Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 376
"Your Highness, there is news from Yingzhou."

In the middle of the night in the military academy, when Zhu Youjian had just finished washing, Lu Wenzhao walked into his bedroom with two military newspapers.

"Didn't you just send a letter a few days ago? Why did it come again?"

Zhu Youjian, who was soaking his feet, couldn't get up, so he had to ask curiously, and Lu Wenzhao also smiled and said:
"This is good news. Yang Wenyue and Wu Aheng captured Nagoya, General Cao captured the flag, and Iemitsu Tokugawa was taken to the front line."

"Huh? This is good news." Zhu Youjian was also a little surprised when he heard that Tokugawa Iemitsu was defeated.

Sitting aside, Li Dingguo got up and took the military newspaper from Lu Wenzhao, and handed the first copy to Zhu Youjian.

Zhu Youjian took it over and looked at it. Sure enough, 10,000+ Japanese troops were wiped out under the masts and sculls. It can be said that most of the troops in the entire shogunate have been harvested.

Right now, apart from Tokugawa Hidetada of Edo Castle and some daimyo troops in the north, there is nothing in Yingzhou that can stop the Ming army.

And looking at the posture, it is estimated that the combination of Yang Wenyue and Wu Aheng can clean up the entire Yingzhou before the winter comes.

In the military newspaper, Yang Wenyue didn't say a word about how to fight the war next, and the whole article was about how to govern Yingzhou after the war.

Judging from the governance plan he proposed, Zhu Youjian was a little reluctant to let him go back to Daming.

"Yang Wenyue and Wu Aheng did not disappoint me. The methods he proposed are not bad. They lowered the land tax for the farmers in Yingzhou, but they only allocated one mu of land. They couldn't support themselves. They could only live richly by participating in the imperial court's projects."

"According to Yang Wenyue's arrangement, it is estimated that in five or six years, Yingzhou will be able to build a supply channel for me to the central part of North America."

Zhu Youjian nodded in satisfaction, and Lu Wenzhao also took the opportunity to sit down, and then said:

"There is also a second military report about the European merchants in Xiaoxiyang. This military report should have been delivered in April, but there was a storm in the Gulf of Siam at that time, so it was delayed for more than a month."

"Huh?" Seeing this, Zhu Youjian looked at Li Dingguo, and Li Dingguo also handed over another military report.

This military report was the one sent out by Huanglong in February. Zhu Youjian glanced at it hastily, then nodded in satisfaction.

"The five kingdoms were destroyed, six 10,000+ taels of gold and jewels worth millions of taels were transported back to the imperial court by Huanglong."

Zhu Youjian paused, calculated the time before saying:

"It's late May now, so the ship should have arrived in Luzon."

"Your Highness will see." Lu Wenzhao took the opportunity to agree, while Zhu Youjian continued to look down.

In the letter, after Huang Long briefly described the size of the five kingdoms, the number of people, and the amount of land, he said that he could become a vassal.

If there is no accident, the army will launch a northward attack in April, destroying the Vijayanagar Dynasty, and then marching northward to disintegrate and destroy the four returned Sudanese alliances including Bamani.

Once these five countries are destroyed again, basically the entire Deccan Plateau and one-third of India will become the direct domain of Ming Dynasty.

However, this does not belong to Zhu Youjian's goal for Huanglong, because all he wants is the coastal plain, but Huanglong wants to go deep into the inland and destroy these five countries.

Therefore, when Zhu Youjian saw this information, he frowned at first, but was soon appeased by Huang Long's explanation.

Huanglong's explanation is very simple and straightforward, that is, the three major religions currently existing in the Indian mainland all like to collect gold, and going deep into the interior can obtain gold for the court.

Just for this simple one, Zhu Youjian did not pursue Huanglong's crimes anymore, after all, he will not accept the order of the foreign emperor.

After all, the more than 60 taels of gold and millions of taels of jewelry did teach Zhu Youjian a lesson.

"Counting the time, Huang Long should have already started."

Zhu Youjian sorted out the letters in hand, did not continue to read, but raised his head and asked Lu Wenzhao:
"Among the group of vassals who decided to go to Tianzhu, do any of their children send letters back to Beijing?"

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao nodded and explained:
"Many of the children who were sent to Tianzhu have already written letters to their own palaces, informing them that they are ready to leave. However, these letters have just arrived at Jiaozhi. The children of the various vassals expedited five hundred miles, and it will take at least ten days to arrive in the capital. .”

"Right now, all the feudal clans have gathered in the capital, some of them are preparing to hear whether it is feasible for Levia to become a feudal clan, and some are waiting for your Highness to order the feudal clan to become a feudal clan."

Lu Wenzhao's words were simple and clear. To put it simply, all the vassals are waiting for the will of Zhu Youjian and the emperor, as well as letters from their own heirs.

As long as the letters from the children of the vassals are delivered, after the kings know about them, they will inevitably come to ask Zhu Youjian when he can leave the vassal.

However, there is no need for Zhu Youjian to procrastinate. It is not good for him or Daming to drag the feudal vassals into the country. It is better to release them early.

"Let's spread the news. It is announced that starting from the first day of June, Tianjin Port will open a route to Xiaoxiyang Jiufan, escorted by armed merchant ships from Huangdian."

Zhu Youjian took his feet out of the water, wiped them with a cloth, and Lu Wenzhao bowed to show that he knew.

Immediately afterwards, Zhu Youjian continued to glance at Huanglong's letter. At the end, he mentioned Meneses, Peterson and other governors of the Netherlands and Portugal trying to disrupt the trade between Spain and Ming Dynasty.

After talking about this, the last page of the letter was handwritten by the two of them.

Regarding the handwriting of the two, Zhu Youjian glanced at it hastily. Fortunately, the other party wrote the official script, otherwise Zhu Youjian might throw it to the fire.

[Respecting the sun never sets, the sailor of the Ming Dynasty, the general of the most powerful army in the world, the strategist who conquered the world, the invincible commander who swept the Tatars, the sea dragon king who captured the South Seas, the only direct brother of His Majesty the Emperor of China, His Royal Highness King Qi, I, Mene Seth...]

Looking at the long list of titles without substance, Zhu Youjian was speechless.

To be honest, the Han people stopped playing this kind of title stacking a long time ago, especially in the Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, Zhu Youjian could have followed the example of Boyan in the Yuan Dynasty and created a very good title for himself.

Among other things, in terms of his current official position, he casually issued a collar, and the prefix of the collar can make people look at headaches.

"Apocalypse Five Army Commander's Mansion Dadudu, Shangzhi Dudu's Mansion Shangdudu, Kaifu Yitong Sansi, King Qi, Mongolian Taishi, Daming Jianguo, Shangzhu Kingdom, Lujunguo Military, Six Ministers, and Yuma Supervisor Jinglue, leading North America, South America, and Mingzong's mansion Zongzheng..."

This is just less than one-third of Zhu Youjian's titles. He doesn't know how many official positions he has. In short, the accumulated salary of all official positions is 57 taels of silver. Every year...

Therefore, facing the title, he chose to skip it directly and focus on the content.

In general, although Menezes and Peterson wanted to use Ming Dynasty, they wrote about the situation in Europe and the importance of Ming trade fairly thoroughly.

If it wasn't for them, Zhu Youjian wouldn't even know that Daming is so awesome now.

With just a simple economic commodity trade, Ming saved Spain's domestic economy and stabilized the opponent's economy from inflation, and the military saltpeter trade made Spain sing steadily on the battlefield.

Zhu Youjian's original intention was just to get more money to ease the silver crunch crisis in Ming Dynasty, but he never thought that he would directly interfere with the situation of the 30-year war in Europe.

In fact, Zhu Youjian didn't know it himself. Before he traveled, European and American scholars had already proposed a concept.

The general idea is that the Thirty Years War, the Uprising at the end of Ming Dynasty, and the seclusion of the shogunate are the first global shocks since the Age of Discovery.

Among them, the impact of the small ice river environment and climate is the main factor, which has caused major changes and dynasties in many countries around the world at the same time.

There was a chain reaction on a global scale known as the "General Global Crisis of the Seventeenth Century".

Things like the Thirty Years War and the establishment of the shogunate reduced the amount of gold and silver that flowed into the Ming Dynasty.

Without these things, the Ming Dynasty could still survive for many years. This can be seen from the fact that the Ming Dynasty was able to achieve a crushing victory against Japan, a rising power.

Due to the cooling of the Little Ice Age and the arrival of the flu epidemic, the trade between Spain and the Ming Dynasty was suddenly interrupted.

The outflow of silver from Spain stopped suddenly, causing the Ming Dynasty's silver super-issue to suddenly become a silver contraction.

On the one hand, the domestic production of gold and silver weights and measures in the Ming Dynasty fell into chaos. On the other hand, the lack of supplies and natural disasters fell into a food crisis, which led to the Ming Dynasty being blocked all the way.

Officials have money, inflation, but more money and more shortfalls.

The more deficits, the more money the officials lack, the more they want to exploit the people, and the more the court has to increase taxes to fill the financial holes.

In general, the Ming Dynasty encountered various disasters such as the Great Depression and the Great Drought during the Little Ice Age, epidemics and other disasters. Even without Houjin and Dashun, it would not have survived for many years.

Conversely, in fact, as long as the Great Depression and the Little Ice River drought are resolved, the Ming Dynasty can still survive for many years.

The reason why the Ming Dynasty was unable to expand its territory was because it was actually weak at this moment.

History is like fat. Aging dynasties are puffy. Although war can reduce weight, the bones of dynasties are already brittle and cannot withstand fighting.

Zhu Youjian's reform is a crooked one, using the team of Yumajian and Qi Wangfu as the new bones of the country, taking over the muscles and fat from the old bones, and then through battles and reforms to get rid of the fat on his body .

Fat is bad governance, corrupt officials, and the old rules, but bones are the backbone.

For Daming, the economic depression no longer exists, but it may come back at any time.

The reason is very simple. With the current population size of Ming Dynasty, the stability maintenance dynasty is actually a stability maintenance population. The larger the population, the less resources can be allocated, which will eventually lead to economic difficulties.

Similarly, the larger the population, the greater the demand for jobs, and the excess capacity will lead to economic difficulties.

Therefore, no matter how you look at it, there is no need for Zhu Youjian to turn his face against Spain.

Even if Spain wins the 30-year war, it is unlikely to win easily.

Daming's input of saltpeter not only did not reduce the intensity of the European battlefield, but the fighting became more and more back and forth.

After the end of the 30-year war in history, Europe spent 70 years recuperating.

In 70 years, Ming Dynasty may be able to step into the second industrial revolution.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian closed the military newspaper, raised his head and meditated for a moment before explaining to Lu Wenzhao:
"Tell Meneses and Peterson, as well as the envoys of Anelia (English) and Franz (French)."

"Da Ming will not interfere with European affairs, nor will it cut off trade with Franji. If they feel that Franji is too powerful, they can also buy enough goods from Da Ming, especially saltpeter."

The percussion gun has already been figured out. Although saltpeter is an important catalyst for war, it is clearly not so practical, and saltpeter can increase the ambitions of European countries.

Zhu Youjian was confident that countries such as Britain and France, even if they had only one-tenth of the gunpowder output of the Ming Dynasty, would dare to provoke a war in a region with the power of one country.

Gunpowder was fought in wars, and one-tenth of the gunpowder output of Ming Dynasty was enough to produce in Europe for several years.

"From next year, the trade of saltpeter to Europe will increase to 300 million catties."

Zhu Youjian made one last statement, but Lu Wenzhao said worriedly:

"Your Highness, with so much saltpeter, what if they use it to make gunpowder and turn around to hit us?"

"A matchlock gun or a front-loaded smoothbore gun?" Zhu Youjian chuckled:

"By the time they finish fighting the civil war, the situation will have changed."

"It's not interesting to talk about them, let's talk about mines and disaster relief."

"Yes..." Lu Wenzhao reluctantly responded, then took out a booklet from his pocket, flipped through it, and finally said:

"The mines in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Beizhili have all been purchased, or have been re-explored and taxed."

"Right now, exploration and taxation are being carried out for Hexi, Shandong, and Liaodong. The main thing is for Shandong. The mines in Hexi and Liaodong have long been brought under Guochao's monopoly."

"With this progress, it is estimated that it will take three years to tax or acquire all mines."

"The matter of mining tax can't be rushed, it's easy to be used by others." Zhu Youjian sat down in the quilt, and Lu Wenzhao nodded slightly and continued:
"Disaster relief is still mainly based on work-for-work relief. After the addition of hundreds of thousands of implicated labor reform prisoners in the past few months, the production of cement and pig iron in the north has increased several times, while in the south it is all relying on Jiaozhi."

"All provinces are majoring in government roads. It is estimated that after the entire territory of Yingzhou is recovered, the southern part of Yingzhou can send tens of millions of stone and cement to Shandong every year."

"With the tens of millions of stone and cement in Yingzhou, the roads in the north will advance at a speed of thousands of miles per year."

"It's just that there is too much shortage of money and food for work-based relief. Currently, more than 270 million people have been recruited, and the daily wages need to spend nearly 3 taels of silver, which is more than 1000 million a year."

Lu Wenzhao paused, wanting to see what Zhu Youjian had to say, but regarding the work-for-relief matter, Zhu Youjian explained lightly:
"Don't worry about the silver. This year, I will start preparing for the acquisition and annexation of the bank. Within three years, the imperial court will issue new coins."

"What's more, after the vassals become the vassals, they will request to relocate the people, and the relocation money of each person is a considerable amount of income."

Having said that, Zhu Youjian paused, then continued:
"In short, regarding the affairs of the feudal clans, after the announcement, you let the feudal clans get their own charter, and they have to get their own money for how much immigration needs in the early stage."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao bowed in response, and Li Dingguo took a cup of calming tea and walked to the bedside. Zhu Youjian took a sip before continuing:
"How is Hong Chengchou's preparation?"

It has been less than half a year since Zhu Youjian asked Hong Chengchou to come up with a charter for the general attack on Toungoo, but Hong Chengchou still did not come up with a charter.

It is not surprising that Zhu Youjian asked about this, and Lu Wenzhao also explained to him:

"Hong Jinglue has been visiting western Yunnan, and by the way, surveyed the new post road. He recruited 30 Jiaozhi prisoners from Lin'an Mansion to Kunming, and then recruited 40 prisoners from Jiaozhi to Lin'an Mansion."

"He seems to be planning to build a government road from Kunming to Jiaozhi, and at the same time build another government road from Kunming to Longchuan."

"In terms of the amount of gunpowder, cement, and pig iron, it is not difficult to build and widen the roads in these places. Even if two government roads are built at the same time, and 70 prisoners are recruited, they will spend at least 500 million shimimai every year. .”

"Your Highness, does the imperial court need to transfer some money and food to Hong Jinglue?"

Lu Wenzhao was worried about Hong Chengchou's difficulties, but Zhu Youjian took a sip of tea and said:
"Did he cry poor to the court?"

"It's not..." Lu Wenzhao paused.

"Then don't worry about him." Zhu Youjian handed the finished teacup to Li Dingguo, and explained:

"He will say that the money and food are not enough. If he doesn't say it, it means that the money and food in the three provinces of Jiaozhi and Yunnan-Guizhou are enough for him to use."

"Rather than worrying about him, I'm more worried about Cao Wenzhao."

As he said that, Zhu Youjian thought of Cao Wenzhao who was guarding Xifeng, and then said:
"Defending Uszang is not an easy task. This group of guys rebelled at every turn. Didn't the Tibetans in Litang and Qamdo start their rebellion last month?"

"That's true, but it was suppressed by Cao Zongbing at that time, and two thousand heads were chopped off." Lu Wenzhao nodded in response, and Zhu Youjian also said after hearing it:
"The Western Army's Governor's Mansion and the Southern Army's Governor's Mansion will expand the recruitment of six battalions, and the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion will be replenished. The Northern Army and Shangzhi will remain unchanged."

"After the situation in Yingzhou was almost settled, Yang Wenyue would not return to the court for the time being. Wu Aheng was transferred to North Korea to replace Yang Gao. Yan Siqi was awarded the post of Uncle Wo and transferred back to the capital to give him a spare job."

"As for Zheng Zhilong, Liu Xiang and others, all of them will be transferred to the Naval Governor's Mansion as the fleet commander."

"Give Yang Wenyue Yingzhou the chief political envoy, additionally grant the general administration of North Asia and South Asia Merica, and add the crown prince Shaobao, and Wu Aheng add the crown prince Shaoshi."

"Cao Dingjiao was additionally awarded the title of Yingzhou Commander-in-Chief, and Cao Bianjiao was temporarily awarded the title of Daning Commander-in-Chief and transferred to Daning Mansion."

"Yes..." Lu Wenzhao bowed respectfully, and after seeing that Zhu Youjian had no orders afterwards, he slowly got up and exited the bedroom.

When he exited the bedroom, Li Dingguo was also going to turn off the lights and go to sleep in the small bedroom opposite the bedroom.

But when he was about to blow out the candle, Zhu Youjian said:

"Wait a minute, kid..."

"Ang?" Li Dingguo turned around for a moment, his face was a little confused.

Looking at him, Zhu Youjian asked: "Recently, you and the prince are studying together, do you have any experience? Or what do you think of the prince?"

"Him?" Li Dingguo showed a disgusted expression on his face: "He's annoying."

"It's not Your Highness who told me to treat him well. I have to beat him more than a dozen times a day. He always interrupts my study."

"..." Hearing Li Dingguo's words, Zhu Youjian couldn't hold back, even though he knew that his eldest nephew was a bit annoying, but he didn't expect Zhu Ciran to annoy Li Dingguo so much.

You must know that Li Dingguo is very polite to everyone, and he also cherishes his current life very much.

It can only be said that Zhu Ciran can be regarded as a talent if he can force Li Dingguo to be like this.

"Do you think the prince has the talent for marching and fighting?" Zhu Youjian could only ask patiently, because most of the time he just supervised Zhu Ciran, and some teaching work was still done by Chengde.

"He can be a small flag officer." Li Dingguo said without thinking, and then added: "It's just the kind that doesn't obey orders."

"..." Zhu Youjian's heart turned cold.

He was thinking whether he should return Zhu Ciran to his elder brother to teach him as soon as possible, after all, he didn't want him to be famous in the first life, and finally taught a character who is "the second in Zhu Qizhen".

"What about governing the country?" Zhu Youjian asked again unwillingly, but when Li Dingguo heard this question, his facial features were all wrinkled together, and he finally choked out a sentence:
"He is a good man……"

"Good man?" Zhu Youjian's heart was also cold in the last half, but he warmed up again when he heard the second half of Li Dingguo's sentence.

"Being an emperor should be a good emperor..." Li Dingguo touched the back of his head.

"How to say?" Zhu Youjian leaned forward, while Li Dingguo explained in a daze:

"I don't know, anyway, he is very kind-hearted and carefree. Sometimes I beat him to tears in the practice corner, and after a while he happily came to play with me."

"It's better to be heartless than vicious..." Zhu Youjian sighed.

Although he didn't really believe the words that he saw the old man at the age of three, but from the current point of view, Zhu Ciran really didn't have a serious appearance.

"It's normal... With such a father, where can a son be serious..."

Zhu Youjian couldn't help thinking of Zhu Youxiao, not to mention that when Zhu Youxiao was young, he was now the father of the other party, and he didn't see where the other party was serious.

If old Zhu's family was a family of ordinary people or officials, he, Zhu Youjian, would not bother to take care of this eldest nephew.

But the problem is that this eldest nephew is very likely to be the emperor in the future. If he is not serious, the world will be chaotic.

"You said that if the crown prince ascends the throne in the future, will he make large-scale construction projects and be harsh on the people?"

Zhu Youjian tentatively asked, but Li Dingguo said:

"If he becomes the emperor like that, he probably won't be in the palace for three hundred days a year."

"Not in the palace?" Zhu Youjian frowned, a little confused.

"He told me that he was going to Mount Huangshan, Mount Tai, Mount Qilian, to see the North Sea, the South Sea, and the Sea of ​​Darkness (the Pacific Ocean). He also wanted to roll in the desert and fight bears in the snow-capped mountains."

Li Dingguo said absent-mindedly, as if he saw Zhu Ciran bouncing around when he said this.

"..." Zhu Youjian's heart sank completely, and he waved his hands:

"Forget it, you go back, and you can persuade him well in the future."

"Oh, that kid is leaving..." Li Dingguo responded, then bowed and retreated to the table, blew out the candle, and walked out of the bedroom with a teacup.

It was Zhu Youjian, lying on the bed and looking at the dark ceiling, and the sighs in the room continued...

　The second is between ten and eleven o'clock in the evening

　　
　
(End of this chapter)