allonlinenovel Chapter 523 The Boomerang Strikes Himself
Chapter 523 The Boomerang Strikes Himself
Li Shanchang said directly, "Your Highness, our Great Ming Dynasty has more than a thousand prefectures and counties, among which Ningyang County is the most special."
"The reason why Ningyang County was designated as a separate county under the direct jurisdiction of the Central Secretariat was to serve as a pilot project."
"Now the Prince Consort has proposed to add a small yamen between the prefectures and counties and villages. Not to mention the lack of officials and clerks, even if there is nothing lacking, it is easy to cause some chaos between local officials and the people if it is directly implemented in more than a thousand prefectures and counties."
"In my opinion, rather than rashly expanding it to more than a thousand prefectures and counties, it would be better to first try it in Ningyang County. If the results are good, it can be rolled out to Yanzhou Prefecture and Dengzhou Prefecture, and then gradually rolled out to the whole of Shandong."
"Once the time is right, we will expand it to the entire Ming Dynasty."
Liu Bowen glanced at Li Shanchang again.
Those who want to retire are considered veterans.
Seeing that there was no way to retreat, he became a subject.
That old scoundrel is as cunning as ever.
However, what that old scoundrel said is not wrong. After all, Ningyang County is directly under the jurisdiction of the Central Secretariat. It is better to try it out in Ningyang County first, and if it works well, we can gradually expand it. If it doesn't work well, we can change it. It is much better than to rush into it directly.
Of course, these factors are not the most important.
Most importantly, the current magistrate of Ningyang is Yang the Madman.
The thought that Yang Dianfeng's dirty tricks would ultimately backfire on Yang Dianfeng himself filled Liu Bowen with secret delight.
Liu Bowen then bowed and said, "Your Highness, I also think that what the Duke of Han said is absolutely right."
Zhu Biao nodded and smiled, "Then the Secretariat will issue an official document to implement it on a trial basis in Ningyang County first. I will write to my father and brother-in-law later."
After a slight pause, Zhu Biao reached for another memorial and had it handed to Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen.
"Besides the matters of the small government offices, Dengzhou Prefecture also requested the imperial court to allocate some literate and arithmetic craftsmen."
As Zhu Biao finished speaking, Li Shanchang's fingers, which were turning the pages of the memorial, suddenly froze slightly.
The smile on Liu Bowen's face also disappeared.
Li Shanchang quickly glanced through the memorial, then silently handed it to Liu Bowen.
Liu Bowen took the memorial, read it through, and gently closed his eyes as he returned it to the eunuch.
孽 孽!
A craftsman who can read and do arithmetic?
How exactly did Yang the epileptic connect these three words together?
Just as Liu Bowen was secretly complaining, Li Shanchang frowned and said, "Your Highness, the Prince Consort's request is indeed a bit difficult."
Zhu Biao nodded in agreement, and Li Shanchang sighed again, saying, "There are indeed craftsmen who can read and do arithmetic, but the problem is that as early as the second year of Hongwu, the emperor had already sent those craftsmen to Ningyang County."
Upon hearing Li Shanchang's words, Zhu Biao immediately remembered it as well.
In the second year of the Hongwu reign, my father did indeed transfer more than three hundred craftsmen to Ningyang County.
More importantly, his father was in a state of sudden euphoria at the time, and was even secretly preparing to rebuild the empire. Therefore, the craftsmen transferred there not only covered all the industry categories in the Ming Dynasty at that time, but were also the best craftsmen drawn from the crafts camp, and basically all met the requirements of being literate and able to do arithmetic.
The problem is that those craftsmen have already been transferred to Ningyang County.
Can the craftsmen who arrived in Ningyang County still be considered as imperial craftsmen?
Zhu Biao rubbed his forehead and sighed, "Ningyang County... it's a bottomless pit. It's too late to say anything now. Let's find another person to go to Dengzhou."
Li Shanchang, his face dark, was about to nod in agreement when he suddenly raised his head and looked at Zhu Biao, asking, "Your Highness, I remember that the memorial to redivide the regions under the jurisdiction of the various provincial administrations was also proposed by the Imperial Son-in-Law?"
Zhu Biao nodded, puzzled. Li Shanchang apologized to Zhu Biao and got up to walk to the newly updated map of the Ming Dynasty's territory.
The boundaries between the various provincial administrations were intertwined, and almost every mountain and river that could serve as a barrier was divided in two, with each containing elements of the other. Apart from Yingtian Prefecture, no one could exist in a naturally safe environment.
This is quite normal, because the demarcation of the provincial administration was spearheaded by Zhu Biao, who worked with Liu Bowen, Hu Weiyong, and the officials of the Six Ministries.
What's unusual is that Ningyang County and Dengzhou Prefecture had a large number of workshops, and the border markets in Dengzhou could easily transfer and sell the goods from these workshops.
In addition, as Zhu Biao had previously proposed, the Ming Dynasty also needed to establish several more coastal trading posts and a customs office in Dengzhou Prefecture.
If we calculate it this way...
Li Shanchang couldn't help but gasp.
"The coastal areas are mainly based on trade markets and customs, the Central Plains and Jiangnan are mainly based on grain production, and the northern regions and the Qin-Jin area are mainly based on workshops..."
"Coastal areas with trading posts and customs cannot do without goods from the northern and Qin-Jin workshops, nor can they do without grain from the Central Plains and Jiangnan."
"The workshops in the North and Qin-Jin regions need the help of the border markets and customs to sell their goods and make money, and they also cannot do without the grain from the Central Plains and Jiangnan."
“The Central Plains and Jiangnan can do without either, but without the coastal markets and customs, and without the workshops in the North and Qin-Jin, the people will still have to live a miserable life.”
"This game... is a bit too big."
If this game can truly be completed, the various provincial governors of the Ming Dynasty will be in a state where none of them can do without the others, and none of them will be able to establish their own independent power base.
Seeing Li Shanchang standing in front of the map in a daze, Zhu Biao immediately laughed: "Duke of Han has already figured it out?"
Li Shanchang grunted in acknowledgment and bowed to Zhu Biao, saying, "Your Highness, I can roughly discern some of their intentions, but I cannot ascertain what plans Youzhou and Liaodong have."
Zhu Biao walked to the map of the territory, gestured a few times in the Liaodong and Liaoxi areas, and said: "These places will be divided into several provincial administrations, some mainly for mining, some mainly for farming, and some mainly for workshops. In general, it will depend on the different terrain of each place."
"To be honest, Lord Han, the purpose of those twenty-odd Jinshi graduates from Ningyang County going to the Yanyun area to serve as county magistrates was to prepare for this plan."
"As for the planning in Liaodong and Liaoxi, I haven't figured it out yet."
Speaking of Liaodong and Liaoxi, Zhu Biao couldn't help but feel a bit of a headache.
Before completely eliminating Hu Yuan, it really wasn't suitable to do anything in the Liaodong and Liaoxi areas.
Furthermore, the division and establishment of administrative divisions of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and Liaodong and Liaoxi were also troublesome matters.
Zhu Biao rambled on for a moment, then couldn't help but rub his forehead and sigh, "Why don't we write a letter to Dengzhou? We can always throw in another pound of Xiaolongtuan."
……
The letter returned to Dengzhou very quickly.
But as Yang Shaofeng read the letter Zhu Biao wrote, he always felt as if a boomerang was piercing his heart.