If I fail to overcome the tribulation, I can only return to the Ming Dynasty and become a prince.

Chapter 147

Ten days passed by in a blink of an eye. Although there was no help from Zhu Zhanchun, the fleet still arrived in Tianjin smoothly.

Although it has been some time since Tianjin became Zhu Zhanchun's fiefdom, and he also invested all the money and grain allocated by the court for the construction of the palace into the expansion of the city, today's Tianjin City actually reveals a bit of desolation and poverty. .

Except for the newly built wharf and port and the city wall that is being expanded, Tianjin is not very prosperous.

This is not difficult to understand. Although the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was completely built during the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties, connecting the north and the south and making Tianjin the main transportation route into the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty did not exist for 100 years, and Tianjin actually did not develop. How prosperous.

Of course, there is still a certain foundation here, and this foundation is the foundation of Tianjin City today.

With the fall of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, most of the Yuan Dynasty was conquered by the troops led by Xu Da and Chang Yuchun. It was renamed Peking since then, and the place became depressed.

After all, the capital of the Ming Dynasty that destroyed the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty was Nanjing. Both the economic and political centers were in the south, and sea and water transportation were also stopped. Although Tianjin got its name from Zhu Di's southward journey to Jingnan, and also established the city , but that’s all.

Compared with the time when it was Sanhe Haikou and the water and land transportation hub entering Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty, today's Tianjin is really lonely.

If it wants to prosper again, it will have to wait until Zhu Di builds the city of Beijing and moves the capital of the Ming Dynasty from Nanjing to Beijing before it can get the chance to develop and prosper again.

Although the construction project of Beijing has begun, and Zhu Di lived here for a period of time last year, this was only temporary and did not bring much benefit to Tianjin.

That is to say, Zhu Zhanquan came here as a fiefdom and prepared to use it as a base to conquer the Japanese country. This is why Tianjin City still has some vitality. Otherwise, this city would be like most cities in the north today, full of people. Desolation and poverty.

You must know that at the beginning of the Mongols' conquest, the war with the Jin Kingdom caused extremely huge damage to the north. Both the economy and agriculture suffered heavy losses, and the population was also greatly reduced.

In the late Jin Dynasty, its registered population was approximately 5300 million. However, after the fall of the Jin Kingdom, only more than 1000 million remained.

In the early Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, agriculture was not paid attention to at all. Those Mongolian nobles who invaded the Central Plains even wanted to turn the entire Central Plains into their pastures, so they also caused considerable damage to the agriculture in the north.

Although the Yuan Dynasty implemented a series of policies to restore agriculture and economy in the north during the reign of Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, this did not have much effect.

The total population reached approximately 9800 million during the Yuan Dynasty, but it was 1.2 million during the Song and Jin Dynasties. It can be seen that even if restorative policies were implemented, the country did not recover from the war during the Yuan Dynasty.

Coupled with the serious disasters caused by the flooding of the Yellow River in the northern region in the middle and late Yuan Dynasty, as well as corruption and other problems in the Yuan Dynasty itself, the economy was severely depressed and the population once again experienced a significant decrease.

If Zhu Yuanzhang hadn't starved his whole family to death in the late Yuan Dynasty, he might not have gone to the rebels to rebel and become the later Hongwu Emperor.

The war in the north at the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty also dealt heavy blows to the already fragile north. Until Zhu Yuanzhang made his son a vassal in the north, the Ming Dynasty's rule in the north was stable and the economy of the north was strong. and people's livelihood have been restored and improved.

But the good times did not last long. What little the northern economy had recovered during the Hongwu years was smashed to pieces in the four years of Jingnan.

The battle of hundreds of thousands of troops almost destroyed the main battlefields of Shandong, Hebei and other places, and even many places became empty.Since Yongle, although the imperial court has attached great importance to the recovery of the northern economy, it cannot be effective in just a few years.

Zhu Zhanjun did not feel strange or surprised about the current situation in Tianjin City. He had visited his fiefdom as early as three months ago when he took the Qingyu Guards to clear out the Japanese pirates. In addition to investigating and In addition to understanding, it is also to train the Tianjin Three Guards.

The Three Tianjin Guards were not recruited for training like the Qingyu Guards, but troops transferred by Zhu Di from surrounding areas.

Originally, Zhu Zhanjuan wanted to recruit new soldiers for training like the Qingyu Guards, but both Zhu Di and Zhu Gaochi advised him that it would be more convenient to directly mobilize troops from surrounding areas.

After all, the entire plan to conquer Japan was implemented too quickly. Although it was not impossible to train new armies, it was obvious that recruiting new armies was far faster than directly calling in surrounding armies.

In fact, not only Zhu Zhanchun's three Tianjin guards, but also the soldiers and horses of King Ning and the three kings of Liaodong came this way.

Although they had a lot of troops back then, and they mobilized and commanded the soldiers from the fiefdom during the past wars, they were moved inland after the Jingnan War. After so many years, the troops they have have long since become old and replaced. In other words, it is almost impossible to assemble an army capable of fighting in a short period of time.

Even though Zhu Zhanyu had a quick method for Tao soldiers, he did not mess around. He just brought Fan Zhong and part of the Qingyu Guards to Tianjin at the beginning of the year and asked them to train the three Tianjin guards.

Now three months have passed, although this army is still far behind the Jade Guard, it is still enough to be called an elite force.

"Your Majesty, the Qingyu Guards and the Three Tianjin Guards are now ready and can leave for the Japanese country at any time." Fan Zhong brought the three commanders of the Three Tianjin Guards to Zhu Zhanchun and reported to him. It also allowed these three people to show their faces in front of Zhu Zhantun.

Zhu Zhanjun looked at the three of them and didn't say much. He had already heard about self-introduction when he came last time.

As for the combat effectiveness of the army, Zhu Zhanjun is not worried. The core strength in his hands is the Qingyu Guards who he trained by himself.

He only intends to use the Tianjin Three Guards as an auxiliary army, so as long as they are not too bad, they can be used, not to mention that they have experienced three months of training from the Qingyu Guards, and they are more or less elite.

Therefore, during this expedition, Zhu Zhanyu had no doubts about the strength of his troops.

He was more concerned about another thing than this.

"Zhang Changshi, how did you do what you were told to do at the beginning of the year?" Zhu Zhanchun looked at the prince's palace chief at the side.

According to regulations, the prince should have two chief officials on the left and right of the vassal. The one in front of him is the right chief official of the palace. As for the left chief official, he is still walking on the Grand Canal with other officials of the palace and Hu Shanxiang and other female relatives, and has not arrived in Tianjin.

After hearing Zhu Zhanchun's inquiry, the civil servant who was sent by the prince to serve as Zhu Zhanchun's chief historian hurriedly reported: "Back to the prince, at the beginning of the year, I had organized people to carry out an attack on the tidal flats outside Tianjin according to your instructions. A total of 1000 and two hundred hectares of fertile land have been reclaimed, just in time for this year's spring plowing.

And the rice has been sown according to the planting method taught by the prince. It is growing well and there should be a good harvest in autumn. "

(End of this chapter)