Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1498 Luzon New Era (Part [-])
In the main study room of Rixin Building in Shangshu Gaofu, Liu Xin sized up Gao Yushi who just came in, half questioning and half jokingly said: "Your Majesty seems to be under a lot of work pressure, why does he have such a face?" Seriously, frowning back home?"

Gao Wushi didn't reply immediately, walked to his desk, picked up a cup of cold tea that the maids had brewed for a long time as usual, and gulped it down in one gulp.Then he sat down on the Taishi chair, leaned back, leaned his head on the pillow, and sighed.

"Zhuozhou was plagued by insects, and there was almost no harvest in the fields. Although the rescue was timely because it was close to the capital, villagers from dozens of villages left their homes and went to the capital to beg in groups."

"Oh, and then?" Liu Xin raised her eyebrows slightly: "Someone stopped them from entering the city?"

"That's not true. Although it is true that it is not allowed to arbitrarily amplify exiles into the capital as a rule, but my third uncle had such a thing at that time. He approved the release of exiles into the city, so later this rule is almost regarded as changed."

Gao Wushi sighed, and said: "But this is not the matter of my household department. When the refugees enter the city, what is nervous is the Jinyiwei, the Jingjun (eunuch soldiers) in the imperial city, and the Han generals in the Beijing camp and other garrison troops."

"Then why are you frowning?" Liu Xin was a little puzzled: "Did something go wrong and they came to you for help?"

"No, the Miyagi garrison and the Jing army have more people than the refugees. The trouble is that in the past it was the Ministry of Industry that handled the resettlement of these refugees, including relief and porridge.

Unexpectedly, none of the eight porridge factories in the capital under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry provided porridge. A crowd of beggars sat in front of the porridge factory. There were men and women, old and young, all skinny and skinny.Some have not eaten a morsel of food for three days, and will soon become hungry on the streets. "

Liu Xin finally frowned this time, and said dissatisfiedly: "Although Shi Xing, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, took over from Yang Zhao, it hasn't been too long, but this little thing can't be done?"

"It's not that he can't do it. I think he probably did it on purpose, just to cause me a little trouble." Gao Wushi snorted softly: "You must want to ask the reason, and the reason is very simple: the Ministry of Industry now only has the money in the budget. It was allocated in advance by the Ministry of Household Affairs. For the current extra-budgetary relief, he can categorically deny that the responsibility lies with him, and put it on me—because now all the wealth and power in the world are in my hands, and if I don’t give out the money, he can Say you can't do it."

"Then why don't you just take the money?" Liu Xin spread her hands and asked, "Last time, Shi Xing could tell that he wasn't a student of yours. It's almost reasonable for him to make trouble for you, but like this For such a thing, wouldn’t it be good for your household department to give you the money directly?”

"That's right, just give me the money." Gao Wushi nodded, but said, "But you have to know, any unit...I mean the Yamen, there is a process for handling things. This is especially true for the yamen where money is controlled. The Ministry of Household Affairs did not say that it would not give money, but even normally speaking, the process is not that simple.

First of all, how much should the money be given, at least there must be an estimate?You have to estimate, at least know the number of refugees entering the city, right?Then, how long these refugees will probably need to stay in the city, should they also be estimated?

But how to estimate this item? If they don’t care about it like before, no one can predict how long they will stay, but because the imperial court divided the disaster relief into two parts under my suggestion, one is relief, and the other is Placement, so that there is a direction that can be basically estimated.

This direction is that the Ministry of Households is responsible for providing relief, and the Ministry of Industry is responsible for resettlement.Let’s not talk about the issue of the Ministry of Households, let’s talk about the resettlement of the Ministry of Industry: they first need to build temporary shelters for the refugees near the porridge factory, and then find a way to carry out "relief with work" as soon as possible, that is, arrange temporary accommodation. Work.

This work-for-relief has to be considered in terms of gender, age and even job type.Strong men are definitely the best way to deal with it, but women’s placement is a bit more troublesome. It’s okay to put them together to make women’s reds, starch laundry, etc., but other things have their own troubles, and usually these things can only be contacted by the palace to see if the palace needs it... …

As for the old and the weak, it's more complicated.Elderly people depend on their age and their physical condition, but even if they are not very old, their bodies don’t look weak, but considering our tradition of respecting the elderly, we can only arrange the easiest jobs for them. It is not easy to find among the many projects controlled by the Ministry of Industry, and most of them can only be arranged in warehouses, night watch at construction sites, and the like.

And children are also difficult to deal with. Although Ming Dynasty has almost no strict regulations on "prohibiting child labor", what can you arrange for children?Most of them can only be kept.Some half-sized children are more troublesome to arrange, and they are especially good to eat, but there are not many things they can do..."

Liu Xin suddenly interjected, "That's not necessarily the case. When my brother was 13 years old, he had already taken the vanguard to break through the barbarian stronghold, beheading generals and capturing the flag."

"Uh..." Gao Wushi couldn't help but choked, and coughed lightly: "The situation is quite different for the general, although the world is big, how many Liu Zhens are there?"

"That's not necessarily true. It seems that Ma Gui also joined the army at the age of 13. He went to the battlefield that year. There are also Ma's army, Ma's army's children... In short, there are quite a few of your Xuanda's direct line. Are they all As powerful as my brother, I haven't seen it with my own eyes, so I can't say much, but at least they were in the 'half-children' period, and I'm afraid most people have already seen blood."

Gao Wushi smiled wryly and said, "I've said it all, generals are two different things. If we talk about elite soldiers in the world, boy scouts have always been one of them, because these half-children don't even know what it means to be afraid of death. Their bravery , Many elite soldiers in hundreds of battles are incomparable, but resettlement of refugees cannot be considered based on this..."

"Okay, okay, I just said it casually, you continue."

However, Gao Wushi forgot what he just said, hesitated for a while, and simply shook his head: "In short, finding out these situations is equivalent to conducting a census of refugees first, and after the census, we need to discuss arrangements, and finally the Ministry of Household Affairs Funding based on these circumstances—you see, doesn’t that take time?”

"It takes time, but the refugees can't wait for you to go through the process hungry. Shouldn't we solve the problem of eating for them first?"

"That's right, that's right, but originally the Ministry of Industry should pay in advance for this matter, and the Ministry of Households will allocate funds after receiving the estimated documents, and then they will make up the advance money back to the Ministry. But Shi Xing is hard at present. They procrastinated and insisted that the Ministry of Industry has no balance, saying that as long as the Ministry of Household Affairs does not pay the money, the Ministry of Industry will not be able to move on this matter for a day.”

"Damn Shi Xing!" Liu Xin raised her brows upside down, "I can understand party struggles, but taking so many lives as bargaining chips for his party struggles, is this kind of person worthy of being an official?"

Gao Wushi was still calm, spread his hands and said: "There is no shortage of such people in all dynasties, so what can I do?"

Liu Xin was so angry that she slapped the table, and said bitterly, "I really wish I could kill him with a knife." But of course she knew that this was impossible, so she sighed again, and said with some annoyance: "Now I really feel that it is still in southern Xinjiang. When leading the army, it is more convenient, the enemy is clear, as long as the battle is won, you can do whatever you want, it will not be like now...

I always feel that staying in the capital now is like being stuck in a big muddy pond. I feel so dirty and uncomfortable but I can't break free.Speaking of which, I really don't understand how you can still enjoy yourself in this environment. "

Gao Wushi chuckled: "Perhaps I think that if we can transform a muddy pond into a resplendent palace, it should be a very fulfilling thing."

"Oh, you're really an idealist." Liu Xin curled her lips, she was too lazy to continue, but turned the topic back: "Then what are you going to do now?"

"Earn a ditch and gain wisdom, take this as an opportunity to set up a... No, no more institutions can be established. It should be said that we will make an extra temporary budget in the future as a backup. Don't worry about the name, anyway, the purpose is For these sudden social incidents, especially the disaster disposal budget near Gyeonggi."

After a pause, Gao Wushi continued: "As for the present, I have specially approved a sum of money today for temporary disposal. The money will be released when the Ministry of Industry's estimated expenditure report comes up, and the Ministry of Households will allocate funds. Deduct today's portion."

Liu Xin thought for a while, then suddenly became surprised, and asked: "Your method is appropriate, but it is not difficult. Could it be that Shi Xing would not have guessed that you would do this? I don't think he is so stupid. Here it comes: Since you can just approve a report and solve it, what is the purpose of him coming to offend you?"

"The purpose, as you said just now, is to offend me." Gao Wushi spread his hands: "Don't offend me a few times, why would the Heart School treat him as one of their own? Don't forget, he His native place is Dongming County, but he is from Northern Zhili (but this place belongs to Shandong in later generations), not from Jiangnan—not even Nanbang scholars.”

Liu Xin suddenly realized, she let out a long "oh", then thought about it, and said: "I see, this guy Shi Xing has really used his brains. He used this matter to confront you. Bian will definitely feel that he really can't turn back, and for you, he is actually not too angry-after all, it is just a "little trouble" to deal with. In this way, he behaved on the side of the heart school, and on your side Bian Ye didn't offend too much... Huh, they are all politicians after all."

Gao Wushi waved his hands, as if he was too lazy to continue this topic, instead he closed his eyes gently, leaned his head back, and looked as if he was about to fall asleep.

But Liu Xin knew that it was impossible for him to go to bed so early. In her eyes, Gao Pragmatic was similar to Gao Gong back then. He was also a bit of a workaholic, and he hardly slept until midnight.However, the time for "going to work" in the Ming Dynasty was very early in the morning. During his habitual wake-up time, the sky was still dark, so this also allowed him to develop some unique habits, such as closing his eyes and resting his mind when he has a little time. .

But Liu Xin didn't seem to want to let him rest for a while today, coughed lightly, and said, "I think you've heard too much bad news, how about I report some good news to you?"

As expected, Gao Wushi opened his eyes lightly and asked, "What's the good news?" But before Liu Xin could answer, he continued, "Wait a minute, let me make a guess—is the expedition fleet captured Manila?"

"Oh, Gao Situ is really clever, Manila has indeed been obtained." Liu Xin said with a smile, but blinked again, and said: "However, Gao Situ still miscalculated a little bit."

This sentence aroused Gao Pragmatic's interest, and there was some concern on his face, and he asked: "What's wrong? Our army suffered a lot?" But he himself didn't seem to believe it, and frowned: " It shouldn't be... We have an absolute advantage in naval battles. Even if the Spaniards fight onboard, most of our ships have land divisions on board, so there is no reason for serious losses.

Could it be that the land battle lost a lot?But that shouldn't be the case, the Spaniards only have [-] soldiers, and there are almost no cavalry. Could it be that Gao Yimin made serious command mistakes in this situation?In other words, our previous assessment of the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army was seriously distorted. Are they really capable of fighting? "

"Neither of them." Liu Xin raised her eyebrows: "The fact is that the naval battle was completely won, while the land battle was just a stance, and the Philippine Governor-General obediently sued for peace."

Gao Wushi was stunned and said, "Uh... is the news true?"

Seeing this, Liu Xin couldn't help but chuckle, stretched out her green fingers, and tapped Gao Yushi in the air: "I thought you really counted to [-]% before every battle, and you can only do it when you are fully sure." You will go to war. Unexpectedly, you are not as confident as I imagined."

Gao Wushi glared at her: "What's the matter? Fighting against the Mongols, Jurchens, or even fighting against the Japanese in the future is based on historical records. Under my influence, Da Ming How much the army has improved, compared with the reference of those historical records, I can roughly figure out the combat effectiveness of the opponent.

But how do you want me to compare the Spaniards?If we compare history, their opponents are either European armies, or backward American tribes or tribal empires, and these opponents have no records of fighting against Ming Dynasty, so of course I can only rely on estimates.How accurate is this estimate? Who can guarantee it before the war? "

"Now you can rest assured—well, at least you can rest assured." Liu Xin said seriously.

"How do you explain this?" Gao Wushi asked.

Liu Xin found a stack of manuscripts from the side, handed it to Gao Wushi, and said, "Here is the battle report, you should read it yourself sooner."

Gao Wushi immediately took over, looked at it, nodded after a while, and put down the report: "The naval battle was indeed a big victory, but although the main battle was fought by warships, it still relied on crushing to force the opponent's big treasure fleet to surrender." The superiority of force ... oh, the superiority of fleet size."

"So what?" Liu Xin raised her chin slightly, and said, "We obviously have the advantage in warship battles, and as for the advantage of scale... I think we can maintain this advantage even in the Indian Ocean. Not to mention the South China Sea area. In other words, as long as you don't think about expeditions to mainland Spain, this scale advantage is always on our side."
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Thank you book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "soviet2003", "Cao Mianzi" and "Shan Qi Zhao Bi Xin" for their monthly support, thank you!
(End of this chapter)