Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 398
"500 million people, so many recruits, just to build a few railways?"

"The government-run iron smelting factory has to make wrought iron rails. If so much iron is put on the road, if the people are greedy for money and steal it, then..."

"That's all, just obey the orders issued by Prince Qi's Mansion."

Compared with Zhu Youjian who was happy because of the opening of the industrial revolution, the officials of the Ministry of Industry in Beijing had a headache after Zhu Youjian returned to the capital.

Horse-drawn carriages have been used in major mines for a long time, so the officials of the Ministry of Industry are no strangers to railway tracks. What makes them feel strange is the scale of this railway.

Beijing-West Railway, Jinglong Railway, Beijing-Tianjin Railway, Beijing-Liaoning Railway, Kunzhan Railway, Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, Jingmen Railway, Jingjia Railway, Beijing-Hangzhou Railway...

The nine railways correspond to the long-distance railways from the capital ring Hetao to Xining, from the capital to Longchuan, from the capital to Shenyang, from Kunming to Champo, from the capital to Guangzhou, from the capital to Jiayuguan, and from the capital to Hangzhou.

In addition to these seven ultra-long railways, there are two short-distance railways from Beijing to Mentougou and from Beijing to Tianjin.

All in all, the nine railways are [-] miles long, basically covering the mainland of the Ming Dynasty. Except for the four provinces of Guizhou, Guangxi, Fujian, and Jiangxi, all other provinces have passed through.

Of course, these four provinces will also be built in the future. The reason why they are not mentioned is because they don't have too many disaster victims who need relief.

The construction period of this long railway is expected to be 15 years, requiring 7000 million catties of wrought iron, more than 2000 million sleepers, and hundreds of millions of crushed stones.

The total cost of this project is estimated to be 6000 million taels of silver, more than 500 taels per mile, and a total of 6000 million people will start construction.

The cost of these nine railways is estimated to be the tax of the fifth year of the Ming Dynasty, and a fixed expenditure of 70 million taels per year is required.

When the general quotation was sent to the cabinet, Gu Bingqian, as the chief assistant of the cabinet, had trembling hands and heart.

"This... the construction period can't be pushed back any longer? Hire the workers in half?"

Gu Bingqian held the quotation memorial in his hand, and asked Xue Fengxiang from the Ministry of Industry as if discussing, but Xue Fengxiang was helpless:
"The Duke of Qi's mansion has figured it out a long time ago. How can the Ministry of Industry change His Highness's thoughts..."

"This is already the price approved by His Highness to use 60 prisoners in Cochin. Without these 60 prisoners, it is estimated that it will rise to [-] million taels of silver."

Xue Fengxiang's words blocked Gu Bingqian's mouth, and also blocked the mouths of many cabinet ministers in Wenhua Palace.

As the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Bi Ziyan was suffering and could not tell.

The annual expenditure is 70 million taels of silver. Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hexi, Huguang, Nanzhili, and Guangdong are not bad. They need to use work instead of relief, and they also need to help more than 400 million people, but other places can't do it.

"It's not like millions of people need work relief every year. Your Highness... Sigh..."

Bi Ziyan let out a long sigh, and when he looked at the memorial book on his desk, the pain in his heart was even worse.

That was the quotation from the Ministry of Industry for the construction of the steam engine factory, 300 million taels, and Zhu Youjian transferred it without blinking an eye.

When it comes to disaster relief, rice and wheat are used instead. Bi Ziyan doesn't understand why.

He could only use his abacus to calculate the disaster relief needs bit by bit.

More than 4000 million shimi wheat stocks in various places have been dispatched. Bi Ziyan only hopes that this year's drought will not expand, otherwise the local area may suffer.

"It's only March this year, and the national funds have already been used up. The six ministries and localities should not add obstacles to the court."

When Xue Fengxiang stepped back, Gu Bingqian put the heavy book on infrastructure construction on the table, sighed, and slowly took off the black gauze hat on his head, and put it on the table.

Sitting close to Yuan Keli, Shi Fenglai could see the sweat on his forehead.

Obviously, this memorial brought him a lot of pressure.

But even so, there are still things that should be said.

Gu Bingqian took the memorabilia next to him, put it on the table and said to him:
"The registration for government schools in Beizhili is over. Tomorrow is the first day of the first day of March. A total of nearly 98 people will be enrolled."

"It's easy for common people to go to school, but the imperial court can't. The salary of more than 6 teachers still needs to be solved."

Today is the last day of February, and the registration for Beizhili is completely over.

Because it is the basic education compulsory by the imperial court, almost all the common people send their boys to government schools.

Although Zhu Youjian had already issued a verbal order, saying that the cabinet did not need to worry about money, Gu Bingqian deliberately brought up this matter in order to satisfy Zhu Youjian.

"The three overseas provinces have to keep up with the progress, especially the gold and silver mines in Yingzhou. The annual silver sent back to the country must reach 300 million taels."

Gu Bingqian opened his mouth without any pressure, because he knew from Qi Wangfu that Yang Wenyue had already recovered most of Yingzhou except Beizhou Prefecture (Hokkaido).

These areas include areas rich in gold and silver mines such as Iwami and Sado, and the output during the shogunate period was as high as more than 300 million taels.

Therefore, it is not difficult for Yingzhou to transport more than 300 million taels back to the imperial court every year, even with ease.

Even if Gu Bingqian didn't open his mouth, Yang Wenyue estimated that he would transport three to four million yuan twice a year to Daming.

If Gu Bingqian didn't say this, Yang Wenyue was showing his merit, but if he said it, Yang Wenyue had completed the task.

It is estimated that Yang Wenyue knew about Gu Bingqian's operation, so he would be blackened with anger.

Everyone also knew that the old fox was trying to express his attitude to King Qi, so they nodded on the surface and disdain in their hearts.

After talking for a long time, I didn't have any constructive opinions, but I was outstanding in taking credit.

"The scope of severe droughts has shrunk in the past few years, so can we stop the banning of eucalyptus in various places?"

Zhu Xieyuan asked, and the matter of exemption was Zhu Youjian's policy at the beginning, that is, all places suffered from severe drought, and local taxes were exempted.

Right now, the severe drought in the three provinces of Nanzhili, Guangxi, and Sichuan has receded, and the natural reduction of thorns.

If these three provinces resume paying taxes, Ming's taxes can increase by several million taels.

"This..." Gu Bingqian glanced at Shi Fenglai, found that Shi Fenglai was silent, nodded and said:

"Of course it has to be stopped, but it would be a bit abrupt to stop right now. How about exempting the summer tax and collecting the autumn tax?"

Gu Bingqian didn't want to offend the people below or the Zhejiang Party, but he had to explain to Zhu Youjian, so he chose this compromise method.

The summer tax is mainly wheat. The summer tax in Nanzhili accounts for one-fifth of the Ming Dynasty, but it is not too much. It is only 120 million shi every year, and 70 taels after the color is folded.

It is a good deal to use 70 taels to block the mouths of the people below, and then collect more than 500 million shi of autumn tax rice.

It is estimated that Zhu Youjian will not criticize him when he finds out.

"In that case, I'll send someone to inform the Yumajian to let the village officials of the Yumajian confiscate it."

When Bi Ziyan saw the extra income, he stood up happily.

The summer tax of the three provinces is only more than 150 million shi, but the autumn tax is more than 700 million shi.

With the autumn taxation of these three provinces coming up, Daming's land tax this year can return to the level of 600 million shi.

In addition, Yingzhou is not eligible for tax exemption, so the land tax revenue of the Ministry of Households this year can basically reach 200 million shi.

With the 200 million shimimai, plus the 900 million taels of tax money that the five divisions and one prison will not have any problems with, the annual income of Ming Dynasty can reach 400 million taels this year.

According to Daming's expenditures last year, plus the newly added expenditures of the court department, and the expenditure of the Ministry of Industry's 500 million employees, Daming can finally have a balance this year.

"If there are no accidents this year, the national treasury should have a balance of 700 million taels."

The Ming Dynasty's national expenditure has been negative for three years, and it is rare to hear the word "surplus". Not only Bi Ziyan is happy, but the other six cabinet ministers are also relieved.

If you can make a balance this year, you will live a more comfortable life next year.

Everyone has become accustomed to not counting the gold and silver coins kept by Zhu Youjian as state treasury income, because as long as Zhu Youjian doesn't open his mouth, no matter who goes to the library, he can't use that money.

"Although there will be a surplus after autumn, the national funds have already been spent on food and money, and there are only tens of millions of Changping grain in the local area."

"Therefore, the imperial court still has to tighten the jade belt and survive for seven months."

Gu Bingqian said some comforting words, then got up and signaled everyone to leave separately.

Everyone didn't want to smirk at the table, so they left the table one after another.

While they were leaving, Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao were walking in Nanyuan in the capital.

At the end of February, the grass had already grown, and it was rare for the two brothers to relax for a day without the entanglement of the memorial.

"I thought about Ran'er's matter. It's better to stay in the palace. Officials and colleges can go to listen, but not often."

The two brothers were walking on the grass. Zhu Youxiao, who was walking in front, expressed his thoughts, and Zhu Youjian, who followed behind, also understood that this was a compromise made by his brother in consideration of his own feelings.

In the palace, Zhu Youxiao talked with Zhang Yan several times, and they all thought that Zhu Ciran and the others should not be sent to government schools.

Only in consideration of Zhu Youjian's proposal, Zhu Youxiao hesitated a few times before making this decision.

Wang An had told Zhu Youjian about these things a long time ago, so he was not surprised when he heard it, but nodded.

"North Korea sent three hundred beautiful women, and Gan Bozhi, Su Lu, Bo Ni, Nan Zhang, and Ye Erqin also sent more or less beautiful women."

Zhu Youxiao suddenly talked about Xiunv, Zhu Youjian frowned, probably knowing what the other party was going to say.

"Counting it all down, there are more than 600 of these show girls."

Looking at the large lakes and swamps in Nanyuan, looking at the herd of elk drinking water in the lake, he turned around and said:
"I think it's almost the same, but your sister-in-law said that it's better to choose my Daming woman, and choose one concubine and two concubines."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youxiao smiled: "But I think, brother, you can have more side concubines, so how about setting up four side concubines?"

Zhu Youxiao's words made Zhu Youjian helpless, he could only say:

"As for choosing a concubine, let's go according to the rules, let Concubine Xuanyi and Huangsao check it out."

Concubine Xuanyi was one of the earliest concubines around Emperor Wanli. Although she was not favored, she had no children all her life and had a gentle temperament. She was good to Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian, so Zhu Youxiao let her be the empress dowager. Xi.

Zhu Youjian is quite relieved that she and Zhang Yan will check it together.

However, in order to avoid those who are interested, Zhu Youjian still deliberately said:

"Concubine Zheng, it's best not to get involved with honorable civil servants, ordinary people are fine."

Zhu Youjian knew very well that at this moment all the nobles and civil servants in the world were waiting for his wedding.

Naturally, they did not dare to urge Zhu Youjian to become a feudal prince like Sun Ruyou and Zhu Guozuo did in the past. The reason why they stared at his wedding and selection of concubines was nothing more than the position of the concubine.

Although the princes and concubines of the Ming Dynasty are generally selected from the people, it does not mean that ordinary people are absolutely required, but there are also some beautiful women with guard backgrounds, noble backgrounds, and low-level official backgrounds.

Zhu Youjian has no objection to choosing a concubine, nor does he care who he chooses, but it is impossible for him to let the daughters of some entangled nobles and gentry be his concubines.

Zhu Youxiao also understood his brother's difficulties, so he showed apology on his face, and comforted him:
"I will tell Concubine Toffee and Baozhu about this, and my brother can rest assured."

Perhaps to enliven the atmosphere, Zhu Youxiao said with a smile:
"Marry a few more concubines, and have more children, so that when they become adults, they will be sent to Qi to prepare for your younger brother's succession."

"Adult?" Zhu Youjian couldn't hold back anymore, and said helplessly, "When they become adults, I'm afraid my brother will be over forty years old."

"Haha! That's true..." Zhu Youxiao couldn't help laughing, then patted Zhu Youjian on the back, and continued walking forward.

Looking at his back, Zhu Youjian also sighed helplessly, and then followed.

The two did not talk about state affairs, but chatted about some interesting things in the past, such as practicing equestrianism in the palace, and going hunting in Yanshan Mountain and so on.

Time passed by little by little, and when the sun set to the west, the two of them took a walk to a small river, and walked along the river to the Nanyuan Palace.

"I remember, when my brother was young, he said that he wanted to be a virtuous king, study in the palace every day, and paint paintings..."

Zhu Youxiao suddenly mentioned the past, and Zhu Youjian nodded after listening.

"Does my brother still think like this now?"

Zhu Youxiao turned his head to look at Zhu Youjian, but this time Zhu Youjian didn't answer immediately, but said after a few seconds of silence:
"If it's possible, I would like to do an ordinary teaching, go to the countryside, open a government school, raise twenty or thirty children, teach in the morning, and cultivate in the afternoon..."

"..." Zhu Youxiao stopped, and Zhu Youjian also stopped when he saw this.

After a while, Zhu Youxiao continued to walk, and Zhu Youjian followed.

"Wait... that's all..." Zhu Youxiao hesitated to speak, but although Zhu Youjian gave him a puzzled look, he didn't say anything.

The two returned to the palace like this, and after dinner without saying a word, they returned to their bedrooms.

Just before the break, Zhu Youxiao asked someone to report back to the imperial palace in the capital about the selection of the concubine by King Qi.

His original intention was to let Concubine Liu and Zhang Yan prepare, but after the news reached the palace, it spread throughout the various mansions in the capital within a few hours.

The first person to get the news was Zhang Weixian from the British government. When he got the news, he was reading at night in his study.

After learning that Zhu Youjian was finally going to choose a concubine, he immediately put down the Zhubi in his hand.

He stepped left and right, and Zhang Zhiji, who was standing in front of his desk, bowed and said:
"Father, the King of Qi probably won't choose a woman with noble and civil servant background as his concubine."

"Of course I know this, but don't forget that there are still two "imperial concubines"!" Zhang Weixian stood where he was, frowning tightly in response.

The "noble concubine" he was talking about was not the kind of noble concubine in the inner court, but a concubine of noble birth among the side concubines of the vassal king.

Generally speaking, there are no "noble concubines" among side concubines, because there are usually only two side concubines.

However, according to the news from the inner court, five concubines will be selected this time, including one main concubine and four side concubines.

If there are four side concubines, then generally two of them are "noble concubines", which means that all the nobles and ministers can compete.

Not every vassal king can have a "noble concubine", because normally, only the feudal kings who hold power and are extremely favored are eligible to have a "noble concubine".

Because after all, the "imperial concubine" got their nicknames for the sake of being nice, but in fact their identities are still side concubines, and side concubines are concubines if they are ugly.

All the nobles still want face, so it is naturally impossible to give their own pearls to the feudal lord as a concubine.

Even Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, when he was the King of Yan, no honorable official sent his daughter to be his side concubine, and Zhu Di also cared about Xu Wangfei's opinion, so he never took much side concubine.

It's just that Xungui's face only existed in the early and mid-Ming Dynasty, and it couldn't stand up in the later period. When Zhu Youxiao came to the throne, Zhu Youjian emerged, and Xungui's face was stepped on a few times by him. .

What else does Xungui have now?Apart from the fields and houses in their hands, the annual salary of several thousand taels of the title, and dozens of servants, they have nothing.

Since Zhu Youjian reformed Xungui, Xungui completely lost the right to speak in the court, and became the mascot for the two brothers Zhu Youxiao to worship their ancestors.

Even in the British government, only the younger Zhang Shize served in the military, and he was just a general in the Eastern Army's governor's mansion.

After the reform of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, the participating generals were only officials of the fourth rank, while there were more than 280 participating generals in the Ming Dynasty.

As for this, it is also a top-notch existence among many nobles. There are dozens of noble houses and tens of thousands of nobles' children in the Southern Beijing Division.

From this, we can see what the down-and-out appearance of Xungui is now.

With the system established by Zhu You's test, I am afraid that within a hundred years, these dozens of dignitaries will wither down to single digits.

Therefore, if you want to keep your title, you must either urge your children to study and then join the army to make meritorious service, or you must seek connections.

Finding a relationship is very simple, either by marrying a strong vassal who is already an overseas vassal, or by marrying a prince.

However, although the prince's status is high, everyone knows that the status of the three princes is not stable at present, and it can even be said that Zhu Youxiao's dragon chair is not stable.

Compared with the one sitting on the dragon chair, the one sitting in the Qi Palace is more like an emperor.

Therefore, the concubine, a "concubine" who was looked down upon by the nobles in the past, has now become a sought-after meat and potatoes.

If Zhu Youjian really becomes the emperor, even a bastard can be called a vassal king.

If Zhu Youjian went to the state of Qi and became a vassal, then the concubine could also be called the king of the county.

Although the officials couldn't see the "General Map of Kunyu of the Ming Dynasty", they also heard that Zhu Youjian's Qi Fan had a very vast land, and even the county king could entrust several provinces.

In addition, Zhu Youxiao issued a verbal order back then, saying that millions of people would be relocated to Qi Fan.

All these reasons add up, no matter what, Qi Fan is the strongest powerful fan, and it is not ashamed to bet on Qi Fan.

"Women in the mansion, choose the best three, and send them all to the draft. Even if they can't become "noble concubines", they can become side concubines or concubines!"

Zhang Weixian urged Zhang Zhiji, and Zhang Zhiji also understood his father's thoughts.

To put it bluntly, as long as one can enter Prince Qi's mansion through formal means, then the handsome daughter of the British mansion will have the opportunity to serve her bed.

As long as the bed service is successful and a concubine is born, it will also ensure the prosperity of the British government for three generations.

Zhang Zhiji got the order, so he turned around quickly and went to work.

Not only the British government, but Zhu Chunchen from the Chengguo government, Xu Xigao from the Dingguo government, as well as the princes and uncles...

In short, as long as the Xunfu received the news, they were all preparing for the draft.

It is not only them who have to prepare, but also Zhang Yan and Concubine Liu who are in the palace.

When many Xunfu were already preparing, the two met at the Compassionate Ning Palace.

The 52-year-old Concubine Liu sat at the head of the Palace of Compassion and Ning, and Zhang Yan sat next to her.

The two wear dragon, phoenix, pearl and emerald crowns on their heads, and wear long-sleeved clothes with a red skirt and a red skirt inside.

On the special topknot of the first dress, dragon and phoenix decorations are added, and the clothes are embroidered with golden dragon and phoenix patterns, and emerald emerald decorations are added.

The luxurious clothes showed Zhu Youxiao's care for the two of them. It could be said that he respected Concubine Liu as his mother and regarded Zhang Yan as his true love.

However, the two that Zhu Youxiao cared about so much also had a headache when it came to Zhu Youjian's choice of concubine.

The two were originally women. Although they were both born in official families, they were basically born in the lower third rank.

In addition to Zhu Youjian's temperament and the relationship between the two, and he has great power, the rules of "Emperor Ming Zu Xun" and "Da Ming Hui Dian" do not apply to him at all.

Normally, the selection of 77 show girls is the highest standard, but the number of show girls facing Zhang Yan and Liu Taifei is far more than this number.

There are 620 seven beautiful women sent by the vassal states under the suzerain-vassal system alone. These beautiful women are selected from thousands or tens of thousands of beautiful women in each vassal state.

Among them, North Korea is the most prepared.

From the sixth year of Apocalypse, the king of North Korea, Li Yu, began to select beautiful women. He selected more than 3000 women for the first time. The idea of ​​sending a show girl.

But Li Jing couldn't stand it anymore, and in the second year, he drafted another three thousand girls, leaving 100 people, and applied again, but was rejected again.

In the third year, Li Ji selected 100 girls again, and only [-] were left. Combined with the girls selected in the previous two years, a total of [-] were sent to Tianjin.

There are only three things in people's words. Zhu Youxiao is helpless on the one hand, and Zhu Youjian is indeed "old" on the other hand.

Among the vassal kings, there has never been an unmarried twenty, so they agreed.

North Korea is not an exception. All countries are actually preparing for it. Even the khanate of the Western Regions, Yarkand, which pays tribute in name, has sent beautiful women from the Western Regions.

There are 620 seven beautiful women from foreign vassals, so Guochao naturally can't be too bad.

Besides, Zhu Youjian's concubine can only be a Daming woman, so even if the rules are in place, Zhang Yan and Liu Taifei have no choice but to make an exception.

"How about nine hundred? Selected from all over the world, and all of them will be able to enter Beijing in July at the most."

Concubine Liu, who was sitting in the main seat, communicated with Zhang Yan, and Zhang Yan had no reason to refuse, but she still remembered Zhu Youxiao's explanation, so she said:
"Out of the [-] candidates, only [-] are allowed to be honored officials, and the remaining [-] are selected from various prefectures."

"That's right..." Concubine Liu had a gentle temperament, knowing that what Zhang Yan said was actually the emperor's intention, so she didn't refuse.

The two discussed it, then wrote the decree with the queen mother's seal, and sent the decree to the cabinet.

When this decree was delivered to the cabinet, hundreds of officials including the cabinet, the Sixth Department, the Sixth Division, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Fifth Division, who were on duty at the Wenhua Palace at night, subconsciously clenched their hands.

What the parties have been waiting for for ten years has finally come...

　Chapter 2 will be updated later at around 09:30

　　
　
(End of this chapter)