"Zong Shuai, this is another reason why when you are critically ill, I want to bother you to issue a Heavenly Decree with me." Thinking that Liu Xing was finished, the seed master Dao was just about to speak, but Liu Xing waved his hand at her and looked at Zong Ze and said: "The system of prefectures and counties determined by the Great Song Dynasty is no longer suitable for the present time, I want to redefine the iron law, reduce the county governance, and strengthen the power and responsibility of the state capital." ”

Halfway through his words, Liu Xing immediately said the detailed thoughts in his heart.

Prefecture, this level of governance has existed as a basic administrative institution in the land of Kyushu for more than 1,000 years, starting with Qin Shi Huang. The county of the Qin Emperor was uncertain, and the county of Han Wu did not have a unified population quota.

In the Tang Dynasty, it was the beginning of the most detailed administrative organization, but "the county of all three capitals is called Jing County, the inner is Beijing, and the outer is Ji." Eighty-five households are also expected to be in the county, and the rest are 6,000 households in the upper county, 2,000 households in the middle, more than 1,000 households in the middle and lower counties, and those with less than 1,000 households in the lower counties."

When Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, usurped the rivers and mountains of the Later Zhou Dynasty, because there was no other rule to follow, the administrative institutions of the Great Song Dynasty still followed the old system of the Tang Dynasty.

However, with the progress of the times and the development of society, with the implementation of the new law, most of the counties with less than 1,000 households in the northern region now have the magistrates of Jiupin County, and even the Bapin County of about 2,000 households, have written to the household department more than once to implore the imperial court to "adjust the household registration to increase the people's strength" in the areas under their jurisdiction. ”

Some time ago, Zhao Ding, for the sake of the repeated pleadings of those county magistrates and county orders, went to Liu Xing's Taifu Mansion for three consecutive days and night to beg Liu Xing to issue an order to fill the population from Qiang, Dangxiang, Suiyuan, Liaonan and other places to those places in the Central Plains where the population left his hometown and went to Dacheng after the war and the implementation of the new law.

Guarding the border is the first priority, Zhao Ding was messed up by those county magistrates and county orders, but Liu Xing would not be out of proportion, after all, those county magistrates and county orders did not dare to directly go to the Heavenly Council and present it to themselves to cause chaos.

The problem has arisen, and Liu Xing, who is not out of proportion, will naturally come up with a way, after all, Zhao Ding has too many things to grasp, and he can't let him be so entangled by the group of county orders and county magistrates all the time.

After thinking about it for a few days and nights, Liu Xing preliminarily determined a major innovation that would inevitably form a big trend once it unfolded, and would even make many "troublesome" ordinary county magistrates and county magistrates lose their black hats or change their posts.

In fact, there is only one core content of this reform, that is, to abolish all the counties with less than 5,000 households, and to select a certain county as the central county for merger, and to merge several county towns into one county.

The reason for this decision is that Liu Xing's considerations are mainly two core points. The first is to consider military affairs in a strategic sense and in advance.

5,000 households can recruit more than 5,000 rural men to serve as self-defense soldiers in their localities at any time.

Even if the 5,000 reservists lack training, after all, those county towns have patrol battalions of at least 100 people, which can be used as a temporary command organization for commanding the township warriors in wartime.

With a temporary command structure, it would take at least three to five days to bring in the enemy in wartime, gain a lot of time for the royal troops to move, and ensure that there would be no more situations where the enemy would easily seize the city.

Considering the degree of expenditure, based on the current population of 45 million in the entire territory of the Great Song Dynasty, once the reform of reducing and merging county governance is carried out. Then the maximum number of 9,000 magistrates, and it is more likely that only 7,000 or 8,000 magistrates will be able to represent the imperial court and do a good job in the affairs of governing the world at the grassroots level.

So how many counties are there in the Great Song Dynasty now? Counting the large and small counties established by Yang Yizhong, Liu Ji, Yang Qi, Yue Fei and Wu Jue and others along the way, there are now a total of 19,000 counties in the Great Song Dynasty.

Nineteen thousand counties, that's a staggering number. Among them, there are less than 1,000 households, especially in Ningxia, Suiyuan, and Saibei, and the number of counties with less than 1,000 households in those places has reached 3,500.

And the county governance of less than 2,000 households, even in the center of Kyushu such as Shanxi and Henan, is everywhere, and there are thousands.

The abolition of those county towns with a completely insufficient population, after the abolition of more than 10,000 county seats, will reduce the imperial court's expenditure of more than 10,000 county orders and county magistrates.

According to the calculation of the average rank, the average monthly income of 10,000 county orders is 20 dragon yuan, and 200,000 dragon yuan can be left for the imperial court in that month, not to mention 3 or 4 million to save funds in a year.

Three million, what can be done for today's Great Song? It can pay the normal expenses of an army for five years, build an official road for thousands of miles, dredge a river for 500 miles, and build strong embankments on both sides of the river.

Even if it is used to build a new city, you can use the 3 million yuan to build five Wutai County-like buildings in any place within a year, and the whole city is full of government houses and rented to new county towns where there is no money to buy houses.

In other words, if the 3 million is used for Tzu Chi, it will be distributed to those whose families are in poverty and who have not yet found a good livelihood. Those 3 million can allow 200,000 households to live a whole year without worrying about food and clothing without having to work.

200,000 households and 1 million people can live without food and clothing for a year's money, but more than 10,000 county orders that cannot play a role at all have been taken. For Liu Xing, whose goal is to make the country rich and the people rich, and the country and the people are strong, it is absolutely necessary to wield a knife to cut off this end......

"People-oriented should not be just official words and clichés, but should be implemented in a down-to-earth manner."

After saying his overall thoughts, Liu Xing looked at Zong Ze and said: "The best thing to do is to do people-oriented things, first of all, to reduce expenditure and reduce expenditure, and not to waste the taxes paid by the people for the imperial court." The most practical way is to reduce the number of work links, and to enhance the efficiency of the work, so that all the people can benefit. Therefore, Zong Shuai, I ask you to join me in issuing a joint decree to implement this policy. ”

"Although this policy is good, what should be done with those commanders who have been merged into the county during the removal?"

After listening to Liu Xing's words, Zong Ze frowned and said: "If you implement this policy, it will make tens of thousands of officials of eight or nine grades lose their duties!" Many of those officials had servants in their families, and there were often more than a dozen members in the family. Tens of thousands of people have lost their black gauze hats, but more than 100,000 people are worried about food and clothing! ”

"100,000 people for a million people's livelihood a year, Zong Shuai, which do you think is more and which is less?" Seeing him say this, Liu Xing's face sank and said: "If those officials are really talented and learned, I will order the opening of thousands of primary schools and ten thousand middle schools." They really have the ability, and they can support their families by becoming teachers, but they can't live that pampered life anymore. ”

The words stopped slightly, Liu Xing smiled slyly, turned his head to look at the planter, and said: "What's more, isn't there still Hu Hongxiu's Songjiang and my uncle's grassland that has to take the main responsibility!" Although those places have been devastated by war, it should not be a problem for their aborigines to build a new thousand counties and hundreds of states. If 10,000 people go north, they can take up their new jobs, and if they don't go, they will be a teacher for me. (To be continued.) )