I'm really not doing business

Chapter 672 The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty did it too!
"Your Highness Prince Lu, you have been busy recently with Xiong Tingbi parading people through the streets." Feng Bao said with a calm expression.

Zhu Yijun asked doubtfully, "Is it just a parade? Is he so obedient now?"

"Your Majesty, this..." Feng Bao said in a low voice: "Your Highness, we have more than a hundred vehicles with more than 800 people hanging on them. They will swim once a day, and the death row prisoners headed by Chen Sheng will swim twice."

The massive parade had specific times and streets designated for periodic parades, with the aim of deterring the scoundrels. If they did certain things, Zhu Yiliu would treat them this way.

"Although it sounds excessive, and of course it is excessive, but for Prince Lu, it is not too out of line." Zhu Yijun commented sharply on Prince Lu's behavior and gave a very pertinent evaluation.

This matter was extremely excessive, but it did not seem too excessive when applied to Prince Lu, an absolutely free man who could not be restrained by anyone and could not control himself.

"Write a letter and leave a question mark for Prince Lu." Zhu Yijun decided to write a letter to see if His Royal Highness Prince Lu was secretly keeping something big to Zhu Yijun.

"I obey..."

"Your Majesty, urgent news from the capital!" A eunuch slammed the door threshold and presented the memorial sent from the capital to the emperor.

Zhu Yijun opened the memorial and took a look at it. He looked at Feng Bao with wide eyes and said, "Prince Lu, you really made a big fuss."

This time Zhu Yijun admitted that the fuss made by Prince Lu was really big.

Before Feng Bao received the imperial edict, Prince Lu's outrageous behavior in the capital had made all the officials intolerable and helpless. A memorial requesting the emperor to return to Beijing had already arrived before the emperor. The emperor had nothing better to do than to go on a southern tour, so he went home and locked up the prince in Prince Lu's mansion and never let him out!

The memorial in Zhu Yijun's hand was sent by the Minister of Rites Shen Li and the Minister of War Zeng Xingwu. Shen Li denounced Prince Lu's behavior, but he also reported it truthfully and told the Emperor exactly what Prince Lu had done, without bias.

Shen Li was an upright minister and an extreme conservative like Zeng Xingwu. Although they jointly submitted a memorial to the emperor to criticize and deny Prince Lu's behavior in a comprehensive manner, the most interesting thing about the memorial was that Shen Li and Zeng Xingwu had no intention of asking His Majesty to go back.

The implicit meaning of the words was that His Majesty would issue an imperial edict to the capital to give one or two admonitions. At least he should do it in a show for all the ministers in the world to see. In other words, even in the eyes of the extreme conservatives Shen Li and Zeng Shengwu, what Prince Lu did was not too excessive.

Too harsh a rebuke would only arouse Prince Lu's rebellious psychology and make him even more outrageous. The two conservatives' opinion was: that's enough.

The matter was actually simple. Zhu Yiliu was making trouble in the capital, and some Hanlin scholars in the Hanlin Academy could not stand it anymore. They joined forces with many literati in the literati circle and began to write articles criticizing Zhu Yiliu's extraordinary behavior. Originally, the Hanlin scholars thought that they would create public opinion to make Zhu Yiliu afraid to act too excessively.

This is an old trick, a tradition of the Ming Dynasty.

How could Zhu Yiliu have ever been wronged? Zhu Yiliu didn't care about face. He didn't even have to worry about the history of the Spring and Autumn Period. He didn't do anything too outrageous. He just threw all the Hanlin Academy's Hanlins into the Northern Pacification Office, but he still felt unsatisfied, so he sent them to work in the Xishan Coal Bureau.

He specially hired eunuchs and imperial guards to watch over them, and even went there in person. These Hanlin scholars did not have enough work to do every day and could not get enough food.

When people are hungry, hunger is their only worry.

When these censors could no longer bear it and were about to submit a memorial to the emperor to rescue these Hanlin scholars, Zhu Yiliu issued an order, saying: Now these Hanlin scholars are still doing labor on the ground. If anyone continues to force them and refuse to do so, they will be sent to work underground. This labor punishment will only be lifted after His Majesty the Emperor returns to Beijing. So just wait and see.

The censors were the eyes and ears of the Ming Emperor. If they were overly targeted, it would easily hurt their integrity and block the channels for speech. Zhu Yiliu did not make things difficult for these censors, but for the Hanlin scholars. The more you save them, the more I will make things difficult for them.

These old scholars who have studied all their lives, how could they have ever suffered such a torment? This ordeal cost them half their lives, and if they continued to talk nonsense, they would really piss off Prince Lu, and they would lose their lives altogether.

Zhu Yiliu just refused to give in and let the Hanlin scholars go back. He would not give them food if they did not finish their work. This caused a huge commotion. The scholars did not dare to curse them, nor could they resist, because these Hanlin scholars would really die if they went into the well, and His Royal Highness Prince Lu did not care about their life or death at all.

This is where the awkward situation comes to a head, so all the officials can only ask His Majesty to return to the capital and let Prince Lu stop using his magical powers.

"Hahaha, Li Youzi reported to the emperor that he had never seen such a rogue person." Zhu Yijun smiled.

Zhu Yiliu, who has committed many evil deeds, is indeed a bit of a bastard, but as a control group, the intensity is just right, confusing but not brain-damaging.

"Your Majesty, this imperial edict..." Feng Bao asked about the emperor's intention. After so many years, Feng Bao had basically lost the ability to guess the emperor's intention. His Majesty spoke directly, so Feng Bao did not need to guess.

"There's also a question mark." Zhu Yijun said with a smile, "Very ordinary."

Zhu Yijun thought that what Prince Lu did was not excessive enough. It was just a small matter, but there was no need to bring it to the emperor.

The Ming Emperor's southern tour was also a vacation, but some memorials that could not be handled by the court officials or required the emperor's personal attention would still be sent to the Ming Emperor.

Zhu Yijun opened the memorial from Suiyuan Governor-General Pan Jixun, which was submitted to the court by Pan Jixun and his wife Zhongshun.

Controlling water, controlling sand and storing clear water to drain the Yellow River were the general principles of Pan Jixun's management of the Yellow River, and this idea has been used until the new century.

Pan Jixun had an honest official under him named Liu Dongxing, who became a Jinshi in the second year of Longqing's reign and had been learning water conservancy from Pan Jixun. While visiting the people, Liu Dongxing discovered that there were serious problems with the way Suiyuan reclaimed wasteland.

Yanjia Tower is a mountain village located on the Loess Plateau. This place is indeed poor and barren. The entire Yanjia Tower has only 1,700 acres of land, which cannot even support the people of an entire village. The people have to flock to the Hetao Plain to cultivate the land and reclaim wasteland. The lack of arable land in Yanjia Tower is mainly due to the terrain. The fields are scattered here and there, all next to the ditches on the Loess Plateau, with seven ditches, eight ridges, and one slope, and every ridge and pass.

Moreover, due to the long-term felling of trees, soil erosion is extremely serious, the land is barren, and one acre of land can only produce more than 100 kilograms of grain. Due to the bad weather and the influence of the small glacier climate, there are droughts in nine out of ten years, and people and livestock are short of water. But once it rains, the yellow mud water washes away all the crops, and nothing is harvested.

This situation finally began to change when the Shengzhou coal mine was mined in the Ming Dynasty. The people of Yanjia Tower finally stopped going into the mountains to cut wood. After using coal, the hardworking side of the Yanjia Tower people began to show. They dredged ditches and leveled the land, built canals to store water, and built layers of terraces along the slopes. They also built embankments on the terraces to reduce the impact of water and reduce sediment loss.

The transformation was extremely successful. The yield per mu increased from over 100 kilograms to over 200 kilograms per year, the acreage of farmland increased from 1,700 mu to more than 4,000 mu, and land loss is slowing down.

The generations of geese living in Yanjia Tower finally ended in this generation.

There is no problem with the reclamation of Yanjia Tower. The problem is that some places blindly learned from the experience of Yanjia Tower and started to reclaim wasteland. But many of them were blind. Cutting down trees would be one thing, but there are only so many people in Suiyuan, and logging is not their main livelihood. How many trees can they cut down?

The problem lies in the method of land reclamation. In some areas, people directly set fire to the mountains in autumn and winter.

Setting fire to mountains is an act that will wipe out entire families and will definitely increase soil erosion. By then, the lower reaches of the Yellow River will be very dangerous.

Moreover, as the Yellow River thaws, the flood season arrives as scheduled. Pan Jixun hopes that the downstream areas will be prepared to prevent the Yellow River embankment from collapsing.

The Yellow River is an above-ground river with a riverbed higher than the ground. Once its banks burst, the consequences would be disastrous.

Similarly, Suiyuan formulated a time limit for entering the mountains, prohibiting all acts of setting fire to the mountains. Suiyuan had a sparse population, so not many trees could be cut down, but if fires were set, they would burn one hill after another, and any fire was prohibited from entering the mountains. Once a fire was set on the mountain, it would take five years to dig a coal mine. In addition, a special inspection office was set up to check people entering the mountains to prevent fires.

Liu Dongxing also went to Kaifeng. Being good at water control, he wanted to work with Ling Yunyi to prevent the dam from bursting.

Ice flood is a disaster unique to the Yellow River in spring. There is ice on the surface of the Yellow River, which breaks into blocks in spring. The water under the ice carries the ice forward. Once it encounters a relatively narrow place, the ice will accumulate and cause devastating damage to the Yellow River embankment. The silt will definitely intensify the power of the ice flood.

In a narrow river channel, which is blocked by ice on the upper layer and mud on the lower layer, the risk of dam breach will increase dramatically.

Once the Yellow River dike bursts, it would be a horrific tragedy. At least hundreds of thousands of people would be affected, and tens of thousands would die because of the breach, because it would not only cause flooding, but also the spread of plague.

Pan Jixun went to Suiyuan to control the Yellow River.

"The memorial will be sent to Henan. Is Lingbu Tang prepared?" After reading Pan Jixun's memorial, Zhu Yijun looked at Feng Bao and asked if Ling Yunyi was ready.

Feng Bao bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, Henan has four engineering corps battalions. They will not leave the Yellow River embankment until the Kaifeng-Jiayuguan highway is built."

Ling Yunyi has rich experience in struggle. If someone wants to make trouble with the Yellow River, Ling Yunyi will really put the evildoer and his entire family into a sack and throw them into the Yellow River to drown before he dies.

Anyway, Ling Yunyi no longer has a good reputation, except in Guangdong, Guangxi and Shandong.

"That's good." Zhu Yijun felt relieved.

Since the end of the Northern Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, the traitor Du Chong dug up the Yellow River in an attempt to stop the Jin army from advancing southward. The Yellow River flooded the entire Kaifeng. Afterwards, the Yellow River took the Huai River into the sea, so that the fertile Huai River basin became a swamp. When Meng Gong led the Southern Song army and the Mongols to attack and destroy the Jin Kingdom and returned to Kaifeng to worship the Northern Song imperial tombs, the entire Central Plains was devastated and broken.

All the prosperity of the past has turned to dust.

This is a true national tragedy. When Ling Yunyi arrived in Henan, he was on guard against anyone who was planning to take over the Yellow River. The powerful and wealthy people in Henan opposed the new policy, opposed land surveying, and opposed government-owned factories, but they did not dare to use the Yellow River as a means of struggle. Water and fire are merciless. If the Yellow River really broke its dikes, the local powerful and wealthy people would also be victims.

Ling Yunyi is a floating official and he will leave eventually, but the mess he leaves behind will be a disaster for the local powerful and wealthy to suffer the consequences.

Therefore, Ling Yunyi's engineering regiment battalion is repairing the Yellow River embankment, and this is also the consensus of everyone on the ground in Henan.

In Yunnan, the attack on Toungoo entered a rest period. Although the ground offensive stopped, the coastal offensive continued, which put great pressure on Toungoo. Although Toungoo repeatedly advertised that it had annihilated 100 million enemies and had the advantage, no one believed what Mangyingli, who had broken into Toungoo City, said. He was having a hard time and was being forced to abdicate by his subordinates.

Mang Yingli had no choice but to agree, otherwise his subordinates would really kill him and send him to see his father Mang Yinglong.

Mang Yingli requested reconciliation with the Ming Dynasty and personally went to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute in the hope that the Ming Dynasty would calm down.

"Mang Yingli, this bastard, doesn't know one thing. He can decide the start of a war, but he can never decide how the war will end. Can he negotiate peace if he wants to? Those soldiers in Yunnan are sharpening their knives, but they are waiting to earn military merits and build their careers. How can I agree to his peace talks? What do the soldiers on the ground in Yunnan think of me?" Zhu Yijun criticized Liu Shizeng, the governor of Yunnan. Liu Shizeng was a civil servant who didn't like fighting and killing. He was a peace advocate in the southwest. But even such a moderate peace advocate, Liu Shizeng had only one attitude towards this war that had lasted for three years: destroy their country, exterminate their race, and exterminate their descendants.

In the southwest, during the Hongwu period at the beginning of the country, Mu Ying, the King of Qianning, attacked Luchuan. The fighting had lasted for more than two hundred years and it was time to put an end to it. Only by completely conquering Toungoo could the repeated rebellions of the chieftains and envoys in the southwest be resolved.

There are chieftains in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guizhou. These chieftains often join forces with the Xuanweisi and barbarians in the southwest. Only by conquering Toungoo and establishing a monarchy can the southwest be completely peaceful. Only then will the chieftains in Yunnan, Guizhou, southern Sichuan, and southwestern Hunan and Guangxi truly calm down and accept the policy of returning to the Han Chinese.

Liu Shizeng hoped that the court would support the southwest in its war against Toungoo. Now that the southwest did not need food and grass support from the hinterland, the emperor only needed to pay a reward for being the first on the list. As for the rest, Yunnan could ensure self-sufficiency on its own.

Shen Shixing submitted a very interesting memorial.

The Ming Dynasty now has a rather confusing problem, which is: since the Ming emperor always says that the people are the foundation of the country, why doesn't the Ming army directly obey the people, but instead obey the emperor?

No one dared to ask the emperor or General Qi this question, so the parties involved could not answer it. Shen Shixing, as a member of the heavenly people, did not dare to ask this question either. If Zhang Juzheng did not dare to do it, Shen Shixing would be even less likely to do it.

But recently there was a typical example in Songjiang Prefecture that brought this issue to a conclusion.

The Songjiang Town Navy had a total of 103,000 personnel. Last year, three naval soldiers unfortunately died on their way to an armed patrol.

One was that a strong wind and waves came suddenly, and the sails could not be retracted. In order to climb up the mast, the naval soldiers untied the tangled ropes and unfortunately fell into the water and were swept away;

One was because the ship hit a reef and the bottom of the cabin was leaking, so the soldiers risked their lives to close the watertight compartment and locked themselves in the watertight compartment;
The last soldier was killed in a conflict with Japanese pirates on Tsushima Island.

These three soldiers were all enshrined in the Temple of Loyalty and Bravery, and the court gave them pensions according to the system.

But a problem arose. The money saved from the court's pensions and the salaries of the three soldiers exceeded one hundred silver coins. One hundred silver coins was already a huge sum, and the question became who to give it to.

These three soldiers all have children, but the oldest is only seven years old and the youngest is only three years old.

The widow, uncles, aunts, and even the patriarch of their clan all went to Songjiang Town to claim the inheritance.

According to the custom, a chastity arch would be erected for the widow, and she would be allowed to raise her children. This was a long-standing practice in the Ming Dynasty. However, in Songjiang Prefecture, where silver was severely congested, the widow did not want to erect a chastity arch because she was still young in her twenties and did not want to be a widow for the rest of her life, so she could remarry.

According to the rules, if a chastity arch is not erected, the widow may remarry. It is really as Wang Qian said, sleeping with your wife, beating your son, and spending your pension.

According to the system, it should be given to uncles, if there are no uncles, it should be given to uncles, if there are no relatives, it should be given to the clan leader.

But Shen Shixing quickly stopped this behavior. If the inheritance was given to a widow, the child would at most be beaten. But if the inheritance was given to the relatives, the child might not live to grow up, and on the day of inheriting the estate, it would be very common for the whole family to be wiped out.

The government office might blackmail a few banquets, but the clan and relatives would probably set up a banquet for the children.

The 103,000 navy soldiers of Songjiang Town, the 100,000 elite soldiers of the Beijing Camp, the 2 million soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, and the 120,000 engineers of the Engineering Corps were all watching. If anything went wrong, it might be a major event that would cause unrest in the military's morale.

To this end, Shen Shixing came up with an idea. The Ming military garrison, local government, and Huitong Post Station jointly signed a contract to freeze the deposits until the children reached adulthood and pay interest based on the years.

If the widow refuses to erect a chastity arch, all expenses for the children must be written off before the children grow up, and the expenses will be audited by the Huitong Post Office. If she refuses to write off the expenses, it does not matter. After the children grow up, the full amount will be paid. As for how to distribute it, they can discuss it themselves.

This was not a solution of Shen Shixing's, but once this solution was put forward, its biggest enemy turned out to be the relatives who heard the news!

There was even a soldier's widow whose mother threw the child directly into the government office of Songjiang Prefecture, saying that since the court had withheld the pension of the child's father, the court should raise the child!
In the widow's view, this was the Ming Dynasty court withholding compensation.

Seeing this, other relatives sent the seven children to the government office to be raised.

When Shen Shixing faced the children sent by the relatives of the fallen soldiers, he was a little at a loss and anxious for a moment, but soon Shen Shixing realized that this was a good idea. It was not impossible to have the government raise them!

For the imperial court, the money from the soldiers' inheritance was not worth mentioning. As for the current Huating, Qingpu, Shanghai and Pudong highways, if Shen Shixing wanted them, he only had to put in some effort. I dare not say how much, but tens of thousands of taels of silver could be easily taken away. Moreover, all the losses were reasonable, the kind that even Hai Rui's magic sword could not cut him down.

For the imperial court, the most important thing is to follow the rules.

But for these relatives, one hundred silver coins were enough for them to fight each other until they were bloodied. Shen Shixing had even encountered cases where brothers fought to death for three points of land.

Since no one is willing to support us, then the imperial court will do it!
Shen Shixing acted as soon as he said it. He acquired 800 acres of land in Jinze Garden of the Naval Camp in Songjiang Town and planned to build a pension home to raise the orphans of loyal and brave people. A three-level military academy was also in the planning stage. He also found adoptive parents for the three children. They were all comrades who had lived and died together and were selected only from the Naval Camp.

Shen Shixing submitted a memorial to the court, requesting approval for the establishment of a pension for the loyal and brave, and hoping that the court could provide some support, such as whether it was legal for the mother to still be alive but give up raising her child and let the court raise him.

Zhu Yijun said as he wrote in red: "Allocate 300,000 silver from the treasury specifically for this matter. When the time comes, erect a monument for me and place it at the gate of the pension house. Shen Shixing wants to eat alone? He is dreaming. His Songjiang Prefecture is rich, but I am sitting on the throne, so I am not short of money!"

"Build! Songjiang Prefecture must be built, the five major customs offices must also be built, and the Beijing camp must also be built! Soldiers sacrificed their lives, and their families are unwilling to raise children. It's okay, send them all to me, and I will raise them!"

"Law? I am the law!"

Although Zhu Yijun's words were calm, Feng Bao could hear the resentment in his majesty's heart. He was resentful towards the child's mother, and towards these relatives who popped up from corners and crevices in order to eat up the family's wealth. And this resentment was very great.

Which of the soldiers who could be included in the Temple of Loyalty and Bravery did not sacrifice their lives to protect the Ming Dynasty? Unfortunately, they died while protecting the Ming Dynasty, and their affairs after death were in a mess. Zhu Yijun would not allow such a thing to happen. If the mother refused to raise the child, he would raise it!

Zhang Juzheng talked about this issue last time. When accumulating wealth becomes more and more important in the Ming Dynasty, and even becomes the most important thing, moral norms will also change accordingly, and the improvement of laws and the construction of systems must keep pace with this change.

Now Shen Shixing has put this truth into practice, and the alienation of money on people is being reflected. At least the widows of these three do not want to be widows. It is okay if they do not want to be widows. It is their personal freedom, but the loyal and brave orphans must grow up healthy, otherwise who would be willing to fight for others on the battlefield?

"Your Majesty, if the loyal and brave widows are willing to go to the pension house with their children, should the court also grant them permission?" Feng Bao put forward his own opinion. Even if the widows are willing to build a chastity arch, will these widows and orphans not be bullied? They will definitely be bullied.

A child without a father will be bullied from childhood to adulthood.

"Your idea is very good. I approve it." Zhu Yijun nodded affirmatively.

What Feng Bao said is very right. We should look at each case individually. These three women refused to erect a chastity arch. Perhaps the arch could not protect the mother and the child at all, so they refused.

Now the system of the pension home certainly allows mothers to take care of their own children.

In Shen Shixing's system design, children are not raised for life. When they grow up, they will take the pension and leave. It is equivalent to the existence of a compound. This will definitely aggravate inbreeding in the army. However, the military households in the Ming Dynasty are hereditary, so this problem does not exist.

The court's expenses were not very large. Just the food and daily necessities for the mothers of the children in the pension, as well as the investment in their education, all added up, were not as expensive as the price of the 800 acres of land.

"Submit a memorial to the Ministry of Revenue to come up with a specific set of regulations that take all kinds of issues into consideration." Zhu Yijun asked the memorial to be sent back to the capital for discussion and improvement.

Shen Shixing's method explained the problem of why the Ming army had to listen to the Ming emperor, and also explained why humans are social animals.

Only people with organization and leadership can be invincible. People without organization are nothing but a mob and a pile of loose sand.

"Send this memorial to Liu'er and send this censor to work at the Xishan Coal Bureau for three months. I guess he won't say such things again in the future. As a censor of the imperial court, the imperial court doesn't support him to talk nonsense." Zhu Yijun took out a memorial and threw it to Feng Bao.

The main content of this memorial is: The Yellow River turns a corner in Kaifeng and goes to Xuzhou, then flows southwards from Xuzhou and merges with the Huai River at Hongze Lake into the sea, which has caused troubles to the Huai River basin as well as problems for the canal. Only by accumulating clean water in Hongze Lake to flush the riverbed can the Huai River be kept from flowing out to the sea and becoming a river on the ground.

Under this situation, why not just return the Yellow River to its original course?

The censor who proposed "turning the river back to the east and solving the dilemma by itself" was still very pleased with his genius plan.

Zhu Yijun directly threw him into the Xishan Coal Bureau to work. Since Zhu Yiliu did it first and the Ming Emperor did it later, it became not so unacceptable. Zhu Yiliu was not reprimanded, but the emperor joined the ranks of the lowly Confucian scholars who were forced to work.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty did it too!
The idea is good, but it is not realistic. People have had this idea since a long time ago, probably during the Jin Dynasty. Since Du Chong had removed the embankment and changed the course of the Yellow River, is it possible to clean up the old river channel and let the Yellow River return to its original course?
Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty: Ah, yes, yes, yes, it’s so simple. When I was building the Yellow River embankment, I even built a stone man with one eye. You build it! Build it boldly!
Making the river flow eastward may seem like a beautiful idea, but at present, it is as difficult as putting a lid on the Pacific Ocean. Making the Yellow River flow back to its original course, even if everything is done, when it comes to practice, it will require 1.3 million laborers working for a full ten years to succeed, and it is just a possibility.

The workload is too huge. When it is being destroyed, it may only take a few hundred laborers to dig day and night for a few days to complete it, but when it is being constructed, it will be a century-long problem.

This censor was stupid because he had never worked. Zhu Yijun prescribed the right remedy for him and told him to go and work. After working for a few months, he became obedient.

"Let's not build this one." Zhu Yijun looked at a memorial for a long time, feeling a little hesitant.

Li Le, the governor of Yingtian, requested to complete a two-century-long unfinished project, that is, the Yuejiang Tower which was started to be built in the seventh year of Hongwu. For this tower, Zhu Yuanzhang even wrote two articles, "Yuejiang Tower Record" and "Another Yuejiang Tower Record". But in the end, only the foundation of Yuejiang Tower was built and Zhu Yuanzhang stopped the construction because it was too expensive.

Li Le's intention was to complete the construction of the Yuejiang Tower on this foundation, and also build the main government bell and drum tower at the same time.

Spectacles will ruin a country.

(End of this chapter)