Chapter 23 Internal Problems of Zhili Province

Zhu Qizhen woke up the next day and took a boat back to Tianjin. Yu Qian crackled and admonished, took out all the emperors who had drunk and lost morality in the past, and spoke for Zhu Qizhen.

Zhu Qizhen could only bow his head and give in, and then changed the topic. Shifting the topic to political affairs, Zhu Qizhen said: "Mr. has been in Zhili for a long time, and Zhili Province is newly built, but I don't know what is wrong?" ”

Yu Qian listened to Zhu Qizhen's transformation of the topic, he may not know this, but he knows better, can he really be more serious with the emperor? Since Zhu Qizhen has softened, he will accept it when he sees it. said: "Your Majesty has a lot of problems in a province, but there are two questions, but Your Majesty does not ask, and the minister also wants to play." ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "Sir, please speak?" ”

"The first thing is that the customs are no longer suitable in Tianjin, which is the focus of the imperial court's warehousing, and the maritime merchants are some lawless people. Once there is a loss, it will affect the imperial treasury, and it will be irreparable. First, the customs is located in Tianjin, then the sea ships have to be transshipped from the Weihe River, and there are lawbreakers along the way, smuggling sea goods, and the national tariffs are damaged. Therefore, for the sake of long-term peace and stability, the customs should be located by the sea, not in the city of Tianjin. ”

Zhu Qizhen nodded slightly, and said, "I know, Mr. just discuss it with the household department." ”

At the beginning, the customs was set up in Tianjin, which may not have been an expedient measure.

It should be east of Tianjin City, although there is still some distance from the sea, but these places are all wild places, and even a decent county town cannot be found.

Therefore, there is no place that can receive a large number of maritime merchants, so it is located in Tianjin.

Now it is also right to put it by the sea, Zhu Qizhen also lived in Dagu for one night, knowing that driven by interests, the development of Dagu must be a thousand miles a day.

Zhu Qizhen actually had the idea of setting up a county in Dagu in his heart. This idea is just a preliminary idea, anyway, it will take a while for Yu Qian to discuss between the Zhili Province and the Ministry of Households, so Zhu Qizhen can naturally find a suitable opportunity to add this idea to the Ministry of Households and the opinions of the Ministry of Households.

As for success or failure, Zhu Qizhen doesn't care.

After all, his energy is not focused on a single county town.

Yu Qian said: "The second thing is the water conservancy project in Zhili. ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "Is there something wrong? It can be said that the water conservancy project in Zhili is the first major project since Zhu Qizhen ascended the throne, how can Zhu Qizhen not pay attention to it.

Yu Qian said: "Everything is going well in Zhili Water Conservancy, otherwise the minister would not dare to invite His Majesty to inspect, but there is one thing that needs to be dealt with." ”

"Today, the household department's allocation to Zhili will gradually decrease, and when the five rivers and three lakes are completed, the imperial court will not have a wide allocation for water control except for a fixed amount of 10,000 taels of silver per year for river repair

Zhili is down. ”

Zhu Qizhen frowned slightly, and said: "Please rest assured, Mr., the water conservancy of Zhili is not what it used to be, and I will let the Ministry of Household Affairs discuss a number, and I will not let Zhili suffer." ”

This is the stiffness of the Ming Dynasty's finances, everything is according to the old practice, according to the quota.

Zhu Qizhen secretly said in his heart: "It seems that for this matter, I have to give Zhou Chen a wake-up call." ”

"Your Majesty has misunderstood the minister." Yu Qian said: "The minister naturally trusts Your Majesty, but in various prefectures and counties, the minister also allocates a sum of money specifically for water conservancy maintenance. ”

"The minister's rough calculation, about 100,000 taels, the imperial court will allocate another appropriation, or allow direct interception of 100,000 taels, which is enough to maintain, and there are still some finishing projects in the past few years, and after a few years, the minister is confident that the maintenance of the wide items will be suppressed at about 100,000 taels."

Water conservancy projects are not just left where they can be left as soon as they are repaired.

It needs to be maintained all the time.

However, the ancient labor system made Yu Qian financially compensated, and Yu Qian generally allocated the maintenance of a certain section of water conservancy projects to several villages.

The men in these villages have to clean up and maintain when they are not working, and go to the dam to guard during the flood season.

Of course, Yu Qian is a stakeholder as much as possible, and these water conservancy projects are directly related to the irrigation of the village, or the safety of the village. In this way, these people will work hard.

Don't even supervise.

In this way, the imperial court can reduce a lot of expenses.

Because many times, to maintain the embankment, it takes manpower.

In this way, the imperial court was able to focus on the maintenance of several major projects.

In fact, Yu Qian has done a good job, you must know that the annual maintenance cost of the entire canal system is about one million taels.

"It's just that the imperial court spent so much effort to repair these water conservancy, and it always has to be managed, and the minister has set up Tongzhi in almost every prefecture to manage water conservancy. But in the province, there is no one in charge. ”

Zhu Qizhen also heard the truth, Yu Qian meant to set up a provincial-level official specializing in water conservancy.

In fact, in the setting of Emperor Taizu's system, there is no position of governor, but there are three parallel institutions, the political department, the judicial department, and the command department.

Although these three are respected by the chief minister, they are still equal-level institutions, and no one can live up to anyone, which is why the governor was born.

However, the establishment of the governor today is not customized, but set up when there is something and nothing to do.

Zhu Qizhen has long had an opinion on this. Based on the experience of his later generations, there is an inevitable reason why the governor finally formed the head of a province in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

It was Emperor Taizu who weakened local power too much in the system.

This imbalance makes the local area encounter more internal strife when it encounters major events, such as disasters.

Soldiers, rebellions, etc., inevitably need one person to be in charge.

But in Yu Qian's words, it seems that Yu Qian wants to add another division-level yamen in addition to the three divisions?

Zhu Qizhen didn't think about it?

After all, the example that can be emulated before is the Cao Yun system. It is mainly the chief military officer of Caoyun, under the jurisdiction of various guards, and some civil officials in it, to establish a set of Caoyun system independent of the locality, and even conversely, to encroach on local authority.

For this system, Zhu Qizhen doesn't think it's very successful. Hearing Yu Qian say this at this moment, his heart was also moved.

Sure enough, what Yu Qian said was exactly what Zhu Qizhen thought, Yu Qian said: "The minister thinks that the water department of Zhili Province should be set up to take charge of the water conservancy of Zhili Province, after all, the water system of Zhili Province is connected, and in the event of drought in the flood season, it should be a unified plan of a province, otherwise, the minister is worried that there will be something beggar-thy-neighbor at that time." ”

Yu Qian didn't think that far.

This is not that Yu Qian's wisdom is inferior to Zhu Qizhen, but that the angle of each station is different. For Zhu Qizhen, the most important thing is to eliminate the shortcomings in the operation of the country and let the world implement it according to his own ideas step by step.

But Yu Qian's hard work in the past few years has been focused on governing the river, and when it is done at this moment, Yu Qian's biggest worry is not what his situation will be.

Instead, he was worried about the death of the people, and the Hebei water conservancy piled up by the gold and silver mountains of the imperial court was abandoned by the follow-ups.

Thinking in this way, it is very important to ensure the continuation of the water conservancy policy in terms of system.

Zhu Qizhen said: "How should this water division be run, how many officials are there?" How to manage the river canal below, Mr. wrote a question to Yang Shoufu, thinking that Yang Shoufu has rich experience, and will definitely give Mr. a satisfactory answer. ”

And what Yu Qian is worried about is not impossible.

Zhu Qizhen has been the emperor for so many years, and his biggest realization is that although a considerable number of officials in the Ming Dynasty are good, they should never underestimate the discipline of those few officials.

This is true throughout the ages.

In the future, there will be tofu dregs, but now what is beggar-thy-neighbor? Anyway, as long as he keeps his subordinates from being flooded, as for the downstream affairs, it's his business.

Although Zhu Qizhen didn't agree to it in his mouth, the hint was already obvious.

However, what Zhu Qizhen wants to do is not this, but wants to use the setting of the water department to sort out the system of the Ming Dynasty, at least the least, and to determine the governor system.

There is also the split of the large province of Nanzhili, whether it can be put on the agenda.

The thoughts in Zhu Qizhen's heart flashed, and when the entry point could not be found, all Zhu Qizhen's ideas were in his belly. Good policies cannot be implemented at the right time, and there is a great possibility of failure.

But when is this season? Zhu Qizhen was silently thinking in his heart.