Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 262
In June, when the land of Qilu suffered from severe drought for half a year and most of the crops dried up, the sand on the surface of the ground also began to squirm in the dark.

Worms drilled out of the deserted soil one by one, and the worms molted and began to wantonly eat the dry rice and wheat nearby.

"In the middle of the night, be careful..."

In the countryside, when a watchman was walking in the dark night, he was shouting and saw the locusts wriggling in the dry grass.

He pushed the grass away with the mallet, and the flame of the lantern instantly stimulated the locusts in the grass, and all the locusts flew up like black smoke, scaring the watchman to the ground.

"Plague of locusts! A plague of locusts is coming!"

Rolling and crawling, the watchman kept roaring, but when he roared, countless locusts flew up from the dry grass in an instant, and flew towards the rice and wheat fields like black clouds.

The people in the village were woken up by the yelling of the watchmen and went door to door. After learning about the locust plague, everyone closed their doors and windows tightly, and pressed the grain tanks tightly with wooden boards.

The head of the village also rode on the donkey and ran to the surrounding counties to report the news.

It's just that such scenes kept appearing in the whole land of Qilu, and at dawn, tens of millions of locusts swept across the entire Jinan Prefecture. In just one day, some villages near the water source were also devoured.

Not long after, the locusts plundered towards Yanzhou Mansion, Hejian Mansion, Dongchang Mansion, and Qingzhou Mansion...

Yuan Keli, who was in Qingcheng, was basically awakened from his sleep by the locusts that kept smashing to death on the doors and windows. After waking up, he held a torch and walked through the county office.

It's just that the county government is in chaos at the moment, and officials at all levels are surrounded by locusts. Only Yuan Keli kept beating with a torch, and while rescuing the officials and subordinates, he immediately organized:

"Don't panic! Light the torches and let people take care of the Changping warehouse and the granary!"

"Yes……"

The panicked officials found the backbone and began to raise their torches and beat them.

It's just that their personal abilities are limited. When the locusts began to decrease and finally disappeared, only a pile of locust carcasses remained on the ground.

After Yuan Keli left the officials to deal with the affairs of the county government, he rushed to Changping Cang and Guancang with his people in a hurry.

However, although Changping warehouses and official warehouses have been preserved, most of the folk granaries and grain shops have been swept and ravaged by locusts (moisture-proof straw and chaff will be eaten, and the "Book of Rescuing Famines and Living People" prohibits grain merchants If you sell contaminated rice and wheat directly, you need to be inspected by the government before you can sell it).

On the streets were people crying and children attacked by locusts, and businessmen sitting in front of shops and crying loudly.

Faced with such a scene, Yuan Keli ordered to exterminate the locusts, and went to the capital to disperse the grain, and sent troops to encircle and suppress the locusts.

When the news was sent to the capital, it was already the afternoon of the second day when the locust plague broke out, and Ye Xianggao, who was holding the memorial in his hand, felt his blood rushing up and became dizzy for a while.

[Apocalypse five years in autumn and June, in the land of Shandong, I saw swarms of flying people coming, like smoke and waves, like the dust of an army, from west to east, more than a hundred miles before and after, they belonged endlessly, the whole territory was in disaster, please call... 】

"Sure enough, a plague of locusts broke out..."

Holding the memorabilia in his hand, Ye Xianggao couldn't bear it any longer, so he could only say to Hanlin beside him:

"Send the memorandum to Wansui, and ask Wansui to make an order to encircle and exterminate the locusts from the governor's office of the five armies."

"Yes..." Hearing the words, Hanlin immediately took the memorial and ran to Qianqing Palace.

But when he came to the gate of Qianqing palace, he was blocked by the Jing army at the gate.

"Zoushu can go in, but people can't."

"I am the Minister of the Hanlin of the cabinet, even I can't do it?"

Seeing Jingjun Qianhu open his mouth, Hanlin Shilang asked with suppressed anger.

"It's useless for anyone to come without the orders of the factory owner and Long Live."

Jingjun Qianhu spoke up without any hesitation, and the Hanlin servant heard the words, so he could only hand over the memorabilia in his hand.

Qianhu, who got the memorial, turned around and asked a hundred households to send the memorial to the palace.

Hanlin could only watch helplessly as the gate of Qianqing Palace opened and closed.

When he had no choice but to leave, the memorial was also sent to the Qianqing Palace, but this memorial was not handed over to the emperor directly, but was handed over to Wang Tigan when he arrived at the gate, and Wang Tigan hid it in his sleeve and walked away. Entered the Qianqing Palace.

When he entered the Qianqing Hall and turned to the entrance of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, what he saw was Zhu Youxiao who was making wood, and Wei Zhongxian who was squatting on the ground and teasing Zhu Ciran and Zhu Shu'e on the wooden horses. .

"Long live, the supervisor of ceremonies has something to ask Wei Bingbi."

"En." Zhu Youxiao replied, without saying anything, but concentrating on making his own wood.

On the contrary, Wei Zhongxian heard the words, and quickly gave the rattle in his hand to Ke Shi who was next to him, walked out of the Hall of Mental Cultivation with a smile, and put away his smile in an instant where his back was facing Zhu Youxiao.

He and Wang Tiqian walked out of the Qianqing Hall together, and Wang Tigan also took out the memorial and said:
"This is a memorial to the locust plague in Shandong. The cabinet wants Wansui to transfer troops from the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army to encircle and suppress the locust plague in Shandong."

"Huh? Locust plague in Shandong?" Hearing this, Wei Zhongxian took over the memorandum, and after scanning ten lines at a glance, he opened his mouth and said:

"Tune it up, the locust plague is not handled properly, and it is easy to cause civil uprisings. Maybe King Qi will rush back after hearing about it."

"By the way..." Wei Zhongxian looked sideways at Wang Tigan and said, "What are Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen doing?"

"They are still mobilizing the things of the Yumajian to relieve the white disaster in Shaanxi. I heard that His Highness has also gone to Yan'an to sit in Yan'an to relieve the disaster."

Wang Tiqian responded, and Wei Zhongxian nodded when he heard the words, very satisfied and said:
"It's better to come back later, when he comes back, we will have to be slaves with our tails between our legs."

"Remember to handle Shandong's affairs well, and if it doesn't work, transfer [-] taels of silver to buy food for disaster relief. In short, there is no need to bother Long Live with such matters."

After that, he turned around and walked into the Qianqing Palace, and Wang Tiqian also followed Wei Zhongxian's words and transferred [-] taels of silver to the eunuch officials for disaster relief.

Wei Zhongxian is not a fool. After all, he has also been a farmer, so he naturally knows the harm of locust plagues to farmers.

If this kind of matter is not handled well, there will be a rebellion if you are not careful. When Zhu Youjian returns to the capital, the first thing I am afraid is to clean himself up.

It's just that Wei Zhongxian and Wang Tigan are not stupid, but they are stupid because they underestimated the greed of eunuch officials.

After the [-] taels of silver were exploited to buy food, they only bought less than [-] shi of disaster relief food.

And when the disaster relief food arrived in Shandong, there were originally more than [-] shi of grain, but there were only less than [-] shi left.

Jin Yiwei saw all of this clearly and sent it to Yan'an along with other news.

When Zhu Youjian got the news, it was already June [-]th.

"These guys have a big appetite!"

,

In the backyard of the Yamen of Yan'an Mansion, Zhu Youjian looked at the information in his hand with suppressed anger, and outside the meeting hall in the backyard, there was heavy snow falling and a strong wind blowing constantly.

Heavy snowfall in June, such a rare scene, is simply a disaster for the people of this era.

This kind of disaster is not only in northern Shaanxi, but the entire Loess Plateau has been affected.

In the whole of Shaanxi, only the prefectures of Xi'an, Hanzhong, Gongchang, Minzhou, Lintao, Taozhou, Pingliang, and Fengxiang stopped snowing in May.

Apart from them, Ningxia Mansion, Shuofang Mansion, and Yan'an Mansion all suffered white disasters.

This white disaster not only affected the population of more than one million people in the three prefectures, but also involved the delay of spring planting in southern Shaanxi and almost no seedlings in northern Shaanxi except Shaanxi.

Originally, the Yumajian had to undertake the heavy task of relocating the people to Hetao, but now a white disaster may cause a million people to have no food to eat, and the problem is even more serious.

The only good news is that the three counties of Dingxiang, Jiuyuan, and Fengzhou in Dingxiang Prefecture have stopped snowing, and even the snow has begun to melt.

Therefore, the helpless Zhu Youjian had no choice but to order the people who had taken the relocation papers to go to Qiantao to settle down after arriving in Yan'an.

After that, he transported more than [-] million shi of grain from the former set to the south, and ordered Wang Chengen and others to transfer another [-] million shi of grain to Datong, Shanxi, and sent it to the three counties of Qiantao.

This was just the first step. In the second step, he asked Shangzhi Siqiwei to go door-to-door to count the food stocks, and issued relocation certificates to those who had no land or whose land was less than three mu.

The Yumajian exchanged one mu for ten mu of their land, and took advantage of this white disaster to start counting the population of the three prefectures, and issued food coupons for relief according to the population.

In the face of the white disaster, the people who had no resistance did not dare to hide the population at all, but reported the population honestly.

Zhu Youjian ordered each household to receive food stamps once every ten days according to the head of the household, one catty of rice per person per day.

When such an order was issued by the Shangzhi Four Cavalry Guards, the household registration numbers of the people in the three northern Shaanxi prefectures were counted in just one month.

The population of the three prefectures in northern Shaanxi is more than [-] adult men, more than [-] women, and more than [-] minor children, a total of [-] More than [-] people.

When Zhu Youjian saw the number of people, his head instantly became big.

The family of the Yumajian cannot support the food and drink of so many people, not to mention that there are more than [-] people in southern Shaanxi who will be relocated to Hetao.

In other words, he must at least let the more than two million people survive until next year's autumn harvest.

Even if a person eats one catty of rice a day, he would eat nearly [-] shi of rice every month.

There are still fifteen months until next year's autumn harvest.

Although the rice relief amounted to [-] million shi, the fire consumption on the road was not a small amount. Moreover, the people who moved to Hetao had already issued food stamps, and each of them had [-] shi food stamps.

At present, the known number of people who have migrated has reached more than [-], and they are the only group of people who hold at least [-] million shi of food coupons.

Although Yumajian can only exchange one stone for them every month, the food in Hetao is only more than three million stones, which can only last half a year at most.

Although other places are only three months away from the autumn harvest, but...

"The grain grains in the military colonies in the five southern provinces have to be handed over to Jiugang, and the grain grains in the military colonies in Shanxi, Shandong, Hexi, and Liaodong in the six northern provinces, Shaanxi, Shandong, Hexi, and Liaodong probably won't be able to collect much."

"The only thing we can do is to see if the military grain in Henan, Shanxi, and North Zhili can survive."

Looking at the map in front of him, Zhu Youjian felt a headache. Now he knows how much damage the disaster will cause.

Mangui stationed troops in Hetao, Sun Chuanting was still in Xining to deal with the affairs of Duogan's ministries, and Cao Wenzhao was in Xining waiting for the transfer of the third battalion of Duogan to train his troops.

Now besides Sun Shoufa and Saihan, there is no one else who can give him advice, which makes Zhu Youjian miss Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou, Xiong Tingbi, and Yuan Yingtai.

"Do you want to stop the migration of Liaodong?"

"no……"

Zhu Youjian looked at the map of Shaanxi in front of him and rejected this idea.

Now that he knew how terrible the disaster that affected a province was through this trip, he couldn't stop the relocation of Liaodong and Jiugang.

Only by turning Liaodong and Jiugang into granaries in the remaining two years can Daming be better able to cope with the catastrophe of the next seventeen years.

Thinking about it, Zhu Youjian said to Jin Yiwei Qianhu at the door:
"Send someone to send a letter back to the capital and ask Lu Jianxing to go to Henan. Once the grain and seeds in the army station in Henan are harvested, don't pay the land tax to the household department for the time being, and transport all the grain to Shaanxi first."

"In addition, tell Lu Wenzhao that he is the same, responsible for the harvesting of seed grains in Shanxi and northern Zhili."

"As for the grain and grain in the army station in the south, Shen Tingyang will mobilize all of them, and move them to the old port as quickly as possible."

"Jin Yiwei investigates the case for me to find out, isn't someone under Wei Zhongxian corrupt and perverting the law? Ask Cui Chengxiu to hand over the evidence to Zhao Nanxing."

"Once the evidence is convincing, everyone should follow the "Law of the Ming Dynasty" to ransack their homes, exile them, and put all their property into the Imperial Horse Prison, so that Wang An can buy grain in the south of the Yangtze River and go north to relieve the disaster in Shandong."

"Finally..." Zhu Youjian said a bunch of instructions in one breath, and finally took a look at the military situation on the table, and what was written on it was some pension money and reward money owed in the repeated battle.

This amount of money is not much, the pension silver is [-] yuan, the pension land is more than [-] mu, and the reward silver is more than [-] taels.

"Tell Cao Huachun, brother, please allocate two million taels of internal money to reward the soldiers in the battle of reconciliation..."

"Yes!" Seeing that Zhu Youjian had no other orders, Qianhu turned around and wanted to leave, but Zhu Youjian stopped him again.

"Wait! What happened to Yan Siqi and the others?"

"Returning to Your Highness, they are still training in Ryukyu. According to the Navy's Governor's Mansion, it will take about half a year before they can be pulled out to fight a battle."

Jin Yiwei Qianhu's reply made Zhu Youjian squint his eyes, and after thinking for a while, he opened his mouth and said:

"Let Lu Jianxing go to Ryukyu after finishing his work in Henan, and take a batch of rifles and five-jin guns there, and accompany Yan Siqi and the others to Japan after the training is over."

"In addition, let him tell Yan Siqi at the same time that if he can't win the silver mines in the Kyoto area within three years from the day he landed in Japan, he won't have to resume his status as a Ming citizen."

Zhu Youjian's words are very obvious. He must ask Yan Siqi to win the silver mining area in the south of Kyoto within three years after landing in Japan.

Not only for Ming's tax reform, but also for the Tokugawa shogunate to fall into civil strife and war.

After he finished his orders, Jin Yiwei Qianhu left the study, but not long after, Sun Shoufa walked into the study in a daze, and bowed to Zhu Youjian:
"Your Highness, there is some resistance to the food distribution."

"What resistance?" Zhu Youjian raised his head with a frown, and Sun Shoufa said embarrassedly:

"Some powerful gentry below also want to receive relief food..."

With a "click", the writing brush in Zhu Youjian's hand was broken by him with one hand. This scene made Sun Shoufa lower his head, feeling horrified.

"It seems that Gu is too talkative, making them think that Gu is a bully, right?"

At this moment, Zhu Youjian just wanted to kill a few tyrants to relieve his hatred. Originally, things in Shandong, Duogan, Shaanxi, Liaodong, Jiugang and other places were overwhelming him.

At this time, the tyrants in northern Shaanxi dare to jump out to provoke him. If he really thinks that Zhu Youjian has a good temper with the people, he will have a good temper with the tyrants?
"Tell Jin Yiwei that the house should be ransacked and exiled!"

Zhu Youjian lowered his head, and in one sentence concluded the provocations of the tyrants,

As for Jin Yiwei not being able to find evidence, he wasn't worried at all.

This is the beginning of the seventeenth century, since these guys dare to jump out, do I still need evidence?

"Yes..." Sun Shoufa understood what Zhu Youjian meant, and immediately bowed and retreated.

As his footsteps continued to walk away, dozens of blind tyrants from northern Shaanxi were ransacked and exiled in just a few days.

Tens of thousands of acres of land, hundreds of thousands of acres of grassland, and hundreds of thousands of shi of grain were collected by Zhu Youjian, and then distributed in the form of relief grain.

As soon as he made a move, the other Shaanxi tyrants who were about to jump out immediately shut up.

But in the same way, after what he did was known to the Qin Party in the capital, although it was only a small party, they still bit the bullet and stood up, constantly impeaching him.

It's just that this kind of impeachment doesn't make Zhu Youjian pay attention at all. He wanders around the counties and towns outside Yan'an Mansion every day, for fear that the people below will be corrupt.

Human comparisons are subject to change. It is impossible for everyone in the Yumajian to be like robots, free from corruption and petty tricks.

Just like this time in the white disaster in Shaanxi, since the start of disaster relief, there have been more than [-] corrupt scribes and eunuchs in the Yuma prison.

For them, Zhu Youjian's method was very simple. They ransacked their homes and exiled them in Liaodong.

Under his leadership, the entire three prefectures in northern Shaanxi finally survived the snow disaster.

When the time came to the tenth day of the seventh lunar month, the thick dark clouds that had shrouded northern Shaanxi for nearly eight months disappeared, and the sun shone on the entire land of northern Shaanxi.

Of course, the melting of the snow does not mean that the disaster is over. On the contrary, the cold air released by the melting of the snow has caused a large number of people to catch the wind and cold.

"Cough cough..."

On the snow-covered muddy road, Zhu Youjian in the carriage kept coughing, and sitting opposite him in the carriage was Wang Kentang, a famous doctor with the army and a master of typhoid fever in the late Ming Dynasty.

Wang Kentang is seventy-three years old this year, but his hair and beard are jet-black, and his skin is so rosy that one would think he is only in his forties.

He was diagnosing Zhu Youjian. After a long time, he withdrew his hand and said with a smile:

"Your Highness has been running around for the common people, and when the snow melted, he got a little cold, but fortunately, he is in good health, so there is no harm."

"Afterwards, just ask someone to go to Yan'an Mansion to grab three doses of typhoid medicine."

Wang Kentang comforted Zhu Youjian with a smile, and because of his status, he did not choose to prescribe and take medicine by himself.

Regarding his words, Zhu Youjian knew why the other party avoided suspicion so much, and the reason was relatively simple.

Unlike other famous doctors collected by Zhu Youjian, Wang Kentang was born in a family of officials in Southern Zhili.

Due to his background, he was naturally a Jinshi, and was selected as a reviewer of the Hanlin during the Wanli period, and he went to Fujian to participate in politics.

Later, because the imperial court did not accept his anti-Japanese opinions, he angrily claimed that he was sick and resigned and returned to his hometown. Since then, he has resumed his childhood favorite medicine.

In addition to typhoid fever, he is also good at diagnosing and treating mental diseases, and cured many rich children and traffickers who had acquired mental illnesses.

If it wasn't for Zhu Youjian, he might have practiced medicine in Nanzhili all his life.

"Mr. Suan ran around because of loneliness, and delayed the lectures of the medical school. I am ashamed to be alone..."

Withdrawing his hand, Zhu Youjian apologized to Wang Kentang, but Wang Kentang stroked his beard and smiled:
"It should be the old man who thanked His Highness. If His Highness hadn't invited the old man to Yanshan, how could the old man have taught more than a dozen apprentices within a few years?"

"Furthermore, during this trip to northern Shaanxi, the old man also brought all his disciples and asked them to participate in the treatment. After all, the people around the school often fell ill, and the disciples under the command of the doctors rushed to treat them. This time they came to Shaanxi, and they got practice."

"Hehe..." Hearing Wang Kentang's words, Zhu Youjian also laughed, and then asked:
"This Yanshan Medical School is divided into more than ten departments. From the point of view, sir, is it suitable?"

"Hmm..." Wang Kentang stroked his beard and said without thinking:
"Dividing subjects is not bad, but the disciples cultivated in this way may only be good at one aspect, and they will be helpless when facing other pathologies."

"However..." He went on to say:

"If it is according to what His Highness said to the old man at the beginning, if all these students are combined together, if you want to treat a patient with a group of people, the effect will be better than that of a single famous doctor."

"It's just too slow. If there is a hospital in more than [-] counties in the Ming Dynasty, it may take decades to achieve..." Zhu Youjian sighed.

He actually knew that with the method of teaching apprentices and learning in Chinese medicine, a famous doctor can lead at most a dozen apprentices, and it takes five years to bring out a batch of masters.

In this way, it may take dozens or even hundreds of years of work to have a hospital in every county.

"It's because His Highness's requirements are too high. If you just gather all the doctors from all over the world, perhaps fifteen years will be enough."

Wang Kentang tried to make Zhu Youjian believe in folk doctors, but Zhu Youjian said:

"Even if we let them gather together, I'm afraid it will take the students of Yanshan Medicine to go to the local area and inspect them one by one."

"If there are quack doctors mixed in, we can also picket them out."

"In addition, Gu also plans to send these students to various provinces after they graduate in the seventh year of Tianqi, and start to establish branches of Yanshan Medicine in each province."

"That's okay." Wang Kentang smiled, and then saw that Zhu Youjian's mood improved a lot, he paused, and then said with concern:

"When the old man took His Highness's pulse just now, although the wind and cold can't hurt His Highness's body, I'm afraid His Highness hasn't taken good care of his body since he was old."

"Food and sleep in the open air, lack of sleep, if it goes on for a long time, I'm afraid I will lose my body..."

"Your Highness, sometimes don't worry too much. It's normal to take a proper rest."

"I want to be alone, but..." Zhu Youjian didn't know that what he did was hurting his body, but the problem was that if he was lazy, it would be too late to make amends when the natural disaster broke out completely.

He thought so, and Wang Kentang was about to speak again to persuade him, but at this moment the car window was suddenly opened, and Cao Wenzhao handed a military report to the window with a serious face:
"Your Highness, Liaodong and Beizhili have changed."

"Huangtudun (Lin Danhan) of the Huangtaiji alliance attacked the barbarians, and Karaqinbo rebelled with his troops and attacked Baimaguan..."

(End of this chapter)