Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 566 Goodbye
"Bong, Tian Chengyun, and the emperor's edict said: The crown prince is kind, filial and divine, born with virtue from nature. This year, he will be [-] years old. He will be a supervisor, and he will be proficient in maintenance."

"Today I feel a little bit cold, so I ordered all officials and ministers, the six departments of the cabinet, to send all matters related to the government to the East Palace, and supervise the country. It is not against my wishes..."

In the early morning, when Zhu Ciran was woken up from the East Palace bed in a daze, someone stuffed him with an imperial edict while he was still in a daze.

"Jianguo, from today onwards, the Wenhua Palace, the Sixth Ministry of the Cabinet, and the Five Armies Commander's Mansion will be sent to the East Palace. Please wash up and wait for the memorial to arrive, so as to deal with the affairs of the state."

"Ah?!" When he heard that his address was changed from His Highness to Jian Guo, the dazed Zhu Ciran also reflected.

He looked outside the door, the gray sky was enough to show how early it was.

"Jianguo? Me?" Zhu Ciran pointed to himself, and Wang Tiqian, who came to deliver the decree, also nodded kindly: "Yes, Jianguo..."

"I'm only 14 years old, how can I supervise the country? When did my father get sick again? Wasn't he fine yesterday?"

Zhu Ciran's mouth was like a machine gun, spitting out several crosses in a few seconds, but Wang Tigan said calmly:
"Last night, it was windy and windy, and Wan Sui accidentally caught the wind and cold, so His Highness Jian Guo was asked to deal with the memorial."

"As for the age..." Wang Ti smiled dryly: "Long live said that His Highness has studied in the Qi Palace for so long, and toured the world in the south, so he naturally understands the sufferings of the people. It is very reassuring for His Highness to supervise the country."

Wang Tiqian's smile had never been so hateful in Zhu Ciran's eyes. Hearing the words that came out of his mouth, Zhu Ciran felt a toothache, so he could only ask, "When will father recover from the cold?"

"I'm afraid it will take half a month..." Wang Tigan responded without blushing, and Zhu Ciran asked again:
"When will Uncle Qi come back?"

"His Royal Highness King Qi ordered eight hundred miles to urgently send the decree last night. According to its content, I am afraid that he will not be able to return to Beijing until August."

"I understand..." After Zhu Ciran heard the operations of the two above, how could he not understand?

What wind and cold, what half a month... It's strange that my father didn't drag me to sit in prison until my uncle came back.

It's only June 21 right now, and there's still one and a half months until August.

"A month and a half..."

Zhu Ci was so angry that his teeth itched, Wang Tiqian was also afraid that he would be implicated when he saw this, so he bowed and said, "Your maidservant will leave..."

After all, without waiting for Zhu Ciran to react, he hurriedly left the East Palace with other eunuchs who passed the decree.

When Zhu Ciran reacted, there was no one in the whole hall for him to order except for a few serving eunuchs and maids.

"Let me supervise the country, then at least leave me a few people!"

Looking at the empty surroundings, Zhu Ci was so angry that he wanted to curse.

But before he could swear, six or seven eunuchs walked in, and they put the four or five hundred memorials on Zhu Ciran's usual homework desk, piled up to the brim.

"So many?!" Looking at these memorials, Zhu Ciran felt that his day had been arranged.

The eunuchs just nodded, and then left in a panic.

Looking at the pile of memorabilia, Zhu Ciran wanted to resist but no one was powerless, so he could only tell Li Yongzhen, the eunuch of the Eastern Palace:

"Go to Prince Qi's mansion to see if Li Dingguo is back, and then call me Zhang Xiu and Liu Shun."

"Your Highness, Li Dingguo has already graduated and joined the army, and now he is working as a Daiqian household in Yanran City, Anbei Prefecture, Shanyu Province."

"What did you say?!"

If it is said that Wang Tiqian's arrival made Zhu Ciran feel cheated, then Li Dingguo's leaving in Li Yongzhen's mouth made him feel that he was cheated.

Anyway, leave him two assistants!

At this moment, Zhu Ciran realized the importance of having a Donggong team member, everyone would be tricked, but he didn't!

"Straight girl! Straight girl!"

Zhu Ciran scolded and washed up in the palace, and didn't stop cursing until he sat down, and dealt with the memorial honestly.

On the second day when he supervised the country, "Da Ming Pao" reported the matter of the prince's supervision of the country, and the matter of choosing a concubine was also published.

Regarding his upcoming choice of concubine, Zhu Ciran also mourned as if he had eaten Coptis chinensis, and he couldn't help but miss his Uncle Qi Wang in his heart.

However, Uncle Qi Wang, who he missed, was taking a train to the railway station in Xi'an City, Xi'an Prefecture, Shaanxi Province.

"Woooo-"

With the last whistle disappearing, Zhu Youjian got off the train with Si Xiaozhi, Zhou Sujie and others.

The first time he got off the train, he saw a familiar figure.

"Sun Chuanting, the Northwest strategist, has met His Royal Highness King Qi, His Highness is a thousand years old..."

"Your Highness Chitose..."

When Sun Chuanting's voice sounded, it was accompanied by the singing of hundreds of officials from Shaanxi and Xi'an.

When Sun Chuanting finished bowing and withdrew his hand, all Zhu Youjian saw was a dark face and a thin figure.

His skin color and figure are particularly conspicuous among the fat and white Shaanxi officials, and this is also the first time Zhu Youjian and Sun Chuanting have met since the Liao Dynasty.

In the Battle of Restoring Liao Dynasty 13 years ago, Sun Chuanting was only in his thirties, but now he is in his forties, entering the age of forty.

"Thanks for your hard work……"

There is no whitewashing vocabulary, Zhu Youjian sighed very straightforwardly.

"Compared to Your Highness, the suffering of a subordinate official is nothing..."

After returning to Xi'an from Uzang, Sun Chuanting realized how severe the drought this year was, and at the same time realized how difficult it was for Zhu Youjian, who was in charge of the center.

In his opinion, Zhu Youjian's half-year vacation this year is due, because he has been tired for too long.

"Let's go, take me around Xi'an City, and stay in Prince Qin's Mansion tonight."

In a word, Zhu Youjian said the first half sentence to Sun Chuanting, and the second half sentence explained it to Zhou Sujie.

Obviously, he had something to discuss with Sun Chuanting, and it was inconvenient to take Zhou Sujie and the four little ones with him.

Zhou Sujie nodded knowingly, and Sun Chuanting also realized that Zhu Youjian had something to tell him, so after making a gesture of "please", he and Zhu Youjian walked out of Xi'an Railway Station.

The two got into a carriage alone, and even Lu Yuangao couldn't get in, which was enough to show the importance of the matter.

However, even though Lu Yuangao didn't get in the carriage, he guessed what King Qi was going to say to Sun Chuanting.

After thinking about it, it is nothing more than a matter of the cabinet assisting the government.

Lu Yuangao got on his horse and prepared to follow the carriage, waiting for the call of the King of Qi at any time, while Zhou Sujie and others went to the Palace of King Qin in Xi'an City under the escort of soldiers and horses.

Sitting in the carriage, Zhu Youjian didn't talk about the matter at the beginning, but while chatting with Sun Chuanting, he looked out of the glass window of the carriage from time to time at the city of Xi'an.

Xi'an City, as the business card of Guanzhong, is a famous city in history. Its long history and vigorous culture are fascinating.

The history of Xi'an is very long, but the history of Xi'an city is not so long.

After the Yuan Dynasty took over the Central Plains, the rulers demolished a large area of ​​the city walls in the Jianghuai area. The reason was that it was not conducive to the rule of the Mongols. This is also the reason why there were very few city walls in the Yuan Dynasty.

Therefore, when Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, many cities in the early Ming Dynasty rebuilt the city walls that the Yuan Dynasty demolished.

Nanjing City Wall and Pingyao City Wall are masterpieces left over from that era.

Fortunately, Xi'an is located in the northwest, and the city wall has not been demolished.

During the Hongwu period, in order to strengthen the defense of Xi'an, an important city in the northwest, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered people to expand the city of Xi'an on the basis of the imperial city of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, and began eight years of restoration.

Due to the enormous size of the project, the city walls of Xi'an in the Ming Dynasty were always made of yellow rammed earth. This style seemed out of place in the Ming Dynasty when a large number of green bricks were used to build the city.

Therefore, it was not until the Longqing period that Shaanxi Governor Zhang Zhi went to Emperor Longqing to wrap the thousand-year-old earthen city wall of Xi'an with city bricks. This was the first time that bricks were laid on the city wall of Xi'an.

Zhang Zhi believes that although the rammed-earth city walls are relatively strong, they cannot withstand the invasion of rainwater. There are often records of rammed-earth city walls collapsing and collapsing due to heavy rain or floods.

The city wall is covered with bricks, which can not only improve waterproofing, but also play a defensive role in combat.

Such a proposal was approved by the Longqing Emperor Zhu Zaiyi, so the strengthening of the Xi'an City Wall also started in the same year.

After being approved by Emperor Longqing, Zhang Zhi used a large number of special blue bricks in Xi'an City.

This kind of brick is larger than ordinary building bricks, weighing up to tens of kilograms, and its volume is close to the eight red bricks of later generations.

Since the city wall of Xi'an in the Ming Dynasty had a circumference of nearly 600 kilometers and a huge amount of bricks were used, more than [-] million bricks were used for such a city wall.

In order to make the bricks of Xi'an city wall tightly bonded, Zhang Zhi used lime and glutinous rice juice as adhesives to bond the bricks together, which is why it can be preserved for later generations.

In addition to the city bricks, Zhang Zhi also dug deep the moat of Xi'an, so that Xi'an city will no longer experience the suffering of heavy rain and stagnant water.

After Zhang Zhi, the successive governors of Shaanxi also continued to improve the defense of Xi'an City. By the end of Wanli, the local defense projects tended to be perfected.

When Sun Chuanting took office as the Northwest Economic Strategy and Shaanxi Chief Envoy at the same time, he continued to strengthen the original Xi'an City and added [-] Yanshan five-jin cannons.

Moreover, for the market towns outside Xi'an, Sun Chuanting also built rammed earth walls to enclose them.

In peacetime, this zhang-high rammed-earth city wall is good for collecting taxes and tracking down fugitives.

During the war, these rammed earth walls can protect the market town from being invaded.

Although in this way, Zhu Youjian couldn't see the style and style of the market town when passing outside Xi'an, but he had to praise:
"There is a shortage of wood in Guanzhong. Protecting the market town will make it difficult for people to find wood to attack the city. This method is good, but..."

While Zhu Youjian praised, he also said: "But the era of firearms must be in the future."

"Currently, the firecrackers can fire more than ten rounds per minute. If the frequency of artillery can reach more than ten rounds per minute in the future, the defensive effect of the city wall will also be greatly reduced."

"As for the city wall, it is enough to repair and preserve the original city wall in the interior, and there is no need to expand it."

Zhu Youjian didn't plan to build the city wall wantonly, and Sun Chuanting bowed his head when he heard the words, expressing his understanding.

The carriage they were riding in quickly entered the Anyuan Gate of Xi'an, and the number of people entering and leaving the gate was a little sparse, which can also be seen from the population of Xi'an.

"How many people live in Xi'an City?"

Looking at the sparse crowd, Zhu Youjian couldn't help asking, and at the same time the carriage drove directly onto the horse path of the city wall.

"There are more than 14 people in the outer city, more than 20 in the main city, and less than [-] in the market towns outside the city. The total is about [-]."

The two got out of the carriage after they got on the city wall, and Sun Chuanting also roughly stated the population of Xi'an City.

"When the severe drought passes, the people in Shaanxi should live a lot more comfortably."

The two walked on the wall of Anyuanmen and looked at the neighbors in the city. Sun Chuanting looked at the sparse population in the city and couldn't help opening his mouth. Zhu Youjian slightly nodded his head to express his approval.

At present, although the cultivated land in Shaanxi has decreased sharply due to the severe drought, and many dry lands have been abandoned, the paddy fields and irrigated land still reach more than 900 million mu, with a population of less than 440 million. This is why Shaanxi has the most serious drought, but food prices are lower than those in Shanxi. s reason.

When the drought passes, the more than 2000 million mu of dry land will be recultivated, and the people in Shaanxi will be able to live a life of eating meat every day like in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan.

The population of more than 400 million is already a lot, and Zhu Youjian is not going to let it decrease further, otherwise it will affect Ming Dynasty's rule of the Western Regions and Central Asia in the future.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian also said: "I am going to launch a western expedition in the summer of Tianqi 19 to recover the Western Regions."

"This battle, I still have to rely on you, and after this battle, I also hope that you will return to the capital and serve as the cabinet's second assistant."

Zhu Youjian's words hit his ears, and Sun Chuanting could only bow in response after hearing it.

He is not surprised why he is only the second assistant of the cabinet, because he understands that this is Zhu Youjian's means of protecting him.

If he becomes the chief assistant of the cabinet, with his character, he will definitely die badly.

He is the second assistant, Hong Chengchou is the first assistant, Yang Wenyue, Wu Aheng, Shen Tingyang, Wen Tiren, Zhou Yanru and others are assistants in the government. This lineup is the best, and it can at least keep Ming Dynasty peaceful for 20 years.

Knowing everything, Sun Chuanting had already made preparations, but he still needed to discuss with Zhu Youjian about sending troops to recover the Western Regions.

"If troops are sent in the summer of 19, then based on the situation in the Western Regions, at least ten battalions of cavalry should be dispatched from the north and the south."

"The situation in Hexi, if you want to send out the seventh battalion of cavalry, you need to send at least 200 peasants, no less than [-] horses, and no less than [-] million shi of rice and wheat."

"However, due to the situation in the province alone, it is somewhat difficult to send out the third battalion of cavalry."

Sun Chuanting talked about the issue of Hexi, and Zhu Youjian had already been preparing for it.

Since Qianlong's recovery of the Western Regions can be used as a reference, he has been developing Hexi to avoid the situation that Hexi could not even support [-] soldiers and horses in history.

But even so, in the case of Hexi, it will be much easier to deal with because of the blessing of the train.

At present, Sichuan has a surplus of more than 3000 million rice and wheat every year. As long as Sichuan does not experience drought in 19 years, it will not be difficult to transport 200 million rice and wheat to Hexi by train.

Both Zhu Youjian and Sun Chuanting were worried about the same thing, that is, the situation in Shanyu Province.

Historically, the Northern Route Army that wiped out Junggar was better than the Southern Route Army, mainly because there were three major divisions of Khalkha supplying the nomadic troops of the Qing Army.

The Qing army can nomadic supplies, so naturally the Ming army can too.

"The problem in Shanyu Province is not big. We can follow the example of the Mongolian nomadic supplies. The three battalions of cavalry only need to bring more than a thousand herdsmen, and more than ten thousand cattle and sheep and sixty to seventy thousand shi of rice and wheat are enough to reach Hami."

"The northern captives in the Western Regions have a lot of cultivated land in the area, and the amount is not less than one million mu."

"The [-] civilians of the South Route Army can take care of millions of acres of land as long as they bring [-] tractors with them. It is not difficult to raise [-] soldiers and horses for a long time."

"The difficulty now lies in whether the Shanyu Province can allocate the sixty to seventy thousand shi of rice and wheat."

Zhu Youjian talked about the main point of the matter. Sixty to seventy thousand shi of rice and wheat may not seem like a lot, but if they want to attack the Western Regions in the next year, they will have to start transporting food to the local area this year and next.

Even if Modong transported grain to Shanyu, and Beizhili transported grain to Modong, it would take more than half a year.

Transporting [-] shi of rice and wheat from Kaiping Mansion in Modong Province to Yanran City in the westernmost part of Shanyu Province, the journey was a full three thousand miles.

And in order to prevent the lack of 12 shi and the possibility of intense fighting, the Ming army must store at least [-] shi of grain in Yanran City.

If there are still 12 shi of rice and wheat to be shipped, the amount of rice and wheat to be shipped must not be less than 40 shi.

40 shi is not a small amount for Modong. There must be no less than 2 people dispatched to transport food, and [-] horses are needed, and they need to be transported twice.

This process is too troublesome. Zhu Youjian prefers to directly transport the tractor there and reclaim the land locally to meet the needs of the Western Expedition, so his plan needs to be changed.

Thinking of this, he looked at Lu Yuangao who was boarding the horse path, and told him:
"This year, all the more than 2 tractors shipped to Jiugang and the four provinces outside the customs have been shipped to Yanran County, Shanyu Prefecture."

"Tell Cao Bianjiao and Li Dingguo that I want to see Yanran County stockpile 19 shi of grain in the spring of 12, and harvest no less than [-] shi in autumn."

"Yes!" Lu Yuangao instinctively bowed in response.

Seeing this, Zhu Youjian also looked back at Sun Chuanting: "Conquering the Western Regions is only the first step, and the most important thing is to relocate the population."

"It is impossible to blindly slaughter more than [-] Mongols in the Western Regions. I want to send troops when Hutudun is about to unify the Western Regions, and then let him move westward with hundreds of thousands of Mongols."

"The remaining Mongols, I plan to move them to Qinghai, and as for Hexi, I will move no less than 100 million people to the Western Regions."

"Do you think it is possible to do this with Hexi's power?"

Zhu Youjian looked at Sun Chuanting, waiting for his response.

Facing his question, Sun Chuanting also replied after a short thought:

"The migration of millions of people will do great harm to Hexi, which has finally developed. It will take at least two or three years to restore the output before the migration."

"If the Western Regions don't need to transfer food from Hexi, then that's not a problem."

"The lower official's suggestion is to relocate 20 people to the Western Regions every year in five years, so as to cause the least damage to Hexi."

"Besides, judging from the millions of acres of arable land and large pastures in the Western Regions, it can support only 60 to [-] people. The advantage of moving slowly is that if the situation is not right, it can be stopped immediately."

"..." Hearing Sun Chuanting's words, Zhu Youjian was slightly silent.

Sun Chuanting can understand why Zhu Youjian is silent, because his proposal conflicts with Zhu Youjian's affairs on Fan.

The reason why Zhu Youjian is obsessed with moving the population as soon as possible is that he will take over the domain around the 23rd year of the apocalypse, so he must take over the Western Regions in the 19th year, and then take down West Siberia and the Hezhong area before the 23rd year.

If you want to win these places, you need at least the support of a million people.

According to Sun Chuanting's five-year migration, it will take at least 23 years for the Western Regions to have a population of one million.

Although this will not do much harm to Hexi and the Western Regions, it also means that Zhu Youjian cannot leave Daming in 23 years, because it will take at least a year to win West Siberia and Hezhong, and it will take two years to consolidate Daming's rule there. three years.

Calculated before and after, it will take at least nine or even ten years, but Zhu Youjian only has five years in 19 years and after.

He has to do ten years' work well within five years, so he is doomed not to think too thoroughly.

Relocating too many people at once would hurt Hexi's economic situation, which he didn't know, but he couldn't keep procrastinating.

"Let's talk about the relocation. Starting this year, I will let Sichuan transport 200 million shi rice and wheat to Jiayuguan every year after the autumn harvest."

Zhu Youjian is going to shelve this matter first, and solve the food problem first.

After all, no matter whether it is war or population migration, the food in Hexi is far from enough to consume, and it must be replenished by Sichuan.

Fortunately, the railway in Sichuan has been repaired to the Deyang area of ​​Chengdu, and it should be able to reach the north of Chengdu by the autumn harvest.

In this way, the starting point will be closer and the cost will be lower.

"The Western Regions, Hezhong, and Lingbei must be well controlled, and don't follow the example of Xuande's abandonment of Annan."

Zhu Youjian explained to Sun Chuanting, after all, he was the cabinet assistant he chose for the future.

As long as Sun Chuanting persisted, Hong Chengchou probably would not give up these places.

More than [-] years is enough time for trains to go to these places, so it is even more impossible for Daming to give up these places.

"I understand..."

Sun Chuanting bowed and bowed to express his acceptance. Zhu Youjian was very satisfied when he saw the situation, and he didn't talk about state affairs any more, but talked about family affairs.

He asked how Sun Chuanting's two sons were doing, and Sun Chuanting only reported that he was studying in a government school in Shanxi. It was obvious that he didn't want his son to take any shortcuts, otherwise, given his situation, he could have sent his two sons to Beijing to study in a government school.

"It's not a good thing to be pedantic. Let's train them well. The worst thing is to bring them to Xi'an and take care of them yourself."

Zhu Youjian did not approve of Sun Chuanting's stubbornness, but he also knew that if Sun Chuanting was not so stubborn, then he would not be Sun Chuanting.

"Your Majesty knows, but has your Highness ever heard about the Prince's supervision of the country?"

"Haha...Of course I know." Zhu Youjian couldn't help laughing when he heard about his nephew's supervision of the country.

He could already imagine how his elder nephew was dealing with the memorial with a mournful face, especially when he learned that Li Dingguo had been transferred to Yanran City, he probably felt more uncomfortable than his four-wheeler being smashed.

"How does the prince compare to Long Live?"

Sun Chuanting inquired about Zhu Ciran's character and style of dealing with affairs. Obviously, he didn't like Zhu Youxiao's temperament of throwing government affairs to the cabinet and the six ministries.

After all, he is a stubborn person, so he also likes the emperor who handles government affairs diligently every day. He has a headache for Zhu Youxiao, the emperor who throws his hands away.

"Don't worry, the prince is more responsible than Long Live."

Zhu Youxiao knew about Sun Chuanting's headache, so he comforted him, and talked about Zhu Ciran's general character.

"That's really a blessing for the country..." Sun Chuanting breathed a sigh of relief, and Zhu Youjian couldn't help being speechless in his heart.

His eldest nephew is somewhat responsible, but the content is not high...

　Update a chapter today (April 4th), around 5:[-] p.m.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)