Daming 1805

Chapter 573 Administrative Region and Title System Adjustment Plan
After the morning court on July 25, the fifth year of the Era, the cabinet academicians headed by Lin Zexu and Niu Jian jointly submitted a report to Zhu Jingyuan.

"Strategy for Adjustment of Administrative Regions and Honor System."

After the war, the Ming Dynasty directly ruled most of the entire planet, and various forms of vassal states controlled all areas.

The administrative divisions before the war are no longer appropriate and must be adjusted accordingly according to the current situation.

Although this Thai-Spanish war was an absolute crushing victory overall, it cannot be said that the efforts of the frontline and rear personnel were all in vain.

The land in the entire western continent was not picked up for free, and a large number of personnel will be needed to continue to garrison and transform it.

Of course, the link of merit-based rewards after such large-scale war operations is absolutely indispensable.

According to Zhu Jingyuan's promise before the war, a large number of new nobles will be born after this war, and some feudal vassal states will also be enfeoffed.

On this basis, Zhu Jingyuan asked the cabinet to take responsibility and formulate a new adjustment plan for administrative regions and titles.

Zhu Jingyuan opened the report and looked at it. Niu Jian and Lin Zexu were introducing the situation beside him.

According to Zhu Jingyuan's request in advance, the guiding principle of this adjustment plan is to correspond the levels of titles and vassal states to the levels of administrative divisions.

The administrative region is generally divided into five levels: domain, province, prefecture, prefecture and county, city, factory, town and township.

A "region" is a first-level administrative region, with an area ranging from millions of square kilometers to tens of millions of square kilometers. It usually consists of several to a dozen provinces.

The chief officials of the domain are all of the second rank. The political officer is called "Duhu", the criminal officer is called "Ti Xing", the supervisor is called "Yu Shi", and the military officer is called "Governor".

The adjustment of the jurisdictional divisions of the domain is also the largest among all levels, mainly increasing the scope of the former Thai and Western countries.

The original lands of Lucia and Western Xianbei, plus Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and other places, were merged to establish the Xianbei region.

The original Prussia, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and other regions were merged to form the Western Region.

The original Ottoman mainland, including the Balkan Peninsula, plus the Dashi Peninsula and northern Mexico, were merged to establish the Roman domain.

The main purpose of adjusting the jurisdiction of Western Tai and the three surrounding regions is to disperse the hundreds of millions of people in the Western Tai continent.

The northeastern and northern parts were assigned to the Xianbei region, and the eastern Roman region in the southeast was assigned to the Roman region.

In this way, the population of each of the three major regions does not exceed [-] million.

Subsequent migration of the original ruling class population will continue, suppressing the population of the West in each large region to less than [-] million.

Then the regions of Kazakhstan, Khiva, Persia, and Tianzhu in the central part of the mainland were merged and established as the new Anxi Region.

The southern area of ​​Mozhou south of the Sahara was divided into the East Mo Region and the West Mo Region based on the east-west dividing line originally drawn by Zhu Jingyuan.

The East Mo region is mainly composed of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty and surrounding ethnic groups. The West Mo region is mainly composed of Thai and Western immigrants and local Mo people. There are a large number of Thai and Spanish vassal states.

The Bei Yinzhou area to the north of Panama was established as the Beiyin Region, and the Nanyinzhou area to the south of Panama was established as the Nanyin Region.

The Tiannan Continent and the surrounding islands of the Great Ming Dynasty and Little Western Ocean plus the Antarctic Continent were merged to establish a new Tiannan Territory.

The jurisdictional areas of the provinces directly under the jurisdiction of the mainland remain basically unchanged.

A "province" is a second-level administrative region, with an area ranging from tens of thousands of square kilometers to millions of square kilometers. It usually consists of several to a dozen prefectures.

The chief officials of provinces under the direct jurisdiction of the local government are of the second rank, and the chief officials of the provinces under the overseas regions are of the second rank.

Provincial administrative officers are called "Chief Envoys", criminal affairs officers are called "Inspection Envoys", supervisory officers are called "Yu Shi", and military affairs officers are called "Capital Commanders Envoys".

"Prefecture" is a third-level administrative region, with an area under its jurisdiction ranging from several thousand square kilometers to hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. It usually consists of several to more than a dozen states and counties.

The governor of a province under the direct jurisdiction of the local government is the fourth grade.The chief officials of the mansions under the provinces of large overseas regions are of the fourth rank.

The government affairs officer is called "prefect", the criminal officer is called "tongsuan", and the censors are still collectively called "yushi", but the administrative levels are different.

The rank of military affairs officer depends on the number of garrison troops. It may be "Commander Envoy" or even "Commander Envoy", or it may just be "Suppressor".

"Prefectures" and "counties" are both four-level administrative regions, with jurisdictions usually ranging from hundreds of square kilometers to tens of thousands of square kilometers, with several to more than a dozen towns, towns, and cities.

The state chief officers under the direct jurisdiction of the local provinces have been adjusted from the fifth grade to the sixth grade. The state chief officers under the overseas large provinces have been adjusted from the sixth grade to the sixth grade.

The state administrative officer is called "zhizhou", the criminal officer is called "judge", and the supervisory officer is collectively called "yushi". If there is a garrison, it is usually called "zhenfu".

The state and county level must directly manage the people, so the Jinyiwei, who are equivalent to the police, become even more important. Therefore, the officials of the Jinyiwei are also important officials in the state and county.

"State" is the intermediate state between prefecture and county. It is the most complicated layer in the Ming Dynasty administrative region. There are three states with completely different properties that have existed.

The first is the "Zhili Prefecture" and "Sanzhou" that have appeared since the Yuan Dynasty.

Usually in some difficult or remote places, there is a relatively isolated area that is far away from the superior formal administrative center or has inconvenient transportation.

The area and population of the local area are larger than that of a county, but it is not yet large enough for a normal government. A "state" is usually set up here.

There are no counties attached to the prefecture. The prefectural government itself must first directly manage the affairs of its own city. This part of its functions is the same as that of the county government.

At the same time, the state yamen also takes care of the affairs of a few nearby counties, and these functions are the same as those of the government yamen.

This kind of state is somewhat similar to the regional central city of Zhu Jingyuan's previous life 2000 years ago.

Some of these states are directly under the jurisdiction of provincial-level yamen, so they are called "Zhili states" and are considered "small prefectures" in nature.

Some are under the jurisdiction of other prefecture-level yamen. Such states are called "sanzhou" and can be regarded as "deputy prefectures" in nature.

However, whether it is Zhili Prefecture or San Prefecture, it is basically invisible now.

In his last years in Ankang, Zhu Jingyuan began to adjust the details of local administrative divisions.

In the relatively developed areas in the eastern and southern parts of the Ming Dynasty, the city size and population of most counties continued to expand during the industrial process.

The size of cities and populations in many originally relatively isolated areas has gradually approached the size of the original normal provinces.

The population of the surrounding original Fucheng District is also increasing, and management pressure is increasing.

At the same time, in the process of industrialization, road, railway and air transportation became more and more convenient, and radios and telephones gradually became popular in administrative work.

Isolated and remote areas that were originally inaccessible can now more easily communicate with neighboring areas.

Zhu Jingyuan promoted the upgrade of this form of state to a formal prefecture, and at the same time took several counties from nearby larger prefectures and handed them over to the new prefecture for management.

In some areas, there were multiple relatively isolated states adjacent to each other, so Zhu Jingyuan directly merged them into one prefecture.

Among them, the largest state city became a prefectural city, and counties under the jurisdiction of other states were also placed under prefecture management.

For other prefectures and cities, based on urban area and population size, smaller ones are downgraded to counties, while larger ones retain the administrative level of states.

This reserved level of state is no longer in charge of other counties, but only governs the affairs of its own urban and suburban areas.

In fact, it became a "county-level city" in later generations, which was essentially a "large county".

At the same time, counties under the jurisdiction of other prefectures can also be upgraded to this new type of state depending on the situation if their city size and population reach a certain level.

In order to add more administrative personnel to deal with more complex and diverse affairs than traditional counties.

Such "large counties" are becoming the majority in existing states.

This political region adjustment strategy will also use this state's form and situation as an indicator for formulating state-level government regulations in the future.

Therefore, during this adjustment process, the grades of all state chief officials were reduced by one level.

After all, the future states will only be independent "big counties", and there will be no "small prefectures" and "deputy prefectures" that take care of other counties.

The grades of officials who have taken office before the adjustment will not be downgraded, and subsequent officials who take over will be subject to the new standards.

During this process of administrative division adjustment, the number of prefectures increased significantly, and their importance decreased significantly.

However, as industrialization continues to accelerate, Fucheng, as the main force among medium-sized cities, has seen an astonishing expansion in scale.

At the same time, all lower-level state and county affairs must also be reflected in the prefecture-level yamen, so that the yamen's affairs will increase exponentially.

Therefore, after the compromise between the two aspects, the level of prefecture-level yamen remained unchanged.

Under the government and outside the state, the remaining "county" is the most traditional name for the grassroots administrative level in China.

Roads, roads, provinces, states, counties, and prefectures have all changed many times, but counties have never experienced major changes in more than 2000 years.

The chief officials of counties in the provinces under the direct jurisdiction of the mainland were adjusted from the seventh rank to the sixth rank. The chief officials of counties in large overseas regions were adjusted from the seventh rank to the seventh rank.

County is the most common administrative level that directly manages various grassroots affairs.

With the development of industry and commerce, the urban population continues to increase, and the affairs managed by county-level yamen are also increasing.

With the continuous development of technology, the imperial court's management intensity of townships, towns, factories, cities and factories below the county level is also constantly increasing.

This resulted in a further increase in the affairs of county-level yamen.

Therefore, Zhu Jingyuan promoted the county-level chief officials by one level to better arrange for more lower-level officials.

At the same time, the grade gap between county and state chief officials was reduced to one level.

The political officer of the county is the "county magistrate", the criminal officer is the "county magistrate", the supervisor is also the censor, and the "county lieutenant" has become the position of the imperial guard.

There are currently three main types of "counties" in the Ming Dynasty.First, there are the most common "suburban counties", which are counties in the suburbs of Fuxiashe. They have their own independent county towns and govern the people in their own county towns and suburbs.

Then there are "Fuguo counties", counties within the cities where higher-level yamen such as prefectures, provincial capitals, and capitals are located, similar to the "districts" of Zhu Jingyuan's previous life.

Before the industrial age, there were only the largest cities in the Ming Dynasty and one or two Fuguo counties.

Even there are only two Fuguo counties in the northern and southern capitals.

As the number one capital in the world, Suzhou was the first city in the Ming Dynasty to have the third Fuguo County.

In recent decades, due to the continuous acceleration of industrialization, the population of major cities has expanded rapidly, and Fuguo County has mushroomed like mushrooms after a rain.

Suburban counties and Fuguo counties are now the most typical county towns, and the third type of counties are special "barren counties".

It refers to a county that is huge in area but sparsely populated.

In the past ten years, Zhu Jingyuan has been promoting the concentration of population in inland areas and the construction of big cities.

For places in remote inland areas with inconvenient transportation and few resources, there is no investment development and construction value, whether it is a state, county or prefecture.

They all actively guide local residents to gather together or move to distant places that are more suitable for living, such as vast overseas colonies.

Today's Ming Dynasty is generally "fewer people and more land". The key is that the population is extremely unevenly distributed.

There is a huge amount of high-quality land overseas that needs manpower to develop.

Whether it is for ordinary Ming people or the Ming court, spending a lot of money to dig food in the mountains is far worse than going to overseas fertile lands to open up wasteland.

Therefore, the Ming court's method of managing the old, young, border and poor areas was to emigrate.

The most typical representative area is the snow-covered plateau. The local government has basically evacuated the original population on the plateau.

Nowadays, basically only people with the purpose of exploration, inspection, and expedition will temporarily go to the plateau.

Regarding the large areas of empty areas created in this way, Zhu Jingyuan's strategy was to unmerge the uninhabited Fuzhou and counties, leaving only a few "barren counties".

Let these barren counties directly manage a large number of open areas under their jurisdiction.

The deserted county itself is under the jurisdiction of the nearby prefecture or the superior province, depending on the surrounding conditions.

In the Western Region and the Mongolian Plateau, there are sporadic large cities that are concentrated and built. Most of the barren counties in these places are subordinate to the prefecture.

There are no big cities on the Snowy Plateau anymore, so the barren counties here are directly affiliated with the Snowy Province.

This leaves sparsely populated areas with only two administrative levels: province and county.

Ming Dynasty also adopted a similar management model for relatively empty areas in overseas colonies.

For example, the entire Tiannan Continent, the great plains of the Northern Yin Continent, the tropical jungles of the Southern Yin Continent, the inland prairie of the Mo Continent, etc.

They are all composed of several provinces under a large domain. The area of ​​the province itself is extremely large, perhaps millions of square kilometers.

If there are large-scale immigrant cities among these provinces, a few prefectures, or even only one or two prefectures, will usually be established.

Most of the remaining areas were directly set up as full-level huge barren counties, directly managing a very small number of immigrants and indigenous people.

As well as a large number of wastelands, barren mountains, deserts, jungles...

Fangs, cities, factories, towns, and townships below the county level are the fifth-level administrative divisions of the Ming Dynasty.

The yamen of these four administrative districts are the real grassroots management agencies and the lowest administrative agencies that the Ming court can directly control.

Townships and towns are small residential areas outside the county. They are no different from the townships and towns in Zhu Jingyuan's previous life.

A township is a regular grassroots institution that governs several to dozens of villages, and a town is usually a township with a relatively large central built-up area.

Fang, city, and factory are all grassroots administrative districts in the city, similar to the street offices in the city in Zhu Jingyuan's previous life.

"Fang" is usually a residential area, "city" is usually a commercial area, and "factory" is usually an industrial area.

But this distinction is not absolute. It does not mean that shops cannot be opened in residential areas. There are also apartments and hotels in commercial areas, and there are also dormitories and shops in industrial areas.

However, the zoning is purposeful. Commercial office buildings are usually located in business districts, and no one will go to the city center to buy land to build a fertilizer plant.

Fang, city, factory, town, and township are at the same level. The local chief officials are all of the eighth rank, and the overseas chief officials are all of the subordinate eighth rank.

The title level corresponds to the vassal level, and all of them correspond to the administrative district level.

At the same time, beginning in the early Ming Dynasty, clan titles and foreign surnames were officially separated.

Clan titles: Prince, County Prince, General of Zhenguo, General of Auxiliary State, General of Fengguo, Lieutenant of Zhenguo, Lieutenant of Fengguo, and Lieutenant of Fengguo.

The titles of heroes with foreign surnames are: Duke, Hou, and Bo.

The purpose of clearly distinguishing the clan members from the heroes with foreign surnames seems to be to raise the status of the clan family so that foreign surnames have no chance to covet the king.

But by the time of Emperor Shizu, the two titles were mixed together again.

Those generals and lieutenants were all abolished, and they continued to use dukes, marquises, and uncles. They also took out the sons and sons that Emperor Taizu had abolished.

The purpose seems to be to mix the clan with ordinary people again, so that they can seamlessly insert themselves into serving in foreign dynasties.

Zhu Jingyuan's title adjustment this time has once again improved and expanded this system.

First, the same title was divided into levels, and the two informal titles of countryman and gentry were standardized and formalized, forming a total of twelve levels of title system.

Prince, king, duke, duke, marquis, county uncle, state uncle, state son, county son, county son, country squire, country scholar.

If the prince and the prince are feudal princes, they can be collectively called kings.

The country corresponds to the province, the county corresponds to the similar prefecture, the state and county of course correspond to the state and county, and the township corresponds to the township.

The status level enjoyed by nobles in the court is based on the direct title of prince, prince, uncle, son, etc., and the size of the corresponding vassal state is limited to the title level.

If the prince is a vassal king, the feudal kingdom will be compared to the top countries in ancient times, such as Qin, Jin, Qi, Chu, Wu, etc.

Now you can own one to several provinces, with a fiefdom area ranging from tens of thousands to millions of square kilometers, with a maximum of no more than 1000 million square kilometers.

The upper limit of 1000 million square kilometers means there is no upper limit. No emperor would give his son 1000 million square kilometers.

The entire Tiannan Continent does not cover 1000 million square kilometers, but usually only tens of thousands of square kilometers.

If the prince or duke is the monarch of a vassal state, the fiefdom will be similar to that of large ancient countries, such as Han, Wei, Song and other major countries.

It can be obtained from one government to several provinces, with a fief area ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, with a maximum of no more than 100 million square kilometers.

The area standards for the fiefdoms of the county prince and the duke are the same, but the prince's status as a prince and clan member is higher.

However, according to Zhu Jingyuan's special request, this plan did not include the restriction that the prince's title was limited to the clan.

The upper limit of a closed country of 100 million square kilometers is actually extremely large, and the usual standard is tens of thousands of square kilometers.

Therefore, there is actually no huge difference in the area of ​​fiefdoms among the three vassal states of prince, county prince, and prince. The difference is that the prince is more noble.

If the princes, princes, and uncles below them are vassal monarchs, their fiefdoms are similar to those of ancient medium-sized countries, such as Lu, Wei, Zheng, etc.

You can claim a land from a mansion to a province, with a fief area ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of square kilometers, and a maximum of no more than [-] square kilometers.

If Zhoubo, Zhouzi, Countyzi, and Countyman were divided into vassals and established a country, their fiefdoms would be similar to those of ancient small countries, and they could take over a state or a county.

At the same level of state and county, the area of ​​fiefdom is hundreds to thousands of square kilometers, with a maximum of no more than [-] square kilometers.

Country squire and country scholar are the lowest formal titles. If the country is divided into vassal states, they can get a township, no more than one hundred square kilometers at most.

In terms of the nature of the vassal state, it can be divided into three types: close vassal state, outer vassal state and inner vassal state.

A vassal state is a vassal state entrusted by the royal family, and a vassal state with a foreign surname is not a vassal state with a foreign surname, but a regular vassal state that fulfills the obligations of a vassal state.

Foreign vassals only need to pay taxes on time, do not violate the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and accept the supervision and protection of the Ming Dynasty garrison.

In addition, the feudal lord has most of the actual rights of the king.

Internal vassals are highly similar to regular provinces. All legal and administrative affairs procedures are the same as those of provinces, and all personnel appointments and dismissals also follow regular procedures.

The monarch of the inner vassal is actually a hereditary envoy, but he can get a fixed proportion of tax dividends.

After the administrative divisions and title system are determined, rewards for meritorious personnel can be arranged.

France, Spain, Portugal, Ottoman, Austria and other countries are all foreign vassals.

The key is that these countries took the initiative to surrender without direct conquest by war.

Their titles and fief areas are all left over from reality or formed through transactions, and may not meet the standards of the fixed title system.

As for Ming Dynasty's own meritorious personnel, they must be arranged according to the title system.

Including generals such as Yang Yuchun and Guan Tianpei, as well as former monarchs and ministers of foreign vassals such as Luo Yashan, Napoleon, Mu Yi, and Isai.

(End of this chapter)