Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 57 Visiting the Palace
"Peach patter..."

At the end of May, it was the plum rain season in the south of the Yangtze River. The pitter-patter plum rain enveloped the city of Nanjing. People in the streets and alleys ran to the roadside to take shelter from the rain and kept complaining. The businessmen selling umbrellas were smiling from ear to ear, seeing the umbrellas in their hands. I sold out all of them, and I can't wait to make a bunch more.

Compared with the joys and sorrows of the people, Zhu Gaoxu was uneasy at the moment.

The sound of carriages rang on the palace roads in the Forbidden City. Riding side by side with Zhu Gaoxu was Fu Youde's son, Shouchun's consort Fu Zhong.

Although Fu Zhong had the identity of Shouchun's consort, he knew very well that Princess Shouchun had passed away and his identity as consort was just a fig leaf.

At this time, he actually envied Zhu Gaoxu next to him.

The identity of the second son of Yan Mansion is enough for Zhu Gaoxu to spend his whole life without worries about food and clothing, and his own abilities can be used at will.

In comparison, no matter how high my family climbs, as long as the emperor is unhappy, they will fall down sooner or later.

"You two, here we are."

When the young eunuch driving the car stopped and reminded them, Zhu Gaoxu and Fu Zhong realized that they had arrived at the Sanlong Bridge in front of Wuying Palace.

"Thank you..."

Zhu Gaoxu still thanked him as usual. Fu Zhong had seen such behavior too many times, but the young eunuch was stunned when he heard it.

He has been in the palace for five years and has never seen a concubine or prince who would be considerate of slaves.

Zhu Gaoxu's thank you made him feel a little warm in his heart.

"Your Highness is serious." The eunuch took the initiative to hold an umbrella for Zhu Gaoxu, and another eunuch next to him also held an umbrella for Fu Zhong.

The four of them walked towards Wuying Hall. Fu Zhong was wondering why the emperor summoned him along the way, so he did not observe his surroundings.

Zhu Gaoxu, on the other hand, kept looking around, very curious about the Nanjing Imperial Palace during the Hongwu period.

It does not have too many colors like the Forbidden City in Beijing in later generations. Instead, it advocates single color and pure color, which is very in line with Zhu Gaoxu's aesthetics.

Of course, during the observation period, Zhu Gaoxu also saw half of the body of the eunuch next to him that was wet by the rain, and he couldn't help but expressed concern: "The rain is heavy, please come closer to me."

"This... I'm used to this. Your Highness is so considerate, but I'm a little scared."

The young eunuch replied with a smile, and Fu Zhong next to him also glanced here and couldn't help but shake his head.

Soon, the four of them went up the steps and arrived in front of the Wuying Hall with eaves.

The two eunuchs put away their umbrellas and went to the palace to announce the news.

Not long after, a eunuch and two young eunuchs walked out of the hall carrying a chair and bowed to the two of them:
"Your Majesty, please let His Highness go in first. As for the Prince Consort, please rest here for a while."

"Okay..." After hearing the eunuch's words, Fu Zhong responded without thinking, while Zhu Gaoxu glanced at him.

Fu Zhong nodded towards Zhu Gaoxu and motioned for him to go in first.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu could only walk into Wuying Hall with uneasiness.

He was worried that Zhu Yuanzhang would see some clues from him, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that this was impossible.

After all, no matter what method Zhu Yuanzhang uses, he is Zhu Gaoxu himself, and there is no polygraph machine in this era, so as long as he makes no mistakes, it will be fine.

Moreover, judging from Zhu Yuanzhang's arrangements for himself during this period, he is quite happy with his current changes.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu breathed a sigh of relief, and he followed the eunuch in the palace into the side hall.

Before he entered the palace, Zhu Gaoxu saw Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Yunwen, but compared to when he was taking the military attache examination, Zhu Gaoxu was closer to them and could see them more clearly.

Lao Zhu's face was like a full moon, and although his hair and beard were white, he looked kind-hearted.Next to him, Zhu Yunwen was sitting behind a desk with thick memorials on the table. He still looked like a son of a good family with thick eyebrows and big eyes.

"Your Majesty, Zhu Gaoxu, pays homage to Your Majesty, the Emperor's Grandson..."

After Zhu Gaoxu entered the palace, he sang a salute, then knelt down like a minister and performed five bows and three kowtows.

His actions shocked everyone in the palace. Even Zhu Yuanzhang opened his mouth slightly, not knowing what to say.

On the contrary, Zhu Yunwen was very satisfied, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. He thought that Zhu Gaochi's teaching to Zhu Gaoxu was quite good, and now he knew what court etiquette was.

It's just that they don't know that Zhu Gaoxu is just copying the gourd, so how do they know that he doesn't need to bow five times and three times?

"Get up..."

Looking at Zhu Gaoxu who was saluting, a trace of disappointment flashed in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Zhu Gaoxu stood up quickly, and was a little rude in his haste.

This appearance was the same as that of Zhu Gaoxu before, so Zhu Yuanzhang had no doubts. He just felt that he had changed his temper, but not completely.

"Let me tell you what I have learned recently at Song Guogong's Mansion and Ying Guogong's Mansion."

Seemingly unhappy because of Zhu Gaoxu's salute, Zhu Yuanzhang assumed the posture of an emperor and asked Zhu Gaoxu indifferently.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't think it was strange at all. After all, in the memory of his predecessor, Lao Zhu was indeed not interested in him, so Zhu Gaoxu quickly bowed and replied:

"After reading the experiences of the two princes during the Zhizheng period, I learned how to lead troops in war. In my spare time, I would also compete with the British princes with iron guns."

"Well..." Hearing that Zhu Gaoxu's recent behavior was not much different from what he knew, Zhu Yuanzhang felt a little happy, no longer reserved, but continued to ask:

"Then let me ask you, how should you deal with the feces left by the soldiers and horses on the way to the war?"

Zhu Yuanzhang asked a basic question, even a question that Zhu Gaoxu had taken the exam before, so Zhu Gaoxu answered it with ease, but this time his answer was more flexible.

"If you go out to fight in a sparsely populated place, you can build dung troughs in the camp. The dung troughs are one foot deep. Ten of them are set up in each camp. They can be buried on the spot the next day and trampled by the war horses."

"If it is within the pass, make arrangements in advance and discuss with the wealthy households and common people in the villages and towns along the way. The general will sell dung in the trough to them, or sell it at a fixed price with the dung men."

Zhu Gaoxu's words made Zhu Yunwen frown. He didn't like discussing these ridiculous things in the temple, but for Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Gaoxu, this was a serious matter.

Selling excrement seems ridiculous to people who don't know farming, but starting from the Tang Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty developed a profession of collecting and transporting excrement in towns.

In the era when there were no chemical fertilizers, biological manure after treatment could be said to be the best chemical fertilizer.

In ancient times, every household in rural areas had their own manure ponds for retting, but people living in cities and towns had no need to farm, so the manure produced by people in cities and towns would be transported to rural areas around cities and sold as fertilizer.

By collecting and reselling the feces, you can make a lot of money from it. Many people have made a fortune by selling feces.

By the Song Dynasty, the collection and sale of feces had formed a considerable market.

The reason for the high finances of the Song Dynasty was high taxes and good financial management, so people in the court would not let go of the money-making dung industry.

The scholar-bureaucrats in the Song Dynasty did not dislike the pickled feces, but ordered the human and animal feces collected in the army to be traded.

In this way, it not only increased the supply of agricultural fertilizers and promoted agricultural development, but also kept the military camps clean and tidy. The income of the court also increased, which reduced the pressure on the court's fiscal military allocation.

Zhu Gaoxu's skills were actually learned from those of the scholar-bureaucrats of the Song Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang was also quite satisfied with his words. Only Zhu Yunwen's face was a bit impatient.

(End of this chapter)