Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 417
"Boom—"

At the beginning of July, the battle in Xiaoxiyang was rekindled, but the land in the west of Yunnan, more than [-] miles away from them, was full of vitality.

Accompanied by the sound of explosions in the mountains, the mountain walls blocking the road from Baoshan County, Yongchang Prefecture, Yunnan Province to Longchuan County were blown down and trampled.

Looking down from the sky, two-thirds of the [-]-mile-long post road has been widened, and only one-third has not been repaired.

The post road, which was originally less than one foot wide, was surrounded by mountains on one side and the abyss on the other, now two-thirds of it has been widened to four feet, and a four-foot-high road has been built on the side of the cliff. cement wall.

The road that has been widened has reached 280 miles, less than 130 miles from Longchuan, and less than [-] miles from Tianma Pass in Longchuan.

Of the 280 miles of government roads, [-] miles are paved with concrete roads, and the remaining [-] miles are only a matter of time.

Nearly 40 Cochin laborers are responsible for the construction of this section of road. As long as there is enough cement, it only takes a month to lay it.

Not far from the collapsed mountain wall, the [-] Jiaozhi labor camp prisoners who were in charge of blasting and digging the road were waiting.

At the blasting site, more than a hundred cochin laborers inspected some blasting sites, and they blew their wooden whistles only after they found no landslides.

"Beep--"

The ear-piercing wooden whistle sounded in the Hengduan Mountains in western Yunnan, and more than [-] laborers began to come forward to clean up the crushed rocks and soil collapsed by the blast with picks, shovels and other tools in batches.

In this era where the ecological environment is not considered, it is not difficult to clean them up.

Some crushed stones smaller than fists were thrown into baskets by them and carried to the roadside behind to reserve materials for subsequent cement laying.

As for the larger stones and soil, they were directly pushed and fell to the nearby cliff.

Some boulders weighing thousands of kilograms were pulled by them with ropes and crowbars. After prying to the side of the mountain road, they rolled down the mountain road with a rumble, and rolled down the cliff hundreds of meters deep, smashing trees one by one. Fall, break.

At this time, there are still many laborers who stick their heads out to watch the stone roll and bet whether it will fall into the river at the bottom of the cliff.

Perhaps this was one of their few pastimes, and after the stone was stuck by the trees, they turned around and continued to clear the mountain path without interest.

When they were working, on the road a few miles away from them, Mu Yi took a look with his clairvoyance, put it down, turned his head and said to the people behind him:

"Jinglue, according to this speed, we should be able to advance three hundred steps today."

His voice fell, and behind him, Hong Chengchou, who was sitting in the tent, closed the document in his hand, got up and walked out.

He stepped out of the tent and glanced at the cochin laborers who were constantly transporting gunpowder with a trolley. Some new laborers did not dare to look at him, but the laborers who had been here long enough nodded with a smile.

Facing these workers, Hong Chengchou nodded in response with a smile on his face.

This scene made some new workers puzzled, and they asked the old man after walking away:
"Why are you not afraid of that official?"

"What are you afraid of him doing? That's Hong Jinglue, the labor money he gave us." Some old people said in a lectured tone:
"Work hard, and when the ten-year labor period expires, we can still save more than a dozen taels of silver."

"Then he is really a good official..." The newcomer nodded thoughtfully after hearing this.

Then, they continued to push the gunpowder forward, and at the same time, Hong Chengchou also walked to the side of the mountain road, leaning on the concrete wall and said:
"If you can walk [-] steps a day, then it only takes four months to complete the mansion road."

He was sighing, while Mu Yi glanced at the group of laborers, walked over and said in puzzlement:

"Jinglue, I don't understand why you want to pay these prisoners."

Mu Yi's words revealed one thing, that is, Hong Chengchou raised wages for more than one million workers in Jiaozhi without telling the court.

"Isn't it good to pay wages?" Hong Chengchou asked back:
"One month is only one hundred taels, one year is only one tael, and ten years is only 12 taels."

"12 taels of silver, do you think it's not worth it if these workers don't riot?"

"Before February, the more than 160 million laborers in Yunnan and Jiaozhi had three or four riots every month."

"Although riots are easy to quell, 3 or 3 people die every time, and these [-] people can build dozens of miles of government roads every month."

"Right now, although the Jinglue Mansion has to send out nearly 200 million taels a year to appease them, what is handed out is just a blank sheet of paper."

"The number of laborers in Cochin's labor camps in Yunnan has dropped from 180 million to 160 million after only two years of labor reform."

"There are still seven and a half years of labor reform, how many people will they survive by then?"

"Even if one-third of the people survive, starting from this year, we only need to pay wages for eight years, which is only more than five million taels of silver."

"For the court, in eight years, this group of laborers can build tens of thousands of miles of government roads, saving the court tens of millions of taels."

"More than 500 million taels of silver, in exchange for tens of thousands of miles of government roads, even His Highness will approve..."

Hong Chengchou said it calmly, but Mu Yi didn't take it seriously when he heard it, but he didn't dare to refute it.

So he changed the subject and said:
"The Jinglue Mansion sent a document. This year, a total of [-] miles of government roads have been built in the province. Counting those built last year and the year before, more than [-] miles of government roads have been built."

"The 23 prefectures are expected to be able to pass through the prefectural roads by the end of the year, and the cement fields of laborers in various places are still producing, with an annual output of more than [-] million stones."

"Therefore, the Jinglue Mansion, the Chief Secretary, and the Governor's Mansion, please tell me whether the government roads in Yunnan should continue to be built?"

What Mu Yi said made people dumbfounded, because the total mileage of Daming's current government roads is only more than [-] miles, of which more than [-] miles are owned by the earlier developed Old Port.

In other words, there are only [-] miles of government roads in the two capitals and [-] provinces of the Ming Dynasty, and Yunnan occupies one-third of them.

Of course, the reason why Yunnan can occupy so many miles is because of the 180 million laborers who entered Yunnan, but this is enough to make people dumbfounded.

After all, road construction in Yunnan has been a headache since the Hongwu period, and Hong Chengchou was able to advance at a speed of more than [-] miles per year in less than three years, which is amazing.

Among them, especially this year, which is the third year, only six months have passed, and the whole province of Yunnan has built [-] miles of government roads. If calculated according to the whole year, the road construction in Yunnan this year may To reach two thousand six hundred miles.

Yunnan was restructured by Zhu Youjian, and all military and civilian mansions and states were promoted to mansions.

The government roads of the 23rd prefecture are about to be fully connected, which naturally arouses the jealousy of the three provinces of Sichuan, Guangxi, and Guizhou.

Previously, the chief envoys of the three provinces knew that Hong Chengchou had only penetrated the government road in order to fight Dongyu, so naturally he didn't dare to give him face, and he didn't dare to ask for cement and wrought iron.

But now that the government roads in Yunnan Province are about to be connected, the chief ministers of the three provinces will naturally start to share the pie.

They built government roads not for the sake of the common people, but for promotion through meritorious service. Hong Chengchou knew this very well.

He didn't mind sharing a piece of the pie with these people, after all, he would need food from the three provinces after he attacked Toungoo.

"Although the government roads in the 23 prefectures of Yunnan are connected, only 110 of the seven counties in 75 have concrete roads."

Hong Chengchou did not directly convey to Mu Yi the idea of ​​taking a share of the pie, but changed the subject in a false and real way:

"Currently, there are still 42 counties that have not built county roads. Although the cement in this labor cement plant has 900 million shi, after the distribution of county roads, there are only 300 million shi."

"You can tell the Economic and Strategy Office, the Chief Secretary, and the Governor's Office that the labor cement plant can import 100 million stone cement to each of the three provinces."

Hong Chengchou wants a share of the pie, but he will not give it all to the officials of the three provinces, but will stay in Yunnan.

He could see very clearly that the current officials in Jiaozhi and Yunnan provinces are all officials from Yunnan, and that in Burma, which will be conquered in the future, if nothing else happens, the chief secretary officials there will also be officials from Yunnan in the future.

There is the Qin family in Sichuan, and the Qi family in Guangdong and Guangxi. He can't intervene in these two places, and there is no need to intervene in Guizhou. After all, after several relocations, Guizhou has a population of less than one million.

Therefore, what Hong Chengchou has to do is to win over officials from Yunnan, and then let the three provinces of Myanmar, Jiaozhi, and Yunnan in the future come to support him as the chief assistant.

The so-called 42 county government roads in his mouth actually don't use 600 million stone and cement every year at all, and he insists on staying. To put it bluntly, he wants to finish the construction of county roads and rural roads, and completely buy the hearts of the people in Yunnan.

As long as these three provinces are well controlled, Hong Chengchou will have a great say in the cabinet.

Thinking of this, Hong Chengchou stroked his short beard, but Mu Yi didn't understand, so he bowed in response, then got up and said:

"By the way, there is news from Mu Qiyuan from Jiaozhi that all the guerrilla rebels in the mountains have been arrested, the cement of Jiaozhi has reached 700 million shi, and all the roads of the fifteen prefectures in the province have been connected."

"Currently, there are more than 320 million stone and cement accumulated in Jiaozhi, and the newly cultivated land last year also reached more than [-] million mu, with a total of more than [-] million mu."

"He wants to ask for advice on whether the accumulated cement will support Guangdong and Guangxi, or..."

Mu Yi asked tentatively, while Hong Chengchou said without hesitation:
"Let him save it for the time being, and I will submit it to the imperial court for a ruling."

Based on labor prisoners of war, Jiaozhi and Yunnan can be said to have entered a stage of comprehensive and rapid development.

The total of nearly 300 million laborers in the two provinces is enough to create a powerful country in Europe, but in the hands of Hong Chengchou, these 300 million laborers are simply played by him.

In three years, nearly 600 miles of government roads have risen, and the annual cement production in the two provinces has reached [-] million shi, which has doubled in less than a year.

I have to say that Hong Chengchou is admirable in controlling the people and managing the world.

"The county road needs to be built, but the newly reclaimed land can't be relaxed. Let Mu Qiyuan send the laborers who built the road to reclaim the fields."

After Hong Chengchou gave the order, he added another order, which puzzled Mu Yi.

"Accordingly, the drought in the country has subsided, and His Highness has not ordered us to increase cultivation efforts. Why not use these laborers to mine?"

Mu Yi asked boldly, while Hong Chengchou leaned on the concrete wall and looked at the laborers who had cleared the mountain road in the distance and were about to blast again.

After a while, he slowly opened his mouth and said:
"His Highness didn't urge us because His Highness thinks that Yunnan and Jiaozhi are difficult to manage, and with many laborers building roads, the power of the two provinces has been exhausted."

"It's just that the two provinces still have spare energy, so what's the matter if I use the spare energy to reclaim new land?"

"In case of a severe drought in the north, Jiaozhi can contribute tens of millions of shimimai, so I don't need to say more about the credit for it?"

Hong Chengchou expressed his conjecture, and the reason why he felt that Zhu Youjian needed food was because he heard from his eyes and ears in the capital that Zhu Youjian restarted the policy of reclaiming wasteland for the people of Liaodong.

Hong Chengchou did not have the documents of the Ministry of Households in his hand, but he could infer what the court lacked from the court's policies.

Since the Qi Palace hopes that the people of Liaodong will plant land outside the pass, in essence, the court is still short of food.

Since the court was short of food, he, Hong Chengchou, would make an extra sum of food for the court, just to satisfy the two above.

"Jinglue is really far-sighted, and the humble position is not as good as..."

Mu Yi patted Hong Chengchou's flattery, and said with a smile:

"According to Jinglue's plan, I'm afraid you will ascend to the cabinet before Sun Chuanting recovers..."

"Hmm..." Hong Chengchou replied casually, seemingly indifferent, but the smile on his mouth was hard to hide.

Looking at the mountain road that is about to be blasted again, Hong Chengchou has already thought of the scene after he ascended the pavilion...

"Everyone raise their heads, look at the eaves in front, don't dodge, don't shrink back, if it affects your demeanor and you don't choose, then it's no wonder our family..."

When Hong Chengchou was thinking about tactics, in the imperial city of the capital thousands of miles away, a remote square guarded by a Jing army was full of women aged fourteen to nineteen.

In the square, Wei Zhongxian, Wang An, and Wang Chengen sat under the red tent, leaning on chairs, and glanced at the women in the square.

These 520 seven women are the show women sent by various provinces and government offices of various countries as of the first day of July, in order to select a princess and side concubine who are both noble and equal.

On the square, a hundred eunuchs and a hundred old ladies in the palace walked back and forth, scanning the beautiful women in front of them.

After a quarter of an hour, after the people below confirmed that there was no problem, an eunuch walked up to the stage where the three eunuchs were, bowed and said:

"The three ancestors, I have read them all, and there is no one who just pretends to be counted..."

"Well, let's start..." Wang An waved his hand, ignoring Wei Zhongxian, while Wang Chengen nodded dully.

Wei Zhongxian was unwilling to choose the future Princess Qi. If the emperor hadn't asked him to come, he might have become a quail in the Supervisor of Rituals.

Therefore, facing Wang An's provocation, he kept his mouth shut and said nothing.

"Yes..." The eunuch replied, then turned around to notify the show girls to come forward.

Since Princess Qi's selection far exceeded the specifications, the inner court had to follow the emperor's specifications.

However, in order to avoid overstepping, Zhang Yan and Liu Taifei still lowered the specification by half a level and set six levels.

The first hurdle is right now. The showgirls are divided into groups of one hundred and ten teams, and they are sorted according to age. The three eunuchs selected by the inner court, the Qi Palace, and the outer court are visually settled.

In this level, all the show girls who are tall, short, fat, and thin will lose the election, and with the return of the eunuch, the show girls began to step forward in turn according to the signs issued by the previous eunuchs and old palace ladies.

Among this batch of show girls, there are more than 14 15-year-olds, 16 17-year-olds, 100 19-year-olds, and only [-] [-]-year-olds. On the contrary, there are two [-]-year-olds. More than a hundred people.

Apparently, the rumor that King Qi is a mature woman has spread widely among the people, and many nineteen-year-old women have joined the draft.

In this draft team, the order of going forward is the youngest, and the rest are in descending order according to age, with the oldest being 19 years old at the end.

Due to the long time of this draft, many 19-year-old show girls are actually 20 years old after arriving in the imperial city.

As a 20-year-old show girl, Zhou Sujie and others are in the last row, while the first row is the youngest group.

According to the eunuch's words, according to the month of birth, they went to the high platform from young to old.

Wang An and the others on the stage were still sitting, looking at the beautiful women who came on stage one by one, and asked people to record their height and weight respectively.

Although the show girls are selected by various prefectures and countries according to the standards, this does not rule out that the various governments will conceal the report, or that the show girls have eaten too much in the past few months.

According to the standards given by the inner court Zhang Yan and Concubine Liu, a 14-year-old show girl must be over four feet eight inches (153cm) and weigh no more than 65 catties (39kg).

In addition to these, there are also standards for bust and hip circumference, as well as for the length of hands and feet.

After every ten people have measured these, the three eunuchs next to them will copy them down and put them on the desks of the three eunuchs.

Team after team of show girls continued to come on stage. During this process, even Wei Zhongxian, who was used to seeing court ladies, could see eye-catching show girls from time to time.

After all, there are more than 300 beautiful women selected from more than 500 million women of the right age in Ming Dynasty and abroad. Those who can come here are not to mention the beauty of the country, but at least they are virtuous and changeable.

Throughout the ages, apart from the fact that the way of selecting concubines in the Manchu Dynasty was different from other dynasties, it was easy to select ugly concubines, other dynasties generally ranked beauty first when selecting concubines.

Among them, the concubine selection system of the Ming Dynasty is the easiest to select beauties, because other dynasties also need to pay attention to family status and compromise with the nobles, while the selection of concubines in the Ming Dynasty has no restrictions, and only competes for beauty and talent.

Therefore, the three eunuchs were pleasing to the eye, and during this period they would also focus on remembering some outstanding girls.

In the first level of selection, unless the height, weight and appearance deviated from the standard, basically no one would be eliminated.

Elimination will only occur in the second stage of concubine selection, so Wang An and the others are relatively relaxed.

"That Zhang Shaohua just now is not bad, she seems to be the daughter of a concubine from the British government."

"The talented girl Xu from Dingguo's mansion is also good. Not only has she produced five clothes, but she also has a particularly outstanding figure."

Wang An and Wang Chengen chatted without saying a word, while Wei Zhongxian was isolated. Although his eyes were washed by the beautiful and beautiful girl all the time, his spirit was tortured by Wang An next to him.

"Old Xianyu, don't give our family a chance, or our family will definitely want you to look good!"

Wei Zhongxian gritted his teeth in anger, and kept cursing Wang An in his heart, but before he could curse well, a new row of beautiful girls came on stage, and among them was a beautiful girl whose appearance and figure were higher than those of the other nine beautiful girls. stand out.

When Wei Zhongxian saw this beautiful girl, his brain was hit hard by an invisible hammer, and he was stunned for a second. Selected among the five concubines.

Not only him, but also Wang An and Wang Chengen felt the same way.

The nine show girls who took the stage with the girl felt pressured, and the three of Wang An could see the nervousness of the rest at a glance.

This kind of nervousness is like a good-looking man going to interview for a job. When you are preparing for the interview, a character like Pan An and Song Yu suddenly comes to interview with you.

You haven't had an interview yet, but just sitting next to you, you feel full of pressure. You should have performed well, but you shrink back instantly, and you can't even show your usual state.

Facts also proved that Wang An and the others did not remember the whole process of the nine beautiful women. After the ten beautiful women had measured their bodies and weights and left, Wang An and the others picked up the paperwork they had just written, and His eyes were on the girl's position.

"Chen Xiangjun, March 44th, 25th year of Wanli, five feet in length, sixty catties in weight..."

Wei Zhongxian read it out, and Wang An also said to Wang Chengen after reading it:

"This woman's family background is average, but she is fourteen and five feet tall. She is a good match with His Highness. Although her weight is a bit heavy, she is not too heavy at her age and her height."

Wang Chengen nodded slightly when he heard the words, pondered for a moment, and thought about how his highness treated that type of maid in the mansion more kindly, and then said: "Your highness should like it, you can relax."

As soon as he said this, Wang An circled Chen Xiangjun's name in red with a red pen, which means that Chen Xiangjun can reach the fifth level without accident.

After finishing these, the three began to continue to choose concubines.

It just seems that with Chen Xiangjun's gems in front, the girls of the same age who came on stage behind inevitably became the "wadang" used for comparison.

It's not that they are not good-looking, after all, with their appearance, no matter what era they are placed in, they can make people's eyes shine.

Just comparing with Mr. Chen Xiang, their looks are a bit out of reach.

Therefore, in the follow-up selection of concubines, among the 14-year-old show girls, except for five or six that Wang An could remember, the rest of the more than 500 people became escorts.

After that, the three began to continue to select, but it was difficult to find a show girl who could match Chen Xiangjun. It was not until the 17-year-old show girl came on stage that Wang An and the three met a show girl who made their eyes shine again.

She does not have the slim figure of Mr. Chen Xiang, but her facial features are very delicate and small, with the style of a beard girl from the Western Regions, her eyes are very attractive, and her figure is very sensual.

Such a woman, even Wang An and Wang Chengen can't help nodding, as for Wei Zhongxian...

When he saw this beautiful girl, he felt at first sight that this beautiful girl made people have backaches. After he realized it, he couldn't help worrying about Zhu Youjian's waist.

"Yuan Xipin, this name looks like a side concubine..."

After the show girl left, Wang An glanced at the other person's name, height and weight, and couldn't help but nodded. Wang Chengen also seemed to think that the girl just now should be the type that His Royal Highness liked.

"You can circle red."

It was rare for Wang Chengen to speak, but Wang An was stunned, because in his opinion, Yuan Xipin and Chen Xiangjun had completely different styles, and Wang Chengen's speaking meant Qi Wang liked it.

"Could it be that His Highness's preferences are changeable?"

With some doubts, Wang An circled Yuan Xibin's name in red, then leaned on the chair and said softly:

"continue……"

(End of this chapter)