Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 591
"Into your mother's mouth! Thieves, there will be no rain or snow for three months, so I want to die of drought in the coming year, right?"

Time flies, and with Zhang Xianzhong's scolding, Tianqi's 19-year footsteps have come to the middle of the twelfth lunar month.

Standing on the north bank of the Yellow River in Lanzhou, Hexi, Zhang Xianzhong cursed at the sky.

There is a reason why he yelled loudly. Because Anxi and Beiting provinces were taken, Cao Bianjiao was appointed as the general army of Anxi, and after Cao Meng was appointed as the general army of Beiting, the general soldiers of all regions were mobilized.

Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, and Li Guo were originally the commanders-in-chief of the three provinces, but because the Dudufu wanted to train the young and strong faction, and the inland was worry-free, the Ming battle line extended westward to Central Asia, so all three of them were appointed to stay in Anxi, north court.

In terms of military affairs, Mangui set up four important places in Anxi and sparsely controlled the court.

These four places are Shule (Kashgar), Suiye, Anxi (Ili), and Luntai (Urumqi).

Li Zi became the commander-in-chief of Shule, Li Dingguo the commander-in-chief of Suiye, Zhu Fuju the commander-in-chief of Anxi, and Li Guo the commander-in-chief of Luntai.

These four places defend the Wakhan Corridor, guard the Ili River Valley, and serve as four important places for Anxi, Beiting and inland transit. They are also known as the Four Towns of Anxi in the Apocalypse Dynasty.

The soldiers and horses of the four towns have been adjusted, with two battalions in Suiye, three battalions in Shule, three battalions in Anxi, and two battalions in Luntai, with a total of ten battalions with 3 people.

As for Beiting, Mangui transferred Liu Zongmin to garrison Xuanchi City, and also transferred Luo Rucai and some generals of the new generation from the interior to station in the four towns of Damo, Jinshan, and Tingzhou. people.

The total of Anxi and Beiting is 4000 battalions, occupying nearly one-half of the military strength of the Northern Army Governor's Mansion, with [-] troops.

According to the previous productivity, if the Western Regions wants to feed these 4000 people, it needs at least 30 people and 100 million mu of arable land.

But now, only [-] people and [-] tractors are enough.

However, it is impossible for the Governor's Mansion to hold the military and political power of the two provinces in one hand, so in mid-October, two senior officials of the Yanshan faction, Zhang Maocai and He Changshou, were transferred to Anxi and Beiting to serve as chief envoys respectively.

As the two provinces with the greatest pressure on Ming's land defense in the future, they are destined to mobilize a large amount of Ming's resources.

As a result, many generals and officials in the Mainland were transferred to the two places.

Zhu Ciran is not as sophisticated as Zhu Youjian, but he has a thick skin.

He simply threw the second and third leaders of all parties to Anxi and Beiting.

The important ministers of various parties were thrown to the two provinces. The number of officials in the local yamen alone was as many as 3, while the immigrants from the two provinces were only [-]. It is not an exaggeration to say that they provide one-on-one services.

There are not a few officials in Beijing and China who go to school, but they are kept by Zhu Ciran.

At the end of the month, the officials of various parties resigned to their fate. Even though it had entered the winter month, they still organized many people to go to the local area, hoping to use these "merits" to exchange important officials back to the capital.

Of course, these are games between civil servants and Zhu Ciran, and have nothing to do with Zhang Xianzhong.

However, a large number of generals were transferred, and he, the commander-in-chief of the Kaiping Prefecture, was also transferred to Hexi, and was promoted to the commander-in-chief of Hexi by the way.

This should have been something to be happy about, but since he was transferred from Kaiping Prefecture to Hexi, the drought in Hexi has continued to expand.

There were still a few rains in June and July. After he took office, for three months, there was no rain in the three prefectures in the east of Hexi, which dried up the vegetable and wheat fields in Lanzhouying.

Zhang Xianzhong was busy building water conservancy projects and coordinating with the local government.

It was hard to get the water conservancy right, but when winter came, the drought became even worse.

Now it's not just the Lanzhou camp that is asking for help, Lintao Prefecture, Xining Prefecture, and Liangzhou Prefecture are also suffering from severe drought, and the military supply flags of the military camps in various places have not been produced at all.

As a last resort, Zhang Xianzhong could only lick his old face and write to Man Gui about the military situation. He made it clear that the soaring prices in Hexi Province could no longer satisfy the local military camps.

Fortunately, Man Gui was not unaware of world affairs, he did not criticize Zhang Xianzhong, but wrote back saying that he would go to the imperial court and ask the imperial court to send supplies to the battalions.

A severe drought caused Hexi Province, which had a little surplus, to save energy immediately. If there were no trains in Daming, the troops from the Western Expedition might have to withdraw.

Fortunately, the Jingjia Railway has been repaired, and the Anxi and Beiting railways have begun to be built. Materials from Sichuan, Yunnan, Jiaozhi, and Luchuan are continuously sent to Jiayuguan, and then transferred to the Western Regions.

As soon as Zhang Xianzhong took office, he wrote a letter to the boss of the Governor's Mansion to complain about his grievances, which seemed a little suspicious to outsiders.

It's just that Zhang Xianzhong is suffering. If there are more than 500 million people in Hexi, once there is a severe drought, the prices will soar so badly that they can't even support the local [-] soldiers and horses, let alone supply the Western Regions.

So standing by the Yellow River, he could only scold God.

Like him, there are also provincial generals from Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Beizhili, Huguang, and Nanzhili.

The severe drought is getting worse, anyone can see that...

"Since the beginning of autumn, Longxi has suffered heavy rain and hail. No fewer than 20 people have been affected by the disaster, and more than one million acres of land. Please forgive me."

"The five prefectures and two counties of Jiangbei in Nanzhili are suffering from drought and famine. Please waive the land tax for next year."

"It was the winter month of the year, and there was a severe drought in Beijing, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Hexi, and Shaanxi, and prices soared.

The drought at the end of Tianqi's 19th year was more severe than ever. Even when it was supposed to snow in Dongyue, the land of Yanzhao did not see heavy snow, only sporadic snowflakes falling.

As Zhu Ciran, who supervises the country, he has experienced some things that Zhu Youjian experienced at his age.

He could not help but feel a headache when he heard what Zhang Xiu read out one by one.

In contrast, Sun Chuanting sat aside calmly, thinking about countermeasures, and Du Yinxi did the same.

"Your Highness, this is a good thing..."

At this time when everyone was having a headache, Sun Kewang stood up and bowed:
"People in the northern provinces are unwilling to migrate to Anbeiting and the southern provinces of Luchuan, Jiaozhi, Nanzhou, and the northern customs."

"But the price of rice is soaring right now, and many people who can't survive can only choose to migrate."

"In my opinion, food prices should not be suppressed at the moment, but should be left alone. At the same time, I summoned the world to say that the population of the provinces outside the customs, the Western Regions, and the south has already been saturated, and the people in these provinces will have to migrate by June next year."

As soon as Sun Kewang's words came out, everyone couldn't help frowning.

Sun Chuanting hates this kind of topic that hurts the people the most, as do Zhu Ciran and Du Yinxi.

But without waiting for them to explode, Sun Kewang vaguely glanced at their expressions, and then continued:

"The servants of the five generations are white, and they know what the people think best."

"The more the imperial court wants them to go, the less they want to go. Instead, the imperial court refuses to let them go. Even when the imperial court starts to shrink their behavior, they will obediently follow the imperial court."

"Doing this seems to hurt the people..." Liu Shun, who was sitting next to him, couldn't help but speak out what everyone was thinking.

After all, they have experienced the 14 years when King Qi was in power, and when King Qi used politics, most of them were lenient to the common people and stricter than officials and gentry.

Now suddenly let the people do nothing, and make use of the drought and famine to make a fuss, it is unavoidable to make people feel disgusted.

But facing the thoughts of Liu Shun, Sun Chuanting and others, Sun Kewang moved them with his own experience.

He spread his hands and motioned everyone to look at his hands.

When everyone looked carefully, the hands were covered with calluses, and there were even some traces of frostbite that had healed for several years.

"Your Highness, the calluses and chilblains on my hands are all caused by Tianqi seven years ago."

Sun Kewang put away his hands, bowed again and said:

"At the beginning, His Royal Highness King Qi wanted to relocate millions of people in northern Shaanxi to Hetao, and how many people resisted one after another. Therefore, it can be seen that even if it is the edict of King Qi, the people may not necessarily obey it."

"The people are ignorant and ignorant, but they are also diligent and simple."

"They dare not go because they don't understand, and Chen's father is such a person."

"Even if His Royal Highness King Qi treated us like this to the people in northern Shaanxi, we had to wait until the severe drought in the seventh year of the apocalypse before embarking on the road of relocation."

"Until we arrived at Shuofang, my father was still saying that Hetao was poor, and he would return to northern Shaanxi after planting a few years of land when the drought was over."

"But when they all arrive at Hetao, after seeing the scenery and aquatic plants in Hetao, who else will clamor to return to northern Shaanxi?"

Sun Kewang talked about his own experience, and the people in his eyes, bowed and continued:

"In my opinion, the common people are unwilling to go to the Western Regions because of ignorance and ignorance."

"As long as there is land, cement, and people, in my opinion, any place is similar and can feed the people."

"If His Highness trusts you, you can send him to any province of Anxi or Beiting."

"I affirm that in only three years, I will be able to make Suiye Town self-sufficient!"

Sun Kewang's rhetoric made everyone silent. In Daming, it seemed that whoever dared to say that the people were stupid and ignorant would be sentenced to death for their basic political career.

Such a result did not make the officials respect the common people more. On the contrary, all the officials scolded in secret, doing one thing in person and another in the back.

On the contrary, although Sun Kewang scolded the people for being ignorant and ignorant, he dared to go to the Western Regions and accompany the people in the Western Regions to start from scratch, which made him better than many officials.

Sun Chuanting listened to Sun Kewang's words, from disgust at the beginning to approval, and finally to appreciation.

It can be said that from the perspective of Sun Kewang's governance philosophy alone, he still hopes to feed the people in essence.

His personality is flamboyant and ambitious, but that's not a problem.

Because he's flamboyant, ambitious, and very proud, he doesn't care what other people think of him.

Sophistication of the world, compromise... In Sun Kewang's view, all these were taking off his pants and farting.

As long as he can show his achievements as an official, no one can criticize him, except those who sit in the highest positions!

Thinking of this, he secretly glanced at Sun Chuanting and Zhu Ciran.

"You are still a junior official of the seventh rank. It is useless to go to Anxi. If you go out with the hat of the Eastern Palace, you may be bullied."

Zhu Ciran still had a good impression of Sun Kewang. After all, he was able to do things well, and he didn't have the "scrupulous attention" of most officials, which suited his appetite.

"After you finish your assessment this year, let's start with the county magistrate of Wanping County."

Zhu Ciran arranged for Sun Kewang to be the magistrate of Wanping County, and Wanping County is one of the two counties in Beijing.

His original intention was to let Sun Kewang hide his strength and bide his time as the magistrate of Qipin County, and be gilded with gold.

In the end, I never thought that just after he finished speaking, Sun Kewang bowed and shook his head and said:
"The next official still wants to go to Anxi, preferably a poorer place."

Sun Kewang knew in his heart that Zhu Ciran, like King Qi, paid attention to real achievements.

Therefore, if he went to a remote place, Zhu Ciran would not forget him, and his achievements could convince the officials in the court.

He has his own abacus, and facing his abacus, Zhu Ciran frowned slightly, and then sighed:

"Since you insist on asking, then you should go to Anxi Shanshan (Ruoqiang) first."

"Although it was relatively prosperous in the Han and Tang Dynasties, it was empty after the Northern Captives' Expedition to the West. A few days ago, [-] families of people just settled there. Whether it can develop or not depends on you."

Speaking of this, Zhu Ciran also said emphatically:
"Gu will not care too much about you, this is your own choice."

"Thank you, Your Highness..." Sun Kewang was very happy when he heard that he was assigned to Shanshan County.

He is well aware of the advantages and disadvantages of Shanshan County. There are few people and it is far from the main town of Anxi, but there are Qiemo River and many rivers flowing through it.

As long as he develops the local water conservancy well, it will not be a problem for Shanshan County to support [-] people.

So after thanking him, Sun Kewang bowed and withdrew from the Palace of Harmony.

But after he left, facing his previous proposal, Zhu Ciran thought of the Shanxi people he had seen.

Even in severe drought, they will only leave when they really have nothing to eat.

If the people's "bad roots" are really like this, then Sun Kewang's method is not impossible.

"Your Highness, Master Sun Bo's suggestion can be adopted, but you need to ask His Highness King Qi first."

Sun Chuanting spoke before Zhu Ciran spoke, obviously he knew that Zhu Ciran was moved.

In fact, not only Zhu Ciran, but also Sun Chuanting was moved.

After all, if there is sufficient money and food, then in the 14th year of the apocalypse, half of the people in the north would be moved out of the customs, and the drought in the north would not be a problem at all.

In the past so many years now, except for Shanshan, Shanhe, and Beizhili, the population of the other eight northern provinces is only more than [-] million.

Calculated, from the seventh year of the apocalypse to the present, it took only 12 years to migrate 900 million. In the final analysis, it was because Zhu Youjian loved the people too much at the beginning.

Later, he also realized this problem and made a "cruel heart", but compared with people of this era, his little change is not cruel at all.

At least he has to ensure that the people will not starve to death, and will stabilize food prices at critical moments.

But when it comes to Sun Kewang and Zhu Ciran, they just want to use hunger to drive people to the Western Regions and outside the pass.

Given Sun Chuanting's age, he is no longer the perfect person he was back then.

After so many years in Uzbekistan, he had long thought about why the severe drought brought down Daming.

In the final analysis, King Qi is still too kind.

If it were Emperor Taizu Gao, he would have tied people up and moved them to the local area by force.

Even if some escaped, even if three out of ten escaped, as long as enough people migrated, those who remained could consolidate Daming's rule in the area.

Zhu Ciran and Sun Kewang still learned the "voluntary" phenomenon that Zhu Youjian emphasized, and wanted to use hunger to force the people to "voluntarily" go there.

With this method, even if the people would still migrate back to their original places, it would not be as exaggerated as the 33% escape rate during the Hongwu period.

Therefore, Zhu Ciran quickly drew up a general direction, and then sent the memorial to the Qi Palace.

After Zhu Youjian opened and read the memorabilia to Prince Qi's mansion, he fell silent for the first time.

Zhu Ciran planned to abolish the policy of stabilizing food prices and congee farms, and set up porridge farms on the trains that moved to the Western Regions and the three provinces of Shanyu, Donghai, and Modong, and used one train as a kitchen for cooking porridge.

In other words, hungry people can only have porridge when they get on the train.

Under such a policy, it is not difficult for Zhu Youjian to imagine how high the price of food in the north will rise, and how many people will migrate because they cannot afford to eat.

But he couldn't help admitting that such a policy was much more effective than his migration policy.

Therefore, facing this memorial, Zhu Youjian raised his head and said to Liu Shun who sent the memorial:
"There is no big problem with the memorial, and it can be approved, but pay attention to the food and clothing of the people, and let the people who get on the bus have porridge as soon as possible, so as not to starve to death."

"In addition, enough trains should be prepared. The train speed can be slow, but there must be enough trains."

"Yes!" Liu Shun bowed in response, and then left the Chengyun Hall with the memorial.

Looking at his back, Zhu Youjian took a deep breath: "My nephew has done a lot better than me."

"Your Highness..." Wang Chengen next to him couldn't bear to hear the words:

"It's not that you can't do well, it's just that you are too kind to the people."

"The heart is kind..." Zhu Youjian chuckled, a little self-deprecating:
"It's useless to be kind, it can't solve the problem of people's food."

"I just hope that my wife's benevolence will not be recorded in the history books in the future." After finishing speaking, Zhu Youjian looked to the corner.

In that corner, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old official was recording Zhu Youjian's every word and deed.

The old living official has passed away, and his grandson has inherited his official position and work.

At his age, if nothing else happens, he will record Zhu Youjian's life.

Zhu Youjian's evaluation in later generations depends entirely on the pen in his hand.

Zhu Youjian leaned back on the chair, his mentality has stabilized, and there is not much to do now.

Now he just waited for Zhu Ciran to grow up, and when Qi State had millions of people, he could go to Qi State and become a vassal.

At that time, many things will no longer have anything to do with him.

He stroked the stubble on his chin, and realized that he would soon be 30 years old in this life.

Chongzhen hanged himself at the age of 34. I don't know how old Zhu Youjian will live.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian got up and prepared to go out for a walk, but at the same time, the imperial edict issued by Zhu Ciran shook the entire capital.

Seeing the imperial edict, all the officials and various yamen couldn't help admiring Zhu Ciran's determination.

At the same time, they also issued relevant policies and directives about their various ministries.

First of all, the Bingma Division of the Ministry of War began to post notices, telling that in June next year all migration channels to the provinces outside the customs and the Western Regions would be cut off, and the imperial court would no longer pay for the migration of the people out of its own pocket.

Followed by Huangdian, the relocation department also began to post.

After the publicity was completed, the Changping warehouse grain of the Ministry of Households began to stop releasing.

Thanks to trains, except for Fujian and Guangxi provinces without trains, the transmission of news was slow, and other provinces learned the content of the New Deal in less than ten days.

In just half a month, the population of the five provinces of Anxi, Beiting, Shanyu, Modong, and Donghai increased suddenly.

From more than 600 people a day at the beginning to more than 3000 people a day later, the number of migrants increased by five times.

Of course, two-thirds of the people migrated to Shanyu, Modong, Donghai and other provinces, and only one-third went to the Western Regions.

But even if it is one-third, that is more than 1000 people every day, or 3 people a month.

The effect of this month is better than the effect of the previous three months.

Not only that, as the Changping warehouse began to stop releasing grain, the price of grain in Nanzhili, Shandong, and Huguang began to rise.

The rise in food prices has forced many poor people living in cities to migrate, and the population of the five provinces has begun to increase further.

By the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the number of people migrating in one day even reached 400.

"As expected of my son!"

In front of the Fengtian Hall (Huangji Hall) in the Outer Court of the Nanjing Imperial Palace, when Zhu Youxiao smiled cheerfully, he was wearing coarse linen clothes for work, standing on the construction site of the Fengtian Temple, and holding a relocation secretary in his hand to send good news.

"Not bad, Brother Ran is finally somewhat similar to me."

Holding the memorial in his hand, Zhu Youxiao, who had darkened skin and lost a lot of weight, nodded in satisfaction.

To be honest, if Zhu Youxiao hadn't confirmed that he was his son during his son's act of supervising the country this year, he would have suspected that his son was actually his younger brother's son.

Now it seems that my son and I just have different ideas, and their personalities are relatively similar.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao gave the memorial to Wei Zhongxian next to him, and then glanced at the Fengtian Temple that was being built, and nodded with satisfaction:

"The relocation is a good job. Give some things to Donggong, and you can write a handwritten letter for me to praise this kid."

"Slave order..." Hearing Zhu Youxiao's words, Wei Zhongxian bowed in response, then raised his head and hesitated:
"Long live, although His Highness the Crown Prince's move is good, if Changping's granary is not distributed, then the gentry officials in the three southern provinces may be dissatisfied..."

"Dissatisfied?" Zhu Youxiao turned his head to look at Wei Zhongxian, and said with a chuckle, "I'm not as good as my brother, I admit it, but I'm still the emperor after all."

"They are in the south of the Yangtze River, and I am also here. If they are dissatisfied, they can send them all to me!"

"The matter of relocation cannot be changed. Anyone who violates or obstructs will be exiled to Lingbei Shepherd!"

Zhu Youxiao took out the airs of the emperor, which made Wei Zhongxian, who had a backbone, heaved a sigh of relief.

After bowing, he turned and left, ready to take care of this matter.

As for Zhu Youxiao, he led more than 300 craftsmen to build the Fengtian Temple in the Hongwu period little by little. It seems that he enjoyed it a lot...

(End of this chapter)