Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 133 Concession to Immigration
"Since the King of Qin is not here, let Shang Bingxijue guard Xi'an."

"The minister takes orders..."

In the Wuying Hall, as Zhu Yuanzhang finished his instructions to Ren Hengtai, the Minister of Rites, Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Jixi, Zhu Gaochi, and Zhu Shangbing also walked into the hall one after another.

They saluted Zhu Yuanzhang as usual, but this time Zhu Yuanzhang called him Zhu Shangbing and said:

"Since your father is dead, you should just pack up and leave the town in Xi'an in three days."

"Your Majesty, take the order..." When Zhu Shangbing heard that he was finally able to leave the town, he bowed respectfully and thanked him, but he was very happy in his heart.

This news did not surprise everyone, but when it really came, Zhu Yunwen was still a little disappointed.

In his opinion, since his grandfather also knew that he wanted to reduce the vassal status, he should help him keep Zhu Shangbing.

However, Zhu Yunwen also understood that the most critical issue at the moment was not Zhu Shangbing's seizure of the title, but the gold, silver and copper mines in southern Sichuan.

He calmed down and prepared to find an opportunity to talk to Zhu Yuanzhang about this matter after sitting down for a while.

But when he was calming down, Zhu Yuanzhang kept his eyes on Zhu Shangbing.

Looking at him, Zhu Yuanzhang thought of the cruel Zhu Xi, so he couldn't help but remind him:
"After you leave town, don't imitate your father, but be kind to the people of Guanzhong, so that you can convince the people of Guanzhong."

"Besides, don't be as hostile to the Fan people as your father was. Since they have entered the Ming Dynasty, they are the people of the Ming Dynasty. They are innocent and cannot be punished."

"Your Majesty, please remember this." Zhu Shangbing was very happy because he was able to seize the title. Naturally, he was very obedient to Zhu Yuanzhang's words.

Looking at his well-behaved appearance, Zhu Yuanzhang could only hope that he would really remember it, instead of being obedient like his father.

"Go back to the mansion and prepare for the attack."

"My grandson, please retire. May the emperor be blessed with good health..."

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand, and Zhu Shangbing kowtowed again to thank him, then stood up and slowly exited Wuying Hall.

Looking at his back as he exited, Zhu Jixi and Zhu Gaochi both showed envy. At the same time, Zhu Gaochi also thought of Zhu Gaoxu who was far away in Jilin City.

"I don't know how my second brother is doing..."

He suddenly became sad, and then he and Zhu Yunwen took their seats one after another.

Looking at the memorial on the table, he regained his mood and began to deal with it.

Zhu Jixi also behaved like him, but Zhu Yunwen was not included.

Although Zhu Yunwen was dealing with the memorial, his thoughts were on how to find an opportunity to discuss the Liufu Mine in southern Sichuan with his grandfather.

It's a pity that since Xu Huizu pacified Nong Zhenyou, there have been no memorials in Southwest China that require Lao Zhu's personal intervention. Therefore, Zhu Yunwen thought about it for a long time, but could not find any news.

An hour passed slowly, and Zhu Yunwen did not wait for the opportunity he wanted. Instead, he waited for the military attaché who had always been with Lao Zhu.

Seeing the military attache appearing at the palace gate, Zhu Yuanzhang stood up slowly. Seeing this, his three grandsons also tried to get up one after another, but they were stopped by him:

"You take care of yourselves, I'll go out for a walk..."

After finishing his words, Zhu Yuanzhang walked out of the side hall without giving anyone a chance.

Zhu Jixi and Zhu Gaochi were very at peace with each other. After Lao Zhu left, they continued to deal with the memorial with their heads down as he ordered.

Zhu Yunwen, on the other hand, frowned slightly because he smelled something wrong.

Normally, my grandfather would never choose to avoid him when the military attaché was making trouble, but this time...

Zhu Yunwen was puzzled, and he kept guessing at the reason.

But compared to his guess, Lao Zhu had already gone to another side hall of Wuying Palace with the military attache.

"Tell me..."

Lao Zhu sat firmly on a chair in the side hall. Seeing this, the military attaché also bowed and replied:
"The snow in the north has melted, and the brothers in Jilin City have also sent news."

"It's just that His Highness has done too many and complicated things in the past few months. I don't know what is important and what is not important, so I can only write it in writing and submit it to Your Majesty."

While talking, the military attaché took out a thick memorial from his pocket.

In response, Lao Zhu was slightly surprised and took it from him.

He knew the man in front of him very well, otherwise he would not have chosen him to take charge of the Jin Yiwei hidden in the dark.

Over the years, he has handled many cases, large and small. According to common sense, it is impossible not to know what is important and what is not.

The reason why he said this was probably because he couldn't decide what Gao Xu did...

Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and opened the memorial.

[Ding Mao in the second month, everyone goes with the King of Bohai...]

The content of the intelligence began on February [-]th. Zhu Yuanzhang calculated the time. It happened to be when Zhu Gaoxu and the others left the Thirty Thousand Guards boundary, and he picked up the content of the intelligence he had read a few months ago.

Upon noticing this, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded with satisfaction and quickly sank into it.

In this memorial, the Jinyiwei who recorded the intelligence recorded everything about how he approached Zhu Gaoxu, what adjustments the northbound team made every day, and what he heard Zhu Gaoxu say with his own ears.

Along the way north, what Zhu Gaoxu talked about the most was the issue of Liaodong, and Zhu Gaoxu often looked at the problem from the same perspective as Zhu Yuanzhang, so he could also use these perspectives to understand the state of Liaodong, which had been restored for seven years.

In Jinyiwei's records, Zhu Gaoxu believed that the reason why Liaodong needed Shandong to supply grain and grass was mainly because the Yuan Dynasty did not properly manage Liaodong, and the subsequent turmoil at the end of the Yuan Dynasty even caused the destruction of many water conservancy facilities in the Liao and Jin Dynasties.

This was the reason for the hardship in Liaodong. After the Ming Dynasty ruled Liaodong, except for the four states of Gai, Hai, Fu, and Jin, there was no normal administrative management in the rest of the places. As a result, Liaodong could only invest in temples through the emperor's personal wishes and ideas. construction.

The water conservancy construction in Liaodong was lackluster. Although under Zhu Yuanzhang's order, the military households of the local guard station also carried out projects such as dredging rivers and building ship locks, this was mainly from a military perspective and was only to ensure the smooth flow of the waterways of the Liaohe River and Songhua River. To ensure the supply of materials for the army, rather than from the perspective of agricultural irrigation.

Therefore, Liaodong's own agriculture lacks the ability to withstand floods and droughts.

In addition, Liaodong cannot produce cotton locally, and all craftsmen serve the army. The area often suffers from famines due to insufficient water conservancy facilities. Therefore, the development of Liaodong has never kept up with the speed of the inland provinces.

In Zhu Gaoxu's view, the military households in Liaodong are currently relatively prosperous thanks to Lao Zhu's policy of "granting fifty acres of land to each person". However, once the military attache of the guard station begins to oppress the military households, the burden on the military households in Liaodong will be greater than that in the mainland. Ordinary people are even more serious and have become slaves imprisoned on the land.

Once the military households are depleted, they can only start to find ways to flee south. Once the phenomenon of military households fleeing south occurs, it will be difficult to restore the situation, and Liaodong's armaments will inevitably become depleted.

As long as Liaodong's armaments are depleted to a certain extent, the Mongols and Jurchens will continue to plunder southward and destroy the local people's livelihood in Liaodong.

Liaodong's agricultural and handicraft production capacity is inherently low, and wealth accumulation is very slow. If it is robbed once, it will take several years to recover. If it is robbed every year, it will only get worse and worse, and finally become a wound in the Ming Dynasty, which will continue to bleed, and then Increase the burden on the people of Shandong and Hebei...

"This kid..." Seeing Zhu Gaoxu's disparaging evaluation of Liaodong, Lao Zhu himself couldn't help but feel a little angry.

Fortunately, he had already become accustomed to Zhu Gaoxu's evaluation method of first suppressing and then elevating last year, so he suppressed his temper and continued reading.

What followed was not as he expected. After Zhu Gaoxu belittled him, he also began to praise Lao Zhu.

He believed that Lao Zhu was not wrong at all in setting up the Liaodong capital and imposing military control on Liaodong, because Liaodong could not bear too many immigrants at present. If there were not enough immigrants, Liaodong would naturally not be able to build so many water conservancy projects for people's livelihood. facility.

Under such conditions, military garrisoning is the best way to control frontier areas like Liaodong where various ethnic groups live together.

If you want to manage and assimilate a large number of local descendants of different ethnic groups, and even many reform-through-labor prisoners exiled from the mainland, there is really no way to do it without military management.

If Lao Zhu did not do this, the area in Liaodong would be divided equally between the three ethnic groups of Mongolia, Jurchen, and Goryeo.

The only flaw that Lao Zhu made was that he did not continue to expand the civilian-governed prefectures and counties in southern Liaoning. It should not be limited to the four states in southern Liaoning, but should turn its attention to the western Liaoning area, where as long as there are people, it can be cultivated. Millions of acres of farmland.

"It's a pity..." Looking at Zhu Gaoxu's suggestion, Zhu Yuanzhang did learn the true situation in Liaodong, but he also felt it was a pity.

At the moment, it's not that he doesn't want to move the population to Liaodong, but that he really can't distinguish between so many people.

Although Shandong still has a population of more than 530 million, Hebei, Guanzhong, Hexi, Henan and other places need Shandong and Shanxi to fill their populations.

At present, Liaodong is relatively stable, but rebellions have repeatedly broken out in towns such as Guanzhong and Gansu in the Hexi Corridor.

Hundreds of thousands of young people in Liaodong have been moved to Hebei by Zhu Yuanzhang, but there are not enough Han people to suppress the hundreds of thousands of Semu and Mongolians in the Hexi Corridor.

In fact, both of them were right, but Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the world from the position of the emperor, while Zhu Gaoxu only saw Liaodong when he looked at it.

"If he were sitting in my position, then his views might be similar to mine..."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned, quickly suppressed this thought that shouldn't exist, and continued to read.

In the following intelligence content, Jin Yiwei recorded all Zhu Gaoxu's policies towards soldiers and people. When Zhu Yuanzhang saw this, his brows hardly relaxed.

Zhu Gaoxu's treatment of his soldiers was highly regulated. Zhu Yuanzhang had some opinions on this, but not much.

In comparison, Zhu Gaoxu was a little unhappy when he gave six buckets of rice to everyone except soldiers every month.

Zhu Yuanzhang rose to the throne from a beggar. He knew better than anyone how much an adult's monthly ration was.

With only five buckets of grain, one person can eat well.

Six buckets of grain, this is a life that only some small rich farmers can live on.

"If this kid raises people like this, I'm afraid he will raise this group of people..."

Before Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts of criticism arose, his eyes saw Zhu Gaoxu's various methods after announcing these policies.

First, he called on the people to build academies, organize roads in the city, and build houses...

Then Zhu Gaoxu Heshan went out of the castle to do business in Fotijin City.Although this Jin Yiwei did not find out what kind of business Zhu Gaoxu wanted to do with these Jurchens, Zhu Yuanzhang could guess that it was probably a trade in furs and livestock.

Zhu Yuanzhang held a conservative attitude towards Zhu Gaoxu's approach, because he had to see where the boy invested his earned money before he would choose to be angry or happy.

He continued to look down and saw Fu Rang and others arriving in Jilin City. Jilin City then began to teach soldiers and children to read for free. Civilians in the city participated in land reclamation movements, built rivers and canals, and discovered and mined coal and iron mines.

It can be said that under Zhu Gaoxu's governance, Jilin City was not like a fiefdom of a county king, but lived a primitive and simple life.

Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang knew very well that the military households in Jilin City could live so comfortably because Zhu Gaoxu exempted them from taxes and was willing to share the grain in the treasury equally among them.

Not only that, Liaodong Dusi also transported enough grain to Zhu Gaoxu for the military households in Jilin City to lie down.

The current situation is that Zhu Gaoxu uses his royal treasury to feed his troops and the Liaodong Dusi's food to feed his people.

He did not exploit the people, but chose to exchange work for food.

He gave the bulk of the grain from the general's field to the common people, and only took the small portion for himself.

Even though he couldn't enjoy the treatment he deserved as a county king, he enjoyed it.

Not only that, Zhu Yuanzhang felt from between the lines that Jin Yiwei, who recorded these things, was a little happy in the process of recording, because his words were getting smoother and smoother.

The information he writes about goes from being business-like at the beginning to being immersed in it later...

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang finally understood why the military attaché gave this memorial to him.

"If this kid continues like this, I'm afraid it won't be long before the dozen or so guards you sent here will stop asking for trouble..."

Zhu Yuanzhang closed the memorial and glanced at the military attaché.

In response, the military attache could only lower his head: "I didn't expect them to be so unable to withstand the temptation..."

"Temptation?" Zhu Yuanzhang leaned forward: "What did King Bohai tempt them?"

"This... is of course military pay and..." The military attache wanted to say something, but the words came to his lips but he couldn't.

When it comes to military pay, the annual salary Zhu Gaoxu paid to his soldiers was indeed very high, but it was still not as good as the salary paid to these people by the Jin Yiwei.

The military attache didn't know what to say because he found that Zhu Gaoxu really didn't seem to have given these royal guards anything except military pay.

But even so, these Jin Yiwei still unknowingly said all the good things for Zhu Gaoxu.

"Your Majesty, I will transfer them back right now." The military attaché couldn't say anything and could only kneel down and kowtow.

"Why transfer him back..." Zhu Yuanzhang put the memorial on the table beside him: "If he transfers them back, doesn't that kid know who is monitoring him?"

"What's more, he can use this method to subdue the people you sent. Can you guarantee that the other people sent will be able to resist his method?"

Zhu Yuanzhang picked up the memorial and threw it in front of the military attache: "Continue to keep them. As long as the general information is correct, there is nothing else."

He's confident, but that's as it should be.

The reason why Zhu Gaoxu is able to unleash such great potential in Jilin City now is not because of his outstanding personal abilities, but because Qianshan and Liangshan of the Ming Dynasty are clearing the way for him.

Without the money and food from the Liaodong Dusi, and without the annual salary from the Zongren Mansion and the Ministry of Household Affairs, everything Zhu Gaoxu had built would fall apart in an instant.

Zhu Yuanzhang is happy with the current situation and even wants Zhu Gaoxu to continue like this.

If Zhu Gaoxu wants to maintain the current situation, he must be tightly tied to the Ming court. If he is tied too deeply, he will never be able to cause any trouble.

Although in Zhu Yuanzhang's view, the more than 7000 people in Jilin City could not cause any trouble, it is always good to be prepared.

"Your Majesty, the matter of trade between Your Majesty and the Jurchens..."

The military attache lowered his head and cautiously opened his mouth to test, but Zhu Yuanzhang interrupted before he could finish speaking:
"Find out what they are trading with each other. In addition, let people find out what is going on in the village of the iron ore and coal mine."

Iron ore and coal mines are important things for any force. Zhu Yuanzhang was not surprised that Zhu Gaoxu could find these two things, but he wanted to know whether his grandson's two mines were just mining. What kind of shady business is he running in private?

Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes, but at this moment, someone knocked on the door of the side hall.

"Tuk Tuk..."

"Grandpa, someone below has sent me a memorandum. I can't make up my mind. Can I come in?"

Zhu Yunwen's voice sounded from behind the door. Zhu Yuanzhang didn't think much after hearing this. He just glanced at the military attache and said, "Go and do your business, and let your grandson in by the way."

"Yes... I excuse myself." The military attaché stood up, bowed and left, and Zhu Yunwen also walked into the side hall a moment later.

He held a memorial in his hand and handed it to Zhu Yuanzhang with both hands before walking up. Lao Zhu also took it.

After receiving the memorial, he glanced at the person who presented it, but he never thought that it was Yu Xin, the Minister of the Ministry of Finance.

Seeing Yu Xin's name, Lao Zhu knew that this memorial might be related to the affairs in Southwest China, and then he read it at a glance.

As expected, the content of the memorial was about the mines in southern Sichuan and Yunnan. Yu Xin explained in the memorial that many ministers in the temple were thinking about mining gold, silver and copper mines in Yunnan and southern Sichuan at the same time. However, Yu Xin believed that the current Ming Dynasty could not immigrate to southern Sichuan and Yunnan at the same time.

The relationship between Yunnan and Sichuan is different from the relationship between Yunnan and other places.

There are two groups of immigrants from the north and from the south. Yunnan and Sichuan are both in the southwest. Therefore, when it comes to immigration issues, the two will inevitably run into distribution issues.

In the past, Zhu Yuanzhang was more aggressive in emigrating to Yunnan than to Sichuan. This was not only because there were still more than two million Han people in Sichuan, but also because Yunnan must be defended to protect Sichuan.

It's just that Yunnan is currently colliding with Sichuan and southern Sichuan. Both have enough mines and are urgently needed by the Ming Dynasty.

Today there are three voices in the temple, namely mining in Sichuan, mining in Yunnan, and mining both together.

Mining officials in Sichuan believe that the number of gold, silver and copper mines in southern Sichuan is not small, and since it is backed by the Chengdu Plain and close to the Yangtze River system, transportation problems can be eliminated after mining.

Not only that, they believed that if the six prefectures in southern Sichuan were pacified and followed by immigrants, the situation of "Sichuan defense in Chengdu" that had been formed since the Sui and Tang Dynasties could be improved.

After this situation is improved, the plains south of Chengdu can be better developed and even connected to the Anning Valley in the south.

As for the officials who spent money in Yunnan, they believed that the southwest should be defended in Yunnan, and the number of Yunnan chieftains and native people was five or six times that of the Han people. The development of Yunnan mines could better immigrate to the border and protect the southwest border of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang was listening to both voices, because what the officials were fighting for was ostensibly population, but actually the future positioning and development of the two provinces.

In this regard, Zhu Yuanzhang himself was leaning towards Yunnan. After all, there was an example of the Yuan Dynasty destroying the Song Dynasty. He knew very well what Yunnan meant to Southwest and even the Ming Dynasty.

Now that there are so many gold, silver and copper mines, it is a good time to immigrate to Yunnan.

Once these gold, silver and copper mines are mined, many businessmen will flock to Yunnan, and the Yunnan trade route will be opened, bringing more population and business.

The immigration of more than 10,000 people to southern Sichuan was the icing on the cake for Sichuan as a whole, but it was a timely help to Ming Dynasty's rule in Yunnan. Zhu Yuanzhang understood this truth better than anyone.

Compared with the first two, Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards the third voice is not very good.

No matter what, the first two are from the perspective of the Ming Dynasty and the imperial court, but the third one is simply stupid or bad.

Is there any person above the temple who can’t see that today’s Ming Dynasty cannot keep pace with the southwest?
The reason why they want to send troops to guard southern Sichuan and Yunnan at the same time is to exploit the gold, silver and copper mines in southern Sichuan and Yunnan, and then continue the policy of using cash to offset taxes.

They don't care what the consequences of doing so are, all they want is to get the quickest benefit.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang raised his head and glanced at Zhu Yunwen, his eyes calm and scary.

"Do you think we should mine Yunnan or Sichuan..."

"Grandson..." When the words came to his lips, Zhu Yunwen couldn't say them out because he felt his grandfather's displeasure.

"My grandson thinks it is better to exploit Yunnan first, and according to this year's law, we will organize more than [-] households into three to four guards to go to Yunnan every year."

"According to the current situation of gold, silver and copper mines in Yunnan, at least 72 more thousand-household stations must be built, divided into ten wards according to the area."

The Ming military garrison did not have a fixed number of five thousand-household garrison posts for each garrison. Generally, there were three to five in the mainland except for southern Zhili. In places where the military situation was serious, the number could range from five to twelve.

Therefore, Zhu Yunwen proposed to divide the 72 thousand-household settlements into ten wards.

But no matter what, 72 thousand-household stations require at least 7 military households, and the flight rate of military households in Yunnan after relocation can reach 7%. Therefore, if you want to keep [-] military households in Yunnan, at least [-] military households are needed. More than [-] households have to be relocated, no less than more.

More than 60 households may not sound like a lot, but in terms of population, it is [-] million.

Among the provinces in the world today, even the two most populous provinces, Nanzhili and Zhejiang, only have 1000 million people each. Needless to say, it is difficult to move 60 million people to Yunnan...

"I'll leave this matter to you. If the immigrants can be more stable in Yunnan, then the gold, silver and copper mines in Yunnan can be put into the warehouse. Maybe they can catch up with the autumn tax, and then the pressure of paying taxes with banknotes will be gone. It’s lighter.”

After Zhu Yunwen gave Zhu Yuanzhang a satisfactory answer, he handed over the task to Zhu Yunwen.

"My grandson accepts the order..." Zhu Yunwen bowed in agreement. He knew his grandfather's actions better than anyone else.

Rather than letting yourself handle this matter, it would be better to let people from the Six Prefectures of Jiangdong who are eager to make a profit handle this matter.

He heard clearly that his grandfather mentioned this year's autumn taxes and the use of banknotes to offset taxes. The six Jiangdong prefectures benefited the most from using banknotes to offset taxes.

The imperial court's desire to immigrate could not be accomplished with a simple sentence, but required the cooperation of local officials and subordinate staff.

Whether the use of banknotes to offset taxes can continue, now depends not on the gold, silver and copper mines in Yunnan, but on whether officials from the six prefectures in Jiangdong cooperate with immigration.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yunwen slowly exited the side hall, and then disappeared around the corner of the hall door.

Looking at his leaving figure, Zhu Yuanzhang picked up the cup of tea next to him and took a sip...

(End of this chapter)