Not long after the three chief officials of the three divisions were seated, the privy envoy Jia Changchao and the deputy envoy Cheng Jian came in, and everyone stood up and saluted.

They each sat down, and Prime Minister Wen Yanbo and Liu Xin brought Wang Yaochen, Zeng Gongliang and Zhang Fangping to come in and sit down on the main seat.

Looking at the people present, Wen Yanbo said: "Since eight years ago, the Baiting Iron Prison was built on Jingxi Road, which has benefited the imperial court a lot over the years. However, with this iron prison and the construction of the railway, Ye County has benefited from developing from a small county to a place where the population gathers. A few days ago, some households leaned to the Yushitai, and Cheng Du arrived in Ye County in the middle of the Yushi. When I came back from Ye County, I thought that Ye County had to change. Today, the political hall invites you to come, just to let you express your opinions and see how Ye County can be changed. ”

After speaking, seeing that everyone had nothing to say, Wen Yanbo said again: "First of all, please ask Du Zhongcheng to talk about why Ye County has to change." ”

Du Zhongxiao arched his hand and said: "Ye County was originally under the rule of Ruzhou, and when the railway supervisor was built, it was assigned to the Baiting Supervisor, which was the only county under the Baiting Supervisor. At the beginning of the establishment of the Iron Prison, because there were coal mines in Yexian County, there were also battalions and fields in its territory. Later, the railway supervisor became bigger, and Yexian County opened the north-south railway, and various conditions were met, and it became a good place to build factories. In the states of Jingxi Road, many wealthy families gathered there, built factories, and absorbed a large number of people from Jingxi Road. In just a few years, it has grown from a small county with thousands of households to a prosperous place with tens of thousands of households. The population has increased, but the number of officials in the county has not increased, and everything cannot be managed. I have been there for more than 10 days, and I have received anonymous petitions from the public, and there have been many life lawsuits, not to mention other cases. When I talked to the local officials and people, they all felt that there was not much change and that it was difficult to cure. ”

Wen Yanbo nodded and said, "According to Zhongcheng, the main problem in Ye County is that there are too many households and too few officials? ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Back to Xianggong, it's not just that. To sum up, there are three problems. First, there are too many households and too few officials, and there is nothing to manage. The second is a multi-factory, tens of thousands of households in the territory, except for those who grow melons and fruits, there are very few people who grow grain for a living, and there is a large amount of wasteland. The third point is the most crucial, the factory gathers a large number of people and produces countless goods, but the imperial court has no way to govern the factory. With this loophole, the territory of Ye County is really unstable. If you don't change it, I'm afraid that it will become more and more chaotic in the future. Moreover, there are not only Baiting supervisors in the world, and when other iron prisons develop, it may not be possible to reproduce the predicament of Ye County. If Ye County is changed, other places will inevitably benefit. ”

Wen Yanbo said: "The ministers live in the capital and don't know much about the place. Zhongcheng has worked hard all the way, and sits. ”

Du Zhongxiao sat down, and Wen Yanbo said: "What do you think about this matter?" ”

Cheng Jian arched his hand: "I think that Ye County is troublesome, or there are not enough officials." It can be promoted to a state, a county of Zhiye, and unified management. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "How can there be such a big state in the world. Moreover, the people are not ordinary people who farm the land, but work in the state town. Just increase the number of officials and not change the system there, but I'm afraid it will not work. ”

Cheng Jian and Wen Yanbo are in-laws, so after Wen Yanbo became prime minister, in order to avoid suspicion, he was reappointed as the privy deputy envoy. He didn't actually know much about Ye County's affairs, so he only mentioned it in order to echo Wen Yanbo. Du Zhongxiao retorted, and he didn't speak.

Jia Changchao said: "If Ye County wants to change, it will involve Baiting Supervisor. If Shengye County, how about the Baiting Supervisor, we have to discuss it together. Now most of the guns in the army are produced by Baiting, and there can be no accident there! ”

Everyone nodded together, now is the critical moment of the battle against the party, and there can be no shortage of materials on the front line. No matter how Yexian reforms, it cannot affect the iron prison and the production of war materials. The Privy Council was sensitive to this, and Jia Changchao had to bring it up.

Wang Yaochen, who participated in politics, said: "For today's plan, if Ye County wants to govern, it must be upgraded. We thought that Shengye County was Yezhou, and the iron supervisor was separately divided and managed by the supervisor of the Salt and Iron Division. Like these large government camp operations, they can be slowly attributed to the Salt and Iron Division, and no longer let the local management be. ”

Li Shendao, the salt and iron envoy: "The officials of the salt and iron department are limited, where is the manpower to manage the iron supervisor?" ”

Wang Yaochen said: "Now it is not as good as before, the income of the official camp is quite large, and it should be managed by the imperial court." There are not enough officials in the salt and iron division, so the number of officials can be increased. In the past, it didn't matter where it was, but now it can be managed. If you can manage these, the Salt and Iron Division can be regarded as fulfilling its duties. ”

Li Shendao: "Now the official field affairs in various places are under the salt and iron department. In the four cases of commercial taxation, salt, tea, and iron, the responsibilities were unclear and the management was very chaotic. If the Salt and Iron Division manages the affairs of the world's official camps, it will inevitably be more chaotic, and all cases will inevitably be greatly changed. ”

Prime Minister Liu Xin said: "Over the years, the money and grain received by the government camp has been ten or a hundred times that of the past, and it should have been changed. Since it started from Ye County, some yamen of the central court had to be changed. ”

When these words came out, no one spoke for a while. Everyone originally thought that it was just to change Ye County, but they didn't expect to change the central yamen. If the Yamen such as the Salt and Iron Division also had to be reformed, the matter would be big, and the people who came did not think about it.

Du Zhongxiao said: "With the establishment of the Iron Prison and other changes, the money and grain collected by the imperial court in recent years have been several times as much as before. The previous yamen really couldn't keep up, and it really had to be changed. However, these reforms still depend on what the various yamen say. ”

Wen Yanbo nodded, looked at Li Shen and said: "Over the years, the money and grain received under the rule of the Salt and Iron Division have not been comparable to the original. At present, half of the money and grain collected by the imperial court are collected by the household department, and the other half is collected by the salt and iron department, and the proportion of the salt and iron department is increasing. Salt and iron, now is the time to change, don't have doubts. After today's meeting, Yan Tie can gather his subordinates and think about how to change the headquarters. ”

Li Shen said yes. As the envoy of salt and iron, of course he knew that the salt and iron division was going to be changed, but due to the huge impact, he would not bring it up without the opening of the political affairs hall. This kind of court event, once it starts, there are countless things.

Ouyang Xiudao: "From Du Zhongxiaocheng to Yingtian on Jingxi Road, the imperial court has collected money and grain, which has been particularly obvious in recent years. The three divisions naturally want to change, but how to change it in the end, we still need to give an opinion from the political affairs hall. Otherwise, they will feel like they have nowhere to start. ”

Zhang Fangping, who participated in politics, said: "Du Zhongxiao Jingxi Yingtian, and later appointed Changping and did many things. Now the changes in Zhulu are mostly based on Du Zhongcheng's practice on Jingxi Road that day, and the imperial court has gained countless benefits. However, there are many differences between these practices and those of the three divisions. For example, Du Zhongcheng promoted Changping and built many official camps, which should be under the Salt and Iron Division, but Changping's case was in the Degree Branch. In the past, there were few places to do this, and there was nothing, but now all roads are like this, and the central yamen has to be changed. ”

Chang Ping's case was originally in charge of stabilizing prices, only buying grain, and not interfering in other affairs. Du Zhongxiao promoted Changping and built a large number of government-run farms, especially shopping malls, etc., involving a lot of wealth. At this time, the official field affairs under the jurisdiction of the Changping Division should be subordinate to the Salt and Iron Division, which has nothing to do with the Changping case, causing chaos.

The setting up of the three divisions is generally based on the collection of taxes by the household department, the spending of money by the branch department, and the monopoly of the salt and iron department. In the process of development, due to the balance of power, the balance of various divisions and other reasons, there is an overlap of functions, which is very chaotic. In the past, there was no industrialization, and the official for-profit organizations were mainly based on various forbidden monopolies, and there were no major mistakes and omissions. Now that there are factories, shopping malls, savings banks, and other national industrial and commercial institutions, the structure of the three divisions is sufficient to support it. After the abolition of the three divisions and the collection of money and grain to the political affairs hall, the relationship became even more chaotic.

This is a political affairs hall, and when Du Zhongxiao played it right, he did not propose to change it. After the imperial decree was convened to discuss the affairs of Ye County, after discussing it in the political affairs hall, he felt that he should take this opportunity to straighten out the functions of the three divisions.

Zhou Zhan, the envoy of the degree branch, said: "The Changping Divisions of all walks of life mostly rely on running official camp affairs and collecting more money and grain, and stabilizing prices is a trivial matter, which is different from the Changping case. Their affairs, the actual accounts are mostly handed over to the Salt and Iron Division, and they are not classified under the Changping case. ”

Zhang Fangping said: "This is the case, but since it is called Chang Ping Division, it is inevitable that the name will not be right. ”

Zhou Zhan said: "With the local government collecting more and more money and grain in addition to monopoly and agricultural taxes, the current three divisions and cases are inherently outdated. If you take this opportunity, it would be better to change it. ”

Seeing that a few people were talking more and more, Jia Changchao said: "The third division is the affairs of the political hall, and there is not much discussion here." Why don't we discuss with the three divisions after the meeting, and put forward opinions, and then we will discuss it? It is not easy to gather the various yamen together, and it does not take much effort. ”

Zhang Fangping said: "It's also available." However, the reform of Ye County will inevitably involve the iron superintendent, and it is not determined how to go under the iron superintendent, and many things are not easy to do. ”

Wen Yanbo said: "That's it, the Baiting supervisor was promoted to Yezhou, and the state government was stationed in Yexian. The current iron supervisor is separately assigned to the direct management of officials from the Salt and Iron Division. Of course, the money and grain earned by the iron supervisor are also counted in the salt and iron division, and are no longer counted as places. ”

Zeng Gongliang said: "If you do this, will Jingxi Road have any opinions?" The money and food of the iron prison is not a small amount. ”

Wen Yanbo said: "Don't care about Jingxi Road, the money and grain collected by Qianlu in the past may not be able to compare with the iron prison." In addition to the iron supervisor there, the other large local government and barracks affairs must also be slowly managed by the salt and iron division. In particular, shopping malls have developed over the years, and they are divided into many inconveniences. Not to mention anything else, most of the goods sold in the mall are sold from all over the world, and it is necessary to communicate with each other. Next, the shopping malls of all roads will be united, and they will also be subordinate to the Salt and Iron Division, and the Salt and Iron Division must prepare early. ”

Li Shen said yes. Now they are divided into various states, one is the savings office and paper money, and the second is the shopping mall, all of which the Manchu officials felt should be combined. These two institutions are national, separate and inconvenient.

Seeing that everyone had no objections, Wen Yanbo said: "On that day, the holy decree was to discuss the affairs of Ye County, and the holy lord specially explained a few points. Another point is that the railroad tracks, trains, etc., were originally allocated by the imperial court. In the future, it will be changed to buy with money, and the iron supervisor will make his own accounts, and the officials will be assessed by how much they make money. In this way, after being subordinate to the Salt and Iron Division, officials can be assessed. ”

Jia Changchao said: "Do the guns and guns needed by the army also count as money?" ”

Wen Yanbo nodded: "Yes, the things produced by the Iron Supervisor are already supplied to the army, so how can you do it without counting the money?" ”

Jia Changchao was stunned for a moment before he said: "That's a lot of money, where did the army get so much money?" The imperial court always has to find a way. ”

Wen Yanbo said: "The three divisions have their own punishments for this matter, so the captain doesn't have to worry." The guns used by the army must always be given. ”