My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 431: Taking the opportunity to carry out a reform of the official system

Who in Liu Bei's camp is now suitable to be the governor of Youzhou?
There aren't many options for answering this question.

When hearing their lord's question, the Zhuge brothers and Pang Tong could only think of Zhao Yun or Zhang Fei.

One of these two men is a native of Youzhou, and the other is from Jizhou, but he is good at commanding cavalry in battle and is suitable to be sent to garrison in the north.

Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang talked to each other and mentioned the names of Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei respectively, and analyzed the reasons - and it was Pang Tong who mentioned Zhao Yun and Zhuge Liang who mentioned Zhang Fei.

This word order really made Liu Bei stunned for a moment, and then he realized: Zhuge Liang was young and cautious after all, and he was worried that Zhao Yun was his brother-in-law.

After realizing this, Liu Bei also revealed a fleeting playful smile, and turned to Zhuge Jin, allowing him to speak freely.

Zhuge Jin did not answer Liu Bei directly, but turned to his second brother first: "In ancient times, people recommended people regardless of their relatives or enemies. So what is there to be afraid of when recommending Zilong? Yide can still stay in charge of Jingnan, and he will never be jealous."

Liu Bei nodded and said, "Ziyu doesn't have to do that. Kong Ming may not be the one who promotes people from within the family to avoid relatives. You think Zilong is more suitable. Please tell me in detail."

Zhuge Jin tapped the rhythm with his folding fan and said one, two, three, four:

"Originally, Yide and Zilong could both guard one side. But Yide is now stationed in Jingnan, and Zilong is in Hefei. If Yide is transferred to Youzhou, Zilong will have to go to Jingnan to take over the defense. The back and forth dispatch of troops will inevitably cause confusion, so it is better to stay still than to move.

Why must we dispatch two or three armies to rotate when we can solve the problem with one? If Zilong is to go to Youzhou, the lord can just let him go directly. Later, the lord will be in charge of Hefei and Shouchun, and Xingba and Wenchang will be on the left and right wings of the Huai River for support, so the Huainan defense line will be safe and there is no need to dispatch additional personnel. "

After explaining the first reason, Zhuge Jin paused for a moment and continued his analysis:

"Yide and Zilong are both good at fighting. Yide's advantage is that he is a native of Youzhou and can win over the hearts of the old Youzhou people. But although Zilong is from Jizhou, he has fought under Gongsun Bogui for many years and has a good understanding of the old Youzhou army. In this respect, they are evenly matched.

Zilong is cautious and is more familiar with leading cavalry expeditions, so he does not focus on the front and neglect the rear. Our army may have to attack Gongsun Du in Liaodong next year. At that time, the route from Liaoxi and Youbeiping to cross the Liaoze with cavalry will also be very important.

If Yide leads the troops, I am not worried about the fierce attack, but I am worried that when Yide leads the troops personally, the rear will be too tight, and there will be loopholes that Cao thieves can take advantage of. Zilong is cautious and can attack on one side and defend on the other. So, let Zilong go to Youzhou this time.

Of course, in the long run, it is not impossible to let Yide go to Youzhou for defense, but it is not the right time now. Yide is focused and good at concentrating on dealing with a strong enemy, but he is not suitable for facing multiple enemies, so he has to make a trade-off.

Therefore, before Gongsun Du is destroyed, the affairs of Youzhou should be handed over to Zilong, so that Yide can focus on Jingnan. Maybe he can make great achievements when he enters Sichuan in the future. After a few years, Gongsun Du has been destroyed and even Shuzhong has been pacified. At that time, Yide and Zilong can be assigned their own defense areas and it will not be too late to switch them again. "

Combining his understanding of history in his previous life with his knowledge of the past eight years in this life, Zhuge Jin always felt that not only Zhang Fei, but even many of Liu Bei's old brothers, including Guan Yu, were not suitable for "multi-tasking" coordination.

Including the historical reasons why Guan Yu finally collapsed in Jingzhou, one of the important reasons was Guan Yu’s arrogance, inability to balance the priorities of multiple enemies and inability to stabilize secondary enemies.

Guan Yu was arrogant, and Zhang Fei was hot-tempered, so never put these two people in a position where they are attacked from all sides. They are not afraid of a single strong enemy being too strong, but they are afraid of an enemy with complicated and unclear situation.

Liu Bei's understanding of his old brothers was of course very profound. Zhuge Jin pointed out this key point, and Liu Bei thought about it and had to admit it.

"In this case, let's follow Ziyu's advice. Zilong will go to Youzhou, and Yide will stay in Jingnan. In the next two or three years, if there is trouble in Liaodong, it will depend on Zilong to seize the opportunity and cooperate with the sea route army to eliminate Gongsun Du and eliminate the hidden danger of Qing and You being attacked from both sides by Cao Cao and Gongsun Du.

Yide will continue to stay in Changsha, rest his troops and take care of the people, waiting for the right time. If there is any change in Xiangyang or Chengdu, let Yide deal with it.

However, Yide has been with me for many years and has made great contributions. This time, Zilong was promoted to governor of a state, and the position of governor of Jingzhou is occupied by Brother Jingsheng. Yide should not complain..."

Zhang Fei is in southern Jingzhou and now is in charge of five counties. His actual power is almost the same as that of a provincial governor, except that three counties in Jingzhou are still in the hands of Liu Biao. Liu Biao only has the nominal position, while Zhang Fei only has the actual power but not the nominal one.

After hearing Liu Bei's concerns, Zhuge Jin felt like he was being given a pillow, and immediately gave Liu Bei an idea:

"I think this matter is not difficult to balance. If it was this time last year, our army might have encountered these troubles and it might have been difficult to deal with them, but this year, the lord has just held an alliance and won the support of other anti-Cao princes in the world, becoming the leader of the alliance.

Taking this opportunity, the Lord can also slightly change the official system to adapt to the times, gradually reduce the harm of local separatism, and plan for long-term stability in the future."

Liu Bei's eyes flickered when he heard this: "Has Ziyu thought of a way to reform the system?"

Zhuge Jin said carefully: "Since the reigns of Emperors Huan and Ling, until the end of the Zhongping era, there were no governors in the world, only provincial governors. The provincial governors' powers were originally for supervision, not for ruling. Later, because the prefectures had more power and the prefectures had less power, and the world was gradually in chaos, the provincial governors' real power was increased in order to coordinate local military formations.

By the fifth year of Zhongping, Zhang Ju, Zhang Chun and other rebels were becoming more rampant. Liu Yan petitioned the previous emperor to establish governors of provinces and asked to be governor of Yizhou. Only then did governors gradually appear in various provinces. However, when governors were first established, only important officials of the royal family could serve. Later, the imperial court was in decline and the emperor was in disgrace, especially during the chaos in Chang'an and the two years of returning to the east in embarrassment. In order to win more recognition from the prefects, the emperor had to give more and more governors to people of other surnames.

Now, the princes of the world are all divided, either supporting Cao or Liu, and there is no place for those who waver in the middle. In this case, my lord can write to His Majesty openly and explain the harm of opening up the loophole of provincial governors.

Your Majesty, please stop here and no longer grant the position of governor to people of other surnames in the future. Those who have been governors before are also historical issues and can be recognized. At the same time, restore the power of the provincial governors and return to the supervisory status before the Huan and Ling dynasties.

As for the military and political power, two other envoys can be appointed at the state level. Either the defense envoy or the provincial governor can be appointed, and they can be on par with the provincial governor. In this way, at the county level, one person can still hold all the power, but at the state level, there are three people to check and balance, which can prevent the disaster of feudal separatism from happening again in the future.

Zhuge Jin had obviously thought a lot about decentralizing power at the state level to gradually resolve the separatist problem. As a time traveler, he had too many answers to copy.

The provincial governor system of the Han Dynasty was definitely not long-lasting. It was a temporary product and a last resort measure in a time of great chaos.

The Jiedushi system of the Sui and Tang dynasties was not much better. We have to dig deeper to find out the problem of preventing the excessive monopoly of state power. The Song and Ming dynasties each have their own advantages and disadvantages, so there is no need to force a distinction between the two.

Zhuge Jin did not want to take too big a step at once, so he advised Liu Bei to start the reform by separating the military and domestic affairs.

Moreover, almost all the princes in the world have taken sides now, and this reform is also covered with the cloak of "old people use the old method, new people use the new method", and will try not to touch the vested interests for the time being.

It can be said that this is the approach with the least resistance and it will not force some wavering people to the enemy side.

After listening to this, Liu Bei really felt refreshed: "This method is quite interesting... If it can really solve the problem of local power being too big to be eliminated, then you will be the benefactor of the Han Dynasty. However, is this method really safe starting from this moment, starting from Youzhou?
I think that things should be done according to local conditions and the times, and we should be careful in choosing a good starting point."

Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong on the side couldn't help but start brainstorming, following Zhuge Jin's ideas and substituting them into the current environment.

After a while, Zhuge Liang was the first to figure out the subtlety of it, and he happily analyzed and endorsed it for his elder brother:

"My Lord! According to what my elder brother said, it is very suitable to promote this method at this time, and to start from Youzhou and Zilong!

My Lord, please think about this: the officials who are first assigned the power of defense envoys and governors should be cautious and modest. If they meet arrogant people right at the beginning, they will feel that before him, the governor of a state was the governor of the state, but he became the defense envoy, so he will inevitably have a grudge.

Zilong has always been indifferent to fame and fortune and has never competed for honor or disgrace. It was very appropriate for him to play the role of the first person to succumb to the new law. He was indeed promoted from a county governor to a state defense commander. In fact, it was a promotion and he was not treated unfairly.

In addition, he got this position by surpassing Yide, so Yide's heart can be reassured. The lord can hint that if Yide is allowed to take charge of the local area, with the lord's trust, he will definitely entrust him with the power of governor, just like he did with my brother and Yunchang before.

Because Yide was also very important in Jingnan and could not get away, Zilong had to go there and was demoted to a defense envoy. In this way, the lord could also set up another defense envoy in Jingzhou in the future and let Yide take the position. Anyway, this position was newly established and did not overlap with Liu Biao, so there was no conflict.

Secondly, it was necessary to set up a provincial governor starting from Youzhou. In the past, the governors of the provinces in the interior of China were in charge of military and political power, and the money and food needed by the army were all collected by the governors and paid by the local people to support the army.

However, since the reigns of Emperors Huan and Ling, You, Bing, and Liang have not been able to be self-sufficient in the expenses of the garrisons. These border states needed blood transfusions from the court and large amounts of money and food to maintain their armies and withstand the disasters of the Wuhuan, Xianbei, and Xiongnu.

During the Zhongping years alone, Youzhou needed to transfer 27 million coins of military expenses from neighboring states every year to maintain its army. Jizhou paid 20 million coins and Qingzhou paid 70 million coins, so the money for Youzhou people to support their army did not come from taxes in the state.

In this case, how could the army be supported by relying solely on the power of the governor? With the Han Dynasty already torn apart and in chaos, Youzhou would inevitably run out of food and collapse without the support of the southern states.

At this time, the lord could find a reason to set up a governor: the governor should not only be in charge of the civil affairs of the original governor, but also be responsible for communicating with the central government and coordinating the transportation of money and grain to support the army in friendly states, so as to solve the problem of Youzhou's lack of stable external money and grain to support the army in the past fifteen years.

Since the purpose of the governor was to give money to the people of Youzhou instead of asking for money, how could the people of Youzhou object? We will start the pilot project in a state that asks for money, where there will be the least resistance. Once we have mastered this method, we can gradually transfer it to other states that do not need to ask for money. This is the safest approach."

"What a good plan! So, starting from Youzhou, starting from Zilong, starting from this moment, this reform of setting up governors and defense envoys has taken advantage of the right time, the right place, and the right people." Liu Bei suddenly realized, and the look he gave Zhuge Liang changed again. Then he couldn't help but glance at Zhuge Jin and laughed and scolded,

"You brothers have already agreed on a plan, right?"

Zhuge Jin was a little confused, and could only smile bitterly and said, "I swear to God, there is no collusion. The idea I just had was just a spur-of-the-moment idea. My brother was just inspired by my words and drew inferences from one instance... If there was collusion, why would it be so abrupt?"

Liu Bei thought about it and laughed, "That makes sense. With Kong Ming's wisdom, it's not surprising that he saw through it at once. And with the intelligence of you brothers, how could your collusion be so obvious?"

(End of this chapter)