Daming 1805

Chapter 442
The monarchs of the five vassal kingdoms in the northwest discussed and pondered for a few days, and then visited Zhu Jingyuan together again.

This time, we will mainly discuss the communication methods and details in the follow-up reform.

According to Zhu Jingyuan's request, each of the five vassal states organized several bureaucrats and family relatives to set up an office in Xi'an.

Responsible for exchanging information with Zhu Jingyuan at any time, uploading local conditions, and issuing the latest orders.

Then the monarchs of the five countries set off to return to their homeland one after another.

Zhu Jingyuan generally arranged the reform direction of the five foreign vassals in the northwest, and took the initiative to convene the chief envoys from various provinces in the areas under his supervision to come to Xi'an for a meeting.

The government officials of several provinces did not dare to neglect, and immediately put down the work at hand and rushed to Xi'an by plane.

After the chief envoys of all provinces arrived, Zhu Jingyuan summoned them in the main hall of the palace.

Zhu Jingyuan's meeting with the five vassal states was semi-formal, and the relationship focused on the relationship between the emperor and the vassal state monarchs.

When facing the chief envoys of various provinces, it is a completely formal government affairs meeting.

Zhu Jingyuan didn't need to discuss and discuss, and directly took the manuscript and assigned tasks to the chief envoys one by one.

After all, the provinces in the northwest belong to the mainland, and of course they are more important than foreign domains.

Of course, the management system should be localized as much as possible.

However, after all, they are the northwest frontier provinces, and the local cultural traditions are very complicated, so the specific implementation plan of the reform cannot completely copy the plan of the core area.

First of all, of course, the general education examination certificate system must be fully implemented, but it cannot be directly issued as in the core areas.

Although after Emperor Shizu's reforms in his later years, the various native and mixed-race ethnic groups in the northwest region were considered "Ming people" in name and law.

They all have the identity and household registration of the Ming nation.

But in fact, people in some remote areas may not even speak the elegant dialect of Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, the local examination certificate must be passed before the issuance of the local examination certificate.

Secondly, government-run factories at all levels of government offices must also be comprehensively constructed, and housing, schools, and hospitals should also be the mainstays.

However, compared with the focus on housing in the core area, more attention should be paid to schools and urbanization here.

Similar to the Five Kingdoms in the Northwest, it is necessary to concentrate on building large cities in the Northwest provinces.

Concentrate the scattered population as much as possible, and cooperate with the public education system that is infinitely close to compulsory education.

Implement a unified and fully enlightened basic education for local teenagers.

Teenagers who have received basic education will be sent directly to government-run factories to work after being disrupted.

Then, the ticket and purchase restriction system must also be put on the agenda.

At the same time, we will take the initiative to build relatively low-standard, but enough affordable housing in cities, and quickly complete comprehensive urbanization.

Finally, according to the situation of each province, the local population will be relocated moderately.

In addition to important strategic strongholds and important traffic arteries, the settlements in other places with harsh natural environments have moved to places with more suitable environments as much as possible.

The large cities reserved and concentratedly built in various provinces should also be planned in a centralized and unified manner, and should be located near key traffic lines as much as possible.

For example, the line from Xi'an to Yili via the Hexi Corridor.

The key railways and highways connecting the core area of ​​Daming to the Northwest Inner Road are basically on this line.

The big cities in the Northwest are mainly concentrated on this line.

After Zhu Jingyuan finished the main requirements, he asked the officials below for their opinions and ideas.

After several minutes of deliberation, several officials came out to speak one after another.

Mainly aimed at immigration and urban construction planning, expressing concerns about the politics, economy, and strategy after the reform.

Among them, the chief envoy of the Western Regions said the most comprehensively:
"Most areas in Northwest China are already relatively poor, and the local financial resources are not enough to concentrate on building large cities.

"While concentrating on the construction of large cities, it is very likely that a large number of lower-level administrative districts will be withdrawn and merged. This will not only involve a lot of huge expenditures, but will also cause great administrative pressure.

"The local ordinary residents are mainly nomads, and they may not be willing to leave the place where they have lived for generations and change the original way of life that has lasted for hundreds of years.

"Collecting scattered residents is of course more convenient for management, but it also means that local resistance is reduced.

"In the future, in the event of another war involving the mainland, the loss of key residential areas on key communication lines will also lose a large area of ​​open land at the same time..."

After Zhu Jingyuan listened patiently, he tried to explain and appease several chief envoys:

"It is because of the relative poverty in the Northwest that it is necessary to focus on the construction of large cities.

"Only by concentrating the scattered population can we provide better social services and management at a lower average unit price.

"Just talk about the most basic transportation network, power supply, and material supply.

"On one side are hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, scattered with thousands of large and small settlements.

"On one side are a few concentrated cities with a population of several 10.

"Connecting all the settlements in the former, the cost of road construction and maintenance is definitely much higher than connecting several cities and building a complete ring road at the same time.

"The standard and utilization rate of roads connecting thousands of residential areas must be significantly lower than that of urban connections and ring roads.

"Schools, hospitals, businesses, restaurants and other living facilities are actually the same.

"Building a primary school in each residential area in thousands of residential areas is definitely cheaper and more effective than building a few large primary schools in a city.

"That is to say, urban and social management also has economies of scale.

"It is difficult to manage a particularly large city, but a big city can certainly provide better services at the same cost.

"So on the other hand, only relatively wealthy places are suitable for large-scale construction of small and medium-sized towns, and large-scale small and medium-sized towns will appear in the industrial age.

"Of course, this principle is very simple, and I think everyone should be able to understand it.

"But the more critical issue is to avoid a large and unreasonable increase in the cost of living due to the rapid concentration of the population while large-scale concentrated urbanization is taking place.

"For example, within a few years, several 10 people were concentrated in one city.

"The original housing in this city is definitely not enough, and it is impossible to provide housing for all residents at the same time.

"So, among these newcomers, those who want to get their own housing are going to have to pay well above the market price.

"The money is not for buying a home, it's for outcompeting other people.

"Schools and hospitals will have a similar situation, and those who want to get the right to use have to spend more money.

"So while carrying out large-scale urbanization in relatively poor areas, government offices at all levels must strictly implement the ticket and purchase restriction system.

"At the same time, the speed of urbanization must be reasonably controlled, and infrastructure of appropriate scale must be provided simultaneously as much as possible.

"As for the cost of urban construction, it is actually not too high.

"Because the local area is relatively poor, workers for urban construction can be hired at a relatively low price.

"This part of the investment can be provided by government offices at all levels, the central imperial court, the imperial consortium, the Ming consortium, etc., in various ways such as investment, loans, and appropriations.

"The relatively low labor cost is relatively low wages, and it is also a driving force for local residents to emigrate spontaneously.

"I will contact and communicate with my father and the central court. For a period of time in the future, the performance of officials in the northwest provinces will not be evaluated based on population growth rate and fiscal revenue.

"At the same time, the urbanization ratio within the jurisdiction is used as an important reference data.

"The issue of withdrawing and merging administrative districts is of course a problem, but it is the responsibility of you local bureaucrats to solve the problem!

"This part of the difficulty must be overcome, and this is the key goal of this reform.

"I especially remind you that you can introduce a tribe and a village into a city at the same time, but you must not directly use the original tribe and village as a city block.

"The key goal of urbanization is to break the original traditional order and interpersonal relationship, so it must not be copied.

"Finally, it is about the strategic level, which is not really a big problem.

"After the scattered population is concentrated, it is true that there is no possibility of mobilizing the local people to fight guerrilla warfare, but in fact, the effect of fortifying the wall and clearing the wilderness has been formed.

"With the rapid replacement of military equipment, it is difficult for stragglers to be effective. Our Ming Dynasty has never used the strategy of all-out war.

"A big city with a concentrated population will certainly be the focus of the enemy's attack, but it is also our natural defense base, a natural base for recruiting soldiers and supplies.

"As far as the current international situation is concerned, no country surpasses Ming Dynasty in terms of overall military strength and military technology, and it is obviously more beneficial for Ming Dynasty to concentrate on decisive battles.

"On the contrary, when we attack the mainland of other countries, other countries are likely to consider organizing a national guerrilla war.

"So large-scale urbanization, while abandoning the policy of remote and harsh areas, is not a big problem at the strategic level.

"Do you have any other questions?"

Some of the group of senior bureaucrats looked at each other in blank dismay, some lowered their heads in thought, and most of them didn't speak immediately.

Zhu Jingyuan's explanation explained Zhu Jingyuan's attitude, and explained the attitude of the court and the emperor.

There should be no room for evasion of these new reform policies.

After understanding these situations, even if they still have problems, they can only consider trying to solve them themselves.

Only when you find a problem that you may not be able to solve, will you ask for help.

So after discussing in low voices at the scene for a while, the Chief Envoy of the Snowy Plateau spoke:

"Your Highness... the vast majority of areas within our snowy region may be considered as areas with harsh environments as you mentioned.

"Only a few valleys along the edge can have altitudes below 3000 meters.

"The key point is that there is no road to the inland plateau that can be regarded as a key traffic line.

"The nearest important lines of communication also surround the entire plateau, and it is difficult to really go to the interior of the plateau.

"Are we going to move all the population on the plateau to the surrounding areas..."

After thinking for a while, Zhu Jingyuan nodded and said:
"Let's not talk about the surrounding area, it can be moved to all areas of Daming.

"You can go to Tianzhu, Nanyang, Tiannan, Mozhou, and Yinzhou.

"You have a total of more than 100 million people in the snow region, and all of them can be migrated to the plains to build a city...

"Put it in a province in the Central Plains, and there will be no waves."

The snow-covered plateau in most eras is not a place suitable for human habitation.

In Zhu Jingyuan's memory, even in the 21st century, in the era of industrialization, the local population was only about 300 million, and it was only about 100 million in the early days of liberation.

That was the 21st century when the temperature was still warming up. The snow-covered plateau in the early [-]th century was colder than later generations.

If the Snowy Plateau is the frontier area of ​​Ming Dynasty, then no matter what, people must be kept on the plateau.

Rely on the population to actually control the land while resisting the erosion of external forces.

But the current Snowy Plateau already belongs to the inland area of ​​Ming Dynasty.

The Indochina Peninsula region in the southeast has been included in the mainland, Persia and Khiva in the west are inland vassal states, and Tianzhu in the south has also completed the reform of withdrawing vassals and establishing provinces for several years.

Now this is no longer a frontier. The front line of defense on the land of Ming Dynasty has been moved to the Daqin Sea, the Anatolian Plateau, the Caucasus Mountains, the Caspian Sea, and the Urals.

The snow-covered plateau can completely become a wasteland in the inland area of ​​the Ming Dynasty.

On the other hand, to build high-standard railways and roads on the plateau for the more than 100 million people on the plateau, and to supply electricity and industrial products, the unit cost must be sky-high...

So Zhu Jingyuan's idea is to simply migrate to the plains and build a new city.

When Xueyu chief envoy heard Zhu Jingyuan's words, he immediately asked bitterly:
"With a population of more than 100 million, the inland area is at most the size of a prefecture.

"Then the Xueyu Sansi and the Yushi...do you want to keep it?"

Zhu Jingyuan thought about it and said:
"The area of ​​the Snowy Plateau is too large, and it seems inappropriate to directly assign it to any of the surrounding provinces.

"This vast and special area will cause the corresponding province to designate a group of special agencies to take charge of it, increasing the complexity of local management out of thin air.

"So the relevant yamen should still be kept, but it should be as streamlined as possible.

"The hierarchy needs to be streamlined. It is possible to set up a few counties directly under the chief executive without setting up government offices, and the chief executive directly manages the counties.

"Departments within the yamen at all levels should also be streamlined, and unnecessary agencies can be directly merged.

"After the inland population has migrated out, the main tasks of the local yamen are geological exploration, environmental observation, tourism development, patrolling and guarding, which maintain their existence or cooperate with other agency functions.

"In this way, the final size of this provincial-level yamen may only be the size of an inland county.

"However, the officials of the relevant yamen don't have to worry. The migration of the population in the snowy area can be used as a key examination item for the existing local yamen officials."

The expression and mood of the Chief Envoy of Xueyu are quite complicated. After this plan is finalized, the province of Xueyu will be completely empty.

But there is no need to worry about your own future, His Royal Highness Prince Dashi has always been generous to his subordinates.

As long as you cooperate well and complete the tasks as required, you should not have to worry about subsequent promotions.

The chief envoy of Xueyu respectfully agreed and asked for more suggestions:

"Your Majesty has written it down, so in His Highness's opinion, where should we mainly migrate our population?

"Do you want to concentrate on migrating to one place? For example, Shaanxi or Sichuan..."

Zhu Jingyuan basically ordered without much consideration:

"Migrate nearby, the population in the east migrates to Sichuan and Yunnan, and the population in the northeast migrates to Shaanxi.

"The ones in the west go to Tianzhu and the East Mozhou region of the great food country, and the ones in the southeast go to Tianzhu and Nanyang.

"It was directly moved to the local big city, and directly sent to the local government-run factory.

"Obviously, the difficulty of this work is how to gather scattered residents and let them leave willingly.

"Don't blindly use coercive means, you can use the welfare conditions that the factory can provide to guide.

"If other regions don't offer good conditions, Dashi Garment and Daming Airlines can bear the burden.

"Mostly, form a flying propaganda team to go to various pastoral areas and villages to promote."

The officials of the Xueyu Chief Envoy nodded earnestly again and agreed:

"My subordinate understands."

(End of this chapter)