Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 68 Wu Ying’s Administration
"What Your Highness has to do is to review the memorials entrusted to you by His Majesty. However, it should be remembered that any memorials with more than a thousand dan of grain, more than [-] victims, and more than [-] troops need to be read by Your Majesty."

At four o'clock in the morning, when all the clan members in the main hall were surprised that Zhu Gaoxu could enter the Wuying Hall, Zhu Gaoxu himself was sitting in the elephant chariot, learning from the eunuch he had met last time what Wuying Hall needed to do to coordinate governance. matter.

Compared with last time, due to the better weather on this day, Zhu Gaoxu was able to pay attention to this eunuch.

He sat in the car and listened to the eunuch walking next to him, while also looking at him carefully.

This young eunuch has a cross-faced face and long eyes, and is about five feet four inches tall. Although he calls himself a slave, he is not that humble, and his words and deeds are orderly.

"I see that you don't look like a Han. Are you a convert from the north, or from the northeast, or from Korea or the southwest?"

Zhu Gaoxu turned his head and asked the young eunuch. He also looked at Zhu Gaoxu and bowed as he walked and replied: "This slave is a Haixi Jurchen."

"Jurchens?" Zhu Gaoxu's face showed a bit of embarrassment, but when he thought that the other party was a Jurchen from Haixi, he breathed a sigh of relief, and then asked enthusiastically:

"When I was in Peking, I heard that the Jurchens have two major tribes, Haixi and Donghai. I wonder how many people there are in each of your two tribes? Do they have cities to live in? Do they know how to farm?"

Zhu Gaoxu's memory is not bad. He remembers that there are no Jurchens in Jianzhou yet, so the Jurchens are only divided into two parts.

However, although his memory is not bad, it is impossible to guess things that he has not learned, so he does not know the situation of the Jurchens in the early Ming Dynasty.

Now that there is a young eunuch who can explain it to him, of course he must listen carefully and prepare for his future expedition to the Northeast.

"The Haixi people have more than a hundred cities and towns, large and small. They also grow beans and sorghum (sorghum) on weekdays. The beans are used as fodder to feed livestock, while the sorghum is eaten by the tribesmen themselves."

When the young eunuch saw that Zhu Gaoxu was interested in the Northeast, he couldn't help but explain to him: "It's just that the local area is poor. One acre of land can only produce eight bushels of millet. After processing, he can actually get five bushels of millet."

"Five Dou?" Upon hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu frowned.

In the Ming Dynasty, one stone weighed about 150 kilograms, while one stone weighed ten buckets and five buckets weighed 75 kilograms.

Although we know that one acre of land in the Ming Dynasty is only equal to eight-and-a-half of that in later generations, even if this part is filled, I am afraid that the grain yield north of Liaodong will hardly exceed [-] kilograms.

"You only have so little food per acre of land, so how do you survive the cold winter?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked the other party, and the other party shook his head: "Of course it is difficult to get through, so I use my free time to hunt in the forest, eat the meat of the prey, peel off the skin and process it and sell it to merchants in Liaodong, or use it to Pay tribute and get the money to buy food to survive the cold winter."

Having said this, the young eunuch continued to explain to Zhu Gaoxu the situation of the Jurchens in Northeast China.

"There are about a hundred tribes in Haixi where the slaves are located. Each tribe has a population ranging from thousands to dozens. The total number of tribes is only [-] to [-]. Counting women and children, there are only more than ten. Ten thousand."

"Because the Jurchen tribes of the East China Sea in the east live in deep mountains and old forests, it is difficult for even the slave's father to know how many people are hidden among them, but a rough calculation suggests that there are probably no less than 30."

"Although they also grow millet and beans, they do not have iron farm tools. Therefore, a tribe of more than a hundred people can only cultivate more than [-] acres in a year."

"If they are busy with reclamation and neglect hunting, then they will plunder the Haixi tribes where the northern captives and slaves live, but their fighting power is often very poor. Hundreds of people come out, and only twenty or thirty lives can be taken away. A few oxen and more than ten stones of grain.”

The young eunuch spoke very logically, which made Zhu Gaoxu a little interested: "After chatting for so long, I still don't know your name, how old you are, and when you entered the palace." "My real name is Shiha, I am 25 years old this year, and I entered the palace in the 19th year of Hongwu's reign." Yi Shiha bowed in response, and at the same time they crossed the Sanlong Bridge and arrived in front of the Wuying Palace.

"Okay, I'll remember you. Thank you for clarifying my doubts today."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't recognize who the other party was. He just got out of the car when the elephant carriage stopped and responded with a smile to Yi Shi.

Yishiha saw this and stepped forward to lead the way. After a few breaths, the two of them arrived at the side hall of Wuying Hall and saw Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Yunwen who were already processing the memorial.

"The second son of Yan Mansion, Gao Xu, comes to see Your Majesty..."

Zhu Yunwen had already prepared for Zhu Gaoxu's arrival.

But when he really saw Zhu Gaoxu entering the palace wearing a satin plate-collar robe, he still couldn't bear it a little, and the expression on his face was a little out of control, so he didn't welcome him immediately.

Therefore, such an errand can only be completed by Zhu Yuanzhang as the emperor.

Zhu Yuanzhang sat in his seat and responded without raising his head: "Get up, your place is here, work quickly, learn more from the grandson in the future, and arrive early."

"Yes..." Zhu Gaoxu was not afraid of boiling water. After getting up, he walked to the table and chair on the right side of Zhu Yuanzhang. While sitting down, he glanced at the memorials on the three tables.

Among them, Zhu Yunwen had the most, with no less than two hundred copies, followed by Zhu Yuanzhang, with about thirty copies, and there were only a dozen or so on his desk.

Seeing the workload, Zhu Gaoxu opened the first memorial with a smile.

[Liu Fengjin, the Prime Minister of Ziyang County, Yanzhou Prefecture, reported: Ding Chou, the rivers in the county overflowed and submerged more than 360 hectares of people's fields, and the people were displaced... The county's Zhonggang warehouse was enough to provide disaster relief, but there was no hope of autumn food. The special report was sent to the imperial court, hoping that the people would not be nourished by the disaster. Autumn food this year. 】

"More than 360 hectares, that is more than 6000 acres of land..."

Zhu Gaoxu looked thoughtfully at the memorial with hundreds of words in his hand, and Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been paying attention to him, also looked up at him:

"What's wrong? But I don't understand government affairs and don't know how to deal with it?"

"No." After hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's words, Zhu Yunwen turned his head to look, and Zhu Gaoxu also shook his head, holding the memorial and saying:
"Liu Feng, the Prime Minister of Ziyang County, said that more than [-] acres of local fields were affected by the disaster. The local granary is enough to provide disaster relief, but there is no hope for the local autumn grain. I hope that the people who have been spared from the disaster can get this autumn grain."

"My grandson has calculated that the grain collected for one acre of land in Shandong is about seven kilograms, so this time we will have to avoid nearly [-] shi of autumn grain."

Zhu Gaoxu's mental arithmetic made Zhu Yuanzhang nod, but when faced with the content of the matter, he simply said: "There is no way to deal with natural disasters in farming, and it is natural to avoid them."

"No..." Zhu Gaoxu shook his head after Zhu Yuanzhang finished speaking, denying his opinion, and opened the memorial:
"I read the content of this memorial, and Liu Feng mentioned 'rivers in the county', which means that the floods this time are caused by many rivers in Ziyang County flooding at the same time. If this is the case, what should be done now , should not be limited to disaster relief and relief.”

Zhu Gaoxu's words made Zhu Yuanzhang a little distracted, but he just wanted to know what Zhu Gaoxu could say, so he motioned to the eunuch beside him to take the memorial from Zhu Gaoxu's hand.

After the eunuch took the memorial and handed it to him, Zhu Yuanzhang roughly read the contents and already had an idea in his mind, but he still looked up at Zhu Gaoxu, wondering what suggestions he could give:
"tell me your opinion……"

(End of this chapter)