Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 70 Why not burn coal
"Pass the meal!"

In Wuying Hall, after Zhu Gaoxu had been busy all morning, he finally had his first meal of the day.

At the same time that Zhu Yuanzhang stood up, the eunuch and eunuch in charge of etiquette began to pass the meal, and Zhu Yunwen also stood up to follow.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu immediately put down his brush, stood up and followed Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Yunwen out of the side hall to another side hall.

Here, more than a dozen eunuchs and maids were waiting, and all the preparations before the meal had been done.

Zhu Yuanzhang took the throne, Zhu Yunwen sat on the left, and Zhu Gaoxu saw this and sat on the right.

After the three of them were seated, the eunuchs and maids who had been waiting outside Wuying Hall for a long time began to bring plates of dishes into the hall, and the first things they put down were a bowl of soup and three cups of tea.

While these things were being put down, a eunuch next to him loudly announced the names of the dishes.

"Bean soup, tea, shrimps with pepper and vinegar, roast goose, sheep's head and hooves cooked on fire, goose meat dumplings, salted drum and mustard sheep tripe plate... mung bean chess pieces noodles, fragrant rice, after the ceremony~"

More than ten dish names were announced, and the meal ended with two staple dishes.

On the table, there are all kinds of dishes such as chicken, duck, fish, shrimp, pig, horse, cattle, sheep and donkey, which is dazzling.

Judging from Zhu Gaoxu's experience of living in the Ming Dynasty for more than half a year, if he had to eat such a meal outside, the cost would probably not be less than three guans, which is almost the four months' income of an ordinary farmer.

If there is no corruption, then even a future prince like Zhu Gaoxu, not to mention a third-rank minister or above, would not dare to say that he could eat like this for a year.

In his memory, even in Prince Yan's Mansion, his family of nine did not dare to eat so luxuriously. At most, they only had three soups, five meat and four vegetables, which cost four to five hundred dollars.

Compared with the emperor who could spend tens of thousands of taels a year just on food, the so-called princes and princes were actually just slightly wealthy commoners.

"Let's eat."

Zhu Yuanzhang raised his chopsticks, followed by Zhu Yunwen, and Zhu Gaoxu was the last to move his chopsticks.

Zhu Yunwen ate at an average speed, like a humble gentleman.

Zhu Gaoxu ate very quickly, but he didn't make any sound.

Compared to the two of them, Zhu Yuanzhang next to him was much more vulgar when eating, especially when he was eating the bowl of mung bean chess pieces noodles, the sound of the noodles being snorted was no different from that of ordinary people squatting in front of their homes to eat noodles.

Zhu Gaoxu saw that Zhu Yuanzhang was eating like this, so he simply let go.

For living things, intake and consumption are directly proportional. Zhu Gaoxu is strong, so he naturally consumes more and eats more than ordinary people.

Over there, Zhu Yunwen just finished a bowl of rice in small bites. Over here, Zhu Gaoxu had already stacked three bowls and ate a lot of dishes.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang, who was relatively unrestrained at the dinner table, looked at him and was stunned for a moment, especially when he saw that he had finished the fourth bowl and was about to eat the fifth.

"Good boy, it's quite edible."

Zhu Yuanzhang's words were not a curse, but a compliment. After all, in farming civilization, more work is directly proportional to more food.

After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu also licked the grease at the corner of his mouth: "My father said that the more you eat, the more you work. The faster you eat, the earlier you work. No matter whether you are fighting or doing anything else, you still have to fill your stomach first."

"The fourth child is right." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded. He didn't know what he thought of and couldn't help but smile.

As for Zhu Gaoxu, his words were not meant to deceive Lao Zhu. In his memory, his cheap dad who always talked about me was indeed very funny and open-minded at times, which was completely different from the image of a tyrant who frequently killed people in later movies and TV dramas. .

In this way, Zhu Gaoxu continued to immerse himself in the rice, and he had already eaten the sixth bowl in just a moment. At this time, a eunuch who was responsible for the ceremony also walked in with a memorandum.

Seeing his appearance, Zhu Gaoxu and the other three stopped eating.

"Your Majesty, there is an urgent report from Yunnan. The Yuexi people are rebelling. The Marquis of Xiping has led the Jianchang guards to quell the rebellion."

The eunuch knelt down and presented the memorial at the same time. Zhu Yuanzhang took the memorial and looked at it, frowning slightly.

After a while, he handed the memorial to Zhu Yunwen. Zhu Yunwen took it with both hands and read it. He wanted to hand it back to the eunuch directly, but after thinking about it, he handed it to Zhu Gaoxu.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also took it with both hands and started reading it at a glance.

The general idea of ​​the memorial was that the Yue-Sun tribes rebelled in Lijiang Prefecture, and the chieftain of the Mu family in Lijiang City was unable to control it, so he asked the court to mobilize troops to put down the rebellion.

After Mu Chun, who was building the city in Jianchang, heard about it, he directly took 2000 people from Jianchang Guards, summoned Dali and other guards to assemble, and led [-] troops to put down the rebellion.Counting Mu's papaya soldiers, there are almost ten thousand people on the Ming army side. Although there are tens of thousands of Yuexun barbarians, most of them are women and children. There are only more than ten thousand strong men, so they will definitely not be able to stop Mu Chun.

The Yuexun barbarians were located in the mountainous area in the northeastern part of Yongsheng County, Lijiang in later generations. They plundered the Han villages that immigrated to the vicinity of "Chenghai" all year round.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu looked at Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Yunwen: "What do you think of this rebellion?"

"Return to Grandpa." Zhu Yunwen seemed to see something that Zhu Yuanzhang liked in Zhu Gaoxu, so he no longer called him Grandpa Huang, but went to Huang and called him Grandpa.

"My grandson thought that the Yue barbarians were nothing more than mantises acting as chariots. They could put down the rebellion in just a month or so after the troops led by the Marquis of Xiping arrived."

"..." After listening to Zhu Yunwen's words, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded silently, then turned back to look at Zhu Gaoxu: "What about you?"

"Me?" Zhu Gaoxu was speechless. After all, Zhu Yunwen had already expressed his opinion. If he expressed a different opinion and gained Zhu Yuanzhang's favor, then he would not be allowed to be tricked by Zhu Yunwen?
"Tell me, my grandson is busy with government affairs and neglects military affairs. It would be great if you tell him and let him learn from it."

Zhu Yuanzhang's words were all stinging to Zhu Gaoxu. He didn't believe that Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know the consequences of what he said, so he took a special look at Zhu Yunwen, only to find that Zhu Yunwen was smiling at him.

"Your qi-raising skills are pretty good..." Zhu Gaoxu silently gave Zhu Yunwen a thumbs-up, and then he could only analyze as Zhu Yuanzhang said:

"I learned about the topography of western Yunnan from the military attache's disciples in the university. Lijiang has high mountains and dense forests, and it is cold in the mountains. If you want to suppress the rebellion, you will have to go deep into the mountains and forests."

"The local mountains and forests are not as vast as those in the south of the Yangtze River, the north, and Huguang. There are many miasmas and diseases and insect pests in the forests."

"My grandson believes in the ability of Marquis Xiping. It shouldn't be difficult to suppress the rebellion, but the difficulty lies in how to reduce miasma diseases among the soldiers."

After the word "miasma" appeared, Zhu Yuanzhang's face immediately turned ugly, because Mu Chun's father, Mu Ying, died of a stroke in his prime after recovering from illness and going out after being infected with miasma.

At this time, people had no means of protection against the miasma, so Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but have the idea of ​​​​letting Muchun withdraw his troops.

But before he could blurt out this idea, Zhu Gaoxu continued to talk:
"There are actually many types of miasma, and the miasma in Yunnan is also divided into three types, one is air miasma, the other is insect miasma, and the other is disease miasma."

"What Qi Miasma needs to do is to reduce training when arriving at the place, and at the same time, he cannot take a shower. Only when the soldiers are no longer dizzy can they return to the team for training."

"As for insect miasma, you only need to pay attention to snakes, insects, rats and ants, and keep drinking hot water and avoid drinking cold water."

"My grandson doesn't know how to solve the final miasma."

Zhu Gaoxu explained altitude sickness and pest control in a way that Zhu Yuanzhang could understand, and Zhu Yuanzhang breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.

"This is a good idea. You can write an article yourself and send it to the Marquis of Xiping later."

Zhu Yuanzhang told Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Gaoxu also raised his hands and bowed to express his humility.

But at this time, Zhu Yunwen asked: "Since these methods are simple, why do immigrants from the southwest suffer from miasma poisoning all year round?"

After he said this, Zhu Yuanzhang also looked at Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Gaoxu could only explain:
"It seems very simple to boil hot water for drinking, but many immigrants have not yet settled down and cannot set up firewood piles to store firewood for boiling water, so they are naturally prone to diseases."

"Not to mention the southwest, even the people in the Central Plains and Jiangnan are not allowed to open fire without permission due to lack of firewood. Even when entertaining guests, they can only serve cold dishes."

Zhu Gaoxu talked about the sufferings he saw among the people, but Zhu Yunwen frowned: "There is little firewood in the Central Plains, why not burn coal?"

"Folk ironmaking is prosperous, so coal is more expensive than firewood..." Zhu Gaoxu choked Zhu Yunxu with one sentence.

"Okay, it's getting late. Let's take a lunch break."

Seeing Zhu Yunwen's ignorance of people's livelihood, Zhu Yuanzhang sighed in his heart and interrupted the two of them.

He looked at Zhu Gaoxu: "If you want to stay and manage politics in the afternoon, then stay. If you want to go to the Song and Ying Duke's mansions to learn the art of war, go there earlier."

"Then the grandson is gone." Zhu Gaoxu responded without thinking, and his movements were so fast that Zhu Yuanzhang was a little speechless.

He just watched Zhu Gaoxu bow and exit the hall. After a while, he shook his head and turned to rest.

On the contrary, when he left, although Zhu Yunwen followed him, his eyes kept paying attention to the place where Zhu Gaoxu left.

"He is capable of both literary and martial arts, but fortunately he is only the second son..."

(End of this chapter)