Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 103 Those who messed with my house

"Hua Ma! Give me money!"

In the front guard square of the government army, when Zhu Gaoxu threw down two flower tiles, he immediately shouted to the people around him for money.

Lin Wuliu and the other four people happily gave the money when they saw this. They didn't feel sad because they knew that the money would be back in their hands within a few games.

Without him, it’s just that Zhu Gaoxu’s poker luck is so bad. After playing more than [-] games all morning, he only won this game. He was a proper boy of good fortune.

His method of giving money made Lin Wuliu and the others think that Zhu Gaoxu was deliberately helping them. After all, even if they were members of the Twelve Guards Army, they could only get more than seven guans per year in exchange for their salary and grain.

These days, Zhu Gaoxu loses an average of twenty or thirty cents to each of them every day, which makes them have more meat and vegetables on the dining table at home these days.

Thinking of this, Lin Wuliu was embarrassed and said: "Your Highness, why don't you take a rest and have lunch before continuing to fight..."

"No!" Zhu Gaoxu raised his head like a gambler who lost his eyes and said: "I finally won a round. My luck has just returned. Except for the brothers on duty, no one else can leave."

After that, Zhu Gaoxu picked up the cards and started shuffling them, but as expected, he lost all the money he had won in just one game, causing him a toothache.

"Come again!"

Amidst Zhu Gaoxu's shouts, Lin Wuliu and others looked at each other.

In contrast, Zhu Yuanzhang also picked up a memorial at the same time and frowned slightly.

[Bingwu, Samarhan's consort Timur sent the chieftain to come to court with a tribute of two hundred horses, saying that the great Ming emperor had been ordered by Tianming to unite the four seas, spread his benevolence, and be kind to the common people. All nations, admire and know that God wants to bring peace to the world and appoints an emperor to bring luck...]

Exactly as Zhu Gaoxu predicted, Timur sent people to the court, and sent [-] horses as tribute, and delivered an extremely disgusting memorial.

Without Zhu Gaoxu's reminder, Zhu Yuanzhang would have thought that this was a tribute list written by Timur after long admiration for the Ming Dynasty. However, after Zhu Gaoxu's reminder, he felt that this drop of the list was weird no matter how he looked at it.

Standing next to him, Zhu Yunwen also reminded carefully: "Grandpa, how about the Ministry of Rites sends the original text of the tribute form and sends two officials from the Siyi Hall to come up and recite the original text?"

Zhu Yunwen knew that the Ministry of Rites liked to beautify the contents of the tribute form, and with Zhu Gaoxu's reminder, even he felt that the tribute form contained something strange.

"Hmm..." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly. Upon seeing this, Zhu Yunwen also sent the eunuch of Wuying Palace to the Ministry of Rites to get the tribute form and summoned the translator of the Siyi Pavilion.

Putting the tribute list aside, Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at the eunuch who sent the memorial: "Are the tribute horses sent by Timur the same as before?"

"Your Majesty, the horses are the same. They are all tall Persian horses, and they are all stallions." The eunuch answered truthfully. This news made Zhu Yuanzhang less uneasy.

If two hundred Persian horses are used for breeding, thousands of hybrid war horses can be bred in about three or four years.

Although they are not as tall as pure Persian horses, after being mixed with the blood of Hequ horses, their endurance can be much stronger, making them extremely suitable for fighting.

"Have people take good care of these two hundred horses. If one dies, let the chief officer of the Animal Husbandry Bureau accompany him and bury him!"

Zhu Yuanzhang has a tough attitude, but after all, there is a shortage of horses at the moment, so his attitude is quite normal.

The eunuch kowtowed in agreement, and then withdrew as Zhu Yuanzhang waved his sleeves.

After he left, Zhu Gaochi also stood up carefully and walked up to Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Yunwen with a memorial.

"Grandpa Huang, this is the memorial written by Uncle Ning. My grandson dare not make the decision..."

Zhu Gaochi handed over the memorial, and Zhu Yuanzhang took it and read it.

The content of the memorial is not complicated, but it involves too many things. It is no wonder that Zhu Gaochi did not dare to make the decision.

In the memorial, Ning Wang Zhu Quan explained the weather in Daning, and then said that the military households in the guard station had insufficient winter clothes and asked for 50 jins of cotton.

50 kilograms of cotton was no small sum in the early Ming Dynasty.

Because the Mongols did not control the local area, although cotton was introduced to the inland at the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, private cultivation was very small. It was not until Zhu Yuanzhang settled in the Central Plains that this cold-resistant crop was widely promoted.

In order to promote cotton, Zhu Yuanzhang also ordered to exempt and exempt farmers who grow cotton, so that more farmers began to grow cotton.

It's a pity that ancient times are no better than later generations. Although cotton has been promoted by the emperors and ministers of the Ming Dynasty for more than [-] years, its growth range is still in the Yangtze and Yellow River basins.

And because the temperature in the early Ming Dynasty was lower than that in later generations, there were very few places where cotton could be grown in the Liaodong area of ​​​​Beiping. Therefore, Liaodong, Daning and other places were extremely short of cold-resistant materials such as cotton.

50 kilograms of cotton, which was very difficult for the Ming Dynasty, which had already distributed one million kilograms of cotton to northwest and Shanxi in the first half of the year, but no matter how difficult it was, Zhu Yuanzhang could not remain indifferent.

"Ask the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry to make 16 pieces of cotton-padded clothes and [-] quilts. They must be delivered to Daning before it snows. We cannot let our officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty wear single clothes to guard the border in the north."

"Also, tell Prince Ning that in the future, I will inform him about things that are urgently needed in the army, such as cotton. Don't delay it until this time."

Zhu Yuanzhang expressed his attitude, and then marked red with a red pen, signaling Zhu Yunwen to go and do it quickly.

When Zhu Yunwen saw this, he didn't dare to delay. After all, it was already the first day of September, and it would start snowing in Daning in more than half a month.

If we only rely on the cotton-padded clothes and quilts from previous years to keep out the cold, I'm afraid there will be frostbite and death in Daning this year.

Seeing Zhu Yunwen going to do something, Zhu Yuanzhang also took the time to say to Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Jixi, and Zhu Shangbing:

"Humans, once they are full, they will forget about hunger; when they are dressed warmly, they will forget about the cold; when the world is at peace, they will forget about repairing their weapons; if this continues for a long time, once they encounter disaster, they will just be at a loss, like a fly without a head. .”

"I am well aware of the hardships faced by the people, so I often urge the Ministry of Industry to repair water conservancy roads so that the people can have food and clothing."

"Although the harvests in the fields are now more abundant than in previous years, the people are able to be self-sufficient, and the neighbors in the fields and countryside are safe, but it is a mistake to think that you can sit back and relax just like this."

"You will all guard the four sides for the Ming Dynasty in the future. You must remember these words of mine and never forget about the people's livelihood."

"When you get to the place, you can tell the people to plant mulberry and jujube whenever there are gaps in the land, and not to waste the land."

"If you encounter a severe debt, you must not be stingy. You must open the palace treasury to help the people with food and clothing."

After saying that, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the eunuch beside him: "I ordered the Ministry of Industry to move Wen Tianxia Yousi to supervise the people to plant mulberry and jujube, and teach them how to plant it."

"If the people are good at growing cotton, they will be exempted from taxes. I will tell you by the end of the year."

"Your servant accepts the order..." The eunuch who accompanied him agreed upon seeing this. Zhu Gaochi and the other three also bowed to each other one after another and sang: "My grandson understands..."

After the salute was over, Zhu Gaochi returned to his seat and sat down, lowering his head and continuing to process the memorial.

After that, Zhu Jixi and Zhu Shangbing also approached Zhu Yuanzhang to solve their doubts with memorials that they could not handle.

In the past, Zhu Yuanzhang might have been very happy about this kind of teaching, imparting knowledge and solving doubts, but after experiencing the cooperation between Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Yuanzhang became a little impatient.

Zhu Yunwen has been in charge of politics for two and a half years, and has already accumulated experience and knows how to deal with it. Zhu Gaoxu has also figured out Lao Zhu's political ideas, and often makes modifications and expansions based on his ideas.

It can be said that during the period when these two men were in charge of government, Zhu Yuanzhang could handle very few memorials every day, and they rarely took the initiative to come forward to ask Zhu Yuanzhang to clarify his doubts.

Even if they come to Zhu Yuanzhang to solve their doubts, they will bring their own opinions and suggestions, which saves Zhu Yuanzhang a lot of trouble.

As Lao Zhu himself said just now, once people get used to comfort, they will hate those who are unfounded and worried.

Although Lao Zhu also knew to be prepared, he still couldn't help but complain a little after his free time.

Therefore, when Zhu Yunwen hurried back, Zhu Yuanzhang stood up and told him to help his three brothers clear up their doubts, while he walked out of Wuying Hall to take a breath.

Coincidentally, the eunuch on duty at the gate of Wuying Palace today was Yi Shiha. When he saw this, he followed him so that he could serve Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not pay attention to this little person in the palace, but walked around Wuying Hall, with many state affairs issues constantly flashing in his mind.

The invasion of the Northern Han Dynasty completely ended a Han Dynasty, which was an unprecedented situation.

The "loose" governance of the Mongols allowed the local Mongol tycoons and Han landlords to become powerful. The Han people north of the Yangtze River either became herders or serfs, while those south of the Yangtze River gathered to become tenants of the powerful landlords. Mongolia Private soldiers of nobles.

Even though this situation has ended for 27 years, many of the Mongolian and Yuan customs and habits that remain in this land still give Zhu Yuanzhang himself a headache.

Since mid-August, the Tatars in the northwest have rebelled, the Jurchens in the northeast have been on the sidelines, and the Uliangha, Tatars, and Oara in the north have been relatively stable, but there is no telling when they will go south to thresh the valleys.

Under such a situation, Tartar officials in Beiping, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places rebelled, and the chieftains in the southwest gathered to rebel. All kinds of difficult things made Zhu Yuanzhang exhausted.

Even for a strong man like him, he would occasionally want to take a few days off.

Just thinking about the current situation in Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't relax and rest.

Not only are there external and internal problems, but there are also conflicts within Lao Zhu's family that are difficult to resolve.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt very uncomfortable when he thought that the third child who once respected his elder brother was now openly fighting for the throne.

How could such a good family become such a mess before they even left?
Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang sighed and suddenly felt a little thirsty.

He swallowed, and Yishiha next to him quickly handed over the tea he was holding.

Zhu Yuanzhang took it, took a sip, and placed it on the tray again. Only then did he pay attention to this eunuch with quick eyes and quick hands.

"Are you Korean or Jurchen?"

Looking at Yi Shiha's appearance, Zhu Yuanzhang asked him directly about his origin. Hearing this, Yi Shiha also replied:

"This servant is the son of commander Wu Yun, Yi Shiha, a Haixi Jurchen..."

"Well..." After hearing Yi Shiha's self-introduction, Zhu Yuanzhang thought about Wu Yun, but seemed to be unable to remember him because of the age. In the end, he just responded and continued walking forward.

Yi Shiha followed closely and walked about a hundred steps with Zhu Yuanzhang before Zhu Yuanzhang returned to Wuying Hall.

After all, he didn't pay attention to the little guy Yi Shiha. Such behavior also made Yi Shiha feel a little disappointed.He thought he could make the emperor remember him by serving tea and water, but the emperor didn't say anything.

Looking at the back of Zhu Yuanzhang walking into the palace, Yishiha stood blankly at the door of the palace, smiling bitterly in his heart: "For a little person like me, I'm afraid His Majesty will forget my name in a few days..."

While smiling bitterly, it was easy to think of Zhu Gaoxu, who had always remembered his name.

When he thought about the fate of such a person being banned, Yishiha felt a little uncomfortable.

It's a pity that others spoke softly and could not help Zhu Gaoxu much.

Putting down the tray, Yishiha stood back to his position, only looking at the palace from time to time, and occasionally at the gate of Wuying Palace.

He also knew what he couldn't see, but what he wished he could see.

It’s just that the ideas of little people are extravagant hopes, but the ideas of big people can often be realized more smoothly.

For example, when Zhu Yuanzhang walked into the palace, he had just sat down when he received the memorial from the Metropolitan Procuratorate brought by Zhu Yunwen.

This memorial was written by Chen Ying, the supervisory censor. In it, he wrote that the military crops were managed by the guards themselves, which was prone to corruption. Therefore, he suggested that the military crops be handed over to the Ministry of Households for unified management.

"Grandpa, my grandson thinks this memorial is a bit inappropriate, but it makes some sense. You see..."

Zhu Yunwen looked at Zhu Yuanzhang's expression and found that there was nothing wrong before he tentatively expressed his opinion.

In his opinion, it is really inappropriate for the Wei Station to be in charge of the army's grain. After all, the amount of grain in the army is not a small amount. A health station with [-] households can often stock up on tens of thousands of kilo of grain after the autumn harvest.

Putting this food in the guardhouse naturally ensured the soldiers' rations and transportation problems, but it was also a huge waste for the court.

There are 330 health stations in the world, which means that there are more than 2000 million military camps with unused grain every year.

It can be said that the economic strength of the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion is not much worse than that of the Ministry of Revenue.

Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that Zhu Yunwen wants to take this part of the finance back to the central government.

Just facing his thoughts, Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and threw the memorial on the table:

"Right now, there are rebellions in the local area, and the local guards say that they will send troops to quell the rebellion at any time."

"Not to mention how much fire is consumed on the way when the generals collect grain and transport it to the capital. However, if there is a local rebellion and they need to transport grain to the front, this will double the fire cost out of thin air."

"This time, the food consumed on the road is not a small amount."

"I still reserve [-]% of the money for the local government and counties to use, how can I limit the military rations?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Yunwen, and while meeting his eyes, he also told him sincerely: "There is no need to take back the military camp seed grain..."

"Earlier, Gao Xu had a conversation with Wei Guogong about the military camp's seed grains, and Gao Xu's words were very good."

"If you feel that some of these health stations are not safe all year round and are wasting money and food, then you can abolish the health stations and set up prefectures and counties, cancel their military status, convert them to civilian status, re-measure and plan the local military farmland, and formulate the annual collection of The tax amount is enough.”

"You absolutely cannot accept what is said in this memorial."

"Let me ask you..." Zhu Yuanzhang asked:
"If you take back the grain from the military garrison, what will happen if the garrison in the remote area encounters a rebellion and has no food to eat and no food for the expedition?"

"This..." Zhu Yunwen muttered: "It's just that the general's grain harvest is taken back to the household department and the six departments send people to supervise it. The grain does not need to be adjusted."

"Okay." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly, but then asked again: "Are you worried that the military attache at the guard station will embezzle the Mo army's grain? Don't the people sent by the Six Ministries embezzle the Mo grain?"

"Don't forget, the Ministry of War and the Metropolitan Procuratorate can supervise military attachés' corruption of grain. But once the military grain crops belong to the Sixth Ministry, and the Sixth Ministry and the Metropolitan Procuratorate collude, who can tell you that the military grain grains are being robbed by corruption? "

"What's more, don't forget that the guard station still holds the local food. If the granary of the guard station is handed over, wouldn't the military households below become beggars begging for food from others in the future?"

Zhu Yuanzhang talked about the problem of local grain. In the current era of in-kind taxes, Zhu Yuanzhang himself did not believe in the remaining officials of the former Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, he divided the Ming Dynasty granary into different areas according to different levels and handed them over to different classes for management. .

Among the prefectures and counties, Zhu Yuanzhang established Changpingcang and let the local yamen manage it.

In addition to prefectures and counties, Zhu Yuanzhang also asked people in rural towns to establish social warehouses and charity warehouses.

Of course, these are not the granaries directly under the Ming Dynasty. The granaries directly under the Ming Dynasty are the military household warehouse of the guard station, the reserve warehouse that the military household of the guard station is responsible for guarding, and the fourteen water storage warehouses along the canal.

Zhu Yuanzhang himself had experienced famine, so he set up many granaries all over the world. The food in these granaries was enough to feed the people of the Ming Dynasty for a year. Every year, the old rice was released to the market and the new rice paid by the people was put into reserves. In the warehouse.

The grain currently in the reserve warehouse, Changping warehouse, military household warehouse, and Shuici warehouse alone amounts to no less than 6000 million shi.

Of these 6000 million shi, nominally more than [-] million shi can be used by the Ministry of Revenue. However, in fact, less than one-third of this batch of grain can be directly transferred by the Ministry of Revenue, and the remaining three Two-thirds of them required Zhu Yuanzhang's nod, and they could only be called after the Fifth Army Governor's Office released them.

For the local military attachés, they don’t care what rank you are as a civil servant. They only know that they are hereditary military households who are not allowed to eat the imperial rations. Without the instructions of the emperor and the Governor of the Fifth Army, they will never be able to use their reserves. Give a grain of rice from the warehouse to the civil servant.

This situation of mutual supervision between civil and military affairs was exactly what Zhu Yuanzhang wanted, and this situation also ensured that nearly two-thirds of the Ming Dynasty's finances were always in the hands of the emperor.

No matter how small the officials in the temple are, they can't get things done without money.

Food is the root of Zhu Yuanzhang's contempt for everything.

In this case, a supervisory censor Shi Shu suddenly appeared and wanted to hand over the management of the reserve warehouse to the Sixth Department. Zhu Yuanzhang was very restrained without killing anyone.

"Do you think I'm old..."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the memorial and narrowed his eyes slightly.

Such a move made Zhu Yunwen feel nervous, and he quickly bowed: "Grandpa, my grandson just thinks that civil and military officials have the possibility of embezzling food. It's just that the military attachés at the guard station have been exposed to food for a long time and have more opportunities, so they are more likely to be corrupt. "

"Then make good use of them and check and balance the granary in a good place." Zhu Yuanzhang said unhurriedly, mentioning Zhu Gaoxu by the way:

"What Gao Xu said before is right. Those supervisory censors should run around in the local area, otherwise how can they fulfill their responsibilities? Besides..."

Zhu Yuanzhang did not continue speaking. He seemed to realize that he had mentioned Zhu Gaoxu unconsciously, and his face instantly became much gloomier.

"You should step down first. If anyone comes up with this kind of memorial in the future, they will all be dismissed."

He waved his hand and motioned for Zhu Yunwen to return to his seat. Zhu Yunwen was still nervous at first, but when his grandfather's face darkened when he mentioned Zhu Gaoxu, he breathed a sigh of relief, raised his hand and bowed before returning to his seat.

Seeing his appearance, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't say anything, he just calmed down and continued to deal with the memorial.

But while he was dealing with the memorial, the Fu brothers in Duke Ying's mansion were spinning in anxiety.

Ever since they knew that Zhu Gaoxu had been banned, Fu Zhong and Fu Rang had become anxious. Although they knew that Zhu Yuanzhang would not do anything to Zhu Gaoxu, they could not help but worry about him.

Compared to them, Fu Youde was older and more serious. He didn't panic at all. He just sat in his study every day and polished and polished his so-called "Book of War".

"Dad is safe..."

Sitting on the corridor outside the study, Fu Rang looked at Fu Youde who was writing in the study and couldn't help but sigh.

Fu Zhong, who was sitting next to him, heard a bit of melancholy from his mouth, but at the moment his mind was not only on Zhu Gaoxu, but also on a few other people.

He looked towards the end of the corridor, where two six or seven-year-old children were chasing and playing.

They were the two children of Fu Zhong and Princess Shouchun. Zhu Yuanzhang sent them back to Fu Zhong as promised, which not only added a lot of life to Duke Ying's palace, but also eased Fu Zhong's anxiety a little.

Fu Rang followed Fu Zhong's gaze and looked at his two nephews. He also had a complicated expression:

"Fortunately, I have the blessing of my sister-in-law's blood. If anything happens to us, at least the Fu family will still have blood to pass on."

"Yeah..." Fu Zhong also sighed, the figure of Zhu Gaoxu becoming more and more clear in his mind.

"If these two children are given to him to raise, he should be able to raise these two children very well," Fu Zhong couldn't help but daydream.

But while they were talking, Fu Youde, who was still in the study, came behind them without anyone noticing.

Fu Youde looked at his two grandsons and said calmly: "You will be fine, don't worry."

"Dad?" Fu Zhong and Fu Rang turned back one after another, seemingly still surprised when Fu Youde appeared, but Fu Youde breathed out and said:
"As that boy said, I am indeed not the type to write military books."

As soon as he said these words, Fu Zhong and the two looked at each other.

The only person who can make Fu Youde say this is Zhu Gaoxu, who has been constantly coming up with fantastic ideas in the past few months.

"That kid should be out soon, should be soon..."

Fu Youde looked at the sky outside the corridor, with a hint of reminiscence in his eyes.

After a long time, he spoke to the two of them: "If something happens to me, don't give up on yourselves, just do your job in the court."

"Also, write a letter to your younger brothers and ask them not to act out of anger. The DPRK still has favors for them to repay."

"father……"

Before Fu Zhong and Fu Rang could speak, Fu Youde had already turned around and left, leaving only the distant silhouettes of his back to the two brothers.

Fu Zhong looked at the back, hesitating to speak, but he didn't know what to say.

Perhaps, not only Fu Youde, but also he has accepted his fate...

　Jinling Volume is almost over

　　
　
(End of this chapter)