Chapter 331: Domestic Affairs

"Your servant seconds Minister Zhang's words! Your servant believes that whether offices are abolished or merged, the standard must be whether their conduct follows Your Majesty's will, and the measure must be whether they execute the court's orders according to regulation. Whoever violates this — no matter how great their talent — is not someone to be employed! The deeds of the Nanjing留守 offices are known to all the world, so once they move north into the capital, they must be employed with great caution!"

Minister of Personnel Zhou Yun, following Zhang Guowei's lead, escalated the rhetoric to the extreme, directly slapping the great hat of "having no regard for the sovereign or the court" onto them.

These words suited Zhu Youjian's taste perfectly, and he nodded slowly at Zhou Yun in approval.

A disloyal person — no matter how talented or capable — invites suspicion as to their motives and purposes. The officials of the Nanjing offices had long since made clear they were not of one mind with the Emperor and the court. Such people simply could not be given important posts.

Hou Xun clasped his hands toward Zhu Youjian and said: "I submit to Your Majesty: the storehouses under the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue are extremely numerous. There are three granaries alone that hold five hundred thousand shi of grain, and more than twenty other storehouses of varying sizes holding cloth and silk, fodder for war horses, soybeans and black beans, honey, copper coin and treasure notes, and other goods. Your servant has no objection to the merger, but only asks that when Your Majesty issues the decree, you dispatch officials from the Ministry of Revenue to the various prefectures of South Zhili to inspect the storehouses and their goods, lest such vast quantities of material be seized by others amid the confusion!"

Hou Xun's words left Zhu Youjian inwardly embarrassed.

He had only thought of weakening local power and had never once considered the various grain and material goods under the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue. It seemed that the experience of governing with a view to the whole picture was not something one acquired overnight — only through long years of rule could one gain sufficient perspective.

"Minister Hou puts public affairs first in every matter — truly a model for all court officials! Your counsel shows what it means to serve the public wholeheartedly. Minister Hou, return and immediately arrange men to proceed to Nanjing on this business. The matter of the merger ends here! After the Nanjing offices move north and are merged into the various functional ministries, each ministry's principal officer shall be divided into left and right posts — the capital holds the left, Nanjing the right! After the merger, you ministers must make handling public affairs your first priority. Should any be lazy or derelict, you may all submit memorials of impeachment; once the matter is verified, that official shall be immediately dismissed and sent home!"

Zhu Youjian decisively ended the discussion of appointments and directly made the final decision.

To the sharp-witted men in the hall, the Emperor's words could not have been plainer: the so-called merger was merely to save face for those in Nanjing. The real power of the various ministries would remain in the hands of those present. So long as they could find any fault in the Nanjing men, they could submit impeachment memorials, and the Emperor would graciously send the impeached packing back home.

The ministers all clasped their hands in obedience, and the last trace of unease in their hearts dissipated completely.

"Since the Nanjing留守 offices are abolished, the province of South Zhili has no reason to continue existing. But because it governs an enormous number of prefectures and counties, without proper administrative control the court's decrees will still be difficult to implement. I have decided to abolish the post of Yingtian Governor and establish Nanjing Prefecture, dividing the prefectures and counties under South Zhili into two parts, creating the two new provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui to govern them. Jiangsu Province shall govern the eight prefectures of Nanjing, Suzhou, Changzhou, Yangzhou, Huai'an, Songjiang, Zhenjiang, and Xuzhou, with its provincial seat at Nanjing. The post of Fengyang Governor shall be abolished, and Anhui Province established, governing the eight prefectures of Fengyang, Luzhou, Anqing, Taiping, Chizhou, Ningguo, Huizhou, and Chuzhou, with its provincial seat at Luzhou. These two provinces shall be organized with the same administrative structure as existing provinces, each with one Governor and one Regional Inspector. I shall select persons of outstanding virtue to fill these posts! If you ministers wish to recommend anyone, you may submit routine memorials to me, and after I send men to investigate, I shall decide based on their virtue and ability! The Jiangnan civil unrest case involves vacancies among the principal and deputy officials of three prefectures — you ministers may also recommend candidates for those new appointments."

Splitting the bloated and unwieldy South Zhili in two and establishing new provinces to control it would allow the court's decrees to be implemented more swiftly and effectively. An overly large administrative division would only worsen the problem of delayed information caused by poor transportation. Keeping the territory and population under each province as small as possible would, in this era, better facilitate the transmission of court orders.

The ministers in the hall were first startled by the Emperor's establishment of two new provinces, but then their minds turned to the vacant posts. Each man rapidly considered the candidates in his own pocket, weighing who would be best to put forward to fill these openings.

Apart from the high office of Governor for the two provinces, every other post was a first-rate plum assignment, all concentrated in the most prosperous regions of the Great Ming. Whoever could seize one of these seats would reap enormous benefits in both personal fame and fortune.

"Minister Luo, the Imperial Guard's Nanjing Chiliarchy must be established as soon as possible. Each prefecture of Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces shall have a Centuria established to strengthen oversight of local misrule! The former Nanjing Embroidered Uniform Guard Regional Military Commission is hereby abolished as of today. From among its existing officers and men, select those of outstanding loyalty, ability, and strength, as well as those from impoverished families, for retention. The rest shall each receive five taels of settling silver and be released from military registration! Go and make the arrangements!"

Though the Nanjing Embroidered Uniform Guard had long existed in name only, and most of its already few officers had taken up various other trades, every group has its strong and its weak. Many hereditary guard families in the Guard had fallen into dire daily circumstances for one reason or another, but because they still held military registration, they received a small monthly allowance of pay and provisions to keep their families fed. If their military registration were now revoked, it would make their already impoverished lives even worse.

Zhu Youjian had long since considered this, which was why he had specifically given Luo Yangxing these requirements — so long as these people remained attached to the great body of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, their circumstances would rapidly improve.

As for the others released from military registration, those five taels of silver could be considered a consolation prize. After all, they had served in the military for generations and counted as members of the imperial household. Though most would find it hard to accept losing their registration at first, they had only themselves to blame for forgetting the duties of imperial guardsmen — they could hardly blame others for being ruthless.

Luo Yangxing hesitated for a moment, then rose, performed the ritual salute, accepted the decree, and withdrew from Zhaoren Hall to return to his office.

With the Embroidered Uniform Guard establishing offices in many important prefectures and counties, seven of the original thirteen chiliarchies in the capital had already been sent out. This time two more chiliarchies were to be dispatched to the provinces, leaving only a few thousand Embroidered Uniform Guard officers in the capital. Judging by the current momentum, the Emperor intended to establish imperial guard offices in every vital prefecture and county across the whole of the Great Ming — and these few thousand men would be nowhere near enough.

It seemed he would need to find an opportunity to report this situation to the Emperor and, at the right moment, recruit fine sons of good families from among the citizenry into the Guard, using the method of veterans training newcomers to let them grow quickly, maintaining the number of imperial guard officers in the capital at no fewer than five thousand, to ensure the safety of the palace.

"Minister Chen, how is the road repair and paving in the capital proceeding? Have the covered drains and open channels all been cleared and laid?"

After Luo Yangxing left, Zhu Youjian fixed his gaze on Chen Qiyu and asked.

"Reporting to Your Majesty: after taking office, your servant inspected all vital points of the capital within ten days. At present, the main roads of the capital are essentially fully paved, and work on the remaining streets and lanes has entered its final phase. The entire road repair project is expected to be completed by the end of the tenth month. Following Your Majesty's instruction, as soon as last month's rainy season ended, your servant assembled the labor and materials, and work began on widening and clearing the open channels and covered drains within the city. This widening project is expected to employ approximately three thousand laborers, plus some three hundred auxiliary workers for hauling materials and boiling water and cooking, for a total of roughly three thousand four hundred. The total length of channels under construction is about two hundred li. The budgeted expenditure is approximately two hundred twenty thousand taels of silver and over twenty thousand shi of rice and flour; vegetables, meat, oil, and salt have not yet been tallied. Officials from Shuntian Prefecture and the Construction Division of the Ministry of Works are overseeing the work, and the project is striving for completion before year's end. After the channels are widened and rebuilt, the flooding during the rainy months of the seventh and eighth months each year will be greatly alleviated. Moreover, with all the main roads and lanes in the city hardened, the scenes of flooding and impassable mud during the rainy season will never appear again! However, your servant has occasionally had other thoughts — I know not whether I ought to report them to Your Majesty!"

Chen Qiyu rose, performed the ritual salute, and laid out his greatest achievement since taking office.

He first glossed over the road hardening matter in a few casual words, then listed all manner of figures to describe the great project just beginning.

Because the hardening work had begun before he took office — that was the achievement of the previous Prefect Li Huaipu and the Ministry of Works, having nothing to do with him — while the channel widening was the great project he had received since becoming Prefect of Shuntian, so of course he would trumpet it loudly before all the assembled ministers.

"Minister Chen truly lives up to his reputation as a capable official. You have enumerated the costs clearly and participated personally in the work. Hearing this fills me with great relief. If all the ministers of the Great Ming were like Minister Chen, I would save no small amount of effort! For this matter, Minister Chen deserves the foremost credit. Once the project is completed, I shall naturally reward all those involved according to their merit! Whatever else you wish to say, speak it plainly!"