First Prince of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 674 Ma Zheng
Then there were a few meaningless greeting memorials from local officials. The main content was to say that everything was fine on my side relying on the emperor's grace, then I started to care about the health of the Holy Majesty and the prince, and finally I presented some souvenirs.

Nowadays, there are no officials who dare to blatantly bribe their father and son. The souvenirs presented are really souvenirs, or clothing, silk, wood, toys, rocks, strange animals, and even food and cakes.

Most of these things are not used in the palace, and they are basically divided up at a glance, and it is impossible to eat food, but people have said that this is saved by the minister from the salary he received in a certain year and a certain month. Honor your father with the things you buy with money.

It is hard for Zhu Biao to say anything, he can only tell him that he has already felt his heart after the review, and there is no need to send these all the way in the future, but he guesses that they will not listen. If you have more opportunities to perform, you will really be forgotten.

Forget it, it’s easy to say, it’s okay for Emperor Tiangao to be a hundred miles or a thousand miles away, and not all officials want to be officials in the capital. The officials in the capital are noble, but the water in the capital is deep, and a few officials in the capital have to be drowned every once in a while.

The main reason is that I am worried about being framed and impeached for no reason, and I don’t have the opportunity to explain to the superior immediately. First and last name, at least there will be a chance to justify in the future.

Then there was Zhang Fan's performance. As one of the team that Zhu Biao wanted to train, Zhang Fan, who was born in the imperial examination, has performed very well in the assessment of the Ministry of Officials in the past two years. The people under his rule live and work in peace and contentment. Far.

In addition to greeting Zhu Biao's body, Zhang Fan mainly mentioned that some people not only opened up wasteland to cultivate land to support their families, but also raised official horses for the imperial court, which made life difficult.

In addition to Zhang Fan's memorial, Zhu Biao also met several local officials' memorials, all of which also complained about this matter, which shows that this problem really needs to be resolved.

Unlike the ethnic minorities whose entire population is good at raising horses, the development of the cavalry has always been a constraint on the development of the Central Plains Empire. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, wars have continued, and the entire territory has not yet been recovered. Therefore, the imperial court still has a huge demand for war horses.

The current policy of the imperial court is that the people who raise mares must hand in a cub every year, and then the court will distribute ponies to the people, and the people will return the adult war horses, so as to provide more sources for their own war horses by using the means of the people .

Of course, people who train war horses for the country can be exempted from certain taxes and corvees. Originally, the people were very willing. After all, the most leftovers from the Yuan Dynasty were horse farms and pastures in various places.

However, with the continuous relocation of people and land reclamation in recent years, most of the pastures have been converted into cultivated land, and it has become more and more difficult to raise horses. In addition, due to the excellent results of the horse administration in the past few years, the horses are almost enough for the army to use. , the treatment for raising horses is naturally lowered.

"Summon officials from the Taipu Temple and the Military Department of the Household Department."

"promise."

Zhang Fan said it implicitly, but according to Zhu Biao's understanding of his nature, he would only play it when it was really impossible. In order to ensure the supply of horses, the imperial court treated the people who raised official horses well but had higher requirements.

If there is no way to hand over a suitable horse, then the people need to pay the full amount of compensation according to the standard set by the court. A war horse is as high as dozens of taels, far exceeding the income level of the people, and it is really more precious than human life.

At the beginning, there was no way, the territory is so vast, how can we suppress Mongolia, suppress Liaodong and suppress the southwest without enough cavalry troops?Although this policy is not close to human feelings, it was indeed necessary at the time.

After two cups of tea, the Shaoqing of Taipusi and the Shangshu of the Ministry of War led a group of subordinates to Jinshen Hall. After seeing the ceremony, Zhu Biao was not in a hurry to ask questions, but asked Liu Jin to report the performance of Zhang Fan and others. Give them a turn to look over.

They waited for their breathing to calm down before they said: "The pastures have been converted into cultivated land. There should be quite a few households. Now the horse administration must be adjusted. Taipu Temple has counted how many war horses I have in Ming Dynasty now?"

The Shaoqing of Taipusi bowed and replied: "His Royal Highness, I have nearly 40 army horses in the border town of Ming Dynasty, about 18 garrisons in the Beijing camp, 20 post horses, and more than [-] juvenile horses raised by the people. "

Now there are only 60 horses available. If you count the horses that have not yet grown up, it will catch up with or even surpass the number of war horses at the peak of the Tang Dynasty.

In order to have this amount, except for those raised by the government and the people, they were basically acquired by force. For example, in Korea, the Korean peninsula has been rich in horses since ancient times. It was one of the fourteen large ranches in the Yuan Dynasty, and Dawan Horses and many other rare breeds.

Since the founding of the country, Comrade Lao Zhu has collected horses from the surrounding vassal states every now and then, ranging from a thousand to tens of thousands each time. During the Northern Expedition, how many horses were brought back from Mongolia, and they donated ten horses in one breath after returning to Mingxia. With more than ten thousand war horses, Zhu Biao also brought back many high-quality stallions and foals from Koryo and Liaodong through various trade means.

War horses are consumables and the guarantee of the country's combat effectiveness. The reason why the Song Dynasty was weak is because they had enough war horses and did not have their own horse production areas. At their peak, there were only more than 20 war horses.

And the Xixia Kingdom to the west of him directly occupies the important northwest horse-producing land, the Liao Kingdom and the Jin Kingdom to the north occupy the horse-producing lands in Northern Sai and Kanto, and even Dali in the south occupies a part of the horse-producing land in the Southwest. , The crushing of infantry by cavalry led to the fact that the Song Dynasty could only defend against the city wall.

"Is there enough horses for the frontier army?"

Minister of the Ministry of War replied: "If there is no war, it is naturally enough. The wear and tear of war horses is very small on weekdays, but once a battle starts, it will be consumed quickly."

The Shaoqing of Taipusi also answered: "Currently, the pastures supervised by the government can continue to supply some war horses every year, but we must ensure that the pastures will not shrink."

Zhu Biao nodded slightly. Ma Zheng had to slow down after getting this procedure. According to his plan, the places where he will use troops in the next few years will be Yunnan and Liaodong, and it is destined not to be a big battle. The pasture run by the temple official is enough to supply the damaged horses.

If you continue to urge and oppress the people to raise horses under the condition that it is increasingly difficult to find pasture fodder, you will undoubtedly force them to rebel, not to mention how Zhu Biao doesn't know.

The horses cultivated by the common people are returned to the imperial court, which naturally needs to be inspected and accepted. Naturally, the lower-level officials are responsible for this process, and it’s okay to give them filial respect. .

Moreover, this policy was originally intended to raise horses for the people who had the conditions and know how to raise horses. The court got horses to resist foreigners, and the people got tax relief. Many ordinary people's homes were ruined as a result.

Therefore, there must be nearly 200 officials in Taipu Temple where the imperial court has executed in the past two years, but it is still difficult to change this trend. The lower-level officials are greedy, and there is really nothing they can do.

And the most important thing is the secret letter jointly signed by Li Wenzhong, Xu Yungong and Chang Mao last time, which said that the quality of the horses transported from various places to supply the frontier army has been deteriorating every year.

In the final analysis, it is the disadvantage of the official camp. It lacks vitality and is used to coping with things. It has no enthusiasm and the effect of raising horses is very poor. Just like Zhu Biao’s intention to open the mine yesterday, when the official camp reaches a bottleneck, the best way is to open it. Private private sector to stimulate development.

During the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolia grazing wantonly in the Central Plains. The result was not very good. In fact, the horses still had to be supplied by grasslands such as Liaodong.

Zhu Biao's meaning is very clear. The officials below quickly got into the mood and began to discuss. The Ministry of War thinks that it is very good now, and the horses are enough to shock the world. It's time to change.

The Minister of the Household Department may feel that the people's raising of horses leads to poor farming and taxation, so he supports the change of the court's horse policy. As for the Taipu Temple, it is purely to follow the prince's will. After Qing Li Cunyi was sent to prison, Taipusi was panicked.

………………

(End of this chapter)