Chapter 1334: Crown Princess, Don

"Yuying, you're finally back!"

Ding Yuying had been busy all day on Zhu Cilang's flagship, and only when the fleet docked at the Yiling Prefecture pier did she take a small boat back to the flagship of the Crown Prince, Zhu Hexing.

The Lucky Crown Prince had not had an easy time on this journey either. To prevent the Great Ming from losing both the Emperor and the Crown Prince at once, he could not go aboard Zhu Cilang's ship to attend to state affairs, and could only attend classes on his own ship — that's right, he had to attend classes! He was still a student at the Army Military Academy, and now he was accompanying the army on campaign, going to the battlefield to experience the atmosphere of war firsthand and observe the fighting up close. So instructors from the Military Academy had come along, and on the way to Kuizhou Prefecture the instructors could still give them lessons.

The classes were held on the Lucky Crown Prince's ship. All day long he sat crammed together with over a hundred and several dozen classmates, taking two French lessons, two mathematics lessons, and two drafting lessons, until Zhu Hexing's head was spinning from studying.

Moreover, when the Military Academy instructors left, they also said that when they disembarked at Nanjinkou, they would find time to organize a French examination, with His Majesty the Emperor personally setting the questions and personally proctoring it — anyone who failed would get a beating!

Zhu Hexing hated French examinations the most, because he always did poorly! Doing poorly meant getting scolded by Emperor Zhu. What was even more annoying was that his brothers Zhu Hehao and Zhu Hekun were both very good at French!

Oh, and there was also a little brother, Zhu Hengli (Marie Mancini's son), a little brat, and even his French was far better than Zhu Hexing's!

He was about to become a father, and his French was still worse than a little brat's — it was truly humiliating.

So Zhu Hexing kept thinking to himself that once he became emperor, he would definitely abolish French class — what was the point of learning this stuff!

But his Imperial Father was in such good health, and even his Imperial Grandfather was still alive and well, so abolishing French class could only remain a thought. For now he could only dutifully memorize vocabulary, all the way until Ding Yuying returned.

When he saw his wife enter the cabin, Zhu Hexing no longer had any mind for memorizing vocabulary. He tossed aside his book and rose to greet her.

Ding Yuying was startled by the Crown Prince's enthusiasm and hurriedly gave him a formal curtsy, but the Crown Prince pulled her up: "It's just the two of us, why are you still bowing? You're my wife — is there any need for such formality?"

Ding Yuying felt joy in her heart at these words. She cast a coquettish glance at Zhu Hexing, then said with a smile: "My husband has been studying hard all day, you must be tired. Let me tell the ship's kitchen to prepare food quickly, and after eating, go to bed early."

Zhu Hexing laughed heartily: "I already gave the orders long ago, and also had bathwater heated. After dinner, the two of us can bathe together."

Hearing this, Ding Yuying's cheeks flushed with heat. "Husband, let's talk about that later. Imperial Father told me to discuss today's major military and state affairs with you!"

"That again." Zhu Hexing was somewhat disappointed, and could only sit down with his wife at the table.

Ding Yuying took out the notes she had recorded today and laid them before Zhu Hexing, then began picking out the important points to tell him: "Husband, today's imperial conference discussed the matter of holding the civil service examination in Sichuan."

"Nothing but making trouble for people!" Zhu Hexing remarked.

Ding Yuying smiled: "It's not making trouble for people, but rather using one examination to lure all the capable troublemakers in Sichuan over to the court's side. Only in this way can the campaign to pacify Sichuan achieve twice the result with half the effort. So today Imperial Father decided to hold the civil service examination first, then survey the farmland, and finally distribute the land. And the civil service examination will first be held on a trial basis, then expanded. The trial will take one prefecture at a time, one county at a time. First, all the minor officials of prefectures and counties will be selected and allowed to serve on probation. During the probation period, there will be an examination every month and a weeding-out every three months. After all of Sichuan is pacified, Imperial Father will hold a grand provincial examination, but only those minor prefectural and county officials who have served on probation and have not been weeded out will be qualified to participate in the grand provincial examination. Those who pass the grand examination may be appointed as prefectural or county chief officials, or as subordinate officials of equivalent rank in provincial, prefectural, or departmental offices."

Zhu Hexing seemed not to have understood, and asked: "The trial civil service examination selects only minor prefectural and county officials?"

"Yes," Ding Yuying said. "The parent-officials of towns, townships, and wards, the police officials who catch thieves and bandits, the tax officials who collect grain and taxes, the education officials who civilize the people, and the construction officials who manage waterworks and river channels — all of these must be done well by local people. So we must use the trial civil service examination to search out all the capable people in the prefectures and counties of Sichuan and employ them for the state."

Towns, townships, and wards were the three most basic levels of government in the Great Ming at present. The three were of equal rank, differing only in function and layout. A town generally referred to a small urban settlement with fewer than 1,000 households (in the densely populated southeastern regions, many small urban settlements with more than 1,000 households were also called towns). A township was of course a rural village, while a ward was a district under a large city (county-level, called a municipality).

Below these three basic levels of government were two units of resident self-governance: the li and the she. The li was under the township, usually with one hundred households per li. The she was under the town or ward, with no fixed number of households, but rather a designated area, and usually there were ten li under each town or ward. The li head and she head were both elected by the residents, and these li heads and she heads usually also served concurrently as local councilors.

The parent-officials of towns, townships, and wards could either be recommended by the li heads and she heads from among local officials who had passed the official examinations, or be appointed by higher authorities — which method was chosen usually depended on the local situation regarding full payment of taxes and rents (rents on official land). Towns, townships, and wards whose officials were appointed by higher authorities did not concurrently serve as councilors.

As for the selection of officials above the town, township, and ward level, there were three methods. First, local councils could recommend from among qualified officials, provided that the locality was not very important and that tax and rent payment and public order were in good condition. Second, selection by the provincial government (directly administered prefecture): all officials of subprefectures, counties, and municipalities where tax and rent payment and public order were poor, and which were also not important areas, were selected in this way. Third, appointment by the Grand Secretariat: for all important areas — the eleven wealthiest southeastern prefectures of the Great Ming, plus the prefectural, county, and municipal chief officials of the three prefectures of Wuhan, Tianjin, and Tianhe — all were nominated by the Grand Secretariat, though in principle they would also be selected from among local people.

Of course, officials at the subprefecture, county, and municipal level, including subordinate officials of the same rank, no matter which method was used for selection, ultimately required the Son of Heaven to issue an edict through the Grand Secretariat for formal appointment, so the Son of Heaven held the final power of veto.

This whole system of selecting and appointing local officials applied only to the directly administered provinces of the Great Ming. Sichuan, however, was still a war zone, and even after complete recovery, it would first be placed under military governorship, and then gradually converted into a directly administered province according to actual conditions — military governorship did not mean autonomy, but rather governance of the locality by a military government. This mode of governance had existed since the early Ming dynasty. For example, the Shizhou Military-Civilian Guard Command was just such an institution for military governance of a locality, but it had never been a semi-independent separatist regime.

And because Sichuan would temporarily be governed by a military government, there was very little room for grassroots self-governance. All parent-officials of towns, townships, and wards would be appointed by higher authorities, and no councilors would be established.

"Then what about the prefectural and county officials throughout Sichuan?" Zhu Hexing asked with a smile. "Who does Father want to send to do this thankless job?"

Ding Yuying sighed softly: "Imperial Father did not say, but I have already guessed some of it."

"Guessed what?"

Ding Yuying said: "I guessed that you, Crown Prince Thousand Years, will sooner or later have to go down and serve a term as a county magistrate. Because Imperial Father told me today that once we reach Yong'an, you and I will have to go to the county yamen to attend to government affairs for one month, in order to familiarize ourselves with local administration. I suspect that after this month, you will have to serve as a county magistrate for a while! You must do it well — if you do poorly, it will be disastrous!"

"What? Me, the Crown Prince, serving as a county magistrate?" Zhu Hexing was stunned. "Isn't this sheer nonsense? Since ancient times, where has there ever been a crown prince serving as a county magistrate? And I don't know how to do it either! What if I really do poorly? Can he even replace the Crown Prince?"

Yes! What if he really does poorly? Ding Yuying glanced at her husband, thinking to herself: If you do poorly, you get weeded out! You are the Crown Prince, so of course you cannot be weeded out — otherwise Imperial Father would have replaced you long ago, and there would have been nothing for me! Now that I am here, of course you can be weeded out. If you do poorly as a county magistrate, then I will be weeded out — and moreover, weeded out at the level of a grand state funeral!

Truly, serving the sovereign is like keeping company with a tiger!

Recommending a novel about group transmigration to the Southern Song, "1255: Reforging the Tripod." Group transmigration is rare — interested readers should go take a look and add it to their collections. It is a new author's new book, so please lend a helping hand if you are interested!

"1255: Reforging the Tripod," group transmigration to the Southern Song, starting point relatively low, with the tech tree beginning from the waterwheel…

(End of Chapter)