Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 336 Unfinished Business

"I have commanded Ji Gang to use torture privately and make false accusations and slanders. I ask Your Highness to take a closer look!!"

In early July, the palace road outside Chunhe Hall was filled with a group of seventh-rank censors and middle-level officials kneeling on their knees.

They screamed at the top of their lungs in unison, as if this could vent the injustice they had suffered.

In the Chunhe Hall, a hundred steps away from them, Zhu Gaoxu had a headache from the noise and couldn't help but rub his eyebrows.

"Both sides are not good people."

He sighed, and Yi Shiha next to him also nodded, deeply agreeing.

Since the news of Li Zhen's drowning spread, public opinion did not favor Ji Gang. Officials in both the government and the public believed that Li Zhen's death was not suicide, but drowned by Jin Yiwei.

After such news spread, Ji Gang, who had not arrested anyone, was furious. He immediately dug out the documents in the inventory of Nanzhen Fusi and began to arrest officials related to Li Zhen one by one.

In just five days, more than 30 officials were captured and imprisoned by Ji Gang.

Zhu Gaoxu knew what would happen to these people without even thinking about it.

"vomit!!"

He felt like someone was playing with his body, but it was like a layer of haze, making it unreal, like a dream.

Zhu Gaoxu's meaning was very obvious. Ji Gang investigated the case by himself and took the blame. It was impossible for him to stand up and interfere.

He heard the sound of the iron door being opened, then heard footsteps and walked out of the cell, closing the iron door.

As long as the ministers are clear-headed, they should know who they should target.

When Zhu Gaoxu said this, he glanced outside the hall intentionally or unintentionally, which seemed to imply that there were not many clean people in the group outside the hall.

"Xichang also has something to do with them. Do you want Hu Lun to take them away too?"

Before he could adapt, the partition on the iron door of the prison was opened, and Ji Gang's indifferent eyebrows were revealed through a window no larger than the size of a palm.

In a cell, two guards in royal robes were standing on the left and right. In the entire prison, the two torches on the left and right were the only sources of light.

After reluctantly taking a bite, Zhu Gaoxu explained to Yi Shiha, but he didn't expect Yi Shiha to say after hearing this: "Isn't it too cheap to eat pears, and it's hard to use them to entertain the ministers..."

After being tortured repeatedly for an unknown amount of time, his consciousness began to fade and countless memories flooded into his mind.

While he was sleeping soundly, he was awakened by severe pain. He could feel that someone was grabbing his hand, and something long and thin was being pierced into his fingertips.

"I only want the outcome of the case. As for who we offend along the way, that has nothing to do with us."

"Cough cough... cough cough..."

"What about the people outside?"

He howled, but Ji Gang outside the small window had a cold expression and said two words: "Continue..."

Yi Shiha looked outside the hall with questioning eyes.

For him, who has enjoyed the improved fruits of later generations, any fruit or variety of this era seems so unpalatable.

"Your Highness, do you want to reprimand Ji Gang?"

Zhu Gaoxu picked up the cut watermelon on the fruit plate and took a bite with a smile. However, after swallowing the watermelon, he looked painful.

Perhaps he was too tired, so he slowly fell asleep while waiting.

"Uh-huh!!"

"Then give them watermelon, and just get me some pears."

From his thumb, index finger to middle finger, sharp things pierced into it, and his wailing became weaker and weaker...

Yi Shiha asked Zhu Gaoxu, but Zhu Gaoxu leaned on his chair and said lazily: "He arrests people based on the documents in his hand, and he also has something to do with the people he arrests. Why should I reprimand him?"

He didn't know what kind of torture he would be subjected to, but he had already gritted his teeth.

"Those people's hands and feet were not clean, so they just caught them."

His uncontrollable cough caused stomach acid to splash on his face. Stimulated by the stomach acid, he struggled to open his swollen eyes.

After getting used to the light, the tortured Wang Hui spat out a mouthful of blood: "You're just a cruel official, do you think you can make me surrender in this way?"

"You'd better get me some pears from now on."

The fingers were connected to the heart, and the thing that slowly penetrated the fingertips made Wang Hui almost faint, but he was woken up by the pain after the faint.

After a while, snoring echoed in the small cell.

In an instant, the fire dimmed, and before Wang could react, his vision went dark.

Zhu Gaoxu snarled, while Yishiha next to him felt regretful. He only felt that His Highness was too harsh on him and too kind to his ministers, but he didn't know that Zhu Gaoxu simply couldn't get used to the watermelon of the Ming Dynasty...

"Reply to the King of Matters. The evidence is conclusive that Li Zhen, the head of the Ministry of War, conspired to burn King Ouning. If you confess his accomplices now, I can help you intercede with His Highness the Crown Prince."

In the dim prison, a man who was tied to a bench made a sound of retching, and the stomach acid filled his nasal cavity in an instant.

Two Jinyi guards on the left and right put a black cloth hood on him, which made him couldn't help but feel nervous.

"You can deal with weak people by subduing them, but they can't deal with me!!"

"Let them continue to make noise for a few more days. Ji Gang is not a very ambitious person."

Yi Shiha asked Zhu Gaoxu, but Zhu Gaoxu shook his head: "If someone does this, let's not join in the fun."

However, to his disappointment, the two guards did not torture him immediately. Instead, they straightened his stool and even added a new bench under him to make him more comfortable so that he could lie down safely. On two benches.

"This is quite a tough one."

"It's okay, we still have a lot of things to play with him."

Jin Yiwei's conversation made Wang Hui's muscles twitch, and even his soul trembled with fear.

His body began to regain consciousness, and the pain that spread throughout his body made him moan uncontrollably.

Because he was wearing a hood, he didn't know whether it was day or night outside at this moment, so he could only endure the pain while waiting to be rescued.

The subtle wailing sound outside the cell reached his ears, which seemed to indicate that there were many people like him...

"Ji Gang is a cruel official and deserves to die!!"

In a certain mansion in Nanjing, when shouts and curses rang out, Li Zhigang in the waterside pavilion also picked up a cup of tea with an ugly face, but he didn't drink it.

"What should we do now?"

There were many officials sitting in the waterside pavilion, but when someone said this, everyone turned their attention to Li Zhigang.

"The Criminal Division issued a post to Jin Yiwei, so he could arrest North Korean and Chinese officials without restraint."

"The most important thing to do now is to ask the East Palace to take back the post and prevent Ji Gang from continuing to do evil."

Li Zhigang judged the situation, but the official on the side said: "The fire in Prince Ouning's palace is related to the reputation of the East Palace. The East Palace will definitely not end the case like this."

"Yes, those people from the Metropolitan Procuratorate have been begging the East Palace for several days with no results. How can we influence the East Palace's thoughts?"

Faced with Li Zhigang's suggestion, everyone put forward their own opinions, and none of them were very optimistic.

Zhu Gaoxu inherited Zhu Yuanzhang's toughness, Zhu Di's generosity, and Empress Xu and Empress Ma's lenient treatment of others.

It can be said that it is very difficult to deal with such a person. Few people feel that they can sway what Zhu Gaoxu wants to do.

However, in this regard, Li Zhigang put down the tea cup in his hand and said: "His Royal Highness is just worried about his own reputation, so he sent all the princes and princes Yiwen to the Ouning Palace, and also asked officials and soldiers from Bohai to look after them."

"If I want His Highness to ignore this matter, the first thing to do is to go with the flow."

"Ji Gang also understands this truth, but the matter is in the hands of his Jin Yiwei, so he must prove his innocence."

"As for how to solve this matter, I think it is enough to explain it clearly to the people and convince the people and Confucian scholars that His Highness has nothing to do with it and is interested in protecting Prince Yiwen."

At this point, Li Zhigang stopped talking. After all, everyone here is smart and they know what to do without him having to say anything.

"If that's the case, things will be much easier to handle."

Many officials breathed a sigh of relief and then said goodbye to Li Zhigang.

The next day, there was no connection between the East Palace and the fire in Prince Ouning's Mansion. The East Palace was even furious about the incident in Prince Ouning's Mansion, and even told the story of the common people, Wu common people, and Heng common people after Prince Yiwen who lived in the Prince Ou Ning's Mansion for protection. A pure and innocent person.

For a time, the news about the East Palace trying to burn and kill Ouning King Zhu Yunxi and Lu family began to fade away.

The matter fermented for about a month, and it was not until there was no more news about this among the public that Zhu Gaoxu ordered the withdrawal of the Jinyiwei's arrest warrant.

A large number of officials were released, but their bodies were more or less scarred, and everyone will remember this experience.

They did not dare to hate Zhu Gaoxu, so they could only put their hatred on Ji Gang.

Ji Gang was very clear about all this, but now he was in a dilemma, because the suspicion of the East Palace was cleared, and the suspicion fell on the emperor.

However, Dong Palace took the Qian Tie back, and Jin Yiwei no longer had the power to take people.

Now he can only wait for Zhu Di from the north to go south, and then he can figure out how to solve this matter.

Ji Gang was worried about his future, but Zhu Gaoxu, who was more than ten thousand people in Nanjing, had already turned his attention from this matter to the whole country.

Governing a big country is like cooking small delicacies. This saying is not true at all.

He just distracted himself from dealing with the affairs of Prince Ouning's Mansion, and found that many unreasonable things happened in the place. The first is the slow progress of immigration work from Shanxi to Hetao, Jiangnan to Henan, and Annan.

For these matters, he could only ask officials from the Taxation Department to work with officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate to inspect local areas to supervise local officials.

In addition, something happened in the southwest.

The Nong family in Guangnan had letters to and from the chieftains of Ningyuan, Yuanjiang, Sien and other places. After Li Jinglong learned the news, Li Jinglong used some words in the letters to make a big fuss and reform the local chieftains.

Although the southwestern chieftains were not as good as the Ming army, the goods, craftsmen, population, and iron materials plundered in Annan also greatly enriched them.

Therefore, when Li Jinglong sent officials to convert the chieftains into native land, the group of chieftains undoubtedly resisted.

For a time, war smoke rose in more than ten places in the southwest. Li Jinglong's Guizhou-Guangxi Corps, Muchun's Yunnan Corps, and Qu Neng's Sichuan Corps began to encircle and suppress chieftains from various places.

The battle was about logistics, so Muchun and others went to Shu one after another and asked for the allocation of Yunguichuan San's money and food to quell the rebellion.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't have much objection to this, but Yu Xin couldn't get through it.

"In the previous campaign in Annan, the gold, silver, jewels, money and food obtained were only one million, but the imperial court spent more than two million, and the southwest treasury was completely empty."

"Now that we have finally regained some strength, war has resumed, and the southwest has already lived a life of hard work and food."

"If His Highness wants to fight, I will definitely cooperate. However, I also hope that His Highness can slow down after this and wait for Southwest to digest the previous results and go further."

In the Chunhe Hall in early September, facing the upcoming autumn tax collection, Yu Xin took time out of his busy schedule to devote half of his attention to the southwest, and came to the Chunhe Hall to advise Zhu Gaoxu.

"I didn't want to start a war, but this time..."

Sitting in the main seat, Zhu Gaoxu also had a slight headache. He did not expect that the chieftain of the southwest had already seen the power of the Ming army in the Annan battlefield, but he was still dishonest after returning to the southwest.

He couldn't blame Li Jinglong for this matter. After all, he himself issued the edict, asking the generals in the southwest to seize the opportunity and do so if they could.

Facts have proved that the reform of the Southwest is going well.

Just over two months have passed, and Muchun and Li Jinglong have wiped out 27 small and medium-sized chieftain families, adding more than 70,000 people and more than 300,000 acres of cultivated land to the "Yellow Book" in the southwest.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu could only say to Yu Xin: "We cannot stop reforming the country, but the imperial court will not start another war next year."

"If there is, it will be a return to local rule in the southwest, but the specifics will be controllable."

"I have already issued an edict to Duke Qian and Duke Cao, asking them to temporarily collect evidence of the chieftain's crimes and wait for the court's decree before reforming his native land."

As he gets older and more experienced, Zhu Gaoxu also knows to play steadily and steadily, so making timely corrections is what he must do.

Seeing what he said, Yu Xin breathed a sigh of relief, and Zhu Gaoxu asked: "How is the immigration situation in various provinces recently?"

"Go back to Your Highness..." It seemed that he had already expected that Zhu Gaoxu would ask about this, so Yu Xin wrote down the data that might need to be reported when he came.

"More than 6,000 people from Shanxi moved to Dongsheng and Wuyuan respectively, and there will be about 20,000 more people to follow."

"More than 36,000 people migrated from Jiangnan to Henan, and they were all settled in Guide Prefecture."

"The number of people migrating to Annan has also increased by more than 26,000, with the majority coming from Fujian."

"As for Daning, only more than 3,000 people from Shandong have been relocated for the time being."

When Yu Xin said this, he paused for a moment and then continued: "Judging from the current situation, the population of the imperial court this year may exceed 70 million and 500 million acres of land."

"Of course, the main reason why we can increase so much is because we captured Annan."

As Yu Xin explained, Zhu Gaoxu also nodded to show understanding.

"I read through the history books. Among them, "Tang Tongdian" said that the population was more than 2 million households during the Wude period, and reached 3 million households in the 16th year of Zhenguan. The "Cefu Yuangui" also said that the population reached 300 in the 3rd year of Yonghui. Half a million households.”

"If we count five people per household, the number of households increased by nearly one million in the thirty-four years of the early Tang Dynasty, which is almost 50%."

"Now that I have been in the imperial court for thirty-six years, the number of households has only increased by two million compared to the founding of the country, which is less than 20%."

"In your opinion, how many hermit houses are there among the people?"

Zhu Gaoxu was going to ask Yu Xin this key question before he left. Yu Xinyan did not answer hastily, but explained first:

"I have read these ancient books that Your Highness mentioned, but the situation in the early Tang Dynasty and the imperial court were not the same."

"At the peak of the Sui Dynasty, there were 8.9 million households, but during the Wude period in the early Tang Dynasty, there were only more than 2 million households. This is correct."

"But I think that although Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was guilty of serious crimes, there should not be that many people who disappeared due to the war. It is probably because many people did not report the household registration when the household registration was calculated in the early Tang Dynasty and became hidden households."

"In comparison, my great ancestor, Emperor Gao, was good at managing people's livelihood and knew how to check tenants and hidden households, so he thoroughly checked the hidden households among the people."

"Although since then, due to the protection of officials, local people have concealed reports to avoid taxes, but there will not be too many."

"Take Sichuan as an example. After Jian Yi went to Sichuan, he said that the population of Ba County increased by 30% compared with 18 years ago, but he did not say that the population increased by 30% compared with 36 years ago."

"No one knows when the imperial court's registration of local population was distorted."

"If the number of mouths 18 years ago is correct, then based on an increase of 30% compared to 18 years ago, the country's current mouth count should be around 80 million."

"In His Highness's new policy, children's schooling is bound to their household registration, so many people who have children have to be on the "Yellow Book"."

"Although there are still a few hidden people who will continue to hide, but there should not be many."

"Based on the situation in Shandong, an increase of about 30% is reasonable."

Yu Xin expressed his opinion. He felt that although the Ming Dynasty had thirty-six years of peace, the increase in the number of mouths could not be as much as 50% in the early Tang Dynasty, while the increase in the number of Shandong and Sichuan research should be 30%.

"Eighty million people is a lot, but whether they can be counted remains to be discussed."

Zhu Gaoxu sighed, and Yu Xin was relieved when he saw this: "The money and food of the country come from the land. In fact, as long as the amount of land is found out, there will be no problems with the money and food."

"As for the population, the only thing I'm worried about is that if the imperial court really moves its capital to Beijing in the future, then based on the current situation of splitting Nanzhili into Zhili Prefecture, although there will be no problems in Nanzhili, it must have outstanding capabilities. Only by having ministers serve as ministers of the Ministry of Household Affairs can the money and grain from the south be collected and shipped to Beijing."

Yu Xin anticipated what might happen in the future, and this was also the dilemma Zhu Gaoxu struggled with.

Among the three places in the south of the Yangtze River, he is not worried about Southern Zhili, because he used the method used by the Ming Dynasty to split Southern Zhili into fragments into Zhili prefectures and prefectures.

Relying on this hand, Nanzhili was a powerful money bag from the founding of the country to the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

The real difficult issue is Jiangxi and Zhejiang, but these two provinces cannot be split into Zhili prefectures and placed under the jurisdiction of Zhili like South Zhili.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, Shanxi and Shandong provinces shipped 2.75 million taels to the court every year. Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces, with a population three times that of Shanxi and Shandong provinces, shipped only 1.5 million taels.

This problem is difficult to solve. After all, as an emperor and a minister, Zhu Gaoxu doesn't know whether his policies will be overturned by his descendants in the future.

"This matter can only be done slowly. Shanxi, Susong and other places have a heavy burden, but it is easy to reduce the quota, but it will be difficult to collect it in the future."

Zhu Gaoxu put forward new ideas and said at the same time: "In the "Yellow Book", Shanxi has four million people, almost half a million households, and 40 million acres of cultivated land."

"My idea is to use some of the cattle seized from Wuliangha this time to forcibly move 200,000 people into the Hetao area for farming. At the same time, they will be given cattle and draft horses, and they will be exempted from land reclamation taxes for two years."

"Lin Su will arrive in Nanjing in a few days. At that time, I will discuss with him how to reclaim the Hetao. It will only take about five years to reclaim a lot of dry land in the Hetao."

Zhu Gaoxu and Yu Xin were talking. Yu Xin thought for a while and settled the accounts before continuing:

"With the 200,000 people who moved into the Hetao, plus the people who originally moved into the Hetao, the Hetao will have to spend at least 1.2 million stone in food rations every year."

"More than that." Zhu Gaoxu shook his head and said: "There are also two guards and twelve stations stationed locally, which adds up to nearly 1.5 million dan."

"So many..." Yu Xin hesitated, and then said to Zhu Gaoxu:

"After the three new guards of Modong were added to the capital of Daning, the military salary and rations combined are now one million dan. If there is one more river, what is the difference between them and Daning and Liaodong during the Hongwu period?"

"The difference is that this time we are going all out to open up wasteland and are not responsible for preparing for war." Zhu Gaoxu replied:

"Lin Su has been working with me for many years, and Wang Yi from Daning Dusi has also been with me for many years."

"The two of them don't know anything else. They know more about opening up wasteland and farming than anyone else."

"I don't know the situation of the Hetao yet, but judging from the contents of ancient books and the report from Xichang, as long as the court is willing to spend the money, it will not be a problem to reclaim 2 to 3 million acres in five years."

"As for Modong, I understand the situation there. There is not much gravel. The main reason is that the meadow is thicker and the reclamation speed will be slower."

"My idea is to migrate at least 200,000 people to Modong to settle down and be self-sufficient within five years. At that time, the food from Bohai and Beizhili will enter Daning, and the food cultivated by the people in Modong in Daning will be sent to Hecheng in the north. guard."

"It's about seven or eight hundred miles from Hechengwei to King Qi City (Hulunbuir). If the imperial court can send troops from here to attack the nest in the future, the battle line will be changed from Monan to the eastern part of Mobei."

"The imperial court could rely on the Onan River to fight all the way to Saliqier and Hulanhuwenwen. The Hu people often had to guard against the imperial troops and horses, so they were unable to go south."

Putting the battle line at the doorstep of Mobei, and adding that there is the vast sea (Great Gobi) between Mobei and Monan, the Hetao will change from the first line to the second line.

Once a place stabilizes, its production will continue to increase. This can also be seen from Liaodong.

Before the rise of the Bohai Sea, even though there were 400,000 soldiers and civilians in Liaodong, which was the front line, desertions continued every year, and it was impossible to maintain its rule and could only rely on blood transfusions from the south.

When the battle line turns to the Bohai Sea, the people who migrated to Liaodong will find that the local area is not so scary. They will not see a Tatar for several years, so they will feel at ease and give birth there.

A stable front line that can save millions.

In Zhu Gaoxu's view, as long as the battlefield can be controlled in the eastern part of Mobei, there will be no loss at all even if millions of stones are invested there.

Yu Xin was very smart. After Zhu Gaoxu explained to him a little, he understood how beneficial it would be to the northern provinces of the Ming Dynasty to establish a foothold in Modong and then plot a strategy in eastern Mobei.

Thinking of this, he did not refute, but said: "I have no objection to His Highness's new policy. I just hope that Your Highness will not start a war between the north and the south at the same time, because the imperial court cannot support it."

"Don't worry." After comforting Yu Xin, Zhu Gaoxu stood up and prepared to see him off.

Upon seeing this, Yu Xin slowly stood up and returned the greeting, and walked out of the Chunhe Hall under the escort of Zhu Gaoxu...

(End of this chapter)