Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 94
"Your Highness..."

Lu Wenzhao's voice sounded behind Zhu Youjian in the backyard of Yumajian, and Zhu Youjian also knew that Lu Wenzhao had something to say, so he continued to shoot arrows: "Get up!"

Lu Wenzhao bowed to accept the gift, and then said to Zhu Youjian:
"The situation of the guards in the northern Zhili area has been clarified."

"Let's talk about it!" Zhu Youjian continued to shoot arrows without looking back, and occasionally challenged the difficult Lianju shot.

Seeing this, Lu Wenzhao took out a book and handed it over with both hands, and responded:

"In the northern Zhili area, there are currently 22 guards, 7400 institutes, and [-] battalions of the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion. On paper, there are [-] people."

"In addition, there are the mausoleum guards of the eleven imperial mausoleums in Tianshou Mountain, and the twenty-six guards of Shangzhi."

"At present, on the border of North Zhili, excluding the Beijing camp, there are a total of 41 guards, 3600 schools, and 21000 battalions. On paper, there are [-] military households and [-] battalions."

"However, the people below took a look. Except for the [-]% of the vacancies in Ji Town, and [-]% of the vacancy rates of the [-] Guards of Shangzhi and the [-]th Tomb Guards, the rest of the guards basically exist in name only, and each guard only has a hundred. If you come to a servant, the sixteen institutes will not be able to gather a thousand servants."

"Ji Town's salary is [-]%..." Zhu Youjian shot an arrow and said softly:
"That is to say, there are 55 soldiers from the guards of Beiping Dusi, Jizhen soldiers and horses, and the twenty-six guards of Shangzhi, Jingying, and Beizhili?"

"On paper, it should be like this..." Lu Wenzhao couldn't stop talking, but Zhu Youjian couldn't help shaking his head after listening.

There were nearly [-] soldiers and horses. As a result, during the Jisi Incident in the second year of Chongzhen, even Huang Taiji's [-] men could not stop him.

"According to your words..." Zhu Youjian handed the bow to the little eunuch next to him, wiped his hands with a cloth and said:
"Even if you add the seven guards and one battalion of the Yumajian to the entire guard in Beizhili, it won't even be able to pull out a hundred thousand people?"

"It should be like this..." Lu Wenzhao replied to Zhu Youjian with some difficulty, but Zhu Youjian said:

"The soldiers and horses in Ji Town, as I remember, are currently [-] people. You said that [-]% of them are not paid, so there are only about [-] people in Ji Town, right?"

"Less than [-], because the soldiers and horses of four battalions were killed in the aid of Liao, so there are only about [-] at present, but only three battalions can be used to fight, and the rest are really..." Lu Wenzhao said The real number of people in Ji Town, but he was a little afraid to say what happened next.

However, even if what he said was very cryptic, once the amount was said, Zhu Youjian's heart was like a bright mirror.

There are only [-] people in Ji Town, but right now they are living on the military pay of [-] people, which is nearly [-] taels of empty pay.

Including the Beijing Camp and the [-] Guards of Shangzhi, the annual military expenditure of the entire Northern Zhili is at least three million taels.

Three million taels to raise these wine bags and rice bags?It's better to raise Liaodong!

Zhu Youjian laughed angrily, but such a Beizhili made it easier to implement his ideas.

First of all, the soldiers and horses in Miyun, Huairou, and Changping in Jizhen's hands should be vacated, and then abolished, or replenished to Yongping.

The gate of Yongping is Shanhaiguan, and there should be more than ten thousand soldiers capable of fighting in the three places of Miyun.

These more than [-] people, plus the original garrison in Changping, can completely become a force to support Liaodong.

As for the seven guards and one battalion in my hands, I can abolish the left and right guards in Tongzhou according to the plan, and then replace the three guards and two battalions in Changping, Miyun, and Huairou.

In this way, more than [-] taels of military pay for the two battalions can be saved, and a large amount of land can be harvested.

"How many acres per household was set by Emperor Gao of the Northern Zhili army?"

Zhu Youjian asked suddenly, and Lu Wenzhao knew that His Royal Highness was dealing with the affairs of the guards during this period, so he had already learned about the guards' system.

So when Zhu Youjian spoke, he went through it in his mind, and then replied:
"At the beginning of the country, Emperor Taizu Gao set up a military farm ranging from ten to fifty acres for the whole country."

"In northern Zhili, Shaanxi, Gansu, Shandong, Henan and other places in the north, each military household can be allocated [-] acres of military farmland."

"At the beginning of the Republic of China, the grain should be paid 12 shi per hectare for the military farmland, and later it was set to be 4 shi per hectare. It was only during the Zhengde period that the grain payment in the guards was already insufficient..."

"Fifty acres..." Hearing Lu Wenzhao's words, Zhu Youjian did the math. Excluding the two battalions of the Shixia Camp, the five guards and two camps had [-] households, or [-] million mu of cultivated land. ...

Such a huge amount of arable land made Zhu Youjian's eyes light up, and his breathing became heavy.

These troops stationed in the fields, as long as the emperor allows him to do it, then he will not encounter much resistance.

To put it bluntly, the Weisuo system has been corrupted. Although the military settlement system has passed the test of feudalism for two thousand years in history, and even has its establishment in later generations, if we want to restore the military settlement system, we must expand outward.

The military settlements in the Ming Dynasty have long been swallowed up by the officers and nobles of the guards.

Just like the current [-] million mu of military farmland, perhaps not even a third of it belongs to military households.

Start to clarify the army's garrison, and give soft treatment to the officers of the guard who are corrupt and perverted the law. Even if they can't search their homes, the recovered fields can also be used by the Royal Horse Supervisor.

Even if it cannot be used by the Yumajian, as long as the fields are distributed to the people, and then according to the twelve shi grains per hectare set by Zhu Yuanzhang, [-] shi grains can be harvested every year.

This is just a small phenomenon among dozens of guards in Beizhili.

If all the military farms in Northern Zhili can be clarified, tens of millions of acres of military farmland can be added, and millions of stones of grain can be contributed to Ming Dynasty every year, and [-] soldiers and horses can be fed.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian said to Lu Wenzhao:
"When I return to Beijing this time, I will ask Brother Huang to expand the number of Fusi in Nanzhen. You are ready to recruit people from the Fusi of Beizhen and some people around Jinyiwei. This time, the number of Fusi in Nanzhen should be increased from [-] The number of people increased to about [-]."

"I know what to do, thank you Your Highness!" Lu Wenzhao hurriedly saluted when he heard the news, and Zhu Youjian also waved his hand and said:
"Okay, don't do these empty rituals, and go to the capital with me at Maoshi tomorrow. All the recruited Jinyiwei, as long as they can travel, will be sent to Shanxi, Ganshan, Shandong and other places immediately."

"Of course!" Lu Wenzhao nodded.

Seeing this, Zhu Youjian walked to the Yumajian Yamen, with a lot of thoughts in his mind, and then went directly to the study room, and began to write a detailed memorial to clarify the Weisuo system.

I believe that as long as the interests are clearly stated, a good brother will only support him and will not stop him.

There are more than 46 million mu of land farmed by the army in the world. If it can be fully clarified, according to 2670 shi per hectare and [-] catties of grain per mu, then the land tax that can increase Ming's income in a year is [-] million shi.

This is equivalent to the land tax income of one year and four months in the Wanli period, and it was directly handed over to the emperor.

If these grains were hoarded, even if there was a severe drought in the late Ming Dynasty, [-] million stones could be stored in three years, enough for disaster relief.

Even if it is not used for disaster relief, if you sell grain at the market price of grain in Beizhili, you can get more than [-] million taels of silver.

Isn't military spending enough?Didn't the Ming Dynasty perish because of financial collapse and unable to support the army?
The additional financial income of more than [-] million taels of silver per year is enough for the Ming Dynasty to support more than [-] elites like Qi's army and white soldiers.

With more than [-] elites like this, Zhu Youjian can fight all over the world with his eyes closed!
As long as the logistics can keep up, a good brother is the emperor on which the sun never sets.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian said, "Lu Wenzhao, get ready, we will leave early tomorrow morning and return to the capital."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao returned the salute and bowed, and Zhu Youjian also returned to the Yumajian Yamen, tidied himself up a little, and then fell asleep early.

------

In the early morning of the second day, Zhu Youjian and Lu Wenzhao set off from Yanshan Daying, heading south to the capital.

In less than half an hour, more than thirty of them arrived at the Xiaoyu River in the south of Gonghua City.

The war horse was hot and sweating constantly, and Zhu Youjian was also holding a water bottle, raising his hand to feed an adult Hequ horse.

It has been half a month since he learned how to ride a horse. Thanks to his body and his talent after time travel, Zhu Youjian can already handle this kind of adult horse with ease.

Looking at the army horse that was happily making noises after drinking water and eating a handful of beans, Zhu Youjian stroked it with his hands, and then said to Lu Wenzhao who was always vigilant next to him:

"Okay, don't be too vigilant. With the ability of your thirty tyrants, unless you encounter the same number of elite frontier soldiers, or be surrounded by hundreds of people, no one will come to attack you."

"His Royal Highness's safety is the first priority for humble officials." Seeing Zhu Youjian say this, Lu Wenzhao bowed to express his thoughts.

After saying this, although Zhu Youjian smiled helplessly, he still nodded secretly in his heart.

After resting like this for a quarter of an hour, after the horse's sweat was dry, Zhu Youjian got on the horse first, and the rest of Jin Yiwei followed Lu Wenzhao when they saw this.

"drive!"

After Zhu Youjian shook the reins, the two Tiqi took the initiative to assume the vanguard position, and the other twenty-eight Jinyi guards protected Zhu Youjian and Lu Wenzhao respectively.

Looking at these Jinyiwei, Zhu Youjian only felt that the ordinary Jinyiwei who only received five taels of money a year was really miserable, so he thought about it and said to Lu Wenzhao:
"If we can settle the affairs of Miyun and many other guards this time, and clarify the fields and acres later, Jin Yiwei's salary should also increase."

"If the number of Jinyiwei in Nanzhen Fusi can be increased to [-], then the salary of everyone in Nanzhen Fusi can be doubled for the sake of the original salary."

"This... Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness, but you don't have to force it." Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, Lu Wenzhao and Jin Yiwei around were excited at first, but Lu Wenzhao soon declined the kindness.

This is where Lu Wenzhao's cleverness is. He knows that there is nothing wrong with the current matter. If he thanked him directly, the matter would not work out afterwards, which would be a bit of a slap in the face to his highness.

Thank you politely, and we will see whether it succeeds or not later, so there is no need to just nod in return.

However, after Zhu Youjian heard his official words, he smiled and said:

"This matter is a bit difficult, but it's not too big to think about. You just wait for the salary increase."

The salaries of tens of thousands of Fusi in Nanzhen more than doubled, at most around [-] taels.

Two hundred thousand taels of silver and maintaining an intelligence agency with tens of thousands of people is very cost-effective for Zhu Youjian.

While thinking about it, they continued to ride lightly and gallop down. At the same time, at a place that was out of sight thirteen miles to the east, a cart pulled by two horses drove towards the north.

In front of the carriage, Shen Lian, who was dressed in the ordinary scarlet uniform of Jin Yiwei, looked around calmly, wary of going north.

Behind him, the four of Yang Lu were driving.

Since the road that Zhu Youjian took was covered with snow, it was not easy for a carriage, so Shen Lian chose the easy road, so the two of them missed it.

This miss caused other chain events.

Three hours later, Shen Lian and the others arrived at Yanshan Camp.

After checking the road signs at the checkpoint, Yang Lu and the others were left at the checkpoint post, waiting for Shen Lian to report the matter before taking them to Yanshan Station.

Sitting in the car, Yang Lu and the others watched Shen Lian ride his horse away, always feeling a little uneasy.

As for Shen Lian who rode his horse and was inspected again at the gate of Daying, taking advantage of Yang Lu and the others not being there, he immediately asked:
"Is His Highness in the camp?"

"It's not a coincidence that you came here, Your Highness and the others just went south and returned to the capital an hour ago."

Hearing Shen Lian's question, a whistle chief responded, and Shen Lian frowned and said:
"Then who is the biggest in the battalion right now?"

"Of course it's Cao's palm seal." The whistle chief replied instinctively, and Shen Lian also bowed back, and then rode towards the Yumajian Yamen.

In just one cup of tea time, he came to the front gate of the Yumajian yamen, saw the garrison eunuch, and after showing his token, led by the garrison eunuch, he came to the study in the front yard of the yamen, met Cao Huachun, and Yang Lian talking with Cao Huachun.

"Shen Lian, the Chief Banner Officer of Nanzhen Fusi, has an important matter to report to His Highness. I hope that Admiral Cao will bestow a walking badge in the palace."

Shen Lian's level was not high enough to enter the palace, so he could only come to ask Cao Huachun.

However, Cao Huachun is not familiar with Shen Lian, he only knows Lu Jianxing, so he frowned and said:
"What's the matter that needs to bother His Highness so urgently? It's not too late for His Highness to return to camp."

Back to camp, these two words represent at least half a month.

Shen Lian couldn't wait so long, and neither could the hungry people in Huaibei, so he could only grit his teeth and say:
"This matter is extremely urgent, and it concerns the lives and deaths of millions of people in Huaibei!"

"Huh?" Hearing Shen Lian's words, Yang Lian, who was still sitting next to him, holding the blueprint of Qingling and looking at it, suddenly raised his head.

Although he has a stubborn temper, his brain is not stupid, so he draws inferences from one instance:
"But about the food shortage in Huaibei?"

"This..." Hearing this, Shen Lian instinctively thought that Yang Lian should not be told, after all, Yang Lian was a civil servant.

As for Cao Huachun, he also felt that something was wrong, because his task was to keep Yang Lian in the Yanshan camp, and by the way, maintain the order of the Yanshan camp.

But both of them underestimated Yang Lian, just from Shen Lian's hesitant expression, Yang Lian stood up and said to Yang Lian:
"If it really concerns millions of people, then the old man must go to Beijing to face the Holy Spirit now!"

"You can't leave the imperial mausoleum without Long Live's will in Yang's affairs." Seeing Yang Lian say this, Cao Huachun became anxious immediately.

It's just that Yang Lian didn't give him face, but directly said to the military official standing at the door:
"Ask someone to send news of Huaibei to see if the famine in Huaibei has been resolved."

Yang Lian was determined to know the affairs of the people in Huaibei, just because he saw a very serious expression on Shen Lian's face.

Jin Yiwei has experienced too much life and death, something that can make them all look so solemn must be very serious.

"Mr. Shen, maybe tell me what happened in Huaibei?"

"..." Yang Lian tried to pry Shen Lian's mouth open, but Shen Lian didn't respond.

On the contrary, Cao Huachun saw this and knew that even if Shen Lian didn't say anything, it was the intelligence network of the Donglin Party under Yang Lian's command.

As long as you investigate carefully, you may be able to find out the situation in Huaibei within two days.

Therefore, Cao Huachun could only make sure that Yang Lian would forcibly leave the Yanshan camp, and said to Shen Lian:

"You go back."

"Hmph!" Hearing Cao Huachun's words, Yang Lian snorted coldly before Shen Lian could respond, then strode out of the study and walked towards his residence.

After Yang Lian left, Cao Huachun asked:
"Tell me, what happened to Huaibei?"

At this time, Cao Huachun didn't notice that Yang Lian, who had turned out of the study, was squatting at the door of the study, listening carefully.

Unprepared, Shen Lian directly told Cao Huachun exactly what he and Lu Jianxing had seen about Huaibei.

However, after just a few hundred words of introduction, Cao Huachun's face suddenly turned pale, and he couldn't believe that someone dared to use the lives of millions of hungry people to do business.

Millions of hungry people...

The last time it appeared in this description was during the Chenghua period.

If this is not done well, it will trigger a huge rebellion that spread to Jiangnan, Shandong, and Henan.

Cold sweat dripped from Cao Huachun's forehead in the blink of an eye, and his hands and feet were cold.

At this time, the door was suddenly pushed open, and Yang Lian's face was gloomy and he said:
"Huaibei...has it really reached this point?"

Changing children and eating, bones thousands of miles...

This kind of sentence, which is only eight characters in the book, is unbelievable to Yang Lian, who once served as the county magistrate of Changshu and often wandered among the people.

"This... Yang Ge is in the middle, why do you..."

Cao Huachun really didn't expect that Yang Lian, who was in the middle of the military affairs, would squat at the door for half a cup of tea.

This is like the high-level officials in the capital of later generations, squatting at the door of other departments to eavesdrop on other people's conversations, and feel ashamed to say it.

But right now, no one is bothering with this matter.

There is nothing more important than investigating the matter in Huaibei as soon as possible!

Thinking of this, Yang Lian confirmed the authenticity of this matter after seeing the expressions of Cao Huachun and Shen Lian.

He turned around immediately, and then said to the military official at the door:

"Pack up your things, set off now, and return to Beijing!"

"Yang is in the middle! Without the will of Long Live, you are not allowed to return to Beijing!"

Seeing this, Cao Huachun became anxious, and immediately stopped in front of him, but was pushed away by the stubborn old man Yang Lian and said:
"I use the military department to return the officials in the matter to Beijing, and I put the national crisis first. Who dares to stop me?!"

He spoke uprightly, with a firm tone, and then left the Yumajian yamen with the military officials.

Cao Huachun also knew that now was not the time to regret their carelessness, so he immediately tore off the badge from his waist and stuffed it into Shen Lian's hand, saying:

"You immediately take the token and rush back to Beijing within [-] miles. Be sure to tell His Highness Huaibei and Yang Lian about returning to Beijing after knowing about Huaibei."

"As for the old man named Yang Lu you mentioned, I will ask someone to arrange for him to farm in the wasteland around Huairou. You don't have to worry about it."

"A lowly officer takes orders!" Hearing Cao Huachun's words, Shen Lian immediately turned around and exited the yamen of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and then simply asked the little eunuch to help him change a horse, and left the barracks with Cao Huachun's token, galloping south .

When passing the checkpoint, he reined in his horse and said to Yang Lu and others who were about to get up:

"For your matter, someone will take you to Huairou Fatian later, don't worry, I have something urgent, I will see you in the future...drive!"

In the gloomy environment, Shen Lian rode his horse and ran southward in the snow.

But within a few seconds, before Yang Lu and others drove away, a carriage stopped in front of them. Yang Lian lifted the curtain and said to Yang Lu:

"You are the one who saw the Huaibei Great Hunger, right?"

"It's the grass people..." Yang Lu saw that Yang Lian's aura was not like ordinary people, and the carriage came out of the Yanshan camp, so he hurriedly bowed.

"If that's the case, then you all go south with me!"

After all, Yang Lian signaled the military officer to ask them to drive, and at this time the soldiers standing at the checkpoint also realized that something was wrong.

"Ask someone to inform Admiral Cao that the people brought by the General Banner Officer of Jinyiwei were taken away by Yang Ji."

When the soldiers heard the order, they hurriedly rode away the only naughty horse at the checkpoint. After a quarter of an hour, Cao Huachun got the news.

"It's broken!" Cao Huachun didn't expect that Yang Lian, an old boy, would actually do such a thing as cutting off a man, regardless of the face of a civil official.

But right now he doesn't have time to be angry, he can only say to Jin Yiwei who is left beside him:

"It's too late right now, so I can only pass on a letter to His Highness about Yang Lian leading people south."

"Take orders!" Jin Yiwei hurriedly went to work after hearing the words, while Cao Huachun walked left and right, feeling inexplicably panicked.

He has a feeling that after this incident is brought to the capital, it will be the biggest case in the new dynasty!

　Tomorrow should be two updates, with a total of about [-] words
　　In addition, thanks to Cz, the leader of the boss for the reward
　　
　
(End of this chapter)