Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 66: Officials and gentry are more civilized
  Tang He and Hua Yun finally entered Chuzhou Military Academy to receive training.

The examinations hosted by Zhizhou Yamen also went on smoothly in the past few days.

Many scholars from poor families and officials and gentry children such as Ren Qiande, Li Menggeng and Guo Jingxiang eventually participated in the examination.

But what Zhang Cheng has to admit is that the children of officials and gentry such as Ren Qiande, Li Menggeng and Guo Jingxiang have received more education and experience opportunities, and they have served as officials in the Yuan Dynasty. , geography, arithmetic, etc., all tested well, and even policy analysis was outstanding.

Zhang Cheng also told Zhu Yuanzhang the outstanding abilities of these people.

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang still chose to appoint Ren Qiande to serve as counselors in his general administration and provide him with policy guidance and academic professors.

Zhang Cheng is not worried that these people will lead Zhu Yuanzhang astray as they become Zhu Yuanzhang's advisors.

Because he dares to expose these people at any time.

Ren Qiande, Li Menggeng, Guo Jingxiang and other officials and gentry also cooperated in getting their families to do good deeds.

First, he took the initiative to use his land to build an infant rescue hall in his family temple as a land and charity institution specializing in raising orphans;
  The second is to set up volunteer schools to provide free education to the children of the clan and relatives and friends;
  The third is to lower the rent, and provide rent-free for one year for tenants who are in extreme need.

Simultaneously.

In the name of responding to the rebels, these officials and gentry worked together to raise food and provide porridge to the refugees.

The reason why we need to raise food together is to show that our family does not have much food left, and to find an excuse for not actively providing relief before.

But in any case, under the leadership of Zhang Cheng, both the rebels and the original officials and gentry in Chuzhou City improved their level of civilization, began to help those in need, and began to give Chuzhou City a lot of human touch.

As a result, Chuzhou City became even more prosperous.

Many refugees came here, causing the population to surge and business to recover quickly, making it like a paradise in troubled times.

of course.

If the rebels are willing to become more civilized in accordance with Zhang Cheng's requirements, it is because as the bottom class, they only have the motivation to progress and have no room for degeneration. Therefore, they are willing to take the initiative to become more civilized in accordance with Zhang Cheng's rules. , then the landlords, officials and gentry in Chuzhou City were forced to become more civilized. They were forced to become like this.

After all, the landlords in Chuzhou City are indeed the most reactionary in nature, so they instinctively prefer to serve as their lords the foreign invaders who are more reactionary than themselves. This can make them less bad, but they don't like to be transformed by Zhang Cheng. Compared with the rebels who are more civilized than them, this will prevent them from showing a more civilized image and will be forced to curb their reactionary nature.

therefore.

They have no motivation to think about making the rebels stronger. They only have the motivation to screw up the rebels, so that the people who will be the masters of the world in the future will be more reactionary than them.

Anyway, for them, it doesn't matter who is the master of the world, they all need to be used.

It's just that the worse it is to the people, the better.

So, one day when Ren Qiande accompanied Zhu Yuanzhang in plain clothes to see the bustling city of Chuzhou City, he said to Zhu Yuanzhang:
  "Sir, more and more people are going to the city to sell grain and cloth. However, if a large amount of military pay is sent to the market in the form of grain and cloth, it will cause the price of grain and cloth to plummet, which will hurt farmers."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned after hearing this: "Really?"

"It is said that the current price of food has dropped by 30% compared with last month!"

Ren Qiande replied and said:

"So, as my subordinates want me to do, it's better to stop paying military pay and just distribute the money gained from confiscating homes to the generals."

"This can not only stabilize the morale of the army, but also avoid hurting the farmers. It can also use the excess grain and cloth to raise more soldiers and horses, and then strive to seize the world as soon as possible and end the troubled times."

Zhang Cheng, who was also following him, couldn't help but ask Ren Qiande:
  "Did what I said hurt the farmers or the gentry? Do the people of the world still have food now?"

"This one……"

Ren Qiande was speechless for a moment.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded here and said: "Yes, as Mr. Zhang said, where can the common people in the world have food to sell now? Those who have food to sell can only be powerful and powerful people."

"That's what the superior said."

"It's the opinion of the lower officials and scholars."

Ren Qiande laughed sarcastically.

"It doesn't matter."

"Mr. Zhang was originally more willing to learn about people's livelihood than you are."

"According to him, he met us only because he took the initiative to go to the countryside to inquire about people's feelings. Otherwise, he would not have met us, my sister-in-law and Wen Zheng."

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled again as he spoke: "Brother, you may not know that Mr. Zhang also thought about the problem that a large amount of grain and cloth would be harmed to farmers when distributed in the name of military pay, so he proposed the establishment of a government-run trading bank." "At the moment, the government-run trading bank Commercial banks are rushing to purchase grain and cloth to stabilize prices, so although the price of grain and cloth is falling now, it will stabilize soon, because now government-run commercial banks are not short of money."

Ren Qiande couldn't help but tremble after hearing this, and looked at each other with complicated expressions on Li Menggeng and Guo Jingxiang.

"Mr. Zhang should be a capable minister in politics!"

“It’s really a good plan to think of government-run commercial banks in advance.”

"My subordinates also just said that they were worried that unscrupulous merchants would take the opportunity to sell grain and cloth in large quantities and make profits. Now I think that with the support of government-run trading houses, there should be no need to worry about this."

Ren Qiande said with a strong smile.

Zhang Cheng just smiled slightly and said: "Once the military pay system is withdrawn, military discipline will inevitably deteriorate, and it will only be the common people who will suffer. If we want the people to bear the price of conquering the country, then our purpose of conquering the country can no longer be said to be For the people of the world, I can only say that I am fighting for my own country to be the master of the world."

"That's what Mr. Zhang said."

"I'm confused."

Ren Qiande had no choice but to reply again.

But right now, there are indeed a large number of profiteers taking the opportunity to sell grain, and deliberately lowering the price of grain, even selling at a loss.

Originally, in these troubled times, food prices should be extremely high.

However, because profiteers deliberately speculated on grain, the price of grain in Chuzhou City was extremely low after the rebels were paid, which further made Chuzhou City look more prosperous than expected.

As a result, many ordinary people can afford to buy food.

The people's level of food and clothing has been greatly improved, almost to 100%, and no one is hungry anymore.

But this is not a normal food and clothing rate, but a food and clothing rate deliberately hyped by profiteers.

Those who transported a large amount of grain to Chuzhou for sale were profiteers, not real farmers. In this era, it was good for the homesteaders to survive. They dared to sell the grain, and even if they had some surplus grain, they only dared to save it.

But unfortunately, Zhang Cheng and Zhu Yuanzhang now set up a government-run trading house to stabilize grain prices, and in the form of military law, they force the rebel officers and soldiers to sell their uneaten food wages only to government-run trading houses.

Of course, the same is true for cloth.

Therefore, apart from the food and cloth issued in the name of military pay, which were kept by the rebel officers and soldiers themselves for daily basic needs, the rest were sold to government-run trading houses. Some rebel officers and soldiers even sold almost all of their food and cloth because of the drop in food prices and cloth prices. The grain was sold to government-run trading houses.

The prices offered by the government-run trading houses were relatively high, so the rebel officers and soldiers were not dissatisfied and were willing to abide by this rule.

Therefore, although profiteers are selling a large amount of grain, they have no chance to eat up a large amount of military pay at a very low cost by speculating on low grain prices.

This resulted in the fact that although the price of food in Chuzhou City seemed to be getting lower and lower, it did not affect the morale of the military, nor did a large number of sergeants find profiteers to sell off their food and pay at a discount. It just made more people happy.

Behind these profiteers are actually the minions of Ren Deqian and other officials and gentry. They even speculated on low grain prices, which was originally the request of Ren Deqian and other officials and gentry.

It was only now that Ren Deqian and other officials and gentry knew that the rebel officers and soldiers did not sell off their food and pay because they joined the rebel army.

"This Mr. Zhang is really good at scheming!"

"Using a government-run trading house to purchase grain, no wonder General Zhu supports him so much. This government-run trading house must belong to General Zhu!"

"Just because this means that our food is sold at a loss?"

Therefore, Guo Jingxiang couldn't help but ask about Ren Qiande and Li Menggen after returning.

Li Menggeng said: "Since they have set up a government-run trading bank, we should quickly remind the people below not to sell out, right? Stop the loss in time!"

"No!"

"Keep selling!"

Ren Qiande's eyes were red, he held his fat head and started talking.

"Why?"

Li Menggeng asked in surprise.

Ren Qiande glanced at Li Menggeng and other officials, then rubbed his fat head and said sternly: "Our food cannot be lost in vain. If we do nothing, we will kill Zhang Cheng through this matter!"

(End of this chapter)