How to ensure that the Duke, a completely newly created system, will not have a negative impact on the administration and finance of the empire, and will also have the effect of rewarding merits and promote long-term growth of win-win results.

Many of the policy designs here still require long-term practical adjustments, and they cannot be completely thought through just a few court meetings.

After all, the duke of Liu Bei's dynasty was completely different from the duke of the ancient Zhou Dynasty. He just borrowed the names of ancient people. There was no duke in the Qin and Han Dynasties. How to build a good duke in the imperial era was completely exploring from scratch.

In addition to Zhuge Liang's interpretation of the first court meeting that day, in the last few months of 198, as Li Su was officially granted a title, he began to rectify the fiefdom, and many small details were excavated, gradually forming a conventional system.

For example, later the monarch and ministers noticed that the biggest problem that had the greatest impact on the economic collapse of the previous Han and later Han countries was the rise of powerful manors and land annexation.

So since the duke can carry out private economic construction in his fiefdom, how can he prevent the duke from growing into the largest powerful manor oligarch and land annexation to the point of collapse?

After all, not every generation of dukes is satisfied with the light taxes and taxes of "thirty taxes and one" and only asks the self-cultivated farmers to collect a little bit of money and grain. If the duke wants to collect thirty taxes and one, and at the same time merge the self-cultivated farmers into tenants, and collect 40 to 50% of the landlord's land rent, it is unstoppable.

These problems are very complicated and may not be able to understand them for several years. However, during the initial implementation, Liu Bei and Zhong Yao summarized an idea to try to alleviate this problem: if conditions permit, try to seal these dukes who have the right to rent and tax but have no right to govern to the border counties.

The reason is also very simple: the hinterlands of the Han Dynasty are already densely populated and relatively well-developed, and the limit of population growth is there.

Since the dukes can develop algebras for the demolition of counties and extension of their descendants by developing algebras, they must be happy to enthrone the border counties, which are still relatively large and sparsely populated, and reclaim wastelands from borders in the future to increase the population and allow the title to benefit and extend the title.

For the court, the court was willing to engage in purely economical foreign colonization on the border without interfering in political governance and garrisons. After all, this can encourage the Han civilization to colonize and expand outwardly from a systemic perspective and increase the country's land pioneering.

If the dukes all annexed new land from the current unmanned or barbarian areas, the social conflicts would not be that serious. Moreover, each generation of imperial court reclaimed a county, it would be equivalent to the "inheritance tax" of the dukes.

In the future, every generation will give priority to recycling from counties bordering the mainland. The dukes will then open up new areas to the border to increase their population and set up new counties, and the accumulation rate of social conflicts in land annexation will slow down.

Of course, it is impossible to eradicate land annexation, and this big problem still requires other policies to cooperate in the future.

According to this idea, although Liu Bei had no other heroes to be appointed as the Duke, he had already secretly thought about where to choose the fiefdom for his brothers in the future.

Guan Yu is a native of Hedong. In theory, if he was granted his ancestral home, he would be the Duke of Hedong County in the future. However, Hedong borders Henan Yin, where Luoyang is located, and it is a key link between Luoyang and Chang'an. It is too close to the capital, so it must not be granted.

Even Guan Yu can't do it.

In this case, Guan Yu should move from Hedong along the border along the Han territory. It can be Shangdang County or Taiyuan County, preferably Taiyuan, because it is closer to the border.

Fortunately, Guan Yu chose to be promoted to the general this year, and then give it to the duke after the Yuan family is completely destroyed next year. Then Lu Bu's territory must have been taken back by then, and there is no problem giving Guan Yu the Duke of Taiyuan County.

Taiyuan is close to the north, and the mountainous areas are also very cold in winter, so I will not attack Taiyuan this winter. However, Liu Bei felt that during the Chinese New Year, he could give his second brother a message to make Guan Yu feel prepared.

In this way, Guan Yu will be very motivated to take over Taiyuan County, which will be in the spring of next year, and he will also pay attention to protecting the people during the process of taking over, and do not kill or destroy them. After all, Your Majesty has promised you this place, how can your own quasi-fixion land be destroyed? The broken ones are Guan Yu's own property.

This matter has not been completely decided, mainly because I don’t know how far the Northern Expedition will fight in the future.

If the Xianbei Shengle royal court outside the pass can also be taken down, Liu Bei also considered merging Yanmen and Shengle surrounding areas in the north of Taiyuan County, and continued to be called "Yanmen County" or renamed "Datong County". After the Xianbei was expelled, the world would be like to be Datong.

Let Guan Yu be the Duke of Datong County.

After making plans for the second brother in his heart, Liu Bei continued to plan alone there.

The third brother Zhang Fei and he are fellow villagers, both from Zhuo County. Although Zhuo County is relatively close to the border, there is still land in the north. Moreover, there will be an imperial town in the future, so it is impossible to establish a county duke.

Then move Zhang Fei a little further north, which can be the Duke of Shanggu County, which is the area between Juyongguan and Zhangjiakou in later generations, and you can control the expansion pass from Hebei to the northern grasslands in later generations.

Moreover, Guangning County (Zhangjiakou) in Shanggu County will also be the Great Wall Pass in the future, an important hub for Hebei and grassland trade. The cattle, sheep, grassland supplies and goods exported from Beijing in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties were traded through Zhangjiakou.

In addition, Zhang Fei's military achievements are one step smaller than Guan Yu and Li Su.

Of course, this is also related to the plan given to him by Liu Bei: Liu Bei's plan to destroy the three warlords of Kanto was that when he was fighting Cao Cao in the future, Zhang Fei was the head coach of Henan and Huaibei in the middle, while Guan Yu was in Hebei and Li Su was in Jiangdong. Because he had never started a full-scale war with Cao Cao, Zhang Fei was in a stalemate.

But even if Zhang Fei led his troops to attack Cao Cao later, his contributions would definitely be lower than those of Guan, and Li's Shanggu County had relatively few counties, with only eight counties.

If Zhang Fei did not develop, the territory of Zhang Fei's seventh generation grandson would be deducted, which would be incomparable to Li Su's twenty-first generation grandson.

According to this logic, Liu Bei also arranged for Zhao Yun, who he felt he would inevitably be sealed.

Should I make Zhao Yun the best of Liaodong County, or should I consider Zhao Yun's achievements in Fubo in the south, be familiar with the development of the southern region, and build a county in the Baiyue area of ​​Jiaozhou...

If Zhao Yun was granted the title of Liaodong and Mi Zhu, the "early investor" who has been operating Liaodong, will be re-supplied in the future, what should be arranged? Half of the jurisdiction is deducted, and the rest will be changed to Duke? Duke of the Three Han County?

If Ma Chao finally meets the duke's standards, should he be granted the west of Dunhuang, which is the most western and the most sparsely populated and poor? Is it the Duke of Dunhuang County or the Duke of Shanshan County?

Liu Bei couldn't figure out a series of questions at the moment, so he just secretly drew or planned it on the map. It had a bit of "shameless" meaning of "the map opened the border", and seemed to have completely forgotten whether it was Shanggu or Liaodong, but now it is still Yuan Shao's land.

In short, Liu Bei thought in his mind that Zilong and above would definitely be sealed. Others depend on the size of the credit. After the great man was completely reunified, at least the "Four Dukes of Zhongxing" would be needed. If there were more, there might be seven Dukes, and there should not be more.

All the precedents of Belarus must be cited and placed in border areas. Annexation cannot be carried out inland land.

Anyone who wants to annex arable land must be obtained by pioneering and colonizing the border!

Moreover, after plundering the bordering barbarian population, naturalizing it into Han people and completing the enrollment of households in Qimin, it can be regarded as the number of households successfully increased in colonial areas.

The princes at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty also recognized this very much, so there was no cognitive impairment. Just like during this period of history, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao transformed into northern Hu people such as Wuhuan to serve and pay taxes, and Sun Quan desperately sent He Qi and Bu Zhi and others to capture Shanyue and naturalize them into Han people, all of which were in this category.

If there are 20,000 households colonized on the border, one more county will be designated! There is no deception!

...

After understanding the sustainable development of the duke system, Liu Bei finally put the last patch on this system in case the final ending was too big, which was to try to combine the "foreign order" of the Han family's story with the duke system in a limited manner under specific circumstances.

This patch was specially designed for Li Su. It is because the Kuaiji County, which was granted to Li Su, may be the largest county among the future dukes.

Liu Bei had no reservations about Li Su, but he also had to consider Li Su's descendants. If the expansion rate of meritorious service exceeds expectations, for both parties to be good, he could benefit Li Su's descendants more than he did on the premise that the total amount of benefits remained unchanged.

Of course, there is no need to explain the content of the order to promote the grace. It is nothing more than that under specific circumstances, the fiefs of the princes and nobles are allowed to be divided and distributed to several sons. Some are forced to promote the grace, and some are also implemented after the ministers' request.

Of course, Liu Bei would not apply for a forced order to prosecute grace, as it would damage the brotherly loyalty and feelings. But he left behind a hole in which his ministers took the initiative to request a prosecution of favor and exclusion.

At the same time, it is not unconditional to give favors, because once the county duke is given favors, it means that the fiefdom becomes two parts, and these two parts must have at least an independent county area so that they can be detrimentally recommended.

Otherwise, one son will retain the title of county magistrate, and the son who was assigned to become county marquis.

The area of ​​Kuaiji County where Li Su is located is indeed too large. The Qin Dynasty once set up a Minzhong County in the southern part of Kuaiji alone. The Han Dynasty was abolished because there were very few people there.

But Li Su's ability to manage territory is obvious to all, and Liu Bei was also deeply impressed by it. He felt that with Li Su's ability, it was not impossible to develop the central Fujian region into a paradise on earth in his later years.

If Li Su takes the initiative to request, Kuaiji can be dismantled from Fujian and the two sons will inherit one of them. Li Su himself can avoid suspicion, so as not to be suspected of threatening Huang Quan with his descendants. Moreover, they are all his sons, so it is no problem that the palms and backs of their hands are as painful as they are, and Li Su has no loss.

...

In addition to the above, there is another important point that led to Liu Bei's thoughts on the "request-style grace order": when Li Su went south to the east before, he talked to Liu Bei privately that he wanted to "marry" Zhen Mi as his concubine.

Most of the concubines were accepted, but if the woman had a high family status, she could marry her. Li Su was still serious about this matter, so Liu Bei naturally had to help him find a way to be decent.

After all, Liu Bei told him privately that it was "after destroying Sun Ce, he handed over the military power of the governor of the south, and granted him a concubine." Liu Bei himself felt sorry for Li Su.

With the system of "request-based favor order", it will be easier to improve the status of Li Su's individual concubines.

Before the Han Dynasty, there were no clear regulations on the robbers and marquis' concubines, but only required the robbers and kings to decrease step by step.

The law clearly stipulates how many concubines can a prince and a prince take, "there is a 40-year-old wife who exceeds the system." The Han Book records the punishment cases of excessive concubines and titles.

Even Liu Bei's ancestor, King Jing of Zhongshan, Liu Sheng, was known as more than 120 sons, but there were only 37 "little wives" who dared to show on the books, and they were stuck and not out of the limit. (In fact, there were many "slaves" who gave birth to children for Liu Sheng, but they could not be considered as taking concubines)

Now Liu Bei is preparing to clarify this law. The duke must not take more than twenty concubines, and the county marquis must not take more than fifteen concubines.

Below the Marquis of Guannei, the titles of Liu Bei who was replaced by Bo, Zi, and Male when Liu Bei was promoted to Emperor reform, decreased by ten, eight, and six...

Anyway, the number of legal wives and concubines is no more than seven.

After the law clarified the upper limit of the number of concubines at all levels, Liu Bei planned to follow up and introduce a system of title-named ladies similar to the later generations of "also as concubines".

As we all know, among the wives and concubines of the Han Dynasty ministers and nobles, only the wife could have a title. If the concubine had a title, it could only be "the mother was noble for the son."

Only by striving for the son he gave birth to succeed, inheriting and carrying forward the family business, or making other achievements and receiving titles, can the mother who gave birth to the son who gave birth to the title be granted the title of the emperor and the like.

However, when Emperor Wu of Han first began to apply for the order to reiterate, many concubines who were favored by the princes were granted the title of marquis, so they gave birth to concubines who recommended the sons of marquis and also obtained the status of a wife of the imperial decree.

Of course, Cai Yan has the highest status in Li Su's family, and there is no doubt that the three-year-old son she gave Li Su to Li Su's family must inherit the title of Duke of Kuaiji County.

But if Li Su took the initiative to ask for favors during his lifetime, divide his family into division, and let Zhen Ji's future first son inherit the fiefdom of Minzhong, then Zhen Ji can also get the title of "Mrs. Duke of Minzhong County" when he married him and have "treatment of Duchess in comparison."

In this way, the Zhen family had nothing to say, and they had given their younger sister enough attention and courtesy. Although they were concubines, they were at least married to the duchess' courtesy, and they were also called wife.

As for Li Su's descendants who really restrict their sphere of influence, the specific pros and cons are actually good and bad, and in general it is not a loss.

After the split, the advantage is that no matter how unfair the descendants of these two branches are, as long as they do not commit serious crimes, they will completely reduce one county in the world, and at least two counties will not be reduced. If they are not split, there will be only one county to reduce the final lower limit. Therefore, splitting can double the lower limit.
Chapter completed!