Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 91 Benevolent officials but not benevolent people

"Boom...boom...boom..."

At Xu time, accompanied by the sound of dusk drums, this drum sound seems destined to prevent many people from sleeping peacefully tonight.

The chiefs of the three prefectures of Qin, Jin, and Yan all received oral instructions from the palace, asking them to enter the Wuying Hall to coordinate the administration.

This news shocked and frightened the three of them, but the one who was more shocked and frightened than them was the Yingguo Palace who had not received any news from Zhu Gaoxu all afternoon.

Fu Zhong and Fu Rang waited for news about Zhu Gaoxu until late at night. However, to their disappointment, Zhu Gaoxu never showed up.

If Fu Youde hadn't persuaded them to go back and rest, I'm afraid they would have waited until the next day.

But even so, the two still couldn't have a good rest after returning to the house.

But Zhu Gaoxu didn't know anything about all this. Not long after the dusk drum sounded, he lay down and fell asleep carelessly.

When he woke up again, it was already around Yinshi.

"It's dry, be careful with candles..."

"clang--"

"Can't this watchman's voice be lowered?"

In a daze, Zhu Gaoxu muttered with his eyes closed, lying sprawled on the bed, reluctant to get up.

Since coming to Daming, he has become accustomed to sleeping four hours a day, and occasionally sleeping five or six hours.

What woke him up every day was the shouting of the watchman from the vanguard of the government army, or the crowing of the neighbor's rooster.

"Cuckoo-"

Just as he said it, Zhu Gaoxu thought of the rooster next door, but the next second it started crowing.

Helpless, seeing that he couldn't sleep anymore, Zhu Gaoxu could only get up and clean himself up.

Half an hour later, when it got slightly brighter, he had already eaten hot noodles.

Since his residence was very close to Xihua Gate, he was not in a hurry to go to Wuying Palace. Instead, as usual, he recorded his problems and understanding of the current Ming Dynasty.

This behavior was a habit he had developed in the past few months. Because of this, he did not arrange anyone at home, and even if he had money, he did not hire any servants.

For Zhu Gaoxu, he currently has no energy to train others. Even Wang Xuan and Yang Zhan, he rarely gives guidance because of lack of time.

The people he really wants to train are the people of the place where he will become a vassal in the future and the guards of his county and prince's palace in the future.

With the historical results of his predecessor at hand, it is absolutely impossible for Zhu Gaoxu to continue to use people from Prince Yan's palace, otherwise he will end up with his close associates being executed, and there will be no one he can trust even if he wants to raise an army.

He needs people who are completely his own, and he also needs them to help him win the crisis that may occur, and...

Before his thoughts could settle down, Zhu Gaoxu put away the brush in his hand and hid the books before he changed into the palace clothes and went to the backyard to put on a saddle for Chi Huan.

At a quarter of a hour, he rushed towards Xihua Gate, and arrived at Xihua Gate two-quarters of an hour later, handing Chi Huan over to the soldiers guarding Xihua Gate.

"Wuying Hall should be quite lively today..."

A smile appeared at the corner of Zhu Gaoxu's lips. Last night he thought clearly that compared to himself as a county king, his eldest brother and the three heirs of the three palaces were probably the people Zhu Yunwen needed to be wary of, especially the crown prince of Jin Dynasty, Zhu Jixi.

However, this smile was quickly put away because Zhu Gaoxu thought of something more serious.

"If he knew what my third uncle was thinking, he would probably want to use the old man's hands to get rid of Duke Ying, Marquis Yongping, and Marquis Dingyuan right now."

When he thought of Fu Youde, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't laugh anymore.

Coincidentally, at this time, he also came to the entrance of Wuying Hall. The leopard guards on the left and right sides of the hall bowed to him and announced his arrival to the people inside.

"It looks like someone has already arrived."

Listening to the increasing number of voices in Wuying Hall, Zhu Gaoxu straightened his clothes and then walked into the hall.

Before he could reach the side hall, he heard the voice of his good brother.

"Great Sun, the memorial has been processed, please read it."

"Haha, when did I become so angry?"

In the hall, the voices of Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Yunwen came out one after another. Zhu Gaoxu chuckled when he heard the voices, then put away his smile and walked into the hall.

"Yan Er Zixu, I have met my grandson, brothers."

The moment Zhu Gaoxu's voice appeared, all the sounds in the side hall suddenly stopped.

After he finished his salute, he looked up and saw Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Yunwen, as well as the Qin Crown Prince Zhu Shangbing and the Jin Crown Prince Zhu Jixi in his memory.

Zhu Shangbing and Zhu Jixi were respectively wearing crimson round-neck robes and Yishan crowns.

It has to be said that the genes of the previous generations of Lao Zhu's family are still very good. Thanks to Lao Zhu's often marrying his subordinates with his ministers and nobles, most of the children of the three generations of Zhu's family will be tall when they grow up. Even if they are short, it will be difficult to look down on them. Over five-foot-four (1.73).

For example, among the four people in the hall, except for Zhu Shangbing, who is the same age as Zhu Gaoxu, who is only [-] feet [-], the other three are basically around [-] feet [-] in height. As for Zhu Gaoxu, it took less than half a year to successfully grow to [-] feet [-] inches.

Judging from Zhu Gaoxu's previous life experience, he is estimated to grow to about six feet in this life.

This terrifying gene is also due to his mother Xu, who is [-] feet [-] tall.

"Gao Xu is here!"

In the hall, while Zhu Gaoxu was looking at everyone, Zhu Yunwen changed his normal attitude and stepped forward to welcome him with a smile:
"I've been waiting for you here for a long time. There are some memorials that I need you to make some decisions for me."

"There is a conspiracy..." Looking at Zhu Yunwen who was eager for him, Zhu Gaoxu smelled something unusual.

He looked at Zhu Yunwen, then at the embarrassed Zhu Gaochi and the other three, and almost came to his senses.

"It seems that this guy knows about the affairs of Prince Jin's Mansion and Duke Ying's Mansion."

Zhu Gaoxu was silent in his heart, just thinking about how to protect the children of the Fu family. At the same time, he returned the greeting to Zhu Yunwen: "grandson."

"Haha, there are a lot of memorials that you need to deal with today. You are tired." Zhu Yunwen grabbed Zhu Gaoxu's wrist and walked to his seat, motioning for him to look at the memorials on the table.

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at it and saw that there were almost forty jobs, which was about three times his previous workload.

At this moment, he wanted to curse. After all, the struggle for power in Wuying Palace had nothing to do with him. No matter how hard he fought, the Ming Dynasty was not his.

Whoever wants to fight for the reserve can fight for it, so why bother with this salty fish that has been silent for a long time.

However, the secret scolding turned into secret scolding, and Zhu Gaoxu still had to smile in public: "I am like this, I think the government affairs of the great grandson and the three brothers will be even busier."

As soon as he said this, the other three people except Zhu Yunwen looked a little embarrassed, because there were only about twenty memorials on their desks, only half of what was on Zhu Gaoxu's desk, and even a fifth of what was on Zhu Yunwen's desk. No.

Obviously, Zhu Yunwen didn't really want them to interfere in government affairs.

At such a scene, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but sigh: "As a co-writer, I helped share the work between the three of them."

"Okay, everyone, sit down and deal with the memorials. When grandpa finishes his morning court, these memorials will be available for him to read."

Zhu Yunwen didn't want to get entangled too much, he just wanted to show his power to the three princes.

Now that the goal has been achieved, any further delay would be a bit of a bully.

Therefore, Zhu Yunwen hastily arranged for everyone to sit down, and he returned to his seat.

After sitting down, Zhu Gaoxu glanced at it. At this moment, there were six political tables in the Wuying Hall. Among them, Lao Zhu's chair was, Zhu Yunwen's was on the lower left, and he was on the right.

Zhu Shangbing and Zhu Jixi are under Zhu Yunwen, and under Zhu Gaoxu is his good eldest brother Zhu Gaochi.

This position arrangement is very inappropriate, especially placing Zhu Gaoxu in front of Zhu Gaochi.

You must know that as Zhu Gaochi's direct eldest son, he will inherit the throne of Yan Mansion in the future without any accident, and Zhu Gaojiu can only be a county king under him, and the cost of guarding will depend on his face.

Zhu Yunwen's arrangement is undoubtedly driving a wedge between the two brothers.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu wanted to stand up and give up his seat, but Zhu Gaochi, who was sitting three steps away from him, laughed happily and said:
"Being too close to grandpa, I can't bear the pressure. Gao Xu, please take the burden for me."

As soon as he said these words, Zhu Yunwen and the other three people across from him all raised their heads and looked at them.

Facing the eyes, Zhu Gaoji couldn't help but admire Zhu Gaochi's ability to deal with human affairs, so he nodded: "Okay..."

Seeing that the two brothers did not quarrel over the issue of position, Zhu Shangbing and Zhu Jixi lowered their heads in disappointment. Zhu Yunwen had expected it, so he just smiled at the two brothers and lowered his head to deal with the memorial.

Seeing the actions of the three people, Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaochi looked at each other, then lowered their heads and began to manage politics.

While managing politics, Zhu Gaoxu could not help but admire Zhu Gaochi.

"No wonder my eldest brother was able to get most people in the court to speak good words for him on the eve of the Battle of Jingnan, and even asked the court to return them to Peiping. With his ability in life, it's not surprising that his predecessor couldn't defeat him."

In his thoughts, Zhu Gaoxu had already processed many memorials. The speed was so fast that it slightly surprised Zhu Gaochi and the others who had just entered Wuying Hall to manage politics. However, Zhu Yunwen was already used to it.

Zhu Gaoxu had his own way of thinking when dealing with memorials, which was the reason why he processed memorials so quickly.

Zhu Yuanzhang had praised him before, and Zhu Yunwen was still a little jealous at that time, but now that the eldest son of the three palaces has entered the Wuying Palace, Zhu Yunwen feels like gloating about his misfortune.

Zhu Gaoxu was able to enter Wuying Hall because of his own excellence. Based on this alone, Zhu Yunqi still admired him.

In comparison, Zhu Gaochi and the other three were disliked by him.

However, he didn't show his displeasure on his face, and instead dealt with the memorial on his own.

You must know that since Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister system, the emperor has almost single-handedly solved all the government affairs of more than [-] mansions and [-] counties in the Ming Dynasty, and nearly [-] memorials need to be processed every day.

Zhu Yuanzhang is energetic, but that doesn't mean everyone has his energy.

If Zhu Yunwen and others could not keep up with Zhu Yuanzhang's speed, they would be reminded or even reprimanded. Therefore, Zhu Yunwen and Zhu Gaoxu worked very quickly, processing more than twenty memorials in just half an hour.

"Long live your Majesty!" At three o'clock in the morning, when the sound of singing and saluting sounded at the door of Wuying Hall, everyone in the hall stood up and bowed and saluted at the door.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who was dressed in regular clothes, walked into the hall and took in the situation inside the hall with just one glance.

Compared with Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Gaochi's political management speed was pitifully slow. There were only eight or nine completed memorials on the table, and it was obvious that they had not grasped the key points of handling the memorials.

But Zhu Yuanzhang didn't find it strange. After all, everyone has to have time to adapt: ​​"Get flat!"

He responded and walked towards his dragon case.

After he took his seat, more than [-] processed memorials were handed to him. Without further ado, he picked up the memorials and started reading.

This move made Zhu Gaochi and the others a little nervous, but Zhu Yunwen and Zhu Gaoxu sat down to deal with the memorial after he took his seat without being affected at all.

Needless to say, Zhu Yunwen had been in charge for more than two years and had long been accustomed to the atmosphere in Wuying Hall. Zhu Gaoxu had been a social animal for seven or eight years in his previous life, so he would not be affected.

Seeing that the two of them were so relaxed, Zhu Gaochi and others also sat down carefully, and then began to concentrate on processing the memorial.

After a while, the only sounds left in Wuying Hall were the sound of reading memorials and grinding ink, and occasionally the sounds of tea and water being served.

After an hour of this, Zhu Yuanzhang had finished processing the memorials they had previously processed.

In front of him, the more than sixty memorials were divided to the left and right. On the left were the memorials that he was satisfied with and approved, about forty volumes, and on the right were the memorials that he was not satisfied with, about less than twenty volumes.

Zhu Yuanzhang ordered people to return the unsatisfactory memorials to the five people's desks, and at the same time moved the memorials they had just finished back to their own dragon desks.

In two hours, Zhu Gaoxu had already solved the 46 memorials in his hand, so he only needed to modify the memorials approved by Zhu Yuanzhang.

However, this process often has nothing to do with him, because his political concepts are highly similar to Zhu Yuanzhang's.

He divided things into priorities, and for more urgent reports, such as local disasters, Zhu Gaoxu would first allocate part of the food for disaster relief, and then order officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate to go to the local area to inspect whether the disaster was true.

Only when it is confirmed that the disaster is true, the Ministry of Household Affairs will follow the procedures for disaster relief and relief in accordance with the memorial regulations.

As for the memorial that was not so urgent, Zhu Gaoxu did the same thing and asked the Metropolitan Procuratorate to visit it.

It has to be said that this way of governing is inconvenient for local officials, but it ensures the authenticity of things.

For Zhu Yuanzhang, who did not trust civilian officials, he felt that Zhu Gaoxu did a good job.

But for officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, they feel that Zhu Gaoxu is a waste of energy. Because of him, the number of dispatches by the Metropolitan Procuratorate has almost doubled in the past month.

As long as it was a matter at the county or health level, Zhu Gaoxu would ask the Metropolitan Procuratorate to send officials from the capital to verify it. In this era when transportation was extremely inconvenient, it was indeed a bit of a hassle for the censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

But in the face of their dissatisfaction, Zhu Gaoxu didn't care.

Although the salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was very low, it was due to inflation in the middle and late Ming Dynasty and the court's use of things in exchange for salary.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Lao Zhu's salary to officials was relatively reasonable.

According to the current salary treatment for officials in the 27th year of Hongwu, the salary of the county magistrate and the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate is seven kilograms per month and 84 kilograms per year.

According to today's rice price, the monthly salary is about 750 Wen, and the annual salary is 21 taels.

If exchanged for this year's gold and silver prices, it would be about five taels of gold, which is three times the annual salary of a normal Nanjing citizen.

You must know that the people still have to spend money on food, clothing, housing and transportation, but most of these officials can do it in the yamen, so there is little place to spend money throughout the year.

Even during the Jiajing period in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, this salary was not low, not to mention that the court also added a lot of other welfare funds besides regular salary.

For example, Hai Rui, an upright official known to later generations, was poor because he had no heirs and had three wives and two concubines, spending hundreds of taels.

If there were no policies of "breaking banknotes" and "exchanging salary in kind", the salary of the seventh-rank officials in the Ming Dynasty would still be enough to support a family of eleven or twelve people.

Therefore, in Zhu Gaoxu's view, one should do things with the salary from the court, and do as many things as you can with the money.

A group of censors sit in the imperial court drinking tea all day long, and can only occasionally do two official tasks. The results of this work are completely out of proportion to the salary, so they should be sent out to inspect the local areas.

Zhu Gaoxu's attitude towards civil servants coincided with that of Lao Zhu. This was the reason why his memorials were rarely rejected.

Compared with him, Zhu Yunwen, who is opposite him, is not very good.

Because his attitude towards civil servants was mainly gentle, many memorials were biased towards civil servants.

This kind of governance attitude was not liked by Lao Zhu, so more than ten memorials were rejected.

Although Zhu Yunwen was used to seeing the rejected memorials, he still subconsciously glanced at Zhu Gaoxu's desk.

As he expected, Zhu Gaoxu's table was clean.

"It's none of your business. You can go find something to eat outside so that you can go to Song Guogong's mansion and learn your skills."

Before Zhu Yunwen could look away, Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand at Zhu Gaoxu, indicating that he could pack up and leave.

"My grandson wants to eat in the palace today."

Facing Zhu Yuanzhang's words, Zhu Gaochi and the three heirs raised their heads in surprise, but they didn't expect Zhu Gaoxu to slap their noses in the face and demand to eat in the palace.

"Huh?" Hearing Zhu Gaoxu's request, even Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but look sideways, and Zhu Gaoxu said with a smile:

"My grandson has no salary, and his daily expenses are huge. If he stays in the palace to eat, he will lose a penny of his expenses."

"You guy..." Zhu Yuanzhang was speechless and glared at him: "The reward given to you by the palace is still insufficient? Do you need the food money?"

While talking, Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Zhu Yunwen, obviously knowing about the gift given to Zhu Gaoxu by the East Palace.

"Ahem..." Zhu Yunwen looked a little nervous and couldn't help coughing, and then smiled at Zhu Yuanzhang:

"Gao Xu probably dislikes that the food outside is not as delicious as the food in the palace. Grandpa, let him finish his food before leaving."

Zhu Yunwen is right. As a person who went from being a beggar to a temple and sitting on a dragon throne, Lao Zhu may not know anything else, but when it comes to eating, few people know better than him.

If Zhu Gaoxu wanted to have meals outside the palace as well as in the palace, each meal would have to cost at least two to three hundred cash.

If you eat in the palace, you can save the money for this meal, which can be used on your own guards in the future. Wouldn't it be nice?

"You haven't eaten yet?"

Seeing Zhu Yunwen speak, Zhu Yuanzhang also glanced at Zhu Gaochi and others.

Zhu Shangbing and Zhu Jixi were still hesitant to say anything, but Zhu Gaochi boldly bowed: "Back to the emperor, I haven't eaten yet."

"Then let's pass on the lunch in advance." Seeing that the time had reached six o'clock, Zhu Yuanzhang greeted the eunuchs beside him.

"My slave, take your orders..." The eunuch who accompanied him agreed, then walked out of the hall and ordered the meal to be passed around.

"Please help your elder brother read the memorial, so as not to have nothing to do and disturb order."

Seeing the eunuch passing the meal, Zhu Yuanzhang did not let Zhu Gaochi off any time and asked him to help Zhu Gaochi read the memorial.

"My grandson accepts the order." Zhu Gaoxu stood up with a smile and agreed. Then he walked to Zhu Gaochi and opened the three memorials he had not yet processed and read them.

The contents of these three memorials are local reclamation of wasteland and the hope that the imperial court will exempt them from taxes. It is very simple to deal with them.

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at the memorial that Zhu Gaochi was working on, and it turned out that it had the same content.

However, under this content, the approval written by Zhu Gaochi is somewhat unsatisfactory.

Zhu Gaochi did not confirm the content of these memorials about tax exemption, so he wrote the words of approval. It is no wonder that Lao Zhu rejected the memorials.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu lowered his body, pointed to the content of the memorial and whispered to Zhu Gaochi:

"Brother handled it very well, but it's better to add the sentence 'send the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to verify' in front of it. Only in this way can we ensure that local officials will not deceive the superiors and conceal the truth."

"This..." Hearing what Zhu Gaoxu said, Zhu Gaochi couldn't help but glance at Zhu Yuanzhang, and then worried: "Would this be too stimulating?"

"Raising troops and mobilizing people?" Zhu Gaoxu was stunned, and said with a dumb smile: "What they get is the salary for doing this. How can they use troops and mobilize people?"

He finally understood why Zhu Gaochi could get the temple title of Renzong.

With this mentality, it's strange that the civil servants didn't praise him. It's no wonder that Xia Yuanji thought about resigning and returning to his hometown during the Hongxi period. He probably had this idea because he was at odds with the new monarchy.

Fortunately, Zhu Gaochi was a man of great forbearance and kept trying to keep Xia Yuanji, otherwise Xuande's finances in the first five years would have been destroyed by Zhu Zhanji.

It has to be said that Zhu Zhanji's great nephew was indeed blessed with good fortune. He had Xia Yuanji in the first five years and Huang Fu in the next five years. However, despite this, he still insisted on not listening to their suggestions and abandoned Jiaozhi. .

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu turned his attention to Zhu Gaochi, but facing his words, Zhu Gaochi said with some embarrassment:

"Officials' salaries are so meager that they have to run around so much. This..."

"..." Listening to Zhu Gaochi's words, Zhu Gaoxu finally understood why his father didn't like him, and also understood why civil servants had been unable to lose their jobs since the Hongxi period.

"Huh..." After exhaling a breath, Zhu Gaoxu patiently explained to Zhu Gaochi:

"That's what grandpa thinks. As for officials' salary being meager..."

Zhu Gaoxu paused and looked at Zhu Gaochi complicatedly: "Brother, if you have time, go outside the city and see the farmers who are facing the land and their backs to the sky."

"Let's look at how much they earn from working for a year, and then look at how much these poor censors earn."

"These censors don't patrol the local area. Once local farmers are bullied by local officials, they will have to break their teeth and swallow it."

"Only when the officials govern the country clearly can the people live and work in peace and contentment."

After that, Zhu Gaochi said nothing more, but took up his pen and added the words to ask the censor to go to the local inspections in front of the several rejected memorials by Zhu Gaochi, and then turned around and returned to his position.

His behavior was seen by Zhu Yuanzhang, but he didn't say anything. Instead, Zhu Yunwen lowered his head and chuckled after seeing it.

Zhu Shangbing and Zhu Jixi also looked at the fun, but Zhu Gaochi hesitated to speak, looking at Zhu Gaoxu's back with a complicated expression...

　The update is complete. It will still be Chapter [-] and [-] at [-] o'clock tomorrow morning.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)