The central court of the Yuan Dynasty actually had very poor control over the localities.

In addition to the poor efficiency of the four-level administrative divisions, the scale and power of the first-level administrative divisions of the local governments are also an important reason.

In the end, the Yuan Dynasty could only be regarded as a grassland regime, and it never fully controlled the Central Plains, nor did it fully integrate into the Central Plains, just as the traditional Central Plains Dynasty never fully controlled the grasslands.

In fact, there was no need for the Yuan Dynasty to implement four-level administrative divisions, and at most it could be managed by the three-and-a-half-level model of the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty was originally a provincial capital and county three-level, and later added the middle layer of Taoists, which was the provincial dispatch agency, which served according to the actual situation, and was not completely fixed, similar to the modern commissioner.

But now the scale of the Ming Dynasty's territory has far exceeded the scale of the Qing Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, and it is an order of magnitude higher than all the traditional Shenzhou dynasties, including them.

Daming has now crossed the tipping point, and now it is time to have to make a choice.

Either increase the level of administrative divisions, or establish a feudal state again, or give local power and autonomy.

The reference object for increasing administrative divisions is actually the Yuan Dynasty, and the reference for the establishment of feudal states is the previous Ming or Han Dynasty.

The reference object of local autonomy is the United States of America in Zhu Jingyuan's previous life.

There are fifty states under the American Union, and normal-sized states usually have dozens to hundreds of counties.

Texas has the largest number of subordinate counties, with two hundred and fifty-four.

There is no intermediate hierarchy between the state and the county, which is a de facto two-level administrative division.

The basis on which the United States was able to maintain a two-tiered division was a comprehensive and thorough system of native self-government.

The higher-level government of the United States is a consultative body of several subordinate local agencies.

Lower-level local bodies are the main body of politics.

Rather, the parent body acts only as a public coordination platform similar to that of an association.

In a megacity like New York, several counties in the urban area have come together to set up organizations to manage public affairs.

This New York City government is not an Oriental government at all.

The state of America does not have the authority to adjust the administrative divisions of a county unless the county itself agrees.

The same is true for the federal government for the state government.

There have long been undefined state boundaries between states, and there have even been wars over land.

Michigan was bullied by Indiana because of its early population and gave up part of the land near Lake Michigan.

At the same time, Michigan bullies less Wisconsin and asks for a chunk of Wisconsin's open land across the lake.

At the same time, Wisconsin has also ceded land to Minnesota and Illinois, which is truly a great injustice in the Great Lakes region.

For civil wars and disputes of this level, the federal government can only intervene to mediate.

When city and county governments go bankrupt, the state and federal governments are not obligated to bail them out.

Like a business, self-bankruptcy and restructuring are a natural consequence.

This tradition of autonomy actually originated in the British colonial management policy.

The colony itself had a large number of commercial elements in the early days, and there were also various models.

In addition to the land developed by the royal family themselves, there were also many colonies built by commercial companies and even immigrants.

Britain has a small population, and the British royal family has gone through a bourgeois revolution, and its power has been limited.

Faced with a complex and vast colony, neither the royal family nor the imperial court could have full direct jurisdiction.

Therefore, Britain took the initiative to adapt to the colonial system, and took the initiative to promote the establishment of local councils in the colonies and promote local self-government.

But the political traditions of the Ming Dynasty were very different from those of Britain and the United States.

The Ming court and the imperial family, which were in the process of withdrawing the feudal domain and establishing provinces, were unlikely to be willing to go back and continue to divide the feuds.

The Shenzhou Dynasty also did not have a tradition of taking the initiative to delegate power and autonomy to local governments.

When this idea popped up, Zhu Jingyuan suddenly thought that his first phase of governance training was actually at the township level.

Shenzhou itself is not completely devoid of local autonomy traditions.

Before Emperor Shizu rebuilt the Ming Dynasty, except for the time when Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, most of the feudal dynasties in previous dynasties were in a state where imperial power did not go to the countryside.

Locally, it was actually a state of gentry autonomy.

In other words, Shenzhou also traditionally has local autonomy, but below the county level.

After arriving in Emperor Sejo, the township was officially turned into an official administrative level.

The current Daming is actually the fourth level of the provincial capital, county and township.

So now it seems that there is another way.

The townships directly under the central government were abolished and returned to the state of not going to the countryside under the imperial power.

After Zhu Jingyuan moved this idea slightly, he quickly dispelled it.

The imperial power does not go to the countryside, which is essentially a low ruling ability, not that it cannot go down, but that it cannot go down.

Now that I have been able to go to the countryside, there is no reason to give up on my own.

Only when the imperial power goes to the countryside can the most basic communication be established between the emperor and the people at the bottom.

Only then can the bureaucracy and the people check and balance each other and slow down the speed of bureaucratic corruption.

So in the end, it is necessary to increase the level of administrative divisions.

It's just that how to add it is still a big problem.

Zhu Jingyuan was thinking about this issue in the following days when he was fine.

After thinking about it for half a month, Zhu Jingyuan finally felt that this matter still had to be dealt with in a compromise.

Although it is very likely that the central government or the higher-level dispatched agencies will gradually become de facto local institutions in practice.

But in the early days, it was able to operate for a long time in the form of a dispatching agency.

Theoretically, there is no "provincial" administrative division in the Ming Dynasty.

For example, the official name of Shandong is "Shandong and other places", and there is no such level of organization.

It was announced that the three organs of the Political Envoy Department, the Criminal Prosecution Department, and the Command Envoy Department were set up side by side, and were not subordinate organs of the nominally non-existent provincial-level yamen.

So before the Renwu Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty was de facto a three-level division, but nominally a two-level administrative division.

Now to make adjustments to administrative divisions, we can implement the "province" and then add "half a level" to the province.

Although there is no direct reference in the original history, you can put together the solutions of countries and dynasties that have had similar problems and integrate proposals for the current situation.

After thinking carefully about it for half a month, Zhu Jingyuan finally began to officially write a reply to his father.

First of all, it is suggested that in this adjustment of administrative divisions, the official title of "other places" should be officially designated as provinces.

The people, the government, and even the imperial council, the emperor and most of the officials were called "other places" by the province on a daily basis.

It's just that the names of the three divisions and other places are still used in official documents.

Rather than continuing to separate the actual document system from the official document system, it is better to adapt the official document system to the actual situation and make it convenient for the officials and the common people.

Today's Ming Dynasty no longer needs to be taboo with the former Great Yuan Dynasty.

There is no need to use the title of "province", Daming can directly use the word "province".

At the same time, in order to reduce the impact of the name change, provincial agencies can continue to use titles such as the Three Divisions and the Inspector Imperial History.

Secondly, I personally support the formal establishment of provinces in the north and south of the country, and support the merger of some local provinces that are too small.

Haidong Province can be merged into Fujian, Cochin Province can be merged into Guangxi, two provinces of Korea can be merged, and four provinces of Japan can be merged into two.

However, it is not advisable to use the annexation of provinces as the main means of reducing the number of provinces under direct administration.

The scale of the merger of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Jiaozhi provinces is too large, and over time it is inevitable to set up sub-institutions under the province, which is to repeat the old things of the former Yuan.

Then, at my suggestion, we can consider dividing all provinces into about 10 large regions, and arranging corresponding central dispatch agencies to be responsible for the main affairs of each region.

The name of this large region can refer to the Tang Dynasty Duhufu, or directly use the "domain" of the "Western Regions" of the Han Dynasty.

For example, Xianbei Metropolitan Protectorate, Nanyang Metropolitan Protectorate, Tiannan Metropolitan Protectorate, Tianzhu Metropolitan Protectorate, Great Food Metropolitan Protectorate, Eastern Regions of Mozhou, Southern Regions of Mozhou, Western Regions of Mozhou, Southern Regions of Yinzhou, Central Regions of Yinzhou, Northeast Regions of Yinzhou, and Northwest Regions of Yinzhou.

In the future, the Central Government Office will directly connect with the dispatched agencies in various regions to reduce the number of affairs that the Central Government Office needs to directly handle.

The organization of the dispatched agencies can refer to the original bureaucratic system of the political envoys, or the bureaucratic system of the provincial and highway organs of the Tang and Song dynasties.

The four systems of military affairs, government affairs, criminal prisons, and imperial history are separated, and they are independent and directly responsible to the Central Administration.

Finally, the Ming Dynasty does not have a capital or a large domain, and the local provinces are directly governed by the Central Administration.

The identity of the home province is similar to that of the former Zhili Province.

After the adjustment of the entire division, it is equivalent to expanding the administrative division of the Ming Dynasty before the Renwu Dynasty by an order of magnitude.

The Naoli Province became the Naoli Province, and the other provinces became the Great Domain or the Metropolitan Protectorate.

The two capitals and thirteen provinces became one capital and twelve regions.

The adjustment of administrative divisions is a big matter, and these personal ideas are just a way of thinking and direction, and the specific planning and implementation still need to be discussed and decided by the father and the old gentlemen.

Zhu Jingyuan sent his thoughts to the Daming Jingshi.

No matter how busy the yamen of the Jingshi is, Zhu Jingyuan's own news is always the highest priority.

There was no hesitation in this report, and after it was transcoded, it was directly sent to the Ming Emperor Zhu Jianyan.

After reading it, Zhu Jianyan pondered for a long time, and then asked people to gather his main staff, that is, the scholars, as well as a few of the most important and familiar Shangshu to come over and discuss.

In fact, within the Central Administration of the Ming Dynasty, another reform has become more and more urgent.

With the increasing number of central government offices, it was difficult for the emperor himself to call all the Shangshu names at once.

In the original history, during the nearly 600 years of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Central Government Office maintained a pattern of six ministries for a long time, at most, plus a few other important institutions, the total number was usually about ten.

The current Ming Emperor has to face more than fifty officials at the same level.

So much so that on not particularly formal occasions, when the Ming Emperor wanted to discuss certain affairs in advance and consult the handling and coping methods of certain affairs, he once again began to habitually rely on his university scholars.

Whether the scholars of the foreign dynasty can receive a notice to participate in the discussion is seriously impressed in the emperor's mind.

For example, Zhu Jianyan was born in Honglu Temple, and now Shen Fu of Honglu Temple is his former deputy.

At this time, Zou Bingtai, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry in the Zhu Zhongliang era, Liu Quanzhi, the secretary of the Ministry of War, and Wang Niansun, the secretary of the Ministry of Households, had all retired.

Huang Yue, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and Dai Quheng, the minister of military aircraft, are still there, but they have also turned 60 years old this year.

More than half of the other books have also been replaced.

Lu Yinpu, who used to be the political envoy of Beimo in the Great Food Country, was directly promoted to the head of the household department after serving as a political envoy.

Although the current household department does not care about finance and taxation, and only manages civil affairs and household registration, the importance of the household department has dropped significantly compared with the traditional household department.

But after all, it is also a department that exposes the traditional No. 6 name, and is regarded by senior officials as a place of higher honor.

And Lu Yinpu has just turned 50 this year.

Now many officials in the court have realized that in addition to the officials who have followed Zhu Jianyan themselves have been promoted quickly, the officials who have worked under Zhu Jingyuan have also been promoted quickly.

Mainly working in Zhu Jingyuan first, it is easy to leave an impression on Zhu Jianyan.

Therefore, Lu Yinpu, the new secretary of the household department, also received this notice and went to Wenyuan Pavilion to attend the meeting together.

In the process of the relevant personnel rushing over, Zhu Jianyan arranged the documents around him, briefly processed the content of Zhu Jingyuan's documents, and printed out a few copies of the main suggestions.

After these officials arrived and saluted, Zhu Jianyan asked people to send the printed documents:

"This is Jingyuan's views and suggestions on the current difficulties encountered by the imperial court, what do you think?"

Shen Fu, who was most familiar with Zhu Jianyan, spoke first:

"Your Highness's thoughts...... As always, it seems very surprising at first glance, but when you think about it, it feels quite reasonable, and the key is to be incredibly old-fashioned.

"Everyone knows that reducing the administrative level can improve administrative efficiency, but in practice it often backfires.

"During the hundreds of years of the Three Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the separatist regimes fought endlessly, and a large number of prefectures and counties changed hands repeatedly, which caused the number of prefectures and counties to surge to the extent of flooding.

"After Emperor Wen of Sui unified the world, he began to withdraw and annex the state department and reduce the number of counties, which is in line with the trend.

However, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty intended to abolish the state department and only retain the administrative level of the county and county levels, which was obviously a great achievement.

"In the Tang Dynasty, it had to set up inspection roads, and the Song Dynasty also continued to set up roads, forming a de facto three-level division.

"Now the territory of my Ming Dynasty is ten times that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and even the third-level division can no longer be supported, so it is also a very reasonable choice to increase the first-level administrative division.

"I think His Royal Highness Prince Dashi's suggestion is feasible."

Lu Yinpu, the head of the household department, as an official with highly related functions, spoke after Shen Fu:

"His Royal Highness's suggestion is equivalent to enlarging the division of the traditional Ming Dynasty as a whole, and at the same time listing the local area directly under the imperial court.

"Accommodating the actual situation while minimizing unnecessary changes is indeed a well-established solution.

The minister also thought that it was feasible, and he should start to make adjustments as soon as possible to reduce the burden on the various ministries and offices of the imperial court.

"However, the question that still needs to be considered is how to arrange the official grades of the Great Domain."