Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 147
After the Liaodong incident, the whole world seemed to have returned to peace.

A month passed in a flash, and it soon entered the beginning of autumn.

On the tenth day of July, the sound of firecrackers suddenly sounded on the streets of Heyang County, Baoding Prefecture, North Zhili. The people who love to watch the excitement immediately came over. Then, amidst the sound of firecrackers, a shop with a very large area pulled down the signboard red cloth.

【Heyang Huangdian】

Seeing these four words, the surrounding people immediately looked disgusted, and then prepared to leave this place.

But soon, before they had time to move away, they were stopped by the yelling of the buddy.

"Neighbors and neighbors, this shop is newly opened. The honeycomb briquettes in the shop are two cents a catty today. If you buy enough [-] catties, you will get a pottery stove, and coarse salt is five cents a catty!"

"What? Wuwen?!" Hearing this, the surrounding people immediately poured into the imperial store.

You must know that although Baoding Prefecture is also in Northern Zhili, the price of salt is generally six or seven renminbi.

Now suddenly a big guy who only sells five cents comes out, and the people around him flock to it immediately, just like the uncles and aunts in the supermarket sales promotion in the later generations.

Such a picture can only be said to be of the same origin.

After a while, the briquettes, coarse salt, and fine salt in the store were all sold out.

After the manager and the guy in the store reacted, the manager immediately said to the guy:
"Go to the Baihu Office of Fusi in Nanzhen, and have someone send a letter to the Yumajian, saying that the goods in Heyang Huangdian will double next month!"

"Okay!" Hearing this, the clerk happily ran to Baihusuo, and then Baihusuo dispatched a fast horse to send the news to the capital of Shuntian Prefecture.

The Yumajian yamen in the capital is very lively today, with fast horses coming almost every quarter of an hour, and leaving in a hurry after delivering the letter.

Seeing this, the officials of the Water Transport Yamen located diagonally opposite the Yumajian Yamen thought that something terrible had happened, but they didn't realize that it was the Huangdian's business.

"Okay... okay..."

In the yamen of the Yumajian, Cao Huachun, who was sitting at the head of the yamen, was counting the letters with a smile, and he couldn't keep his mouth shut.

Seeing this, a eunuch next to him smiled and said, "Admiral, this saltworks can be said to revitalize all the imperial stores."

"Hehe...that's a bit exaggerated." Cao Huachun said modestly, but his eyes were smiling, which showed that what the other party said was not wrong.

"Okay, I'll take these accounts back to the palace and show them to His Highness and Long Live. I think you two will be very happy." After Cao Huachun finished speaking, he got up and prepared to go to the palace.

He went out and got into the carriage, and then entered the palace in less than a quarter of an hour, and went to the Qianqing Palace.

He didn't go to Xuqin Palace, because he remembered that His Royal Highness said that today he was going to Yangxin Palace to play chess with the emperor.

So he walked to Qianqing Palace, and then he saw the accompanying eunuch of Xuqin Palace. After greeting him with a slight nod, he stepped into Qianqing Palace and saw Wei Zhongxian who was guarding the gate of Yangxin Palace.

After bowing to each other, Cao Huachun walked into the Hall of Mental Cultivation and saw the two brothers Zhu Youxiao who were playing chess.

"Long live, Your Highness, there is news from the Imperial Stores of the Imperial Horse Supervisor."

Cao Huachun bowed and saluted, and reported the reason for his disturbance.

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao was still studying the chess game, but Zhu Youjian raised his head and said, "Take it here."

As soon as he finished speaking, Cao Huachun handed the letters from the imperial stores all over the place to Zhu Youjian, and then stood quietly aside.

On the other hand, Zhu Youjian watched the situation in the Huangdian while playing chess, without any delay.

If his appearance was seen by foreign ministers, he would definitely be dripping with cold sweat.

Playing chess with the emperor, and putting on such a dual-purpose appearance, if it was someone else, I'm afraid he would have been dragged down long ago.

However, Zhu Youjian still played chess while watching the situation in Huangdian.

More than a month has passed since the siege of Shenyang, and not much happened in this month.

The first is to relocate the people of Shenyang and the people of the Yangjiyuan in Beizhili to Zhenjiang and Daning, and the second is that Qi Yuanbi went south and Qin Liangyu got the will to recruit soldiers again.

The Liaozhen cavalry of the three guards of Daning withdrew to Guangning, leaving only Man Gui and Yu Linwei outside the pass.

Sun Yingyuan dismantled the stone forts in the six hundred miles from Zhenjiang to Jinzhou, and dismantled [-] stone forts in a row, and assisted Qin Bangping in dismantling the guards and soldiers of the Jinzhou Guard.

The abolition of the twenty-six forts with one guard and three houses reduced the number of Liao soldiers again, but it did not save much military pay.

To put it bluntly, the Liaodong generals have long been transformed into a family system, and the abolition of the Southern Liaowei Guard has nothing to do with them. The guards they care about are the Liaoxi and Liaoshen areas.

Perhaps there were too many guest troops, and the connection road with Nurhachi was cut off, so there was no chance to raise the bandits' self-respect, so the Liaodong generals did not speak about the Liaonan matter.

They may have discovered after Nurhachi was repelled that the imperial court's strength in Liaodong was far greater than theirs, and this situation became even more unbalanced after nearly [-] main and auxiliary soldiers from the three towns of Shanxi, including Yang Zhaoji, entered Liaodong.

If they shut their mouths, it is even less likely for the civil servants and nobles in the court to open their mouths. The civil servants are busy with party disputes, and it is too late for the nobles to hide.

Therefore, as Zhu Youjian expected, the generals of the Liao people confessed, and the twenty-six forts with one guard and three houses were successfully abolished.

According to the investigation by Sun Yingyuan and Qin Minping, there are a total of [-] Liao people in Jinzhou, Zhenjiang, Kuandian, Fenghuangcheng and other places, and [-] mu of land farmed by the army Overall, [-] mu of private land.

This part of the Liao people plus the [-] Liao people who migrated successively, the people in the four places reached nearly [-]. After the military garrison was abolished, under the order of Zhu Youxiao, these six people were distributed [-] people.

The non-development of those with civilian land first satisfies the people without land, but even so, the [-] mu of land is still unable to feed [-] people.

With an annual yield of less than one stone per mu in Liaodong, these fields can at most support the original local people.

Therefore, after the grain transported from Tianjin by Yumajian and Taicang arrived in Zhenjiang, five people including Sun Yingyuan began to cultivate the fields.

However, as professional soldiers, it is impossible for the Seventh Guards to participate in the reclamation. They returned to Beizhili by boat after the farming was over, and they just arrived in Tianjin yesterday.

They will then go to their original residences and wait for orders from Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao.

Regarding the Shanxi matter, Zhu Youxiao is still thinking about it. In a month, he has not yet decided whether to completely abolish the guards in one capital and one province.

As for Zhu Youjian, since the saltworks started operation at the end of June, he has devoted himself to the saltworks, and only occasionally pays attention to the recruitment of soldiers and horses of Yanshan Daying to the three guards of Daning.

At present, the Habayashi Guard is still in the Daning Sanwei, and after a month of recruitment, the Daning Sanwei has temporarily recruited more than [-] people.

It is estimated that the number of soldiers and horses of the three guards will be satisfied in mid-July, and then they will be transferred to the three guards of Daning and replaced by Habayashi Guard.

She Chongming, whom Zhu Youjian has always cared about, seems to have been silent because of Nurhachi's retreat.

However, he didn't stop building the armor, and it seemed that he had a new plan.

For him, Zhu Youjian is not worried.

Hong Chengchou, Yang Wenyue, Wu Aheng, Sun Chuanting, Qin Liangyu...

The combination of these five people determines that even if he makes trouble, it will not be too big like history.

At present, what Zhu Youjian has to do is to prepare for the abolition of Shanxi Sanzhen and Shuntianfu.

Therefore, while reading reports from various imperial stores, he said to his brother:

"Brother, there is still one and a half months until the autumn harvest, and the Yu Ma Jian needs to prepare for the affairs of Shanxi Sanzhen and Shuntian Mansion."

"This time I plan to recruit sixteen battalions, will you allow me?"

"Can I still stop you?" Zhu Youxiao gave his younger brother a white look. At this moment, he is still racking his brains on how to win the game in front of him.

Seeing his younger brother's leisurely double-tasking, he felt annoyed, but soon threw himself into the chess game again.

As for the dialogue between the two, Wei Zhongxian and Cao Huachun inside and outside the Hall of Mental Cultivation were stunned.

Sixteen battalions, that's more than [-] soldiers and horses...

If the recruitment and training of the Sixteenth Battalion is successful, then the number of soldiers and horses under the Yuma Supervisor will reach more than [-].

Add in the three guards of Daning who are full of Guangxi outside the Great Wall, that is nearly [-] soldiers and horses.

Putting such a number of soldiers and horses on the body of an eleven-year-old prince, any other emperor might not be able to sleep.

However, looking at the frank attitude of the two brothers, it is estimated that the emperor would not be worried if his own king of Qi controlled the world's soldiers and horses.

But when it comes to soldiers and horses, Zhu Youxiao thought of what happened in the southwest after he settled down, so he said:

"My younger brother said earlier that if things in Liao were weak, the chieftain in the Southwest might rebel. But now that things in Liao are good, why don't we transfer all the soldiers and horses in the Southwest to East Liao?"

Zhu Youxiao still couldn't swallow the breath of feeding more than two million taels of silver every year to those Liaodong military sects who were empty-paid, but Zhu Youjian said:

"These soldiers and horses are very useful in the southwest. If the reform encounters dangers, others and ministers can't guarantee it, but Sun Chuanting and Qin Liangyu will already defend the territory of Ming Dynasty in the southwest."

Zhu Youjian's words made Zhu Youxiao frowned.

He understands what his younger brother said, if one day the civil servants, nobles, and frontier soldiers are dissatisfied with the court's abolition of the guards and collection of business taxes and miscellaneous items, and rebel against the court, then Sichuan can still become a corner of the Ming Dynasty.

As long as Qin Liangyu and Sun Chuanting wiped out Sichuan, they would be able to sweep down the south of the Yangtze River and force the civil servants to submit.

However, he also noticed that his younger brother did not mention Hong Chengchou, Yang Wenyue, Wu Aheng and others.

This shows that in his younger brother's heart, these three people actually have too much connection with the civil servants. If the court and the local government are in trouble, it is difficult to guarantee the position of these people.

From this point of view, my younger brother has long thought about how to calm the world if the world is turned against him.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao suddenly said:

"As for Shanxi and Beizhili, just listen to my younger brother..."

"Huh?" Hearing this, Zhu Youjian raised his head and looked at his royal brother, not understanding why the other party suddenly decided on something that he had been thinking about for a month.

Let Zhu Youxiao see his appearance, just shook his head with a smile and said:
"I'm not as good as my younger brother when it comes to side matters, so since my younger brother thinks so thoroughly about the Southwest, I'm afraid Shanxi and Beizhili are even more thoughtful."

"I just want to ask my brother, after Shanxi and Beizhili are recovered, is my brother going to attack Liaodong?"

Zhu Youxiao was determined to clean up the army in Liaodong, but Zhu Youjian frowned, picked up the chess pieces, and said:
"The matter in Shanxi is not limited to the Weisuo. In fact, it also involves the three towns of Ningxia, Guyuan, and Yulin."

"Taking the three towns in Shanxi is the first step, and the second step is to take down Hetao and make Tumot completely surrender to me, Daming!"

Many people will be very unfamiliar with the Ministry of Tumut, but many people will be very familiar with it when it is called another name.

Great Ming Kingdom of Jin, King Shunyi...

Since An Dahan was established in the Ming Dynasty and was recognized by King Shunyi of the Ming Dynasty, the Tumed Department has been crowned in the western part of Monan, known as the Mongolian right wing.

Right now, the Tumed Department is quite obedient to Daming. They are stationed in Fengzhoutan and Houtao, which is the area from Bayan Erzhuo to Hohhot for later generations.

The place where they live is in conflict with the place Zhu Youjian wants to conquer, but Zhu Youjian doesn't expect to conquer each other blindly by force.

The current leader of Tumed, King Shunyi of Daming is the fifth generation grandson of Al Dahan, Bu Shitu.

Under San Niangzi's neutralization, Bu Shitu was recognized by Ming Dynasty before San Niangzi's death, but because Su Nang Taiji of Tumote's department refused to accept him and fought against him for a long time, Bu Shitu's power declined, and his subordinates How disobedient.

As the king of Shunyi recognized by the Ming Dynasty, among the [-] Tumote tribe, Bu Shitu has less than [-] men and less than [-] men, and the nomadic station is [-] miles northwest of Shanxi Pianguan Other places are very far away from Daming.

Compared with him, Su Nang Taiji, who rejected him, was recognized by [-] lords of Tumote, with more than [-] soldiers under his command, and Taiji, who supported him, lived in Fengzhoutan and Houtao.

In this way, the situation is very delicate.

In the name of helping King Shunyi inherit the throne and nomadic land, Zhu Youjian could directly send troops to defeat Su Nang and more than [-] lords under his command, and occupy Fengzhoutan and Houtao.

As for whether Bu Shitu will ask Zhu You for a review after the occupation, Zhu Youjian is not worried at all, unless Bu Shitu is a fool.

The only problem with this plan right now is the problem of the four cavalry guards, or the problem of the horses.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian said to Brother Huang:

"To make Tumot surrender, you must first destroy the northern captives entrenched in the Hetao, and to go deep into the Hetao, you need a lot of war horses."

"At that time, the ministers may use the four cavalry guards, and the four cavalry guards will need [-] horses, and going deep into the Hetao will require a lot of luggage and supplies, and a large number of civilians will be needed for transportation."

"Thus, after the ministers have counted and abolished the soldiers and horses in the three towns of Shanxi, they will organize to distribute the fields to the military households. After the autumn harvest, the Yumajian in Shanxi will have enough food to support the army to go out of the fortress."

"At that time, the ministers will unite the three towns of Ningxia, Guyuan, and Yulin to search for tao, and the peasants will have no work after the autumn harvest. At this time, they can conquer the northern captives in Hetao and the plains in Fengzhoutan without delaying the farming season. "

In Zhu Youjian's words, he said that he would be the commander in chief, and he even formulated the idea of ​​​​sending troops after the autumn harvest.

Of course, this autumn harvest will naturally not be this year, it should be next year or the year after.

If you want to attack the three towns in Shanxi and Beizhili, and then divide the fields, the time span is very long.

Zhu Youxiao knew that this was his younger brother telling him the news in advance.

Looking at Zhu Youjian in front of him, he said helplessly: "How about letting other generals lead the troops in depth? My brother is still too young."

"I think back then, Emperor Xuanzongzhang was only twelve years old when he conquered Mongolia with Emperor Wen, and at the age of fifteen he personally led troops to pursue the northern captives. Emperor Zhang can do it, why can't I?" Zhu Youjian moved out of his ancestors again. .

It’s still the same sentence, don’t blame me for going too far, it’s just that my ancestors have done too many things too much, so it seems that what I have done is not too much.

Zhu Youxiao was at a loss for words about his younger brother moving out of his ancestors, but he quickly coughed:
"Emperor Zhang also followed Emperor Wen to practice for several years, and then led the army to chase after the enemy, and..."

Zhu Youxiao was embarrassed to say the latter, because Zhu Zhanji was surrounded by Oirat cavalry when he led the army for the first time when he was fifteen years old. It is not good to say that the embarrassing things of the ancestors were recorded by the daily commentary.

"Did Emperor Zhang formulate a four-pronged strategy when he was eleven years old to push back Jianlu? Or was Emperor Zhang's headquarters going to wipe out a tribe?"

Speaking of military merit, Zhu Youjian's military merit is too great.

It can be said that, as far as the current Ming Dynasty is concerned, there is no new generation of generals who have surpassed him in military achievements.

Even the generals of the older generation, there are not many who can take credit for exterminating one of them.

At this moment, Zhu Youxiao was angry with himself for indulging his younger brother. He did not expect to give this kid the right to help. This kid made meritorious deeds, but in turn he argued with himself.

"No matter what my brother said, my brother is still too young." Zhu Youxiao simply pretended to be an ostrich, turning a deaf ear to Zhu Youjian's quotations from the scriptures, and just said that he was not old enough.

Seeing this situation, Zhu Youjian was also extremely speechless, he simply didn't hold back his hands, made crazy moves, and then on the chessboard, he threw the emperor's brother into disarm.

"My brother is taking revenge on me?" Zhu Youxiao looked resentful, but Zhu Youjian lowered his head and said:

"I was just looking at the income and expenditure of the imperial store, I didn't pay attention..."

At this moment, Zhu Youxiao wanted to curse, but Zhu Youjian pretended to be an ostrich.

"You bastard..."

"Long live, His Royal Highness came to pay my respects."

Just when Zhu Youxiao wanted to make gestures with his younger brother, Wei Zhongxian at the door sang a salute.

Zhu Youxiao squatted down, turned his head quickly and said, "Xuan!"

"Yes..." Hearing this, Wei Zhongxian walked to the gate of Qianqing Palace, looked at the pretty woman in front of him, even though he was no longer a man, he still wanted to take another look.

He told the queen to enter the palace, and at this time one was wearing a dragon and phoenix beaded emerald crown, a red long-sleeved gown, a red robe, a red skirt, and a red beanie. A girl who weaves gold dragon and phoenix patterns and embroiders walks in.

"Long live Saint Gongan..."

"Well, Baozhu, are you okay?"

When Zhu Youxiao saw the other party, he just nodded slightly, and then asked if there was anything wrong, but Zhu Youjian glanced at his sister-in-law and had to praise him from the bottom of his heart.

Sure enough, as Zhu Youjian expected, the most outstanding person in the court that day was his original sister-in-law Zhang Yan.

According to historical records, Zhang Yan is "tall and plump, with a face like Avalokitesvara, eyes like autumn waves, mouth like red cherry blossoms, nose like hanging gallbladder, and white teeth." She was one of the five ancient queens.

From this point of view, it is hard to imagine what kind of appearance he will have in a few years with such an appearance at only sixteen years old.

but……

Thinking about it, Zhu Youjian glanced at Zhu Youxiao, and murmured in his heart: "Such a beautiful daughter-in-law, why did she only have a big nephew with her..."

"The concubine heard that Wansui was playing chess with King Qi, and seeing that today is Liqiu, she brought watermelons." Zhang Yan saluted slowly and behaved decently.

"Well, put the watermelon down, and I'll go to Kunning Palace to accompany you later." Maybe the time for lust has passed, but Zhu Youxiao didn't keep the other party.

Seeing this, Zhang Yan didn't say anything, and saluted Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian, and then withdrew from the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

But after he withdrew, Zhu Youxiao glanced at Zhu Youjian who continued to read the imperial store's documents, and said, "Do you understand, brother?"

"It's almost read..." Zhu Youjian pushed the handwritten book in Huangdian over, and said:
"In the past month, seven hundred and twenty-seven Huangdians have been opened, and all counties and towns have one Huangdian, covering the entire territory of Northern Zhili and Shanxi."

"Today and yesterday alone, a total of [-] catties of coarse salt, [-] catties of fine salt, [-] catties of briquette, and [-] silver were sold. Sixteen taels and five quarters and three cents."

"If things go on like this, only North Zhili and Shanxi can earn about one million taels of silver every year."

"After excluding the cost, the profit is about [-] taels, but..."

Having said that, Zhu Youjian looked up at his royal brother and said:

"Based on the scale of Yongping Salt Farm, it produces more than [-] million catties of salt per year, which is enough for the people in Shanxi and Northern Zhili to eat cheap coarse salt."

"Because of the late drying of salt this year and the beginning of autumn, there are still more than [-] days of salt drying time. In this time, nearly [-] million catties of coarse salt can be dried."

"Including the salt from the previous ten days, there should be nearly ten million catties, which can be sold for fifty thousand taels of silver."

"Judging from the current situation, it is not a problem to sell these salts, and even the salt farm can be expanded to [-] miles, or even [-] miles."

"But the problem is that if the imperial store sells such cheap coarse salt, it must be noticed by the censors everywhere, so I need my brother to help out."

Selling private salt is very easy for Zhu Youjian, because Yumajian has soldiers, imperial stores, and fields.

But in the same way, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the dignitaries, civil servants, and military officers of the guards all covered up private salt dealers to sell salt, only Zhu Youjian dared to blatantly create dozens of miles of salt flats.

Moreover, Zhu Youjian can also create larger salt flats and produce more coarse salt, and this approach is undoubtedly annexing the private salt market on the market.

Just like now, when others sell six or seven coins, he sells five coins.

He is not only encroaching on the market, but also making the market's profits lower.

Perhaps in the eyes of others, doing so is asking for death, killing Daming's official and private salt.

But only Zhu Youjian knows that cheapness is the biggest monopoly.

Once the monopoly is formed, it will be up to Zhu Youjian to decide whether a catty of salt will be ten or twenty.

All classes don't know, they only know that Zhu Youjian's mixing will make them lose a lot of money!

In this way, it can be foreseen that Zhu Youjian will be impeached by numerous memorials in the next few days.

At this time, it is necessary to see whether Zhu Youxiao's resistance is strong.

To resist this wave, Huangdian sells private salt and takes shape, and the Yongping Salt Field can also be expanded to an annual output of hundreds of millions or even hundreds of millions of catties.

At that time, the income from private salt may be similar to the annual income of the imperial court's salt department at the beginning, which is more than two million taels.

But once a monopoly is formed, every penny raised will be a tax of hundreds of thousands of taels.

Zhu Youxiao, after his younger brother's explanation, has long understood that this is the best opportunity to run Yan State, so he gritted his teeth and said:

"The rumors and memorials in the court will not disturb my younger brother. My younger brother only needs to continue to recruit troops, expand the salt field, and prepare to abolish the Shanxi and Beizhili guards!"

　It is estimated that there will be another update at four or five in the afternoon.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)