Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 683 Postscript ([-]) Yongchang New Deal

"Clang...clang..."

On October 19th, 65th year of Qiansheng, Zhu Ciran, the emperor of Qiansheng, who was called the hero of the generation, died in Qianqing Palace at the age of [-].

During his 19 years in power, although Daming experienced several major natural disasters, the overall situation of the ruling and opposition parties tended to be stable.

He also formulated many measures to protect workers. Although these measures often only existed on the surface and were not implemented in practice, this still made Daming the first country in the world to have labor legislation.

In the war, he sent troops to attack the Mughals three times and marched westward twice, which not only expanded the living space of the Han people, but also allowed Ming to obtain the Kunlun Canal (Suez Canal), one of the world's three major golden canals.

According to the research of later generations of scholars, during his 19 years in power, the per capita grain of Ming people increased from 820 catties to 240 catties, and the per capita amount of meat, eggs and milk increased from 24 catties to 35 catties.

In the random survey of thousands of people in Qi State, the height of children born in the first year of Qiansheng is generally one to two inches (30~3.2cm) taller than those born 6.4 years before Tianqi.

All these situations show that although the Emperor Qiansheng did not create an era like his uncle Zhu Youjian, he still pushed the Ming Dynasty to a new height.

Of course, all these are just the comments of later generations, and in this era, when the news of Emperor Gansheng's death spread, many people still felt a little sad, but their reactions can also show that in their hearts, Gan The Holy Emperor is inferior to Emperor Tianqi and King Qi Wen.

On October 19th, the 48th year of Qiansheng, the [-]-year-old prince Zhu Heyin became the emperor, and his reign name was Yongchang.

On the same day, Emperor Qiansheng was buried in the Qianling Mausoleum, with the temple name Taizong and the posthumous title of Emperor Xiaocheng. The full name is "Emperor Taizong Cheng of the Ming Dynasty".

I don't know how Zhu Di, who is buried in Changling in the distance, will feel when he sees Zhu Ciran's temple name.

On the 27th day of the winter month, all the vassals went to Beijing to express their condolences. By the [-]th of the twelfth lunar month, all the vassals came to Beijing, and Yongchang Emperor Zhu Heyin also held a meeting of all the vassals in the Taimiao like his grandfather and father.

At the court meeting, Zhu Heyin implicitly expressed Ming's liberalization of population migration policy.

However, this opening is not to be loosened at will, but to be loosened appropriately according to the domestic conditions of each country.

Even so, the princes, county kings and princes from various vassals who came to mourn the emperor were still very happy, and they also had a general understanding of the new emperor.

Compared with the two emperors Tianqi and Qiansheng who were somewhat petty towards the feudal vassals, the current Emperor Yongchang is undoubtedly more generous.

Although the vassals didn't know where Emperor Yongchang's confidence came from, they also knew that the emperor was unlikely to do anything stupid.

If he dares to relax the immigration policy, it is natural that he has a trump card that can sanction the various vassals.

Therefore, apart from being grateful, Zhu Fan couldn't help feeling a little fear and curiosity in his heart.

It's just that while they were curious, they had to leave Daming and return to their vassal state because of various domestic affairs.

On their way back, with the bells ringing to celebrate the new year, the word Qiansheng has completely become a thing of the past, and they ushered in the first year of Yongchang (1690), which represents the reign of Emperor Yongchang.

In the new year, at the Zhengdan court meeting, Emperor Yongchang Zhu Heyin issued his first will for the new year to the officials.

Considering the pressure from local universities, Zhu Heyin decided to set up a university in each division's administrative office, and add one in the two capitals.

Before that, the only places where Ming had universities were South, Beijing, and the eight provinces represented by Kunming, Guangzhou, Jiugang, Chengdu, Wuchang, Nanchang, Xi'an, and Shenyang.

After the decree was issued, more than 25 professors were assigned to ten universities that had existed for more than ten years, and they were sent to [-] provinces and divisions without universities.

As for the two new universities separated from the two capitals, they are called Peking University and Jinling University.

These two universities and the former ten universities are called the "Twelfth National Congress of Ming Dynasty", while the remaining 25 universities are called "Small Second Five".

Students graduating from Daming Middle School all aim to enroll in the "Twelfth National Congress", followed by the "Primary Second Five".

In April, the emperor made a new decree to exempt primary and secondary school textbook fees.

On the fifth day of May, the emperor communicated with the cabinet, the Sixth Ministry, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Fifth Military Commander's Office to propose solutions to the problems of "corruption", "equalization of land", and "three redundancy" that existed in the Ming Dynasty.

Although the Ming Dynasty at this time had undergone many years of strict crackdowns and crackdowns during the Tianqi and Qiansheng years, many officials were young and self-controlled, and they were inevitably greedy for power and position when they were old.

In addition, officials often form in-laws and work together, and the selection of talents is biased towards the children of their own families and in-law families. As a result, the administrative efficiency of the court is low, the bureaucracy is huge and bloated, officials at all levels lack initiative, and the problem of "redundancy" is very serious. protrude.

This is not only the case in temples and local yamen, but also many weak people in the army have been promoted to the positions of officers and generals.

In the Battle of North Kunlun, although the Ming army fought very well, it was because of their sharp weapons.

If you carefully observe the military newspapers, it is not difficult to see that the command of the grassroots generals of the Ming army is serious. This is also a question raised by Li Dingguo after the war.

It's just that Zhu Ciran was already seriously ill at that time, although he wanted to deal with it, his body didn't allow it anymore, so it dragged on until now.

In addition, from Apocalypse to Yongchang, although the economy and arable land area of ​​Ming Dynasty continued to grow, compared with the speed of land growth, the speed of corrupt officials corrupting Mo Juntian was faster.

It has been 14 years since the last inventory of Yintian. In the past 14 years, the amount of paper arable land in Daming has only increased by 3000 million mu, an average of less than [-] million mu per year.

On the other hand, from the 30th year of the Apocalypse to the seventh year of Qiansheng, the cultivated land of the Ming Dynasty increased by 3000 million mu, with an average of nearly [-] million mu per year.

You must know that the comprehensive promotion of tractors in Daming was not completed until the fifth year of Qiansheng. According to common sense, the amount of cultivated land should be more than before.

Such data makes people wonder what the people below are doing.

If the equalization of land is not in place, judging from the current rate of people having children, once the land as an asset is not enough to support a family, farmers will start to flee.

Once the peasants start fleeing, it means that class conflicts are difficult to ease, and what follows is a peasant uprising.

There are not few people who can perceive this phenomenon. As early as the 17th year of Qiansheng, Tian Wenjing, the magistrate of Sishui County, Fengyang Prefecture, Nanzhili Province at that time, once went to the Shu and said:

"The people of Fengyang have many children, and the average share of the land is very little. If the preparations are not made early, the matter will not be known!"

At the same time, Tian Wenjing also said in the memorandum: "Local officials do not change their ways, and the evils are getting worse, and the world's evils should be more serious."

This memorial was retained by Qiansheng Emperor Zhu Ciran. Although he did not deal with it, it also showed that Zhu Ciran had taken care of it.

Now, this memorial was brought out in the court meeting, obviously Zhu Heyin wanted to resolve all the contradictions.

In this regard, the three cabinet ministers Yan Yinshao, Sun Kewang, and Li Dingguo offered their own suggestions.

After thinking about their opinions, Zhu Heyin ordered him to draft the constitution, which will be implemented immediately.

On May 25th, the three major cabinet ministers put forward the method of in-depth inspection of the imperial store, factory, salt mine, wine and tea department, the assessment of military officers, the evaluation of officials, soldiers and horses, government servants, the local government system and the local government. Tian policy to check for gaps and fill in gaps.

On the 26th, Emperor Zhu approved and the cabinet implemented it.

On the second day of June, the cabinet appointed Tian Wenjing, the head of the household department, as the censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and led officials from the three divisions to govern the local area.

In the third day of junior high school, conservative officials joined forces with Shangshu to impeach the New Deal. Zhu Heyin was furious and expelled more than [-] officials who knelt at Qianqingmen from Beijing, and released Lingbei as officials.

Seeing the emperor's methods, some conservative officials began to sit on the fence and wait and see.

They stared at Tian Wenjing's actions, but if there was anything wrong with Tian Wenjing, they impeached him immediately, but the result was that the emperor refused to issue the impeachment memorial.

Seeing that the emperor supported him so much, Tian Wenjing also made a thorough investigation with full confidence.

In June alone, Tian Wenjing found out that there were 420 vacancies in the local Huangdian in Beizhili, and more than [-] taels of vacancies every year.

Such a result shocked the government and the public. It should be noted that this is only a phenomenon of a regional yamen, and there are 34 such regions in the Ming Dynasty.

If such results can be found in every region, then Tian Wenjing can save Daming several 10 taels in just one turn.

Knowing the situation, Zhu Heyin did not dare to relax, but sent Prince Zhu Yixuan and cabinet minister Li Dingguo to take charge of the assessment of the generals of the five armies, and gave Tian Wenjing a sword to replace the emperor Shou.

Tian Wenjing, who got help, did not sit idle, but quickly inspected the factories, salt mines, wine and tea offices in the Northern Zhili area.

In July, after a month of hard work by Tian Wenjing, 270 state-owned factories in the Northern Zhili area were found to have 720 vacancies and [-] taels of vacancies.

In August, Tian Wenjing passed the assessment in the local yamen in Beizhili, and cleared out more than 700 junior officials who were occupying positions and doing nothing.

September, October, winter months...

Tian Wenjing inspected a province at the speed of one season, from north to south, from outside the pass to inside the pass, and to the central south.

Seeing this, some imperial shops and factories hurriedly filled up the vacancy, and the officials of the younger generation also hurriedly learned after seeing this, so as to avoid this "Tian Hades".

It's just that their tricks can't hide from a person who really wants to investigate the case.

Every time Tian Wenjing went to a place, he would point out those who were related to officials and send people to check his news.

In this way, although it is a bit time-consuming and laborious, Tian Wenjing can tell the past experiences of these people one by one.

He was playing in the countryside when he was supposed to go to work. With these alone, Tian Wenjing was able to detain the official in charge, then questioned the factory workers, and then sent the official and the person who occupied the vacancy to the Ministry of Punishment.

Tian Wenjing's actions made Daming busy, and once Daming was busy, the feudal lords would soon benefit.

Since the beginning of the year, along with the loose policy of Ming Dynasty's relocation, people who want to relocate due to domestic pressure and rich external conditions have continued to relocate.

According to Wang Dang's memo at the end of the year, from the first day of the first lunar month to the first day of the twelfth lunar month of the same year, the Migration Department handled a total of 62 relocation cases and issued more than 180 million immigration iron cards.

According to Wang Dang's estimation, if this year passes, the number of people who immigrated overseas may be close to 200 million.

Among them, nearly a quarter flowed into the Qi State, and a quarter flowed into the relatively remote provinces and divisions of Daming, such as Kunlun, Hezhong, Taixi, Nanzhou and other places.

As for the remaining two quarters, they basically flowed into the feudal clans, with millions of people.

This population may not seem large, but it is enough to make the feudal clans happy for a long time.

It's just that while they are happy, some of the feudal clans are happy and some are sad.

Most of the people who migrated from the Ming Dynasty graduated from middle school and had certain skills. Naturally, the quality of such a population goes without saying.

Not only the Kunlun feudal clans who are short of people want it, but even the crowded Little Western feudal clans are also coveted.

After 20 years of development during the Qiansheng and Yongchang dynasties, the population of the more than 140 states in the Little Western Ocean is now 250 million, with more than [-] million natives and about [-] million mu of arable land.

It seems that the per capita is close to seven mu, which is very rich.

However, not every country in this era can use a large amount of various chemical fertilizers to increase production like Daming and Qi.

Since Sidang, India introduced Japonica rice from Daming, the yield per mu has basically remained at 340 to [-] jin.

It seems that everyone can have enough food, but the problem is that after the immigrants from the Ming Dynasty arrived in the vassal state, the condition given by the vassal state in the local area of ​​India was ten acres of arable land.

In other words, based on the land of the vassals, the national population they can maintain is only 3000 million.

The arrival of each batch of nationals requires countless local natives to contribute land.

Today, there are 42 nationals who migrated to India to serve as servants. For this reason, the feudal clans were able to obtain 420 million mu of land from the local people to distribute to the nationals.

However, this is not difficult for them. After all, the land of the vassal state belongs to the vassal state, not to the natives. Citizens have the right to use it for life, but the natives do not.

They are equivalent to short-term laborers on the land. Once the vassal state wants to reclaim the land, there is almost no way for them to stop it.

Of course, there is no lack of bloody people among the millions of native people, so whenever the vassal state takes back the cultivated land, they will riot, but each time this riot will be quickly suppressed.

Compared with the small western feudal vassals in India, the Kunlun vassals did not have so many worries.

There are not many other feudal clans in Kunlun, but the number of slaves is among the best in the world.

Among them, countries such as Tang, Rui, Ji, Huai, etc. can basically obtain tens of millions of acres of arable land through slave reclamation every year, and there is no need to worry about the problem of arable land after immigrants arrive.

Therefore, the Kunlun vassals are also places with relatively high immigration welfare, with the basic per capita between [-] and [-] mu, and the policies of different countries are different.

Relying on such policies, the Kunlun vassals have successfully raised the number of citizens to more than 20 million, more than [-] million slaves, and more than [-] million mu of arable land in the past [-] years.

However, the arable land among them is not as good as other areas.

Although the soil in Kunlun is fertile and supported by chemical fertilizers exported from Qi State, the months-long rainy season is enough to wash away the nutrients in the soil surface and make the cultivated land barren.

Therefore, the Kunlun vassals still maintained the fallow and rotation system established by King Qi.

Such a system also led to the fact that only one-third of the arable land in the hands of the Kunlun vassals can be used for farming food every year, and their output is only enough for the daily needs of the people, livestock, and slaves.

In times of disaster, the vassals still had to import food from Qi.

Fortunately, for so many years, Qi's food has been getting cheaper and cheaper, and the reason is naturally inseparable from Qi's industrialization.

In March of the second year of Yongchang, Qi State reported the current situation of Qi State.

[At the end of last year, there were more than 12 households, more than [-] million people, more than [-] billion mu of arable land, gold and silver mines...]

Since there is no conflict between skin and culture issues, Qi State basically pacified the cannibal tribes in the south as early as the 12th year of Qiansheng, and jointly developed agriculture and industry in the north and south.

With [-] mu of arable land per capita, Qi's food is mainly exported.

According to the report of the Kunlun Supervisory Commissioner and the European Emperor's General Manager, Qi's grain basically occupies half of the market in Kunlun and a quarter of the market in Europe.

Every year, the grain exported from Qi State is not less than [-] million shi, and the oil products are not less than [-] million jin.

The Ministry of Households also played in the first year of Yongchang, and the number of livestock exported from Qi to Daming reached more than 19 in the 16th year of Qiansheng.

At the same time, Qi State is also the vassal state that currently holds the most national debts in Ming Dynasty.

This kind of national power inevitably worried many officials, so there were not a few memorials reminding Emperor Zhu Heyin to pay attention to the state of Qi.

In the first year of Yongchang alone, there were as many as 470 four memorials to remind Zhu Heyin to be careful about the state of Qi, basically one or two every day.

However, Zhu Heyin always maintained a trusting attitude towards the state of Qi, and kept these memorials, waiting until winter to use them as firewood.

In addition to these internal feudal affairs, it is worth mentioning that there are several foreign feudal states adjacent to Ming Dynasty.

These countries are Korea, Nanzhang, Siam, Ganbozhi, Sulu, Boni and Mongolia.

Among them, the Mongolian country has been cooperating with Yongguo and Dingguo to attack Tsarist Russia and Ottomans respectively, and has gradually moved closer to Ming Dynasty politically and culturally.

In the first year of Yongchang, the population of Mongolia exceeded 600 million, of which the number of Mongols reached a rare 200 million. The army maintained a size of about 10 stipulated by the Ming Dynasty for a long time, and did not dare to exceed it.

As for the six countries such as North Korea and Siam, the situations are different, and the only thing in common is that they only retain the army defending the royal city.

The number of this army varies from person to person, and the Ming Dynasty did not set any restrictions. For example, countries with large populations such as Korea, Siam, Ganbozhi, and Nanzhang maintained a Beijing army of [-] to [-]. Countries with a small number maintain around a few thousand people.

However, with the continuous deepening of exchanges between countries, there are actually a considerable number of Han people living in all countries.

For example, North Korea, Siam and other countries mentioned in the first year of Yongchang's memorial to Yongchang Emperor Zhu Heyin that "there are people in the country, and two out of ten people in the upper country are the hard work of a small country."

To their flattery, Zhu Heyin responded: "The world inside and outside are all the people of Ming Dynasty, and you are also my young children. How can we distinguish between high and low?"

This is true even in large countries such as North Korea, countries such as Sulu and Boni, which originally had a population of only a dozen or 20, are now basically dominated by Han Chinese.

Most of the Beijing army they defended the capital was also of Han origin.

They didn't care about it, and even proposed to include it many times, but Zhu Ciran didn't agree.

After all, if Daming allowed them to be attached, then the other foreign vassal states and the more than [-] internal vassal states would not think too much about it.

The suzerain-vassal system does not need to annex all countries, because this will only make the suzerain country lose its competitiveness and prestige.

In contrast, the control of the vassal state by Jiji is what the suzerain state should do. This is also the difference between the Western colonial hegemony and the Eastern Huayi international order.

Compared with the colonial hegemony that used force to coerce surrender and establish colonies, suzerain-vassal relations can make the other side submit without resorting to force, which is more civilized.

The current Daming suzerainty system is like a family, Daming is the old man, and the various vassals are members.

As long as the old man Daming is still strong, the family can last for a long time.

The appeals of all countries can be realized under the old man's dealings, and there is no need to use force to conquer each other.

The grievances of the three countries such as Gan Bozhi, Siam, and Nanzhang have lasted for thousands of years. However, under the mediation of Ming Dynasty, they are now defenseless against each other and are as close as one.

They can all do this, not to mention the common people of Ming Dynasty.

It is normal for Han people to travel to and from the Three Kingdoms, and the people of the foreign vassals are also proud to be a member of the Ming Dynasty.

Cheap goods are flooding the market, and the foreign domains, except Mongolia, have not experienced war for nearly 50 years.

The prosperity of the Ming Dynasty is not only for the Ming Dynasty, but also for the feudal vassals. Therefore, maintaining the power of the old man of the Ming Dynasty is also something that every member of the vassal state must do.

From this point of view, things seem to be developing on the good side.

It's just that compared to the countries under the Ming vassal system, Europe is not so easy at the moment...

(End of this chapter)