Chapter 1029

In the Imperial Study, the nine grand secretaries of the Cabinet stood behind Xiao Ming, watching him divide the administrative regions on the Empire’s map.

After the Tibetan envoy submitted the letter of credence and left, they were summoned by Xiao Ming to the Imperial Study to officially begin preparing for the new administrative regions.

In fact, even before the Tibetan campaign began, they had already been formulating the corresponding administrative regions. Now, after Xiao Ming’s final decision, it was finally settled.

“Why did Your Majesty designate it as an autonomous region when the Tibetan envoy came? Are you not worried about a future rebellion from Tibet?” Fei Ji had his doubts when he met with the Tibetan envoy, and now he finally could not help but voice them.

Pointing his finger at the Tibetan Plateau, Xiao Ming said, “Autonomy is merely to appease the Tibetans. It is easy to make Tibet submit, but managing them is very difficult. So instead of dispatching imperial officials, it is better for the court to directly select officials from Tibet to be in charge of management, and then have these officials regularly come to the Qingzhou Political Academy to study, thus gradually assimilating the Tibetans.”

Clearing his throat, he continued, “Moreover, Tibet’s military power has already been disbanded. With the imperial army stationed there, they cannot stir up any trouble.”

Fei Ji and the others nodded in agreement. Pang Yukun said, “Ruling a large country is like cooking a delicate dish; some things cannot be rushed. Now that Tibet has been incorporated into the Empire, we must not apply too much pressure and cause a backlash.”

After briefly mentioning the governance of Tibet, Xiao Ming turned around. He said, “All the administrative regions are listed above. Take a close look.”

According to his ideas, the Empire’s current administrative division was somewhat similar to that of the Ming Dynasty in contemporary times, but not entirely the same.

Generally speaking, he divided the Empire into two directly governed provinces and eighteen ordinary provinces. The two directly governed provinces were the Southern Direct Province and the Northern Direct Province. The Northern Direct Province included the contemporary Beijing, Tianjin, most of Hebei Province, and small parts of Henan Province and Shandong Province.

The Southern Direct Province included the contemporary Jiangsu Province, Anhui, and the two provinces and one city of Shanghai. These two provinces were directly under the jurisdiction of the capital.

In addition, the other provincial units included Shaanxi Province, Shanxi Province, Shandong Province, Henan Province, Zhejiang Province, Jiangxi Province, Huguang Province, Sichuan Province, Guangdong Province, Fujian Province, Guangxi Province, Guizhou Province, Yunnan Province, Ryukyu Province, Goryeo Province, Guandong Province, Guanxi Province, and the newly submitted Tibetan Province.

As for the newly conquered Australia, he was not in a hurry to include it in the Empire’s list of provinces, because the Empire’s sphere of influence was currently expanding. It was not too late to compile it after the dust had settled.

Looking at the provincial divisions on the map, the ministers each took out a booklet to take notes.

Sitting on his chair and leisurely sipping his tea, Xiao Ming continued, “Each province will have one provincial capital, and a number of upper prefectures, middle prefectures, and lower prefectures. You can discuss the specific details among yourselves. I will not be involved.”

This time, Xiao Ming did not intend to change the prefectures into cities. He had already adopted the division of upper prefectures, middle prefectures, and lower prefectures of the Great Yu Empire, in which an upper prefecture was equivalent to a provincial capital, a middle prefecture was equivalent to a prefecture-level city, and a lower prefecture was equivalent to a regular city.

The highest administrative official of each prefecture would still be called the governor. The difference was that after the refinement of state affairs, each prefecture would not only have a governor but also six deputy governors. These six deputy governors would each manage a different aspect of the prefecture, similar to a smaller version of the six ministries.

The management of a province’s affairs was somewhat similar to that of a prefecture, with the highest official being the provincial inspector, who had six deputy provincial inspectors under him, each in charge of different state affairs.

In addition to state affairs, both the provinces and prefectures would establish a supervisory bureau, with the prefectural supervisory bureau directly subordinate to the provincial supervisory bureau, and so on.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the nine grand secretaries all said in unison. This administrative reform was grand, to say the least. After the reform, the Empire’s administrative landscape would be completely new.

However, they also understood that after this reform, the Empire’s state affairs would become more systematic and standardized. After all, with the Empire’s development, state affairs were also becoming more complex with the increase in industries. The era when a single governor did everything was gone forever.

After all, limited by their own knowledge, many governors were completely ignorant about some things. This also meant that more and more graduates from the academy would enter the political system.

After a discussion of the political reform, Xiao Ming suddenly felt a sense of relief. Military reform and political reform were two huge mountains that had been weighing on him.

After all, the Empire’s development was too fast, and to adapt to these changes, he had been constantly adjusting the government and the army in recent years. This kind of reform was very troublesome.

But unlike previous military and political reforms, this reform would be a one-time solution. After all, these two areas were now infinitely close to the contemporary era.

Even if the Empire developed rapidly in the future, it would only require minor adjustments, not major changes.

So, from now on, he could focus on foreign affairs, and the government could operate according to the mechanisms he had implemented.

After the ministers finished copying the map and left, he and Qian Dafu began studying the map again. At this time, he pointed his finger to the island group south of Australia. “This place is called New Guinea. There is a huge copper mine on it.”

Qian Dafu’s eyes crinkled into a smile. As a person with great influence over the Ministry of Minerals, Qian Dafu was very sensitive to mineral resources. He was always overjoyed every time he heard about a new mining area.

“In that case, I will have the Ministry of Minerals go and look for it,” Qian Dafu said, a little impatiently. After all, the Empire was very short on copper now. With the development of the machinery industry, the demand for copper in all industries was huge.

Half a month later, Lei Ming, who was stationed in Australia, received an order from Xiao Ming. This order instructed him to send a small team to escort the accompanying members of the Ministry of Minerals to New Guinea Island. According to their understanding, there were many local natives on this island.

At the same time, along with this order was a request for him to attack the British colony in Indonesia.

Although most of Indonesia belonged to the Netherlands, Britain had still taken a piece of it over the years due to their domineering nature.

“Hehe, the order has finally arrived. We have work to do again,” Shi Yanjun said in a good mood. The battle report that Lei Ming had sent back last time had already received a reply.

In rewarding meritorious service, the generals and soldiers who made contributions this time all received corresponding estates and land in Wales.

Now he and Lei Ming were in their own estates. This estate used to belong to a British nobleman. After the nobleman fled, no one was managing it anymore.

So he spent another 1,000 dragon coins to buy one hundred Welsh slaves and had these slaves manage the estate for him.

Lei Ming was also starting to like this independent continent on the ocean. So after Shi Yanjun purchased his estate with merit points and dragon coins, he spent some money to buy a pasture. As a person from Youzhou, he had always wanted to have his own pasture.

Now he had finally gotten his wish. He thought that when he took a vacation in the future, he could come here to ride horses and herd sheep, and live a leisurely life. But before that, he still had many battles to fight.