Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 312 Restless Dad

"I have sung Beijing and Nanjing. I will sing the tune for you to listen to..."

"The plum blossoms in the first month are the New Year, and Emperor Yongle is sitting in Nanjing..."

At the end of the first lunar month, when the sound of humming and singing could be heard in the palace of the Han Dynasty, Zhu Gaochi, who was much fatter than a few months ago, stood in a courtyard, holding an orange cat in his hand, humming a song he heard from somewhere, look. Got to be in a good mood.

While he was humming, Mrs. Zhang came out with several female officials. When she saw Zhu Gaochi humming the music, she became angry.

"King Zhou and King Su have all left the vassal state. Only you, the vassal kings who were sealed in the southwest, are still eagerly waiting for the imperial court to build the palace, and you stay here in Nanjing all day long with nothing to do."

"Hey, who caused this to the princess?" Seeing that his wife was angry, Zhu Gaochi came over with a smile while holding the orange cat.

Mrs. Zhang was sitting on a stone pier under a tree. Seeing Zhu Gaochi say this, she became very angry: "You still have the nerve to ask?"

Zhang said angrily: "After the third child came out of the cathedral, he ran to Wuying Hall and Qianqing Palace all day long, either begging for rewards from His Majesty or Her Majesty the Queen. They are both sons, and you are still the boss. You will know the result." Play with your cat at home.”

"Hehe..." Zhu Gaochi was not angry even after being complained about, and said with a smile: "The palace's money and food are enough to handle everything. Besides, the household department is in charge of the second child. How much can dad reward the third child?"

Zhu Gaochi touched the cute civet cat in his arms, but Zhang said: "One month, more than five thousand strings, you think about it yourself!"

"So much?" Zhu Gaochi was stunned for a moment, then smiled after realizing it: "The old man must have saved it from the inner court."

Although Zhu Gaochi did not participate in government affairs, he also knew that half of the world's military power and the world's money and food were in the hands of his old man. If the old man wanted to allocate five thousand guan, it was not a small sum.

However, the expenses of the inner court are huge, ranging from more than 2 million to 16 to 700,000 per year. It is relatively easy to save tens of thousands.

"I don't know where your Majesty saved it from. I only know that the third child got the benefit. You, a father and a son, know how to stay in the house."

Mrs. Zhang complained about Zhu Gaochi. Zhu Gaochi sat aside and said with a smile: "You tell me, why are you in a hurry? I'll show you something."

"Don't look at it!" Mrs. Zhang turned her head to the side, and Zhu Gaochi was immediately dumbfounded: "You really don't want to look at it? This was sent by someone from the East Palace."

"East Palace?" When she heard that Zhu Gaoxu had sent it, Mrs. Zhang immediately turned around and saw a red post.

She took it and took a look, only to find that it was a gift list, which contained various items such as gold, silver, copper coins, silk and satin, and was worth more than ten thousand yuan.

"Such an expensive gift!" Mrs. Zhang looked at Zhu Gaochi in surprise, while Zhu Gaochi stroked his cat and said proudly:

"I told you, don't worry about money and food. Anyone can be hungry, but he will definitely not be hungry for our family."

"Look, the third child has been running away for a month, and it's not as good as the gift card the second child gave me."

"It's just a waste of time...it's a waste of time..."

Zhu Gaochi stood up and hugged the cat, shaking his head and walked back to the palace. Mrs. Zhang took the gift list and handed it to the female official next to her with a smile: "Go to the treasury to see if it is the number."

"My slave, take your orders." The female officer bowed in response. Mrs. Zhang also stood up, tidied herself up, put on a smile and caught up with Zhu Gaochi.

"Your Highness, please wait for me, my concubine..."

With Zhang's charming voice, Zhu Gaochi immediately felt that his legs were a little weak, and soon he was chased by Zhang.

"Hey, I'm not feeling well today."

"There's no reason why it can't work..."

"Hey! Hey! Wait a minute...wait a minute..."

After a while, the slaves outside the hall dispersed, and Zhu Gaochi was dragged into the side hall by Mrs. Zhang.

But the same troubles are not limited to him, they also exist in Zhu Gaoxu's place.

"These two hundred women were carefully selected by Her Majesty the Queen for you, the Crown Prince. See if you like any of them. I will take note of them. When they enter the capital, I will take a good look at them for you."

In the Chunhe Hall, when a female official from the Qianqing Palace suddenly appeared, Zhu Gaoxu, who was handling government affairs, was forced to accept 200 portraits.

"How about I look at it later?"

Zhu Gaoxu discussed with this female official who had served Empress Xu for more than 20 years, but he saw that the female official just smiled and did not respond.

She dared to treat Zhu Gaoxu like this because she was not only Empress Xu's female official, but also the nanny of Zhu Gaoxu and his three brothers.

"Okay, let me see..."

Seeing that it didn't make sense, Zhu Gaoxu could only signal Yi Shiha on the side for help, and then opened the portraits one after another.

Zhu Gaoxu was not proficient in painting, but he was someone who had seen oil paintings and sketches from later generations. Therefore, when he saw the traditional portraits from the early Ming Dynasty, he immediately became a little face blind.

"Isn't there someone who looks more like it?" Zhu Gaoxu looked helplessly at the female official: "Who can recognize this one?"

"This was painted by the best painter sent by the imperial court." The female official responded calmly. Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu could only say to Yishiha:

"You ask someone to find the painter from the East Palace."

"Yes!" Yi Shiha agreed, and soon he asked five painters from the East Palace to be found.

After they arrived, Zhu Gaoxu briefly asked about painting techniques, and then waited for the five people to relax before asking:

“Why can’t we actually paint people in paintings?”

After that, Zhu Gaoxu stood up and turned his face to Yishiha as a model.

"Look, this human face is obviously different under light and shadow. Why are the people we draw always flat?"

"If you just pursue freehand brushwork, you can paint landscapes, birds and beasts. But I see that some of the landscapes, birds and beasts in the Song Dynasty were very realistic. Why can't you paint people?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked a question that he had been curious about in his previous life, but the five painters looked at each other, and finally one painter came out and bowed:

"Your Highness, if they only pursue technique and realism, they can only be called painters, because they only regard painting as a craft to support their families."

"Absurd!" Zhu Gaoxu retorted: "Painting can be freehand or realistic. In ancient times, people painted birds and animals and some realistic scrolls were handed down. Why doesn't anyone mock them as painters?"

"I don't want to hear these nonsense, I just want to know if I can paint realistically."

Zhu Gaoxu questioned the leading painter, but saw that he was hesitant and unable to speak. Instead, a painter who was at least seventeen or eighteen years old took the initiative to stand up and said:

"Your Highness, if you really want to say it, you can't draw it..."

"Can't you draw it?" Zhu Gaoxu frowned, and the young painter responded: "When I was learning painting in my early years, I wanted to draw realistic portraits, but no matter how I painted people, it always seemed like I was painting on a flat surface, and I couldn't draw the layered sense of landscapes. .”

"The sense of hierarchy is light and shadow." Zhu Gaoxu interrupted and motioned for them to follow.

Wait for them to come to the window, and then pull out a painter where the sunlight shines in, indicating to them to see clearly.

The sun shines on the painter's face, half of the face is clearly illuminated, and the other half of the face is in darkness except for the illuminated part at the base of the mountain.

"See, this is light and shadow."

"But painting like this is considered disrespectful according to etiquette." The young painter responded hesitantly, leaving Zhu Gaoxu speechless.

He recalled some sketches from his previous life, and then tried to explain: "Even if there is no light and shadow, there must be layers on that person's face."

"Look at the nose, eyebrow bones, cheekbones, and eye sockets, these are all things that can be drawn to create a sense of hierarchy, and..."

Zhu Gaoxu talked about a lot of things, and finally thought of the fragments of information he read in his previous life, and finally said: "There is also perspective, which was found in the paintings of Zhang Sengyao in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but few people painted it."

"In addition, there is a sense of structure of the human body and landscape animals, because drawing people must have structure, especially to master the structure of the human body. Once the structure is missing, the drawn things will have no sense of bones and muscles, and no sense of three-dimensionality..."

Zhu Gaoxu talked a lot, and at the same time he used Yishiha as a model to explain. After saying this, the painters understood what he was talking about, but they still didn't understand many terms, so they asked again. .

After Zhu Gaoxu patiently explained, he didn't know whether what he said was right or not, but the painters nodded frequently.

But in the end, the painters still said: "But if we blindly pursue the appearance of painting, what is the true meaning of painting?"

"..." Zhu Gaoxu was speechless after listening to the words of this group of people. They did not treat painting as a science at all, but used it to express their own spiritual activities like poetry.

Using the pen with a poetic touch, in addition to referring to objective objects, the starting point of the image created is more of a personification, metaphor and life-giving attitude.

From an artistic and philosophical perspective, Chinese painting is no longer simply a copy of objective things, but embodies emotions in the scenery.

But what Zhu Gaoxu needs now is not philosophers and artists, he needs pragmatists.

Thinking of this, he looked back at Yi Shiha, who had been used as a model for a long time: "How is the construction of Nanjing Hospital going? How about all the doctors from Bohai Sea being transferred to the south?"

"Yes!" When asked suddenly, Yishiha responded first, and then replied: "The construction was completed three days ago, and now fifty-two doctors have been transferred to the south, including internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology and surgical."

"Take a few of them to the surgery department. Surgery departments often bring wood-carved human specimens. Let them see the structure of the human body clearly and come back when they can draw realistic paintings."

Zhu Gaoxu gave instructions to Yishiha, but the five painters were dumbfounded, not understanding what the human body specimen meant.

Soon, they were taken away by Yi Shiha, and the female officer who watched a play said: "Since Your Highness can tell the story so clearly, why don't you draw it yourself?"

"Shall I draw?" Zhu Gaoxu was a little embarrassed. It was okay to ask him to draw a map, but to draw people, I'm afraid he could only draw little figures and not be able to draw realistic portraits.

"I'm busy with government affairs. If it weren't for the burden of government affairs, I would have gone to painting long ago."

Although he won't, this does not prevent Zhu Gaoxu from pretending. Anyway, he is the prince, who can force him to paint.

"These two hundred scrolls all look the same. When they arrive in the capital, you can just choose some good-looking ones. I don't have high requirements for beauty." Zhu Gaoxu dared to say this because he knew that the old Zhu family was very good at selecting concubines, and besides, the two He may not be able to bear the twelve tributes plus the three in his own harem.

He cherishes his life very much now, for fear that he will be ahead of the old man. After all, the old man promised to pass the throne to him in his fifties.

Even if it is delayed in the future, Zhu Gaoxu can wait for the old man for more than ten years at most. After all, he may not die in front of the old man. If the old man retires ten years earlier, he may live longer.

I just don't know whether the child Guo Yan is pregnant with is a boy or a girl. If it is a boy, then calculating the time, maybe I can take over after the old man retires, otherwise this political affairs will be really a headache.

"Since His Highness the Crown Prince said so, I will leave first..."

Seeing that Zhu Gaoxu had made it clear, the female official stopped lingering and turned around to leave with the servants of Qianqing Palace.

After they walked away, Zhu Gaoxu touched his bare chin, then walked back to his seat and sat down.

Yishiha came up to give him some tea, and Zhu Gaoxu looked at Yishiha and said, "How is Sun Cheng doing in the north?"

"There are officials he likes, but they are too young and he can't get away for a while." Yi Shiha knew what Zhu Gaoxu was asking, so he gave the answer without thinking.

Sun Cheng was a civil servant trusted by Zhu Gaoxu, and he was also the only civil servant awarded a title in Bohai.

If he can take care of matters outside the Pass and Shandong, Zhu Gaoxu's burden will be much lighter when he comes to Beijing.

Only Yi Shiha and Guo Yan know how busy Zhu Gaoxu is now. He can't wait to split himself in half and use it.

If Guo Yan had not successfully become pregnant, Zhu Gaoxu might have had to deal with government affairs for five hours every day during the day, and would have had to pay the government rations every night when he returned to his former palace.

Many people who have been involved in work can understand the pain of this kind of career-oriented married man, not to mention that he basically doesn’t have much time to fish in five hours.

When you have nothing to do, you will never get tired of enjoying beauty, but if five hours of working time are added to beauty, then many people's interest will evaporate.

"Can the population migrating from Shandong to Liaodong be completed this year?"

Zhu Gaoxu opened the memorial and processed it while asking questions.

Yishiha nodded when he heard the words: "If it is only the three prefectures of Qingzhou, Dengzhou and Laizhou, then the migration should be completed. It depends on whether the three prefectures of Jinan, Yanzhou and Dongchang need to be relocated."

"No need." Zhu Gaoxu shook his head. In his plan, except for Yan Shenggong and the Shandong squires who have not yet grasped the big handle, the people of the three prefectures of Yanzhou are not included in the plan to move to Liaodong.

Their migration directions are mainly Henan and Beiping.

It's just that people outside the customs are not self-sufficient now, and Yunnan's Jianwenliu Pei Chengchen has not yet stabilized production. If there is another large-scale immigration, I think the imperial court will be a little overwhelmed.

Compared with the man who just captured Nanjing, Zhu Gaoxu is now more calm. He will not take too big steps anymore, but will strictly control the entire country.

If he were in modern times, he would choose to invest most of the money in the treasury into the market to build large infrastructure and support various industries, but this is the Ming Dynasty.

If nothing else, if he dares to empty the treasury, then when a natural disaster breaks out, he will be waiting for millions of refugees to eat each other.

The local Chang Pingcang is rarely mobilized unless it is necessary for military operations.

There are still 26 million shi of grain left by Lao Zhu in Changpingcang, which is enough to cope with the famine in any province.

These 26 million stones are the red line for food reserves, and no one can touch them.

"By the way, what were the number of mouths and cultivated land in Shanxi last year?"

Zhu Gaoxu rummaged through the memorials and asked Yishiha. Hearing this, Yishiha rummaged with him and soon found the population and land status of each province submitted by the Ministry of Revenue.

[Shanxi has a population of 4,167,000, and arable land of 39 million, 4237 acres and six cents]

"Haha, in the past eleven years, the population has only increased by 100,000, but more than 5,000 acres of cultivated land have disappeared. Do you think they copied the old ones or wrote them casually?"

Zhu Gaoxu took the memorial and asked Yishiha, and with Shandong's lessons learned, Yishiha also spoke boldly: "I thought you were copying the old."

“Although Shanxi is located on the frontier, apart from the loss of tens of thousands of troops and civilians during the disaster, it did not suffer too many casualties.”

"According to the imperial court's inventory of Shandong, the number of people in Shanxi has probably exceeded 5 million. It's hard to say how many acres of cultivated land there are, but there should be 40 million acres."

After Yi Shiha finished speaking, he waited for Zhu Gaoxu to speak. Not long after, Zhu Gaoxu took the memorial and read it for a while, then shook his head and said:

"The number of tenants in the household is bound to the official household registration, and the measurement of the land must be made clear. Twenty-one years ago, the imperial court had more than 58 million people. Now, although there are more than 66 million newly registered people, This must not be the true population size."

"The farther away from the capital, the easier it is for the population to hide. This is the case in the north and southwest now. If the capital is moved to Peking in the future, it will definitely be the case in Jiangnan."

Lao Zhu's control over the population in Jiangnan was very strong, and there was not much concealment. This can be seen from Zhu Gaoxu's liquidation of Jianwen's sycophants.

What matters in Jiangnan is the status of the people in upper, middle and lower households, as well as the quality of the fields.

Zhu Gaoxu remembered that Zhu Di established Beijing as the capital. After Zhu Qizhen moved the capital to Beijing, Ming Dynasty's control over the population in Jiangnan also declined. The population in Jiangnan not only did not increase in the following time, but began to decline.

However, looking at the perspective of the people, many literati believed that the actual population of Jiangnan was larger than the registered population. During the Wanli period, some literati even believed that the actual population of Jiangnan was twice or even three times that of the "Yellow Book".

There is no way around this. The sky is high and the emperor is far away. In the era before trains, the farther away from Beijing, the weaker the court's control. That's why the Ming Dynasty abolished Southern Zhili into eighteen Zhili prefectures. , instead of splitting into two provinces.

The imperial court of the Zhili Prefecture can also directly send people to manage and control, and the tax revenue will be directly handed over to the imperial court. If it is abolished into two provinces, God knows how much tax revenue will be withheld from the eighteen prefectures in the area of ​​chief envoys.

In the later period of the Ming Dynasty, it relied entirely on the eighteen divided state capitals in Southern Zhili to survive. If it were to be split into two provinces, it would probably not even be able to maintain six million stone in taxes and grain.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu was just about to say something when he saw an unfamiliar eunuch walking towards the palace gate.

"Your Majesty is a thousand years old. His Majesty summons you to Wuying Palace."

The eunuch bowed in salute and reported the matter. Zhu Gaoxu nodded after hearing this: "I understand, I'll go now."

Hearing this, the eunuch withdrew from Wuying Hall, and Yi Shiha also prepared a golden chariot for Zhu Gaoxu to travel.

Not long after, Zhu Gaoxu went to Wuying Hall with a few memorials that could be handled in the car.

It is not surprising to be summoned to Wuying Palace. Zhu Di summoned Zhu Gaoxu at least once or twice every day. This time was just the first time today.

Zhu Gaoxu originally thought that Zhu Di was here to urge the Northern Expedition, but when he walked into the Wuying Hall and saw a man with a Western-style appearance but wearing military attaché robes, he became confused.

"Father, this is..."

Zhu Gaoxu looked at Zhu Di in confusion, but Zhu Di said with a smile: "Second brother, you came just in time. I have just adopted Tuo Tuo as my adopted son and am going to send him as an envoy to Hami."

"..." Zhu Gaoxu knew who this person was when he heard that Zhu Di had adopted an adopted son and was thinking of sending him as an envoy to Hami.

Tutuo Timur was the nephew of Anke Timur, King Su of Hami.

In the original history, Anke Timur was poisoned by Guilichi, the Great Khan of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, because he was too close to Zhu Di, and often paid tribute to Zhu Di, strengthened the Ming Dynasty cavalry team, and accepted the title of King Zhongshun of the Ming Dynasty.

After losing Hami as a springboard to enter the Western Regions, Zhu Di asked Tuotuo to succeed King Zhongshun. However, although Anke Timur was poisoned, his wife and children were still alive.

Although Zhu Di asked Tuotuo to succeed King Zhongshun, Tuotuo was young and incapable. Coupled with Anke Timur's wife and son forming cliques, Hami's civil strife continued, and the number of tribute horses to the Ming Dynasty became less and less.

Faced with this situation, Zhu Di could only ask Song Sheng to dispatch 500 people to obey Tuotuo's orders, and dispatch 2,000 cavalry from Suzhou to frequently travel between Hami and Suzhou to intimidate Hami.

Later, Tuotuo actually intended to appease Hami's Huihui, Wuer, and Riha, but he suddenly died not long after.

After Tuo Tuo died and his son was still young, Zhu Di did not have the energy to solve Hami's problem. Instead, he compromised and consecrated Tuo Tuo's younger brother Timur as the loyal king, making Hami the king of two kings in one country. situation.

For Zhu Gaoxu, the Hami Guard must be established and actually controlled. Today's Ming Dynasty has matchlocks and cannons, plus a large number of horses produced in the Bohai Sea, and is fully capable of taking Hami. There is no need to be as lenient as in history.

After the Mongols' Western Expedition, Hami's current population is no more than 10,000, and the number of troops it can draw is only two to three thousand.

The Ming Dynasty only needed to mobilize 3,000 horse infantry and carry more than 20 field guns to capture Hami.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu asked Zhu Di: "Why would father want to send someone to envoy Hami?"

"Last year, I asked the Ministry of Rites to issue an edict to Hami and open a mutual trade between them. A few days ago, King Su of Hami paid tribute to the court with 4,740 horses. I was going to ask Tuotuo to confer the title of Anke Timur. As the loyal and obedient king of the Ming Dynasty, I gave him the golden seal to manage Hami."

Zhu Di wanted to transform the Hami Kingdom from a feudal state in the Northern Yuan Dynasty to a tributary state in the Ming Dynasty. This was the same as what Zhu Gaoxu understood. However, regarding Zhu Di's approach, Zhu Gaoxu, who knew history, reminded him: "Father can send envoys, or he can Canonize Anke Timur as king, but my father must know one thing."

"Say." Zhu Di frowned, seeming to smell something wrong in Zhu Gaoxu's words.

"According to the news I received, Ugeqi, the leader of the Krunuguti clan of the Oara tribe, had a conflict with Mahamu, another leader of the Oara tribe. I estimate that Mahamu will take action against Ugeqi. By then, Kun Timur, the Great Khan of the Hu people, will probably be killed by Mahamu."

"Once Kun Timur is killed, the Nawara and Tatar tribes will no longer have Yuan descendants in their hands, and they can only support Guilichi, a descendant of Hedan, the concubine of Wokuotai, as the Great Khan."

"I hope that my father will not have any illusions about Guilichi. Although this man herds horses outside Gansu, he is very hostile to the imperial court. Once you, father, canonize Anke Timur as the loyal and obedient king of the imperial court, Guilichi will definitely They will attack Ankh Timur."

Zhu Gaoxu told Zhu Di what he knew about the history of the Northern Yuan Dynasty. After hearing this, Zhu Di felt it was very difficult and couldn't help cursing: "These barbarians in the north are not going to stop. They have changed four Khans in fourteen years. It's not enough. Now they are still I want to change to the fifth one.”

After that, Zhu Di realized that Tuotuo was also a Mongolian, so he couldn't help but smile and said: "Tuotuo, you go down and rest first. I will decide whether to send an envoy to Hami after discussing with the prince."

"I resign." Tuotuo was adopted by people sent by Zhu Yuanzhang since he was a child. He spoke fluent Mandarin. Although he also longed to make contributions, when he heard that Wala would send troops to attack Hami, he immediately curbed his ambitions. After all, saving his life was the most important thing. important.

Watching him leave, Zhu Di also set his sights on Zhu Gaoxu, which was meaningful.

"Boy, your Xichang hands are really long..."

(End of this chapter)