Invincible Zhengde

Chapter 151 Using a Knife to Expand Living Space
Zhu Youtang was taken aback for a moment when he heard his son's words, and then said with a dark face, "Speak well!"

Glancing at his father rather resentfully, Zhu Houzhao said: "I studied history books before and found a very interesting thing, that is, every time the dynasties change, the same problem seems to appear. Natural disasters, such as serious land annexation, such as refugees, basically every dynasty will have it."

After hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Zhu Youtang was taken aback for a moment, and after thinking about it carefully, this is really the case. He had discovered it before, but he didn't think about it carefully.

"But why?" Zhu Houzhao asked the question himself, but did not answer.

"Who is right about natural disasters? Land annexation has been a big problem in all dynasties, but there has never been a good solution!" Zhu Youtang said helplessly. He also knew this, and he had studied it, but land annexation There has been no good solution, even with strict legislation and strict management, it still cannot be stopped.

Zhu Houzhao asked again: "However, there were natural disasters when the country was not subjugated, and there were even bigger ones. Why? In addition, why does a dynasty only have two or three hundred years of Guozuo?"

"Extreme prosperity will lead to decline, and the monarch is stupid. These are superficial reasons. In my minister's opinion, the simple answer is that the people can't survive." Zhu Houzhao said as a matter of course.

Hearing his son's words, Zhu Youtang's beard almost turned out of anger, and he really wanted to reach out and slap his son, but he couldn't bear it, so he didn't do it: "Say it directly, don't go around the corner!"

"Okay!" Zhu Houzhao agreed, and then said: "The emperor is stupid, what kind of emperor is stupid? Spend money to build palaces? Fight abroad? Or search for women? Let's talk about building palaces first. If the country has money, how about building a few palaces? Is it? If the construction of the palace does not recruit civilians, but pays wages, will the people like it or not?"

Zhu Youtang glanced at Zhu Houzhao, what was his son thinking, but why did he feel that what he said was quite right?
"Foreign warfare, so what? The court has money and soldiers, so what's wrong with beating him? You can say that if you don't have money, I have money, so you can fight as you want. As for women, let alone the emperor, the Ye family There are more than 300 women in a garden, let alone the emperor, 3000 people are not considered? Are you talking, can there really be that many?"

Looking at his son with black lines all over his face, Zhu Youtang stared and said, "Is this what you realized by reading history books?"

"Father, the focus is not on this, the focus is on money. It is reasonable to say that the world has recuperated and the population has increased, but why are the people's lives difficult? Because the land is limited, and the number of people that can be supported by a piece of land is also limited. When there are more people , the land is still that, so how can it be enough to feed the people?"

"In addition to the annexation of the land, the people will have no way to survive. Once there is a natural disaster, it will be a disaster for the world."

"The imperial court has no money and no food for disaster relief, so it is impossible to survive. The world is in chaos, and the princes are fighting. It will kill people. When the death is almost complete, the world will be unified, and the vacated land is enough to support these people. Then it will be new. The dynasty is established, and then continues to prosper, until the population is large enough, and the land is not enough, and the world will be in chaos again."

"This process takes about 200 to 300 years, which is why the change of the world is about this time."

"The land is not enough to feed the people, so where does the court get the money? There will be no money for disaster relief. As long as there is a slight natural disaster or human goods, the world will be in chaos!" Zhu Houzhao said with a soft sigh: "Now It has been more than a hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and this situation has already begun to appear, land annexation is serious, the court's taxes have been reduced, and the income cannot make ends meet."

Zhu Youtang looked at his son, a little at a loss, although a voice scolded his son in his mind, telling him that this was fallacy.But another firmer voice also told me that what my son said was right, why?

"Then what do you think we should do?" Zhu Youtang looked at Zhu Houzhao and asked in a low voice, "Is Daming going to follow in the footsteps of other dynasties?"

"No!" Zhu Houzhao shook his head directly: "As long as I am here, I won't. In fact, the solution to this problem is very simple. Since the land is not enough, then go to find the land. The world is so big. Find more and more suitable land. Back then, both the Qin Dynasty and the Han Dynasty all conquered the land of Baiyue in the south."

"At that time, miasma was everywhere, but now? Who would dare to say that there is miasma everywhere?"

Zhu Youtang, as the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, of course knew where the land of Baiyue was, and Zhu Houzhao also knew that from the south of Jiangsu along the southeast coast to Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi and northern Vietnam, the land stretched seven or eight years. Within the half-moon circle of thousands of miles, it is the most concentrated distribution area of ​​the ancient Yue people, and the local scattered distribution also includes Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and other places.

According to this distribution, it does not need to be in later generations, even in the Ming Dynasty, there are many good places here, which have been expanded and managed from generation to generation.

"Okay, very good!" Zhu Youtang stretched out his hand and patted his son's shoulder, then said with a smile, "I'm very ambitious, so tell me what you plan to do!"

Although Zhu Houzhao said a lot, Zhu Youtang is still willing to believe in his son. Of course, this is not because of the father-son relationship, but because Zhu Houzhao has done something about the salt administration.The affairs of the Yanzheng were complicated, and everyone in the court knew that it was a big trouble, but his son solved it beautifully.

A few days ago, the Lianghuai Salt Fields had come to the book. This month, the Lianghuai Salt Fields adopted a new method of drying salt, and at the same time, there was the production team system of His Royal Highness. The court officials were amazed.Because of this incident, the voice of opposition to the reform of the salt government in the DPRK and China has been much reduced.

With the matter of the salt farm, Zhu Youtang naturally had a little more confidence in his son. He wanted to know what his son wanted to do.

"The problem in the southeast must be solved!" Zhu Houzhao said without even thinking about it: "The smugglers along the coast must not let them go down. Changing rice to mulberry will make the land that is not enough enough even worse, and make the land that is already not enough enough. The lack of food has become more scarce, and until a solution to this problem is found, they must not be allowed to continue doing this."

Zhu Youtang also nodded, and then said with a bit of playfulness: "But you also said, this is not easy to change!"

But Zhu Houzhao said with a smile: "There is nothing to change, it's just to combat smuggling. What do they rely on for smuggling? It's not about ships. Sea ships come from the sea. As long as the sea routes are blocked, how can they smuggle? Erchen Prepare to build a navy, a navy capable of fighting at sea, I call it a navy."

Now Zhu Youtang understands why his son is looking for the old file of Zheng He, the eunuch of the Three Treasures, who went to Nanyang: "You want to build a treasure fleet?"

The first thing Zhu Youtang thinks of is money, that is the treasure fleet, that is nothing else, the treasure fleet is not something that can be afforded casually, not to mention the current imperial court, even if it was different at the beginning of the founding of the country was abolished.Zhu Youtang didn't know where his son got the confidence to build the treasure fleet, it was all money.

"Isn't the money I brought back from Yangzhou not enough this time?" Zhu Houzhao exposed his father without the slightest hesitation.

Let’s not talk about the profit from the saltworks restructuring, that’s the follow-up income. The first auction of salt access qualifications will have to wait until March next year. They all came back with money. After a rough estimate, is there any more, seventy-eight million is still there.

"What are you doing?" Zhu Youtang looked at his son vigilantly: "The money has its source, so it can't be used by you."

Zhu Houzhao was speechless for a moment, but he still said, "I want to ask, what did you do with the money?"

"The imperial court has been short of daily expenses these years, and needs to reissue the military salary and official payment, as well as purchase armaments. These are all imminent things." Zhu Youtang explained to his son, but Zhu Youtang was also a little guilty, even a little embarrassed, In the end, some became angry from embarrassment: "Why do you care so much, anyway, it is of great use, and I can't use it to build your ship."

Looking at his father, after so long, this is the first time Zhu Houzhao saw his father like this. This feeling of being a rascal made Zhu Houzhao feel very warm. A rogue father.

In fact, Zhu Houzhao also knew why his father was like this, because the money was considered an unexpected income, and he made it himself. Could it be that without this money, the court would stop doing these things?It's just that this money can't be used to build ships for oneself. It is an objective fact that the court lacks money. Now that this money is available, it can indeed greatly relieve the financial pressure on the court.

If the money was used to build the ship by himself, not to mention other people, just those who were owed military salaries and salaries, then the pot would be overturned!

"It doesn't matter, I'm going to make money by myself, isn't it just a fleet? What a big deal!" Zhu Houzhao said indifferently.

When Lao Tzu's fleet is released, he will take a trip to the southeast and sweep the smuggling ships, and all the ones he will snatch back will be his own.Not only those smuggling ships, but also the big smugglers along the southeast coast, all ransacked their homes. I guess I will have to build some large transport ships by then, otherwise they will not be able to transport them back.

"Don't act recklessly!" Zhu Youtang looked at his son vigilantly, and reminded, Zhu Youtang knew that his son had a lot of tricks and courage, and he was afraid that his son would do something wrong.

"Father, don't worry!" Zhu Houzhao waved his hand and said, "I'm just doing something from the Eighth Bureau. You'll definitely make a lot of money just wait and see, but you're going to lend Yang Peng to my envoy." .”

(End of this chapter)