Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 1025 The King of Prostitution

Without further ado, just three days after returning to Beijing, Zhu Zhen rushed to Yunnan with thousands of university students.

This route was taken by the army that conquered the south. They first took a big boat to Yuanling, then changed to a small boat and entered Chenshui from the Yuanjiang River. They went all the way to Mayang County in Yuanzhou before abandoning the boat and landing. If you go further, you will enter the vast mountainous area, and you can only go there by land.

So this is also the boundary under the jurisdiction of the Huguang Chief Envoy, and beyond that is the world of the chieftains.

However, the general who conquered the south set up camps and stationed troops every hundred miles along the way to protect the supply line of the army that conquered the south. What's more, His Majesty the King of Chu has arrived, so naturally there will be no blind chieftain who dares to jump out and cause trouble for His Majesty. Therefore, although we traveled through mountains and rivers along the way, there were Tusi mountain people eating pots of pulp to welcome the king, so the journey was not too difficult.

But Zhu Zhen walked very slowly. Every time he arrived at a Ming army station, he would order people to summon nearby chieftains to come over for a banquet.

Although they knew that there was no good banquet, these chieftains all accepted the imperial title. Now that His Highness the King of Chu has invited them, who would dare not to give them face?

Zhu Zhen came to them for three things, one of which was a good thing. It is said that because they accumulated food for the army's passage and assisted the imperial court in pacifying Yunnan, they were greatly rewarded by their father. In addition to rewarding them with a certain amount of money, cloth, and salt, they were also given official titles such as local governor, local prefect, local general, etc.

The chieftains were naturally very happy and expressed their loyalty to His Highness one after another, saying that they were willing to "dedicate themselves to the Ming Dynasty until death" and so on.

"Don't worry, you don't need to work hard, as long as you pay taxes on time." Zhu Zhen said the second thing with a smile.

"Pay tax? What tax?" The chieftains immediately lost their joy.

"Yes, Your Majesty, our mountains and ravines are all in remote areas. The local people are poor and stupid, and they don't even have enough to eat. How can we have any extra food to pay taxes?"

"Since ancient times, officials have collected taxes for the court, and the people have paid taxes to the court. That is a matter of course." Zhu Zhen looked at the chieftains with a half-smile but not a smile: "Why do you all look so surprised?"

That belongs to marrying the mother-in-law in a dream - what a beautiful thought!

No matter how reluctant the chieftains were, how could they dare to say no in front of Lao Liu? All of them looked sad, as if I were dead. I kept begging His Highness to be accommodating.

"Your Majesty, your Majesty, in the more than ten years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, we have never been asked to pay taxes." The chieftains said sarcastically:

"You are officials of the Ming Dynasty, and your people are the people of the Ming Dynasty. Do you admit this?" Zhu Zhen asked with a smile.

Lao Liu's words have made it very clear. In the past, because Yunnan was undecided, the imperial court was worried that it would force these chieftains to side with King Liang, so naturally it would not ask them to pay taxes. Now that King Liang is dead and Yunnan has become a province of the Ming Dynasty, do they still want to refuse to pay the imperial rations or serve as before?

"Everyone will say this, but the court can't just listen to you. It needs to send officials to clear the land, prepare a yellow book, and determine the tax burden." Zhu Zhen said calmly: "Even if you don't have food to pay taxes, you can still do labor service. In short, the past was the past, and the present is now. If you don’t pay the imperial rations and don’t serve in the military, who are you citizens of the Ming Dynasty?”

"Admit it, of course I admit it." The chieftains nodded quickly.

"It is impossible not to pay taxes. This gap cannot be opened. Otherwise, if others follow suit, how can the Ming Dynasty collect taxes?" Zhu Zhen blocked their luck first, and then said, "But the court is kind, and there is an alternative." The plan is given to you.”

"Your Highness, please speak." All the chieftains hurriedly listened attentively.

"The imperial court wants to build a post road from Huguang to Yunnan. You can lead your tribe to build roads according to the boundaries. Of course, according to the imperial court's standards, flat land is ten feet wide and mountain roads are two feet wide. The road must be kept flat and without potholes. The road foundation should be higher than both sides of the road to facilitate drainage..." Zhu Zhen paused and said: "Of course, the Ministry of Industry will send officials to supervise the work. You can just listen to them." "We built a post road for the imperial court, so there is no need for it. Have you paid taxes?" The chieftains were indeed moved. Although building such a post road through mountains and bridges can peel off their skin, the long-term pain is not as good as the short-term pain. A one-time payment is worse than paying taxes every year.

"You are also responsible for the maintenance of the roads. The roads must be leveled on schedule every year. If there are potholes and collapses, they must be repaired in time. If you delay the court's transportation, you will be punished!" Zhu Zhen said, "I have failed to make rectifications after several orders. Then the imperial court will take over the maintenance, and of course the fees must be paid by you on time."

"Okay..." The chieftains nodded, thinking that if they just maintained the roads, the burden wouldn't be too heavy.

"By the way, there is another expense that I want to remind you of. Since it is a post road for the imperial court, a post house must be set up with sixty miles as a post road." But Zhu Zhen said again: "The daily expenses of this post house …”

"Huh?" The chieftains all turned green. After the post road was built, how many civil and military officials came back and forth. If the food and lodging expenses for the postmen and horses were all borne by them, they might as well pay taxes honestly every year.

"Although you don't need to bear the burden," He heard His Highness speak and gasped: "But as for the postman, you can discuss whether to take turns or go out together."

"That's it..." The toasts breathed a sigh of relief. If it only involves people, they can still accept it, since they don't have to go into battle in person anyway.

In the end, the chieftains thought that when the imperial court built the post roads, they were responsible for daily maintenance and providing post men in exchange for the privilege of continuing to pay no taxes.

As everyone knows, Boss Zhu never thought about asking them to collect taxes. At least for a short period of time, Zhu Yuanzhang had no idea about this at all. Yunnan alone was already chaotic enough. If Guizhou also followed the chaos, the court would not have to do anything else and just quell the rebellion...

As a result, Zhu Zhen used the banner as a tiger skin and succeeded in getting a handful of prostitutes from the head of the toast.

His Highness the King of Chu just walked all the way and had whores for free. No chieftain dared not agree to his request, and they all agreed to build the road.

~~

Someone may ask, isn’t the situation in Yunnan very urgent? Why is King Chu so lazy on the road?

In fact, he is dealing with Yunnan's top priority at the moment - road construction!

Since ancient times, for newly conquered land, roads have been built first, transportation has been opened, and counties and counties have been established and ruled.

If the Ming Dynasty wanted to stabilize the situation in Yunnan and truly integrate Yunnan into its territory as soon as possible, its top priority was to build roads. Roads extending in all directions can continuously transport people and material resources from the mainland to Yunnan; allowing troops and supplies to be quickly mobilized among various prefectures in Yunnan.

Moreover, the imperial court would set up post stations and forts along the post roads and send troops to garrison them, which itself was an extension of its ruling power. These are crucial for suppressing rebellious chieftains and deterring miscreants.

In addition, large-scale immigration can only be carried out if the roads are repaired.

Immigration is not just for people to come with their heads on their shoulders and empty hands. The immigrants moved the whole family and all their belongings. Even if there was no carriage, there was still a handcart to carry the immigrants' rations and belongings.

The journey of thousands of miles across mountains and rivers is already extremely arduous. If there is no decent post road and it is all rugged and bad roads, most immigrants will not be able to reach Yunnan at all!

(End of this chapter)