Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 525 Training the Great Nephew

"Wuchen, the sky is covered by locusts in Lu'an Prefecture, Shanxi, please long live to avoid..."

In the twelfth lunar month, when the capital was already covered in silver, Zhu Ciran, who was wearing a scarlet round-neck robe and a winged crown, was reading aloud the melodies in his hand in the Chengyun Hall of the Qi Wangfu.

It's just that his emotionless reading aloud is doomed not to be an orator in this life.

He was sitting on a chair in the hall, with a mountain of memorials in front of him, and Zhu Youjian, as his uncle, was wearing a blue round neck robe and a black gauze wing crown at the moment, listening to Zhu Ciran's " Voice and emotion" reading aloud.

Zhu Ciran was reading aloud, and suddenly felt someone pulling his clothes. While reading, he looked down, and suddenly saw a child as white as a jade doll pulling him.

In the palace, Zhu Cihong is the only doll who can walk freely in the Chengyun Hall.

Zhu Ciran usually likes to rub Zhu Cihong's face, after all, he is so pretty, but today he has to help with government affairs, so naturally he doesn't dare to have fun while busy, so he no longer looks down at him, but continues to read the memorial.

After Zhu Ciran finally finished reading, Zhu Youjian, who was asleep with his eyes closed, slowly said, "What should I do?"

"Officials from the Nanzhen Fusi, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Household Affairs should be sent to check. If there is a real disaster, they should be exonerated for one year."

It has been two months since Zhu Ciran came to the Qi Palace, and he probably knows how to deal with the government affairs, so he didn't answer any questions, and basically imitated Zhu Youjian's method.

"Continue..." Zhu Youjian asked him to continue, and Zhu Ciran continued to read the next memorial, while Wang Chengen, who was next to him, took the previous memorial and gave the reply according to what the two said.

"father……"

Perhaps Zhu Ciran couldn't find anything to play with, so Zhu Cihong began to walk towards Zhu Youjian step by step.

After Zhu Youjian heard the address "Father", he also opened his eyes, and bowed to hug Zhu Cihong who came over.

Most of those who can leave descriptions of their appearance in history books are handsome, and Zhu Cihong's appearance was even recorded in many history books in the late Ming Dynasty.

The most representative ones are "Ming and Qing Posthumous Letters" and "Xianyan".

"Ming and Qing Posthumous Letters" records that Zhu Cihong "is fair and beautiful, and he is good at dealing with it. His feet and bones are double, and I love him so much."

"Xianyan" records more specifically, "The prince can be seventeen or eighteen years old, wearing a cloud crown, green robes, white fiber socks, graceful and graceful, slender and fair, with cut-off hair like a tutu, and hands and claws like spring onions. , the language is like a flute that shakes a hole, and those who see it will doubt it as a god, and it is beyond the reach of an extraordinary young master."

Historically, Zhu Cihong's appearance basically inherited Zhou's appearance, the only fly in the ointment was that he was not tall.

However, different from history, Zhu Cihong was born a few years later, and Zhu Youjian also grew taller than Chongzhen in history because of his childhood exercise and supplemented with meat. Therefore, in terms of eating and drinking, Zhu Youjian also compares the eating and drinking of Zhu Cihong's four brothers.

As Zhu Cihong gradually grew up, the characteristics of "white and beautiful" still exist. The baby's fat face with black and white, and long eyelashes look like, I am afraid that she will become a popular children's clothing model in future generations.

With such a face, it's no wonder that Zhu Ciran didn't pinch his own brother's face, but came to Prince Qi's mansion to pinch Zhu Cihong's face.

"Are you hungry?"

Zhu Youjian hugged Zhu Cihong in his arms, lowered his head and asked him, with a smile hidden in the corner of his mouth.

"I'm not hungry, I want to play..." Compared to Zhu Ciran's fuss, thanks to the teachings of Yuan Xipin and Zhou Sujie, the children of the Qi Palace are relatively calm and calm in their work.

Zhu Cihong seldom makes trouble, but just likes to come and see Zhu Youjian. She doesn't understand why her father doesn't go out to play, but faces the mountain of "books" every day.

"How about I let Sister Yang take you to play?" The Sister Yang that Zhu Youjian was talking about was naturally Yang Rushi in the palace.

But regarding this, Zhu Cihong shook his head: "Sister Yang wants to read and write poetry, so she doesn't want to play with me."

"Then I'll ask Cheng En to send you to the inner court to play with Brother Quan and Brother Jiong?" Zhu Youjian thought of many ideas, but he didn't expect to take Zhu Cihong out to play by himself.

"No, I want to go out to play with dad..." Zhu Cihong looked up at Zhu Youjian with black and white eyes, Zhu Youjian was a little speechless.

He looked at the memorabilia on the table, and could only comfort Zhu Cihong's hair: "Father is a little busy today, will I play with you tomorrow?"

"Oh..." Zhu Cihong lowered his head with some disappointment in his eyes, he knew that his father would not take him out to play tomorrow, because he promised so yesterday.

There are two types of children who throw tantrums, one is uncomfortable with themselves, and the other is uncomfortable with others.

Zhu Cihong belonged to the former, so after he was upset, he just buried his head and didn't speak, just sitting quietly in Zhu Youjian's arms.

This went on for a long time, until the Palace of Cunxin sent Yang Yuanai to ask Zhu Cihong to return to the Palace of Cunxin for a meal, and Zhu Cihong left the Palace of Chengyun in a fit of anger.

Zhu Youjian naturally knew that Zhu Cihong was resentful, but he was also very helpless.

It is impossible for him to let Zhu Ciran deal with the memorial here alone, so he can take Zhu Cihong to play by himself.

Besides, there is really no fun in this era.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian could only draw a painting by hand, and added color during the period, and asked Wang Chengen to send it to Zhu Cihong.

After finishing everything, he continued to sit down and listened to Zhu Ciran's report.

"By the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month in the 14th year of the Apocalypse, six months later, the national household registration check revealed another 32 households with 150 mouths, and the number of people in the country increased to 370. More than three hundred mouths."

Zhu Ciran reported the census figures of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and after finishing the report, he couldn't help but say:

"Uncle, the Ministry of Households has checked the population from the sixth year of Tianqi to the 14th year of Tianqi. Logically speaking, it should have come to an end. Why do you feel that the more you check, the more you check?"

"It's normal for the population to increase more and more. The specific traceability should be traced back to the national policy formulated by Emperor Taizu Gao." Zhu Youjian just returned to his chair after washing his hands and began to answer Zhu Ciran's question:
"The Guochao's inspection of the land is very strict, so the Guochao has checked the number of acres so far, and the number of acres has not changed much. The newly added fields are basically obtained from foreign wars and internal reclamation, but the population is different. .”

"The population of the Kingdom is related to the taxation issue before the Tianqi Dynasty."

"It's too late for you to be sensible. You only know about field taxes, but you don't know that apart from field taxes, there are corvees."

Zhu Youjian took out a book to read, and at the same time continued to explain:

"The corvee is determined by the household. The higher the household is, the higher the various corvees are. Since many corvees are paid in kind, they are often much heavier than land taxes. The payment in kind of corvee is also an important source of finance for the country. .”

"The corvee is reported by household and Dingkou. If you report more Dingkou, you will be taxed more. If you fail to collect the tax, you will have to bear the responsibility of the local officials. You will also be responsible for overcharging and forcing people to rebel."

"Therefore, the subordinate officials below dare not check people too clearly, and the subordinate officials dare not investigate, even if the officials want to investigate, they can't investigate, because the officials are outsiders, so naturally they can't compete with the local officials."

Zhu Youjian explained to Zhu Ciran, and when Zhu Ciran heard what he said, he nodded half-understanding, and couldn't help but continue to ask: "So the population problem is the problem of the subordinate staff?"

"It's not all..." Zhu Youjian shook his head: "If the government wants to collect corvee, it must have a household registration and Dingkou. In order to avoid corvee, many people spontaneously joined the landlords and gentry."

"Guochao has the "Fish Scale Atlas", and the management of land is much stricter than that of population."

"But for the tenants, the land they cultivate belongs to the landlord, and the land tax is paid by the landlord. In this way, they become hermit households, and they don't have to bear the land tax and various errands."

"As for the corvee, the corvee in the "Law of the Ming Dynasty" is usually distributed according to the property of the "household", and the tenant's family is poor, so most of the tenants do not need to serve the corvee, and the objects of the corvee are mostly ordinary rich peasants and wealthy landlords .”

Zhu Youjian's words made Zhu Ciran more and more confused, and he couldn't help asking:

"The landlord has silver and a lot of assets, so isn't there a lot of corvee that needs to be served?"

"Hmm..." Zhu Youjian responded, and Zhu Ciran asked again:
"Can the landlord transfer the corvee to the tenant farmers and let the tenants serve the corvee?"

"No..." Zhu Youjian shook his head: "Emperor Taizu Gao was born in poverty, and knew that tenant farmers were the most miserable, so he abolished the evil law of tenant slavery since the Song and Yuan Dynasties in the "Law of the Ming Dynasty."

"The stipulations include: "For rich families, those who use tenants to carry sedan chairs", "Sixty rods", "Sixty cash for each day's wages."

"In addition, the gentry and landlords of the Guo Dynasty were not allowed to manipulate tenants at will like the Song and Yuan dynasties, and they were not allowed to beat them."

"Once the tenant farmers are beaten, they can report to the officials and let the officials punish them according to the law."

"In addition, in order to prevent the landlord from transferring official labor to the tenant, and the tenant Baigan will get nothing from his work, Emperor Taizu Gao specially stipulated that if the tenant has a lot of land and a small number of people, if the tenant is used as corvee, the landlord A stone of rice must be paid for its cost.'”

"In this way, the tenants of the Guo Dynasty got rid of the personal dependence relationship between the tenants and the landlords in the Song and Yuan dynasties, and the tenants themselves could terminate the lease contract according to their own wishes."

"At the same time, Emperor Taizu Gao also strongly encouraged land reclamation, stipulating that all land reclaimed can be exempted from rent and tax for the first three years."

"Under this background, tenant farmers broke away from the landlords to cultivate on their own, and the number of tenants was also greatly reduced."

"It's just that, with the development of the dynasty in the later period, land mergers and conflicts between people and land will increase, and there will naturally be more and more tenant farmers."

"Since the reign of Hongzhi, a large number of self-cultivating farmers have become tenants, and Guochao has given up counting the population of tenant farmers. Therefore, the gap between the population on paper and the actual population can often reach more than three times."

"It cannot be said that Emperor Taizu Gao's state policy was wrong. After all, at the beginning of the dynasty, the purpose of giving up counting tenant farmers was to reduce the burden on tenant farmers and benefit agricultural production. The loss of benefits is also limited."

"It's just that this kind of practice of treating the people well and strengthening the tax burden on the rich, in the background of land annexation in the later period, was gradually exploited by the local landlords and gentry, so that the state government had to use the taxes of 6000 million people to support tens of millions of people. surname."

Having said that, Zhu Youjian couldn't help but shook his head, looked at Zhu Ciran and said, "National policies are not constant. As a prince, you need to know when to maintain national policies and when to change them."

"Like uncle?" Zhu Ciran seemed to understand, and Zhu Youjian nodded without hesitation:

"What does it look like if the national policy does not change? You should still remember the people's livelihood that Jin Xuan took you to see, and what is the people's livelihood like now?"

"Why did the country have no major disasters back then, but the people lived in such misery, but now that natural disasters are all over the north, the country can be stable."

"It's not impossible for people to die, but it is necessary to see clearly which policies should be stopped and which should be maintained."

Zhu Youjian had already given up on his elder brother, and he was going to focus on cultivating his nephew Zhu Ciran.

At least from the current point of view, Zhu Ciran can at least achieve "equality between the emperor and the people" compared to his elder brother's "emphasis on the emperor and despise the people".

With the implementation of basic education for all, the people's folk thoughts will be liberated, and if they use the idea of ​​"the emperor values ​​the people less than the people", sooner or later they will send themselves to a dead end.

Zhu Ciran received a different education, and has seen more hardships in people's livelihood than Zhu Youxiao. Although he can't achieve absolute equality between the monarch and the people, he can at least treat the people as equals.

This is not a good thing for the king, but if the king's thinking under the feudal system does not change, then going to the guillotine will be the final result.

Under the new system, the king must have new ideas that conform to the new system.

"Is there anything that needs to be changed about the new policy that uncle has set now?"

Zhu Ciran's sudden question made Wang Cheng'en, who had just returned to the Chengyun Hall, feel tight in his heart, like a light on his back.

"Of course there are..." Zhu Youjian didn't say what.

"The uncle is in front of the feudal clan. Remember to tell my father about the new policies that need to be changed."

Zhu Ciran spoke with a big heart, and incidentally smiled afterwards: "Although my father doesn't say anything, but this time I go to Zhongxia Palace, I feel that he still misses my uncle."

"How is he?" Hearing about Zhu Youxiao, Zhu Youjian was taken aback.

"Recently..." Zhu Ciran thought about it for a while, and then said with a bitter face: "I have gained a lot of weight, about 160 catties (96kg)."

"One hundred and sixteen..." Zhu Youjian frowned slightly. Considering Zhu Youxiao's height, this weight was obviously overweight.

"What happened to your touring quad bike?"

Zhu Youjian didn't discuss Zhu Youxiao's matter anymore, but instead asked about the four-wheeled bicycle that Zhu Ciran made by himself, and Zhu Ciran became interested when he heard the words, and after putting down the memorandum, he talked endlessly:

"My car is good, but the chain and tires of the car have to be changed every three thousand miles."

"I want to ride it to Jiaozhi in the next summer vacation."

"Go to Jiaozhi?" Zhu Youjian was a little speechless, and interrupted unavoidably: "It's five thousand miles from here to Jiaozhi, and it would take seven days even by train, and the train hasn't been repaired yet."

"Yes!" Zhu Ciran said excitedly, "So I plan to take the train if there is a train, and ride a bicycle if there is no train."

"I want to take Li Yongzhen, Li Chaoqin, and Lu Yuangao with us."

"Lu Yuangao?" Zhu Youjian's movements paused, and he frowned and looked at Wang Chengen. After Wang Chengen felt the gaze, he also bowed and replied:
"Returning to Your Highness, Lu Yuangao is the direct son of Commander Lu."

"I said it sounds so familiar..." Zhu Youjian looked away, and instead asked, "How did you and Lu Yuangao know each other?"

"Lu Yuangao and Li Dingguo are classmates. Apart from him, I also know many people. Among them is a man named Zhou Boqian who is quite interesting."

Zhu Ciran explained enthusiastically, but it was the first time for Zhu Youjian to know that Lu Wenzhao's son was actually in the same class as Li Dingguo.

"Which school do Lu Yuangao and Zhou Boqian study at now?"

Zhu Youjian asked Zhu Ciran, and Zhu Ciran knew everything: "Lu Yuangao seems to be the sociology of the Shuntian School, and Zhou Boqian is the law of the Shuntian School."

"Hmm..." Zhu Youjian frowned when he heard that Lu Yuan was studying sociology.

Obviously, this son of Lu Wenzhao has his own little Jiujiu. As for Zhou Boqian, Zhu Youjian has known this child before, and generally speaking, he is an ordinary person with good talents.

If he enters politics, according to his learning ability, according to Zhu Youjian's standards, he can serve as a county magistrate at most.

But there are no absolutes in the world, if Zhou Boqian suddenly becomes enlightened, it is not impossible to rule a government or even a province.

In short, this person's character is good, influenced by his family, he is not contaminated with so much worldliness, so he doesn't have to worry about being with Li Dingguo and Zhu Ciran.

It's just that Lu Yuangao, Zhu Youjian is going to ask Wang Chengen to check after the incident.

If he just wanted to get close to the prince, then Zhu Youjian would be fine, but if he had something wrong with him, then Zhu Youjian would probably ask Lu Wenzhao to send Lu Yuangao to Qi State himself.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian also nodded and smiled: "It's good to go out for a walk, don't hide it from Jin Yiwei, let Jin Yiwei protect you."

"Since you are going, Gu Ye will give you the next homework."

"Homework?" Zhu Ciran swallowed, feeling a soulful fear of these two words.

"How about writing a "Travel Notes"?" Zhu Youjian asked with a smile, and Zhu Ciran nodded immediately when he heard it: "This is fine! Writing this is not tiring!"

After all, he is doing something he is interested in. Of course, Zhu Ciran will not resist writing "Travel Notes", and Zhu Youjian also made a request for his unfinished travel notes:
"Your travelogue, if you want to write more realistically, you have to write about the lives of the people and send it to me and your father, so that we can see what the lives of the people are like."

"It's not just us, you have to look carefully yourself, so that you can understand the difficulties of the people when dealing with government affairs in the future."

"Uncle, don't worry, I'm sure the writing is true." Zhu Ci responded with a smile, and his whole body seemed to be full of energy because of this, and even the work in hand was much faster.

Only an hour later, Zhu Ciran helped Zhu Youjian finish all the memorials.

Zhu Youjian originally wanted to keep Zhu Ciran for dinner, but he said he was going to eat on the street, Zhu Youjian waved his hand, and let him go.

It was only after he left that Zhu Youjian frowned at Wang Chengen and asked, "Go and check that kid Lu Yuangao to see if it was a coincidence or intentional."

"Your Highness, is this matter..." Wang Chengen wanted to ask whether Lu Wenzhao should investigate this matter by himself, but he stopped talking when he saw Zhu Youjian's unhappy expression in the middle of his words. .

"How many tractors, ships, and trains can the industrial zone produce next year?"

After talking about Lu Yuangao, Zhu Youjian asked some questions about Daming Industry.

In this regard, Wang Chengen also bowed honestly: "Once the new year is over, the annual output of tractors should reach [-] units, which is higher than the estimate of the Military Armament Academy. Three or four thousand units."

"These tractors are still sent to Qi, Jiugang and Beishan according to the ratio of three."

"However, Beishan's demand for tractors has already been met. Can the extra 4000 tractors be sent to Donghai Province?"

"As for the ships, of the 230 ships ordered last year, 47 ships have been launched, [-] ships have been tested, and six faults have been returned to the factory for repair."

"Tianjin Shipyard has delivered 47 ships without problems to Huangdian, and now Huangdian is using them to transport grain from Nanyang and Jiugang."

"Currently, the shipping capacity of steam ships has reached more than 6 tons, which is about more than [-] shi."

"Excluding the time for supply and maintenance, it can go to and from Nanyang nine times a year, and back and forth to Jiaozhi 360 times a year. The transportation capacity to the two provinces is more than 600 million shi and [-] million shi respectively."

"Next year, another 60 ships are expected to be launched, and the capacity can be increased to [-] tons, or about [-] shi."

"The output of the last train and locomotive basically reached 920 per year, with a total of [-] seven."

"The Ministry of Industry responded that at least [-] vehicles will be met to meet the needs of the country's [-] future railways."

Wang Chengen answered many questions and also raised many questions. For these questions, Zhu Youjian needs to digest them before responding.

From the back to the front, Zhu Youjian roughly calculated the railway demand mentioned by the Ministry of Industry.

The transport capacity of 39 trains is [-] tons, but this is the case when one train is fully loaded. In fact, as the station stops, the goods will continue to be moved up and down. The real capacity is often much larger than this.

According to calculations from previous years, these [-] trucks must transport at least tens of millions of tons of goods every year, which is indeed the limit of the current thirteen railways.

However, what Zhu Youjian most wants to repair at present is the Jingjia Railway from the capital to Hetao, then south to Ningxia, and then to the Hexi Corridor to Jiayuguan.

Only when the Beijing-Jiajia Railway is completed can the military supplies of the Ming Dynasty be continuously transported to the local area, and then the army expedition will be organized to regain the Western Regions.

Zhu Youjian had to complete the two tasks of recovering the Western Regions and Mobei in the 23rd year of Tianqi.

Judging from the current progress, there should be no major problems.

As for the progress of the ships, the annual output of [-] ships is indeed very slow, but there is no way around it.

Besides, the transport capacity of forty ships is good enough. If it is used for immigration, it will take two months to go back and forth between Nanzhili and Jingzhao Mansion in Qi State. Excluding the maintenance time in a year, it can run at least four or five times a year. Second-rate.

A ship filled with fresh water, food and fuel can carry at least 500 people, and forty ships are 6 people, and can transport 24 to 30 people four or five times a year.

This scale is enough, and by the time the apocalypse is about 20 years old, if Qi can afford it, Zhu Youjian can recruit more than half of the country's ships to transport immigrants.

In one year, with the national strength of Ming Dynasty, it is not difficult to transport millions of people.

In just a few years, the population of Qi will exceed 500 million.

The last tractor is about agriculture. According to Wang Chengen, the output of tractors next year will be [-], and Beishan has fully realized the semi-mechanization of agriculture. Next, we have to start with Donghai, which has the largest cultivated land to be developed among the three provinces.

"Since Beishan's tractors have met the demand, the future tractors will be sent to Donghai."

"According to the rules established before, it will be distributed to the people who have settled down first, in the form of three households and one household."

"Yes!"

After Zhu Youjian finished speaking, Wang Chengen quickly responded, and after he agreed, a group of Tangqi also rushed out of the Qi Palace, bringing the news to all the government offices of various ministries and provinces.

(End of this chapter)