Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 325 Eight Years of Apocalypse
The seventh year of the Apocalypse was destined to be an unstable year. After cleaning up Lord Zheng, Hong Chengchou mopped up the northern part of Annan, and moved more than [-] people from the three forces living in the mountainous area, including the Mo family, to the south.

These people were originally in the mountains, and they were often looked down upon by the Annan people in the plains, so the conflict between the two sides has been intensifying.

Under the operation of Hong Chengchou, more than [-] males among the more than [-] people became a search team to search for Annan people related to the Zheng family.

For a time, there were four prisons in the north, with [-] million detainees, and the more than [-] search teams were awarded some hilly fields by Hong Chengchou at five acres per person.

The search teams who got the fields became more active, and at the same time, the Ming army also broke out with Nguyen Phuc Yuan of the Nguyen family in the south in the twelfth lunar month.

In the north, Zheng Bing, who had more than [-] million people and an army of [-], was defeated by Hong Chengchou's fierce pursuit, while Ruan Fuyuan, who had only more than [-] people, was defeated even faster.

The Ming army was unstoppable. After defeating the [-] Ruan army in Guangtu, they went all the way south and occupied many places in a row.

The battle after battle allowed the Ming army to conquer many cities in a row. The number of the Ming army and the rear supply were originally a problem.

But as the search team mobilized their own families, and with the help of more than [-] people in the southwest and more than [-] people in Annan, the Ming army's supply line was no longer a problem.

By the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Ruan clan, Champa, and the coastline occupied by the Annans near the Mekong Delta were all recovered by the Ming army.

At this point, the two-year preparation for the Battle of Annan came to an end. Jiaozhi Cheng announced that the Political Envoy Division took control of the entire territory of Jiaozhi, and the search team also began a large-scale search in the south...

The news of Cochin's recovery did not cause too much topic in Daming, because compared with external news, people were more worried about internal news.

With the spread of the drought, the drought that originally stopped in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and North Zhili, as well as northwest Henan, southern Fujian, and eastern Sichuan began to gradually spread to neighboring provinces.

The winter failed to stop the drought. Drought broke out in Xining Prefecture in the east of Hexi, and Hanzhong Prefecture, Xi'an Prefecture, and Fengxiang Prefecture in Shaanxi Province, which were spared, also suffered severe drought one after another.

In Xunyang Mansion and Xiangyang Mansion in Huguang, as well as in Henan Mansion and Ruzhou in Henan Province, streams stopped flowing one after another.

The drought in southern Fujian and southern Jiangxi spread to Guangdong and Guangxi. There was no snow in the whole of Guangdong, and Wuzhou and Pingle in Guangxi were affected.

For a time, the drought in the world spread to eight provinces, and the severe drought in the whole territory was Shaanxi, Shanxi, Northern Zhili, Guangdong and Beijing.

This kind of news made the officials who had entered the eighth year of the apocalypse and ushered in the Zhengdan Festival unhappy.

The Zhengdan Grand Court Meeting, which was supposed to be just a congratulatory speech, has become an occasion for discussion...

"By the first day of the first lunar month, the Ministry of Households had printed [-] million stone and sixty-three catties of food stamps. In the north, sweet potatoes and potatoes were mainly used, supplemented by rice and wheat. In the south, rice and wheat were mainly used. Auxiliary."

In the Huangji Hall, Bi Ziyan, the Minister of the Household Department, dressed in court clothes, reported to Zhu Youxiao on the high platform and Zhu Youjian in front of the officials, and continued while reporting:

"In addition, last year the Imperial Horse Supervisor and the treasury received a total of [-] taels of silver, more than three cents, six cents and four cents..."

"A total of [-] shi and [-] jin of Tianfu, and other miscellaneous items and silks and satins are [-] taels after folding..."

"This year, only [-]% of the tax is withheld for local governments, and [-]% is escorted to the capital..." Bi Ziyan said this, and then replied:
"On the [-]th of the twelfth lunar month, the state funds allocated a total of [-] mu of pension land, [-] taels of pension silver, and [-] taels of military expenditure for the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion. Four million and sixty thousand shi of rice and wheat."

"The salaries of officials, scribes, soldiers and horses, and yamen servants are [-] taels of silver, and [-] stones of rice and wheat."

"The imperial store spent [-] million taels, the officialdom spent [-] million taels, and [-] million shimimai."

"Last year, the country's silver inventory was [-] taels, and after the distribution of the salaries of the governors of the Five Armies and their officials, there were still [-] and more than [-] taels of silver. Four thousand eight hundred and forty-nine thousand and six hundred stones."

"In addition, Huangzhuang bought [-] million shi of sweet potatoes and [-] million shi of potatoes."

The long-winded financial report gave people a headache, but in the end, the officials also reacted.

According to Bi Ziyan's report, before the start of the Ming Dynasty this year, the current silver has almost been used up, and if grains such as rice, wheat and sweet potatoes are printed according to the food stamps printed by the Ministry of Households, the amount of rice and wheat that can be used this year is only three. About ten million stones.

Thirty million shi of grain, based on the price of grain in Beizhili under the current severe drought, is almost [-] million taels.

"There are fifteen million taels, quite rich."

These words were probably the voices of all the officials in the hall, and they never thought about how long this little money would last...

Facing all the officials, Zhu Youxiao glanced at His Highness Zhu Youjian, and Zhu Youjian also turned around and said:
"How much relief money does the Ministry of Industry need this year?"

"According to the number of [-] million peasants, about [-] million taels of silver will be needed..."

The minister in charge of disaster relief from the Ministry of Industry spoke, and Zhu Youjian turned around and bowed to Zhu Youxiao holding a wat board:
"Your Majesty, the [-] million people are mainly working for relief in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan. However, there are severe droughts breaking out in various places right now. I am afraid that the number needs to be increased."

When the courtiers in the palace heard what Zhu Youjian said, they all began to secretly look at people from their own party. Obviously, they didn't want to continue to increase the number of people who gave relief with work.

"According to King Qi, how much does it need to increase?"

Zhu Youjian asked grandly, but Zhu Youjian said:

"In the lands of Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi, the people can be relocated to Jiaozhi first, and immigrated to Shibian."

"If you really can't move, you can hire repairs and widen the local post roads."

"Not only that, but from today onwards, when all provinces encounter a severe drought, except for the prefectures and counties near the Yellow River that can be put into the Yellow River's combing, the rest of the prefectures and counties should focus on widening and repairing local post roads."

"I have different widths and narrows. Now we should set a standard and divide the width according to the level of the post road."

"For example, post roads in townships should be two feet long, post roads in counties and towns should be four feet long, post roads in prefectures and counties should be eight feet long, and post roads connecting provinces should be sixteen feet long."

"It is understandable that it is difficult to open up post roads, so Yanshan will send [-] engineering teams with a size of nearly [-] people to explore and supervise the work..."

"The provinces may also centralize the manufacture of gunpowder, the cost of which shall be allocated by the State."

National treasury is a new term for Yumajian and treasury, and since Zhu Youjian has brought up this matter, no matter whether it can be done or not, Gu Bingqian will naturally stand in line.

So after Zhu Youjian finished speaking, Gu Bingqian stood up and bowed:

"Your Majesty, I think that what His Royal Highness King Qi said is true."

"The post road can not only connect the traffic of the provinces, but also mobilize the army in time to suppress the rebellion, and the victims need a way to survive, so it is imperative to widen the post road and repair it."

"Your Majesty, the ministers and others seconded the proposal..."

When Gu Bingqian finished speaking, nearly one-third of the officials in the court sang and echoed, and from this, it could be seen how far the power of the Qi Royal Party had developed without knowing it.

However, Zhu Youjian is very clear that these officials who take refuge in him are actually out of interests.

Once the interests of the two parties collide, they will still fall to others in the end.

"In this case, according to King Qi's proposal, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households will draft a charter and submit it."

"The minister takes orders..." Bi Ziyan bowed in response.

At the end of Bi Ziyan's response, Zhu Youxiao also said:

"Recently, the Commander-in-Chief of the Five Armies discovered a new continent in the south of the Old Port that is not inferior to our Ming Dynasty. There are no foreign countries on the mainland, and it is very suitable for grazing and farming. Therefore, I named this place Nanzhou."

"The two large islands in the eastern part of Nanzhou are named Dongji and Antarctic. These three places are temporarily under the direct jurisdiction of the capital, and controlled by the Qi Palace."

"The minister takes orders..." Zhu Youjian bowed in response, and Zhu Youxiao nodded in satisfaction when he saw this and said:

"If there is nothing else to do, let's go away..."

After Zhu Youxiao finished speaking, no one spoke for a long time in the court hall, which was a rare calm.

Naturally, this calmness was also due to the fact that the talkative officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Sixth Division were assigned by Zhu Youjian.

The courtiers were enjoying this kind of peace, and the Minister of Honglu Temple, who was in charge of the court meeting, immediately rang the bell and said:
"Sancha-"

"Long live Long live Long live……"

All the officials sang, and Zhu Youxiao got up and left the Huangji Hall.

Seeing this, Zhu Youjian took the lead in bowing to give gifts, and then after Zhu Youxiao disappeared completely, he walked out of the Huangji Hall wearing a mian suit.

When all the officials saw him leaving, they also followed him out of the Huangji Hall.

After walking out of Huangji Hall, Wang An found Zhu Youjian and asked:
"Long live inquiry, His Highness can arrange it today, if not, please go to Qianqing Palace to attend Zhengdan's family banquet."

"There's no need for the family banquet. There are a lot of memorials in the mansion, not to mention I need to go to the Armament Academy today." Hearing this, Zhu Youjian also had a headache.

At the end of the year and the New Year, these times are the time when there are the most memorials. Zhu Youxiao relaxed and pushed all the memorials to him, but the problem is that he can't push them.

He seems to be working hard. In his previous life, he served as a soldier to help the poor. In this life, he is a prince and oversees the country.

If things go on like this, he always feels very uneasy about the memorials handled by others, and he needs to read them all by himself.

Governing a large country is like cooking a small dish, and one must not be sloppy at all.

"In this case, the servant girl will leave..." Wang An also knew Zhu Youjian's difficulties, or the whole court knew that Zhu Youjian was the busiest person in Ming Dynasty right now.

Although Zhu Youxiao did not push all the memorials of the six ministries and the cabinet to Zhu Youjian, but among them, the memorials of the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Officials were all pushed over.

In this way, Zhu Youxiao only needs to deal with the not very busy Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Punishment, Ministry of War, and memorials for the six subjects.

National affairs are nothing more than economic and border affairs which are the most difficult to deal with. As Zhu Youjian is the governor of the five armies, border affairs are naturally handled by him.

The memorials he had dealt with, Zhu Youxiao basically didn't even read them and sent them out. In this way, it's strange that he can get tired.

But he is not tired, but Zhu Youjian is going to die of exhaustion.

After wearing the heavy court clothes and sitting on the elephant back to the mansion, Yang Yuan'ai and Yang Rushi just helped Zhu Youjian take off the court clothes layer by layer, and he changed into regular clothes and sat in the study room.

In front of him, there are hundreds of memorials piled up like a mountain.

These memorabilia are some opinions put forward by the counties on the taxation of only [-]% of the local area, and many of them were given by some Yanshan students who have been promoted to county magistrates.

[I think that [-]% of the interception is too little. For example, Xianju County, Taizhou Prefecture, where I am located, has a household registration of only more than [-] people, dry and paddy fields of only [-] mu, and its tax discount is not much...]

Most of the memorials hope to increase the tax withholding, and some even hope to abolish the New Deal and restore the policy of withholding and transporting local and imperial taxes.

But in this regard, Zhu Youjian directly raised his head and said to Wang Chengen who was standing at the door:
"Thank you, find out the memorials in the memorials about suggestions and objections to the tax withholding and transportation in the New Deal, and reply in a unified way..."

"If money and food are insufficient, you can apply to the court instead of opposing the New Deal."

After finishing speaking, Zhu Youjian got up and walked out of the study, and sat in front of the Eight Immortals table in the meeting hall.

He tapped rhythmically on the table with his fingers, while Wang Chengen called over a dozen scribes in the palace to sort out and sort out the memorabilia.

After a while, Yang Rushi and Yang Yuanai brought the food to the table, and Zhu Youjian also bowed his head and ate the food.

At such a time, Yang Ru understood it very well, and consciously walked behind the screen next to him and began to play the guqin.

This was suggested by Wang Kentang and others, because in their view, Guqin has an important function, which is to regulate the body.

"Zuo Zhuan" said that music, like medicine, can make people free from all diseases and live a long and healthy life.

Ancient Chinese medicine has the theory of "five tones to cure diseases". It believes that the sky has five tones, people have five internal organs, sky has six rhythms, and people have six fu organs.

The horn is the sound of wood to the liver, the sound of fire to the heart, the sound of earth to the spleen, the sound of gold to the lungs, the sound of water to the kidney, and the balance of the five elements and yin and yang is adjusted through the five tones. It can achieve self-cultivation and physical health.

Zhu Youjian didn't believe this, but after trying it a few times, he finally understood why the ancients liked to listen to the sound of Guqin.

Listening to Guqin can always make people feel calm. Zhu Youjian thought about it later and felt that sound is a kind of vibration of waves, and waves are also substances, which will definitely have an effect on the human body, so he retained this habit.

The melodious and far-reaching sound of the guqin is pleasant but not lewd, sad but not sad, resentful but not angry, and its style of no faults and no faults is consistent with the traditional concept of health preservation.

Zhongzheng's peaceful piano sound can regulate internal organs. If negative emotions are removed, people will feel quiet, relaxed and refreshed.

Although Yang Rushi is still young, Zhu Youjian likes to take her to study. When Zhu Youjian paints, she plays the piano or guzheng beside him.

Over time, this has become a way of entertainment.

However, after Zhu Youjian finished eating, Yang Rushi stopped playing the piano, got up and cleaned up the table with Yang Yuanai.

At this time, the scribes also sorted out the memorials that Zhu Youjian asked to sort out.

After sorting out these memorials, there are only fifty or sixty memorials on other matters left.

Seeing the sudden decrease in memorials, Zhu Youjian couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, feeling that the task was much lighter.

Sitting back on the desk, Zhu Youjian began to deal with the memorial book by book.

Most of these memorials come from the newly established Liquor Department, or the Tea Department, Salt Department, and Shibo Department.

These four kinds of taxes are now known as the Four Divisions. If there is no accident, they will bear nearly half of the taxes of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

In the memorandum of the wine class department, it mainly talks about the problems encountered after the distribution of wine classes in various places.

First of all, although there are many wine department divisions, they need to deal with more people.

Right now, all alcohol can only be purchased in the imperial shop, which requires an increase in the number of yamen servants, and an intensified crackdown on bootleggers in cities and towns who sell alcohol privately.

Right now, the number of yamen servants in the country is [-], and the growth rate is not fast. All the recruits are children from good families led by students from Yanshan.

With [-] people, it is indeed difficult to attack the bootleggers among the hundreds of millions of people in Ming Dynasty.

Compared with the cunning bootleggers, when the common people heard that some miscellaneous taxes had been abolished, they were less resistant to buying liquor.

The various miscellaneous taxes that Zhu Youjian abolished charged hundreds of coins from the people every year, and the people bought wine koji and did not sell it, but it was only a penny per catty. This is not too much pressure.

To put it bluntly, with only two or three days' wages, you can buy thirty catties of distiller's yeast.

Therefore, the Liquor Department began to collect taxes from the capital in October, and has sold more than [-] million catties of distiller's koji, and collected more than [-] taels of distiller's koji.

Liquor Quyin is only a small head, and the liquor sales in the Huangdian is the main income of the Liquor Department.

From October onwards, the sales volume of alcoholic beverages in Huangdian has increased day by day, from more than [-] catties a day on the first day of October, to [-] catties a day on the first day of winter, to [-] catties a day on the first day of the twelfth lunar month catty.

The price of wine sold in the imperial shop ranges from commoner sweet potatoes to royal wine, and the price has reached [-] taels in three months.

This is just the beginning, and many officials and clerks of the wine department have not yet arrived at the place where they took office.

After they all took office and supervised and cracked down on bootleggers, the court's wine department tax revenue will only increase.

The reason is simple, that is, drinking is a kind of pastime, and as long as the population increases, more and more people use drinking for pastime.

When thinking of this, Zhu Youjian also got the memorial of the Ministry of Households in his hand.

When I opened it, it turned out that the population of Daming had reached more than [-] million people on paper after a year of disaster re-inspection.

"Far more than..."

Looking at the data, Zhu Youjian shook his head, because in his heart, the population of Ming Dynasty should be between [-] million and [-] million.

The internal environment of the Ming Dynasty was similar to that of the Northern Song Dynasty, or even slightly better.

The Northern Song Dynasty was able to double its population in a hundred years, and the Ming Dynasty had a more relaxed environment and lower taxes than the Northern Song Dynasty, so it is impossible that the population could not even double.

Find out the population, check the acres of fields, and then share the people into the acres, and the gentry pay the grain together...

This will be the policy that Zhu Youjian will implement politically. This policy is linked to the economy, and the two need to be carried out together.

Zhu Youjian did not ask for a complete solution to the problem of land annexation. What he had to do was to suppress land annexation for decades, and then expand the territory to move out the people who had little or no land.

If this matter is done well, Daming will be able to prosper for three generations...

The thoughts in the brain are constantly being conceived, and the movements of the hands never stop.

Soon the memorials on the table were processed by Zhu Youjian, leaving only three books, and these three are more important memorials that need to be dealt with urgently.

The first thing to bear the brunt was the memorial sent by Hong Chengchou. After Zhu Youjian opened it, he read it at a glance.

First of all, Hong Chengchou said something about the search team, and secondly, he talked about the children of the various feudal clans who went south to participate in the war.

They were sent by Hong Chengchou to Mu Qiyuan and Wu Bikui's troops, and witnessed the process and cruelty of the ending.

This point was requested by Zhu Youjian. He personally didn't think it was cruel. Instead, he was using this to tell the prince and brother of the feudal clan how to deal with the natives.

What Zhu Youjian is most afraid of is that there will be a virgin among the children of the various feudal clans, and finally let the natives ride on his head, and he will die of anger.

Therefore, regarding Hong Chengchou's arrangement, he did not hesitate to praise:

"Giving fields to the search team, so that the children of the feudal lords can see the cruelty of mopping up, Hong Chengchou's method is not bad..."

After the compliment, Zhu Youjian raised his head and said to Wang Chengen, "Come on, pass on Wen Zhao."

"Yes..." Wang Chengen agreed, and then asked someone to pass on Lu Wenzhao.

As for Zhu Youjian, he wrote comments and suggestions on Hong Chengchou's memorials with a Zhu pen.

"There are not enough acres of land, and local prisoners can use it to reclaim it. Follow the example of the people in Liaodong, plant millet in one year, potatoes and sweet potatoes in the second year, and rice in the third year..."

"All the money and food needed can be distributed, and those who have spare capacity in the imperial court will allocate all the money."

After finishing writing, Zhu Youjian closed the memorial and picked up the second book.

This second memorial was written by Shen Tingyang of Jiugang. It mainly said that as the victims of the disaster went south, all the land of no man in Jiugang had been distributed.

Shen Tingyang asked Zhu Youjian for instructions, asking whether the prisoners who were about to be sent to the labor camp in Jiaozhi would be used to reclaim the fields.

In this regard, Zhu Youjian approved after thinking about it. After all, the population of the old port is larger, which is more conducive to the vassal king's overseas vassal.

After processing, he picked up the last memorial, and this memorial was sent by Jingcheng You Shigong, obviously it was about Nu Ergan Guo Sangdai.

It was precisely because of seeing this memorial that Zhu Youjian had someone summon Lu Wenzhao.

He didn't rush to open the memorial, but waited for Lu Wenzhao to enter the study before opening the memorial and glanced at it, then said:
"You Shigong said that Guo Sangdai had gathered [-] barbarian Jurchens in Nuergan, built more than a dozen cities and stone fortresses, and cultivated potatoes and Shushu in some places."

"Does Beizhen Fusi know about this?" Zhu Youjian put down the memorial, looked directly at Lu Wenzhao, and Lu Wenzhao bowed in response:
"I know, but it's bitter and cold for slaves. Jin Yiwei saw with his own eyes that the yield of potatoes in the local area is no more than two stones per mu, and the yield of sorghum is even less than sixty catties per mu."

Without the black wheat from Tsarist Russia, Zhu Youjian did not believe that Guo Sangdai could be self-sufficient, but he still had to ask.

It's just that Lu Wenzhao's words gave him reassurance at the moment, so he didn't worry about it anymore, but confessed:
"Guo Sangdai blocked the line of defense for the Jian captives to flee north, and told him to build the stone fort along the north mountain to the west, and by the way, summon the deer and dog tribes in the north to surrender to Daming."

"Guo Sangdai's food supply must be strictly controlled to avoid repeating the same mistakes."

"I understand, Your Highness, please rest assured." Lu Wenzhao bowed in response, and Zhu Youjian also leaned on the chair and asked:
"How about Yan Siqi?"

"Yan Siqi..." Hearing Zhu Youjian's question, Lu Wenzhao's thoughts drifted to Japan on the other side of the ocean...

　I just finished writing a chapter, and Chapter 2 is estimated to be around eleven o'clock.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)