Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 470 The First Year of Hongxi
"My son, I bow to His Majesty the Emperor!"

The day after Zhu Zhanhe arrived in Beijing, he came to Wuying Hall early in the morning to pay his respects.

The kneeling and singing movements were done in one go. Zhu Gaoxu, who was working on the memorial, glanced at him and said coldly: "The rules are the same as before. Kneeling is not allowed."

"Hey!" After hearing this, Zhu Zhanhe stood up quickly, and Yi Shiha smiled and personally carried a chair for him.

After he sat down, Zhu Gaoxu slowly said:

"This time I ask you to go to the north with your grandfather. Watch and learn more along the way. Don't underestimate the enemy and rush in. Don't take the enemy seriously because you think you can deal with a few stragglers."

"Strategically, you can despise the enemy, but you must not despise the enemy in every part or on every specific issue. Do you understand?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked sideways, and Zhu Zhanhe quickly smiled: "Don't worry, Dad, I understand these principles and have learned them in books."

"Just because you've studied in books doesn't mean you know how to use it." Zhu Gaoxu hummed softly:
"Throughout the ages, how many Confucian scholars have talked about war, and how many of them can actually go to the battlefield to fight?"

"The paper is full of open fields, and the mountains are completely forgotten in one's mind. Once on the battlefield, nine out of ten people will have diarrhea."

"I don't have high hopes for your northern expedition this time. As long as you can take one hundred households with you and don't ask for help."

"If you are defeated, I have only one request for you, commit suicide immediately, and don't be captured to disgust me."

Zhu Gaoxu was rude to Zhu Zhanhe. He felt that Zhu Zhanhe had a spirit and felt that he was not inferior to others in everything.

If you have this kind of mentality on the battlefield, you will suffer big losses.

"Dad, you wouldn't say that..."

Zhu Zhanhe felt ashamed when he saw that his father did not think highly of him.

"Just remember the things. If you can't do it, you can ask others to do it for you."

After sorting out a finished memorial, Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand and said, "Go to your grandfather's place."

"Hey...my son, please leave."

Zhu Zhanhe bowed with a guilty conscience and exited Wuying Palace. When he came outside the palace, he saw Zheng He who came to pick him up.

Zheng He had a smile on his face: "Is it as I said?"

"Zheng Daban, you really hit the mark. My father really despises me." Zhu Zhanhe awkwardly touched his upper lip where there was no beard.

"It's quite normal. People like His Majesty are rare to come across in hundreds of years. If you want him to think highly of others, they have to show real achievements."

Zheng He was very open-minded, but he also advised: "In this Northern Expedition, the servants will be with the Supreme Emperor, so there will be no one to help you, Your Highness."

"Besides, His Majesty has also issued an order that no one else is allowed to help you. Therefore, it is better for you to be more disciplined in this Northern Expedition. Being able to lead a hundred people is not too small."

"If we can take care of these one hundred people, we can take care of a thousand or ten thousand people later..."

Zheng He continued to comfort Zhu Zhanhe, but at the same time he did not forget to warn him.

Zhu Zhanhe nodded after hearing this, and finally led by Zheng He to the Daming Palace outside the city.

Outside the confines of the imperial city, Zhu Zhanhe saw the prosperous inner city of Beijing after half a year's absence.

"When I came back yesterday, it was dark at night and under curfew. Looking at it now, I haven't seen you for half a year. Beijing is much more prosperous."

Zhu Zhanhe sat on the carriage and looked at the pedestrians coming and going on the broad street, and he couldn't help but make a tut-tsk sound.

Since the Ming Dynasty moved the capital, Nanjing's political status has plummeted, and only its economic status remains important.

However, based on economy alone, Nanjing still needs to compete with Suzhou and Hangzhou, so the population recovery rate is not very fast.

It's just that in this era when people are not allowed to travel at will, Nanjing's population recovery speed is already among the best.

"Zheng Daban, how many people and arable land do you think our Ming Dynasty has now?"

Zhu Zhanhe suddenly asked about Zheng He. Zheng He was stunned when he heard this, and then he thought for a moment before saying: "Although the document has not been published, if you include the people in the southwest who have returned to their native land, the number should exceed 90 million. , as for the cultivated land, it should be less than 700 million acres.”

"So slow?" Zhu Zhanhe actually felt that the population growth was very slow, which made Zheng He speechless:
"Before Your Majesty did not promote the hospital, the premature death rate of the people of the country was not low. Even now, the premature death rate is still around 20%."

"If there are two million babies this year, about 400,000 will die before their first birthday. Of the remaining 1.6 million, only 12.3 million will survive to adulthood."

What Zheng He said was a little scary, but it was true.

Although the Ming Dynasty had begun to promote prefecture-level hospitals, there were more than 200 prefectures in the Ming Dynasty. Each of the more than 200 prefectures in the Ming Dynasty needed at least 150 doctors and no less than 400 medical staff.

It doesn't seem like much, but looking at more than 200 mansions, it seems like a lot.

Today, there are only five-year medical schools in the two capitals and ten places including Shenyang, Jilin, Xi'an, Henan, Taiyuan, Hangzhou, Nanchang, and Jiaozhi that have a systematic five-year medical school.

Each school has as many as 400 to 500 new students each year, and as few as 200 to 300 students each year. Only more than 4,000 students graduate every year, of which less than one-third can become doctors, and the remaining two-thirds If you fail the basic exam, you need to work as a local medical nurse for three years before returning to the hospital to study and retake the exam.

In other words, the doctors trained by Ming Dynasty every year can only satisfy the needs of eleven or two prefecture-level hospitals at most.

In this way, it is still the result of Daming’s continuous promotion to primary school graduates and middle school graduates.

It can be said that in the eyes of most students, doctor may be a good profession, but in the context of the entire era, doctor is a middle-class profession.

At present, there are only forty hospitals in Fucheng.

At this rate, it will take at least twenty years for Ming Dynasty's medical care to cover all prefectural cities, and there are more than 1,700 counties and cities under the prefectural cities...

It's just that in comparison, the current medical environment and sanitation environment are much better than those in the Hongwu period, so the infant mortality rate in urban areas has declined.

"If the hospital can be fully promoted in the future, the increase in the population of the imperial court will probably be very scary."

Zhu Zhanhe clicked his tongue a few times, and Zheng He nodded and said: "Given the current situation of the imperial court, it would be better to have a larger population. If it continues to be maintained, I am afraid that it will not even be able to defend the current territory in the future."

"For example, in Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places, the minority residents there range from three to four million to more than one million, while the Han people range from more than two million to hundreds of thousands."

"If millions of people can be moved into the southwest, the imperial court may be able to further reform the Three Pronunciations and Ten Comforts."

"Not to mention the south, just the north is the same."

"Although there are nearly five million people in the Northeast, compared with the territory of the Northeast, these five million people are scattered too widely and are difficult to connect."

"What Northeast China has to face is North Korea, with a population of more than 4 million, and Japan, with a population of more than 12 million. The pressure is too great, and it needs to at least triple from the current level to solve the problem."

"As for Yanran Dusi, needless to say, although it nominally controls the eastern Mobei and Monan areas, the only places with Han people are Kaiping and Hailar. The two cities are mainly military frontiers, and the total number of people living there is not more than Fifty thousand people.”

"There are many open-pit mineral deposits in Mobei, but they cannot be mined due to lack of manpower."

"If the Hecheng train envisioned by the Supreme Emperor can be built until it suddenly loses temperature, then the imperial court can mine mineral deposits from Mobei, transport them into the pass by railway and the Wen River, and then purchase grain and transport it to Mobei."

"With these, our Han family can take root in Mobei and hold the Mongols to the west of Jinshan (Altai Mountain)."

After all, Zheng He and Zhu Di had been fighting on the grasslands for more than ten years. Although he didn't know much about the situation in Mobei, he still knew the situation hundreds of miles north from Kaipingwei.

Besides, he and Wang Yan often talked about Mobei, and he had heard a little bit about Mobei's situation.

It's not that Mobei has no resources, it's just that the Ming Dynasty couldn't mine or transport them.

This is just like Shanxi today. Shanxi's coal mines are enough to meet the needs of all people in the Ming Dynasty in this era. However, due to inconvenient transportation and low coal profits, it is difficult to transport coal out of Shanxi.

However, as long as the northwest railway is built, this phenomenon can be improved.

Thinking of this, Zheng He and Zhu Zhanhe continued to communicate.

During the conversation between the two parties, time passed unknowingly, and the carriage they were riding in also drove out of Xizhimen and drove slowly towards the Daming Palace in the northwest.

Not long after, a "city" located between the two lakes slowly became clear from the distance.

The Daming Palace, which cost millions of dollars, has not yet been completely completed, but half of the buildings have been completed.

The perimeter of the Daming Palace is six miles, the city is two feet high and one foot eight feet thick. The city is guarded by Wang Cong, Chen Wu and others from the left and right guards of Yanshan.

There are gardens, palaces, wetlands, lakes, and rivers in the city. It can be said to be a quiet little world.

Nowadays, Zhu Di, Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaosui, Zhu Zhanji, Zhu Zhan'an and others all live there. There are more than 2,200 maids and eunuchs serving them, but their salaries are all funded by internal funds.

"So big?"

When he first saw the Daming Palace, Zhu Zhanhe's reaction was that it was too big, and then it was necessary for maintenance.

"How much does it cost to maintain such a large city?"

Facing Zhu Zhanhe's question, Zheng He chuckled and said, "Almost 850,000 guan."

"Does my grandfather still have money?" Zhu Zhanhe asked this practical question. After all, the income from internal funds mainly consisted of the two million yuan allocated by the Ministry of Household Affairs and the income from the newspaper.

Now that his father still lives in the Forbidden City, and the Forbidden City in Nanjing still needs to be maintained, how much money and food can be left to the Daming Palace?
"When Your Highness returned to the palace this time, didn't you find that there were many fewer people in the palace?"

Zheng He did not answer directly, but asked Zhu Zhanhe directly.

Seeing Zhu Zhanhe nod, he explained: "Her Royal Highness the Queen has limited the number of maids and eunuchs in the Forbidden City to 1,500, and including the cooks, there are only 1,700."

"In addition, His Majesty advocates frugality, so the annual consumption of the Beijing Palace City is only more than 400,000 guan. Counting the 200,000 guan maintained in Nanjing, there are still more than 1.8 million guan available for disposal."

"Your Majesty allocates 1.5 million guan to the Daming Palace every year, leaving only more than 300,000 guan for the palace city."

"If you say this, Your Highness should be able to understand, right?"

After Zheng He explained, Zhu Zhanhe finally understood.

He has known about his father's frugality since he was a child. In his impression, the meals sent to Chunhe Hall rarely exceed five dishes.

In comparison, the meals in the Qianqing Palace and the former dormitory basically range from a dozen to seven or eight dishes.

It is indeed rare that my father is frugal to himself and does not ask others to be frugal. Of course, this so-called frugality is just compared to the royal family and the prince. If compared to the common people, Zhu Gaoxu's food is also very good.

While Zhu Zhanhe was still immersed in memories, their carriage also arrived at the gate of Daming Palace.

After the interrogation, Zhu Zhanhe got off the carriage, walked into the palace city, and took the prepared carriage to the Yangxin Hall of the Daming Palace.

Although the construction of Daming Palace did not cost as much money as the Summer Palace and Old Summer Palace, the landscape and scenery in Daming Palace are also unique, otherwise the Summer Palace would not be located here.

The mountains, rivers and lakes in the city are sparkling. Some people take boats to fish on the lake, and these fresh fish will be made into delicacies and sent to the Yangxin Hall as soon as possible.

In addition to fish, there is also a grassland of more than a thousand acres in the city, where cattle and sheep are raised for slaughter.

After riding the carriage through the square paved with gold bricks and passing through the tall and wide corridor, the carriage stopped in front of a palace not long after.

Zhu Zhanhe went down to fish, and the sound of singing was also heard in the hall.

"His Royal Highness, please see me..."

"Xuan!"

After receiving the response, the eunuch on duty turned sideways to give up his position and bowed to Zhu Zhanhe.

Zhu Zhanhe nodded and said hello, then led Zheng He into the palace.

This palace is not big, and after all, there is no need to go to court.

Walking into it, Zhu Zhanhe saw Zhu Di sitting in front of the table, and Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaosui, Zhu Zhanji, Zhu Zhanan and others sitting beside him.

"Grandpa, uncle, third uncle, eldest brother, younger brother..."

After all, he had studied since he was a child, and although he was not as thorough in etiquette as those Confucian scholars, Zhu Zhanhe could be considered one of the polite people in the clan.

"Bring me two pairs of bowls and chopsticks, and Zhan He, you and Ma He can sit down and eat."

Zhu Di's voice was full of vitality, not at all like the old and sick person in the imperial edict.

He habitually addressed Zheng He as Ma He. Upon hearing this, Zhu Zhanhe bowed in return and then followed Zheng He to his seat.

At such a close distance, he had time to observe his grandfather.

Zhu Di's current state can best be described as radiant and full of energy.

Although he is already fifty-eight years old, except for a few white hairs on his temples, his hair is generally black.

Some people would believe this state, let alone fifty, even forty-five.

"Grandpa, you are in good health..."

When Zhu Zhanhe didn't open any pot, Zhu Di glanced at him and said, "Glibly, have a good meal, and grandpa will arrange something for you and your eldest brother to do."

"Hey!" Zhu Zhanhe agreed, and then immersed himself in eating.

During this period, Zhu Gaochi asked him how he and Mu were developing and their relationship, just like a talkative woman who likes to gossip.

Fortunately, Zhu Zhanhe has a lively temperament. Not only can he answer Zhu Gaochi's words, but he can also ask him questions from time to time to quarrel.

But your uncle is your uncle after all. After several exchanges, Zhu Zhanhe finally couldn't defeat Zhu Gaochi and could only bury his head in eating to relieve the embarrassment.

A quarter of an hour later, everyone had eaten and drank enough. Zhu Di then said to Zhu Zhanhe: "You and your elder brother have been inspecting the arsenal and armory for me these past few days. According to time, we should set off in March. There’s still more than a month left.”

"Dad, do you really want to conquer it yourself?"

As soon as Zhu Di finished speaking, Zhu Gaochi began to dissuade him as always: "Dad, you are already fifty-eight, why not let Wang Yi, Meng Zhang, and Zhu Neng lead the troops this time."

"Absurd!" Zhu Di scolded Zhu Gaochi with a cold face: "I am only fifty-eight, and I can still eat three bowls of rice and draw the nine-doubled bow. You are younger than me. Can you see if you can pull the nine-doubled bow?"

"My body is weak and I can't pull it, but you can't compare with my body." Zhu Gaochi said sharply.

"If you want to compete, you should also compete with Zhu Neng and Lao Er. They are the generals who go to the battlefield."

"What a bastard!" Zhu Di scolded again: "Old man, do you think I am the Supreme Emperor now, so I am here to show off my authority?"

"I don't mean that..." Zhu Gaochi quickly stood up and bowed.

"What do you mean if you don't mean that?" Zhu Di grabbed his beard and said coldly:

"The current emperor is the second eldest son, and the second eldest son didn't even try to persuade me, so why are you trying to persuade me?"

"If you hadn't been so weak, I would have really wanted to drag you for a walk around Mobei to see how you look like now!"

Zhu Di started to attack personally when his temper got angry, but Zhu Gaochi was indeed a little fat, and his fatness was just fatness, not the strength of Zhu Di, Zhu Gaosui, and Zhu Zhanji.

But after all, after being attacked for half his life, Zhu Gaochi didn't think anything was wrong. Instead, he continued shamelessly:
"If you really go, I will go there too. If anything happens, there will be someone to take care of you."

"Hahahaha..." Zhu Di was laughed at by the boss. Zhu Gaosui and the others next to him lowered their heads and remained silent. Only Zhu Zhanhe looked around slyly.

Because of this, Zhu Di pointed his hand at him: "Zhan He, do you think grandpa is old?"

"Of course you are old!" Zhu Zhanhe blurted out, but added: "But his body is still strong. If nothing else, he is at least stronger than his uncle and third uncle..."

"Hey! You kid..." Zhu Gaosui lay down with his gun inexplicably and immediately looked at Zhu Zhanhe, but since Zhu Di was present, it was difficult to teach this kid a lesson.

"Did you hear that?" Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaochi. Zhu Gaochi wanted to say something more after hearing this, but Zhu Zhanji stood up and bowed:

"Grandpa, my father is just worried about you. If you want to go, we can't stop you."

He first comforted Zhu Di, then turned to Zhu Gaochi and said, "Don't worry, Dad, with Zhan He and I watching, nothing will happen to grandpa this time."

"Well..." Seeing that he could not persuade the old man, Zhu Gaochi could only nod angrily.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Di put a smile on his face again and continued to discuss many things about the Northern Expedition with them.

Not long after, Zhu Zhanhe and Zhu Zhanji were sent to inspect the arsenal, and at the same time, Zhu Gaoxu also received many memorials of victory.

More than half a month has passed, and Fu Rang, Muchun, and Li Jinglong have made rapid progress.

Chieftains such as Weiyuan, Mengding, Menglian, Cheche, etc. were all destroyed and their lands were destroyed, and the number of small people who surrendered was nearly one million.

Facing these native people, the three of them all had the same opinion, which was to move them to the interior before they settled down.

But the problem is that there are already many ethnic minorities in the so-called mainland.

Among the more than four million people in Sichuan, nearly half are minority residents who migrated from Guizhou and Xifan.

Guangxi originally had a small population and a large number of people. Although hundreds of thousands of people migrated to Guangdong, only half of the local minority people and Han people were there.

Not to mention Jiaozhi, the local Han population has not yet exceeded one million, and the minority population is more than twice that of the Han population.

As for Huguang, after accepting the Shaomin from Guizhou, the local proportion has reached its limit.

Therefore, after Zhu Gaoxu thought about it, he finally decided to relocate the local minority people.

More than half of the Shaomin migrated to Kunming, Qujing and other prefectures, and the rest stayed in the local area, waiting for the Han people to assimilate in the future.

As a result, most of the chieftains under the direct jurisdiction of Yunnan have completed their conversion to native land, leaving only a few small chieftains hidden in the mountains who have not yet returned to their native land.

With such a scale, it is no longer necessary for the three princes to sit in the local area. Therefore, after making arrangements, Zhu Gaoxu also made adjustments according to the situation of the Ming Dynasty.

He transferred Cao Guogong Li Jinglong, Xunzhou Bo Shengyong, and Qingyuan Bo Liu Zhen to Ganzhou and established the headquarters in Gansu.

Fu Rang withdrew his troops and returned to Jiaozhi, where he continued to encircle and suppress Li Li in the mountains.

Muchun continued to be based in Yunnan, but since western and northern Yunnan were relatively stable, Zhu Gaoxu suggested that Muchun should be based in Shiping or Jianshui so that he could respond to the rebellion of small people in southern Yunnan at any time.

After making a series of adjustments, Zhu Gaoxu put down his pen and rubbed his brow.

"Your Majesty, drink tea..."

Yishiha brought tea, Zhu Gaoxu took it and took a sip, and then continued:
"I ordered the Sixth Ministry and the Chief Envoy of Yunnan to change the names of places in southern Yunnan. This is the map I drew. According to this map, I will subdivide each prefecture."

In order to facilitate his memory, Zhu Gaoxu copied many place names from later Yunnan, such as Pu'er and Lincang.

As for Chechefu, Zhu Gaoxu did not change the place name. After all, the place names in later generations are also Dai-Chinese translations, and there are no Chinese place names in the area. It is really difficult to revise the whole article.

"After Yunnan's agrarian reform, the next step should be to announce and comfort it, right?"

Yi Shiha put away the map and asked out of curiosity, but Zhu Gaoxu shook his head.

"The number of minority residents in Yunnan has not yet been calculated, but it will not be less than four million."

"If you want to assimilate this place, you need to relocate at least two to three million people. Before the railway is built, it will take several generations to achieve this."

"The area of ​​Sanxuan Shiwei is larger than Yunnan, and its population is only slightly larger than Yunnan."

"Yunnan can't bear it in a short period of time, so why talk about three announcements and ten comforts?"

"However, for this area, we can follow the example of Taizu in governing Yunnan and set up guard posts at important mountain passes in the three areas of Xuanxuan and Shiwei. This will make it easier for the court to reform the local area in the future."

"Of course, we have to wait until Yunnan settles down before making a decision on this matter. The most important thing now is to digest Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Jiaozhi."

"If you bite off more than you can chew, chew up what you can chew first, and then it's not too late to make further arrangements."

Zhu Gaoxu took a deep breath and looked at the memorial in front of him, feeling a little worried.

"Twenty years, twenty years is enough..."

(End of this chapter)