Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 202
The lectures of Beijing officials reached an unprecedented peak when Li Shanchang, the first hero of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Duke of South Korea and the grand master of the dynasty, gave lectures.

Not only because of his fame and official position, but also because he was the last person in line to give the lecture, which gave people from more places enough time to arrive.

As a result, this vocational academy here in Xiangshan County became famous.

Many people who come here but cannot hear the lecture will ask what other lectures are here?
Or, some knowledgeable people thought they could earn some money from giving lectures, and began to ask how they could lecture in this vocational college.

As for Li Shanchang and others, after the lecture, they began to use the content provided by Zhang Yifan as a basis. They must first complete the tasks assigned by the emperor, and at least come up with a framework.

On this day, while they were busy, Le Shaofeng, who paid for the delicious food and went out to eat, came back. When he saw his colleagues, he immediately said to them: "Do you know that we are going to give lectures at some vocational college? The prince-in-law gave each of us ten guan of money, don’t you think it’s a bit much?”

Li Shanchang didn't care about the money, but the other officials were different. When they heard this, they all responded.

"That's natural. Each of us has ten guan. In just a few days, the prince-in-law has to spend a hundred guan. It's really a lot!"

"But the prince-in-law is getting double his salary, so he can afford it!"

"No, for us, ten dollars per person is indeed a lot, but the prince-in-law can still get it, and he won't mind a little money."

"..."

Listening to their conversation, Le Shaofeng immediately clapped her hands and said, "You are all mistaken. The prince-in-law is making a lot of money. I just went out to eat and heard someone mention it, and I finally understood it!"

Upon hearing his words, these Beijing officials were all surprised and asked what was going on?Even Li Shanchang, although he didn't care about the money, he cared about the way the son-in-law did things, so he listened with pricked ears.

Just listen to Le Shaofeng saying loudly: "My consort, he sells tickets, which are proof of admission. Do you know how much a ticket costs? Two tickets and one ticket are the lowest, and later they are even higher. Even for the scene where Taishi lectures, the tickets What are the bidding prices? The highest price for a ticket is over a hundred dollars!"

That vocational academy is not small, and it is not a problem to accommodate four or fifty people.According to the ticket price of two guan for one person, the house is full every time, and the income for that lecture is about 50 guan.

Not to mention, a single ticket for Taishi's lectures can cost up to one hundred guan, which is simply a huge profit!

Even Li Shanchang himself was a little moved after hearing this: This prince-in-law has been tricked by him again!
Just one lecture by these Beijing officials is equivalent to earning back the cost of building a vocational college.

Hearing Le Shaofeng's words, all the Beijing officials were in an uproar.How much their salary was, and the prince-in-law made more than their salary for several years with just a few clicks. It felt like he was about to vomit blood!
Listening to these people complaining, Li Shanchang suddenly thought. Could it be that the prince-in-law's weakness is greed for money?

Doesn’t it mean that the revenue of Xiangshan County’s government office can reach 200 million yuan in a few years?Then the prince-in-law can just collect some money here, and it will be enough for him to be skinned and stuffed with grass, right?

Although Li Shanchang's intuition felt that it was impossible for the Hongwu Emperor to really skin his son-in-law and turn him into a straw, but no matter what, if he really wanted to find evidence, it would be a handle!

Thinking this way, he got excited and decided to take advantage of the opportunity in Xiangshan County to pay a visit and check the financial accounts of the Prince Consort.

When Li Shanchang thought of this, he said to his fellow officials in the capital: "How can a prince-in-law make money? When you are free, you might as well go around and ask to see how the prince-son-in-law makes money. Maybe you can also make some money, too." It’s not in vain to come to Xiangshan County, which is so far away.”

The reason why he said this was that he still felt that the possibility of finding clues would be small if he investigated alone. If he mobilized these colleagues to investigate together, they might be able to find clues.

The others listened, but they didn't expect his "good intentions". They thought the grand master was doing it for their own good, so they all agreed.

Therefore, these officials from the capital took advantage of the opportunity to go out and not only began to visit Xiangshan County's education affairs, but also began to inquire about making money.

It was okay not to inquire about it, but when they inquired about it, they immediately exploded.

No, what they discuss after returning to the inn every evening is the economy of Xiangshan County.

"I really didn't expect that Xiangshan County is so rich, even the capital is ashamed!"

"More than that, to be honest, I'm tempted. I just asked the restaurant owner and he can make as much as two hundred dollars a year!"

"Yes, have you noticed that the price of sugar here is no less than three times cheaper than that in the capital. If you can transport the sugar to the capital or other places and sell it, it will be a huge profit!"

"Also, I heard that the number of houses here has doubled in just one year."

"..."

These officials were all moved by my words.

Anyway, in the Ming Dynasty, it was not said that officials could not do business.From what they heard, basically everyone doing business in Xiangshan County made a lot of money.

Because of Zhu Yuanzhang's high-pressure crackdown on corruption, most officials dare not reach out for corruption.Then this legal business naturally moved their hearts.

Not to mention them, even Li Shanchang was tempted.

His salary is much higher than that of ordinary officials, but there are too many people to support him!He doesn't like the ones with ten or eight passes, but the continuous stream of ten or eight passes is also very attractive to him.

Therefore, these officials wrote letters to their families one after another, asking them to come to Xiangshan County to do business, and selling is also possible.Even Li Shanchang, without exception, secretly began to arrange this matter in private.

At this time, Song Lian and another colleague who was recuperating in Guangzhou finally had the same place to recuperate, so they headed from Guangzhou to Xiangshan County.

This time, they took a boat ride on the Pearl River.After all, this method is the fastest and less tiring.

As a result, what the two of them didn't expect was that there were unexpectedly many people on the dock.

Song Lian looked at the people on the pier and said with some confusion: "Why are there so many people supporting the elderly and the young, and they are going to Xiangshan County one by one?" He had accompanied the prince to Xiangshan County once before, and the same thing happened. Taking a boat, even though it was a warship, you can still see a lot of people at the dock.

So, he sent an entourage to ask about the situation and find out what was going on.

After Song Lian and others entered the passenger ship, the entourage rushed back and told him, "My lord, these are disaster victims in northern Guangdong. They can't wait for the imperial court to provide disaster relief. They are going to Xiangshan County to beg for life!"

This time, the wind disaster in Guangdong was really severe, and many people died. Song Lian didn't know the victims, but he could estimate that there were definitely many.

Guangdong has already petitioned the imperial court for disaster relief and exemption from land taxes.

Judging from past experience, the court will definitely be accurate.However, there will definitely be a delay on the way.

Song Lian couldn't help but frown after hearing the follower's report.

The attendant seemed to know what he was thinking, so he said to him again: "The villain asked, many of them no longer want the fields in their hometown, and they said that they went to work in Xiangshan County, and the family could live better. Okay. If you stay in your hometown, a natural disaster will mean that your hard work for a year will be in vain, and you may even not even have anything to eat!"

Song Lian couldn't help sighing after hearing this.

Farmers depend on the weather for their livelihood. When the harvest is good, things are fine. But if there is a natural or man-made disaster or something like that, it will be really sad.

Although it is said that they went to Xiangshan County, it was a measure to deal with this natural disaster spontaneously.

Looking from the pier, there was no official to stop them. It should be that the government also supported these victims to go to Xiangshan County.

However, Song Lian felt that it was not good for the victims to abandon their fields and flee to live in Xiangshan County!
If this continues, first, does Xiangshan County have so much food to feed its increasingly large population?
Second, there are fewer and fewer people in other parts of Guangdong. What about the fields?
With this worry, he finally came to Xiangshan County again.

Needless to say, after half a year, almost a year, Xiangshan County is a few times bigger than before.And there are many construction sites in the periphery, roads are being paved, houses are being repaired, and they look prosperous.

The docks in Xiangshan County are becoming more and more prosperous. Not only are foreigners flocking to Xiangshan County, but also many merchants can be seen carrying goods up and down.

After Song Lian arrived, he first met at the post station and then reported what he saw to Grand Master Li Shanchang.

Li Shanchang felt a little strange when he heard it.

It stands to reason that if so many people flock to Xiangshan County, the price of food in Xiangshan County will definitely skyrocket.However, during the days they were in Xiangshan County, they also went out, but they didn't feel that food prices had increased much.

These people who came from troubled times knew that the food problem was a big problem, so they immediately prepared to investigate. Just when Fang Xiaoru heard that his mentor had arrived, he rushed over.Naturally, they caught Fang Xiaoru and asked him.

As soon as Fang Xiaoru heard their doubts, he immediately smiled and said: "The official knows this. In Xiangshan County, as long as important people's livelihood materials are involved, such as this grain, the consort has set up a Xiangshan County official grain store to be responsible for the grain." Acquisition and sale.”

"There are also non-government grain stores, but their prices will not be too different from those of government grain stores, otherwise the people will not buy them. Most of them sell the best grain to Xiangshan The rich people in the county eat it. As for ordinary grain, there are government-run grain stores, and they don’t have much profit, so naturally they won’t do it.”

After hearing this, Li Shanchang frowned and asked, "I see that there are many kinds of sugar cane in Xiangshan County. I'm afraid the harvest of this grain field cannot support the growing population of Xiangshan County, right?"

After hearing this, Fang Xiaoru immediately said with admiration: "This is the consort's foresight. He has already arranged for people to sell food back from Nanyang. There is a lot of food there and it is cheap. The most important thing is that this road is a bit far. .”

The He family in Dongguan is indeed capable. After He Gui took charge of the Nanyang side, he transported the supplies from Xiangshan and then brought back Nanyang’s special products. Of course, there was a required ratio, and there must be food, thus ensuring that Xiangshan The county reserves enough grain here to stabilize prices.

After hearing this, Li Shanchang frowned and asked: "What if Nanyang doesn't sell food and comes over, then the increasing population in Xiangshan County will be catastrophic if famine occurs. This is something that the Prince Consort has considered." Have you passed?"

At this time, he was not cautious. Based on his status as Grand Master, he naturally thought of this issue.

And even if he doesn't say it, others will definitely think of it.

After hearing this, Fang Xiaoru immediately replied: "The lower official also asked the prince-in-law about this matter. The prince-in-law's answer at that time was that Nanyang is still a piece of loose sand. If this house doesn't sell it, that house will sell it. And the prince-son-in-law has already sent someone to go. The local people there are hired to grow food, which means they have their own grain fields and can ensure food supply. The only thing the consort is worried about is that the people there will be incited in the future and target us people in the Ming Dynasty; in addition, there are also sea routes to After passing through Jiaozhi, they are relatively stronger than other places in Nanyang. If they block the road and rob, the shipping will be blocked!"

Speaking of this, when he saw some officials, especially his mentor Song Lian, looking worried, he quickly added: "The prince-in-law has also considered it. If such a thing really happens, we must not allow anyone to manipulate our food." He said, when the time comes, write a letter to His Highness King Yan and send a navy to escort him. If there are still people who dare to make trouble with me, the Ming Dynasty, he will ask your majesty to destroy those small foreign countries!"

After hearing this, Le Shaofeng said a little seriously: "It is not that easy to destroy a small foreign country. If you are far away, the logistics pressure will be great. There are many mountains and big rivers in those wild places, and it is inconvenient to march. Not to mention that war is not inevitable. Be sure, even if you are sure of winning the war, the price you pay may be very high. If you want to start a war, you still have to be cautious!"

He used to be Minister of the Ministry of War, so he has the confidence to say this, and understands military affairs.

In fact, what he said is exactly the view held by everyone in the court today, including Zhu Yuanzhang.

For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang even listed ten countries for his descendants that would not be conquered.One of them is Jiaozhi.

However, his successor, Emperor Yongle, did not listen to him and directly sent troops to destroy Jiaozhi and changed his name to Annan.

However, because of the excessive levies imposed by the officials sent there, public dissatisfaction boiled over, and because of the rebellion in Annan, Emperor Yongle felt that his father was right and it was not cost-effective, so he finally acquiesced in Annan's independence.

At this time, Li Shanchang was secretly happy when he heard Fang Xiaoru's words.

Because he finally discovered a real shortcoming of the prince-in-law, that is, it is easy to talk on paper when it comes to military and national affairs, and destroy others at every turn, but he will know that it is not so easy to use a knife or an army!
The consort is just another Zhao Kuo!Not in politics, but not in military matters!

Li Shanchang decided that after returning to the capital, he would start from this aspect and kill the consort!

　Ask for support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)