Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1007 Fujian and Zhejiang
"What? Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang?" When Zhu Shenzui went on to say that he was going to transfer Hong Chengchou from the post of Governor-General of Huguang to become the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang, Hong Chengchou was stunned for a moment and could hardly believe his ears.

The administrative divisions before the Ming Dynasty were based on the two capitals and thirteen provinces. The so-called two capitals were the Northern Zhili and the Southern Zhili, including the capital and Nanjing. The thirteen provinces were Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou.

In addition to the two capitals and thirteen provinces, the Ming Dynasty originally had territorial divisions in the surrounding areas with influence and military power, including the Nurgan Regional Administration and the Three Xuans and Six Weis. For example, the Three Xuans refer to the Nandian Xuanwei Si, Ganya Xuanwei Si, and Longchuan Xuanwei Si; the Six Weis refer to the Cheli Xuanwei Si, Myanmar Xuanwei Si, Mubang Xuanwei Si, Babai Dadian Xuanwei Si, Mengyang Xuanwei Si, and Laos Xuanwei Si. In addition, there are the Dogans Xuanwei Si and U-Tsang Xuanwei Si under the Xuanzhengyuan.

But fundamentally, the two capitals and thirteen provinces are the foundation of the Ming territory, which is the traditional ruling area of ​​the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the governor-general's office controlled a province. The left governor was the highest local administrative chief, and the right governor was the deputy of the left governor. In addition, the local judicial commissioner was responsible for the judicial institution, in charge of criminal and litigation affairs, and exercised supervision over local officials. There was also a military commander-in-chief, which formed the political institution of the Ming Dynasty's three local commissions.

As the Ming Dynasty was founded over time, the imperial court later sent governors to local areas in order to strengthen local control. The position of governor was not a permanent official position at first. As the name suggests, the governor meant inspecting local areas and pacifying the region on behalf of the emperor.

But later, the position of governor gradually changed from a temporary position to a permanent position, especially in the late Wanli period because of the rise of the Jiannu in Liaodong. For the sake of war, the court set up special governor positions in Liaodong and Shandong. At this time, the governor changed from a temporary position to a permanent position, and became the actual superior of the three local offices, used to integrate the military and political affairs of a province and meet the needs of war.

During the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, due to the outbreak of internal banditry, rebellions broke out in all provinces of the Ming Dynasty, and the original structure of the three local offices could no longer meet the needs of suppressing the bandits. For this reason, the imperial court directly expanded the position of the governor-general, and sent governors to all provinces in the Central Plains to unify the local military and political forces to suppress the bandits.

But later they felt that relying solely on the strength of one province was still not enough, because the bandits were constantly moving. They might be in this province today and run to a neighboring province tomorrow. Once the bandits fled to other provinces, the army and local forces of the original province would be powerless to do anything about it. So in view of this situation, the court added the post of governor-general to the post of governor. The governor directly governed two or even three provinces, and eventually created a post of governor-general of five provinces, who was in charge of the military and political affairs of the five provinces and was responsible for the comprehensive encirclement and suppression of the bandits. This completely broke the local official system that existed before the Ming Dynasty.

After Zhu Shenzhui became the regent, he noticed this situation and understood that the outbreak of the bandit problem not only destroyed the local livelihood of the Ming Dynasty, but also caused changes in the political structure of the Ming Dynasty. However, the latter was not a bad thing for him, but he could take this opportunity to make a series of adjustments.

Later, after Zhu Shenzhui officially ascended the throne, he gradually began to adjust the original system of local officials of the Ming Dynasty. Not only did he establish the governor as a permanent official position in the original local three-department structure, he also retained the previous governor-general position as the local military and political officer.

However, the position of the governor-general had much smaller powers and scope than before, so the so-called governor-general of the five provinces could not continue to exist. The Ming Dynasty only had two capitals and thirteen provinces. According to the thirteen provinces, the governor-general of the five provinces had almost more than one-third of the local powers of the entire Ming Dynasty. Such a powerful local official was definitely not a good thing for the central government.

Therefore, it is most appropriate to establish a permanent governor-general on the basis of the previous governor-general, and to set up governors in one to two provinces. This approach has been effective in history. For example, the later Qing Dynasty set up nine governors-general across the country and divided the provinces for effective management. This would strengthen communication between the central and local governments, and enable the central government to strengthen its control over the local governments through the position of governor-general. As a result, the Ming Dynasty saw the emergence of three governor-general jurisdictions: Shaanxi-Gansu, Huguang and Guangdong-Guangxi, with Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou and Xiong Wencan serving as governors-general respectively.

Now, Zhu Shenzui is going to add another governor's jurisdiction, which is the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang that he plans to let Hong Chengchou serve as.

The so-called Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang refers to the two provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian. Zhu Shenzhui set up this position for two considerations.

The first is to consider the influence of Nanzhili on Zhejiang. According to the division of provinces in the Ming Dynasty, Nanzhili should not have any jurisdiction over Zhejiang. But the problem is that the Ming Dynasty implemented the two-capital system. Nanjing, as the capital of Nanzhili, was also the southern capital of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty not only had a complete court team in Nanjing that was exactly the same as the capital, but also had six ministries.

Because of these reasons, Zhejiang, which was adjacent to Nanzhili, was naturally influenced by Nanjing. The Six Ministries of Nanjing could often directly influence the political situation in Zhejiang through the privileges of Nanzhili. This was also the reason why the Jiangnan case broke out first in Zhejiang, then affected the Six Ministries of Nanjing, and finally involved many officials.

Although the Jiangnan case has been over for a long time, the officials involved have been killed, demoted, exiled, or dismissed from their posts. The officialdom in Nanjing and even Jiangnan has been severely rectified. However, these rectifications are only a temporary solution, not a fundamental solution. You have to know how ruthless Zhu Yuanzhang was to corrupt officials. He used all kinds of means to strip corrupt officials of their skins and fill them with straw, but he still couldn't stop the corrupt officials from coming one after another. The same is true for the officialdom in Jiangnan. As long as the six ministries in Nanjing exist and the system of the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty continues, Zhejiang will inevitably continue to be influenced by Nanjing. As time goes by, the follow-up of the Jiangnan case will gradually be forgotten and return to its original state.

Therefore, Zhu Shenzhui took this situation into consideration and planned to solve this problem fundamentally. However, because the two capitals system could not be abolished for the time being, the Ming Dynasty could not allow Zhu Shenzhui to completely abolish the six ministries in Nanjing and no longer allow Nanjing to exist as the southern capital.

For this reason, Zhu Shenzhui could only take the method of cutting off the firewood from the bottom of the pot. On the one hand, he sent people to firmly control the discourse power of Nanzhili. For example, Zhang Xijun is still in Nanjing now, replacing Zhu Shenzhui to control Nanzhili. The other is to directly eliminate the influence of Nanjing on Zhejiang. However, if he wants to do this, it is completely impossible to just send a governor or governor to Zhejiang, because their official positions and status cannot compete with the six ministries in Nanjing. Therefore, Zhejiang can only be merged from the administrative region with Fujian in the south to form a new governor-general's administrative area, and a governor of Fujian and Zhejiang will be sent to govern the two provinces and control the military and political affairs of the two provinces. In this way, Nanjing's influence on Zhejiang can be greatly weakened, and Zhejiang can be completely out of Nanjing's control.

As for the second reason, it was Zheng Zhilong. Zhu Shencui had been planning and arranging ways to solve the problem of Zheng Zhilong. He made preparations for the follow-up by constantly adjusting Fujian officials and dispatching Jinyiwei to secretly investigate and win over Zheng Zhilong's subordinates.

But this was far from enough. Zheng Zhilong's strength in Fujian was too strong. Zhu Shenzhu was also worried that if he took too big a move, not only would he fail to solve the problem of Zheng Zhilong, but it might even cause Zheng Zhilong to rebel.

You must know that Zheng Zhilong was originally a pirate. Once he rebelled, the consequences would be extremely serious. His fleet and his soldiers were basically Zheng Zhilong's private soldiers. If he took the risk of rebelling against the Ming Dynasty, there would be no peace along the coast of the Ming Dynasty. With Zheng Zhilong's power at sea, it would be enough to blockade the South China Sea and even the East China Sea region of the Ming Dynasty, and it would also directly affect Shandong's maritime trade.

If a war breaks out at sea, let's not talk about whether we can defeat Zheng Zhilong, this possibility is not great at present. Even if there is a slight possibility, it will take a long time to deal with Zheng Zhilong. Moreover, once this war breaks out, the finances of the Ming Dynasty, which have just improved, will deteriorate rapidly. Without the support of maritime trade, the Ming Dynasty has not been able to make up for the financial gap on its own for the time being. Moreover, many provinces are currently reducing taxes due to previous civil unrest and climate reasons, allowing the people to recuperate. It will take several years to fully recover. If the journey is interrupted due to war, it will be an extremely serious blow to the Ming Dynasty, and it is also a result that Zhu Shenzhui absolutely does not want to see.

After much consideration, Zhu Shenzhui decided to transfer Hong Chengchou from the post of Governor-General of Huguang to Fujian and Zhejiang at the same time as setting up the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang.

Hong Chengchou was very capable, and could be said to be one of the top ministers of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, Hong Chengchou was not only capable of civil affairs, but also of leading troops in battles. When encircling and suppressing the bandits, Gao Yingxiang's troops were wiped out by the cooperation of Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting. Later, when cooperating with other provinces to encircle and suppress the troops of Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai, Hong Chengchou's tactics were also remarkable. It is no exaggeration to say that he is a man of both civil and military talents.

Although Hong Chengchou was a scholar, he was also murderous and extremely decisive in doing things. When he was a councilor, he participated in the encirclement and suppression of bandits. He personally led the troops to the battle and not only defeated the bandits, but also killed 30,000 of them on the spot. This move shocked the world, made him famous, and made the bandits tremble with fear.

Hong Chengchou was the best in the Ming Dynasty in terms of both ability and military skills. He was simply incomparable to a weakling like Yuan Chonghuan. Otherwise, he would not have become so famous in later generations.

In addition, there is another point, that is, Zhu Shenzui took a fancy to Hong Chengchou's background. You must know that Hong Chengchou himself is from Fujian and his hometown is in Quanzhou. The Hong family in Quanzhou is a big family. He has many conveniences as the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang in Fujian, which makes him more suitable than an outsider.

If one wants to take action against Zheng Zhilong, one must have someone with absolute ability, who can control the local people and have enough means to do it. This is why Zhu Shenzui chose Hong Chengchou.

In Zhu Shenzui's view, no one else could do this except Hong Chengchou. As for the fact that Hong Chengchou was from Fujian, it stands to reason that local people could not serve as officials in the local area. This was nothing to Zhu Shenzui. You must know that he appointed Hong Chengchou as the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang, in charge of the two provinces. Although Hong Chengchou was from Fujian, the position of governor also covered Zhejiang. As long as he, the emperor, felt there was no problem, how could others object?

(End of this chapter)