Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 569 The Mid-Autumn Festival
"My brother lost weight..."

When Zhu Youjian walked into the Qianqing Palace with his family members with a little helplessness, he saw Zhu Youxiao running over nimbly from a long distance away.

Zhu Youxiao has lost a lot of weight compared to when he set out, but not too much. He still looks like 140 jin (84kg).

Although still a little fat, but much better than before.

"Brother..."

Zhu Youjian brought a whole family to salute, and Zhu Youxiao hurriedly stepped forward to support him when he saw this: "Your brother and I don't need to be too polite."

After all, without even looking at Zhu Ciran, he grabbed Zhu Youjian's hand and walked towards Qianqing Palace, saying as he walked:

"My brother doesn't know how much I miss you. This time you come back, I want to have a long talk with my brother."

Looking at Zhu Youjian's solid back, Zhu Youxiao wanted to laugh, and he didn't know what business his brother could have to talk to him about.

"Uncle Fifth..."

"Uncle Qi..."

When the voices of Zhang Yan, Zhu Cixuan and others sounded, Zhu Youjian also nodded with a smile, and when Zhu Youxiao let go, he took out a few gadgets from his waist.

"These are a few gadgets I picked up in Juyanhai. They should be from the hats of Xixia people in the Song Dynasty."

Zhu Youjian took out the brass ornaments on the hats of seven Xixia people in the Song Dynasty, and Zhu Ciyun and the others also took them and played with them.

It was also fortunate that Zhu Youxiao had three daughters who were too young to come to the family banquet, otherwise the seven things he picked up were really not enough.

"father……"

Zhu Cican and the others saw that the others were all there, so they couldn't help tugging at the hem of Zhu Youjian's clothes.

Zhu Youjian turned his head and smiled and patted his head: "You and brother Huan both have them, and I'll give them to you and your brothers and sisters tonight."

"Hmm..." Zhu Cihuan also laughed when he heard that he had it too.

Holding his hand, Zhu Youjian led a large family into the Qianqing Palace, and followed Zhu Youxiao and the others into the Evergreen Palace.

There was already a table enough for more than [-] people to sit. Zhu Youjian and Yuan Xibin sat down beside Zhu Youxiao and Zhang Yan under Zhu Youxiao's invitation.

"Uncle Wang, someone bullied me..."

When Zhu Youjian just sat down and the food was not served, Zhu Ciran's sudden speech made everyone speechless.

Zhu Youjian looked over, and in addition to seeing his eldest nephew, he also saw a good brother with a stiff smile.

"Look, this person went up and said that I am not doing my job properly."

At the dinner table, Zhu Ciran grandiosely took out a memorial, and what appeared in front of Zhu Youjian was the words "Meng Chengguang, Yushi of the Metropolitan Procuratorate".

Meng Chengguang, Zhu Youjian has a little impression of this person. When the White Lotus Sect rebelled, Meng Chengguang was the first person in Shandong to go to Shushu, and he was also a descendant of Mencius.

After receiving the memorial, Zhu Youjian hastily read it before the dishes were served.

At the end, he put down the memorial and said with a smile: "There is nothing wrong with what Meng Chengguang said."

"He is old and has a conservative mind. Seeing you riding a bicycle in the palace, he naturally feels that it is against etiquette."

"You go back to him and say that the emperor and the prince are riding horses in the palace, but you just replaced the horse with a bicycle."

Zhu Youjian taught Zhu Ciran how to reply to Meng Chengguang, and then he smiled and looked at Zhu Youxiao.

At this moment, Zhu Youxiao looked at Zhu Youjian laughing, and from time to time he also looked at the bustling dining table, very happy.

Seventeen years ago, a small table was enough for the two brothers to eat.

Seventeen years later, when the two brothers had a meal, they had to sit around 17 people. Perhaps the two brothers were the two brothers with the most heirs among the kings and brothers of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian didn't know what his brother was laughing at, but as the food was served, Zhu Youxiao also said in advance:
"Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival and a family banquet, so the imperial dining room has prepared twenty meals."

"You and my brother's family have more than [-] families, and [-] dishes are not too many."

When Zhu Youxiao said this, the meals were served one by one.

Stir-fried mutton, fried rotten goose, stir-fried pork with yellow vegetables, steamed pork trotter tripe, fresh shrimp with pepper and vinegar, roast goose, mutton head and hoof with fire, goose meat bacon, salty drum and mustard tripe plate...

The twelve meat dishes in a row made Zhu Youjian overwhelmed, and the five vegetarian dishes and three soup dishes that followed were also very luxurious.

Cook the tofu in the belly of the goose, and then take it out. Although it is tofu, it tastes like goose meat.

Zhu Youjian is not pedantic, he is aware of the changes in his brother, after all, Wang Kentang, Chen Shigong, and Wu Youke wrote to him all the year round, informing him of Zhu Youxiao's physical condition and diet.

After knowing that Zhu Youxiao is relatively "thrifty" on weekdays, he will naturally not be stubborn about this meal.

So at the dinner table, he talked about various things with Zhu Youxiao freely.

But after everyone had almost eaten, Zhu Youxiao also talked about his real thoughts.

"Well, brother... this is the autumn harvest soon, and after the autumn harvest, the money from the household and internal funds will also be handed over."

"It's difficult for me to rest assured that the repair of the Nanjing Imperial Palace is entrusted to others, so I plan to go to Nanjing by myself to supervise the work myself."

Zhu Youxiao finally said what he wanted to tell Zhu Youjian, and after he finished speaking, he felt very disturbed.

But an amazing scene appeared soon, because facing his thoughts, Zhu Youjian nodded with a smile: "Brother, as the emperor, it is not a problem to want to go to Nanjing."

"Ah?" It was not Zhu Youxiao who called out, but Zhu Ciran.

He looked at Zhu Youjian in disbelief, and in the next second he licked his face and approached, "Uncle Qi, I..."

"As for the crown prince, the selection of concubine is imminent, so stay in the capital and continue supervising the country. The younger brother will share some government affairs for him."

"The memorandum of the five armies' governor's mansion and the household department will be sent to Qi Wang's mansion in the future."

"However, now that the train has been connected, and the crown prince has only a half-knowledge about the affairs of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Rites, I would like to ask Brother Huang to continue to deal with the memorials of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Rites."

In a few words, Zhu Youjian allocated the memorials of the six ministries of the Ming Dynasty and the governor's mansion of the five armies.

The affairs of the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate were handled by Zhu Ciran.

The affairs of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Rites are handled by Zhu Youxiao.

As for the remaining five army governors' mansions and household departments, Zhu Youjian handled them.

Both military power and financial power are handled by Zhu Youjian. If this kind of matter is placed in another generation, Zhu Youjian may not be able to escape the title of a powerful minister, but it is not abrupt in the Tianqi Dynasty.

The affairs of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies and the Ministry of Household Affairs are the most important and the most. Zhu Youxiao and his son are uncertain about many things, so they still have to ask Zhu Youjian.

Instead of waiting for them to inquire, it would be better for Zhu Youjian to take care of the affairs of these two yamen consciously.

There are more than 500 memorials from these yamen, at least 300 of them are from the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, and the remaining [-] are from other yamen.

If it is really necessary to subdivide, Zhu Youjian contracted more than 200 copies of memorials by himself, Zhu Ciran contracted more than 200 copies by himself, and Zhu Youxiao contracted more than 100 copies.

If natural disasters and man-made disasters continue, it may be like in the seventh or eighth year of the apocalypse, the number of memorials will reach more than 700 copies, but even then, the three of them will not bear much.

Zhu Youjian himself is sure. For him, more than 200 memorials will only take him about two hours at most.

Compared with the six or seven hours he used to spend on government affairs, this is already very little work.

For Zhu Youxiao, after dealing with more than 500 memorials every day for more than half a year, he only needs to deal with more than 100 memorials, most of which are the Ministry of Industry that he is interested in, and he can solve all of them in two hours at most. Memorials.

But for the last Zhu Ciran, it seems that his workload has been reduced from more than 500 to more than 200, so he should be happy.

But the problem is, before June this year, these things had nothing to do with him at all!
He had to deal with more than 200 memorials for four hours.

In addition, his father can still go to Nanjing to deal with it, his uncle can still deal with it in Prince Qi's Mansion, and he...

For a while, Zhu Ciran felt very aggrieved, but since he was a junior, he could only endure it silently.

"It's not a big deal! As a father, it's only natural for me to share for Ran'er!"

Zhu Youxiao straightened his back, and those who didn't know thought he was too emperor.

"Ugh……"

Looking at the appearance of Zhu Youxiao's father and son, Zhu Youjian couldn't help but sighed in his heart, and at the same time couldn't help but feel that his eldest nephew was a little pitiful.

However, when he thought that his time for government affairs was only two hours, the so-called pitiful Zhu Ciran was immediately cast aside by him.

"Then it's settled."

Since he couldn't stay overnight, Zhu Youjian didn't plan to stay for a long time. Seeing that everyone had eaten enough, he immediately got up and bowed, and led his family away amidst the sound of "retirement".

"Brother, go slowly, I'll go play chess with my brother at Mao tomorrow!"

"Uncle Qi, walk slowly..."

Zhu Youxiao smiled heartily, and even Zhu Cixuan and others also smiled and bowed to say goodbye.

In such a scene, everyone was smiling, only Zhu Ciran looked at Zhu Cixuan and Zhu Cijiong with a wicked face...

"On the [-]th night of the eighth month of the previous year, by the apricot garden by the Qujiang pool."

"On the [-]th night of August this year, in front of Shatou Water Museum in Penpu."

"Where is the hometown in the northwest, and the moon is round in the southeast."

"Yesterday, when the wind blew, no one would come, but tonight is as clear as in previous years..."

Not long after Zhu Youjian and the others walked out of the palace, when a moon shadow appeared in the sky, in a small courtyard in the outskirts of Taihe County, Dali Mansion thousands of miles away, an old man with black hair was toasting to Cangshan Mountain. Drink and sing poetry.

In Taihe County, Yang Lian was the only one who could be connected with the Zhu brothers.

Holding his wine glass, he looked at the bright moon in the sky, and his surroundings changed drastically.

The once low earthen walls have been replaced by local Bai people's stone walls. This kind of wall does not use any glue, it is purely pieced together, but it is extremely strong.

Inside the stone wall, the former three huts have become nine rooms with three entrances and three exits, and Yang Lian is in the backyard, with the woodshed and the cowshed on the left and right sides.

Inside the cowshed, four old oxen and a stubborn donkey were mooing.

Yang Lian looked at the bright moon, his face was a little drunk, but he was full of smiles, never felt so happy.

He was singing Han Fu and Tang poetry. After a while, a well-proportioned man in his thirties came into the backyard with a plate, and he put the plate on the stone table that Yang Lian was leaning against.

Yang Lian looked, and there was a big mooncake in the plate.

"Father, mother asked you to cut moon cakes and eat them together with the family."

"Okay..." Yang Lian smiled like an old urchin, picked up the knife next to him, and cut the mooncake into six pieces.

Just as he was about to cut the knife, the man stopped him: "Father, elder brother has gone to the capital to become an official, and there are only seven people in the family."

"Hmm..." After being reminded, Yang Lian remembered his eldest son who was unwilling to live in peace and pursued fame and fortune.

"Ugh……"

For some reason, he sighed, but soon, when he looked around the house, he felt really happy again.

These things are his greatest wealth, although they are not as grand as the old house in Yang Lian's hometown, but Yang Lian is proud of it.

The old house in his hometown was earned by his ancestors, but the house here was earned by him with his own hands.

Five years ago, when a large number of people in Yunnan moved to Jiaozhi and Luchuan, the imperial court began to encourage the affected people in Huguang and Jiangxi to move to Yunnan.

Due to missing, Yang's family moved to Taihe County, Dali Prefecture.

The husband and wife have not seen each other for many years, so Yang Lian is naturally happy, but he is even more happy that, except for the eldest son, the other four members of the family have come to Yunnan.

After they arrived, the local government gave them four cattle and a donkey. Under the leadership of Yang Lian, who was already familiar with farming, the Yang family children took root in Dali step by step.

Three years ago, after Yuan Keli came to power, he abolished the exile of former Donglin party members by the imperial court.

After learning about the situation, many Donglin party members in Dali sold the fields they cultivated one after another, and returned home in a hurry with money.

But Yang Lian was different. He stayed in Dali with a small group of Donglin Party members, enjoying the romance here.

They teach Chinese culture in government schools, not because of the few taels of salary, but because they are too old to do farm work, but they don't want to be idle, so they continue to shine in the local area.

In three years, Yang Lian successfully became the head of the official academy in Taihe County, Dali Prefecture. At that time, he was happier than when he was elected.

After becoming the principal, Yang Lian tried his best to invite some learned people from Donglin to come to Dali, but many of them did not reply.

Obviously, in the eyes of many Donglin Party officials, Dali is a remote village, and it is naturally impossible for them to come here to teach and educate people.

Not only old friends, but Yang Zhiyi, the eldest son of Yang Lian, did not want to come to Dali to be an official. Instead, he continued to stay in the capital, using his father's connections to work in the Ministry of Rites, while rejecting his father's various ideas.

After a long time, Yang Lian also understood.

People are all for profit. He Yang Lian used to be the late emperor's Tuogu minister, and everyone sought after him, but now he is just an official college official in "poor mountains and evil waters", so naturally no one pays attention to him.

Fortunately, Yang Lian was only fortunate that Zhu Youjian had never forgotten him, and would still send him a few bottles of royal wine and tribute tea every year to satisfy his hunger.

In his spare time, his good friend Zuo Guangdou also wrote a letter of condolences to him, and Yang Lian didn't have too many regrets.

He can't make Daming better, but someone can.

After coming to Yunnan for so many years, he has seen with his own eyes the prosperity of Dali, a place with a small population and few Han people, where he still needs to learn Yi and Bai dialects, and can only eat boiled cabbage and brown rice for three meals a day. .

A large number of Yi people were relocated to Luchuan, and their departure gave Taihe County a lot of land.

According to King Qi's decree, the government distributed land to the people, and even Yang Lian's family was allocated 36 mu of land according to the head.

Counting their family's land reclamation over the years, their family of six has a total of 92 mu of land. In addition to the grain they eat, they can also sell grain for 27 to [-] shi every year, in exchange for [-] taels of silver.

With these money, plus the side jobs of the five father and son in the family, it is not difficult to make an annual income of one hundred taels.

Yang Lian himself serves as the director of the hospital, with a salary of 15 taels per year.

The second son Yang Zhiyan served as an official school teacher, the third son Yang Zhifu ran a teahouse, the fourth son Yang Zhicai cultivated and arranged flowers, and the fifth son Yang Zhihuan served as the county magistrate in Taihe County.

Except for the eldest son who did not listen to Yang Lian and returned to Dali, the other four children were very obedient and lived in Dali, the place that gave their father a second life.

In Yang Lian's situation, to be honest, if he really wanted to, he could even develop the Yang family into the No. [-] family in Dali, but he didn't.

His previous dream was nothing more than to help Daming and bring Daming back to the situation he had in Wanli Xinfeng ten years ago.

Now his dream has been fulfilled for him, and he has realized that he has no political talent.

He is an idealist living in a dream, and Zhu Youjian is a pragmatist living in reality.

As for how to govern the country, Zhu Youjian taught Yang Lian a lesson in 17 years.

Yang Lian understood, and he no longer pursued returning to the court.

What he thinks now is that he doesn't know what that short little doll looks like now.

He glanced at the "Da Ming Pao" next to him, which recorded that Zhu Youjian completed the last stop of his western tour in Taiyuan City.

Regarding the situation of this journey to the west, he will write a more detailed series of travel notes to unveil in the next issue, and Yang Lian is also looking forward to it.

"In my lifetime, I don't know if I will be able to see you again..."

Looking up at the white full moon, Yang Lian seemed to see the ten-year-old Zhu Youjian in that full moon.

He unconsciously stretched out his hand to touch it, but in the next second, he heard a "bang", rounds of fireworks bloomed in the air, and scattered Zhu Youjian in Yang Lian's memory.

"Hahahahahahaha..."

The memory was washed away, Yang Lian was not angry, but laughed heartily.

What he laughed at was not that he was still reminiscing, but the lives of the common people.

The rounds of continuous blooming fireworks came from outside the village, and also from Taihe County in the distance.

The number of fireworks shows the living conditions of the people in Dali.

Facing Cangshan Mountain, with the full moon and fireworks overhead, Yang Lian gradually became drunk after drinking a few glasses of royal wine.

In his drunken dream, he seemed to have returned to the capital, looking for something in the dimly lit crowd, and finally fell asleep with a smile on the corner of his mouth...

"Bam—"

"Okay!"

The same fireworks, the same bloom, the difference is that this round of fireworks came from Qi Wangfu, and Zhu Youjian, who was in the study, also heard the children's laughter.

He lowered his head to record the content of the travel notes, he couldn't help but raised his head with a smile, and looked at the rounds of fireworks outside the window.

On this day, Zhu Ciran canceled the curfew in the capital. This kind of thing was impossible when Zhu Youjian was in power, but Zhu Ciran was in charge of the country, so if he wanted to cancel the curfew, he had to cancel it.

In order to have no curfew on the day of Mid-Autumn Festival, many people started preparing early, so the continuous stream of fireworks was resounding over the capital.

Although this move made the Bing Ma Si and the Yamen servants a little busy, everyone was smiling while being busy.

The same is true for Zhu Youjian. The travel notes in front of him have already written about his experience after entering Shanxi.

He walked past where Zhu Ciran walked, but from the opposite direction.

A year and a half is enough time for many things to happen and to change many people or things.

Zhu Ciran experienced seven counties, twelve market towns, and thirty-one villages in Shanxi.

However, when Zhu Youjian walked in the opposite direction according to his footsteps, there were three market towns and twelve villages that were empty.

They couldn't bear the drought, and finally chose to leave their hometown.

The scene of people going to the collapsed house lingered in Zhu Youjian's mind. While he was depressed, he was also a little happy.

The people left, at least it can mean that they no longer have to endure the drought, and they can go to live a better life outside the pass.

Although it is painful to leave one's hometown, the temporary pain is much better than starving to death in one's hometown.

This is the first thing in Shanxi that makes Zhu Youjian happy, and the second thing is the remaining villages and villagers.

Due to the relocation of many villages, and the melting of snow in winter into the reservoir, the villages sharing the same reservoir can get more water after the water for those villages is gone.

This kind of situation is not only reflected in the appearance of people, but also in people's lives.

The paddy fields downstream were abandoned, but the dry land upstream became irrigated fields.

The lives of the common people are much better than when Zhu Ciran visited.

These situations have made Zhu Youjian happy for a long time. Even though the people in Shanxi can't live a comfortable life like the people in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangdong, at least they can eat enough, and they are no longer full like Zhu Ciran's visit. Eat a meal.

Zhu Youjian recorded all these in his travel notes, and made a summary of the travel notes.

The first is that local officials do not care about immigrants, the second is the reason why the people are afraid of migration, and the last is the mistrust caused by the long-term oppression of the people by the imperial court.

These various problems were written by Zhu Youjian, and he wrote out the solutions one by one.

This article was completed by Zhu Youjian in the middle of the night. The whole article includes the people's livelihood and officialdom in Hetao, Hexi, Shaanxi, and Shanxi.

Although Zhu Youjian had already condensed and then condensed again, the whole book was written from the day before yesterday, and it took three days to write it, and finally reached more than 6000 words.

"Such an article, I am afraid that the "Da Ming Pao" will be divided into four periodicals and published."

Zhu Youjian moved his stiff neck and shoulders, and smiled, but when he looked up, Lu Yuangao had already fallen asleep sitting on the desk next to him.

"This child..." Zhu Youjian smiled knowingly, got up and put the big fur on his body on Lu Yuangao.

He couldn't deny that Lu Yuangao had used his father Lu Wenzhao's resources to pave the way for himself, but this kind of thing is very normal in this era.

Zhu Youjian didn't blame Lu Yuangao, besides, Lu Yuangao also learned a lot along the way.

He cannot use his own standards to ask anyone in this era, because people in this era have not enjoyed what he enjoys.

He has enjoyed the technology of later generations, and he has also enjoyed the power and beauties of this era.

For Zhu Youjian, the material needs have already been met, and the rest are only spiritual needs.

This demand is probably to make up for some regrets from previous lives.

He thought to himself while walking to the window.

Looking at the fireworks blooming in the sky, Zhu Youjian smiled happily...

　Tomorrow it will be updated at [-]:[-] and [-]:[-] pm

　　
　
(End of this chapter)