Brother Zhu Youxiao

"Father! I don't want to go..."

"Father! You have to talk to King Qi..."

"Father..."

"Uncle Wang..."

On the [-]th of March, with the end of the meeting for the division of feudal lords, thousands of clan children in mandarin ducks and jackets began to cry on the pier of Tianjin Port.

On the side of their pier, they were crying with the princes and lords of the vassals. Some lords were also very reluctant to part with their own children, but some people showed impatient expressions for the children of the vassal.

In the crowd, although Zhu Yousong didn't cry, his trembling hands and feet made Zhu Changxun, who came to see him off, look very ugly, but Zhu Youqu was still comforting his brother.

"What are you afraid of? After you go south, you are at least a small flag officer, with more than a dozen people under your command to protect you."

Zhu Changxun stood and talked without pain in his back. While scolding Zhu Yousong, he also said to Zhu Youqu next to him:
"Qu'er, when you enter Yanshan College in the future, you must do your best to win honor for us Fufan, at least get back one of the top [-] rankings for Dad."

"Father... I'm not afraid of death, I'm afraid I won't see you..." Zhu Yousong spoke in a trembling voice, and Zhu Changxun waved his hands and said:
"You are my son of Fufan. That kid Zhu Youjian didn't suffer any injuries when he ran wild in the south and north of the desert. Naturally, you are also very blessed."

"I..." Zhu Yousong hesitated to speak, he wanted to say how he could compare with Zhu Youjian, but after thinking about it, forget it.

After more than a year of training, Zhu Yousong was only able to open a five-strength bow, but according to some Shangzhi cavalry from the south, Zhu Youjian was already able to open an eight-strength bow.

What is the concept of eight force bow?Shangzhi elite cavalry can only open seven strengths, but Zhu Youjian can open eight strength bows at this age, and it is estimated that when he is the same age as Zhu Yousong, he can open more than ten strengths.

It's an exaggeration, I'm afraid it's not impossible for Zhu Youjian to open a [-]-jin strong bow.

If you really throw Zhu Youjian and Zhu Yousong together, I am afraid that Zhu Yousong will not even be able to scream, so Zhu Youjian will kill him.

"Beep--"

Suddenly, a piercing whistle sounded, which was the whistle to urge the soldiers to board the ship and go south. Hearing this whistle, many clan members could only cover their faces and weep to board the ship.

It's just that compared to them, the clan's children are not without boldness.

"Zhu Yujian, how many of you brothers don't go to the old King Tang to cry?"

On the deck, a familiar voice came, and the twenty-five-year-old Zhu Yujian turned his head to look over, but saw Li Zicheng, who was a leader in the Military Academy, and a group of northern Shaanxi students beside him.

"What? Are you going down to find your parents and cry?"

Zhu Yujian quarreled with Li Zicheng regardless of his identity, and his father Zhu Qiqi was exempted from going south because he was over forty years old.

By his side, there are only a few of his younger brothers, namely Zhu Yukai, Zhu Yukai, Zhu Yue, and Zhu Yuxi.

The age of the four brothers ranged from twenty-five to nineteen years old. It could be seen that the old father Zhu Qiqi was strong in terms of offspring. The most important thing was that the four of them survived safely.

In the era when the clan of the Ming Dynasty often died young, it can be said that Tang Fan was good at educating people.

"Don't cry when you go to the battlefield, you are all future princes, and we are all Qiu Ba."…

Although Li Zicheng said so in his words, the act of patting his chest seemed very confident that he would come back alive.

After all, the sons of the clan who had only been trained for one year were sent to the battlefield. There was no reason why Li Zicheng and the others who had trained for more than five years would not be able to do so.

"Let's see..." Zhu Yujian didn't want to waste much time with Li Zicheng, so he returned to the cabin with his four younger brothers.

Immediately afterwards, the children of the various feudal clans also began to board the ship. Among them, Zhu Chang began to unite the children of the Huai feudal clan early in the morning, and the same was true for Zhu Shaotong, the grandson of Zhou Fan.

The talented children of each domain are showing themselves, and the children over forty are all kept.

Zhu Youjian's move was to cultivate the new generation of the clan's children, otherwise it would be too naive to go to conquer the Mughals just by learning the art of war.

The children of the various feudal clans on the boat were all depressed, perhaps in their view, they were already the worst people in the entire Ming Dynasty.

But if they are really compared, are they really the worst?
As the anchor was pulled up, the boat escorting the children of the military academy to the south gradually became smaller from the sea surface of Tianjin Port, and finally disappeared.

Seeing this, the vassals sighed and got into the carriage. Some chose to stay in the capital, while others chose to return directly to the vassal land.

In short, their choices are different, but they still have choices. People who really have no choice are looking at the dry farmland at this moment, helpless...

"God, let it rain!"

Outside Yuhe Town, Yan'an Prefecture, Shaanxi Province, there has been no rain for two and a half months, causing hundreds of streams and rivers in northern Shaanxi to stop flowing, and the drought has bottomed out.

As the rivers and streams dried up, the fields began to dry up, and the seedlings died of drought.

Although the land was divided and a good year passed, the sudden severe drought still made many farmers irritable.

Yes, most of the people in Yan'an Mansion have been relocated, and the remaining people can each have five acres of land. Last year, they did harvest for a year and received tax exemption for one year. Each family has accumulated three acres of land. A dozen stones of rice and wheat.

But even so, everyone will be irritable if they sit and eat the mountain.

A family of six or seven people ate the thirty-odd stones of rice and wheat, and there were livestock and poultry in the family...

That is to say, the thirty or so stones of rice and wheat in the family can make them live happily for a year, so although the people in Yan'an Mansion are irritable, they are not in despair.

Some people went to cultivate the land at first, hoping for rain in the upper reaches of the river, but then this hope gradually turned into despair over time.

Time passed by little by little, from March [-]th to April [-]th, for a whole month, there was still no rain.

All the seedlings and crops are dead, and even some vegetables need to rely on the well water from the well to maintain their life.

After entering May, the dry season became more and more obvious, and the water level of the wells in the entire Yan'an Prefecture began to drop sharply, and every village heard the sound of well drilling and work.

Baskets of silt were carried to the ground, and then people who were full of silt were hoisted up.

"No way! The well has been drilled for more than ten feet, but the water coming out is still not much."

The muddy man wiped his face with a coarse cloth, and he spoke to the villagers around the well, and the old villager also said:

"How deep do you think you have to hit to get out of the water?"...

"It's at least twenty feet." The man said without thinking, and immediately made the people next to him look at each other in dismay.

Many people dare not think about a well twenty feet deep, but if the well is not drilled, the whole village will have no water to drink.

"Let's call, what do you need, the village will collect money to buy it for you."

Muramasa sighed and opened his mouth, and the man also said:

"Nothing is needed, just people and wood. It takes at least [-] people to dig the well. Divide into four teams to dig the well backwards, but those who go down the well will be in danger."

"If the well collapses, it really can't be saved!"

The words immediately made the hearts of the men around him tense, and some women also tightly clutched their men's clothes.

"Are you signing up yourself or drawing lots?" Villager turned around and asked the villagers.

"I come!"

"Count me in!"

"I'm coming!"

"I..."

A well is related to the drinking water of hundreds of people in the village. No one dares to be sloppy, even if they are afraid of death, but in order to let their wives and children have a sip of water, some people still have the courage to stand up.

"it is good!"

Twelve people quickly got together, the villager and the people pooled up copper coins, and finally each family gave out a bucket of grain, and the twelve men finally drove mules and carts to the nearest county to buy wood.

However, due to the digging of wells in all villages, the price of wood in the county has soared, and only four-fifths of the money that was originally enough to buy wood has been bought.

"Let the villagers buy some."

One person in the team spoke, but the leading man guarding the door of the timber shop gritted his teeth and said:
"Go back to work first, and let the villagers chip in to buy it."

"Okay!" They didn't have much thought of playing, and the problem of drinking water weighed on their minds, so they all returned to the village worriedly with the wood.

Each family gathered another bucket of grain and handed it over to one of the teams to buy wood, while the other three teams began to deepen the well.

In the same way as in the rural areas of later generations, they used a potter's wheel to support the mouth of the well, and two people were hoisted down, and the people above kept putting down wood for them to reinforce the surroundings of the well.

When the wood was reinforced to the bottom of the well, the two were changed shifts, and the other two went down the well with drilling tools.

This tool is called a butterfly cone in the local dialect. The head of the cone is shaped like the current ice inlay, and there are two clay buckets shaped like butterfly wings on the upper part.

The cone head also brings the silt into the mud bucket while drilling, and when it is full, it is pulled out of the ground for cleaning.

Since wells in northern Shaanxi are drilled in soil layers, and the wells are relatively deep, they are prone to collapse when soaked in water, so the wells must be drilled at the same time.

Since there are not so many suitable stones in northern Shaanxi, the wells selected by the village well-drilling team are all made of wood.

When they drilled wells, they enlarged the area of ​​the wellhead a little so that a layer of lining could be embedded inside the well, which is the well radius.

The working hours were long and boring, and the well was damp and dark. In order to relieve fear, the people in the well could only talk and chat.

Under the command of Jingkou Jingjian, the laborers filled the mud hopper with mud, and the well craftsman in Jingshang asked someone to clean it up.

For three days in a row, the well was drilled a foot deep, and gradually a layer of water began to appear.

Finally, under the force of a strong man, when the butterfly cone was pulled out, a stream of clear water began to flow out from the opening. …

"There's water!"

"There's water!"

"Is there water?!" Hearing the voice from the bottom of the well, the people on the well hugged and celebrated loudly, even though they were exhausted.

However, before they could celebrate properly, there was a sudden vibration from the soles of their feet, and before they could react, the Lifus in the well heard a "bang".

A piece of wood used to reinforce the wall of the well broke, and in an instant, other woods broke one after another, and wet soil gushed out of the crack in an instant.

"The well is broken! Come up quickly!"

The well craftsman who was in charge of observing at the mouth of the well shouted with fear in his voice, while the two workers down the well subconsciously grabbed the hanging basket.

"Come and pull!"

The well craftsman grabbed the handle of the potter's wheel and started to turn it, but the weight of the two people was too heavy, so he quickly woke up the stunned person beside him.

After the people around reacted, they ran to pull the potter's wheel one after another, but the reaction time for disasters is often insufficient.

When they were desperately pulling upwards, the thick layer of soil poured down, the hanging basket was swallowed by the soil in an instant, and the rope broke due to insufficient load.

Those who pulled the pulley only felt a sudden lightness, and those who were pulling the pulley fell backward one after another.

The second when he fell to the ground, everyone's minds were blank, only Jiang Jiang quickly got up.

It's just that when he looked at the mouth of the well, most of the well that had been dug for several days was buried, and the two laborers disappeared.

"It's over..."

------

"From March to May, no less than [-] people died due to digging wells. In the three provinces, nearly [-] million mu of land were completely harvested, and more than a million people drank without water..."

On the first day of May, when Bi Ziyan read out the memorials of local officials in the study of Prince Qi's Mansion, Zhu Youjian who was sitting in his seat fell silent.

Four thousand people died in two months, all because of digging a well. This situation is enough to show that the drought in the three provinces has reached the point where the people know that digging a well will kill them, but they still want to go down the well.

Zhu Youjian solved the food problem, but now the water problem has come.

However, he personally has been preparing for this issue for several years.

"[-] stone cement and [-] engineering teams have been prepared. Officials of various governments provide craftsmen and iron tools to supply them with digging wells."

"In addition, if there is really no way to dig a well, the whole village will be moved to Hexi, Hetao, or other places."

Zhu Youjian opened his mouth to order, and the so-called [-] engineering teams were students from Yanshan Civil Engineering.

Their teachers are all kinds of craftsmen with the best skills in Ming Dynasty. If they can't solve the problem, and they can't find a place to dig a well, then moving the village is the last way for the people to survive.

The [-] stone of cement was accumulated by the Mongols who were captured in the Sweeping Battle for two and a half years of labor reform.

Ensuring that the people in the northwest have water to drink is one of Zhu Youjian's methods for dealing with the severe drought in the northwest.

"The cost of digging the well..." Bi Ziyan asked Zhu Youjian, and Zhu Youjian said without thinking:
"It will be allocated from the national treasury. In addition, if Hexi cannot accommodate so many people, please invite the people to go to Luoyang and take a boat down the south of the Yellow River to go to sea."

"After going to sea, the people moved to Annan, which is enough in terms of time."…

"The cost of relocation shall be borne by the local governments, and the imperial court will distribute the money."

It sounds unbelievable to migrate people from the northwest to Southeast Asia, but Zhu Youjian has no choice.

Instead, he can move northern Shaanxi to southern Shaanxi, southern Shaanxi to Sichuan, Sichuan to Yunnan, Yunnan to southern An...

But the question is, how many people and how many acres of land need to be delayed?
Instead of delaying the cultivation of tens of millions of acres of land, it is better to relocate the people directly.

After all, the people who have no water to drink are in the minority. The relocation of hundreds of thousands of people only costs more than one million taels of silver, but if the relocation of a province is done, the cost will not be more than ten thousand taels of silver.

Relocate wherever the disaster area is, this is Zhu Youjian's method to deal with natural disasters.

"Have all the money from the vassals been handed over?" Zhu Youjian asked Bi Ziyan, and Bi Ziyan also said:

"According to the agreement, pay one-tenth of the amount first, and then pay two-tenths after Annan is defeated, and three-tenths after the Gongwei battalion is dispatched."

"Finally, when many kingdoms and vassal lands have been conquered, and the vassal kings have moved and arrived, they will finally hand over four-tenths."

"There is still [-] taels of official silver in the national treasury at the moment, and it should not be a problem to deal with the cost of drilling the well..." Bi Ziyan said so.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Chengen who was standing in the corner: "How about the South-to-North grain transfer?"

"Returning to Your Highness, Huangdian has begun to actively purchase grain from Sichuan, Huguang, Jiangxi and other places." Wang Chengen explained:
"Right now, grain from the old port is moving northward to Guangdong and Guangxi, and grain from Guangdong and Guangxi is moving northward to Fujian and Zhejiang by water."

"Food from Fujian, Zhejiang, and north is transferred to South Zhili, and the grain from South Zhili, Huguang, and Sichuan is transported by the Yellow River to Henan, Shanxi, and North Zhili by boat."

"The amount of grain transferred to the north is currently as high as [-] million shi, and there should be more than [-] million shi in the future. After that, all the grain and silver in the Yumajian will be exhausted..."

The money from the Yumajian plus the money transferred from the Ministry of Households was more than [-] million taels, but the corresponding ones could only buy [-] million shi grains, which made Zhu Youjian frown.

In this regard, Wang Chengen explained without him opening his mouth:
"Due to the drought in Shanxi and Shaanxi this year, many merchants are looting grain, waiting for the famine in Shanxi and Shaanxi to sell grain at a high price."

"Huguang and Sichuan used to cost only [-] wen per shimi, but now it has risen to [-] wen per shimi, and Jiangxi has increased from [-] wen to [-] wen."

"If it wasn't for the timely purchase of grain from the Huangdian, I'm afraid we wouldn't even be able to grab the [-] million shi of grain."

Merchants rob food, this matter seems to be businessmen making profits, but the businessmen's making profits is simply a joke to officials.

"If they want to grab grain, they can grab it. Jinyiwei will keep a close eye on the actions of these merchants. As long as they transport grain to Shaanxi and Shanxi, they will immediately open Changping warehouses to stabilize grain prices."

"At that time, unless they are willing to wait, they will have to sell at a reduced price, or wait for the food to go bad."

Zhu Youjian talked about how to deal with these grain merchants, but Bi Ziyan said:
"The Ministry of Household Affairs has calculated that judging from the savings of the people in the three provinces over the years, it will not be a problem to survive until next year's autumn harvest..."

"The Ministry of Household's suggestion is not to open the Changping warehouse at the beginning, but to continuously transfer grain from the south to the north, and transfer the grain from the south to the Changping warehouse in the north."…

"Right now, the price of a stone of rice and wheat in Shaanxi has risen to [-] renminbi, Shanxi [-] renminbi, and Beizhili [-] renminbi."

"Food prices will inevitably continue to rise with the passage of the severe drought. The estimate of the Ministry of Household Affairs is that by the end of this year, the price of grain in Shaanxi will rise to [-] Wen, Shanxi [-] Wen, and Beizhili [-] Wen. about."

"The imperial court can use work to provide disaster relief. Take advantage of this opportunity to recruit peasants to clean up the Yellow River, and distribute them at a wage of ten cash per day."

"In this way, each commoner will be paid [-] cash a month, which will naturally allow the common people to resist for a while."

"Is the ten essays too low?" Wang Chengen frowned and asked, but Zhu Youjian raised his hand and said:

"It's not low. If it's high, there will be some people who are not disaster victims mixed in."

The wages set by Zhu Youjian and Bi Ziyan are very reasonable. The wages of the three provinces, on the basis of excluding the capital, are basically between fifteen and twenty cash.

If you set [-] pieces, someone will rush to do it, but [-] pieces is just right.

Even if the price of grain rises to seven hundred pennies a stone, for ten pennies a day, you can still buy two catties of rice and wheat.

In addition, people still have money and food in their homes. In fact, this approach is to maintain their basic expenses.

There are tens of millions of farmers in the three provinces, and there are only a million places where workers are needed in the cities.

All these people flocked to the city, which would only make the city's jobs in short supply.

Sorting out the Yellow River will not only benefit the court, but also benefit the common people.

"If one person has ten pennies, how long can the household department last?" Zhu Youjian asked Bi Ziyan, and Bi Ziyan also said after a moment of contemplation:

"If there are millions of victims, the household department will spend about [-] million taels of silver every year. Based on the annual income of the household department, as long as there is no war in the north, it can last for a long time."

"If there are [-] million victims, the expenditure will be more than [-] million taels. The household department will support it for at most two years, and there will be no war between the north and the south."

"If it's ten million..." Bi Ziyan was silent for a few seconds before saying:
"The salaries of hundreds of officials may need to be owed, and the military governor's office must also reduce training. Even so, the household department still needs the support of the imperial horse supervisor and internal funds."

To appease tens of millions of disaster victims, this is the most of the financial resources of the Ming Dynasty that have been developed.

On this basis, even if Zhu Youjian collected the mining tax and tax deed.

If the head tax and miscellaneous items are abolished, and the land tax is directly adjusted to [-] or [-], the annual revenue of the national treasury after the discount of various physical taxes in Ming Dynasty will be about [-] million taels at most.

Adding the [-] million taels of money to the Yumajian, it would be an annual income of [-] million taels at most.

Nearly [-] million taels of silver will be spent on the military salary and the salaries of hundreds of officials, and about [-] million taels of silver will be needed for the maintenance of army ordnance and local maintenance.

Therefore, in fact, the current normal expenditure of Ming Dynasty is [-] million taels of silver, even with an annual income of [-] million taels of silver, it can only have a balance of [-] million taels of silver.

If the [-] million taels were used for disaster relief, according to Bi Ziyan's disaster relief method, at most, [-] million people could basically survive.

It's just that there are not only [-] million people in Daming, and when the disaster was the worst, the number of people affected by the disaster was not only [-] million.

Only by relocating them to reduce the population density of the two capitals and thirteen provinces within the pass, can the Ming Dynasty control the number of people affected by the disaster to less than [-] million.

"After Hong Chengchou captured Annan and established Jiaozhi Cheng to declare the Political Commissioner, if the victims of the disaster in the northwest and southwest can move, they should all move to Jiugang and Jiaozhi."

"From today onwards, criminals from all provinces will be escorted to cement factories in various provinces, and the cement factories will be protected according to the requirements to produce cement."

Zhu Youjian finally decided not to use criminals to transfer silver, but to use them to produce cement.

What he originally thought was to build factories in North Korea and other places, relocate the defeated Japanese prisoners to work, and then transport the cement to Shandong.

Because the validity period of cement is three months, it only takes one month to travel from Busan to Shandong by water from the southern tip of North Korea.

At that time, the railway will be built at Denglai Port, and the cement will be transported by railcars first. It will only take seven days to transport the cement to Guanzhong and fifteen days to Jiayuguan.

In the south, natives from Annan and Toungoo can be used to directly build factories and work, which is easier and easier than in the north.

It's just that right now, there's not enough time, and after all, he can't take such a big step.

Now we can only use the available resources for construction. In this catastrophe, if the imperial court has enough money and food, it may be able to rebuild the Ming Dynasty after the disaster.

But in the same way, if the court's money and food are insufficient, the uprising will eventually take place.

In the end, the imperial court and the common people will be staged as a situation of fish and water between the army and the people, or chaos in the country.

These tests are the current ruling team of Daming...