When Zhu Qizhen sobered up the next day, he took a boat back to Tianjin. Yu Qian gave a crackling remonstrance, picked out all the emperors who had been immoral in drinking, and lectured Zhu Qizhen.

Zhu Qizhen could only bow his head in submission, and then changed the subject. Shifting the topic to political affairs, Zhu Qizhen said: "Sir, you have been in Zhili for a long time. Zhili Province is newly built, but you don't know what's wrong with it?"

When Yu Qian heard Zhu Qizhen change the topic, he may not have known this, but he knew better, could he really be more serious with the emperor? Since Zhu Qizhen had already relented, he just accepted it and said, "Your Majesty, you are the first official of Zhili.

There are many problems in the province, but there are two questions that His Majesty did not ask, but I have to report them."

Zhu Qizhen said: "Sir, please speak?"

"The first thing is that it is no longer appropriate for the customs to be in Tianjin. Tianjin is the focus of the imperial court's warehousing, and maritime merchants are some lawless people. Once there is a loss, it will affect the imperial treasury and it will be irreversible. This is not the case.

First, if the customs is located in Tianjin, sea-going ships have to be transshipped from the Wei River. There will be lawless people smuggling sea goods along the way, which will damage the national tariff. Therefore, for the sake of long-term peace and stability, the customs should be located on the seaside and should not be located on the seaside.

Tianjin is in the city."

Zhu Qizhen nodded slightly and said, "I understand. Sir, just discuss it with the Ministry of Household Affairs."

When the customs was originally located in Tianjin, it was not necessarily a temporary measure.

It should be to the east of Tianjin City. Although it is still some distance from the seaside, these places are all barbaric lands, and even a decent county seat cannot be found.

Therefore, there was no place that could receive a large number of maritime merchants, so it was located in Tianjin.

Now it is reasonable to put it on the seaside. Zhu Qizhen also stayed in Dagu for a night, knowing that driven by interests, the development of Dagu will definitely be rapid.

Zhu Qizhen actually had the idea of ​​setting up a county in Dagu. This idea was just a preliminary idea. Anyway, it would take some time for Yu Qian to discuss it with the Ministry of Household Affairs on behalf of Zhili Province. Zhu Qizhen could naturally find a suitable one.

If you have the opportunity, add this idea and see the opinions of the Ministry of Revenue and Zhili.

As for success or failure, Zhu Qizhen doesn't care.

After all, his energy is not focused on a mere county.

Yu Qian said: "The second thing is the water conservancy project in Zhili."

Zhu Qizhen said: "What went wrong?" It can be said that the water conservancy project in Zhili was the first major project since Zhu Qizhen took the throne. How could Zhu Qizhen not pay attention to it?

Yu Qian said: "Everything is going well in Zhili Water Conservancy. Otherwise, I would not dare to invite your Majesty to inspect it. There is just one thing that needs to be dealt with."

"Today, the Ministry of Household Affairs' allocation to Zhili will gradually decrease. After the construction of the Five Rivers and Three Lakes is completed, the imperial court will not allocate any wide items for water control to Zhili except for the fixed amount of 10,000 to 20,000 taels of silver per year for river construction.

.”

Zhu Qizhen frowned slightly and said, "Sir, please rest assured that Zhili's water conservancy is not what it used to be. I will ask the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry to discuss a figure, and I will not make Zhili suffer hardship."

This is the rigidity of Ming Dynasty's finance. Everything is done according to old rules and quotas.

Zhu Qizhen thought to himself: "It seems that Zhou Chen needs to be warned about this matter."

"Your Majesty has misunderstood me." Yu Qian said: "Of course I trust your majesty, but in various prefectures and counties, I also set aside a sum of money specifically for water conservancy maintenance."

"I made a rough calculation and found that there are probably as many as one hundred thousand taels. The imperial court will allocate more funds or allow the direct retention of one hundred thousand taels, which is enough for maintenance. In addition, there are some finishing projects in the past few years. After a few years, I am confident that it will be

The maintenance cost is limited to about 100,000 taels."

Once a water conservancy project is repaired, it cannot be left alone.

It requires constant maintenance.

However, the ancient labor service system greatly compensated Yu Qian financially. Yu Qian usually allocated the maintenance of a certain water conservancy project to several villages.

The men in these villages have to clean and maintain the dams during their leisure time, and guard the dams during the flood season.

Of course, Yu Qian tried his best to arrange for stakeholders to be involved. These water conservancy projects are directly related to the village's irrigation or the safety of the village. Only in this way can these people work hard.

No need to even urge.

In this way, the court can reduce a lot of expenses.

Because many times, maintaining dams requires manpower.

In this way, the imperial court can focus on the maintenance of several major projects.

In fact, Yu Qian has done a good job. You must know that the annual maintenance cost of the entire canal system is around one million taels.

"It's just that the imperial court has spent so much effort to repair these water conservancy projects, and they always need someone to manage them. I have appointed colleagues in almost every prefecture to manage water conservancy projects. But in the province, there is no one specifically responsible for it."

Zhu Qizhen also heard the clue. Yu Qian meant to establish provincial-level officials specializing in water conservancy management.

In fact, in the system set up by Emperor Taizu, there was no position of governor. Instead, there were three parallel agencies: the Chief Secretary, the Chief Inspector, and the Command Division.

Although the Chief Secretary is the most respected among these three, they are still equal institutions, and no one is beholden to the other. This is how the governor was born.

But now the appointment of governors is not customized, but is done when there is something to do, and when there is nothing to do, let it go.

Zhu Qizhen has long had opinions on this. Based on his experience in later generations, there are certain reasons why the governor finally formed the head of a province in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

It was Emperor Taizu who weakened local power too much in the system.

This imbalance means that when a place encounters major events, there will be more internal strife, such as disasters, wars, rebellions, etc., and one person will inevitably need to be in charge.

But from Yu Qian's words, it seems that Yu Qian wants to add another division-level yamen in addition to the three-si yamen?

Zhu Qizhen never thought about this?

After all, the previous example that could be followed was the water transport system. The general water transport officer was the main officer, with various military posts under his jurisdiction. There were also some civilian officials who established a water transport system that was independent of the local government, and even in turn, embezzled the water transport system.

local authority.

Zhu Qizhen didn't feel that this system was very successful. Hearing what Yu Qian said at this moment, he was also moved in his heart.

Sure enough, what Yu Qian said was exactly what Zhu Qizhen thought. Yu Qian said: "I thought that the Capital Water Department of Zhili Province should be set up to be in charge of water conservancy in Zhili Province. After all, the water systems of Zhili Province are connected. When there is a drought in the flood season, one province should be unified.

Planning, otherwise, I am worried that beggar-thy-neighbor incidents may occur.”

Yu Qian didn't think that far ahead.

This is not because Yu Qian's wisdom is not as good as Zhu Qizhen's, but that each station has a different perspective. For Zhu Qizhen, the most important thing is to eliminate the shortcomings in the operation of the country and let the world implement his own ideas step by step.

of.

But Yu Qian's efforts over the past few years have been focused on regulating the river. Now that the work is completed, what Yu Qian is most worried about is not his own fate.

Rather, they were worried that the people would die and the government would cease, and the Hebei water conservancy project that had accumulated gold and silver for the imperial court would be wasted by those who followed.

Thinking about it this way, it is very important to ensure the continuation of water conservancy policies institutionally.

Zhu Qizhen said: "How should the Capital Water Department be run? How many officials are there? How to manage the river canals below. Sir, write a question and submit it to Yang Shoufu. I think Yang Shoufu is rich in experience and will definitely give you a satisfactory answer."

But what Yu Qian is worried about will not happen.

Zhu Qizhen's biggest realization after being emperor for so many years is that although a considerable number of officials in the Ming Dynasty are good, one should never underestimate the integrity of those few officials.

This is as true as ever.

Future generations will all be scum, so what does it mean to beggar your neighbor now? Anyway, he only needs to protect his subordinates from being flooded. As for the downstream issues, it is none of his business.

Although Zhu Qizhen didn't agree outright, the hint was already obvious.

However, the article Zhu Qizhen wanted to write was not about this. He wanted to use the establishment of the Capital Water Division to clarify the local system of the Ming Dynasty, and at least to establish the governor system.

There is also the question of whether the split of the large province of Southern Zhili can be put on the agenda.

Thoughts flashed through Zhu Qizhen's mind. When he couldn't find an entry point, Zhu Qizhen had all his ideas in his mind. Good policies cannot be implemented at a good time, and the possibility of failure is very high.
Chapter completed!