhenfu", commanding the troops and horses of Zhongwu Army in Xuchang, and also the governor of Xuchang Mansion.
This is a huge change. With this change, although Jiedushi still exists, his power is limited to the state and is greatly dispersed.
This kind of dispersion does not mean being divided by others, but that the source of power has become dispersed. The original most important governor of a certain place has become a governor of a certain place.
But it is meaningless just to hold the knot and suppress it. It must be added with a suffix.
For example, the suffix "managing military and horse affairs" can only be used to manage the local army. Moreover, the state and county soldiers and local united athletes in the army were separated by the military and horse supervision and inspection.
For the government affairs of the local government, only those with the suffix of the governor of the government can manage it. If there is no suffix, the court will send the prefect to divide the government affairs.
In this case, the post of Jiedushi will inevitably develop rapidly towards an honorary position like that in the Song Dynasty. If you are not given the suffix "Guanshi" or "Fu Yin", it will be an empty official title.
To put it bluntly, even if there is power to manage military affairs and political affairs, the scope has been narrowed.
Take Xuzhou, which was changed to Xuchang Prefecture, as an example. Originally, Xuzhou had jurisdiction over four counties: Yanling, Yangzhai, Changge, and Xuchang. The total population of these four counties was more than 200,000.
Therefore, Xuzhou Zhongwu Army can mobilize 10,000 to 20,000 troops at its limit, and can also maintain two to three thousand tooth soldiers on weekdays.
But now that it was changed to Xuchang Prefecture, the Jiedushi had to rely on the suffix Xuchang Prefecture Yin to manage the affairs. The four county magistrates below them immediately changed from subordinate officials who were snatched life and death by the Zhongwu Army Jiedushi to become subordinates who also belonged to the country. official.
Although Xuchang Prefecture Yin was still their superior, he lacked the original meaning of lord and ministers contained in Jiedu Shishi.
Without this relationship, even if they relied on their past power, the Zhongwu Army's Jiedushi would only be able to control Xuchang County, Fukuo County at most.
In the remaining counties, political affairs are in the hands of the county magistrate, state and county soldiers are in the hands of the military supervisor of Xuchang, united athletes are in the hands of the county lieutenants, and Yi Cong in key areas are in the hands of local military attachés like Yingchuan Inspector.
In this way, the only ones that Jiedushi could control were the Zhongwu Army Ya soldiers of Xuchang Mansion.
Without the assistance of local forces, Xuchang County alone, although it is a large county, has a population of 60,000 to 70,000 or even less. The regular establishment of the Zhongwu Army can maintain a maximum of about 1,000 people.
With a thousand tooth soldiers, even if they were killed, they wouldn't be able to make any trouble.
Of course, it has not yet reached the point of directly destroying the Jiedushi in one step.
We must know that Zhang Zhou still has more than a dozen Jiedu envoys, including Zhang Shengren's close confidants Ma Zhaoyuan, Ma Yaozi, Fan Quan and others.
Not to mention the local tycoons in Hebei, Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing.
If you do it too harshly at once, it will hurt the hearts of the warriors in the world. Everyone will oppose it openly or covertly. No matter how powerful Zhang Yan is, he cannot conquer the whole country by himself.
So Zhang Zhang decided to give weight to the Jiedushi envoys.
But it is not the previous addition. For example, if An Shenqi is now the governor of Ziqing and Pinglu, then Zhang Yan will grant An Shenqi the official positions of Jiaodong Pingzhang and Jiaodong Chief Envoy of the Jiaodong Province to be established. Shen Qi.
In this way, An Shenqi's power does not seem to be small, but it seems to be small.
Not smaller because the power in his hands has not become smaller.
It has become smaller because it is indeed smaller, because the official position assigned to him is no longer among the Jiedushi envoys and can be canceled at any time.
. . . .
After communication between all parties was completed, Zhang Yan immediately launched a reform plan.
Yutian, Qiuci, Shule, and Ningyuan (Fergana Basin) in Anxi are the province of Anxi, and the provincial capital is Shule.
Li Shengtian was appointed as the provincial governor of Anxi, while the four towns of Anxi were retained as military envoys, and Li Shengtian was appointed as the military envoy of the four towns.
Beiting's Tingzhou (Urumqi area), Xizhou (Turpan), Yizhou (Hami), Ningzhou (Yining) and Yanqi, which originally belonged to Anxi, are Beiting provinces, and the provincial capital is Tingzhou.
Cao Yanlu was the provincial governor and chief envoy of Beiting, and Chen Huiyao of the Chen family in Yizhou was the defense envoy of Beiting.
Gua, Sha, Yi, Xi, Gan, Su, Liang, and Shan in Hexi are the provinces of Hexi, and Liangzhou, Chengtian Prefecture in Xijing, is the provincial capital.
Pei Yuan served as Pingzhang of Hexi Province, Liugong of Xijing, and Fuyin of Chengtian Prefecture. At the same time, Pei Yuan also served as the defense envoy of Hexi.
It can be said that Zhang Gao gave Pei Yuan all the powers in Hexi except supervisory power.
Lan, He, Wei, Tao, Dan, Cheng, Wu, Qin, Cheng, Min, and Hui in Longyou are the provinces of Longyou. Jia Yanchang is appointed as the Pingzhang of Longyou, and Lanzhou is the provincial capital.
But at the same time, in order to coordinate the rear strategy of Hexi and Longyou, Zhang Zhi named Pei Yuan the governor of Hexi and Longyou to save trouble, and he was called the Grand Governor of Hexi and Longyou.
Jia Yanchang, the Longyou Pingzhang, was transferred from Lanzhou to work in Tianshui Mansion (Qinzhou).
This actually helped Pei Yuan monopolize the power of Longyou in Hexi Province, showing Zhang Yan's trust in this trusted minister who had been with him for a long time and had been tempered all the time.
In addition, Guanzhong also became the province of Guanzhong, with Cao Yuanzhong as Pingzhang, Liushou of Chang'an, and Fuyin of Jingzhao.
Then east of Longyou and north of Guanzhong are the Yuan, Wei, Yan, Xia, Yin, Sui, and Fu prefectures as Ningxia Province, with Xia Prefecture as the provincial capital, and Ningxia Pingzhang in the distance.
It is roughly equivalent to northern Shaanxi, part of Ningxia and part of northeastern Gansu in later generations.
In Ningxia of the Republic, Zhang Zhi took Lingzhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Fengzhou as Shuofang province.
That is to say, most of Ningxia in the Republic plus Qingyang in Gansu, as well as Hohhot in Inner Mongolia to Baotou, and then the entire Hetao area where the Urad Qianzhonghou Banner is located, form Shuofang Province.
Lingzhou was the provincial capital, and Taijun She's father, Zhe De, was appointed as the provincial seal of Shuofang.
In later generations, most of Henan Province, that is, from Shaanzhou (Sanmenxia) to Caozhou and Shanzhou east of Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo, including Xuzhou, Chenzhou, Caizhou, Songzhou, Zhengzhou, and Mengzhou, etc. The Henan region formed the Zhili Province.
Zhili Pingzhang has a high position and is usually selected from the ranks of ministers, ministers, privy envoys, and prime ministers with the title of political magistrate.
Xiangzhou was changed to Xiangyang Prefecture, and Shannan Province was composed of Xiangyang Prefecture, Nanyang Prefecture, Tang, Sui, Fang, Ying, and other prefectures, and Liu was promoted to Pingzhang of Shannan Province.
The Jiedu Ya soldiers in Xiangyang Prefecture were eliminated, and the Wei Sheng Army in Nanyang Prefecture was moved to Xiangzhou, with Er Zhujing as the Jiedu Envoy of the Wei Sheng Army.
The entire Shandong Peninsula became Jiaodong Province, with the provincial capital being Qingzhou (Yidu). An Shenqi was appointed Pingzhang of Shandong Province and concurrently served as the Pinglu Jiedushi of Ziqing.
With Xuzhou as the provincial capital, Suzhou, Chuzhou, Haizhou, Haozhou, Sizhou, and Yingzhou formed the Huainan Province. Ma Zhaoyuan (Ma Yaozi) was the Pingzhang of Huainan Province and the military commander of Wuning Army in Xuzhou Prefecture.
Most of Shanxi that was still in the hands of Liu Zhiyuan was Hedong Province, with Yan Jinyao leading the remaining governors of Beijing, Hedong Province Pingzhang, and Taiyuan Jiedushi.
Hebei, which was still in the midst of a confrontation, was renamed Hebei Province, and Fu Yanqing was appointed Pingzhang of Hebei Province. Hengzhou (Zhengding) was renamed Changshan Prefecture, and Fu Yanqing was appointed Pingzhang of Hebei Province and Changshan Prefecture's military governor.
The sixteen prefectures of Yanyun occupied by the Khitans were designated as Youyun Province, and Gao Xingzhou was designated as the province's Pingzhang. Youzhou was renamed Beiping Prefecture and served as the provincial capital. Gao Xingzhou also served as the military governor of Fan Yangjun in Beiping.
At this point, Zhang Yan further stripped away the vassal character of the original Jiedushi and restored the Tang Dynasty's original intention of establishing Jiedushi.
This official position gradually became an important official dispatched by the country to deal with powerful enemies and solve urgent border issues.
Of course, it is impossible for no one to object to such a big change. Zhang Yan estimated that those Jiedu envoys, Ya generals, and Ya soldiers who still miss the power of the past will begin to move closer to Liu Zhiyuan's subordinates.
Zhang Yan also took this opportunity to sweep them into the trash heap of history at once!
In March, Li Shengtian, who had been walking for almost a year, finally followed the canal from Guanzhong out of Tongguan. He would soon reach the Yellow River, and he would soon be able to go down the river to Luoyang, the sacred capital.
It just so happened that the end of March was the birthday of Zhang's aunt, Li Shengtian's sister, Empress Dowager Ciyou.
Zhang Yan was preparing to receive Li Shengtian while preparing for his aunt's birthday party.
At the same time, officials were appointed to dismantle the private forts in the entire Zhili and Jiaodong provinces. After releasing the people, they immediately began to renovate the land and resume cultivation to prepare for further land equalization.
The Guanzhong righteous followers also got that they would be assigned to Longyou in Hexi Province, and each of them could become a military leader in a big mansion with four to five hundred acres of land and hundreds of cattle and sheep. Everyone was grateful and their morale was like a rainbow.
The most critical thing is in Hebei and Hedong. Liu Zhiyuan and Yelu Ruan reached a final cooperation. They were fighting hard and the ice and snow melted.
The war is coming!
(End of chapter)
