Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 524: Holding Ten Thousands with One
"Woo-"

The whistle sounded, but the sound did not appear on the platform, but stopped on a track more than ten miles away from Ganzhou.

"We're almost there, why did you suddenly lie down?"

Zhu Qiyue complained and stepped off the train. A carriage was ready on the official road not far away.

"It's okay, it's nice to ride in a carriage."

As Zhu Di got older, his mentality relaxed and he smiled happily.

"Zheng Daban, is this train so easy to break down?" Zhu Qiyue didn't know why, but Zheng He bowed and responded:

"Not really. Although there are some minor problems, there are still very few cases where it stops and cannot move."

"Then we can't move it until it's repaired? Won't it be blocked later?" Zhu Qiyue asked.

"No, a locomotive will come to pull it. Although the speed is slower, it is better than leaving it alone."

Zhu Di taught in this way, but Zhu Qiyue drew inferences from one instance and said: "What Grandpa said is wrong. Grandpa said before that history always keeps repeating its movement before people realize its true colors."

"But if it can be repaired, there won't be any need to pull it."

"Your grandfather also said this?" Zhu Di was a little surprised that his second son could still say this. Zhu Qiyue nodded and said:
"I have said it before, and grandpa also said that future generations will ridicule the predecessors for not knowing history books and lessons, but if future generations are put in the position of their predecessors, they will not be able to avoid these repeated things."

Sitting on the carriage, Zhu Di asked: "Yue'er, do you know the origin of this tie?"

"Zhangye County governs Zhangye, Guzang, Xiutu, Wuwei, Tuici, Luanniao, Puyuwei, Cangsong, Xuanwei, Lingju, Zhiyang and other counties."

Compared with the East Market, the West Market is more like a flea market, catering to a more general population, mainly ordinary people and small traders from inside and outside the city.

While Zheng He was explaining, a team of hundreds of guards also came to the official road.

In addition, his physical fitness is also stronger than that of ordinary children. At least when other children are seven years old, they are less than four feet at most, but he is already four feet two inches.

Under his attention, the carriage began to approach Zhangye.

Here, people can find a variety of products, ranging from daily necessities to agricultural products, handicrafts and more.

The West Market is far more lively than the East Market, and the scale of traders and the flow of people are also large, so the West Market is more prosperous than the East Market.

"Grandpa also said other things, but he said too much and I didn't pay attention at the time."

Among them, the East Market is a high-end consumer business circle, and the transactions are all high-income upper class.

"You kid, you still haven't memorized the things your grandpa taught you well." Zhu Di patted Zhu Qiyue's back, but Zhu Qiyue lay directly on the carriage with his head resting on Zhu Di's lap.

"I know!" Zhu Qiyue explained: "Shazhou is Dunhuang, Hami is Yiwu, Turpan is Gaochang, Yilibali is Wusun, Kashgar is Shule, and..."

County and government offices at all levels are mostly established in Dongshi, so the supporting consumption and housing prices in Dongshi tend to be high.

"But most of these counties have changed their names, even the names of the Western Regions have changed."

As Zhu Di's carriage came to the West Market, this so-called West Market was not divided into squares and cities like the Tang and Song Dynasties, but was divided into streets.

The carriage drove them forward. On both sides of the official road were trees that had not been planted for many years, and someone was plowing the farmland on both sides of the road.

Zhu Qiyue is not talking big words. He seems to have inherited Zhu Gaoxu's physical fitness. Although his memory does not reach photographic memory, he can remember many things easily.

"Okay, okay, did you learn these things by yourself, or did someone else ask you to learn them?"

A cotton-padded coat is not cheap. Being able to wear cotton-padded clothes to work is enough to illustrate the living standards of the people in the northwest.

Because the climate was slightly cooler than that of later generations, it was not easy to grow cotton in Gansu in this era. Even if it could be grown, the yield was not high, and it mainly had to be transported from the Jianghuai Plain and Jianghan Plain in the south.

Although Zhangye is a city after the second construction of the Ming Dynasty, the situation in the city is still based on the former East and West Markets as the trading market, and the goods sold on the main roads are far less cheap than those in the East and West Markets.

Zhu Di was happy to see it, and Zhu Qiyue also said: "I will learn it when I look at it occasionally."

"I know!" Zhu Qiyue replied directly as if he was not looking down on others: "In the sixth year of Yuanding in the Western Han Dynasty, Jiuquan County was divided to the west to form Dunhuang County, and at the same time, the east of Yanzhi Mountain was divided to form Zhangye County."

Zhu Di saw that these people were still wearing cotton-padded clothes when working, and he knew that this northwest region had also benefited from the benefits of the railway.

Since the implementation of administration by Zhu Gaoxu during the Yongle period, various counties across the country have begun expansion or renovation under Zhu Gaoxu's instructions to meet the future wide streets and population.

Zhu Di and Zhu Qiyue got on the carriage, while Zheng He and Wang Yan rode on the left and right sides of the carriage.

The annual cost of this project is not much, only a few hundred thousand yuan, and the transformation speed is not fast.

Not only that, the products in Dongshi are also of higher quality and more expensive, making them suitable for those with financial strength.

Of course, this is just the surface. The real situation needs to be visited by Zhu Di himself in Zhangye to know.

However, as more than 20 years have passed, many counties have been expanded, and Zhangye County is one of them.

"Oh? Do you still know about things in the Western Regions?" Zhu Di didn't expect that this kid would know so many things while he usually went to the trees to hunt birds and go into the water to catch fish.

"Okay, then I need to read more history books in the future. Only by understanding the things in the history books can we know how to do many things."

Except for them, the remaining more than a hundred guards walked towards Zhangye County, the seat of Ganzhou Prefecture.

The types of commodities in the West Market are more abundant and diverse, and the prices are relatively low, making them suitable for mass consumption.

In the East Market, people can buy all kinds of luxury goods, high-end goods and exquisite handicrafts.

"So I feel that even if you read history books, you may not be able to avoid all the history of repeated movements, because history cannot be easily avoided."

Zhangye County is a prefectural government. The main roads are divided into Zhangye Road and Gumo Road. The main road is eight feet wide, the remaining streets are five feet wide, and the remaining lanes are two feet wide.

A quarter of an hour later, the carriage they were riding entered Zhangye County, and Zhu Di specifically ordered that no officials came to greet him. After entering the city, he went directly to the West Market.

The roads in the West City are basically streets, with a width of five feet, enough for five carriages to travel side by side.

As for pedestrians, they walk on the sidewalk, which is two feet wide.

It can be said that Zhu Gaoxu’s planning for each county is entirely to prepare for the second industrial revolution.

The carriage stopped on the broad street. Zhu Di did not go to visit in person, but asked Zheng He and Wang Yan to visit.

Soon, Zheng He and Wang Yan found out the prices of firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, food, clothing, housing and transportation for the people in Zhangye County.

Gansu experienced four major population migrations during the Hongwu, Yongle, and Hongxi years.

A large number of Mongolians and Semu people migrated to Shandong, Henan, and Huguang, while the Han people from the Jianghuai River migrated to Gansu.

Nowadays, the proportion of Han people in Gansu has reached 55%, and the public security environment has also become much better.

In addition, Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu insisted on implementing Lao Zhu's policy towards Mongolia and Semu people, which resulted in Mongolia and Semu people having been Sinicized long ago.

At least in the ninth year of Hongxi's reign in Zhangye City, Zhu Di could not see a single seductive man wearing a turban or a felt hat.

After finding out the proportion of local ethnic groups, Zhu Di also began to focus on the living conditions of the people in the northwest that Zheng He and Wang Yan had inquired about.

The quality of life of all classes of society, in addition to depending on their income, is also closely related to the price level of an era.

There are many factors that determine the level of prices. For example, after the railway is opened to traffic, it is destined that the prices in Zhangye will be reduced by a certain proportion.

For ordinary civilians, food and clothing are the basic guarantees for maintaining life.

In terms of food, daily necessities can be summarized by the "seven things to open the door", namely firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea.

In terms of clothing, it includes the prices of cotton, silk and textiles made from these materials.

First of all, let’s talk about firewood. The price of firewood in Zhangye during the Yongle period was 120 Wen per load, and the price of coal was 140 Wen per load.

Nowadays, with the opening of railways, goods from all over the country are continuously transported to the northwest, and the price of coal in Zhangye has dropped to 82 wen per dan, so coal is the main fuel in the city.

In terms of grain prices, before the train opened, the price of rice in Zhangye was 600 yuan per shi, and the price of wheat was more than 400 yuan per shi.

Now that the road is open to traffic, the price of rice has dropped to more than 430 Wen, and the price of wheat is also around 400 Wen.

Compared with the more than 300 yuan per stone meter in Jiangnan, the price of rice and wheat is still expensive, but it is much cheaper than before.

Similarly, there is oil, which is indispensable to everyone. In Zhangye, a pound of oil once cost 120 cash, but now you can buy a pound of peanut oil for 50 cash.

The prices of other commodities such as salt, tea, sugar, soy sauce and vinegar have all dropped by 20 to 30%, which can be said to be very cheap.

As for clothes, Zhang Ye used to pay three cents per catty of cotton, but now he only needs one cent.

A piece of white cloth previously cost 400 coins, but now it only costs 280 coins.

A cotton-padded coat used to cost sixty cents, but now it only costs thirty cents.

As for the food, for ordinary people in the northwest, beef and mutton are not expensive. After all, this is the place where it is produced. Beef only costs fifteen cents per catty, and mutton only sixteen cents.

In this northwest land, the real luxury foods are pork, goose, bird's nest, abalone and other foods.

In the past, a pound of pork in Zhangye cost 20 cents, but now with the opening of the railway, the price has dropped to 18 cents.

A big goose costs up to 400 fen, but now only 200 fen is enough.

Let’s talk about food, clothing, housing and transportation. House prices in Daming have never been expensive. What’s expensive is mainly wood.

With the opening of the railway, wood from Nanyang was transported from Tianjin to the northwest. It only cost a dozen guan to buy half an acre of land and build a small yard.

As for travel, train prices are very transparent, at ten cents per stop, and the donkeys and horses needed for short trips are also very cheap.

There are very few donkey riders in Zhangye, and most of them ride Western horses. Each horse is worth two guans, so it is not expensive.

These basic necessities, food, clothing, housing and transportation that are closely related to the people all reveal that the lives of the people in the northwest are gradually getting better. Among them, the biggest change was the employment opportunities brought about by the imperial policy in the northwest.

After the Guimao case, the imperial court re-established local wage rates, including 30 yuan per day for railway construction, 100 yuan per day for mining, and 20 yuan per day for tree planting and sand control.

These jobs are often on a first-come, first-served basis, and of course it depends on individual skills.

But no matter what, even the cheapest job wage reaches 20 cash per day, which is enough to buy six kilograms of grain at the current price of grain.

In addition to these short-term workers, the imperial court also set up many long-term workers' jobs in the northwest. Town cleaning costs 600 coins per month, and repairing official roads costs 600 coins per month.

It can be said that the lowest wage for the imperial court in the northwest is twenty cents per day. As long as a person can work well, the whole family will not starve to death, not to mention that the imperial court has evenly divided the land in the northwest several times.

The quality of life of one generation is ultimately a matter of people's livelihood.

The quality of people's livelihood is also related to the support of the people.

The support of the people depends on the good and evil administration of officials.

It can be seen that the interactive relationship between people's livelihood, public sentiment, and official administration will undoubtedly become the key to examining the quality of life of the people in the Ming Dynasty.

At least during the Hongxi period, the quality of life of the people under the Ming Dynasty was far better than that during the Hongwu and Yongle periods.

The steam engine not only brought progress in production, but also solved the overall resource allocation problem of the Ming Dynasty in transportation.

One links Beijing and the other opens to Han. These two railways ensure that farmers in the south of the Yangtze River will not be hurt by low prices in good years, and they also ensure that the rations of the people in the north will not be too expensive due to freight.

Jiangnan Gugui buys and transports it to the northwest for sale. Even if it cannot be sold, it can be stored for later use, so that when a disaster strikes, there will be no farce of no food to eat.

Sitting on the carriage, Zhu Di looked at the people in the northwest of the street who were all wearing silk clothes and having rosy faces. He knew that his second son was better than himself and his father in governing the Ming Dynasty.

"Dad, look at it, I said you should choose me. How can Zhu Yunwen, that little bastard, compare to my second son? Even for the second son's sake, I should be chosen!"

Zhu Di couldn't help but feel proud. Although it was hard for him to say that his father was more valuable than his son, he was not incapable of doing anything, and there was nothing he couldn't say.

He should not say that the father is more valuable than the son, he should be called... the son inherits the father's legacy!
"The northwest is so prosperous, and all my hard work is not in vain..."

Zhu Di stroked his beard and said with a sigh.

"Isn't this the credit of grandpa?" Zhu Qiyue asked doubtfully, but Zhu Di chose to ignore the boy's voice.

"Wang Yan, write down all these things and send them to Beijing for the second brother to see, so that he will be happy too."

"By the way, when will the railway be built to Suzhou?"

"Your Majesty, are you still going to Suzhou?" Wang Yan was speechless. You must know that Suzhou is still nearly 400 miles away from here.

Zhu Di stroked his beard and said, "You're already here, let's just go to Yumen Pass."

"But the railway cannot be repaired in a short time, and His Majesty also said that it is not recommended that you travel to places without trains."

Wang Yanzuo bowed his head and spoke, and Zheng He also echoed: "Your Majesty, why don't you come here first, stay in the old Prince Su's Mansion these days and take a good walk around, return to Beijing to celebrate the New Year's Day and Lantern Festival, and then take advantage of the Qingming Festival How about going to Nanjing to worship Emperor Gao?"

"A few months have passed, and it won't be too late to go to Suzhou when the weather gets warmer."

Zheng He's words were much more pleasing to the ears than Wang Yan's. Zhu Di had no choice but to give up after hearing the words: "Okay, I will stay in Prince Su's Mansion today. Is there someone special in the Prince's Mansion to take care of it?"

"Back to your Majesty, all the abandoned royal palaces in the north have been taken over as private residences of the Tian family, and the local government is responsible for cleaning them up." Zheng He responded. Zhu Di didn't say anything more after seeing this, and only asked people to clean up and move in.

An hour later, he took Zhu Qiyue and settled into his brother's former mansion safely. However, Zhu Gaoxu, who was in Beijing, had a headache because of Zhu Di's brother.

"These uncles, brothers and nephews of mine are really incorrigible despite repeated admonitions!"

In the middle of winter, Zhu Gaoxu looked at the memorials in front of him with a slightly mocking look on his face.

The king of Yi, Zhu Yongyi, allowed the eunuchs of the palace to harass the people, and the king of Gu, Zhu Su, seized people's fields and taxed the public.

One of these two people is Zhu Gaoxu's cousin and the other is his uncle Wang.

The former was only fourteen years old, so he might have been deceived by eunuchs, but the latter was not sure about Zhu Su, the king of the valley.

"Order the Metropolitan Procuratorate to go to Qujing to verify the matter of King Gu. If the matter is true, cut off the guards, reduce the stipend to five thousand guans, and give King Gu 30 sticks!"

"Then the Metropolitan Procuratorate is ordered to go to Hanzhong to investigate the matter of King Yi. If the matter is true, the eunuch who caused trouble will be killed with a stick, and King Yi will be punished with fifteen sticks!"

Although he was facing his uncle and cousin, Zhu Gaoxu did not strike lightly.

This means that no lives were lost. If lives were lost, Zhu Gaoxu could just start cutting down the feudal vassal.

More than twenty years later, of Lao Zhu's twenty-six heirs, only nineteen passed down the title, and the rest were either childless or died to join the vassal.

Counting Zhu Gaoxu's good eldest brother and third brother, there are now only 21 people with royal titles, receiving more than 300,000 yuan in annual salary.

In addition to them, there are eighty-two princes and princesses born to them, who receive more than 200,000 yuan in salary every year.

It can be said that the imperial court now spends more than 500,000 yuan on salary every year.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's design, even if the Ming Dynasty's royal family developed to more than 200 living princes like the late Ming Dynasty, the royal family's salary would not exceed 1.5 million yuan.

But even so, he still felt that there were too many clans, especially with the success of the reform of the Southwest, the vassal kings who were originally used to stabilize the Southwest became unrest.

For these vassal kings living in the mainland, finding opportunities to cut off their guards is the best way.

In addition, allowing imperial examinations for clans is also a good way. Historically, the Ming Dynasty only approved imperial examinations for clans during the Wanli period. This arrangement was a bit too late.

However, it is a bit premature to implement the clan imperial examination at the moment, but we can explain it to our children and grandchildren.

Thinking like this, Zhu Gaoxu looked at Zhu Zhanhe who was managing politics on the side: "During the Hongwu period, how many clans were there in the world?"

"At most, there are only about a hundred and thirty, but now there are more than four hundred, and seven of them are county heads, generals who govern the country, etc., and are not included in the stipend."

Zhu Zhanhe answered inferences from one instance to another. Zhu Gaoxu nodded after hearing this and said:
“Not counting the stipend, how does that look in the short term and what does it look like in the long term?”

"The expense is too high in the short term, but it is very affordable in the long term." Zhu Zhanhe answered without thinking and said at the same time:

"Take father as an example. If each emperor gives birth to more than ten princes, and the princes give birth to more than a hundred princes, then the stipend will be increased by 700,000 to 800,000 per dynasty."

"In comparison, the imperial court's income increases by nearly one million yuan every year, and each dynasty's widowhood lasts for more than ten years, or at most several decades. No matter how you look at it, the family salary will not become a big deal."

Zhu Zhanhe calculated the stipend with an optimistic attitude. Even according to his calculation method, each generation of emperors in the Ming Dynasty gave birth to more than a dozen children, and a dozen children gave birth to a dozen more children. In the end, the increase in stipend was only 700,000 to 800,000 yuan. Through.

After ten generations of this, the Ming Dynasty's annual income would be at most 7 to 8 million guan, and the current annual income of the Ming Dynasty increased by nearly 1 million guan. One or two hundred years later, the annual income of the Ming Dynasty may have exceeded 300 million guan.

Of course, he took the maximum number. In fact, many emperors only had a few children in their lifetime.

Moreover, the salary of the princess of the Ming Dynasty cannot be inherited, so once the princess dies, the salary will be canceled directly.

Therefore, even if the Ming Dynasty passed down the country for ten generations, the stipend would not exceed 4 million yuan.

If you take into account things like childlessness, annihilation of the country, etc., the stipend will be even less.

In comparison, the Ming Dynasty's annual income increase of nearly one million yuan due to overseas operations will not stop suddenly.

With the current level of science and technology, before the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty reaches 200 million yuan, the growth rate of tax revenue will only get faster and faster, and it will be impossible to stop.

The reason why Zhu Gaoxu dared to be so certain was because he had read historical data on Sino-British financial revenue in his previous life.

When Britain became an empire on which the sun never sets and reached the current technological level of the Ming Dynasty, it was probably during the Opium War.

At this time, Britain occupied places such as India, Canada, Australia and South Africa, and its fiscal revenue reached more than 150 million taels, while the Qing Dynasty only had more than 39 million taels.

Today's Ming Dynasty is even worse than Britain before the Opium War. As long as the Americas are not infiltrated by Europe, Ming Dynasty's finances are enough to crush the whole world.

"In my generation, we cannot let go of the clan, but in your and Yue'er's generation, if we don't want to cultivate a group of wastes, then it is still possible to open the imperial examination appropriately."

Zhu Gaoxu explained to Zhu Zhanhe and asked at the same time: "What do you think of the future finances of the imperial court?"

"Overseas finance is destined to be the bulk of the imperial court's future fiscal revenue." Zhu Zhanhe answered without hesitation, and this is the conclusion he has reached since taking office this year.

He had no access to overseas memorials before, but since he did, he discovered that the Ming Dynasty's financial growth mainly relied on overseas.

"The current tax revenue received by the imperial court from the mainland is about 36 million guan, while the overseas fiscal revenue is more than 15 million guan."

"My dear minister, I have carefully looked at it and found that the local tax revenue does not increase by more than 200,000 to 300,000 yuan every year, while overseas tax revenue has maintained a growth rate of more than 600,000 yuan all year round, and it is still increasing."

"I predict that in thirty years, overseas tax revenue will exceed the imperial court's domestic tax revenue. By then, the imperial court's annual income may reach 90 million yuan, or even exceed 100 million yuan."

"Among them, I believe that the countries that India is the ally of will become the main trading partners of the imperial court, followed by the three countries of Dongzhou."

"However, if we sit back and watch the three countries of Dongzhou develop, they will definitely become a serious problem for the imperial court in the future. Once the imperial court's interests in Dongzhou are damaged, the loss will not only be the gold, silver and copper mines, but more important trade market.”

Zhu Zhanhe's analysis made Zhu Gaoxu nod and express his satisfaction: "What do you think the court should do?"

"My son believes that the imperial court should support more tribes in Dongzhou, let them develop into countries, and maintain the situation where Dongzhou and Beizhou, India and Kunlun are full of countries."

"In this way, the court will not only be able to infiltrate them more easily, but also control them better."

After Zhu Zhanhe finished speaking, Zhu Gaoxu pondered for a moment before speaking:

"You no longer need to participate in the governance of Wuyingdian. From today on, you will be responsible for the support and market operations of various ministries and countries in Beizhou, Dongzhou, and India."

"My son, take your orders!" Zhu Zhanhe couldn't help but feel a little excited when he heard his father's words.

This is the first time he has received some power from his father, and he must do this well...

(End of this chapter)