Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 299
"Peach patter..."

Suzhou in July was as dark as midnight, and there was a hole in the sky, and the torrential rain continued for several days.

Some people have never seen such heavy rain in their life, as if someone in the sky is holding a bath tub and pouring it down.

The backflow of sea water and the torrential rain caused the accumulated water inside and outside the city of Suzhou to be large, and under the backflow of sea water, the accumulated water in the city was like waves, beating continuously, knocking down many houses and courtyards. The ancient city walls are beginning to crumble.

From time to time, white floating corpses could be seen slapping the city wall along with the waves in the waves. Looking down from the sky, there are thousands of floating corpses in just one city of Suzhou, which is horrifying...

In Huzhou, not far from Suzhou and the south of Songjiang River, merchant ships belonging to Huangdian became rescue ships at this time.

Each ship has hundreds of people, and the decks and surrounding boards of the ships creak under the water pressure.

On the deck of the ship, the people who reported to the regiment to keep warm squatted together, and the soldiers of the Waigong Guard Battalion of the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion temporarily became search and rescue soldiers.

They looked around on the deck, trying to see the people, some of them were holding umbrellas, some were wearing coir raincoats.

However, all rain gear is useless in the face of this level of heavy rain.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and finally even the umbrellas were washed away, and the visibility in the surrounding area was less than five feet. If you didn't know it, you would think that they were at sea at this moment, not Huzhou.

"Stay on guard! The rain is too heavy. If the sea water recedes, we will be sucked into the sea with people and boats. We will retreat to the mountains first and send the people ashore!"

"Yes!"

On the deck, a general flag braved the heavy rain, hiding under his coir raincoat and speaking loudly, and other general flags also echoed.

Most of the Waigongwei battalion was dispatched and stationed in other places, while the Gongwei battalion stationed in Southern Zhili by the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion was basically a mixed formation of soldiers from Liaodong and Fujian.

The soldiers in Fujian are okay, but where have the soldiers in Liaodong seen such a scene?
Even standing on the deck, they couldn't help trembling.

"Master Jun, it's hard to see such a storm in hundreds of years, let's go ashore first!"

"Go ashore, my lord!"

All of a sudden, not only the soldiers, but even the people who were searched and rescued began to urge them.

Seeing this, he had no choice but to defend, so he could only bite the bullet and order: "Retreat to Tianmu Mountain!"

The heavy rain was noisy, and after he gave the order, he could only communicate it one by one. Finally, the search and rescue boat retreated to Tianmu Mountain by rowing oars.

Such a scene happened in the Songsi Mansion of Suchang Lake, and in the dark rain, it was actually difficult for all the ships to tell the direction, which was equivalent to driving straight ahead with their eyes smeared.

Many ships in the middle have hit something, and I don't know if the eaves are other people's boats.

In the end, they finally arrived at Tianmu Mountain, and the rescued people began to disembark one after another, thanking themselves for being rescued on the shore, while the search and rescue ships could only continue to sail towards the seawater and typhoon after a rest and a meal. Sifu...

"How about the disaster relief?"

"Money and food are all allocated, that is, the money and food allocated to the three prefectures of Suchang Lake are relatively small, only more than [-] taels of silver, which may not be enough..."

On the tenth day of July, when Su Chang Husong was still in the rescue, the sound of hurried footsteps appeared in the outer court of the capital, and the officials who saw the footsteps along the way all looked away in the next second, not daring to look too much.

Zhu Youjian, who was wearing a mandarin duck battle jacket, led people into the inner court without even having time to change his clothes, while Wang Chengen and Lu Wenzhao received him at Donghua Gate, and followed him while walking around while reporting back.

"How about the floods in the four prefectures of Suzhou?"

Zhu Youjian's busy feet didn't touch the ground. He just ran back to the capital from Taining Mansion today. If it wasn't for the earthquake in the four provinces, he originally planned to wait until September and October to return.

It's just that the plan couldn't keep up with the changes, and the disaster relief and the lack of money and food forced him to go south to the capital to cover the money and food for the court.

Facing his inquiry, Lu Wenzhao also truthfully told the things about Jiangsu:
"The flood didn't recede until the eighth day of the lunar month. The magistrates in the four places of Suchang Lake were scattered. Thousands of people cried and complained. Ten and nine of them lost their houses. Many old and young were killed and injured."

"The corn and millet in the three places are rotten, the people's orders are difficult, and the people have no food. Those who go up the mountain to avoid the water can only peel the elm skin and eat it."

"In just eight days, all the elm skins, wild vegetables, and wheat leaves on the dwarf hills of the three prefectures were eaten up."

"There are common people who have devoted themselves to wandering around as beggars, and some have jumped off cliffs to ravines and died, and some have hanged themselves to death, and there are also some who have cut trees and raised poles, but the officials of the three prefectures and counties are indifferent."

"Indifferent to hearing?" Hearing these four words, Zhu Youjian stopped in his tracks, and said with suppressed anger:

"Since you don't want to take care of it, then don't be an official. Those who are indifferent to the news will be skinned and used as grass, and the whole family will be exiled to Dongshan Mansion, Old Port."

"In addition, what are the officials in Nanzhili and Zhejiang doing? Although there are millions of people in the three prefectures, can't they still fail to distribute food in eight days?"

"Currently the people are revolting because of hunger. Do they have to fight to the city of Nanjing before they can get money and food?!"

"Your Highness, calm down..." Lu Wenzhao bowed his head to persuade Zhu Youjian not to be too angry, and Wang Chengen also said:
"Three days ago, Wansui ordered Nanzhili and Zhejiang to allocate food to the four prefectures of Suchang Lake for disaster relief. It should be able to calm down in a short time."

"Hmph!" Zhu Youjian gritted his teeth, and said with an ugly face:
"If the disaster relief is not timely, so what if you make up for it later? Lu Wenzhao, you ransacked the homes of all the officials who failed to provide disaster relief in time!"

"The humble officer takes orders..." Lu Wenzhao bit the bullet and accepted the military order, and Zhu Youjian also turned around and walked towards Qianqing Palace.

But when he walked not far from the gate of Qianqing Palace, he saw Zhu Youxiao standing at the gate of the palace, looking up and looking around.

When Zhu Youxiao saw Zhu Youjian, he immediately ran over with Wei Zhongxian, Wang An, Wang Tiqian, and Liu Ruoyu:
"younger brother!"

Zhu Youxiao ran to Zhu Youjian, raised his hand to hug, and thought about the age and identity of the two of them, so he had to put it down halfway.

Seeing this, Zhu Youjian took the initiative to grab Zhu Youxiao's wrist, and said with a smile:

"I haven't seen you for a long time, brother, but I feel much stronger."

"My brother has lost weight..." Zhu Youxiao said at the same time, with distressed eyes.

It's not that he is exaggerating, but Zhu Youjian's own body shape is a bit exaggerated.

Before the expedition, his weight was equivalent to the weight unit of later generations, which was about one hundred and sixty catties, which was considered strong.

It's just that he came back from the expedition, and his current weight is no more than one hundred and thirty catties.

With such a weight, considering his height of about five feet six inches, he was so emaciated that it made people feel distressed.

Compared with him, the [-]-year-old Zhu Youxiao is five feet five inches tall, but weighs about one hundred and fifty catties, and looks a bit strong.

However, even if the two are fat, they are not the same as Wanli and others, but similar to Zhu Di and Zhu Yuanzhang.

After all, one of the two fights on the battlefield, and the other polishes wood every day, both of which are physical labor...

"go!"

There were not so many nasty words between brothers, Zhu Youjian smiled and said, then grabbed Zhu Youxiao's hand and walked towards Qianqing Palace.

Seeing this scene, those who didn't know thought Zhu Youjian was the elder brother and Zhu Youxiao was the younger brother.

But this is not surprising, after all, in terms of physique, even though Zhu Youjian was a little thinner, others felt that his aura was too strong, making it difficult for people to approach him.

"King Qi is a thousand years old..."

Passing by the gate of Qianqing Palace, the eunuchs of the Jingjun at the gate sang, and Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian also crossed the long palace road and walked into the Hall of Mental Cultivation of Qianqing Palace.

But after entering the Hall of Mental Cultivation and sitting down, Zhu Youjian put away his smiling face and said to Zhu Youxiao:
"The flood in Suchang Lake's Songsi Prefecture may affect nearly ten million people, and my brother's allocation of only [-] taels may not be enough..."

"There are so many people?" Zhu Youxiao was a little surprised, and Zhu Youjian also sighed when he saw this.

who said no...

When Nanzhili had a population of just over [-] million in the early Ming Dynasty, it accounted for one-sixth, with tens of millions of people.

After such a population has multiplied for more than [-] years, the total population of Nanzhili has already exceeded the total number of [-] million, but the yellow books of the Ming Dynasty are always copied from the old and cannot be recorded.

A large prefecture like Suzhou, which occupies a quarter of the money and food in South Zhili, has a population of more than three million, and the land of a prefecture is comparable to that of a province.

If Changzhou Prefecture, Huzhou Prefecture, and Songjiang Prefecture are added, the population would be seven to eight million at least.

Zhu Youjian said that there are nearly ten million people, and it is not groundless.

Although the land of these four prefectures has also changed rice to mulberry, after all, there are many rice fields left, and they are still large grain households in Southern Zhili.

At present, their entire territory is suffering from disasters. In the era of the Ming Dynasty, when almost all of them were one-story houses and small courtyards, thousands of people could still be drowned. One can imagine the tragedy of the local area.

People who can move can't live, let alone food that is rooted in the ground.

The more than [-] mu of land in these four prefectures has no harvest, which is [-] to [-] million shi of grain.

Someone has to make up for the [-]-[-] million food gap, right?
"My brother wants Lu Wenzhao to send the Jinyiwei Supervision Department to Nanzhili to investigate, exile officials who made mistakes in disaster relief, and ransack the homes of corrupt people."

As soon as Zhu Youjian opened his mouth, Zhu Youxiao knew that his younger brother was really angry, so he didn't refuse, but looked at Lu Wenzhao and said:

"You have heard what King Qi said. You can figure out how to deal with specific matters."

"I obey the order..." Lu Wenzhao bowed in response, and Zhu Youjian said again when he saw this:

"The four major earthquakes in Shanxi, North Zhili, Henan, and Shandong, with only four million taels of silver and three million shi of grain, must be difficult to provide relief."

"The brochure in my brother's hand can also be properly released."

In a word, Zhu Youxiao's face changed in an instant.

Brochure...

Zhu Youxiao naturally knew what his younger brother was talking about. It was nothing more than finding out from Bansheng City the list of documents that San Niangzi smuggled with border generals, officials, and merchants in private.

If this list is to be moved, the scope of involvement is too great...

Thinking about it, Zhu Youxiao hesitated and said, "Is it too early?"

"What do you think, brother?" Zhu Youjian asked Zhu Youxiao back, and their conversation was confusing to everyone except Lu Wenzhao.

After a while, Zhu Youxiao frowned and said:

"Come on little by little. If Lei Ting takes action on this case, it may shock the government and the public."

"Let's start with the merchants and some small officials..."

"No!" Zhu Youjian interrupted Zhu Youxiao's thoughts. Although Zhu Youjian knew that merchants had a lot of money, he knew that merchants had limited means to resist the imperial court.

Instead of mobilizing merchants, it is better to mobilize officials first!

"First arrest all the officials above rank five!" His eyes sank, and Zhu Youxiao could only frown and say:
"Follow my brother's wishes..."

Zhu Youjian came back, and Zhu Youxiao was a little reluctant to deal with the government.

But Zhu Youjian also has something to do, so he can only say:
"Let Lu Wenzhao handle the case. When I come back this time, I still need to go to Yanshan, and I will leave later."

"So soon? Sister-in-law Ni Huang personally cooks today, you..." Zhu Youxiao wanted to have a meal with Zhu Youjian, after all, the two hadn't seen each other for more than half a year.

"There are a lot of things to do. After the work in Yanshan is over, my brother will come back and talk to my brother." Zhu Youjian shook his head with a wry smile, then bowed and left the Hall of Mental Cultivation under Zhu Youxiao's reluctant eyes.

He came and went in a hurry, but the hasty behavior made Zhang Yanbai cook a table of meals.

When he rode out of the city, Zhu Youxiao, Zhang Yan, Zhu Ciran, and Zhu Shu'e were sitting in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, looking at a table of food, but suddenly lost their appetite.

"My brother has lost a lot of weight. I wanted you to cook for him as a sister-in-law to reward him, but now it seems that I am a little inconsiderate of him."

Zhu Youxiao originally wanted to use a meal to let Zhang Yan have a deeper understanding of his brother's character and temper, but he forgot Zhu Youjian's identity.

He is not only the King of Qi in the Ming Dynasty, he is also the Governor of the Five Armies, the Governor of Shangzhi, and the King of Qi in the Palace of King Qi.

The Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, the Imperial Horse Supervisor, the Salt Department, the Tea Department, the Shibo Department, Yanshan University, Yanshan Military Academy, Yanshan Medical College, Daming Armament Research Institute, etc. all need him to solve things.

He went out to fight for more than four months this time, and he didn't know how many things were backlogged in these places that he needed to deal with and solve.

He also wanted to sit down and have a meal with peace of mind, but the earthquakes in four provinces, floods in four prefectures, and other things naturally made him unable to stop.

Perhaps for Zhu Youjian, going out to fight is already equivalent to a "holiday".

It's just a pity that there is another chance for Zhang Yan to know Zhu Youjian.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao also picked up the chopsticks, and when Zhang Yan saw him pick up the chopsticks, she also started to pick up vegetables for him.

Zhang Yan doesn't know her fifth uncle, but she knows her husband.

As long as Zhu Youxiao is there, the three guards of the imperial city will still be there, and Zhu Youjian will not be in charge.

In fact, she knows all these things, she has no malice towards Zhu Youjian, what she is afraid of is that her husband will not think about it.

After all, the examples of Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Kuangyi are still there, and it is not uncommon to have an heir to give up the throne to a younger brother. She is not only a queen, but also a mother, who has to think about her children.

Maybe Zhu Youjian won't do anything to Zhu Ciran, but what about the people below him?What about his heirs?
Thinking of this, Zhang Yan felt a lot heavier. At the same time, when Zhu Youjian rode his horse northward, he asked Wang Chengen who followed him northward:

"Is there any change in Yanshan Academy?"

"For some, the number of students has reached [-]. The daily meals cost more than [-] taels of money and food, and the monthly expenditure is more than [-] taels." Wang Chengen said with a headache:
"It's just meals, and some other things start to add up, and Yanshan Academy spends nearly [-] taels of silver per month."

"Other medical schools and Military Academy also spend about [-] taels, and the Armament Academy also applied for [-] taels of funding this month, and the servants have not yet processed it."

"Satisfy the funding of the Military Armament Academy first." Zhu Youjian replied without thinking, and then settled the bill.

According to these expenditures, the expenditures of various universities and research institutes are properly around two million taels per year.

This accounted for almost one-twentieth of Daming's fiscal revenue. Although it didn't sound like a lot, it was definitely a terrifying existence in this era.

The entire European royal family's expenditure on military research and intellectual training is not as high as that of Ming Dynasty, and even the whole world is not as high as Daming...

This is not to say that they are incapable, but that they don't have so many things to conquer, and they don't have so many things to study.

European research is still in a situation of barbaric growth, but Zhu Youjian has already begun to form a set of systematic procedures.

"How many people can enter the Armament Academy this year? How many people can enter the graduate school? How many people can be officials or officials?"

Zhu Youjian asked three times in a row, and Wang Chengen also answered in an orderly manner: "The candidates for the Military Armament Academy have been confirmed. There are more than [-] students this year, and [-] people have been selected."

"On the contrary, the number of graduates and officials will not be determined until the end of the general examination in September."

"In addition, if Enke is used this year, I am afraid that the number of references will reach hundreds of thousands..."

Wang Chengen glanced at Zhu Youjian, and Zhu Youjian knew why.

After Enke last year, Huangdian directly put out all kinds of Yanshan textbooks except chemistry and physics. Many students got a glimpse of the unusual atmosphere, so they also bought these books to familiarize themselves with when preparing for the imperial examination.

This is a means for Zhu Youjian to promote the reform of the imperial examination, and he also believes that there will only be more scholars and smart people in the Ming Dynasty than those in Yanshan Academy, not less.

Besides, if Enke every year is just for the students of Yanshan University to entertain themselves, then it is a minority, and it is doomed to fail to reform.

Only when many students are made clear that Enke will be the fastest way for them to become officials, will they abandon the Four Books and Five Classics and focus on Yanshan textbooks.

As long as they are willing to learn, Zhu Youjian has a large number of talents available.

Such a learning atmosphere is actually conducive to the birth of scientific research talents. After all, cramming education will obliterate the imagination of most people.

People in the Central Plains before the Qing Dynasty never lacked imagination. As long as they dared to think and given money and food, they could make it.

Even if it can't be done, Zhu Youjian doesn't believe that the Central Plains people are worse than Europeans due to the accumulation of generations.

"Can the balance of payments be balanced now?"

When Zhu Youjian spoke suddenly, Wang Chengen could only lower his head and respond:

"Currently there are nearly [-] troops, the expenditure of military pay and food is [-] million taels, the expenditure of the imperial store is about [-] million taels, the expenditure of Yanshan and other governments is [-] million taels, and the expenditure of the Ordnance Bureau is about [-] taels. The total expenditure is about [-] taels. About [-] million taels."

"The military farm has not yet lowered the tax. This year's grain price is a bit higher. After the discount, it is about [-] million taels. After the tax is paid, the annual income of the imperial store is about [-] million taels."

"Although it is said that the annual income is still available, in fact, the Ministry of Households often needs the assistance of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, so it is not enough..."

Wang Chengen's words made Zhu Youjian frown. He calculated the annual income of the household department. Logically speaking, the annual income of the household department should not be less than [-] million taels if the grain discount and the annual income of the two departments are added together.

Why do you need to help yourself now?
"Your Highness..." As if seeing Zhu Youjian's confusion, Wang Chengen also explained:
"Currently soldiers from the army and horses, yamen servants from the Ministry of Justice, judges from Dali Temple and other places are resettling wounded soldiers, students and officials, and the number has increased to more than [-] people."

"The Ministry of Households is in charge of the salaries of all officials, and is also responsible for disaster relief and relocation in various places."

"Since this year alone, there have been [-] small-scale disaster relief, and the household department's money has already been spent in April..."

"Thirty-four?" Zhu Youjian frowned. He didn't expect that the Ministry of Household Affairs would need to spend so much money on disaster relief, nor did he expect that there would be so many disasters in just six years after the apocalypse.

"In addition, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong and other regions were exempted from taxes due to the white disaster and locust plague last year. In recent years, the Ministry of Household Affairs has not collected enough money and food for the two capitals and sixteen provinces."

"For example, last year's annual income, the Ministry of Household's annual income after discounting is only more than [-] million taels of silver, so it is spent so quickly."

"If it wasn't for Bi Shangshu's proper operation, I'm afraid the household department will be completely out of money in April this year, and some businessmen may not even recognize the IOU."

"For disaster relief right now, I heard that Bi Shangshu has sent people to Huguang, Jiangxi, and Sichuan to find some large and small grain merchants and make IOUs of five million shimi."

Making IOUs is basically a method commonly used by officials and businessmen since Zhang Juzheng in the late Ming Dynasty.

In actual operation, it is equivalent to the government asking merchants to borrow food, and then paying back the interest to the merchants.

This sounds unbelievable, but it is also Daming's helpless move.

Hearing the news, Zhu Youjian was also silent for a while.

According to historical practice, if it hadn't been for his appearance, the total amount of money and food owed by the Ming Dynasty in the sixth year of the apocalypse and before that would be around [-] million taels.

At present, the imperial court has no deficit, no money, food, and military salaries owed, and still maintains outward immigration and military operations. It has been established on the basis of Zhu Youjian's six-year reform of taxation.

Relief of disasters and people, sweeping away captives and money...

Judging from this year's situation, maybe next year Zhu Youjian can only choose one of the two.

"Beginning this year, people in the Ryukyu Prefecture and Liaodong have started to pay land taxes one after another. The Ming Dynasty paid more than [-] mu of grain to pay land taxes. The situation of the household department will look better next year."

After a long silence, Zhu Youjian could only say this, and then said:

"As for whether we can start to wipe out the Jianlu during the disaster relief, we have to see how much money Lu Wenzhao can find out from those smuggling officials..."

Zhu Youjian's words made Wang Chengen suddenly realize that it's no wonder that His Royal Highness wants to attack the officials. The co-author is because there is not enough money, and it is time to use the knife to make those corrupt officials hand over the money.

With their money, it will be much easier for Daming to get through the follow-up.

"Your Highness is brilliant..." Wang Chengen bowed in admiration, and Zhu Youjian also looked at the Yanshan Academy gradually appearing on the horizon, squinted his eyes and said:
"Eliminating corrupt officials is only the first step. Whether we can stabilize the place depends on them..."

　There should be another chapter between four and five o'clock today

　　
　
(End of this chapter)