Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 388

In the morning, Zhu Yihai still woke up very early, and got up without thinking too much about the beauty who was still sleeping soundly next to him on the dragon bed.

A female official brought several maids to help him clean up, and dressed him in the imperial uniform. He walked out of the Qianqing Palace, first did a set of Tai Chi in the front yard, and then shot thirty arrows. In the cold morning, his whole body was hot. up.

After warming up, he went back to the West Wing Hall for breakfast, and made a special confession to avoid the daily greetings of the queen, concubines and princesses.

Breakfast is also very simple, millet porridge with lamb.

The mutton is pre-cooked and has a salty taste. The millet porridge is as rich and sticky as soybean milk. It is specially made from millet and soybeans. In cold weather, a layer of porridge skin has formed on the surface of the millet porridge.

Pour the mutton into the porridge, stir a few times,
Mutton and porridge are mixed together to warm up the stomach.

Since entering the Nanjing Imperial Palace, Zhu Yihai reiterated several times that he should be simple and thrifty, and not extravagant and wasteful. His breakfast will not have seven dishes and eight bowls. Early, but with simple ingredients.

Just like this bowl of millet and mutton porridge, that is, millet, soybeans and mutton. The mutton is also ordinary mutton. It will never be the same as Yangzhou salt merchants. An egg costs one tael of silver. Large hen lays eggs.

The millet does not pick the place of origin, and the mutton does not care about the variety.

After breakfast, feeling warm all over his body, he changed into a dark dragon yellow satin casual robe, and left the Qianqing Palace for the Prime Minister's Office outside the square.

He usually works in the Hall of Martial Arts, but there is also an imperial study in the Prime Minister's Office outside Qianqing Gate.

At Qianqing Gate, Yang Boxing, the commander-in-chief of Qianniu Town, is waiting here.

"morning."

Facing Yang Boxing's meeting, Zhu Yihai waved his hand, telling him to be less formal and simpler.

"Ever eaten?"

Qianqing Gate is the dividing line between the inner and outer cities of the Forbidden City in Nanjing. Inside the gate is the harem, and outside the gate is the former dynasty. Foreign officials are not allowed to enter the harem. Yang Boxing is the general of the imperial guards. There are also some guards in the harem, but the number is small , there are also some eunuchs and guards such as the Royal Horse Supervisor who are on duty, and there is even a female guard.

Outside the door, there were more guards.

Yang Boxing is now the General of the Imperial Guard with the title of Admiral, but he is as loyal and cautious as before, answering the emperor carefully.

Zhu Yihai chatted with the guards while walking. He could call out the names of each guard accurately, and even knew their hometowns, as well as some of their current situations, such as whether they were married, who their wives were, and how many brothers they had at home. , or whose father just got sick, etc., these are also from ordinary chats, he cares about everyone's life, and through the guards around him, he has a deeper understanding of the lives of the soldiers and common people of all classes under his rule in the Ming Dynasty.

All the way to the door of the Prime Minister's Office.

There is another team of guards on duty here, not only the Qianniu Guards but also the Imperial Horse Supervisor.

The guards stopped.

Zhu Yihai entered, and the Prime Minister's Office kept two people on duty at night.

Last night, it was Zhang Guowei and Wang Zhiren, one article and one military.

The two came up to pay a visit. Last night there was no major incident. Zhu Yihai brought the two of them mutton and millet porridge, "Hurry up and eat it while it's hot."

Although it was just a simple breakfast, it was a gift from the emperor, and it was still a rare gift.

After leaving them to thank them for dinner, Zhu Yihai went back to his study, sat down in front of the royal case, and began to read the memorial.

There are already a lot of memorials on the imperial case, including the drafts of the cabinet submitted by the Secretary of the General Administration, the memorandum submitted by the ministers of the Prime Minister's Office, various information submitted by various intelligence agencies, and a bunch of private documents of the ministers. Memorial.

These private memorials were directly submitted to Zhu Yihai without going through the Secretary of General Administration or the cabinet, and were personally opened by him. The emperor folded it up, so generally this kind of zhezi is also called Mizuo, Zhezi.

On the surface, the content is to say hello, but in fact it is a secret recording of what you have learned so that you can monitor and listen to each other. Sometimes it is convenient for the monarch and his ministers to discuss some things directly without going through the imperial court and will not make it public.

Of course, this kind of secret report is really convenient for the ministers to monitor each other. After all, no one knows what they will say to the emperor. Sometimes, the qualifications for this secret report are also kept secret.

This thing is even more direct and reliable than the information provided by Dongchang, and it comes from the most direct first-hand information.

Zhu Yihai looked through these secret books first.

Compared with the formal official documents, each with a corresponding format, these secret documents are much simpler. He forbids gossip and nonsense, and directly enters the topic when there is something to do. The simpler and clearer the better.

Even in order to avoid wasting energy, the new government requires that the secret records be divided into two categories. Those with important events are called memorial records, and those with no important matters, or those who only report some non-important knowledge and information, please mark them directly on the memorial. Bright.

He will read the memorial first, and then the invitation.

Generally, if you ask An Zhe, you will not reply specifically.

Zhu Yihai was in a bad mood after reading the secret book.

There is not much good news about these memorials from governors and generals from all over the country. Although they have just won a series of victories and captured the entire area south of the Yangtze River, the actual situation in various places is not good.

Many officials used such shocking words as "a thousand miles of red land, no human habitation, and even changing sons and eating".

From Sichuan to Guanzhong, from Yunyang to Hunan, from Guizhou to Jiangxi, from Anhui to Jiangsu, to Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places, there is no safe place.

Sichuan has just gone through a major war. Although the war has ceased, Sichuan, the Land of Abundance, has now begun to experience famine. Previously, Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi Army, the Sichuan Ming Army, local armed forces, chieftains, and some thieves and hungry people, etc. There were four outbreaks of chaos in Sichuan, and as a result, countless people abandoned their fields and fled.

The consequences are emerging. Whether it is the Ming army or the Western army, or the local regiments, chieftains, and thieves, those with swords and guns are desperately robbing food, especially in the northern Sichuan area. The situation is even more serious now. After entering the pass, they began to grab food from the people without any pity.

Even in order to snatch money and food, he did not hesitate to slaughter the knife again.

Many people fled from their hometowns, and chieftains from all over the country took the opportunity to recruit Han people. Sichuan is now in a stable situation on the surface, but in fact, the population of the places controlled by the Ming Dynasty government has dropped sharply, the fields have been barren, and the treasury has been empty. What is happening is a situation where everything is waiting to be done, with countless hungry people waiting to be fed, even serious local bandits, and chieftains who are becoming more and more disobedient.

Not to mention that they have also reported that Zhang Xianzhong is frequently mobilizing, and hundreds of thousands of Xiying are gathering in northern Sichuan.

It is said that Chengdu is now almost an empty city. The young and middle-aged people, the treasury money and food, and the wealth of the people have all been taken away by Zhang Xianzhong.

Chongqing, an important town in eastern Sichuan, is now garrisoned by the Ming army, but it is still suffering from a food shortage. Now that the Ming army in central Sichuan is reorganizing, the biggest problem is the food problem.

Generals like Qin Liangyu, Zeng Ying, and Yang Zhan, now that they have ceased fire with Zhang Xianzhong in the West Camp, they have launched a fierce attack on the rogues and bandits in the country. The main reason is to snatch money and food from these rogues and bandits. The same goes for hungry people digging rat holes in winter.

The situation in Hunan is also very bad now.

Although the rebels like Ma Jinzhong and Zhang Xianbi were wiped out and defeated one after another, some of them surrendered, reorganized or demobilized, but they caused great damage.

The south of Dongting Lake was relatively backward and remote, and after the raid and looting by the rebel army, it was even more desolate. A large number of people fled into the chieftain's territory, and some went to Guangdong and Guangxi into Jiangxi.

The reports of the supervisors and governors such as Zhu Dadian and Du Yinxi have made people stunned. How many villages in prefectures and counties have been destroyed here, how many young men and cattle have been taken away there, and where hungry people have gathered to riot and break through cities and villages and many more.

Zhu Shengli has already gained a foothold in Changsha, Zhu Dadian has reopened his teeth in Hengzhou, the governors of Biyuan and Huguang are also recovering places, but they are facing too many difficulties now.

One is the serious lack of food, causing the people to flee from famine, and a large number of fields are barren. Spring plowing will begin soon, and the land is still scorched everywhere. The people are still running in the cold wind to survive. .

In Hunan alone, they had to defend against the Qing army in the north, hunt down the remnants of the rebels, and appease the refugees. The most important thing was the lack of food.

Without food, it is impossible to relieve the victims, and it is impossible for them to return to their hometowns to resume farming. If the spring plowing is missed this year, there will be no harvest in the summer, and the situation will only get worse.

Rectifying soldiers and horses requires money and food, training new troops requires money and food, appeasement and relief to the people requires money and food, repairing city roads requires money and food, dredging rivers, strengthening embankments and repairing water conservancy needs money and food, anyway, money and food are needed everywhere.

Before the Ming army was the attacking side, Zhu Yihai could order to take the initiative to attack, avoiding the real situation, attacking prefectures and counties, and even forcibly demolishing cities and seizing money and food.

But now the identity has changed, and the Ming army has become the defending side in Hunan, and all kinds of difficulties have been added to them if they have to secure the people and defend them.

Expenses are required everywhere, money and food are required everywhere, and the sum of all items is an unbearable burden.

Zhu Dadian was already regarded as a relatively capable official among the officials of the Ming Dynasty, especially in the area of ​​money, but now he is also complaining.

In his report to Zhu Yihai, he also put forward some governance solutions, mainly substituting work for relief, recruiting refugees to cultivate the fields, the Huguang army implementing the method of farming and fighting, and the common people practicing Baojia and so on.

But even so, Zhu Dadian still needs a large amount of food to overcome the current difficulties. After all, there is no food to support the army or the people.

The surrounding Jiangxi and Sichuan, the two lands of fish and rice, are now too busy to take care of themselves, let alone Hubei in the north, and can only adjust grain from Guangdong and Guangxi in the south, but the situation in the south is not very optimistic.

Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi, as the rear area, have not suffered any wars, but the local evils have been deeply rooted. In the last Zhongwu and other rebellions, the rebels also fled to Jiangxi and Guangxi, causing a lot of damage.

(End of this chapter)