Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 665 Extra Story (Thirteen) The Common People's Health
"Boom rumble rumble..."

"Be careful of the little rocks in the ground!"

"I know!"

February [-]th is the day of spring plowing, and the sound of tractors has been ringing continuously for half a century.

However, the only people who can operate tractors are the people of Ming Dynasty who are known as "jade people".

If it is to be subdivided, it should be said that only Daming, the suzerain state, and Qi state, the foreign minister, can use tractors.

However, after more than ten years of transformation, the boxy tractor, which weighed one ton back then, has roughly changed its appearance now.

On a farmland more than [-] miles north of Xijing City, a crawler tractor that looks like a small locomotive is moving slowly in the field.

Around this ten-acre field, officials and common people from the inner three floors and the outer three floors were surrounded.

The reason why they care so much about this tractor is because this tractor is the first tractor that can move by itself under the vassal system of the Ming Dynasty.

But besides the tractor, what they care more about is...

"The Xuanyuan tractor is powered by a high-pressure steam engine. Each time it is used, one hundred catties of coal and two hundred catties of water are added. The total weight is two tons and six."

"The tractor can cultivate about [-] mu of land with one refill of fuel. If it is used for reclamation, it is estimated that about [-] mu of cultivated land can be reclaimed in a place with a climate like Xijing City throughout the year."

"It's just that the cost is a bit more expensive, 250 six taels of money..."

On the edge of the farmland, Minister Xu Shihou of the Qi Academy of Sciences was reporting the situation to a man in the prince's uniform.

While he was reporting, thousands of people around him were all staring at the man he was reporting.

The person who can win the favor of the people is undoubtedly the current king of Qi...

Zhu Youjian, the once high-spirited His Royal Highness King Qi, is now nearly fifty years old.

The years have left too many traces on his face, no matter how the imperial doctors of the Taiyuan Hospital try to recuperate, Zhu Youjian will at most make Zhu Youjian look like he is in his early forties.

Standing behind him, Zhu Cihong, Zhu Cixuan, and Zhu Cijiong looked at his back, with mixed feelings in their hearts.

The father who used to be tall and unattainable to them was also old, and they couldn't tell what it was like in their hearts, they just felt a little uncomfortable.

"It's okay to be more expensive, and it's not the time for it to appear. You can continue to research and reduce the weight and cost."

Zhu Youjian looked up at the crawler tractor working in the field, and at the same time handed the information in his hand to Xu Shihou next to him.

"Send the blueprint and the No. [-] model to the Armament Academy of the Kingdom, and the two parties will work together to study it."

Zhu Youjian still did what he used to do in the past ten years, sending the latest scientific and technological achievements of Qi to Daming, without hiding anything from Daming.

Standing beside him, Xia Yunyi bowed in response, and Xia Wanchun who was beside him also picked up his notebook and asked people to go down to make arrangements.

"I went to Zhongdu City to have a look. Although the local people live well, the land there is very tight. Stop the population migration work in Zhongdu Prefecture first, and don't put pressure on the local officials."

Zhu Youjian turned and walked towards the village not far away, and the people and officials followed him.

The three of Zhu Cihong followed closely behind, looking at his back with eyes like looking at five mountains.

Although Qi State is vast and sparsely populated, infrastructure construction is not slow. Most villages with Han people have built cement roads.

Walking on the concrete road, Zhu Youjian's eyes were all around, and also on the people on both sides of the road.

He took a glance, and the people were almost all wearing cotton cloth produced by the factory, and a few even wore silk to welcome him.

Most of them are stout in shape, and some of them will be a little thinner when they are older.

Such a situation made Zhu Youjian's eyes flash with satisfaction. At least the phenomenon that the people in Shanxi could not wear clothes did not appear in Qi State, but he still felt that it was not enough.

The king of Qi went on tour, such things have often happened in the Qi country in the past ten years, and some rules have naturally formed in the long run.

Since Zhu Youjian went to some villages randomly for spot checks from time to time, in the daily life of all village officials, it became one of their jobs to train the people not to "siege and intercept".

Although this greatly reduced the chaos caused by Zhu Youjian's appearance in the countryside and the excitement of the people, it made Zhu Youjian always feel that something was missing, but it didn't have the feeling of Qinghai Lake back then.

Zhu Youjian led the team forward, and the people followed him, but they tried not to make too many noises.

At the end of the road is a village. The houses in the village were built by the Ministry of Industry many years ago, basically in the style of small courtyards in the south of the Yangtze River.

It's just that no matter how clean and tidy these yards were when they were delivered, after so many years, what should be messy is also messy.

The yards on the street were all open, Zhu Youjian went to a house and walked in, and Zhu Cihong and the others did the same.

The courtyard is mainly composed of the main house in the middle and the four side rooms at the front and back, plus thatched huts, pig pens, cow and horse sheds and chicken coops.

There are four side rooms, each with two bedrooms on the left and right. Counting the two rooms in the main house, there are ten rooms in total.

Zhu Youjian didn't go to the common people's room, but looked in the kitchen and firewood room.

Xia Yunyi asked someone to call the owner of the house, a forty-year-old simple man in a cotton padded coat, top and bottom trousers, walked into the kitchen with sweat on his head.

Zhu Youjian opened the rice vat, and there was probably less than a hundred catties of rice in the three-foot-high rice vat.

The rice in the jar was five inches deep. Zhu Youjian turned over the rice with a gourd ladle. After finding nothing tricky, he looked at the simple man and said with a smile:

"There are so many people in the family, is this rice enough?"

"Enough enough! Next to the kitchen...the firewood, the firewood room, and the three big vats of rice that haven't molted, all of which have been eaten for two years..."

The man was a little nervous when he spoke, and mistook the firewood room for the kitchen, but it seemed more real.

Zhu Youjian smiled, chatted with him about family affairs, and looked at the other jars of sauce, vinegar, salt and tea. Most of them were half used, or just opened, and used for a few days.

Not far from the stove, a firewood pile seven feet high and covering an area of ​​three to four square meters attracted Zhu Youjian's attention.

He walked over to look at the firewood pile, and then at the dozens of briquettes next to the firewood pile, and couldn't help asking:
"When will so much firewood be used?"

"It will be used up in about seven or eight months." The man replied nervously, his forehead was covered with sweat.

Zhu Youjian smiled, picked up a piece of clean linen hanging on the door and handed it to him, motioning him to wipe off his sweat and take it easy.

"The firewood is finished, should I buy it or cut it?"

"There are not so many big forests nearby, so I can only buy them, but now the wood merchants only sell sawed trees."

"A two-foot tree stomps three cents a penny, can split 12 yuan of large firewood, and 18 yuan of small firewood, which is enough to burn for a day."

The man explained their life to Zhu Youjian, Zhu Youjian nodded after listening, and the three of Zhu Cihong who stood by the door and listened became more knowledgeable.

In Daming, firewood is more expensive than coal. The price of coal is three catties per penny, and a hundred catties of river firewood costs about fifty pennies, so coal is usually bought.

In the man's words, fifty Wen is enough to buy 150 tree stamps, and each stamp is basically about twenty or thirty catties.

If this is the case, it is cheaper and more affordable for the peasants in Qi to use firewood.

Not only that, Zhu Youjian discussed with the man about the price and convenience of purchasing chai, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar tea under the watchful eyes of Zhu Cihong and others.

The price of these materials needed for life is often only about one-third of that of Ming Dynasty.

From this point of view, although the income of the people in Qi State is not as good as that of Daming, their life is more comfortable than that of Daming.

"Go, go to the warehouse and have a look."

After Zhu You checked the kitchen, he took people to the warehouse next to the kitchen.

The warehouse is only about ten square meters, and there are three large vats four feet high and three feet wide inside, and the vats are full of untreated millet.

Next to the grain tank, there is a wall full of feed, soil and chemical fertilizers. It seems that there are forty or fifty bags.

Zhu Youjian glanced at it for a while, walked around a bit, then nodded with a smile and went to the courtyard behind.

In the compound yard, under the cowshed, there was a draft horse and a mule.

Next to it is a chicken and duck coop that is knocked out of wood, six feet high, five feet wide, and one and a half feet deep.

There are about a dozen chickens and ducks in the chicken and duck house, chattering non-stop.

Apart from the cow stables and chicken coops, he also went to see the pigsty in the yard, where there were seven pigs, two big and five small.

It can be said that in terms of the value of the livestock and poultry in the courtyard, the family's standard of living has caught up with some rich peasants in the 90s and [-]s.

"How many people are in the family, how many acres of land are divided, how is life going?"

When Zhu Cihong was looking at the miscellaneous courtyard in Zhu Youjian, he smiled and asked the nervous head of the household beside him. The man didn't know Zhu Cihong's identity, and only regarded him as an accompanying official, so the pressure couldn't help being less, so he bowed and replied:
"There are two parents, two husbands and wives, and three children. There are seven people in total. During the nine years since the migration, the land has been divided nine times. The household has 45 acres of land."

"The days are good, there is enough to eat every day, and there is no shortage of vegetables, fruits and meat. After the spring planting and autumn harvest, Jiannei will buy a suit of clothes for everyone."

The man who was the head of the household told about the situation at home, which made Zhu Cihong speechless.

In Fangzhang County, where the land is vast and sparsely populated, the common people only have four acres of land per person.

Judging from his experience as the abbot magistrate, the difference between one mu more and one mu less is a world of difference, let alone two or three mu more.

It makes sense for the people of Qi to live well. They caught up with Qi's industrial revolution, and they came directly between the first and second industrial revolutions.

Coupled with Qi's vast territory and countless areas that can be developed, it is more difficult not to be rich.

"Let's go, let's go to the homes of other people."

Zhu Youjian, who had seen enough, interrupted Zhu Cihong's speechless, and took Zhu Cihong and the others from house to house to see the lives of the people.

Walking down one by one, in fact, life in every family is similar.

With the continuous population and industrial blood transfusions of Qi State in the Ming Dynasty, coupled with the demographic dividend of nearly 2000 million natives in Qi State, it is difficult for more than 700 million citizens to think about it.

After Zhu Youjian finished watching, he took Zhu Cihong and the three of them, the people in the village, and the village officials to hold a meeting in the drying yard next to the village official's office.

Zhu Cihong watched his father mingle with the common people, chatting about his family's troubles, and at the same time reminding the common people to supervise the officials, he was a little confused for a while.

Zhu Cihong didn't feel it when he was young, but as he got older, he only felt that his father was really great.

He could obviously be emperor, but he didn't.

He could obviously enjoy himself after coming to Qi, but he didn't.

On the way to Qi State, when he heard Xia Yunyi say that his father even took care of the affairs of every county, he thought that his father would restrict the power of officials in Qi State.

He didn't find out until he came to Qi State and dealt with government affairs with his father for a few days.

Rather than saying that my father is restricting local officials, it is better to say that he is supervising local officials.

For the memorials of local officials, my father first approved them, and then put forward his own opinions, which gave the local officials enough respect.

Except for some local memorials that don't treat the people as human beings and like to engage in various projects, they will be scolded by my father for a while, but my father seems to respect all local officials.

This kind of negotiation method is very difficult to appear in the Ming Dynasty.

Whether it's my royal uncle or my big brother who supervises the country, they all followed their own ideas and political opinions, and firmly grasped the power in their hands.

Such a difference made Zhu Cihong feel very unreal.

When Zhu Youjian was having a meeting with the common people, Zhu Cihong frowned, trying to put himself in the position of his own father.

But after doing so, he discovered that power is really scary sometimes.

He has no way to guarantee that he can be like his father and respect the officials below him for a long time, and it is even more difficult to imagine that he has to explain and discuss with officials who disagree with his policies.

He almost frowned and listened to the whole process of the meeting. It wasn't until Zhu Youjian got up that he was brought back to reality, and he returned to the carriage on the country road surrounded by the people.

The four-wheeled carriage with four large draw horses is very large enough to accommodate a dozen people.

But apart from Zhu Youjian, only the king of the three counties, Xia Yunyi, and Xia Wanchun were able to board the car.

The six got into the carriage, and Zhu Youjian sat in the main seat.

"Looking at it these days, what do you think?"

As soon as Zhu Youjian sat down, he asked the king of the three counties who had just sat down, just because he was paying attention to his three children almost the whole time.

The three of them almost frowned and listened to the entire meeting process. Facing Zhu Youjian's inquiry, Zhu Cixun and Zhu Cijiong were a little embarrassed, and they didn't know how to say it.

On the contrary, when Zhu Cihong heard the question, he pondered for a moment and then said:

"The government and the people of this country are harmonious. Although there are occasional frictions, the people generally trust the court."

"As for the officials, I feel that the officials in this country are younger than those in the imperial court, and they are more able and courageous to do things."

"Those are the strengths that need to be maintained."

Zhu Cihong expressed his thoughts on inspecting the villages and towns around Xijing City in the past few days, and Zhu Cixuan and Zhu Cijiong also nodded in agreement.

Looking at their appearance, Zhu Youjian was a little satisfied and a little dissatisfied.

"I know about Daming's situation. I can't say Brother Ran is wrong, and I can't say he's right, but he's always a little harsh on officials."

"Harsh?" Zhu Cihong couldn't hold back when he heard his father finally say this.

Zhu Youjian has been away for 16 years, and Daming has already demonized him.

In folk opinion, even Zhu Yuanzhang standing next to Zhu Youjian can be called a white lotus.

The officials and their families who died directly and indirectly at the hands of Zhu Youjian amounted to no less than a million.

Among them, the most conspicuous one is Dongshan Mansion (New Guinea Island), where Zhu Youjian often liked to exile officials when he was in power.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Household Affairs, Zhu Youjian exiled a total of 37 people to Dongshan Mansion.

By the 30th year of Tianqi, that is, seven years after Zhu Youjian had left Daming, the population of Dongshan Prefecture was only 17.

Nearly 20 people died there, and this is just a microcosm.

Zhu Youjian, who has such "results", said that Zhu Ciran was "harsh", which makes people in a trance.

"Corrupt officials should be severely punished, but for officials who have no serious problems, what should be done is to give them enough courage to do things."

Zhu Youjian spoke, and mentioned the shortcomings of Zhu Ciran's nearly 20 years in power:
"Brother Ran asked all the officials to act according to their own ideas, and did not reply to the questions raised by the officials."

"Maybe he is busy, or maybe he doesn't feel the need to reply, but this situation is not a good thing after all."

Zhu Youjian picked up a copy of Jinyiwei's memorabilia from the table and motioned:

"News came from Jinyiwei. During the first month of the lunar year, Jinyiwei, the Ministry of Criminal Justice, and the Third Division of the Metropolitan Procuratorate took action. No fewer than [-] officials and merchants were arrested in Jiangnan and Qilu."

"Based on Brother Ran's habits, he is most likely planning to implicate this group of people and their three, six, and nine tribes, and then dispatch them to the Ganges province."

"Looking at the scale of 20 people who are the main culprits alone, the number of people implicated this time may not be less than [-]."

"If he does this, what will the temple officials think of him? What about merchants?"

Zhu Youjian was talking, but Zhu Cijiong said bluntly: "But didn't my father do the same back then?"

As soon as Zhu Cijiong said these words, Xia Yunyi and Xia Wanchun who were sitting next to him felt a thump in their hearts.

However, facing Zhu Cijiong's words, Zhu Youjian smiled and lowered his head to pour himself a cup of tea, and at the same time responded:

"It was different then than it is now."

"When the Jiangnan slaves changed, almost all the people in the south of the Yangtze River hated the local gentry and powerful, so forcing them to relocate is what the people like to see."

"But this time..." Zhu Youjian took a sip of tea:

"Most of the current merchants are rich peasants who turned to merchants back then, and the environment in the south of the Yangtze River is not as bad as it used to be. The common people don't have much hatred for these rich merchants."

"Under such circumstances, involving more than 50 people, the public opinion may not be so good."

Zhu Youjian explained, and at the same time let Zhu Cihong and the three of them understand a little bit why Zhu Youjian dared to attack Jiangnan back then.

Generally speaking, in Jiangnan back then, the powerful gentry and merchants jointly oppressed the common people, and often exploited the servants in the mansion.

But now, under the general environment, the people's lives are good, and the merchants are doing business according to the rules. There is no such thing as price gouging.

Under such a situation, if Zhu Ciran wanted to deal with merchants, he would have to withstand the pressure of public opinion.

"You can pay close attention to it and learn how Uncle Huang and Brother Ran deal with it."

Zhu Youjian said with a smile at the same time:

"I'm getting old too. The affairs of Qi State require the concerted efforts of the three of you."

"From tomorrow, brother Xuan will go to work in the Ministry of Industry, and brother Jiong will work in the Ministry of Officials. Brother Hong, you can handle government affairs in the Chengyun Hall."

Zhu Youjian delegated power to his three sons, but still ensured that Zhu Cihong's power was the greatest among them.

"My son takes orders..."

The third son bowed in response, feeling a little apprehensive, but also a little excited.

The father and son were quite satisfied, not to mention Xia Yunyi and Xia Wanchun next to them.

Knowing that Zhu Youjian was going to delegate power to the three county kings, their father and son were overjoyed.

No one knows Zhu Youjian's current physical condition better than the two of them. His body has been operating at full capacity for many years. If this continues, one day he will suddenly be unable to withstand it.

Now that the three county kings are back, Zhu Youjian can have a little more time to rest.

Thinking of this, Xia Yunyi and Xia Wanchun looked at each other, and both smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.

(End of this chapter)