Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 527 Under the Prosperity
"Last year, the Ministry of War newly joined the Third Battalion of Soldiers..."

"Last year, the Ministry of Punishment newly recruited 17 teams of yamen servants, and exiled [-] prisoners..."

"Last year, the Ministry of Industry..."

"Last year, the Metropolitan Procuratorate..."

In the Huangji Palace, Zhu Youjian calmly answered their questions and solved their needs as the six parts showed their merits one after another.

All this was seen by Zhu Ciran, and he couldn't help but marvel at Zhu Youjian's speed in handling government affairs.

In just a few breaths, he can come up with various ways to deal with the different ministries. It is no wonder that civil and military officials admire him.

"Start playing if there is something to do... retreat to the court if there is nothing to do!"

Zhu Youjian said in a loud voice. This time, no one played a role. Seeing this, the Minister of Honglu Temple also rang the bronze bell: "Retire from the court..."

"Long live Long live Long live……"

The feeling of Shan Hu long live appeared again, but this time Zhu Ciran didn't enjoy it so much.

After observing all kinds of problems encountered by his uncle at close range, he understood why his father didn't want to sit on that dragon chair to meet the officials.

To put it bluntly, the emperor's knowledge must also be broad enough, at least a rough understanding of marching and fighting, governing the country, the process of exemption, the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and other matters.

To put it more bluntly, the emperor had to know the tricks of all the yamen before he could solve the problems of each yamen one by one.

If you can do this, you are already a master of ZTE.

However, it takes at least three years to understand a yamen.

Calculated, it will take 15 years for the five armies, the six ministries, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Chief Secretary, and the Procuratorate. If it is broken down, it will take at least 45 years.

There is no talent different from ordinary people. Even if a normal emperor starts to ascend the throne at the age of 15, he will have to be 60 years old to get a general understanding of the tricks of each yamen.

Normally, the longer an emperor has been in power, the richer his ruling experience will be.

Like Li Longji, the arrogant soldiers must be defeated entirely because of the invincibility around them.

The current Daming is even more invincible than the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years.

After all, among the 75 registered troops of the Ming army, 30 were armed with breech-loading guns, and there were still millions of draft horses and rough horses in the officialdom.

As long as Zhu Youjian adjusts the tax back to ten and three, and then disregards the power of the people to conquer the west, then he can launch an Asian war aggressively and bring down the whole of Asia.

What about after it's just beaten down?Can Daming digest these lands?

The territory of the Tang Zongzhang was also very large, but how much is left after Wu Zhou usurped the throne?
Such an expansion is an invalid expansion.

Zhu Youjian is more inclined to his current effective expansion of immigrating to the real border after setting up a place.

Although it is slow, the territory will be stable, and the basic base of the Han people can be enlarged step by step.

Not to mention anything else, if the Ming Dynasty collapses now, then the historical task of the next dynasty is to at least occupy the four northeastern provinces, nine northern provinces, ten southern provinces, and three southeastern provinces where Han people account for more than [-]% of the total.

As for Nanzhou, Xiaoxiyang, Nankunlun, Yingzhou... These places that can be discarded due to population problems are basically considered invalid expansion, not counted as the basic territory of the Han people.

Therefore, more than [-]% of the population is the standard of this era, which determines whether the next dynasty will recover it, and whether it will break away from the control of the main ethnic group at the end of the dynasty and become an existence similar to "Gaoguryeo" and "Nanzhao".

Zhu Youjian's national policy will not change drastically until Luchuan, Jiaozhi, and Nanzhou are digested. It is still maintaining stability, plus medium-scale local wars.

For example, in the Western Regions and Mobei, with the current strength of the Ming army, only 12 cavalry, [-] civilian husbands, plus [-] draft horses and rough horses are enough to recover the two places.

But even so, the cost of dispatching troops on such a scale would be as high as several million taels, several million stones.

Daming can't afford this money for the time being.

With a feeling of regret, Zhu Youjian and Zhu Ciran walked out of the Huangji Hall, and boarded the Xianglu to Qi Wangfu at the back door.

As soon as he got into the car, Zhu Ciran couldn't wait to take off the crown, and stretched his neck by the way: "This thing is so heavy."

"It'll be fine when you grow up." Zhu Youjian nodded slightly, with a smile on his face: "How do you feel today?"

"This job is really tiring, it really is suitable for you to do it, Uncle Qi!"

As soon as Zhu Ciran said the words, Zhu Youjian's smile froze immediately.

"You can take your time. If you don't like the Great Court Meeting, you can also hide in your own room to deal with the memorials like in the Chengyun Palace."

In order not to make Zhu Ciran feel rebellious, Zhu Youjian held back his temper and decided to coax him.

"It is possible to do this, but it is too boring to stay in the same place all the time. I know why my father is not staying in the capital anymore. He doesn't think those officials are difficult to deal with at all, but that it is not fun to have too many things. "

Zhu Ciran's words made Zhu Youjian's words a little choked up, but he still kept talking:
"My father gives people the feeling that he has been wronged, but in fact, I heard from my mother that he had a great time playing in Dading Palace and Zhongxia Palace."

"I heard that the railways in Xi'an and Shenyang have been completed, and my father is planning to ask Wei Daban to build two palaces in Huashan and Hara City as a residence."

"Actually, Xiuxiu is pretty good. If I go to play at that time, there will be a place to stay. Do you think... Uncle?"

Zhu Ciran let go and said, but Zhu Youjian's face was obviously darkened.

Apparently, today's Grand Court Meeting did not make Zhu Ciran fall in love with the feeling that one person is under one man and above ten thousand people, but it had the opposite effect.

"You are the crown prince, the crown prince. When you reach the age of 15, you will be in charge of the country. You have to study hard in the past two years."

Zhu Youjian gave Zhu Ciran orders with a calm face, which made Zhu Ciran a little dumbfounded, and cautiously asked tentatively: "Then my Nanyou..."

Zhu Youjian's face turned darker when he heard about Nanyou.

Do you really think he is a workaholic?It's not that he wants to rest, but the problem is that the two fathers and sons don't take the burden, only he does.

I originally thought that they would take on the burden when they grow up, but now it seems that the old ones love to play and enjoy themselves, and the young ones follow suit.

If the two of you let this man go on like this, Zhu Youjian will die young sooner or later.

Besides, he also needs time to accompany his family, especially Zhu Cihong's character, if he doesn't accompany him well, he may become a little withdrawn in the future.

To put it bluntly, he knew that Zhu Youxiao couldn't handle so many government affairs and let Zhu Ciran share the burden.

Now Zhu Youxiao can at least shoulder some of the burdens of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Rites, but Zhu Ciran doesn't want to bear them at all.

"How can it be so easy..."

Zhu Youjian glanced at Zhu Ciran, then smiled and said: "In that case, then you can go to the south, how about starting next month?"

"Really? Uncle doesn't blame me for being lazy?" Zhu Ciran was a little surprised, Zhu Youjian's scalp tingled when he saw it.

You know you're being lazy...

Zhu Youjian gritted his teeth, and continued to smile and said, "It's not a problem to play, and the matter of supervising the country can also be pushed back."

"Jianguo at the age of 15 is still too early for you. After you come back, I will give you four months of vacation every year to visit people's livelihood, and the remaining eight months to study by my side. Wait until you think about Jianguo."

"Uncle!" Seeing Zhu Youjian being so "enlightened", Zhu Ciran simply loved him to death.

"You are still open-minded, unlike my mother and father... Sigh!"

Sighing, Zhu Ciran folded his hands on his chest, staring out the window, with a smile on his lips, as if he was saying that it was difficult to take care of his parents, and at the same time, he was thinking about the experience of traveling south.

Seeing his appearance, Zhu Youjian nodded with a smile, just thinking in his heart, "Can I still let you run away?"

Xiang Ren carried the two of them away towards Qi Wang's mansion, Zhu Ciran was still lamenting his uncle's enlightenment, but he didn't know that Zhu Youjian had calculated it to his bones.

The two returned to Prince Qi's Mansion to deal with the memorial, and when they were dealing with the memorial, Zhu Youxiao donated 100 million taels of silver from the internal funds to the household department for disaster relief, and at the same time ordered Wei Zhongxian to build the Huayang Palace in Huashan, and Li Yongzhen went to Hara City, Modong Province Build the Northern Moraine Palace.

The two palaces used 24 taels of silver, which is not too much, so no one refuted the construction of the palace this time.

Zhu Youjian, who heard the news, did not blame Zhu Youxiao, but said that there are many palaces in the world, and the residences of princes and vassal princes have been taken over by the imperial court.

If the emperor travels, these palaces can be used as residences.

If the emperor does not travel, it can also be left unused as a reward for the residence of important ministers in the future.

There are many palaces in the Ming Dynasty, and maintaining them requires manpower and material resources. Instead of doing this, it is better to assign all the palaces to the inner court as the emperor's private property.

In this regard, Zhu Youxiao agreed, but the maintenance of the residences of these princes and county princes also requires an annual expenditure of 10,000+ taels, which is not a small sum of money.

Time passed little by little, and with the arrival of the spring rain, the entire northern land was moistened, and the extremely severe drought last year was also contained accordingly.

However, the spring rains fell in some places and did not fall in others, and the places where there was no rain inevitably began to suffer from drought.

Beginning in February, the water levels in Shuntianfu and Yongpingfu in Northern Zhili Province dropped. Zhu Youjian had no choice but to order the Military Armament Academy to use [-] steam engines as water pumps, so as to protect the land of nearly one million mu in the two prefectures. Water for dry fields.

At the same time, Baoning, Shunqing, Chongqing, Tongchuan in eastern Sichuan...

Shaanxi Yan'an, Xi'an, Fengxiang, Hanzhong, Qingyang...

Shanxi Pingyang, Fenzhou, Liaozhou, Zezhou, Lu'an, Qinzhou...

Runing in Henan, Xining and Lintao in Hexi, Fengyang in Nanzhili, Xuzhou, Huai'an and other six provinces, thirteen prefectures and four prefectures only had one or two spring rains, and then there was no rain.

Although the disaster situation in each province is not as great as last year, and there have been two spring rains, nearly ten million acres of dry land in these places are still uncultivable, and paddy fields can only be planted as irrigated fields, and irrigated fields can only be used as dry fields to plant.

Things are better than last year, but not by much.

On the first day of February, Zhu Ciran rode his four-wheeled vehicle and under the guard of more than a hundred Jinyi guards, set off from Yongning Gate in the west city of Beijing. The route was Shanxi-Shaanxi-Hexi-Sichuan-Yunnan-Guangxi-Guangdong-Fujian -Zhejiang-South Zhili--Shandong and then arrive at North Zhili.

Hearing about Zhu Ciran's route, Xu Xiake, who had brought his mother to live in Beijing for half a year, also bought a bicycle and traveled with Zhu Ciran's team.

Their route is said to be going south, but in fact it is equivalent to traveling around the original two capitals and thirteen provinces except Liaodong.

This line was not drawn up by Zhu Ciran himself, but with the help of Zhu Youjian.

Zhu Ciran's identity as the prince was destined to maintain the rule of the Ming Dynasty, so some of the things he saw were more real than the things Jin Yiwei handed over to Zhu Youjian.

Shanxi and Shaanxi are two provinces that have suffered nine years of drought. Zhu Youjian continues to know how the local people are living and whether the new policies of the imperial court have any effect.

As for Hexi, what Zhu Youjian wants to know is whether after the influx of more than 300 million people, there is any fundamental difference between Hexi and the Hexi he saw back then.

For example, have the Han people who migrated there been Iraqiized, or has the local religious atmosphere been completely changed?

The true situation of these three provinces is of great help to Zhu Youjian in governing Daming.

On the contrary, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian and other six provinces, Zhu Youjian is confident that they are a few provinces that live well because of the amount of arable land and population.

For the rest of Zhejiang, Nanzhili, and Shandong, Zhu Youjian wanted to use Zhu Ciran's eyes to take a look at the local population and humanities.

Of course, this time I watched it through Zhu Ciran's eyes, and the next time Zhu Youjian will watch it by himself.

This time Zhu Youjian gave Zhu Ci a ten-month vacation, because according to the route and the prefectures and counties he had to go to, he had to travel at least [-] miles.

Although you can take the train or ride the tourist bus he invented, it still takes more than [-] miles a day.

If this was done 20 years ago, it would definitely be an impossible task, but in the current situation where provincial and prefectural roads are connected in series, it is not very difficult for Zhu Ciran.

Not only did he not find it difficult, he also happily completed the journey from the capital to Juyongguan on the first day.

According to what Zhu Youjian said, he recorded his experience in words stroke by stroke.

Because there is Xu Xiake, who has written travel notes for more than [-] years, beside him, Zhu Ciran's travel notes are similar to the popular novels of the Ming Dynasty in terms of sentence and fluency.

Although Xu Xiake and Zhu Ciran traveled together, the contents of the records are different.

Zhu Ciran's travel notes mainly recorded the local humanities, and focused on the differences between the people's livelihood in the local counties and the people's livelihood in the countryside.

Xu Xiake's travel notes are more abundant. Not only did he make detailed records of geography, hydrology, geology, plants and other phenomena, but he also made detailed records of handicraft mining, agriculture, transportation, commerce and trade, urban settlements, ethnic minorities, and local customs and customs. Emphatic description.

Whenever the two went to a place, they first went to learn about the local culture. After Zhu Ciran set off, Xu Xiake traveled all over the place, making records of various local minerals, and at the same time recorded the mining and smelting of local minerals.

In addition, because Xu Xiake has read many "Yanshan Textbooks", he will correct the water conservancy facilities in each place from the hydrology point of view.

For example, on February [-], Xu Xiake put forward different construction opinions on the construction of the Xinqi Reservoir in Yangyuan County. After dialectical and verification, Xu Xiake's opinions are often the most suitable for the local conditions.

After that, officials along the way asked Xu Xiake to help check the local water conservancy.

Some people are really for the people, while others are interested in his status as Minister of Rites, hoping that he can promote themselves in the future.

In short, as a result, Xu Xiake's itinerary was delayed, so that the distance between him and Zhu Ciran became farther and farther.

By February [-]th, Zhu Ciran had arrived in Zhiyangqu County, Taiyuan Prefecture, and Xu Xiake was still surveying hydrology for local officials in Datong Prefecture.

"La... la... la... la..."

On February [-]th, amidst cheerful humming, Zhu Ciran led the team to continue southward. His goal today was to go southward along Fenshui River and arrive at Jiaocheng County, a hundred miles away.

Since the road along the road was flat, Zhu Ciran happily leaned on the handlebars. Beside him were three well-built eunuchs from the Eastern Palace, and behind them were dozens of guards in plain clothes who followed from a distance on horseback.

"The government road in Shanxi is pretty good. It's wide and flat. Since leaving the capital, this section of road is the most comfortable to ride on!"

Enjoying the wind blowing, Zhu Ciran cheerfully looked at the Taihang Mountains and enjoyed the cultural landscape.

It's just that the three eunuchs next to him are almost "running out of oil and burning out".

Once upon a time, they were also the three fattest fat men in the Eastern Palace.

Just on the road for 26 consecutive days, the weight of the three of them dropped by more than ten kilograms.

If they continue to ride like this, they will have to be adults...

Thinking this way, they looked eagerly at their Highness the Crown Prince, only to find that His Highness the Crown Prince didn't even step on his feet at this moment, just looking at the distant scenery like this.

Compared with the unchanging capital city, Yanshan Mountain, and Fangshan Mountain, when Zhu Ciran saw the natural scenery of Shanxi with mountains, hills, and ravines, his first reaction was naturally shock and enjoyment.

In the distance, the black-colored mountains stretched and undulated, towering high and straight into the sky, like tall and majestic warriors, guarding the plain behind.

Compared with the capital, this place is simple, just like the people here, as simple as loess.

Those people who plan food in the fields may look dirty and messy, but their hearts are very simple.

Shanxi in the late Ming Dynasty still retains many temples, Taoist temples and various scenic spots and historic sites from the Han and Tang Dynasties.

Like people who traveled in later generations, Zhu Ciran would also visit these places.

Although there is no word "commercialization" in this era, there are always many street vendors in famous places.

Under the severe drought, in order to support their families, they clamored for business, eager to get a customer and complete a deal.

Although Shanxi suffered severe drought, there are still many paddy fields on both sides of the Fenshui River.

Zhu Ciran went south along the road, and seemed to have had enough of the scenery on the provincial road, and then turned to the government road, and even more remote county roads.

After walking to the county road, he finally saw the real life of the people in Shanxi under the severe drought.

In the dry fields, some farmers came to the fields with two buckets of water and splashed them with their hands to moisten sweet potatoes, potatoes and other crops in the dry fields.

They were dressed in dusty clothes, not because of work, but only.

In this era, although the price of bicycles is not expensive, but because the annual output has not exceeded [-], it often only exists in the city.

The four-wheeled four-seater bicycle that Zhu Ciran rode caught a lot of attention along the way.

As the time came to noon, Zhu Ciran, who was out of water, began to squeeze the brakes:

"There's no water. Leave one of you to watch the car, and the others will go to the village with me to ask for water."

Although it is the end of February, it is actually the lunar calendar, and it is almost April in the Western calendar.

Therefore, Zhu Ciran's face was flushed all over the ground, and he himself changed from a little black fat man to a well-proportioned young man.

In his coarse linen clothes, he looked like a child from another village.

After greeting the eunuchs, he took the two eunuchs to the village ahead, carrying a dozen empty water bags in his hands.

"Wang Wang Wang-"

As soon as they entered the village, the pastoral dogs in the village started to bark, but most of them were tied to the door, so they couldn't do any harm to Zhu Ciran and the others.

"Ma'am! Let's beg for saliva!"

When he came to the door of a family, Zhu Ciran looked at an old woman who was carrying a wooden bucket to water the vegetable field at the door, and walked forward to say hello with a smile.

"Drink water? Drink water and go to the side to fetch..."

The old woman pointed to the river in the distance, obviously not wanting the water she just fetched to take advantage of these foreigners.

"Okay!" Zhu Ciran was not angry when he was rejected, but took the water bag and walked towards the river not far away.

While walking, he also looked at the situation of the village.

Generally speaking, this village is located at the foot of Taihang Mountain in Shanxi, and the river in the village should also flow from Taihang Mountain.

This village is different from the villages in Northern Zhili. Zhu Ciran often goes to Li Dingguo in Yanshan County to play. It is an adobe house.

The houses are all adobe, not to mention the courtyard walls.

The so-called courtyard wall is nothing more than a tofu dregs project with some dead branches inserted on the ground and surrounded by vines.

Such a courtyard wall, Zhu Ciran can trample it with one kick.

Zhu Ciran didn't rush to fetch water, but walked around the village.

Since it was afternoon, people in the village were either taking a siesta or cooking. Zhu Ciran walked around the village, and finally found a house that could afford bricks and stones. It turned out that it was the village official's house.

The two village officials in the office didn't seem to care about their business. They sat at the door, set up a small coffee table, and chatted while eating.

When Zhu Ciran passed by, they gave Zhu Ciran a dissatisfied look, thinking that some child was disobedient.

Zhu Ciran didn't take it seriously, just smiled cheerfully, and at the same time glanced at the food on the dining table of the village officials.

To see how the people live in a place, it is enough to see how the village officials eat. This is half of the method Li Dingguo taught Zhu Ciran.

Along the way, he saw the meals of village officials in Shuntian Mansion, Xuan Mansion, Datong Mansion, and Taiyuan Mansion. In terms of enjoyment, they were ordered from front to back.

The village officials in Shuntian Prefecture often sat together to eat and drink in the gazebo they built at their own expense. No matter how bad the table was, there could still be a pot of four taels of rice wine, a meat dish, a cold dish, and a hot dish and soup.

To put it simply, it is a configuration of three dishes and one soup, which is better than ordinary people, but it is also limited.

When I arrived at Xuanfu, the configuration was still the same, but the wine I drank changed to sweet potatoes.

When they arrived at Datong Mansion, there was no wine on the table of the village officials, and when they arrived at Taiyuan Mansion, there was no meat and vegetables on the table, only two stir-fried vegetables and one soup dish, and the rice bowl became smaller. some.

When I arrived in Taiyuan, it was basically a bowl of stir-fried vegetables plus a soup, cold dishes, meat dishes, and wine, which are things that can only be enjoyed during the Chinese New Year.

The scene in Taiyuan Mansion is what Zhu Ciran can see in the villages with paddy fields beside the Fenshui River, but when it comes to the villages that are basically dry fields, the things on the village official's table make Zhu Ciran more intuitive felt the effects of the drought.

Even a village official with an annual salary of 12 taels of silver, at the moment, there is nothing more than a plate of fried cabbage on the table between the two of them, with a bowl of cabbage soup and a plate of dried pickles next to them, and the rice in their hands has turned into brown rice.

Eating brown rice... This kind of thing is surprising to officials, even village officials.

With the same salary, people in Northern Zhili can eat meat every meal, but in the remote towns of Taiyuan Prefecture, which suffered from drought, they can only eat some fried cabbage and brown rice with pickled vegetables.

Village officials are like this, so what do the people eat?
Emboldened with courage, Zhu Ciran went around the village.

Maybe it's because everyone's life is not good, so everyone is very vigilant towards Zhu Ciran, an unfamiliar face.

But even so, Zhu Ciran saw many scenes along the way that made his scalp tingle.

Inside the wooden fence, a family of seven sat in the yard to eat. Apart from seven bowls of sweet potato porridge no bigger than a fist, there was a pot of boiled cabbage and a plate of pepper on the dining table.

The two children in the male host's family are five or six years old, but the clothes on their bodies are so tattered that they can't even be patched, so they can only expose their skin to the air.

Seeing this scene, Zhu Ciran was stunned. It wasn't until he walked to the side of the river that he felt more intuitively what the people in this village had experienced.

The three-foot-wide river channel is empty at this moment, and the soil layer washed out by the water level on both sides gradually descends like steps until it reaches the lowest valley of the river bed.

No one would have guessed that the creek, which was only one foot wide and had only a thin layer that didn't even reach the back of the foot, was once a big river three feet wide and six feet deep...

At this moment, Zhu Ciran was able to face Shanxi, which had been suffering from drought for nine years, and understood why the old woman was unwilling to let her fetch water.

For them, these dozen or so water bladders are worth a day or two of water, but for the sixty-year-old woman, the water needs her to walk two miles and pick it up and down three or four times to bring it home. exist.

(End of this chapter)