The news that Lu Kang was about to retire quickly spread throughout the court. After the court meeting on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, Lu Kang submitted a letter "begging for bones", which Bai Tu rejected for the first time...

However, everyone knows that Lu Kang's resignation is probably a matter of spring and summer. This time he was rejected, but in about a few months, he will go through the process of resigning for the second time.

As for the identity of the successor, it is very easy to guess, and Lu Kang did not let anyone know. Not only did he hint to some people in private, but he also used several issues during the court meeting to draw everyone's attention to Yu Fan.

This is not surprising to the ministers. After all, in terms of his relationship with the Jiangdong nobles and his loyalty to Bai Tu, Yu Fan is a rare suitable candidate, his ability is above the qualified line, and his qualifications are impeccable...

The cabinet is the place where the King of Chu "comes up with ideas", but making up ideas is not just about brains, or... with Lu Su and Jia Xu here, there is no shortage of "brains" in the cabinet.

For example, Lu Kang and Huang Chengyan's main task is to balance the impact of cabinet decisions on the Jiangdong gentry and Jingzhou gentry - they can question some decisions that will cause a backlash, but they are also obligated to make decisions that can be passed by the cabinet.

to calm the rebound.

Of course, compared to Lu Kang, Yu Fan's "lubricant" seems a bit frosted...

Throughout the four years of Chu Li, there were still many things going on in Chu State. There were academic examinations in June in the middle of the year, imperial examinations in October at the end of the year, and at the beginning of the year... the two-level system of prefectures and counties would begin to be gradually promoted!

From the beginning of the founding of the Chu State, Bai Tu has been "making plans". However, because it involves a lot of work, especially the changes to grassroots officials, it will be very drastic, which is equivalent to establishing more grassroots government offices and at the same time making changes to the officials at the grassroots government offices.

A more detailed breakdown…

I have been preparing carefully before, but now three years have passed, including this year's imperial examination results, a group of new talents will enter the official ranks of Chu State, and the two-level system of prefectures and counties can also start.

As for the specific division, the six ministries and the Privy Council have already discussed it repeatedly, and have also spread the news to grassroots government agencies in various places. Some local-level decrees are even implemented according to the new division, which can be regarded as giving everyone a familiar idea.

Chance.

The entire Chu State will be divided into ten roads, and the ten "roads" will be supervisory units, similar to the "states" of the Han Dynasty before the state pastoral system, but there will be no chiefs, and there will be six departments and a military and horse department, which will be independent of each other and supervise.

State-level Liubu Tang.

The ten roads are: "Jinling Road" where the capital Jinling is located,

"Jiangdong Road" east of Jinling,

The "Huainan East Road" and "Huainan West Road" divide Huainan into two parts.

Including the "Kuiji Road" in the southern part of Jiangsu Province and the original Zhangling County,

"Wangjing Road" from Xiangyang to Wancheng,

"Jinghu North Road" in the northern area of ​​Jingzhou centered on Jiangling,

"Jinghu South Road" is centered on the northern part of Jingnan, Changsha, and Hengyang,

In the southern part of Jingnan, there are more "Jianning Road" tasked with integrating Wuxi barbarians,

And... the "Guangxin Channel" which has not yet been made public, mainly in the Jiaozhou area.

Among them, the one that most stimulated the Han Dynasty was definitely the "Wangjing Road" - not only the major changes in the system of counties and counties, but also... Wangjing?

No matter how you look at the location of Wancheng, what you are looking at is not your own Jinling, but Guanzhong and Chang'an!

When Liu Xie heard the name for the first time, he slapped the table and asked: What are you looking at?

But it has not been made public for the time being and is completely in the theoretical stage, which is "Guangxin Road" - Guangxin is a county in Cangwu County and the first county established after the Han Dynasty recovered the land of Guangdong and Guangdong.

The original meaning of "Guang" in "Guangdong and Guangxi" in later generations was to refer to "Guangxin".

The Jiaozhou Shi family already has the willingness to join forces, but the two sides are still in the stage of back-and-forth negotiations.

Shi Xie didn't have the ambition to fight for hegemony among the princes, but... he definitely hoped for more benefits. The year before last, he had asked the King of Chu to win the title of the Han Dynasty for him, and then attached himself as the Han Dynasty, but was directly rejected by Bai Tu.

.

It was a little unpleasant at first, but soon after, Jiaozhou once again asked the Chu State for help for a batch of grain, and presented many specialties and treasures, with a vague intention of paying tribute.

Historically, Shi Xie surrendered his entire clan to Sun Quan two years after the Battle of Chibi, and still retained a certain amount of power and influence in Jiaozhou.

However, after Shi Xie's death, the descendants of the Shi family wanted to separate themselves from Jiaozhou, but were exterminated by Sun Quan. The hostages left in Jianye were not spared either...

It can be seen that Shi Xie did not have any ambitions for hegemony. After the Battle of Chibi, Sun Quan made it clear that he had become a separatist regime, and Shi Xie had no intention of competing with him for Jiangdong. He accepted Sun Quan's appointment of Bu Zhao as the governor of Jiaozhou, and the entire clan

He surrendered, was granted the title of General Zuo, and still remained in command of Jiaozhou.

At the same time, it can also be seen that Shi's influence in Jiaozhou is extraordinary. After his death, Shi's dream of separatism can still be dreamed of, and Shi Xie's status in later generations of Guangdong and Guangdong even surpassed that of Zhao Tuo, the king of South Vietnam!

Although Chu State has not yet had a head-on fight with the North to prove its strength,... Chu State's status does not need to be proven by a hard-fought battle.

No matter how you look at it, the current situation in Chu State is much stronger than that of Sun Quan who was just proud after the Battle of Chibi.

In particular, the State of Chu has been actively developing relations with the prominent families and indigenous people in Jiaozhou, and its influence among the people is not small. In addition to being close to the sea, the entire Jiaozhou is also close to Chu.

Shi Xie objectively had no other choice, and subjectively had no other ideas.

The focus of the tug of war between the two sides now is just how much power Shi Xie can retain, or... how much interest can Shi Xie retain!

Therefore, among the ten states of Chu, Badong was not included, but Jiaozhou was included.

As for the state level, it is slightly larger than the current county level, and much smaller than the county level. Today, the mainland of Chu State does not include overseas ports and counties such as Liaodong, Donglai, Zhouhu, and Badong, nor does it include Yizhou and Danzhou.

The Governor's Mansion has a total of 244 counties and 21 counties!

There are only eighty-one "states" after the restructuring. Each state has a county that is mainly developed, and it also has two or three small counties.

At the state level, there are six departments, which are managed vertically by six departments and six central departments. One person is selected from the department of six departments to be the "Zhizhou", as the highest official of the "state".

The principle of appointing the magistrate is that the chief magistrate of the local department that focuses on development will serve as the chief magistrate. For most magistrates, the magistrate will be appointed by the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs who is responsible for local people's livelihood projects. However, if it is a large commercial or educational state, the magistrate will be appointed by the Ministry of Household Affairs.

The Si Tang of Libu Tang, Libu Tang, and Gongbu Tang serve as magistrates of the state. When it is necessary to focus on rectifying the administration of officials, the rule of law, or promoting the inventions of the Ministry of Industry, it is not a bad idea to have the Si Tang of Libu Tang, Xingbu Tang, and Gongbu Tang sign the magistrate of the state.

It can be said that there is a core official at the prefecture level who can coordinate local development and prevent the whole group from being completely leaderless.

There are also seven prefectures, which are more similar to states in terms of geography, but have the same administrative level as "Dao". They are the seven central development areas of Chu State. The Liubu Hall of Qifu is also directly under the center.

First of all, it is naturally the "Jinling Mansion" where the capital is located.

There is also Shouchun Mansion, where a large city trading with the Central Plains is located.

"Hefei Mansion", the military and political center of Huainan,

"Wancheng Mansion" in the territory of Chu State, which goes deep into the Central Plains,

"Wuchang Mansion" is located on the middle of Jingyang Waterway,

"Jiangling Mansion" in the center of Jingzhou,

As well as the "Wu Mansion" where the most important entrance to the sea in Chu State is located.

In the promotion of the two-level system of states and counties, the biggest change must be at the state level, which is the most basic level - the government offices equivalent to an average of three counties will be integrated into one state government office.

At the same time, the supporting team of the state government office is much more comprehensive than the original county government office!

Originally, in ordinary small counties within the Chu State, the six grassroots departments were generally incomplete and mainly had part-time responsibilities. This could be regarded as a gap left long ago - after being merged into a "state", it would become bigger like a jigsaw puzzle.

A more complete part.

And starting from the road construction plan after the advent of cement, now the railway tracks are being laid. The convenience of transportation also means that the jurisdiction of the grassroots government agencies can be even larger!

Of course, the Chu State did not give up the more basic "Ting" and "Township". It was no longer necessary to set up six departments in the Ting and Township, but also set up townships and pavilion offices, of which the township chief and the pavilion chief were the responsible persons.

Officials need to take temporary posts in Liubu Hall...

There are also two levels, military and prison, which are independent of states and counties - "army" is where the garrison is located, and "supervisor" is where large and important official buildings or salt and mines are located.

For example, the shipyard built by Gan Ning in Shanyin was called the "Sanyin Ship Supervisor" in the plan, and the station of the Xinye First Division was the "Xinye Army". Those important mining areas...

These are naturally the direct responsibility of the six ministries or the Privy Council, and are not subject to the control of local states and counties. Each state and county has its own support and development of small and medium-sized official offices.

There is also a certain number of city guards, which are essentially different from the garrison managed by the Privy Council. The former is better at public security in the city. The number of Ji Zao soldiers is usually very small, only enough to build a city wall sentry, and they focus more on "public security" rather than combat.

!

The garrisons in various places are the armies that can truly fight and retreat and defend.

In addition to the military reform of the military rank system, the Chu State also refined many new military regulations.

Theoretically, when faced with a large enemy invasion, the city guards could surrender directly to ensure the safety of the people in the city without participating in the war.

When the garrison assumes the task of defending the garrison, it has specific requirements for the surrender conditions, such as the period of food shortage, the ratio between the enemy and the enemy, etc...

However, the red line is the casualties of the people - no matter what the situation is, if surrender causes greater casualties, it is considered treason. In other words... if the enemy is coming to massacre the city, the defender must die in front and kill one more

is one.

On the contrary, if you protect the people of Chu when the enemy is very different from us, then even if you surrender, you will not be blamed, but as for whether you will be deceived by the enemy... follow the consequential theory - use the real results as the basis for judgment.

Not only will the Chu State not punish those who surrender in compliance with the regulations, but they will also actively redeem their people after the war, and if they fail to redeem themselves, they will treat their families well.

Even if you are captured after a defeat, you can theoretically surrender unconditionally - you will not accept defections, but you can also wait for the Chu State to redeem you.

After redemption, how to deal with it depends on the division of responsibilities for defeat. Those whose fault was not due to the war will not be affected.

Those who cannot be redeemed, especially those who are innocent and have been plundered, can be treated as appropriate without harming the interests of the Chu State - for example, ordinary government officials are captured after the garrison is defeated, and the enemy does not accept redemption. This situation

The State of Chu will not hold you accountable if you surrender to the enemy, but no matter what the circumstances, if you leak the secrets of the State of Chu and harm the interests of the State of Chu, you will be held accountable afterwards.

Of course, surrendering without fighting or surrendering in fear of fighting is tantamount to treason, and family members... are not popular to be implicated, but those who are younger than three generations cannot even think of entering an important university such as the Yanwu Hall, or holding an important position.

In fact, this regulation not only treats the Chu generals well and enhances the internal sense of belonging, but is also an "uncomfortable" thing for the enemy, because after the "crimes of defeating the army" are refined, the defeated generals' escape route is not cut off, and it is difficult to attack the Chu state.

The defeated general will surrender.

Not only those who had "non-war faults", but even generals who had a small responsibility in the defeat would often rather go back to Chu and accept some punishment than surrender directly.
To be continued...