Daming: Mixed in Dangzhi County, Beiping

"Your Highness, all craftsmen and laborers who join the road construction team will receive one month's settlement allowance in advance!"

Guo An suggested to Zhu Gaochi, "In this way, the laborers and craftsmen who are waiting and watching will dare to come out and follow the road construction team to work!"

"What the teacher said makes sense!"

Zhu Gaochi's eyes lit up, and after responding, he ordered to go down.

soon.

At the gate of the capital city, notices appeared again.

At the same time, two people from the road construction team were guarding each city gate, setting up flags and shouting to recruit people.

As the settlement allowance of one month's wages was distributed, the entire capital became agitated again.

Which workshop or master's house recruits people who will be given money first to settle down?

then.

It took less than five days.

The road construction team once again had fifty craftsmen and four hundred young men and women!
  With a happy face, Zhu Gaochi directed Guo Pinglin and others to purchase a large number of tools and equipment and open a cement, sand and gravel workshop!
  But the gentry and officials in the capital were anxious!

"Your Majesty, I have heard that in the past few days, the road construction team formed by His Highness the Crown Prince has hired craftsmen and young laborers with huge sums of money, which has made the people of the capital panic and have no intention of serving the farmers!"

"Your Majesty, if His Highness the Crown Prince continues like this, there will be large areas of farmland in the capital that will be left uncultivated!"

"Exactly, Your Majesty, Your Highness's move has made the people of the capital miserable and the people's resentment boiling..."

"There is widespread resentment among the people?"

Zhu Di, who was listening with interest on his face, stared directly at the censor and said solemnly when he heard this sentence.

"Tell me in detail why there are so many complaints among the people? The prince's road construction team provides a stable job for those people who have no land at home, and also builds cement straight roads for them... How can such a great thing lead to such a good thing? Is public dissatisfaction coming?”

"Your Majesty, this..."

Censor Feng Zuo's expression changed slightly. Thinking of the Censor who had just been demoted a few days ago, he couldn't help but regret.

But now that the matter has come to this, I can only bite the bullet and explain: "Your Majesty, you are a citizen of the capital!

His Royal Highness the Prince has recruited many young men, leaving these fields uncultivated!
  Therefore, they..."

“No one to farm?”

Zhu Di sneered again and said coldly: "Why don't they cultivate their own fields?"

Feng Zuo said again: "Your Majesty, they are all scholars, and they should take reading as their responsibility!"

"Since studying is their mission, why do they still have so much land?"

Zhu Di sneered and said: "They have occupied so many acres of land, leaving the poor people with no land to cultivate, and they do not allow the poor people to do other jobs?"

"Your Majesty, scholars always have some acres of land in their homes!"

"is it?"

Zhu Di said: "Tell us, which families are they? I will send Jin Yiwei to check. If the access to their fields is normal and the people are not being bullied, I will send them some tenant farmers!"

Feng Zuo's expression froze and he sent Jin Yiwei to investigate. Wouldn't this be harming those families?
  "Why don't you, the thief, say anything?"

Zhu Di sneered and said, "The prince built cement roads for the Ming Dynasty, which benefited many people in the state capitals. You and other thieves are actually oppressing the people, seizing acres of land, and enslaving the landless young people. Prince, you really deserve to die!"

Feng Zuo's expression changed drastically, and he quickly explained: "Your Majesty has learned clearly that I am devoted to serving the public good and have absolutely no selfish motives!"

"No selfishness?"

Zhu Di smiled coldly, "Then why did those gentry in Shangyuan County give you Feng Zuo so many boxes of property yesterday?"

Feng Zuo suddenly turned pale and knelt on the ground, kowtowing to Zhu Di and begging for mercy.

"Your Majesty is aware that those gentry are from good families in the Ming Dynasty. They are classmates with the ministers and have a very good relationship. They often give each other some objects as gifts in private!"

"All your gifts are money?" Zhu Di sneered.

"What a traitor. At this time, you still want to deceive me. Do you really think that I am just sitting in the palace blind and letting you and other traitors deceive me at will?"

With that said, Zhu Di looked at Yu Xin, the Minister of Household Affairs, and Zheng Yi, the Minister of Rites, on one side.

These are all responsible for persuading farmers.

Therefore, these were the main officials who came to him with anxious expressions this time.

“Those evil gentry like to exploit the people, take away their fields, and then enslave these people to farm for them.

How can I pity such hateful gentry?
  If they are not punished, do they really think that they can rob the people's fields at will, and then enslave the people to farm for them, supporting them for generations?

Can they even command me to protect the fields they snatched? "

"This humble minister made an oversight, please forgive me!" Yu Xin quickly raised his hand to plead guilty.

"This humble minister made an oversight, please forgive me!"

Zheng Yi, the Minister of Rites, also apologized with shame on his face.

Although his Zheng family was given the reputation of being the first family in the south of the Yangtze River by Emperor Taigaozu, some bastards would appear in some branches of the Zheng family!
  "Okay, okay, I still know that you all are fair and impartial! You were just deceived by the villains below this time!"

Zhu Di waved his hand casually and said again: "This time, I will fine you one month's salary as punishment!"

"..."

Yu Xin and Zheng Yi were speechless for a while, but they were still grateful.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

As for the censor Feng Zuo, he was dragged down by the Han general like a dead dog and handed over to the Jin Yiwei for interrogation slowly.

The Di newspaper, which Zhu Gaochi was in charge of, needed some material on corrupt officials and evil gentry in every issue.

Zhu Di still attaches great importance to the money bag of Di Bao.

No one can stop the construction of concrete straight roads!
  Zhu Gaochi, along with Guo Pinglin and two other deputies, began to recruit craftsmen and young men and women to build cement workshops and sand and gravel workshops along both sides of the straight road!
  It was so majestic that it attracted the attention of the entire Ming Dynasty.

In less than half a month, there were already [-] craftsmen in the road construction team.

As for the young and strong soldiers, there are more than a thousand people.

Time is quickly entering March.

The fields around the capital have begun to be plowed in spring.

As for the road construction team, they have also begun to follow the straight road near Jiangjun Mountain, cross the Yangtze River, and start paving in the direction of Xi'an.

The entire Ming Dynasty has begun to enter a busy season.

at the same time.

Some gentry, merchants, and scholars from all over the Ming Dynasty also craned their necks, waiting for the distribution of this issue of Di Bao.

just.

What surprised some gentry, merchants and scholars was that they were waiting for not just one issue of Di Bao, but two, or even three or four!
  "This……"

After opening it, some gentry and merchants just took a second look and realized something was wrong.

"Among so many Di's newspapers, is this one the real Di's newspaper? Are the rest of them all fake Di's newspapers?"

"hiss……"

"How dare they have the guts to blatantly plagiarize His Highness the Crown Prince's newspaper?"

"Simply shameless, polite scum, and extremely cunning..."

"Plagiarism?"

"Look, many of the things and decrees in these newspapers are the same as those written in the previous issue of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's newspaper!"

"Especially this matter about the cement straight road, isn't it exactly what His Royal Highness the Prince wrote in the last issue of Di Bao?"

"Huh? Are they really the same?"

"Not only that, but every word is missing!"

"And this imperial decree... was also written in His Royal Highness the Prince's residence newspaper in the last issue!"

"However, when it comes to the affairs of the gentry in Hangzhou, good things are new!"

"Hmph, what's so strange about the romantic affair between some gentlemen, or some scandalous affair?"

"Too!"

"Ok?"

Suddenly, one person seemed to have discovered something surprising. He pointed at the middle column of the fake newspaper in his hand, and seemed to have seen something incredible!

"Mr. Shen, Gong Ming, look, there are actually advertisements in these fake newspapers!"

"advertise?"

"Huizhou Zhang's jade jewelry? And Hangzhou's Li's fabrics..."

"How dare they?"

... (end of this chapter)