Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 378 The Prosperity of Hunger

"With regard to the issue of the feudal clan in Levia, it has been convened since then..."

"Tuk-tuk-"

On the first day of July, when the entire Ming Dynasty was busy, it was held by Zhu Youjian, presided over by Bi Ziyan, and Xu Xiake explained the second vassal king's meeting on the vassal.

The meeting place was still chosen in front of the Ancestral Temple, but this time there were much fewer vassal kings who came to participate in the vassal meeting.

Since many feudal vassals had already been enfeoffed in South Asia, there were only more than [-] princes and county kings who came to the Taimiao.

On the Ancestral Temple, Bi Ziyan ordered people to pull out the map, which marked 120 pieces of old maps, from the eastern coast of Somalia to the South African border, and then from the western coast of South Africa to the north, all the way north to Cameroon.

In fact, this map was originally intended to be drawn to Gambia, but considering that the Europeans had a large number of gold mining teams in the Gulf of Guinea, they chose to stop at Cameroon.

Zhu Youjian was unwilling to use Daming's reputation to deceive people, so at the meeting, Xu Xiake explained Levia's customs, geography and landforms very clearly.

Among them, he explained that there are nearly tens of thousands of natives in Levia, and the difficulty of reclaiming land in Levia is several times that of other places.

With these introductions, many people in the various feudal clans retreated immediately, but Bi Ziyan's words quickly regained the confidence of the feudal clans.

First of all, among the three discounts offered by Fan Levi, the first discount is the discount for leasing the army.

The feudal vassals leased the guard camps, and each battalion only needed 10 taels of silver for the military salary, and the second was only five taels of silver for the migration of the people.

With regard to these two concessions, the price of Levia, the current feudal clan, was reduced by half compared to that of South Asia, and many feudal clans with insufficient funds began to discuss it.

"Difficult land reclamation is not difficult. The worst thing is to learn from the imperial court and use native people to build land reclamation."

"Yes, it's just that the natives in Levia are easy to catch. There are some problems with it."

"Wait, let's hear about the third offer."

"Too……"

The discussions among the feudal vassals came to an abrupt end, and Bi Ziyan continued:
"The third discount is the tax payment of the imperial store of the Ming Dynasty when it trades with the feudal vassals. The tax paid by the imperial store of the Ming Dynasty to the feudal vassals in South Asia is three out of ten taxes, but in Levia it is four out of ten taxes."

Establishing an economic circle takes a lot of energy, and the establishment of Daming's imperial store is the best way to directly establish the local economy.

The suzerain-vassal system determined that the clans of the Ming Dynasty could not have their own currency, and everyone had to use the currency of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, mines were useful to the clans, but not very useful.

Systemic issues determined that they had to rely on Daming, and the direct sale of Huangdian was equivalent to establishing a basic local taxation department for them.

The land tax is still collected by the vassal state itself, as is the commercial tax, and [-]% of the profits of the imperial store are handed over, which is a good deal for the vassals.

Unless they engage in a state-run economy like Ming Dynasty, it is not the same as whoever collects taxes.

As for the economy?Their military will be controlled by Ming Dynasty, who cares whether the economy is controlled or not.

Therefore, the matter is very clear here. In view of the success of the old domain in South Asia, many domain kings have begun to raise signs to bid for land.

Under this round of bidding, except for the Huai, Ji, and Tang clans that have already been allied, the rest of the feudal clans have chosen to join the feudal clan.

120 The three auction lands were all taken. After the first day of February in the tenth year of Tianqi, there will also be a second voyage to the West.

The vassals can let their children or officials go with the boat. Since there are no large-scale countries in the central and southern regions, they only need to wait for the return journey from the Western Seas. If the vassals are sure that they want to go to the vassal, then Ming will organize a third voyage to the Western Seas to go to the vassal. .

This time is almost three years.

Therefore, after finalizing the matter, Xu Xiake and Bi Ziyan took the list to Prince Qi's Mansion, and handed the list to Zhu Youjian for review.

Sitting in the study room, Zhu Youjian looked through the list, and finally frowned slightly when he saw that there were still three feudal vassals left:
"What's going on with Huai Fan, Ji Fan, and Tang Fan?"

He looked up at Xu Xiake and Bi Ziyan, who were sitting on the left and right sides of the lower head, and Xu Xiake didn't know much about court affairs, so Bi Ziyan could only bow in response:
"The old king of Tang did not attend. The one who attended was Zhu Qiqi, the heir of the Tang king. Looking at their appearance, it seems that Zhu Changqing and Zhu Yujian, who fought in South Asia, wrote to them and said something, so they did not make a decision."

"..." Hearing Bi Ziyan's words, Zhu Youjian put down the list, and instead of entangled with the two of them, he continued:
"The preparations for the second voyage to the West need to start in October this year. Xu Xiake, if you have any requirements, you can list them in a booklet, or talk to Gu now."

"It's Your Highness..." Xu Xiake sat upright and bowed, and then said:

"Your Majesty does have something to say and asks His Highness for help."

Xu Xiake paused, and then continued:
"Because this time I went south from Wandao County in Ceylon Prefecture, and then took the deep-sea archipelago route to Xianlao Lengzu Island, and then went to South Levia from here, so I need Your Highness to give the Supervision Department and the prefecture and county information first. Quota."

"Secondly, this waterway must be the waterway that the imperial court will often take in the future, so market towns and supply points need to be established on each island."

"Your Highness needs someone from His Royal Highness to help coordinate the establishment of a supply market town. In addition, after this visit, your lower official needs to dig gold mines in the local area. Therefore, I hope His Highness will allow the local establishment of a gunpowder bureau, army and appoint officials."

Xu Xiake knew that he was only in charge of voyages to the West, so he didn't want to involve himself in how to establish a supervisory department, how to establish a gunpowder bureau, and how to manage people and affairs on land.

Regarding his thoughts, Zhu Youjian had a thorough understanding and understood his difficulties, but it was quite difficult for him to choose someone to monitor Levia for a while.

Lu Xiangsheng was sent to Xiaoxiyang by him, Hong Chengchou stayed in the southwest, Sun Chuanting was the governor of the country, and Yang Wenyue was placed in Yingzhou.

Based on this calculation, it seems that Wu Aheng is the only civil official under Zhu Youjian who can be sent out to serve as a supervisor.

However, only Wu Aheng was sent, and Zhu Youjian was a little worried.

After thinking about it, Zhu Youjian said to Bi Ziyan:

"Give Wu Aheng a transfer order, ordering him to return to the capital and wait for the next year to go to Levia. In addition, transfer Yan Yinshao and Yan Yingyuan to accompany him."

"Send a petition to the emperor, and seal Xianlao Lengzu Island and South Levia as supervisors of South Kunlun. Wu Aheng will also be awarded the title of supervisor of South Kunlun."

"Then the South Kunlun Supervisory Commission will be divided into South Kunlun Mansion in South Levia and East Kunlun Mansion in Xianlao Lengzu Island."

"Give Yan Yingyuan the prefect of South Kunlun, and Yan Yinshao the prefect of East Kunlun."

"The South Kunlun Supervising Envoy stayed in Hong Kong to station the fleet at the Navy's Governor's Mansion, and ordered Huang Fei to go to South Kunlun after the war. In addition, the South Kunlun Supervising Envoy is stationed in the third battalion. For the time being, that's it."

"The next official takes orders..." Bi Ziyan bowed in response, but he also knew that this was just the beginning.

Sure enough, as soon as he finished bowing, Zhu Youjian asked Xu Xiake:

"I am going to station three battalions of arch guards and one guard of navy soldiers in South Kunlun. In your opinion, how many people need to be relocated, and how many years will it take for them to be self-sufficient?"

Garrisoning troops is not simply garrisoning troops as you want, but also needs to consider logistics.

Although there are some coastal market towns formed spontaneously by Europeans in South Kunlun right now, they can at most meet the needs of sailors on the trading ships between the two sides.

At present, the Ming army is going to transfer nearly 5000 people there at one go. Whether the local market town can meet the living needs of this army is a question that Zhu Youjian needs to care about.

Regarding this, Xu Xiake said without thinking:

"If the size of the fleet is large enough this time, after the deployment of troops, it can leave enough food for the soldiers for a year, and then continue to adjust the food from the Xiaoxiyang Supervisory Commissioner during the period, it will be difficult to support these 5000 people. It's not difficult, because the local market can help."

"As long as the local market town can help, and then the army uses the local natives to reclaim the fields and plant corn, wheat and soybeans, in fact, as long as the intensive farming is thorough enough, they will be self-sufficient in the second year."

"There is no need to worry about vegetables. I have seen coastal Europeans grow vegetables. It is easy to grow vegetables locally, but it is difficult to grow rice and wheat."

"In the local area, before the land is improved, only corn, wheat and soybeans can be grown, and vegetables are self-sufficient. If you want to eat rice and wheat, you can only transport grain from Xiaoxiyang to South Kunlun."

"As for the relocation of the people, it depends on how many acres of land the local natives reclaim in the next year."

"The local land is not suitable for directly relocating people to cultivate. At least three years of intensive cultivation and three years of improvement will do."

"The subordinate officer's suggestion is to send troops to the local area first, and then use the natives to reclaim the fields and mine gold mines, so as to ensure that the local army can be self-sufficient in terms of salary and food."

"It is best to relocate the people to the local area when rice and wheat can be grown after three years of intensive farming."

After Xu Xiake finished his thoughts, Zhu Youjian nodded slightly:

"You're right, but I'd like to add one more."

With that said, Zhu Youjian looked at Bi Ziyan, and said:

"Release [-] female family members from the family members of the officials who committed crimes before, and then they will join the voyage to the West and settle down with the army in South Kunlun."

"Your Majesty was about to say this, but I didn't expect His Highness to say it first. Sure enough, Your Highness has a high opinion..." Bi Ziyan boasted to Zhu Youjian.

Obviously, they all took into account the personal needs of soldiers.

Unlike South Asia, there is no assimilation of native women in South Asia, but Levia is different.

Zhu Youjian didn't hope that after the feudal vassals became vassals, they would find out that the Southern Kunlun Supervision Department was managed by a group of Kunlun slaves. Where would the majesty of the Ming Dynasty be?
Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian wrote lightly:

"For the voyage to the West, you and I can discuss other things. After we go out, let someone call Lu Wenzhao to me."

"Yes..." Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, Xu Xiake and Bi Ziyan got up and bowed one after another, and exited the study.

They all knew that King Qi wanted to find out why Tang Fan's three domains didn't become domains.

So after they withdrew, someone passed Lu Wenzhao over after a while.

Lu Wenzhao walked into the study and bowed, while Zhu Youjian waved his hand to signal him to sit down:
"Tell me, Tang Fan, what the hell are Huai Fan and Ji Fan doing?"

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao took the first seat on the left, and then replied:
"According to their movements in Xiaoxiyang a few months ago, they are temporarily leaving the domain to search for gold and silver."

"Searching for gold and silver?" Zhu Youjian frowned slightly, and Lu Wenzhao also told what the children of San Francisco did in Tianzhu.

At the end, Lu Wenzhao did not forget to add his guess:
"According to the abolition of humble positions, the gold and silver they searched in Tianzhu is no less than 50 taels of silver..."

"Hehe...they are quite good at making money." Zhu Youjian didn't worry so much when he heard about it, but picked up his teacup with peace of mind, and took a sip.

Soldiers will earn money when they go overseas to fight, let alone these three palaces that have no money.

Now it seems that they want to accumulate enough capital to become a feudal clan, but they don't know where these people are going to go when they face the land that has been divided almost equally.

"Check out their movements. I want to know where they want to go."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao responded, and after seeing that Zhu Youjian had no other explanations, he slowly got up and exited the study.

When he exited the study, Zhu Youjian put down his teacup, bowed his head and continued to process the memorial.

It was just that while he was dealing with the memorial, an impeachment memorial came into his eyes.

The name of the person impeached by the memorial made Zhu Youjian slightly stunned, because it had a familiar name written on it.

Sun Chuanting...

"It's sad..."

When Zhu Youjian saw Sun Chuanting's name, with a sigh, outside Longchuan County, Huizhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province, thousands of miles away, a rough and big hand lifted the grass-like seedlings.

The seedlings were pulled off easily, but the dry soil couldn't be lifted like an iron plate.

The owner of the big hand got up, revealing his dark skin and vicissitudes of eyes.

In front of him, there are tens of thousands of acres of unharvested fields, and behind him are dry rivers and canals.

The bottom of the canal was dry and cracked, several feet deep without smelling a trace of water vapor.

The surrounding mountains are full of dry and dead trees, and the whole world is dim, as if people went to the Northwest Gobi Desert in the early [-]th century.

Leaving behind the grass-like seedlings, Sun Chuanting turned around with a heavy heart.

He looked at Longchuan County, hundreds of steps behind him, and perhaps only Wu Youxing's mentor and apprentice at the gate of the city, as well as the long queue of people, could make him feel a little warm.

"Governor, the entire county of Longchuan County has lost its harvest, so we can only count on you to allocate grain or provide relief with work."

Standing next to Sun Chuanting, the county magistrate of Longchuan spoke the words of request with his cracked mouth, and bowed deeply.

Seeing this, Sun Chuanting helped him up. Looking at the twenty-year-old man, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart. There were still good officials in the Ming Dynasty.

"I will inform the imperial court and the Ministry of Households about the matter in Longchuan County, and ask for food transfer from the Ryukyu Prefecture to provide relief with work."

"It's just that there are indeed too many people in Longchuan County. If every county is like this, the imperial court has the intention, but it is powerless."

Sun Chuanting's words are very straightforward, that is, he wants to relocate some of the people in Longchuan County.

But for this, the magistrate of Longchuan sighed helplessly:

"The lower officials don't know, but it's hard for the people here to leave their homeland. After two years of severe drought, only more than a thousand households have moved out of this place, which is less than one-tenth of the household registration."

"If the people don't leave, it is impossible for the subordinate officials to drive them away, otherwise how can they be worthy of the name of their parents and officials."

"..." Sun Chuanting frowned slightly. He could see that the magistrate of Longchuan might be a good person, but he was not a good official.

At this juncture, it is both stupid and bad to still mention the so-called reputation.

The county magistrate of Longchuan was neither stupid nor bad, he just couldn't bear his reputation.

From this point of view, those officials who forcibly drove the people to the old port and the immigrant side of Cochin actually gave the people a way to survive.

For example, the magistrate of Longchuan seems to be good to the people, but if he can't solve the problem of eating for the people, tens of thousands of people will starve to death in Longchuan together with him.

For a while, Sun Chuanting's emotions towards the other party became a lot colder. He looked towards Longchuan County and asked after pondering:

"How many people are there in Longchuan County?"

"Sixty-seven thousand and thirty-seven people, if you don't count hermits..." The magistrate of Longchuan replied honestly, while Sun Chuanting nodded slightly when he heard the words.

After a while, he opened his mouth and said:

"I will go to the imperial court and ask the imperial court to transfer 12 shi of rice from the Ryukyu Prefecture, but even at the fastest speed, it will take two months."

"Don't worry, governor..." The magistrate of Longchuan hurriedly bowed:
"Although the county is so poor that it can't be uncovered, there are still [-] shimi. If it is purely used for disaster relief, it will be no problem after two months."

"Hmm..." Sun Chuanting glanced at the other party, not wanting to expose the other party's good name intentions, passed him sideways, and walked towards other fields.

Longchuan County is the No.90 four counties that he has set foot in the past two years. Sun Chuanting can't remember how many people he ordered to take down, and how many memorials he made. The only thing he remembers is that no matter how he handles it However, the living environment of the people has not improved.

The severe drought persists, and all the early people can only barely survive.

The group of people in the court hall talked boastfully, saying that each disaster victim could receive fifteen cents for work relief and could buy three or four catties of rice, so they felt that the victims could live nourished and nourished.

But I don't want to, three or four catties of rice are not eaten by one person, but by a family with seven or eight people.

Three or four catties of rice are boiled into porridge, but it is barely enough to survive.

The good news in the court is like a song, and there are mountains of gold and silver, but gold and silver cannot change food, and without food, the victims cannot be fed...

When he came to a dry river channel, Sun Chuanting stopped. He looked at the river channel that was once tens of feet wide and eight or nine feet deep. Then he walked down the loop and walked on the cracked river bed with mixed feelings in his heart.

The governor's staff followed up, compiled the documents a little and handed them over:
"Governor, except for the last Chaozhou prefecture that I didn't go to, the amount of relief food for all the prefectures and counties in Guangdong affected by the disaster is here, totaling 820 shi."

"820 seventy-four thousand three hundred stones..." After taking the document, Sun Chuanting flipped through it briefly, then closed the document and let out a long sigh:

"This year, how many times have we asked the court to ask for food?"

"This..." The staff member was stunned for a moment, then bowed and said:
"A total of 82 trips were made, and more than 920 stones were requested for food..."

"Nearly 2000 million stones..." Sun Chuanting pondered, shook his head and said:

"I don't know how long I can serve as governor, and how long His Highness can protect me."

There was something in Sun Chuanting's words. Obviously, his behavior of asking for food many times made many people very dissatisfied. The reason why there was no news of impeachment was because Zhu Youjian stopped him.

It's just that after so long, even Sun Chuanting himself has noticed that if the severe drought continues like this, the court may not be able to help if it wants to.

"Why should the governor worry about the sky? Besides, you are doing it for the victims of the disaster, not for yourself..."

Looking at Sun Chuanting's back, the staff spoke with some sadness.

"Last year, the country's food intake was only 4000 million shi, and I used half of it alone. How could all the officials tolerate me?"

Passing the document to the staff, Sun Chuanting looked at the river covered with hay, and his heart was like a mirror.

"Even if His Highness can protect me, I'm afraid the governor's disaster relief work will not be able to continue."

"Your Highness may not know how many people have been blocked by this disaster relief, but how can you and I not know?"

Sun Chuanting asked the staff, but the staff was also stopped by him.

"How many things are the people below hiding from His Highness? How much have you and I seen this time?"

Sun Chuanting walked on the dry and cracked river bed, and the sound of the soil being trampled and cracked came from the bottom of his feet:

"When the people below are officials, even if they are officials in Yanshan, they actually think about themselves seven parts, two parts about the court, and the last part are concerned about the face in front of the people."

"This disaster relief matter, from the scribes to the household department, everyone has their own thoughts."

"If I, the governor, can't do it anymore, I'll go to the capital over there, expose the matter, and expose the faces of these guys."

"In the matter of disaster relief, anyway, I am not fair and public, and I am selfless and selfish."

"Since this is the case, let's expose the matter early, and everyone will shamelessly attack each other."

"I'm afraid that this will strip His Highness's skin off." The staff couldn't help but speak.

What he said naturally did not mean that Zhu Youjian was also involved in disaster relief and corruption, but that many people under Zhu Youjian were involved in disaster relief and corruption.

"If you kill a batch, it will be safe and stable for a few years. Even His Highness will think it's worth it." Sun Chuanting turned and walked towards the shore. Seeing this, the staff could only sigh and followed.

The two walked to the gate of the city. At this time, the sky was turning yellow and many victims had already left. Wu Youxing, who set up a free clinic booth at the gate of the city, and more than a dozen teachers and apprentices were closing the booth.

"Governor Sun."

Seeing Sun Chuanting coming, the students greeted Sun Chuanting, and Sun Chuanting forced a smile to respond.

He walked up to Wu Youxing, bowed deeply and said:

"Brother You Ke..."

"Bo Ya..." Seeing Sun Chuanting coming, Wu Youxing closed the medical technique he had written and bowed in return.

Sun Chuanting caught a glimpse of that medical skill, and couldn't help asking: "The people of Longchuan..."

"Alas..." Wu Youxing let out a long sigh:

"It's still the same. It's all about eating. If you can eat enough, there won't be so many problems."

Doctors are parents, hunger causes all kinds of diseases...

Wu Youxing knew why the people were suffering from diseases, but he couldn't cure the disease.

"I have already asked the imperial court for food allocation. I hope that the people in Guangdong can survive the coming year, and the severe drought will subside in the coming year..."

Sun Chuanting may have heard this result many times, so he did not sigh, but silently stated his arrangement.

"Bo Ya has worked hard for the people." Wu Youxing bowed to the people on behalf of the people, and Sun Chuanting also said:
"Tomorrow we're going to Chaozhou Mansion, Brother You, take a good rest."

"Bo Ya also..."

The two saluted in return, then packed their things together and returned to Longchuan County.

It's just that the hunchbacked appearance on the return journey makes one physically and mentally exhausted...

　The evening update is around 10:30.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)