Updated: 2013-06-15

Western Regions, Xicheng Province. The latest free chapters of the book can be found here.

Xicheng Mansion is one of the three prefectures of Qiuci divided by the capital of the king of Qiuci, and Zhao Xun used this as the center of the Great Zhao army, echoing the western part of Liangzhou in the east. It is also because this is a peaceful adaptation, so in order to deter the local area and complete the control of the Zhao army in this place, Zhao Xun has been staying here.

"I didn't want to fight, the war in Jingzhou became so fast. This king originally thought that among the southern princes, the Qi army was the first to decline, and he didn't want to fight, and the first one turned out to be the Tang army. ”

Situ Liang said with a smile: "The reason why the Tang army declined so quickly is that in addition to fighting for Jiangzhou with the Shu army in the south and being weaker than others, it is also related to the fact that the king of Luoyang and the king of Hanzhong were suppressed by us too closely. The other princes all had the opportunity to bow down to the Qi army, but the king of Hanzhong and the king of Luoyang had no way out. ”

Zhao Xun smiled and said, "Although it was a little unexpected for us, however, the decline of the Tang Army is also a good thing for us." What this wind is inviting is very much in line with my wishes. Reply to Feng Ziming and let them do it. Even if the Tang army is going to perish, we must consume the strength of the king of Hanzhong and the king of Luoyang for us. ”

"By the way, this king is going to restructure Huitong Bank and reorganize it into Dazhao Bank. The basic means of operation remain unchanged, but Dazhao Bank will become the only bank in the country. In addition to the regular issuance currency, there is also the burden of storing, borrowing, and issuing bonds. Of course, the Bank assists each other with the Department of Finance and the Department of Taxation, and does not 'interfere' in the financial affairs of the State. As a result, the Treasury Department and the Tax Department will no longer have bank control. ”

"In addition to opening branches in various parts of Zhaodi, the prefectures and counties in the Western Regions will also be built. This king has discovered that there is a lot of gold and silver in the hands of the people of the Western Regions, and if we gather it together and issue Da Zhao coins, it will also be a great thing for us. ”

Zhao Xun said that as soon as the Finance Department began to use the Huitong Money Houses that began to spread all over Zhao as the source of Zhao's financial expenditures. Second, Zhao Xun also did not want the bank to be controlled by the Financial Secretary, so as not to pose a threat to his descendants in the future.

Second, the Department of Commerce has repeatedly mentioned the issue of shoddy goods and fake goods. Therefore, from now on, all goods must have their own unique mark, which also becomes a trademark. Every businessman or chamber of commerce engaged in production must go to the Department of Commerce for the record, leaving their own unique trademark, others may not counterfeit, violators are severely punished. In addition, those who report unscrupulous businessmen are encouraged, and those who report will receive half of the property of the person being reported. ”

Because of the vigorous development of commerce in Zhao Jun's territory, various problems have frequently appeared, especially some fakes, which appear frequently, and even many merchants use fakes to pass off other people's excellent products. The purchaser is fooled, and the impersonator is damaged. In this regard, Zhao Xun asked each workshop that produced goods to print its own unique mark on the goods.

"Third, in this land of the Western Regions, the proportion of Han Chinese is extremely low. In the Central Plains, there are more people and less land. According to Feng Ziming's proposal, the government formed a law to encourage those with few lands in the Central Plains and those without land to come to the Western Regions in exchange for several times the land. In this way, not only can the proportion of Han people in the Western Regions increase greatly. In addition, it would be no longer necessary to forcibly confiscate the land of large local households and acquire land for distribution to the landless. So, this king thinks this method is good, what do you think? ”

Zhang Yuanjing said in a deep voice: "This method is good, in this way, it can not only solve the problem of the Western Regions, but also greatly benefit us to attack the south in the future." If we don't use the confiscation of the fields of the local powerful clans as a means of confiscation, we will be able to gain the support of the local clans, or at the very least, they will not oppose it. ”

"Now that the general trend is clear, if we move our army south, these powerful clans will not do their best to protect their family property for the southern princes. In addition to living in various workshops and chambers of commerce, those landless people can also obtain larger land in the Western Regions. ”

"So there are very few tenants of the fields in the hands of the powerful people, unless they are willing to lower the rent. When a certain percentage is formed, we can use the law to determine the proportion of land rent. In this way, the people who rent the landlords will not have too high land rents and find it difficult to make a living. ”

"Lord Feng suggested that the Tang army population in Jingzhou be exchanged for armor and equipment, in addition to allowing the Tang army to fight with the Han army and the Luo army for a longer time, it did not reduce the amount of landless people in Jingzhou. Of course, the most important thing is also to attenuate the strength of the princes who will occupy Jingzhou in the future. ”

"By the way, judging from the news from the Department of Commerce, because of the prosperity of commerce under our rule, many workshops and chambers of commerce are short of manpower. The Land and Household Registration Department also complained to us, saying that the rapid decline in the number of people engaged in agriculture in the territory will affect the grain output of our Zhao land. ”

What Zhang Yuanjing said, Zhao Xun also knew. He had expected this. The prosperity of commerce will inevitably have an impact on agriculture. Especially in the era when most of the business was mainly manual, there were no machines, and a lot of manpower was required. The high treatment also made many people begin to turn to work, which affected grain production. This is also the reason why Zhao Xun has been sparing no effort to absorb displaced people from all over the world, although it may have been pressure earlier, it will not be long before it becomes the driving force.

Wei Zilin said in a deep voice: "In this case, one is to develop a variety of labor-saving and convenient tools to reduce the demand for manpower, just like the waterwheel we began to use extensively, with the help of water, we have allowed many workshops to reduce the high demand for manpower." The other is to continue to increase manpower. But people are different from tools, not to say that there are them. However, it is not impossible. ”

Zhao Xun looked sideways and said, "Oh? What's the solution, let's talk about it. ”

Wei Zilin said in a deep voice: "Back to the master, what the minister said is a slave. My Han people's territory is in war, why is it not the case with foreigners in other places? Not to mention, the Turks in the north were 'fighting' between the east and the west, and they gained a lot of slaves. We will not allow caravans to buy slaves from the Turks to engage in dangerous and arduous affairs. ”

"Capture slaves...... The slave catcher team ......" Zhao Xun suddenly remembered these words in his mind.

Zhang Yuanjing also nodded and said, "Yes, what Lord Wei said is indeed a good way." Far from it, it is such a dangerous thing as mining that it is very appropriate for these slaves to do it. ”

Situ Liang said with a smile: "Lord, the minister thinks that this is a good idea. We now occupy half of the Western Regions, but we are enemies to the west, north, and south. In that case, why not encourage merchants to hunt slaves here? It can even encourage the magnates in the Western Regions to hunt slaves, which will not only weaken other countries, but also allow these original local magnates to invest their minds on interests, and also facilitate our local reform. ”

"In addition, nearly 100,000 troops of our army are stationed here, and it is expected that neither the Wusun Kingdom in the west nor the Turkic tribes in the north will dare to clash with us easily. In this way, the enemy is weak, and I am strong, and I can do it! ”

"Dead friends don't die poor! Well, then, let's open the slave trade. However, it must be emphasized that the object of arrest can only be a foreign enemy. All slaves were subject to the official rank and paid a certain amount of taxes. Zhao Xun said in a deep voice, "For the slave catching team, you must go to the government for the record before you can form a team and buy weapons." ”

Zhao Xun didn't want to accidentally let the slave hunting team in the territory become a mountain bandit with a big tail, "Actually, the best way is to sell the captives in the middle of the war." Actually, earlier when we were conquering the Turks, we had already done so. ”

"In addition, let the caravan also hire more people from the Western Regions, so that they can disperse and flow into various places, so as to reduce the proportion of people from the Western Regions here, and let them change and integrate into my Great Zhao."

Now the area occupied by the Zhao army has been roughly divided into the land of nine prefectures. Of course, the prefectures and counties here occupy a larger area than the Central Plains. Various administrative methods have also begun to gradually bring Zhao Di closer. On average, in every prefecture and county, there are Han Chinese officials and Western Regions people coexisting. But among them, the officials sent by Zhao Jun are in control of important positions. Or, led by the people of the Western Regions, but their adjutants and commanders were taken over by Zhao Jun and controlled the real power.

Subsequently, after Zhao Xun and Zhang Yuanjing and others discussed, they sent an order to the administrative secretary of Youzhou to unify the officials under Zhao Jun's rule.

What does that mean? This is the difference between officials and officials among officials. In China's feudal dynasties, officials were not one type of person, but two types. Among them, the official refers to those who have grades. According to the Dayan system, from one product to the lowest nine grades, each grade is divided into two levels, according to different positions, divided into different grades.

In addition to the official officials of the imperial court, if an administrative institution wants to function, it needs another official who is not an official, that is, officials, that is, officials and petty officials. Speaking of the work of the officials in the government, we have to talk about the administrative system of the feudal dynasty, as far as Dayan is concerned, similar to other dynasties, the smallest administrative unit is the county, the county has a county order, a county cheng, a master book and a county lieutenant, together there are four officials with grades, but a county wants to operate, four into the must not work, so it is necessary to recruit, some of the documents, six room stewards and the like, is the so-called officials, the status is equivalent to the kind of middle and low-level civil servants in later generations, Ya' The main thing in the door is to rely on these officials.

It's just that officials are different from officials, officials are appointed by the imperial court, and Yulu is also issued by the imperial court. But the officials are different, the officials are recruited by the magistrates themselves, at most they can report to the officials, the imperial court can't control these at all, and the salaries of these officials are also issued by the magistrates, and they have nothing to do with the central court, at most the central court will acquiesce to the local officials to withhold a part of the taxes as the salaries of these officials and some other administrative expenses.

However, in this way, it is easy to embezzle and take bribes, and a large part of the reason for the prevalence of corruption in feudal dynasties is that the magistrates have the power to withhold taxes. In addition, officials are also quite discriminated against politically, for example, like merchants, descendants cannot participate in scientific examinations and so on. The status of the commander is not high, but he controls the real power of the place. However, the officials and scholars who have passed the scientific examination on the right path look down on this kind of petty officials.

Although Zhao Xun is not very clear about the complicated relationships among officials, he also knows some things. In my own memory, in the history of the right way, the Qin and Han dynasties were the period when the official class was gradually formed, the Sui and Tang dynasties were the period when the officials were formally separated, the Yuan dynasty was the heyday of the officials, and the Qing dynasty was the period of metamorphosis and differentiation of the staff, that is, the officials.

And here, Da Chu, who turned the wheel of history, customized a perfect official system, and since then, officials and officials have formed a complete two-class division.

However, whether it is the history in his memory, or from the Great Chu to the Great Yan, Zhao Xun understands that the development trend of the bureaucratic system in China is that the distinction between levels and levels is becoming clearer and clearer, and the number of people at each level is gradually expanding. At the beginning of each new dynasty, the rank and total number of officials were greatly reduced compared to the old dynasty, but by the middle of the dynasty they were often larger than those of the previous dynasty. Moreover, the expansion rate and proportion of each level are also regular, that is, the number of officials is often doubled, the number of officials is doubled (or even several times), and the number of servants is more complicated.

A large reason for this is that the officials are not under the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court, but are requisitioned by the local government itself. However, the order was also indispensable and indispensable for the imperial court to rule the locality.

Of course, it is not that officials cannot be promoted, but compared to officials, it is much more difficult. Moreover, even if they are promoted, they must not be accepted by officials who have gone through scientific examinations. But Zhao Xun had to admit that these little officials were the ones who were most familiar with the place and had real talents. In other words, officials are leaders, and petty officials are the ones who do the real thing. The leader moved his mouth and broke his 'leg' below.

However, with Zhao Xun's encouragement of commerce and the status of equal scholars, farmers and businessmen, many unorthodox Confucian scholars could become officials, and many officials who had risen from the hardships of the officials suggested to Zhao Xun that these ordinary officials should be given status. Although before that, the descendants of these officials were not as restricted as before, and there were all kinds of unfair treatment. However, petty officials are still petty officials and are not valued by orthodox officials.

And Zhao Xun didn't pay attention to this aspect of things before, and after being reported to Zhao Xun by the Secretary for Administration, Zhao Xuncai remembered this group that played an important role in the government.

In Dayan, it is not that these officials cannot be promoted, but in the system of officials alone, there are three ranks. Only after the third class can you have the opportunity to be promoted to an official. But this is only an opportunity, and the real opportunity is not great, except for making special contributions.

After inspecting the details and considering it for a long time, Zhao Xun made a fundamental 'sexual' reform, that is, to eliminate the difference between officials and officials.

First of all, Zhao Xun took back all the rights to distribute the officials and officials, and issued them by the imperial court, and the recruitment of officials was also appointed by the imperial court, in other words, although they were not among the officials of the nine grades, they were also an official system recognized by the imperial court, but they had not yet reached the rank of the nine grades, and at the same time, some discriminatory policies against officials were eliminated.

In addition, considering that these officials are familiar with the local area and play a very important role in local governance, Zhao Xun regarded the officials as an important source for selecting the most basic officials. In other words, after the reform, officials born in scientific examinations were not directly delegated to local county officials, but became commanders, or became adjutants at the first level of the prefecture. After accumulating a certain amount of administrative experience, they will be selected as the parent officer in charge of a place.

In addition, in addition to the meritorious reports of local parents, the promotion of local officials is also separately assessed by the Supervision Department. In this way, the promotion channels of officials and officials were opened. You must know that in Zhao Di, there are a lot of adjutants. In the past, these adjutants were all reserve officials who were determined by Zhao Xun to be a 'chaotic' thief by the imperial court, not recognized by the imperial court, and cultivated by themselves. Now, they will all be officials of the prefecture and county. And many officials in the Western Regions and many officials in Yuzhou and Yanzhou were promoted by such officials.

Although this direct promotion of officials as a major selection mechanism will make some traditional officials a little dissatisfied, because Zhao Jun already has a precedent of craftsmen, merchants, and farmers as officials, there is no strong opposition. At least in October, after the Youzhou Administrative Secretary announced this as a decree to Zhao Di, there was no 'fierce' opposition.

Although for officials, this is not unacceptable. However, for the large number of small officials, they have escaped from the point of being looked down upon. Now, they can also be compared with officials. The only difference is that they are lower than the county order level of Jiupin. Plus, they'll be able to get promoted in the future. Therefore, these officials are extremely supportive of Zhao Xun, and they have put a lot of effort into doing things in order to be promoted. After all, this is a matter of their future, and they can't afford to care.

Although the advantage of selecting officials from among the officials is that most of the officials who are promoted have grassroots work experience and are familiar with their own work, they will not be like those who have studied hard and do not know how to administer after becoming officials, and they have to ask the officials around them for advice. However, it is not without its drawbacks, such as the possibility of different levels of education among officials. In order to alleviate this situation, all the officials who are promoted must consider their actual ability, and they must also be transferred back to Youzhou for training for a period of time.

Because of Zhao Xun's decree, the Supervision Division, the Eagle Eye Division, and the Shadow Division also investigated and punished a large number of unlawless officials from all over the country. These officials were either despised in the past, or because of the old dynasty system, they were all deceived and deceived by the local authorities, and committed crimes. This time, a large part of it was cleared due to the government's new decree.

When Zhao Xun heard about this, he was immediately furious. He didn't expect that there would be such a black sheep in his own territory. The world is not at peace, and it is already like this. If the world is peaceful, I don't know what will happen. As a result, Zhao Xun strictly ordered the Supervision Division, the Eagle Eye Division, and the Shadow Division to inspect the officials in the territory, and once any problems were found, they would not be pardoned.