Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

Zhu Di took the lead in striking hard at Nanzhili, the home base of the gentry group that he had long disdained.

"(South) Zhili starts from the Huaihe River in the north, reaches Huangshan in the south, reaches Poyang Lake in the west, and reaches the mouth of the Yangtze River in the east. I believe that the economic, population, cultural and customs of various places are very different, and they are forcibly merged together. The control is too large and too broad, which is not conducive to the imperial court. Governance.”

Zhu Di's purpose of dismantling Zhili was not only to separate two experimental fields for reform, but also to dismantle the collective identity that might form in the future in Zhili, the stronghold of the gentry class in the south of the Yangtze River. , nip problems in the bud.

Without the unified administrative division of "Zhili", only the essence of the Yangtze River Delta will be retained. After the most peripheral prefectures return to their own administrative divisions, the identity that may be gathered by "Zhili" in the future will naturally be broken in advance. .

The operation is not complicated. He only needs to return some of the most fringe prefecture-level administrative units that his father, Zhu Yuanzhang, had forcibly gathered together, return them to the chief envoys, and then reintegrate them according to regions to create a streamlined version of Southern Zhili.

"Your Majesty, if you want to streamline Zhili, you must separate Jiang and Huai." Jian Yi, who had been opposed just now, now agreed.

"Jian Shangshu is right."

Huang Fu also said: "Since the Chu-Han struggle for hegemony, there have been more than dozens of large-scale battles in Xuzhou in the past dynasties. It is on this battlefield that the rise and fall of many dynasties has been decided. Therefore, there has been a quest for the throne since ancient times. The theory of the Central Plains. This place has never belonged to Jiangnan, and it really shouldn’t be forcibly brought together with Jiangnan.”

Regarding this issue, the ministers who had been resisting the emperor just now reached a consensus.

This is the wonder of the temple. Two groups of people who were quarreling just now on certain issues will work together to win-win on the next issue because of their consistent interests.

Separating Jiang and Huai is definitely not just in Zhu Di's interests.

In fact, this was something that the ministers in the early Ming Dynasty had been fighting for for a long time with Zhu Yuanzhang, but Zhu Yuanzhang had always been suppressing him from splitting up the family.

Can Huaibei and Jiangnan be the same thing?

Although Zhu Yuanzhang's forced melon was very satisfying, he used the big basket of "Zhili" to stuff all the beautiful places around Nanjing into it, but the places that were stuffed in were centrifugal and could not be called sweet.

Do you think it’s just Zhu Di who doesn’t want Huang Huai and Jiang Nan to stay together? Jiangnan, a place with many people, rich culture and prosperous culture, did not want to take the barren land of Huanghuai to play.

The arranged nursery rhyme "Speaking of Fengyang, saying Fengyang, Fengyang is a good place. Since Emperor Zhu came out, there have been nine years of drought in ten years." There is no innuendo that Zhili took the food harvested from Jiangnan and Huanghuai. Taxes are provided to Zhu Yuanzhang's Huaixi hometown to maintain dignity, but the huge Fengyang Mansion is getting increasingly poor.

When Emperor Jianwen was in power, the gentry class in the south of the Yangtze River also reported this problem. Emperor Jianwen intended to deal with it, but Zhu Di was a little too fast to physically visit his relatives with a machete, so he didn't have time to deal with it.

"The Huanghuai line and the people in Jiangnan are different, and they should be separated." Dao Yan had the same attitude here.

In Zhu Di and Dao Yan's plan, in addition to the Yangtze River Delta, other buffer zones based on defensive considerations around Nanjing must still be retained.

But there is absolutely no need to put the buffer zone in Zhili directly into Huaibei!

Before the Ming Dynasty, the Huanghuai River Basin and Jiangnan had always been in different administrative divisions, and they were rarely merged together because the differences were too great.

Therefore, whether it is out of public or selfish motives, the ministers are right. If they want to streamline (southern) Zhili, the first step is to divest the Huanghuai River Basin area.

Huang Huai did not want to stay in Zhili. Zhili forced Huang Huai only for safety reasons and for the so-called "to defend the river, you must defend the Huai".

"True Ming God of War" Zhu Di sneered at this.

A bunch of chickens and dogs can't defend Huaihe River, nor can they defend Jiang River. They tie their hands and feet for nothing.

As for the military division of Huanghuai, Zhu Di had already made a plan with Dao Yan.

At the same time, untying the administrative divisions of Huanghuai will not only help the integrated development of Huanghuai itself, but also greatly reduce the administrative burden for Zhili.

Zhu Di said: "I intend to separate Xuzhou, Fengyang Prefecture, Huai'an Prefecture, and Luzhou Prefecture, that is, the Huaihe River Basin, and the lower reaches of the Yellow River (at this time the Yellow River diverts the Huaihe River and flows into the sea), and establishes the Huanghuai Chief Envoy Department separately, with Fengyang Prefecture. Yang Mansion is the place of governance."

After a pause, Zhu Difu said again.

"At the same time, the Zhongdu Remaining Department was upgraded to the Huanghuaidu Command and Envoy Department, and was solely responsible for the defense of the Huanghuai region."

Zhu Di's intention was certainly to weaken and dismember the main force in the Hongwu Founding Group, which was the Huaixi Group's traditional area of ​​influence, insert his own people into it, and completely control Jiangbei.

In addition, there are also reasons to really change this poor military division.

From a military perspective, Zhu Di believed that the Battle of Jingnan had proved that allowing Zhili to directly control the defense of the Huaihe River would be disastrous.

Basic military dispatches that should have been easily accomplished by the local guards and the Metropolitan Command and Envoys Department required repeated reports to Zhili before they could be approved. But by the time the approval came, it was often too late.

A small incident mentioned before, Zheng Ci impeached the remaining generals in Fengyang Mansion, used the wood of the Buddhist temple built by Zhu Yuanzhang to build ships, and resisted the Yan army from crossing the Huai River. This is an example of this.

A glimpse of a leopard can be seen in the tube.

And if you look at the records of the Jianwen court, there are many cases where such poor administration led to military defeats.

There was no need for Zhu Di to raise this issue again. The ministers who had served in the Jianwen court knew this very well.

Therefore, no one had objections to the administrative and military separation of the Huanghuai River Basin from Zhili.

After arranging the most important Huanghuai River Basin in the north, the rest is easy to talk about.

Zhu Di continued: "In the far west of Zhili, Anqing Prefecture north of the Yangtze River was assigned to Huguang; Chizhou Prefecture and Huizhou Prefecture south of the Yangtze River were assigned to Jiangxi."

This is the proper meaning of the title. Since the reduction of southern Zhili, the westernmost places that were originally transferred should be transferred back.

Apart from this, there is obviously no need to separate other areas of South Zhili, and only need some piecemeal repairs and integration.

"Luzhou Prefecture divided two counties, Chao County and Lujiang County, and merged them with Hezhou and Chuzhou into Chuzhou Prefecture, which together with Yangzhou Prefecture in the east defended the north of the Yangtze River."

"Other than that, do you have any other opinions?"

Zhu Di finalized the three most important parts, namely the independence of Huanghuai, the return of the three prefectures to the west, and the merger of Chuzhou Prefecture.

Then the ministers were symbolically consulted.

However, in Zhu Di's eyes, other places that were not very important had many entangled interests for the ministers.

"Ningguofu (Xuancheng) and Guangzhou will be merged into Ningguofu?"

"We can also incorporate Taiping Mansion."

"No, no, Wuhu and Dangtu are important places to defend Nanjing and cannot be combined with Ningguo Mansion."

"Do Zhenjiang Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture, and Songjiang Prefecture need to be merged?"

"It's not necessary. Don't be confused."

After some discussion, the streamlined Nanzhili was finally decided.

Jiangbei: Chuzhou Prefecture, Yangzhou Prefecture

Lower Yangtze River: Taipingfu, Ningguofu, Yingtianfu (Nanjing)

The section where the Yangtze River enters the sea: Zhenjiang Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture, and Songjiang Prefecture

The huge Southern Zhili was eventually reduced from 14 prefecture-level administrative units to nine prefectures, which seemed to be the Yangtze River Delta region of Jiang Xinghuo's previous life.

The division of Southern Zhili has been decided, but when it comes to the topic of how to divide Northern Zhili, the ministers obviously have no say.

After all, the north is Zhu Di's territory, and the emperor can divide it however he wants.

Zhu Di no longer wanted to discuss it with the ministers when they were discussing the division of Southern Zhili, and directly announced it arbitrarily.

"Shuntian Prefecture (Beijing), Yongping Prefecture (Qinhuangdao Area, Tangshan), Baoding Prefecture."

Zhu Di's tone was firm and unquestionable: "These three prefectures are the places that support me in the national crisis and contribute the most people. They should become the core area of ​​Beizhili and focus on immigration from Shanxi."

"In addition, Xuanfu in Shanxi, as an important border defense area along the Great Wall to protect Beijing, must be moved to Beizhili."

"Zhending Prefecture is a place of great military success; Hejian Prefecture (Cangzhou area of ​​Tianjin) is a key point for water and land transportation. These two prefectures must also be moved to Beizhili."

"The same should be true for Shunde Prefecture (Xingtai), Guangping Prefecture (Handan), and Daming Prefecture (Weixian) further south."

"Therefore, I have decided to combine Shuntian Prefecture (Beijing), Yongping Prefecture, Baoding Prefecture, Xuanfu, Zhending Prefecture, Hejian Prefecture, Shunde Prefecture, Guangping Prefecture and Daming Prefecture, a total of nine prefectures, to form Beizhili."

In fact, this was also the Beizhili region that Zhu Di divided in Jiang Xinghuo's previous life. This part of history was not biased by Jiang Xinghuo.

Only Nanzhili showed deviations that were different from Jiang Xinghuo's previous life.

If Jiang Xinghuo were here, he would definitely sigh, good guy, isn't this the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Yangtze River Delta?

None of the ministers expressed any objection.

There are nine prefectures in North Zhili and nine prefectures in South Zhili. On paper, they are still equal.

Although at this time, North Zhili was far behind South Zhili in terms of economy, population, food production, culture and education.

"His Majesty."

Huang Fu, who suggested using marginal areas as test fields, finally couldn't hold back and advised.

"Is it too risky to use the core areas of the Ming Dynasty, such as the North and South Zhili, as a test bed for new reforms?"

The mature and prudent Huang Shangshu obviously does not understand the principle that "the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish."

Zhu Di laughed loudly when he heard this.

"Huang Shangshu, do you think this is all?"

Huang Fu was stunned for a moment. In addition to the northern and southern Zhili, did the emperor want to open a third experimental field?

However, Huang Fu knew next that what the emperor announced was even more explosive than the opening of the third experimental field.

"I plan to ask the eldest and second eldest brother to go to the north and south Zhili respectively to preside over the implementation of more reforms."