Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 363 "Ping Burma Matters"

"Calculate all the salt, tea, wine and coal in the imperial store. I think you are just idle and have accumulated so many papers!"

In Prince Qi's mansion, when Cao Huachun was sitting in the side hall, holding a cup of tea and savoring it carefully, in front of him were hundreds of eunuchs in charge.

Behind these eunuchs are hundreds of palace scribes who are making abacus, and the sound of dialing abacus keeps echoing in the hall, which is more lively than the household department.

Wang Chengen is not here, he is in another side hall next door to the side hall, dealing with matters related to the officialdom, fertilizer field, feed field and cement field.

As for Yumajian's field tax, imperial store, salt farm, wine farm, tea farm, textile farm, granary, and shipyard, these things that were originally shared by Zhu Youjian and Wang Chengen were all brought together to him alone.

Although these matters were complicated, Cao Huachun handled them in an orderly manner.

It is already the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and fifteen days have passed since the Zhengdan Festival, and this day is also the only day in the entire Ming Dynasty where there is no curfew.

Cao Huachun heard that Zhu Youjian was going out at night, so he was busy calculating the estimated income of Yumajian this year before dusk.

From Zhengdan to Lantern Festival, under his urging, many officials in charge of the Yumajian finally calculated the expected income of the Yumajian before dusk.

After getting the summaries, he went to find Wang Chengen non-stop, and together with Wang Chengen, they rushed to the Palace of Cunxin in the palace with the two summaries.

The two of them were running in the grand and majestic Prince Qi Mansion, with the tall city walls and four city gates in the background.

These towers are covered with cyan glazed tiles, and the gates are decorated with red lacquer and gold-coated copper nails. They seem to be the epitome of the Forbidden City in Yingtianfu, the imperial capital.

The palaces passing by are basically all nested and arched on the top, with panchi painted in the middle, decorated with gold rims, and painted with eight auspicious flowers.

The seat in the hall is made of red lacquer and gold panchi, the hanging tent is made of red pin and gold panchi, and the back wall of the seat is painted with panchi and colorful clouds.

The main entrance, the front and rear halls, and the four gate towers are decorated with green dots of gold.The palace gate verandah and the city gate tower are covered with blue glazed tiles.

There are [-] palaces and houses in the mansion, and the corridors are decorated with Qingdai.

Busy with the two of them were the scribes and soldiers in the palace, as well as the maidservants of the inner court.

After all, it is the annual Lantern Festival. According to tradition, on this day, the whole world celebrates the festive season, and everyone will decorate and light up lanterns to celebrate.

It's not just the streets with lanterns and festoons, but also some decorative lanterns are hung in the homes of princes, relatives, and traffickers.

Yang Yuanai ordered people to buy more than 3 lanterns, each of which was different, and hung them in the palace.

In front of the square of Cunxin Hall, the maidservants used ropes and wooden sticks to prop up hundreds of hanging ropes, and then hung up lanterns one by one.

The inner court was so busy that Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen could only speed up their pace and walked into the Palace of Cunxin with the memorial.

"Your Highness Chitose..."

"Get up."

Cunxin Hall was crowded with busy people inside and out, but Zhu Youjian raised his hands and let some maidservants change into a festive red round collar robe for him.

The hair was combed in a bun, the golden crown and jade hairpin, and the round collar robe was finally put on, and a jade belt worth a thousand gold was stepped on again.

When he got here, Zhu Youjian turned around and looked at the two of them, and the two of them also stepped forward and handed over the summary document and said:
"Your Highness, this is the estimated annual income of the officialdom this year."

"It's been [-] days since the beginning of the new year, and the estimate has been calculated. It's hard work for you."

After a long absence on Zhu Youjian's face, a smile finally appeared on his face.

Cao Huachun's return, and Zhu Youxiao's sharing, these arrangements have reduced Zhu Youjian's workload by two-fifths.

Especially after Cao Huachun's return, after he arrived at Prince Qi's Mansion, the number of memorials Zhu Youjian processed every day dropped directly to more than 500.

At his speed, it only takes four and a half hours to process these more than 500 memorials, and the remaining seven and a half hours can be used for sleeping and resting.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian, who had been tired for several years, also regained some vitality, and the smiles on his face became more and more.

He opened the summary and took a rough look.

In general, the damage caused by the disaster to the north has been difficult to increase.

Although there has been no rain in some places in Huguang, Sichuan, and Nanzhili since the Zhengdan Festival, it is at most a minor drought, and the local water conservancy and rivers are enough to resist it.

As for the intensity of the drought in the north, it has also decreased compared to last year. At least one rain fell in Hanzhong, Xi'an, and Fengxiang in Shaanxi, and it also rained in Taiyuan Prefecture in Shanxi.

Even though there was no rain in North Zhili, the water level of some rivers began to rise slightly.

In general, although the beginning of the ninth year of the apocalypse was bad, it was much better than the eighth year of the apocalypse.

The summary of the Yumajian also stated that as long as the drought this year is not as serious as last year, there is a high probability that the land tax of the Yumajian will be able to collect about 800 million shi.

As for the tax money for the Huangdian and various venues, about 300 million taels can be handed over.

"This year should be better than last year, but the drought will not stop. Let Sun Chuanting continue to patrol the world, but Mr. Be careful to prevent the epidemic."

After closing the summary, Zhu Youjian handed the memorial back, Wang Chengen took it on his own initiative, and Cao Huachun replied:
"Over there, Bi Shangshu has sent a summary. Although the estimate is not as good as that of Yumajian, the household department should be able to earn 2000 million shi this year, and more than [-] million taels of tax money."

"Almost, this year, you should be able to earn 800 million shi and tax silver 800 million taels, which is more than [-] million shi and [-] million taels richer than last year."

"According to previous years, the tax money is basically enough for the imperial court to spend, and 800 million shimimai can be saved for emergencies."

"But..." Cao Huachun paused at this point, and then continued:

"However, the 16 soldiers and horses in Xiaoxiyang are subsidized this year, so the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies has to spend more than 240 million taels of silver, and there is still a shortage of more than one million taels of tax money so that there is no need to sell rice and wheat."

Cao Huachun's words made Zhu Youjian nod in satisfaction. These news made him happier, with a smile on his face all the time, somewhat youthful.

"Is there any balance at the household department?"

"Confiscating the house before and after, chasing the stolen goods, plus the gold, silver and copper ingots shipped from Yingzhou and the old port, the balance is about 400 million taels of silver." Cao Huachun replied honestly, and Zhu Youjian nodded when he heard the words, but said:

"The gold, silver and copper ingots in Yingzhou and Hubu cannot be moved. How much will they retain after they go?"

"About 500 million taels..." Cao Huachun replied, but he was worried that Zhu Youjian would be unhappy, so he specially explained:
"On the eve of Zhengdan Festival, after Cui Chengxiu and others ransacked their homes, there was a balance of more than 300 million taels in the state. However, the Ministry of Household Affairs first paid more than 70 million taels of road construction costs to Beijing and eleven provinces, and then issued another [-] taels. The money will be given to other prefectures and counties affected by the disaster."

"The second is to allocate 900 million taels of silver to Yumajian to acquire mines in a province in Shanxi."

"900 million taels of silver..." Zhu Youjian snorted when he heard the sum of money.

Cao Huachun knew very well why Zhu Youjian sneered. To put it bluntly, the value of the mines in the hands of Shanxi gentry may be as high as tens of millions of taels of silver.

The reason why the imperial court spent 900 million taels of silver to buy it was because the group of powerful gentry and local officials in Shanxi only reported the value of 900 million taels of silver.

A mine with a value of 900 million taels has a normal annual output value of more than one million taels. According to Ming's taxation, they only need to pay 10 taels of silver every year.

However, in fact, their annual output is as high as several million taels of silver. Even if they pay about ten to one tax silver according to miscellaneous and regular taxes, they still need to pay 50 million taels of silver.

This is only the real mine tax in Shanxi Province, and the mine tax in Shanxi accounts for one-seventh of Daming's mine tax. That is to say, if the gentry of Ming Dynasty pay taxes honestly, the mine tax alone can contribute more than 300 yuan to Daming. Ten thousand taels of tax silver.

However, they were dishonest. The total value of the mines reported to Daming was only more than 7000 million taels, and they only paid 10,000+ gold, silver, copper and iron ore taxes every year.

Well now, if they are dishonest, then Zhu Youjian will pretend to be stupid, and the court will pretend to be stupid.

Didn't they report a total value of more than 4000 million taels of mining tax?The imperial court collected the ore according to this value.

Shanxi was the first to be operated on, followed by five places in Nanzhili, Shandong, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong.

After getting all the mines worth tens of millions of taels of silver, the imperial court can produce tens of millions of taels of silver, millions of taels of gold, and tens of millions of copper every year.

Zhu Youjian does not intend to collect all the iron mines, but he is planning to leave some to the private sector, so as to avoid the dominance of the state-owned mines.

Therefore, after hearing that there were still 500 million taels of silver in the national treasury, Zhu Youjian first ordered:
"Coal mines, iron mines, some honest mine owners can still let them go if they are willing to pay taxes regularly after the imperial court explores them."

"The main thing is the gold, silver and copper mines." After Zhu Youjian finished speaking, he walked to the main hall and sat down. Wang Chengen and Cao Huachun followed suit.

Zhu Youjian picked up the teacup and took a sip before continuing:
"Since there are still 500 million taels in the national treasury, let's find the silver first, and store the food in the granaries of the Imperial Horse Supervisor and the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion. Without my order, no one can open it except my brother."

"Yes..." The two bowed down, and Zhu Youjian also asked, "How are Jin Xuan, Bianjiao, and Dingjiao?"

"The 30 kerosene allocated by the Ordnance Bureau three days ago, under the guard of the third battalion of the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion, set off from Tianjin Port to the Nandao Mansion of Yingzhou." Cao Huachun replied:
"In addition, Buzheng Envoy Yang and Buzheng Envoy Wu also went to Yingzhou by boat. It is expected that Jin Xuan and the others will arrive in mid-February, and the two chief envoys should arrive in early March."

"Hmm..." Zhu Youjian nodded slightly, but Wang Chengen reminded:

"Your Highness, news from Jiugang that Master Xu arrived at Zhongshan Mansion, only [-] of the [-] large draft horses brought by merchants from various countries survived, and more than half of the thousands of big white pigs and hundreds of beef cattle died of illness. "

"It's a normal loss." Zhu Youjian was quite satisfied, and asked, "When will they arrive in the capital?"

"Master Xu has already brought all kinds of livestock to the north, and will arrive at Tianjin Port in late April." Wang Chengen replied honestly.

Zhu Youjian stood up when he heard the words, and gave an order:
"After arriving in Guangdong, any sick livestock will be taken ashore, and the officialdom will take good care of them."

"Don't worry, Your Highness, this servant knows..." Wang Chengen bowed back.

"Your Highness!"

After finally talking about some things, Lu Wenzhao's voice sounded, and behind him were several faces that he hadn't seen for a long time.

"See Your Highness..."

Following Lu Wenzhao to Zhu Youjian, Shen Lian, Lu Xian, and Lu Xiu bowed to each other and saluted.

"Get up, don't stick to etiquette." Seeing the three returning, Zhu Youjian smiled and helped them up one by one, and Lu Wenzhao also smiled and presented a map with both hands:
"Your Highness, this is the Burmese map that the three of them have surveyed over the years, as well as the strength of Toungoo's troops. I have already asked craftsmen to make sand tables according to the map."

"Okay!" Hearing Lu Wenzhao's words, Zhu Youjian was so happy beyond words that he could only say to the three of them:
"The merits of the three of you are here, and the court will never forget them." He turned to look at Cao Huachun as he said:

"Brother Shangzuo, give the three of them three ranks as captains of Shangqingche!"

"The maidservant takes orders..." Cao Huachun bowed back with a smile, while Zhu Youjian took the map and sat back to his seat, and began to read it carefully.

The area of ​​Taungoo State is comparable to that of Yunnan and Guizhou in Ming Dynasty. The overall terrain is higher in the north and lower in the south, surrounded by mountains on the north, west and east sides, high mountains in the north, hills and mountains in the west, and plateaus in the east.

The areas near the border of Ming Dynasty are all plateau areas, but as long as the Ming army has an advantage, it is condescending.

Send troops from Tengyue Baguan, as long as you defeat the Burmese army, you can enter the alluvial plain of the Dajinsha River (Irrawaddy River) in a very short time. This place is low and flat, and it is also one of the four major plains in the Indochina Peninsula.

Take here, and then encircle and suppress the rebels in other places, Dongyu can go down in a flash.

After reading the terrain, Zhu Youjian took a look at Toungoo's internal affairs and situation.

It has to be said that even though Myanmar acquired the two territories of Mengyang and Mubang in the Ming-Myanmar War with the Ming Dynasty, due to the inability of the Burmese to annex and assimilate the ethnic groups in various places, in the Ming-Myanmar War, Toungoo was passively internalized .

Since the 23rd year of Wanli, Taungoo has lost its brilliance and can only protect itself within the capital. Pyay, Ava, Chiang Mai and other places have declared independence one after another, and all parts of Myanmar have once again fallen into a state of warlord separatism.

In the 26th year of Wanli, Nanzhang also broke away from the rule of Toungoo. At the same time, King Naresuan of Siam joined forces with the Marquis of Toungoo and the Arakan Dynasty to attack Toungoo, and King Mangyingli of Toungoo was killed.

Afterwards, King Liangyuan, the youngest son of Mang Yinglong, occupied the "granary" area centered on Ava, and kept half of the mountains and rivers in Upper Myanmar.

After his death, Anabilon, who succeeded him to the throne, regained all the lost land in lower Myanmar, especially in the 11th year of Wanli, and recovered Shalian, which was occupied by the Portuguese, thus completing the unification of Myanmar again.

Originally, the Ming army's opponent would be Anabilon, but on the eve of Shen Lian's return, Anabilon died of illness, and now he is succeeding him to the throne.

If Zhu Youjian remembers correctly, this Thalong's ability is not bad. In history, he gave up foreign wars and devoted himself to restoring Toungoo's domestic economy and distributing land to landless farmers.

"I have to do it..."

Thinking of what King Talong had done, Zhu Youjian immediately realized that the Ming army had to act immediately.

As the planner of the strategies of the Ming army in all directions, Zhu Youjian knew very well what the magic weapon for the Ming army to expand its territory and stabilize the situation.

To put it bluntly, it is to exterminate the aristocrats and merchant classes who control [-]% of the resources in the area, and then distribute one-third or even half of the captured land to the exploited civilians in the area, so that the civilians in the area will support Daming.

Whether it is facing the north or the south, or the current Yingzhou, this policy is a magic weapon for victory.

However, now Dongyu has found a person who is willing to take action against the aristocratic forces and distribute the land to the peasants.

That is to say, if he successfully divides the land, the Ming army will lose a magic weapon to win. On the contrary, the Dongyu civilians who were divided by King Long will have to fight the Ming army in order to protect their own land.

Zhu Youjian didn't care about the life and death of the Taungoo people, but he needed the Taungoo people as a labor force.

Whether it is the jade, gold, silver and copper mines in Myanmar, or the cement, pig iron, and labor needed for the construction of the "Beijing-Myanmar Railway" in Ming Dynasty...

All these things need to be done by people, and what Zhu Youjian has to do is to reproduce "Pingwo Incident" and have a "Pingwo Incident".

After defeating Toungoo, Ming Dynasty would have a direct access to the Indian Ocean, and after defeating here, construction of Daming's first railway had to start.

The fourth version of the steam engine has not yet been developed, but this is not a problem, because it will come out sooner or later, and the construction of the "Beijing-Myanmar Railway" will take a long time.

From the capital, through Henan, Huguang, Sichuan, Yunnan, to Bago and Yangon in southern Myanmar.

In other words, after the construction arrived in Ava, it was built directly towards the Kingdom of Ahom, and the Kingdom of Ahom was also pacified, allowing the Ming border to advance to the mouth of the Ganges River.

"The Governor's Mansion of the Western Army and the Governor's Mansion of the Southern Army, after the troops are transferred, how many troops are there in the southwest?"

Zhu Youjian looked up at Lu Wenzhao, and when Lu Wenzhao heard the words, he quickly took out a portable document from his arms, rummaged through it, and said:
"There are a total of 62 battalions with nearly 19 soldiers in the capital's mansions."

"Has Hong Chengchou returned to Kunming?" Zhu Youjian asked again, but Lu Wenzhao nodded directly this time:
"Back to Kunming, the 180th Battalion of the Jiaozhi Garrison, supervised the [-]th Mansion, [-] Second County."

After the establishment of the Jiaozhi Province, Zhu Youxiao placed the chief envoy in the Jiaozhou Prefecture. According to the plan of the Yongle period, the entire province set up a total of 120 prefectures, including Jiaozhou Prefecture, Beijiang Prefecture, Jianchang Prefecture, and Tsinghua Prefecture. [-] counties.

The remaining thirty or so states in the Yongle period were abolished, because fifteen prefectures were enough to manage Jiaozhi.

After troop adjustment and fighting, the Southern Army, which originally had only 48 battalions, transferred [-] battalions to Xiaoxiyang, [-] battalions to Jiugang, [-] battalions to Jiaozhi, and the remaining [-] battalions to Huguang, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces.

In general, if it is necessary to transfer, the Southern Army Governor's Mansion can also transfer nine battalions of troops.

As for the Governor's Mansion of the Western Army, there were only 56 battalions after the battle, and another [-] battalions were transferred to support Xiaoxiyang.

Therefore, there are currently only 36 battalions in the Western Army's Governor's Mansion, and they need to undertake the defense of the western Sichuan region after taking over from the Mu family, as well as the defense of Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan.

However, in terms of the situation, Wusizang is still in civil strife, Duogan has Cao Wenzhao's [-]th Battalion Ma Gongwei, and the chieftains in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan have all been eliminated, Nanzhang has been attached, and Jiaozhi has been pacified.

So in calculation, the Western Army's Governor's Mansion only needs to defend Uzang and Taungoo's border with Daming.

"The Governor's Mansion of the Southern Army transferred nine battalions of soldiers and horses to the eighth pass of Tengyue. Cao Wenzhao was preparing to take over the area of ​​Qamdo. After the Governor's Mansion of the Western Army took over the city defense, except for Sichuan and Guizhou, which each retained three battalions of soldiers and horses, the remaining [-] battalions of soldiers and horses were exhausted. Transfer to Tengyue Baguan."

"All the soldiers and horses of the 39 battalions belong to Hong Chengchou's control. Long live, please grant Hong Chengchou the strategy of Ping Burma. The Ministry of Households will allocate 500 million taels of cash to the government of Ping Burma, and Hong Chengchou will start preparations for the Ping Burma."

After simple calculations, Zhu Youjian finally decided to attack Myanmar, seeking to restore the three propagandas and six consolations of Ming Dynasty during the Yongle period, and win the Indian Ocean estuary for Ming Dynasty.

"Your Highness, there are still some disobedient chieftains in Qamdo to the east of Uz-Tibet. Just based on Cao Wenzhao's Twelve Duogan Camp, isn't it a bit..."

When Lu Wenzhao heard this, he couldn't help persuading him, but Zhu Youjian frowned slightly after hearing this, and raised his hand and said:
"Let Qin Bangping clean up the chieftains in eastern Tibet for me before leading troops to western Yunnan."

"Under the rule of Ming Dynasty, there is no system that is completely different from Ming Dynasty, and no common people are allowed to be forced to be slaves!"

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao bowed in response, and when Cao Huachun heard the words, he bowed his hands and said:

"Your Highness, this servant has read the files of the military department of the imperial court on Luchuan and Dongyu's use of troops during the Wanli and Zhengtong years..."

"The archives all mention the rugged mountain roads on the Yunnan plateau, the rushing river, and the very bad traffic conditions. Zhongyi Jingyuanhou once wrote "transporting rice, the price of stone is as high as a thousand gold, and transporting copper to the inland is suffering, and some people can't bear to say it." , As a result, the saying "make up a gangster's wife, the counties and towns will not support them". "

"In order to raise food and grass for the army, Dali, Heqing, Menghua, Yao'an, and Chuxiong, five villages in the town of Wuyi, sent their households to flee and migrate without dying."

"When fighting Dongyu, even though Chen Yongbin was farming in Longchuan, Mengmao and other places, the local miasma was so bad that the villagers couldn't farm, and the soldiers were in the west, and the money was the same, and Yunnan has been wasted since then."

"Therefore, the slaves thought that they had to open up a road first to transport the food to the Eight Passes of Tengyue, at least enough food for the army to feed for a year."

Cao Huachun’s examples are Jingyuanhou Wangji during the orthodox period when the Han dynasty went the farthest to the southwest land, and Chen Yongbin who was framed.

The files of these two people in the Ministry of War are worth learning from. Not to mention the present, even for later generations, before the 21st century, it would be very difficult to transport grain across the Hengduan Mountains and to Jiangxinpo, Mangshi, and Tengchong.

Therefore, if you want to fight Taungoo, you must first ensure the food supply of the army.

Road construction is imminent, and Zhu Youjian has been planning how to build roads for three years.

"What is the current output of the cement plant in Yunnan?" Zhu Youjian asked, and Wang Chengen bowed after hearing the words:
"With an annual output of 700 million shi, with the standard of "Beijing-Tianjin Mansion Road", it is not a problem to build a mansion road from Kunming to Longchuan, and there is even a surplus."

Wang Chengen's words satisfied Zhu Youjian, and he ordered again:

"The Ministry of Households allocated another one million taels of silver, and the Ordnance Bureau allocated 100 catties of mercury fulminate and 50 catties of black powder."

"Tell the Ministry of Industry that when you meet mountains and blow them up, and when you meet waters to build bridges, even if there is an abyss ahead, you must make a way for Gu."

"After the spring of next year, I want the military rations to arrive in Longchuan from Kunming unimpeded!"

　Try to get Chapter 2 out before twelve o'clock

　　
　
(End of this chapter)