Chongzhen is very sensitive to the matter of moving the capital, and was beaten to the door by Li Zicheng in history, but he is still hesitant to move the capital, not to mention the current peaceful and prosperous era.

Chongzhen hesitated and said, "Horse, this dynasty has been building the capital in Shuntian Mansion for more than 200 years, and the imperial qi and dragon veins are all in Shuntian. If the capital is moved suddenly, it will be detrimental to the fortunes of the Ming Dynasty! ”

Fang Yuan smiled and said, "Your Majesty, the minister never believes that there is still an imperial spirit and a dragon vein in this world, otherwise Zhang Xianzhong would have captured the land of Longxing in the Ming Dynasty, Fengyang." The minister also did not plan to move the capital, the current threat of the Ming came from the northern frontier, and if the capital was moved to the south, the north would collapse immediately. Minister, I just came to discuss with Your Majesty and divide the functions of Beijing, Nanjing, and Zhongjing. ”

Chongzhen heard him say that he had no idea of moving the capital, so he breathed a sigh of relief, "Donkey, how do you divide the functions?!" ”

Fang Yuan said slowly, "There is no doubt that the military and political center of the Ming Dynasty is in Beijing City, and the Regent Palace, the Cabinet, and other major bureaucratic institutions also remain in Beijing. ”

Chongzhen nodded and said, "Don Ma, although Nanjing was the capital before, it was used to house idle officials in the capital, what does the Don want to do in Nanjing?" ”

The so-called idle officials are actually officials who have been demoted in the capital, and Nanjing is the officialdom nursing home of the Ming court.

Fang Yuan said, "Nanjing, located in the rich land south of the Yangtze River, most of the world's land endowment, commercial tax, and municipal tax come from Jiangnan, Fujian and Guangzhou. Jiangnan and Fujian and Guangzhou are too far away from the capital, and the payment of land and commercial taxes is too much loss along the way, which is not conducive to supervising the consumption of taxes. The loss of each tael of silver along the way is one penny, and the tax of more than 20 million taels of silver is more than two million. This amount is too large to be monitored. ”

The minister suggested that Nanjing City should be built into the economic center of the Ming Dynasty, and the bureaucracy of Nanjing City was completely demolished, and the imperial palace was changed to the General Administration of Taxation of the Ming Dynasty. The Nanjing State Administration of Taxation is responsible for collecting the land tax for the entire Jiangnan, Fujian, Jiangxi, Huguang and Sichuan, and then sending it to the imperial court in Beijing. In this way, it is convenient to transport water and sea along the way, which can reduce the loss along the way. ”

In Chongzhen's ears, Fang Yuan's statement was also reasonable. The taxes paid for long-distance transportation and the loss are inconvenient to calculate. Especially in the land routes taken by Sichuan, Huguang, and even Fujian and Guangzhou, the loss is even more difficult to calculate. Now Fang Yuan asked to take sea and waterway, and turned a long-distance transportation from Zhejiang to Beijing into two short-distance transportation from Zhejiang to Nanjing, and Nanjing to Beijing. Which political secretary would dare to open his mouth like before, with huge losses along the way, and forcibly eat a large piece of fat from the tax money of the imperial court?!

Moreover, Nanjing's waterways extend in all directions, and if a reserve of silver is deposited in Nanjing, if a certain chief secretary needs disaster relief, or an emergency, the silver can be transported to the place where it is needed as quickly as possible. Instead of before, it had to be transported thousands of miles from the city of Beijing.

Chongzhen asked hesitantly, "If Nanjing becomes a place where money and grain gather, once the officials guarding Nanjing have bad intentions, how can they be calmed?!" ”

Fang Yuan said, "Your Majesty, I have already issued a strict order, Nanjing, Jiangnan and other special economic zones cannot have military strength, only the local guards will be retained, all together, no more than 10,000 people." The largest Changshu Arsenal and Taihu Tank Base were also relocated to Beijing, completely cutting off Jiangnan's ability to produce firearms and armaments. ”

"Moreover, I also arranged two major military regions, the Eastern Military Region and the Central Military Region, near Nanjing and Jiangnan. Once Jiangnan has any bad intentions, he can immediately send troops to quell the rebellion. Please rest assured, Your Majesty, Jiangnan is just a fat pig without minions and can't make any big waves. ”

Only then did Chongzhen know that Fang Yuan had already calculated everything, and had already cut off all of Jiangnan's minions. Jiangnan had only one task, which was to vigorously develop commerce, navigation, and provide taxes to the Ming court. For the rest of the defense, the military power was all handed over to the Beijing imperial court.

Chongzhen agreed with him, "Well, according to the suggestion of the horse, all the administrative institutions in Nanjing City will be abolished, and only one State Administration of Taxation will be set up, and the Nanjing Imperial Palace will be converted into the premises of the State Administration of Taxation." ”

"Horse, where is Zhongjing Fengyang?! You spent money to rebuild Zhongjing Fengyang before, and you can't leave it empty. ”

Fang Yuan explained, "In Fengyang, Zhongjing, the minister intends to build the judicial center of the Ming Dynasty. ”

Chongzhen was stunned and asked, "What judicial center?!" ”

Fang Yuan continued, "It is the location of the Daming Judicial Governor's Palace. Today's petition system is not well promoted in remote areas, and the local government is very rejected. It is impossible for the imperial court to arrange for every state capital to arrange Jinyi guards to deal with local unjust cases, even if there are 100,000 Jinyi guards, it is estimated that it is not enough. What's more, Jinyiwei is located in the local state capital, and over time, it will be in collusion with the local government and become a complete decoration. ”

The minister's idea was to abolish the previous Letters and Visits Office set up in the state capital, and set up a Ming Letters and Visits Bureau in Fengyang, which was specifically responsible for the people from all over the country who came to redress their grievances. In this way, the Governor's Office of the Judiciary can uniformly dispatch personnel to handle relevant petition cases, which can avoid the possibility of collusion between the Jinyiwei of the Letters and Visits Office and the local government to the greatest extent, and can also save administrative costs. ”

"Fengyang is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, close to the Grand Canal, with convenient transportation. Whether it is Shaanxi in the northwest, Fujian in the southeast, or Sichuan in the southwest, it is very convenient to go to Fengyang to file a lawsuit, and it is the most suitable location for the Governor's Palace. If the people are dissatisfied with the trial opinions of the Governor's Palace, it is not too late to come to the capital to file a lawsuit. ”

Chongzhen looked at him and asked rhetorically, "Don Ma, what is the annual administrative expenditure of this Judicial Governor's Mansion?" ”

Fang Yuan thought for a while and said, "The Governor's Office needs to arrange for 100 judicial officials to try cases, 2,000 Jinyi guards to enforce the law and investigate, plus various case-handling expenses, it is estimated that more than 500,000 taels of silver will be needed. However, this money can be collected from the losing party, and the minister's petition policy in the future, Jinyiwei will not lose money, but it will still be a fat shortage. ”

Chongzhen also knew what kind of petition mailbox Fang Yuan was running in Jiangnan before, and thought that it was his move to buy people's hearts in a short period of time, just like Wu Zetian's copper letter, it would not be long before it was banned. But now that Fang Yuan has already controlled the overall situation, he no longer needs to buy people's hearts at all, but he is still insisting on this petition system, so he is really making decisions for the people.

Chongzhen said lightly, "Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, even all dynasties have not set up this kind of General Administration of Letters and Visits for a long time. ”

Fang Yuan said solemnly, "Your Majesty, if you want the long-term peace and stability of the Ming Dynasty, you must open up two channels. First, the passage for the lower class to enter the upper class of society is to select the concubines of the poor through the imperial examination and the modern school; Second, it is a channel for the people at the bottom to redress their grievances. There must be a channel for catharsis of the people's grievances and anger in order to nip the situation in the bud. Otherwise, by the time Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others rise up to vent their grievances and anger with knives and guns, it will be too late to regret it! Your Majesty, if the Ming Dynasty could have been able to convey the situation before and keep abreast of the people's trends and public opinion, why would the rogue be out of control? ! ”

Chongzhen was silent when he heard this, in terms of military and political ability, Fang Yuan was already far superior to him, what else could he say?

Fang Yuan continued, "The minister also has an arrangement, that is, after the age of fifteen, the prince of the Prince Regent Palace, he must go to the State Administration of Taxation in Nanjing and the Judicial Governor's Mansion in Fengyang, Zhongjing, to train for two years, and he must be familiar with the operation of the judicial and economic institutions at the grassroots level, and return to the capital to take the examination. If you don't pass the exam, you have to sharpen it again.

"The minister did this so that the emperor and regent who will hold the power of the world in the future can truly understand the operation of the military, politics, justice, and economy, so as not to be deceived by the officials below!"

In Chongzhen's ears, Fang Yuan's words were all sarcastic about when he first came to power, he was fooled by the Donglin Party and solved Wei Zhongxian; was fooled by Yuan Chonghuan, causing disastrous consequences.

But Chongzhen had to admit that Fang Yuan's conception was thorough, if he could have had the opportunity to go to the Governor's Mansion and the State Administration of Taxation to hone his training, where would he be fooled by the Donglin Party and Yuan Chonghuan as a fool?! Fang Yuan's method is to eliminate the possibility of the heir appearing faint to the greatest extent.

Fang Yuan's idea was so thoughtful, not only cultivating the heir of the regent, but also the heir of the Ming royal family, it can be seen that he was not selfish, and Chongzhen had no reason to allow it, "Okay, donkey, your three central ideas are very thoughtful. In particular, the heir goes to the other two centers to sharpen this article, which must be written into the ancestral system in the future and strictly implemented! ”