Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 333
[On the first day of June in the eighth year of Tianqi, with five drums, the sky in Shaanxi is as red as blood, gradually yellowing at midnight, and the sun is high in the sky.Zhan said that this Chimao is also, the Lord is in a severe drought, and there are urgent soldiers...]

"Tell me..."

Zhu Youjian was sitting in Chengcheng County Yamen, and in front of him were rows of Qintianjian officials who he took with him when he went out.

Facing Zhu Youjian's inquiry, a doctor from Qin Tianjian could only bite the bullet and stand up and say:
"The sky is as red as blood, a sign of the fate of the country..."

"The sages believed that "the red ones are the ones who lead the war", so the blood moon and the blood-colored sky are regarded as ominous signs of disasters, especially war disasters and droughts."

"Yisi Zhan written by Li Chunfeng, the Taishi Ling of the Tang Dynasty, said: "The red air comes out of the sky, and within a year there will be self-reliant people..."

"Those who are red and bloody, the image of bleeding..."

"The red air covered the sun like blood, severe drought, the people were hungry, and the red land was thousands of miles..."

"Chi Yunlin surrounds the east and west, and the country loses the army..."

"Those who stop the red qi, there will be soldiers' blood flowing below them..."

"The sky is light and clear. If the color turns dark, the king will not understand; if it is pale, mournful, red like fire and blood, the army will rise, and the world will be in chaos."

This person stood up and said a lot, all in the tone that Ming was about to perish, and another person also stood up and bowed:

"Your Highness, this kind of celestial phenomenon has happened many times in the past dynasties, and most of them appeared at the end of the dynasty."

"For example, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty changed the Yuan Dynasty and established the Central Jingguo. As a result, on the first day after the Yuan Dynasty was changed, the vision of "red air piercing the sky" appeared at night."

"When the Jin soldiers attacked Bianliang in the first year of Jingkang, there were also celestial phenomena such as "red air stretching across the sky"..."

"During the reign of Emperor Yuanshun in the previous dynasty, there were many visions of "red air reaching the sky"..."

"This... this... maybe there are disobedient people trying to stand on their own and disturb Chao Gang..."

The more this person spoke, the more trembling his voice became, and he looked up at Zhu Youjian's expression from time to time, but Zhu Youjian's expression was flat the whole time, while Sun Chuanting, Gu Bingqian and others standing on the left and right looked ugly.

Someone stand on their own?Looking around the world, who can stand on their own?Besides Zhu Youjian's ability, who else can be capable?
This astronomical interpretation, I don't know, I thought Zhu Youjian was about to reverse.

Therefore, everyone was waiting for Zhu Youjian to speak, and figured out what the attitude of the Highness who was pointed at was.

However, facing their waiting, Zhu Youjian sneered, got up immediately and said:
"You say that this celestial phenomenon indicates that the world is in peril, the monarch is in a bad situation, and the imperial government is overthrown..." Zhu Youjian changed the subject:
"But I want to say that this is a sign of a prosperous age!"

After all, Zhu Youjian said to many officials of the Qin Tianjian: "Write!"

"Write...what to write?" Qin Tianjian officials were at a loss, while Zhu Youjian looked down at them and said calmly:

"Writing about Zhu Youjian, king of Qi in the Ming Dynasty, saying that the sky is as red as blood, which is a sign of the rejuvenation of the country and the prosperity of the age!"

"This, this..." Hearing Zhu Youjian's "rebellious" words, the officials of Qin Tianjian knelt down one after another, admonishing them:
"Your Highness, this is the astronomical phenomenon summarized by the ancestors, it is impossible to add or change at will..."

"Ancestors?" Zhu Youjian said with a sneer: "After a hundred years of isolation, he is also an ancestor, so why can't he add, delete, or modify?"

"Write!"

His tone became heavier, and he spoke one word at a time. The officials of the Qin Tianjian could only hold the astronomical books in their hands, and tremblingly wrote twelve characters such as "The sky is as red as blood, the country is rejuvenated, and the image of a prosperous age" and so on.

"Gu tell you, Gu doesn't believe in fate, if God really doesn't let Da Ming have the appearance of a prosperous age, then the person who suffers from God's wrath is also Gu, and it has nothing to do with you!"

After finishing speaking, Zhu Youjian waved his hand to signal the officials of Qin Tianjian to go out one after another, but they could only swallow their saliva, and staggered back out under Zhu Youjian's gaze.

But after the officials of Qin Tianjian left, Gu Bingqian still stepped forward to bow to Zhu Youjian and said:
"Your Highness, although the proverbs are just nonsense, there is a severe drought in the eight provinces of the country, and it has spread even more since autumn. If the officials below are such perverted people like Han Chao, then some people will not be able to stand on their own. Not surprisingly."

The advantage of Gu Bingqian is that he judges the situation, follows the trend, and says...

What is potential?Whoever he works under is the power.

Historically, Wei Zhongxian was not politically smart, and was often bewitched by the people below. Gu Bingqian saw it, but he didn't remind Wei Zhongxian.

Because he knew very well that even if he reminded Wei Zhongxian, Wei Zhongxian would still be tricked into using it as a knife, and if he reminded him, maybe he would be dealt with by someone with a heart.

Therefore, facing the policies issued by Wei Zhongxian, he obeyed them all.

However, Wei Zhongxian is Wei Zhongxian, and Zhu Youjian is Zhu Youjian.

After all, Zhu Youjian was a soldier, a grassroots cadre, and a person who helped the poor.

That is to say, he was a grassroots in his previous life, and he was very clear about the tricks in the grassroots, but in this life, as a powerful man, the top of the Ming Dynasty class, he was also very familiar with the tricks in the top.

Such a person is, to put it bluntly, a weakened version of Zhu Yuanzhang.

The only thing Zhu Youjian didn't understand was mainly the tricks of the middle class. As a minister, Gu Bingqian had worked his way up from the middle class step by step. He didn't dare to say anything else, but he was very clear about the tricks of the middle class.

Therefore, he secretly reminded Zhu Youjian not to delegate too much power to the middle level, because once the power is delegated, whether it is to the grassroots or the middle level, the direction of the situation will be difficult to control.

The meaning of his words, Zhu Youjian probably understood what it meant when he heard it, and Dang even responded:

"Long live Shangshu, please supervise the department and the newly appointed censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Sixth Division, and the judge of Dali Temple will organize the Beijing inspection."

Jingcha, the sharp weapon of the party struggle in the past, has been seldom mentioned since the Donglin Party was defeated step by step in the third year of the apocalypse. The reason is very simple...

To put it bluntly, the King Qi Party is powerful right now, and whoever mentions Jingcha just wants the King Qi Party to mess with him, so the Eunuch Party and other small factions shut up one after another.

But now the matter of Jingcha has been brought up again by Zhu Youjian, and he also wants to revise Jingcha.

After scanning Gu Bingqian and others, Zhu Youjian continued:
"In addition, please abolish the authority of the Nanjing Jingcha, and only use the Beijing Jingcha nationwide from now on."

"The Governor's Office of the Northern Army temporarily transferred the three battalions of the Gongwei Battalion to assist in defending Shanxi, Shanxi and the North Zhili Gongwei Battalion switched defenses, Shandong Gongwei Battalion switched defenses with the South Zhili Gongwei Battalion, and Fujian and Zhejiang Gongwei Battalions switched defenses."

"The local Gongwei battalions in Jiangxi and Huguang were sent to South Zhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Huguang to recruit new troops."

Abolishing the power of Nanjing Jingcha is tantamount to directly cutting off the right of speech of Jiangnan civil servants in Jingcha.

In order to avoid inciting the common people by the short-sighted gentry, Zhu Youjian chose to exchange the arch guard camps of various provinces, and recruited three arch guard camps for Nanzhili and Zhejiang respectively.

In other words, before the start of Jingcha in Nanzhili, in addition to a special Xiaoling Guard, there would be six battalions of soldiers and horses stationed there, and Zhejiang would also station six battalions of soldiers and horses.

There are six battalions of soldiers and horses, with a total of more than [-] people.

The number of soldiers and horses seems small, but it is enough to leave at least 1000 people in each province.

One thousand Gongwei battalion can suppress even tens of thousands of people's uprisings. If anyone has no eyes, Zhu Youjian doesn't mind killing another group of people.

The scene of tens of thousands of heads under the Yellow River is still vivid. From the fourth grade to the ninth grade, there are all kinds of heads in the river.

Facing Zhu Youjian's methods, everyone didn't say anything, but Zhu Youjian felt that the manpower was still not enough, so he said:

"How many students are there in the third and fourth schools in Yanshan?"

"Back to Your Highness, there are more than 1 people in total." Wang Chengen stood up, and Zhu Youjian thought it over and said:

"Decree, from now on, all the official schools in Beijing, three prefectures and four provinces, including Beizhili, Taining, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Liaodong, and Hexi, will be replaced with Yanshan textbooks."

"Students from the third and fourth institutions will be upgraded from 18 taels of school silver to [-] taels of teaching silver, divided into five subjects by main subjects, granted official teaching status, and taken over the official school."

"In addition, students of government schools are exempted from all tuition and miscellaneous fees, and a separate court department is set up. After five years of schooling in government schools, children who do not enroll in school before the age of ten will be punished by their parents with ten lashes each."

"After six years, except for the third and fourth schools in Yanshan, the rest of the schools changed to a three-year school system."

"Excluding the third and fourth institutions of higher learning, the rest of the institutions of higher learning will be split up and relocated to various provinces. After six years, there will be one in each province."

"The third and fourth schools in Yanshan were changed to Shuntian and Yingtian schools."

"Those who are outstanding in official studies can enter Yanshan Academy free of charge, and those who are outstanding in Yanshan Academy can enter Yingtian and Shuntian Academy."

"Those who enter Yingtian and Shuntian schools will not only be exempted from miscellaneous tuition fees, but will also be rewarded with six taels of tuition money every year."

Zhu Youjian is trying to seize the right to speak among the people, and this move undoubtedly made everyone present tense.

"Your Highness, although it is only implemented in one capital, three prefectures and four provinces, it may affect millions of children..."

"I am afraid that the amount of instruction needed by millions of children is not small."

"If you study silver for one person and 18 taels, I'm afraid it will be a big expense to teach silver in the future..."

After Zhu Youjian expressed his thoughts, Bi Ziyan, the chief steward of the Ming Dynasty, was the first to stand up.

Bi Ziyan's calculations are very clear. Based on the latest number of people in the yellow book, there are more than [-] million people in one capital, three prefectures and four provinces, of which Dingkou accounts for half.

Although there is no statistics on the number of children under the age of ten, based on the number of births counted last year, there are at least 400 million people under the age of ten in the three capitals and four provinces.

Bi Ziyan is clear about the teaching ratio of Yanshan Academy, and the maximum number of students should not exceed 30.

In other words, under the condition that all five subjects are being taught, a maximum of 150 people will be covered.

Among the more than 400 million children, even if there are 200 million males, they need more than 6 education.

According to 18 taels of silver per person, these 6 people need nearly 120 million taels of expenditure a year.

This does not seem like a lot, but Bi Ziyan knows that one capital, three prefectures and four provinces are just the beginning...

His Royal Highness, in the end, it will inevitably be extended to the entire two capitals and seventeen provinces of Ming Dynasty.

At that time, the annual salary expenditure will be an astronomical figure.

Besides, this is only the teaching salary, as well as the students' meals and books.

Bi Ziyan was not afraid that this policy would make him busy and take responsibility, but that he felt it necessary to remind Zhu Youjian.

But for this, Zhu Youjian has already made up his mind.

"The income of the household department is sufficient. As long as the land tax and commercial tax are clarified, and the wine department started this year, I am not afraid that I will not be able to spend money."

Zhu Youjian responded grandly to Bi Ziyan's concerns, and said:

"Having collected so much tax from the people, is it possible to use it for pleasure? Or is it a war?"

"Taking from the people and using it for the people is the way of managing the world."

Zhu Youjian didn't believe that the hundreds of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty couldn't squeeze out this little money.

During the Tianxi period of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were only more than 3000 million people. As a result, only commercial taxes and monopoly could receive more than 100 million guan.

The people in the Tianqi period of the Great Ming Dynasty were several times that of the people in the Tianxi period of the Northern Song Dynasty. Even if the tax was halved, it would be far more than the more than 2000 million taels of cash collected now.

Zhu Youjian didn't collect so much money and food for his own enjoyment.

So much money and food must be taken from the people and used for the people.

Frontier affairs open up borders and land, popularize official education in internal affairs, provide relief with work, relocate people to the border, distribute acres of land, and ease land mergers...

The tax collected by Zhu Youjian is to be used on these.

Therefore, after telling Bi Ziyan not to worry about running out of money, he said resolutely:
"One capital, three prefectures and four provinces will start to release news from now on. The Ministry of Households will allocate money, and the Ministry of Industry will start repairing government schools in various places. On the first day of September next year, all regions will start recruiting students. On the first day of October, the government schools in the three prefectures and four provinces will start. Admission."

"The next official takes orders..." Bi Ziyan sighed helplessly in his heart, and could only agree.

Compared with his pessimism, Zhu Youjian did not have any pressure.

The shortage of land caused by the rapid population increase may be a disadvantage for other dynasties, but not for him.

As long as the Ming Dynasty solved the problem of taxation, with its system, it was enough to become the third most powerful unified dynasty except the Han and Tang Dynasties.

If corruption cannot be contained, people will be replaced. As long as there are tens of millions of students, Zhu Youjian will not believe it, and he will not be able to find hundreds of thousands of capable officials.

Supporting the north to fight against the south, and finally dismantling the official and private schools in the south, and taking over the private schools in the south, the gentry's right to speak was mostly excavated by Zhu Youjian.

However, this is still a political means, and what he needs to deal with right now is the affairs of Shaanxi.

"Currently, can the number of disaster victims in Shaanxi be checked?"

Zhu Youjian asked Sun Chuanting, and Sun Chuanting also reported back:
"Currently, the victims and yellow books of Qingyang Mansion, Pingliang Mansion, Yan'an Mansion, Shuofang Mansion, and Ningxia Mansion have been counted by the Gongwei Camp, and the fields have also been measured and found out."

"Only Xi'an Mansion, Fengxiang Mansion, Hanzhong Mansion, Gongchang Mansion, and Lintao Mansion haven't started yet..."

"However, according to the inventory of the five prefectures in northern Shaanxi, the population of the five prefectures in southern Shaanxi is about 400 million, and the total population is less than 800 million."

"The people in the five prefectures in southern Shaanxi still have some money and food, but the five prefectures in northern Shaanxi are already overwhelmed. Among the 380 million people, except for the people in Shuofang and Ningxia who still have money and food, the remaining three prefectures have nearly 190 million people. Everyone is exhausted."

Sun Chuanting's words made Zhu Youjian heave a sigh of relief.

The Ming Dynasty could still deal with less than 200 million victims in the three prefectures of Yan'an. Among other things, the nearly 800 million shimimai obtained from this raid is enough to feed these 200 million people for a year.

If Zhu Youjian hadn't started relocating people to Shuofang, Hetao and other places in the fifth year of Tianqi, the number of victims would have doubled.

"The victims of the disaster in Qingyang, Pingliang, and Yan'an were organized to move to Hexi, and the relocated people were given twelve shi of food stamps, farm tools and clothing."

"Those who don't want to relocate will be given six shi of food stamps first, and they can also do the errands hired by the Yellow River first."

"In addition, the people in southern Shaanxi can organize to move to the four prefectures of Tongchuan, Baoning, Shunning, and Chongqing in eastern Sichuan."

"As for the disaster victims in Shanxi and Henan, if they can move to Liaodong, they can go to Liaodong, but if they can't, they can go to Hexi."

Zhu Youjian explained to Sun Chuanting, and then said to Bi Ziyan:
"The confiscated gold was sent to the capital for temporary storage, and the silver was transferred to the Huangdian, which bought grain from Sichuan, Huguang, Jiangxi, Nanzhili and other places."

"How much food is there in the official warehouses of the three provinces?"

"About more than [-] million shi, most of which were sold by corrupt officials at all levels. After investigation, there are still more than [-] million shi in the official warehouses of the other five provinces. It is estimated that there is not enough time for corruption..." Bi Ziyan responded with a bow, and asked Zhu Youjian frowned.

The imperial court distributed more than 4000 million shi for disaster relief. As a result, the victims did not eat a grain of rice, and most of the food was sold off, and they saved more than 700 million shi.

If Liu Si and others did not revolt and kill the corrupt official Han Chao, less than 4000% of the more than [-] million shi of grain would have been delivered to the people.

"Counting the gains from the house raids, how much food is there in the eight provinces, and how long will it be enough for the victims?"

Zhu Youjian continued to ask, but Bi Ziyan already had a draft in his chest, and he replied methodically:
"There are a total of more than 930 million shi of the disaster relief food distributed from the eight provinces. Except for the disaster victims in Weibei who need to distribute food directly, the disaster relief food in other places can still stabilize the local food prices in Changping warehouses."

"Decree that the price of food in various places shall not exceed [-] Wen." Zhu Youjian frowned and ordered, regardless of the original [-] Wen.

Maybe he saw it. He dared to set 690 yuan, and the officials dared to raise the grain price to 490 yuan together with the grain.

The bottom line of this group of people is lower than what he and Bi Ziyan thought.

It is better to expect the drought to disappear than to expect their conscience to find out.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian also asked Bi Ziyan: "It's already June. According to the Ministry of Households, how much is the land tax this year..."

"Probably less than 2000 million stones..." Bi Ziyan bowed in response, and Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Chengen, who also bowed in response:
"Seventy percent of the military farms in Shaanxi have no harvest, [-] percent have no harvest in Hexi, [-] percent have no harvest in Shanxi, [-] percent have no harvest in Beizhili, [-] percent have no harvest in Henan, [-] percent have no harvest in Guangdong, and Fujian..."

The crop failure data was reported by Wang Chengen, and the reason why it was collected so clearly was also because such things as grain crop failure could actually be seen from April.

After reporting on the situation of the military settlements in each province, Wang Chengen said:

"This year, more than 3000 million troops are stationed in the fields, and it is estimated that more than [-] million mu will be harvested. The land tax that can be collected is probably less than [-] million shi."

One is less than 2000 million shi, and the other is less than 3000 million shi. It is concluded that the total income of Daming Tianfu this year may be less than 5000 million shi.

This is the land tax that could have collected nearly 8000 million shi, but now it can only collect [-]%.

If there is no military garrison, relying solely on the household department, and exempting Sanxiang and various miscellaneous taxes, I am afraid that the Ming Dynasty will perish earlier than in history.

"There is no food harvest, what is the price of wine this year?"

After a moment of silence, Zhu Youjian asked about the price of the wine, and Bi Ziyan also said:

"According to the report from the Liquor Department, the price of liquor across the country has increased by [-]% this year."

"They raised it by [-]%, we also raised it by [-]%, and the shochu in the Huangdian went up to [-]." Zhu Youjian turned to Wang Chengen and ordered.

Obviously, Zhu Youjian no longer counts on Tian Fu, and he counts on the silver of the wine department.

As long as there is money to pay the salaries, there is no need to discount the land tax, then the Ming Dynasty will always have tens of millions of stones of grain that can be mobilized for disaster relief.

With the size of Daming, these tens of millions of stones are not too much, so Zhu Youjian still needs to attack the population.

"Shanxi, Beizhili, Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong, the five provinces in Beijing, find out the exact amount as soon as possible, and the millions of people involved will be moved to Jiugang and Nanzhou in sequence according to the distance."

This is the best way to reduce population density.

Although the six major shipyards and the Cochin Shipyard, which has already started construction, are building ships very quickly, Huangdian also has enough volume to relocate several 10 people at a time.

However, this kind of relocation requires several months and a lot of manpower and material resources. Relocating one million people a year is already the largest amount of relocation that Daming can do to Jiugang and Cochin.

Regarding the population density of Shaanxi, Shanxi, North Zhili, Shandong, and Henan, Zhu Youjian has started to deal with it since the White Lotus Sect Uprising in the second year of Tianqi. As long as it continues, the pressure on disaster relief will only become smaller and smaller.

The only thing to be concerned about is Nanzhili and Zhejiang and Jiangxi, the capital and two provinces.

The two provinces of Beijing accounted for one-third of the population of Ming Dynasty, and if Zhu Youjian remembered correctly, they had little impact on the first stage of the 17-year drought in Xiaobinghe.

The entire 17-year drought in Xiaobinghe at the end of Ming Dynasty was divided into two stages. The first stage was from the seventh year of Tianqi to the eighth year of Chongzhen, and now it is the 15th year of Tianqi.

The severe drought at this stage is mainly in the north. Sichuan, Fujian, Huguang, Guangdong and other places basically have no severe droughts for more than three years in a row, and only a few prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River are affected. It is very serious.

But in the second stage, that is, when the Ming Dynasty could not maintain internal repression and external defense, the situation changed completely.

From the ninth year of Chongzhen to the 16th year of Chongzhen, severe drought not only continued to rage in the north, but even covered the entire Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi.

At this stage, except for Yunnan and Liaodong, which did not experience severe drought, the rest of the provinces were covered for at least one year.

In other words, if Zhu Youjian could not reduce the population density of Jiangnan, the capital and the second province 15 years before the apocalypse, the situation he would face would be very cruel.

The two provinces in Beijing have not experienced large-scale starvation in history. The reason is that the local industry and commerce are well developed and groundwater is easy to exploit.

Thus, even though the rice fields were not productive, they were still able to support themselves from mulberry trees and textiles.

However, although the three provinces, which accounted for one-third of the population of Ming Dynasty, were able to support themselves, their food production had declined.

They held money to buy food for their lives, which led to the fact that the food was sold out when it arrived in Nanjing.

The grain merchants knew that the price of grain in the south of the Yangtze River was high, so they all transported the grain to the south of the Yangtze River, and the people in the north died of starvation...

The economic structure of these three places determines that it is impossible for them to relocate on a large scale because of the imperial court's grant of land, unless Zhu Youjian can grant each of them hundreds of acres.

This condition is destined to be difficult to achieve, and it is also difficult to relocate them.

It is almost impossible for the local people to take the initiative to relocate, but it is not difficult for Zhu Youjian.

From this case, he probably found a way to resettle people without spending a lot of money.

That is "promoting a big case and moving prisoners".

How many clean Jiangnan officials are there?As long as one is caught and convicted of relocating the Nine Clans, hundreds or thousands of people can be relocated.

As long as a big case is made, corrupt officials are convicted, and they are relocated and exiled according to the nine clans, it is not difficult to get rid of millions of people.

But if he wants to make a big case in Jiangnan, then Zhu Youjian has to make some preparations in advance...

(End of this chapter)