On the New Year's Day in 179 BC, King Xiang Zhuang of Chu finally accepted the advice of various princes after repeated refusals, first built an altar in the eastern suburbs of Luoyang to worship the sky, and then issued an edict to the world to officially succeed the throne.

On the same day, Xiang Zhuang issued the first imperial edict after assuming the throne, changing the country's name to Huaxia.

This imperial decree caused great controversy in the court. The nobles and nobles of Jiangdong borrowed from the imperial court were extremely resistant to this, but the nobles and nobles of other regions and the powerful officials praised it.

The next day, Xiang Zhuang issued his second imperial edict and officially implemented the imperial calendar. It was appointed as the first year of the emperor by Qin Shihuang's proclaimed emperor, 220 BC. The year of Xiang Zhuang's proclaimed emperor was the 42nd year of the emperor. From then on, the Chinese clan's chronology completely went to another direction, and the chronology names of various regions were replaced by the emperor's chronology of all generations.

In February of the 42nd year of the emperor, after more than a month of remarks and discussions on his merits, Xiang Zhuang officially issued an edict to reward his ministers. Baili Xian was granted the title of Duke of Chu, Meng Feng was still the Duke of Qin, Gao Chu was still the Duke of Wei, Pang Yu was moved to Duke of Qi, Zhongli Mei was granted the title of Duke of Wu, and Yu Ziqi was granted the title of Duke of Yue, all of which were inherited and replaced by his family, and he was 10,000 stones, and was the six major Dukes of the Huaxia Empire.

He then conferred thirty-six people, including Xiang Tuo, Wu She, Jin Xiang, Hu Yan, Ziche Shi, Xiqilie, Baili Mao, etc. as Chehou, all of whom were inherited and fed 2,000 stones.

The titles and rewards below the Martial Arts Council shall be agreed upon.

The Martial Arts Academy is the military officer institution that Xiang Zhuang came up with. It is similar to the Five Military Mansions of the Ming Dynasty. Its main function is to store military generals. The military generals stored in the Martial Arts Academy do not command troops in normal times. Only when fighting against foreign countries can the emperor give military talisman seal letters, and then they can go to Zhechong Mansions of various counties to dispatch troops. After the war is over, the military talisman seal letters will be returned to the emperor.

Of course, this is just a routine under normal circumstances, and there will be special circumstances, that is, borders.

Because the border is adjacent to the surrounding barbarian territories, such as Liaodong, Jiuyuan or Longxi, wars usually break out suddenly. If the barbarians come and report to the court, then the emperor will select generals to lead troops to attack. Obviously, it is too late, so military generals must be stationed in the border counties and granted the power to command troops.

Xiang Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, set up six generals in Liaodong, Jiuyuan, Longxi, Qianzhong, Minyue and Dantu. Among them, Liaodong Town was responsible for attacking the barbarians such as Wuhuan, Xianbei, Fuyu, Sushen, Goguryeo, Jiuyuan Town was responsible for attacking the Huns, Longxi Town was responsible for attacking the barbarians such as Yuezhi, Qiang, and Baima. Qianzhong County was responsible for attacking the barbarians such as Yelang, Luwo, and Jucheng. Minyue Town was responsible for attacking the Shanyue and Baiyue tribes, Dantu Town was the general of the navy.

The general of the border town has the power to command the military. If they collude with the local chief, it is easy to form military separatism. Therefore, in order to avoid separatism in the vassal states, Xiangzhuang sets a term of office for the general of the border town responsible for military affairs and the county magistrate of the border county responsible for civil affairs, with a term of five years as one, and re-election is never allowed!

Although this system of "storage in the palace and generals in the court" will more or less affect the combat effectiveness of the army, it can effectively prevent the emergence of warlords holding heavy troops and be conducive to the long-term stability of the empire.

In addition, the titles of the princes of Wei, the titles of the King of Wei, the titles of the King of Ju, the titles of Tian Heng of Qi, the titles of Han Han Xin, and the titles of Liu Heng of Han, but they are not allowed to be hereditary. In other words, these princes can only ensure their glory for life, and their sons cannot inherit the titles of the princes, and can only rely on their own abilities to gain glory and wealth.

After the establishment of the Martial Arts Academy, Xiang Zhuang immediately began to reform the civil service.

The civil service institutions in Chinese history evolved from the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers system in the pre-Qin period to the Three Provinces and Six Ministry system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. By the Ming Dynasty, they eventually evolved into the highly perfect Six Ministry system in the Cabinet.

When it comes to the six-department system of the cabinet, we must mention Zhu Yuanzhang, the common-clad emperor.

When later generations talk about the Ming Dynasty, their first impressions were the domineering Jinyiwei and the vile and vile factory eunuch. It seemed that the Ming Dynasty was the darkest and most corrupt dynasty in Chinese history. When it comes to the Ming Dynasty, the first impression of the world was the Hu Lan case, peeling the grass, as if Zhu Yuanzhang was the most cruel and unkind emperor in feudal history.

In fact, this is simply the slander of the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Taizu.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty was definitely the most clear-minded, with the lowest land tax and the lightest burden on farmers in Chinese history. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was definitely the most politically wise emperor in Chinese history!

If the book and the car are the same, the tracks are the same, the weights and measures are unified, and the roads are cultivated and the Qin Shihuang, who laid the foundation for the integration of the branches of China into a unified nation, was the emperor of the ages, and if the Emperor Yang of Sui, who promoted the imperial examinations and built the Grand Canal, was the two emperors of the ages, then the Ming Taizu, who perfected the bureaucracy to the extreme, was the unscrupulous third emperor of the ages.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang was a commoner, his political wisdom was unprecedented!

The Prime Minister was replaced by the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, and the Grand Chief of the Five Army Governor's Office gave low-ranking censors the privilege of saying nothing and being impeached by the powerful. They set up the Jinyiwei to supervise all officials, and also set up the Dongchang to check and balance the Jinyiwei. All of these reflect the extraordinary wisdom of Zhu Yuanzhang, a commoner emperor.

In particular, a cabinet grandson is established to replace the prime minister, which is a classic.

The prime minister is responsible for assisting the emperor in handling national government affairs. One of the important powers is personnel appointment and removal. Through the appointment and removal of officials at all levels, the prime minister can easily cultivate a system that is loyal to himself and then undermine the imperial power. When the prime minister's power infiltrates the army, changing dynasties may be inevitable.

From the time when the prime minister appeared in the pre-Qin period to the end of the Ming Taizu, no emperor could come up with a way to effectively restrict the prime minister's power in more than two years, but the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang did it.

Replacing the prime minister with a cabinet grandson is not just as simple as sharing the power of one prime minister to multiple grandsons. The key is that the grandson himself has only a fifth rank, and the emperor has a lot of choice when appointing and removing a cabinet grandson. In other words, officials with low qualifications and low reputation can also be appointed as a grandson as long as they have the trust of the emperor.

In this way, the cabinet actually became the secretary team around the emperor. If the cabinet did not rely on the imperial power, the cabinet would not be able to suppress the six ministries at all, and it would be impossible to challenge the imperial power. As for the officials of the six ministries, even the Minister of Personnel, although he had incomparable personal resources, he would be subject to the cabinet's restraint and would also lose the possibility of challenging the imperial power.

Therefore, Xiang Zhuang decided to learn from the Ming Taizu and adopt the six-department system of cabinet.

Of course, the reform of civil servant institutions is much more complicated than that of military officer institutions.

The Martial Arts Academy is just a very general institution. To put it bluntly, it is to build several courtyards so that those Dukes, Chehous and young generals who graduated from Imperial Academy can have a place to drink tea and chat. The military ranks in the Martial Arts Academy are also simple. In addition to Dukes and Chehous, there are three military ranks under it, General, General of the Central Army, and Chief of the Celestial Army.

The civilian institutions are different. In addition to the cabinet, there are six ministries, the Censorate and a huge local institutions.

Xiangzhuang began to reform the civil service in the early 42nd year of the emperor, and it was not completed until the winter of the emperor's 43rd year.

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In the spring of the 44th year of the emperor, Xiang Zhuang visited Jiangdong for the first time.

However, the first stop that Xiang Zhuang arrived was not Zhiling, but the Dantu Naval Camp.

The first major event that Xiang Zhuang did after he became emperor was not to immigrate from Jiangdong, Bashu, and Hebei to fill the border, nor to send troops to conquer the Huns or Yuezhi, but to pretend that the gods gave their dreams to draw a Pacific chart, and ordered Jiang Ji, the first navy general of Dantu Town, to lead fifty sea ships to cross the ocean to find the American continent.

As a time traveler, Xiang Zhuang knew very well the huge rewards that the Great Navigation Movement could bring.

The spices from Southeast Asia, silver from America and gold from Africa are second. The key is that high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn from America are necessary!

In real history, neither the strong Han nor the prosperous Tang Dynasty could allow the actual rule of Chinese civilization to exceed the Yellow River. In the two major basins of the Yangtze River, although the strong Han defeated the Huns, they were unable to achieve actual control of the desert. Although the prosperous Tang Dynasty had military existence in Central Asia, it lasted for a short time and was not too late to assimilate the various ethnic groups in Central Asia.

The biggest shackles are population. Whether it is the strong Han Dynasty or the prosperous Tang Dynasty, its population size is not enough to support the actual rule of surrounding areas such as northern desert, central Asia, Far East, and Southeast Asia.

If the strong Han or prosperous Tang Dynasty had a population base of hundreds of millions, then the living space of the surrounding barbarians could be gradually eroded through huge immigration projects, and the living environment of the Chinese nation would be greatly improved. The tragedy of the Five Barbarians invading China, the Five Dynasties and the Sixteen Kingdoms, the Mongol Yuan, and the Qing Dynasty's entry into the Central Plains would have absolutely no chance to happen.

The traditional sphere of influence of the Huaxia people is concentrated in the two major river basins of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River.

Someone has done a calculation. With the productivity of the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins can feed about 50 million people, and 60 million people are the extreme value. If this limit value exceeds it, it will cause serious famine, which will lead to a series of sharp social contradictions. The Yellow Turban Uprising in the late Eastern Han Dynasty was caused by famine.

If Xiangzhuang wants to get rid of the population shackles, it must introduce sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn!

Therefore, after Xiangzhuang became emperor, the first major task was to send navy troops to the ocean to South America to find sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn. This was the material basis for the huge explosion of the Chinese nation's population. In real history, it was also after the introduction of these high-yield and drought-resistant crops that the population showed an explosive growth.

Jiang Ji's navy fleet went to sea from Dantu Port in the spring of the 42nd year of the Emperor. It has been two full years since then. Just when Xiangzhuang thought that this navy fleet had been destroyed in the storm in the Pacific, half a month ago, he suddenly received a letter from the Xuanyiwei to send a flying pigeon from Panyu. The navy fleet had actually returned to Panyu Port!

Xiang Zhuang was overjoyed when he heard the news and immediately arranged for the prince to stay in Luoyang, but he rushed to Dantu Port to personally welcome the triumphant return of Jiang Ji Navy. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to (.) vote for recommendations, monthly votes, and your support is my greatest motivation.)
Chapter completed!