Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 252 Preparations before Crossing the River (I)

Make a strategic decision. When you learn that you only have more than four months to prepare, what is the first thing to do?

Of course, moving.
"Marshal, my wife got pregnant in October last year. According to calculations, the due date is in July. But you also speculated that Xu Song might send another envoy in July. By then, you might not be in Luzhou. Wouldn't the envoys from Xu Song block my wife in Luzhou? I suggest that you move out early, while she is not yet due, to prevent any accidents." Li Shanchang suggested immediately.

Lu Jin thought about it, then nodded and agreed, "Then it's better to move sooner rather than later. We'll move this month, but we can only let my wife move there first, and the Marshal's Mansion will have to stay in Luzhou for a while."

"That's fine. I'll have someone find a place to stay in Hezhou first, and send soldiers to impose martial law."

“No, not going to Hezhou.”

"Hmm? Where are we going?" Li Shanchang asked puzzledly.

"If we go to Chao County, Hezhou is close to the river and is an important port. We might be attacked by the Yuan army. It's better to stay in Luzhou."

Lu Jin explained, "Chao County is different. Chao County is located in the heart of Luzhou Road, and is close to Chao Lake in the south. If you put a boat on the lake, you can go to Luzhou in the west and go east along the Rushu River. You can cross the river directly. The transportation is convenient. Even if you really encounter danger, you can just get on the boat and go to several surrounding counties."

Li Shanchang thought about it and realized that it was indeed the right place to hide and find a way out. There was no better place than Chao County. After all, it was backed by a lake several hundred miles long. It would be hard to find a place to hide on a boat. So he nodded and said, "Then Chao County, do you still want me to find a place to stay?"

"No need. Zhang Wen's wife is also pregnant. His wife Qin is a native of Chao County. We can just let this aunt and sister-in-law go to Qin's house to wait for the birth of the baby." Lu Jin decided immediately.

The Qin family of Chao County, Zhang Wen and Lu Jin are now related by marriage, and the Qin family is a wealthy family in Chao County, so their living conditions are at least not too bad. Speaking of which, Zhang Yunxiu is still Qin's sister-in-law. After all, they are a family after all. How can Qin treat her badly?
"That's good. With Qin taking care of Madam, I don't think anything will go wrong."

Seeing that Lu Jin was confident, Li Shanchang stopped talking about this article and raised the next important question.

"General, after we cross the river, how should the prefectures and counties of the original Luzhou Road be governed? Should we continue the prefectures, counties, and roads of the former Song Dynasty, or the prefectures, counties, and roads of the Tang Dynasty, or should we directly follow the Yuan system and still have Luzhou Road, Anqing Road, and other roads?"

This is indeed an important issue, but Lu Jin had already made plans for administrative planning, so he said it without hesitation.

"We should carry on the past and forge ahead. In the future, administrative divisions should be divided into three levels above the county level: county, prefecture, and province. Below the county level, there should be towns and villages. From bottom to top, there should be five levels: village, town, county, prefecture, and province. The levels above that should be under the jurisdiction of the central government.

"The Yuan court had a village chief at the grassroots level, and the Xin Dynasty should have a village chief at the grassroots level, but there is no need to set up a government office in the village for the time being. A town is a collection of several villages, and a town office should be set up in a large village or a village on a major transportation route. The town chief is an eighth-rank official."

Li Shanchang frowned when he heard this. The plan that Lu Jin mentioned was very different from what he expected, so he asked immediately.

"Is it necessary for the commander to set up a government office in the town? Except in times of war, the counties only do some things like arresting thieves, trying cases, encouraging farming, encouraging education, collecting grain, and conscripting soldiers. There is nothing else to do the rest of the time. Setting up a town office and a mayor will only increase the court's expenses and cause the same problem of redundant personnel as in the Song Dynasty."

Hearing this, Lu Jin stood up and said helplessly, "Nothing to do? That's Confucianism. No, that's the Huang-Lao school's advocacy of inaction and governance, letting the people recuperate on their own. But I'm not Huang-Lao, I'm Gongshu!

"Let me be blunt. What is ruling by doing nothing? Isn't that just sitting there doing nothing and waiting to die? If they don't do anything, what's the point of having these county magistrates? Do I want them to occupy the court's positions and eat and fatten up?"

"What does the Marshal intend to ask them to do?" Li Shanchang asked curiously.

"There are many things to do. The first is to popularize education. All children of the people must go to school. The court will set up public schools and not charge tuition. The court will pay salaries to teachers to teach the people for free. This is a huge expense. It is difficult to do it at this stage, but we should lay the foundation. We can't say that every village should have a school, but at least every town should have a public school."

Li Shanchang was dumbfounded after hearing this. "All the people in the world go to school? Or the court pays the teachers a salary, does not charge tuition, and teaches for free? How much money and grain will it cost this year? And is it necessary? What will the people learn?"

"Of course it is necessary. The so-called basic education is equivalent to elementary education. Not to mention being able to participate in the government after graduation, one must at least be able to read and write, understand arithmetic, do accounting, and have a basic understanding of astronomy and geography. What is needed is that the people can understand the court's orders and that qualified soldiers be trained. If these are not taught, I'm afraid we won't even be able to recruit qualified soldiers in the future." Lu Jin explained.

When Li Shanchang heard that basic education was elementary education, he was relieved. That was good. If it was just to provide elementary education to the common people, it wouldn't cost too much money. There used to be private elementary schools in villages and towns, but they were all privately run, and admission was not compulsory. If you wanted to enroll, you had to pay tuition, which stopped most of the poor children.

There is nothing wrong with Lu Jin wanting to develop elementary schools and enlighten people all over the world. However, I still feel that it is unnecessary. When it comes to learning, just let it happen naturally. If someone doesn't want to learn, you won't make them a genius even if you force them into school.

"If the purpose is just to open a primary school, then there is no need to set up a town office. The county magistrate can still manage it. At most, we can set up another school official in the county. And what does this have to do with conscription? Can soldiers not be soldiers if they can't read?"

Lu Jin immediately retorted, "People should look forward and not always stand still. Take the artillery for example. If you don't learn geometry and trigonometric functions, you can't be a qualified artilleryman. And this is just the lowest level of artillery. I dare to say now that if you give me ten years, I can increase the range of artillery to more than 6 miles, 12 miles in 20 years, 40 miles in 80 years, miles in years, and miles in years.

"Do you know what a cannon with a range of dozens of miles means? It's like you set up a cannon in Liang County next door. One shot can raze the commander's mansion to the ground and turn us into ashes. Who can control such a cannon without any skills? Who can accurately hit a target dozens of miles away?

"In the future, wars will no longer be a competition of personal bravery. The country with more talents proficient in arithmetic, better craftsmen and better firearms will win. Personal bravery will be worthless in the face of the power of firearms. Even if you practice martial arts for twenty years, you will not be able to defeat a musket in the hands of a child. This is the original intention of my promotion of basic education. If you do not vigorously promote mathematics, you will be doomed to the country in the future." Li Shanchang was tired of listening to it, but following a lord like Lu Jin, he was used to Lu Jin's frequent shocking remarks. After all, he had really seen some strange things around Lu Jin, which were comparable to gods and ghosts, so even if Lu Jin said something outrageous, he couldn't help but believe it.

"Besides, there are many things to do besides running a school, such as preventing plague. Do you know smallpox, sir?"

"Of course I know. This is a terrible disease. Once it occurs, it is contagious very widely. Those infected are beyond medical help and can only wait for death. Because those infected break out in pimples all over their bodies, it is also called smallpox." Li Shanchang nodded.

"Although smallpox is difficult to cure, it can be prevented. In the Song Dynasty, there was a method of vaccinating people against smallpox. The recipients would never be infected with this disease again in their lifetime. Did you know that?"

"I don't understand this." Li Shanchang spoke the truth and did not pretend to know.

Then Lu Jin said, "The smallpox method used in the Song Dynasty still has some flaws. My Gongshujia once had a cowpox method, which could be used to vaccinate people by inoculating cowpox into the human body. Since there is such a good method, why not promote it to the whole nation to prevent the country from being harmed by the plague again?
"This kind of smallpox requires that all the people in the country be vaccinated. Do you think a county magistrate can handle such a heavy task?

"In addition to running schools and preventing epidemics, there is also the locust plague. The locust plague can also be controlled. Do you know, sir?"

"I know a little. I have read the book 'Biology' in the Marshal's secret book." Li Shanchang said.

He had indeed read this, but of course he did not study it in depth. He just read it out of curiosity. Lu Jin's biology book said that locusts evolved from grasshoppers, and also explained in detail the reproduction cycle of locusts. Why every drought is accompanied by a locust plague? This is not a punishment from heaven, but a purely natural disaster. As long as we understand the principles and laws of its occurrence, there is a way to control it.

The book also says that between the time when grasshoppers gather and the time when they turn into locusts that cover the sky, locusts have a transitional form called "nymphs". Locusts in the nymph stage gather in large numbers but can only jump on the ground. They have no wings and cannot fly long distances. Therefore, the nymphs in this period can be artificially eliminated or biologically controlled by eating them with chickens and ducks.

But even for locusts that cannot fly, a coordinated mechanism is needed to control them. First, during droughts, a locust plague warning should be issued. Then the government should mobilize the people to patrol everywhere to find the gathering places of the locust larvae. Then the people can be mobilized to kill the locusts before they take off.

When Lu Jin explained the process, he said that such a heavy workload could not be managed by just one county magistrate. Furthermore, the Internal Guard system established by Lu Jin, whether it was the Internal Guard, the Shengwu Army, or the Imperial Guard, were not lifelong soldiers. These soldiers all had to retire, and recruiting new soldiers and retiring veterans every year was a complicated task. It was unrealistic to expect the county magistrate to do all these things.

Seeing that Lu Jin actually put forward so many reasons, Li Shanchang had no choice but to compromise.

"Okay, let's set up a town office and the position of mayor. Then why do we need to set up a provincial government? Have you ever heard of Fan Meng's incident? What if something like this happens again? Moreover, setting up a province will give the local areas too much power, which will easily lead to separatism, which is almost harmful and has no benefits.

"Although the Tang and Song dynasties established roads above prefectures and counties, roads had no administrative power, only supervisory power. Once too much power is given to local governments, the prefects in the late Han Dynasty and the Jiedushi in the late Tang Dynasty are examples of past mistakes. Please think twice, Marshal."

Lu Jin was speechless again after hearing this, but he could understand it. He was accustomed to the provincial administrative divisions of later generations, but Li Shanchang had never seen it. The provinces of the Yuan Dynasty were different from those of later generations, so he could only explain.

"I will explain them one by one. First, Fan Meng was an individual case. The reason why Fan Meng rebelled was because the Mongol Yuan Dynasty oppressed Han officials and implemented ethnic discrimination policies. If Fan Meng could get a normal promotion, would he rebel? So this has nothing to do with whether to set up a province or not.

“Secondly, setting up provinces would give local governments too much power and make it easy for them to split up. This is indeed possible, but it can only be said that there are pros and cons. How can local governments get things done if they have no power?
"Let me give you an example. Take the construction of the Grand Canal from Dadu to Hangzhou. This canal is nearly 2,000 miles long and involves many prefectures, cities and counties. If the local government has no power, how can it coordinate and dispatch it? It is impossible for the central government to send officials down every time.

“Of course, too much power does make it easy for separatism to take place, so we should find ways to curb local power, rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater and killing the provincial government with one blow.

"If you want to control the power of the provinces and avoid separatism, it is actually very simple. There are only four strategies. The first is to split them up. Take the Shaanxi Province, the Secretariat, and the Henan and Jiangbei Provinces of the Yuan court for example. The areas of these three provinces are too large. They can be split into six to eight, such as Hebei Province, Shanxi Province, Shaanxi Province, Shandong Province, Huaihai Province, Henan Province, and Anhui Province. The Huguang in the south can also be split into Hubei and Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong.

"In this way, the country is divided into more than ten or twenty provinces, each province governs several prefectures, prefectures govern several counties, counties govern several towns, and towns govern several villages. The hierarchy is clear, which is more convenient for management, but each province will not be too large and difficult to manage.

"Secondly, to prevent separatism, when dividing provinces, we can assign geographically important passes to neighboring provinces. Let me give you another example, Bashu. Bashu is geographically closed and surrounded by mountains. It has been divided several times in history. So when dividing the southwest, we can assign Bashu's northern gateway, Hanzhong, to Shaanxi, and Bashu's eastern gateway, Chongqing, from Sichuan. In this way, the two gates of Bashu are not in our hands, and even if they are separatist and rebel, the court can easily suppress them."

Li Shanchang nodded repeatedly. Lu Jin's proposal to split the Yuan Dynasty provinces into smaller ones and then take away the key areas of each province and give them to neighboring provinces was indeed a very smart policy. He immediately became interested and asked, "What about the third and fourth?"

"The third is to set up direct-controlled prefectures. If we look at it purely in terms of geographical units, rather than provinces, prefectures, and counties, we can divide the territory into several large areas. For example, the area east of the Taihang Mountains, south of the Yanshan Mountains, and north of the Taishan Mountains can be called the North China Plain.

"Dadu is the political, military, cultural, population and wealth center of the entire North China Plain. It is an important town in North China. A place like this can be designated as a Beiping Prefecture and be directly under the central government, that is, a prefecture directly under the central government, so it is called Zhili Prefecture.

"The general prefecture is of the fourth rank, and the provincial governor is of the second rank, so this Zhili Prefecture can be of the third rank, which is lower than the provincial governor but higher than the ordinary prefect. It is manned by important officials selected by the court. Similar Zhili Prefectures can be set up in a few more places, such as Chang'an Prefecture, guarding the northwest; Chongqing Prefecture, guarding Sichuan; Guangzhou Prefecture, guarding Lingnan; Beiping Prefecture, guarding North China; Jiankang Prefecture, guarding Jiangnan.

"Choose a strategic location in each direction and set it up as a direct-controlled prefecture. If there are four or five in the country, we can guard all four directions."

(End of this chapter)