Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 561: Calm Waves
"Execution!"

"Uh-"

At Xishikou in Beijing, as screams rang out one after another, cries of fear were instantly heard from all around.

At the intersection of Xishi, more than 300 people were forced to kneel on the ground, and a man in his thirties with loose hair was tied to a wooden stake.

The man was shirtless, and several yamen runners were pressing down on his shoulders. One of them had a shiny meat-carving knife in his hand and was cruelly carving out the flesh from his open chest.

As he screamed, hundreds of executioners raised their knives and chopped down, and more than 300 huge heads fell to the ground in an instant.

Without waiting for the bodies to fall, someone tied up the broken ends with quicklime wrapped in coarse cloth, threw the bodies one by one onto the prepared carts, and pulled them out of the city.

During the entire process, apart from the blood spurting out during the beheading, there was not much blood splattered on the intersection afterwards.

Of course, Qian Liao, who was executed by lingchi, was not included in this list, because his blood had already flowed all over the ground.

It had been many years since anyone had been sentenced to lingchi in the Ming Dynasty, and the last person who was skilled in the practice had long since passed away.

Although this man is over 30 years old, he is still a novice, and his hands are trembling as he keeps cutting flesh.

Every time a piece of flesh was cut out, someone would pour a pile of yellow and white powder on it.

It is a priceless powder, which can stop the bleeding temporarily when applied. However, if the wound is shaken, the blood will still flow out.

The people around were afraid but also wanted to see, and they cried out in surprise every time they saw it.

It was a pity that the executioner was not skillful and Qian Liao was not a man of iron. After more than thirty cuts, Qian Liao was killed on the wooden stake.

Seeing that everyone was dead, the people who were watching the excitement around them dispersed one after another, and the news that Qian Liao was stabbed to death with more than 30 wounds was also reported back to the palace.

"Your Highness, the people below sent news that Qian Liao was stabbed to death thirty-seven times."

Inside the Wuying Palace, as Wang Tao came to report, Zhu Zhanhe simply responded, "Got it."

Seeing that Zhu Zhanhe did not make any other moves, Wang Tao stood aside and respectfully assisted Zhu Zhanhe in processing the memorial.

The Gengxu Case ended with the death of Qian Liao. From beginning to end, Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Zhanhe never saw the traitor who stirred up Kunlun Continent, because he was just one of many chess pieces.

There are chess pieces like him everywhere in the Ming Dynasty...

Several months passed as Zhu Zhanhe governed the country, but the second half of the fifteenth year of Hongxi was not dull.

On the tenth day of August, the Minister of Works Huang Fu reported that the government employed nearly four million workers throughout the country, of which more than 1.4 million were permanent workers.

You have to know that the Ming Dynasty had a population of only over 122 million that year and employed nearly 4 million workers, which means that one out of every thirty people worked under the rule of the court.

Behind the four million workers are four million families, at least four million, but at most twenty or thirty million.

It can be said that nearly a quarter of the people in the Ming Dynasty relied on the court for their livelihood.

It is because of this that this group of people can live such a comfortable life.

However, the prosperity was only temporary. With the money and grain allocated by the Ministry of Revenue to various places, this prosperity could only be maintained for less than four years at most.

After four years, the imperial court could no longer provide more money and grain as aid, so more than two million people had to go back to farming.

From frugality to luxury is easy, from luxury to frugality.

Yu Qian, who was patrolling in Jiangnan, was worried about this kind of thing.

"The sage said to toil his muscles and bones, starve his body, make his mind suffer, and empty his body..."

"Saints love to talk nonsense. Why don't you let him come to this construction site and work for a few days?"

At a construction site in Chizhou Prefecture, Nanzhili, Yu Qian, an experienced officer of the Censorate, was sitting on the railroad tracks he had just laid, guzzling water and sighing in a literary manner.

His sigh was mocked by a man of about his age, but he was not angry. Instead, he smiled and said:

"Are there many people on this construction site who are as literate as you?"

"A lot?" The man laughed and said, "Since the promotion of official education, how many people under the age of thirty are illiterate?"

"You scholars talk in fancy language, but in the end, don't you still have to work like us to support your family?"

"Okay, let's continue now that we've rested enough. Our team has to lay forty steps today."

"Okay!" Yu Qian smiled and stood up. Several workers looked at him and laughed, saying, "You can still smile so happily while working."

"Aren't you guys laughing too?" Yu Qian teased, but the others laughed and said, "We are laughing at you for having fun at work."

"Haha, laugh, laugh..."

Yu Qian followed the team forward without any hesitation, waving the pickaxe in his hand skillfully.

After more than half a year of inspection, he gradually got rid of his impetuousness and pedantry, and he understood why Jiang Huai could so calmly say that he would sacrifice a few people in exchange for the majority.

After all, Jiang Huai is the image of a person from the bottom of society who has struggled to rise. He knows the cruelty of reality, but Yu Qian does not.

Yu Qian's ancestor Yu Bohan first lived in Shanxi and later moved to Suzhou. His great-grandfather was an official in the Yuan Dynasty, and his great-grandfather served as the chief administrator of Hangzhou Road in the Yuan Dynasty.

Even after the Yuan Dynasty collapsed, his grandfather still served as the head of the Ministry of Works, one of the six ministries during the Hongwu period.

If his father Yu Yanzhao had not lived in seclusion in his hometown of Qiantang and not taken up an official position, his family could be counted as having served as officials for four generations.

Born in such a family, Yu Qian had no idea of ​​the sufferings of the world or what it felt like to be hungry.

It is because they do not know the sufferings of the world and have never been hungry that they think the emperor must be perfect.

If you know the sufferings of the world, you will no longer think that there are perfect people in the world.

And now Yu Qian, under Jiang Huai's suggestion, has experienced the world.

Although he had never experienced the sufferings of the world, he roughly knew what Jiang Huai wanted to say.

To enrich one person's family is to enrich thousands of households. This is what it means to sacrifice the small for the greater.

Yu Qian felt that the sentence in the Gengxu case was too severe and that there was suspicion of miscarriage of justice, and he was not wrong.

But sometimes, right or wrong is not that important, the result is the most important.

The immediate result was that the wealth of 230,000 people before and after the Gengxu Case enabled tens of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty to have jobs, so that they could have enough food to eat and no longer go hungry.

With the result being what it is, what does it matter whether it is true or false, right or wrong?

Because of this, Yu Qian now has a new way of thinking, which is to let this prosperous era continue, and what he has to do is to prevent problems before they happen.

"Zhao Kun, I heard that you sold all the land in your hometown?"

"Yes, sold it!"

"All sold?"

"They've all been sold. Who would want to farm when they can go out to work?"

"It's not just me. Qian De, Sun He and a whole group of people have sold their land in their hometown."

"Now my wife and children are staying in the old house. When my son Dalang and his family graduate, if they have no hope of passing the imperial examination or becoming a soldier, then they can come and work with me. It is better than digging for food in the fields."

"That's right. Working in the fields is too tiring."

"Yes, especially..."

While working, Yu Qian heard many things, and the fact that Zhao Kun and others were selling their land made Yu Qian alert.

As an official of the Ming Dynasty, he knew how much was stored in the imperial treasury and how long the current carnival could last.

He knew that many officials in the Ming Dynasty in Beijing also knew it, but the people did not.

If the people sell their land in their hometown because of the current situation, how will they survive after the carnival is over in a few years?

Either buy new land or find another way to make a living.

Thinking of this, Yu Qian began to remind them: "It is better not to sell the land. After all, the imperial railway will be completed one day."

"Let's talk about it after we finish repairing it!"

"Ha ha ha ha……"

No one took Yu Qian's advice seriously, and this was also the limitation of their information.

Seeing this, Yu Qian sighed in his heart and couldn't help feeling worried.

With this feeling in mind, he ended his unannounced visit to Chizhou after finishing his work that day.

He wrote down his concerns in a memorial and sent it to Beijing.

It was already mid-September when Zhu Zhanhe dealt with Yu Qian's memorial.

He read Yu Qian's memorial carefully. After reading it, he also felt something was wrong about what Yu Qian was worried about, so he summoned the Minister of Revenue Wang Hui.

"Your Highness, may I see you, may you live forever..."

"Please take a seat and take a look at this memorial!"

Zhu Zhanhe gave Wang Hui a seat and sent Yu Qian's memorial to Wang Hui.

Wang Hui took the memorial from Wang Tao with great respect. After reading it several times, he understood what the prince was worried about, so he bowed and said:

"Your Highness, you do need to pay attention to this experience, but you don't need to pay attention to it."

"Why?" Zhu Zhanhe asked Wang Hui. Wang Hui said, "The sale of farmland needs to be registered with the government. According to the records of the Ministry of Revenue in the past six months, the number of local farmland sales has indeed increased, but the amount is only tens of millions of acres, and the number is only more than 500,000 times."

"The farmland is registered in the household registration system, and more than 500,000 transactions represent more than 500,000 people trading farmland."

"There are now nearly four million workers under the rule of the court, of which only 15% trade farmland. Therefore, for most people, farmland is still valued by them and is also their retreat."

"In addition, regarding this matter, Your Majesty had asked me to pay attention to it long before the new policy began. As long as the number of transactions does not exceed two million households, the court can handle it."

"Two million households?" Zhu Zhanhe frowned. This number was already quite a lot. You have to know that there were only more than 22 million households in the Ming Dynasty.

"Yes, two million households..."

Wang Hui bowed in response and explained to Zhu Zhanhe: "Your Majesty once said two words, the two words are industrialization and urbanization."

"Industrialization refers to the industrial revenue in the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue, and this industry includes all aspects."

"Among them, the industrialization rate refers to the proportion of industrial growth in the Ming Dynasty's economy."

"As for urbanization, it refers to the process of rural population being transformed into urban population, while the urbanization rate refers to the proportion of the population living in urban areas in a region to the total population of the region."

"The change brought about by industrialization is to liberate the rural population from the countryside and make them continue to gather in towns and cities. This is a historical stage that must be experienced in the process of industrialization."

"A factory can create hundreds or thousands of jobs, and if one job can support a family, then a city can also accommodate hundreds or thousands of families."

"It's not that many rural people don't want to move to the city, but the city is overpopulated and it's difficult to find a job to support themselves."

"However, once the court begins to industrialize, countless factories will rush to be established around towns and cities, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs to feed the people."

"The economic transformation that the court is currently making is on the road to industrialization. The further we move forward, the more population the towns can accommodate."

"But this capacity is limited, and Your Highness should know this."

Wang Hui stopped talking, and Zhu Zhanhe nodded to show his understanding: "The court is currently planning to build more than 500 factories of various sizes, which will require at least 300,000 workers to operate." "You mean, these people who sell farmland will become workers in these factories in the future?"

"Not necessarily." Wang Hui replied:

"They may not necessarily become workers of the court, but some will become workers of the court, and when these town residents become workers of the court, they will leave some vacant jobs for others."

Zhu Zhanhe understood, but he still frowned: "The court can only provide jobs for 300,000 people, but you said 2 million households."

"Even if one person supports one household, we still need to solve the employment problem of two million workers. Are you exaggerating?"

Zhu Zhanhe did not mention Zhu Gaoxu. After all, Zhu Gaoxu was the emperor, and he dared not criticize his own father.

Facing his doubts, Wang Hui did not hold back Zhu Gaoxu, the Buddha, but responded:
"Three hundred thousand people are just workers directly involved in production, and if goods need to be sold, someone has to transport them and sell them."

"The imperial court owns a large market in China and overseas, with nearly 300 million people being directly or indirectly contacted by the imperial court."

“The jobs provided by selling goods to them are no less than those provided by workers in factories.”

"In addition, the court's infrastructure construction will not stop. Even before the economic reform began, the court needed to employ millions of people every year, let alone in the future."

"After all the calculations, this is enough to solve the employment problem of two million people..."

Wang Hui gave a complete answer to Zhu Zhanhe's questions. Only then did Zhu Zhanhe realize that his father was still making these preparations.

If Yu Qian hadn't spoken, I probably wouldn't have noticed it.

Even though it was his own father, Zhu Zhanhe felt a sense of fear at this moment.

The Ming Dynasty has only taken one step, but my father has already seen the various things that will happen after this step is taken.

Zhu Zhanhe even suspected that his father might have seen what would happen four or five steps later from this step.

Going one step beyond human is genius, but going too far can lead to fear and daunting feelings.

As he became more proficient in government affairs, Zhu Zhanhe felt more and more terrified by his father.

He gradually understood why his grandfather gave up governing the country and turned to military affairs during the Yongle period.

Because even his grandfather couldn't see through, let alone understand, his father's methods and the steps he took.

Even though his grandfather still managed the government by force, even he would feel unfamiliar and overwhelmed when faced with these new things.

Faced with such a huge dynasty, who else except his own father could govern it like an iron plate?

"It's a pity that the emperors of Qin and Han were slightly inferior in literary talent. The emperors of Tang and Song were slightly inferior in style. The great Genghis Khan only knew how to bend his bow and shoot eagles."

"Ha ha……"

Zhu Zhanhe recited this poem written by his father, followed by a bitter smile.

What my father has done, whether it is civil governance or military achievements, or personal strength, far exceeds the above-mentioned group of people.

If he died in the future, how would he face this huge dynasty...

At this moment, Zhu Zhanhe stood up unconsciously and turned to look at the painting "General Map of the Four Barbarians in the World Submitting".

Standing in front of this map that was three meters long and twenty-eight feet wide, he felt deeply insignificant.

He was not the only one who thought so, but it was something that everyone would think after knowing the methods of the current emperor.

Apart from him, who else could govern such a huge dynasty?

"You go down..."

Zhu Zhanhe turned his back to Wang Hui and gestured. Wang Hui bowed and then stepped out of the side hall of Wuying Palace.

After he left, Wang Tao stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Your Highness, His Majesty has been compiling books these days. Although I haven't read those books, the seal holder has mentioned a few things..."

Zhu Zhanhe looked at Wang Tao after hearing this. Wang Tao bent over and continued, "The book contains strategies for governing the country in the future and strategies for preventing disasters before they happen."

Just a simple sentence made Zhu Zhanhe's pupils shrink.

After a moment, he came back to his senses, his eyes gradually became calm, and finally he said, "I know."

Wang Tao was about to retreat, but Zhu Zhanhe glanced at him and said, "You are well-informed."

"Your Highness, I have overstepped my authority. Please punish me." Although Wang Tao was asking for punishment, he did not kneel or do anything else.

"You are innocent." Zhu Zhanhe turned around and sat back in his seat. After thinking for a while, he turned his attention to Yu Qian's memorial.

"Send Lu Yu here."

"Yes……"

Zhu Zhanhe spoke lightly, and Wang Tao agreed after hearing it. He walked out of the side hall and asked someone to summon Lu Yu.

In just about half an hour, Lu Yu appeared in the side hall of Wuying Palace.

"Your Highness..."

Lu Yu, the then Minister of Personnel, bowed respectfully, and Zhu Zhanhe signaled Wang Tao to hand him Yu Qian's memorial.

In just a few breaths, Lu Yu saw Yu Qian's memorial.

He flipped through the memorial, with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

From the words between the lines of the memorial, he felt the change in Yu Qian.

If Yu Qian was a pedantic and traditional person before, he is now a person with keen observation and open mind.

The difference between the two was so great that Lu Yu almost thought that the memorial was written by someone else, and not the Yu Qian he thought it was.

"This is the memorial of your good friend. What is his personality like?"

Zhu Zhanhe asked Lu Yu. He knew from Yu Qian's memorial that this official was very good. At least he could observe the lives of the people in such detail, which was a quality that many officials did not possess.

Lu Yu understood what Zhu Zhanhe said. He was silent for a moment before he spoke: "From what I know, Yu Qian is a smart but pedantic person. He accepts new learning but also follows tradition. He is very contradictory."

"If you want to use him, you need to accept his straightforward temper and be cautious..."

He told Zhu Zhanhe what he knew about Yu Qian, and talked about the changes in Yu Qian in the memorials, and his words were cautious.

Zhu Zhanhe heard everything he said, but at the same time he became curious.

"Since you say that about him, I would like to see what kind of person he is."

"Your Highness..." Lu Yu felt like something was stuck in his throat, not knowing how to persuade him.

"Haha, never mind." Seeing Lu Yu like this, Zhu Zhanhe shook his head, and Lu Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

"I looked through his performance records, and he can be promoted this year. As the Minister of Revenue, how do you plan to treat him?"

Zhu Zhanhe asked Lu Yu, and Lu Yu said after a moment of hesitation:

"I know him inside out. His character is not suitable for being an important official in the capital. If he is placed in the local area, he will shine."

"I intend to transfer him to Guangxi to serve as the prefect, and promote him one level to the fifth rank."

"Fifth rank?" Zhu Zhanhe frowned. "Given his merits, it is not too much to promote him to the fifth rank. Transfer him to Hami Prefecture as the co-governor."

"Yes..." Hearing this, Lu Yu could only agree reluctantly.

Hami Prefecture was located on the front line. As the Tongzhi of Hami Prefecture, although he was only a civil official, there were many things that needed to be done in the Hami Prefecture government.

Besides, the railway in Hami was not a bad environment for Yu Qian.

When the war in the Western Regions started and ended, Yu Qian would at least be promoted to a fourth-rank official for his merits.

It seems that although the prince did not say that he wanted to use him, he actually wanted to use him.

Thinking of this, Lu Yu couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

As for Zhu Zhanhe, he signaled that he could leave after announcing this matter. Fortunately, Lu Yu did not leave, but had something to report.

"Your Highness, Gao Guan has been appointed as the governor of Jiading Prefecture in Sichuan for his meritorious service."

"Oh, I see……"

In response to Lu Yu's report, Zhu Zhanhe did not show any anxiety, but nodded calmly and accepted this reality.

Seeing this, Lu Yu could only sigh at the prince's growth, and then he stood up, bowed, and slowly left the side hall of Wuying Palace.

At the same time, their conversation was also heard by Zhu Gaoxu in the Qianqing Palace.

Not only that, a backup copy of Yu Qian's memorial was also sent to Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at the content, chuckled and nodded: "He has really grown a lot, but it's a pity that his personality is still not suitable for being a Beijing official."

"But after this change in character, he would be a good frontier official."

Regarding the Tumu Incident, Zhu Gaoxu, both in his previous life and at this moment, only considered it as a political and military turmoil, but it did not shake the national system. After all, the elite troops of the Ming army were all in the south at that time.

In fact, there were not many capable generals who died in Tumu Fort during the Zhengtong period. Except for Zhang Fu and Zhu Yong, the rest had almost no experience in fighting on the battlefield.

For example, Wang Ji, Chen Mao, Fang Ying, Dong Xing, Liang Yao and others were basically in the south. After the Battle of Tumu and before the outbreak of the Battle of Beijing, Zhu Qiyu and Yu Qian did not transfer these people to the north.

After the war, this group of people were not reused, but suffered political suppression and cold storage because of their status as orthodox old generals.

Of course, some people would be transferred back to the northern front after two or three years of Zhu Qiyu's inspection and finding that they would not pose a threat.

For example, Qi Xing and Fang Ying could return to the Beijing camp or go to Liaodong.

There were also people like Liang Yan who had to wait for the restoration of Emperor Yingzong of Ming before returning to the front line against Mongolia.

More famous people, such as Wang Ji, were left in Nanjing.

Chen Mao was simply given an idle position to manage the Hanlin Lectures and was kept in the cold until his death.

Chen Yu, the Earl of Pingjiang, was sent to Shandong to supervise people in farming.

Therefore, many core military backbones of the Ming Dynasty were not lost in Tumu Fortress, but were mostly suppressed and put in cold storage because of their embarrassing identities as old ministers of Emperor Yingzong.

However, Zhu Qiyu's methods were relatively mild. He did not kill these people and even continued to use a few of them. In most cases, he just sent them to Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong and Guangxi, or put them in cold storage.

For someone like Mao Zhong, whose entire family was exiled to Fujian, this was already considered a very severe punishment.

But judging from Mao Zhong and Shi Heng, Yu Qian had Mao Zhong transferred to the court when there was insufficient evidence, which also shows that he is not an easy person to deal with.

However, Zhu Gaoxu was a little puzzled by the fact that Shi Heng was scolded by him for praising him for his achievements.

No matter how puzzled I am, it is something that happened in another dimension after all, and the Yu Qian today is not the same person as the Yu Qian in another dimension.

Even if he did, he couldn't cause any trouble.

Instead of worrying about Yu Qian, we should worry about Wang Hui, Jiang Huai, Lu Yu, Wang Ji and Xu Shuo.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu chuckled and shook his head, and continued to write a book. Gradually, there was no sound in the Yangxin Palace...

(End of this chapter)