The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 178 Blessing? Exploitation!

Zhu Yuanzhang said angrily: "You two have been taught bad things by Chen Jingke."

"Wait until he comes back and see if we kill him."

Zhu Xiongying immediately became happy: "You must hit him harder. I have long felt that he deserves a beating."

Then he added in his mind that he deserved to be beaten for not taking me with him when he went out.

Queen Ma glanced at the two men and said angrily: "Look at you two, do you still look like a gentleman?"

"It's not the first time you've known what Chen Jingke is like. He's more considerate of people's hearts and understands the sufferings of the people than you, a cowherd boy."

"You should think about it carefully and stop doing everything according to your own temper."

Zhu Xiongying also said seriously: "Yes, Grandpa Huang, sometimes you really can't rely too much on your own temper when governing the country."

"We cannot formulate general policies to vent our emotions, although this will give people psychological satisfaction."

"But it is not necessarily conducive to the long-term stability of the country."

"You often teach me that a monarch must learn to restrain his desires."

"At this point, what you did is not good enough."

Nothing can touch the heart more than the persuasion of the person you value most.

Empress Ma and Zhu Xiongying are undoubtedly the people Zhu Yuanzhang values ​​the most.

The two of them persuaded him together, and he couldn't help but start to reflect.

Maybe the servant really didn't want to cheat, but was overwhelmed by the heavy physical labor.

You can only get a moment of respite by catching an illness.

The fact that Chen Jingke's method is effective is the best proof.

So should we agree to Li Qi's suggestion and recruit civilian husbands in the future and allow them to rest midway?

The same is true for officials. If the donkey is not fed and fat, how can it have the strength to grind?

Isn’t raising salaries just to feed them? What does a proper rest mean?

Moreover, officials have long complained about Xiu Mu's incident.

There have been a lot less similar voices recently, but that's just because everyone is in the joy of raising their salary.

When this excitement subsides, the number of requests for more rest time will surely increase.

Rather than being coerced by officials to increase the time of rest, it is better to take the initiative to change it yourself.

This way it will be better.

This is not a difficult decision.

After accepting the salary increase, it is easier to accept the increase in vacation time.

"But after working for six days and taking one day off, you rest too frequently. Just do as before and take one day off after ten days."

"The servants also follow the same rule. Every year, they work for one month, with two days of rest in between."

Empress Ma was very pleased and said, "That's great. Everyone in the world will be grateful for your kindness."

Zhu Xiongying thought differently from them and asked, "Are these two days counted as part of the corvee period, or are they not counted?"

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and said: "It's not less than these two days, they are included in the corvee period."

This is settled.

At this time, Queen Ma said: "Don't announce the matter of Xiu Mu yet. Don't we need to establish a judicial system? Announce the two matters together."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "A good idea. If they oppose judicial independence, then let's say they still have more free time."

"In this case, taking a rest is dispensable, so we might as well cancel it."

This is the same pattern as the last military reform and political reform. Either they agree together or they all disagree.

Don't underestimate taking a bath once every ten days. For famous officials who have no days off all year round, this is a very precious thing.

And with Zhu Yuanzhang's ability to control the country, if he really wants judicial independence, who can oppose it?

It’s better to be honest and eat this sweet date.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang was not in a hurry. Before the political reform was completed, it was not appropriate to start a major war again.

But it wasn't that he did nothing. Instead, he issued an order in the morning court the next day to raise the rank of the minister of Dali Temple to the second rank.

The Shaoqing of Dali Temple was promoted to the third rank, and the Cheng of Dali Temple was promoted to the fourth rank.

The Ming Dynasty did not reestablish the Dali Temple until the [-]th year of Hongwu, and the level was relatively low. The minister of Dali Temple was only in the fifth rank.

This time it was a flying improvement.

But the ministers did not have any special reaction.

Because of the relatively high status of Dali Temple in all dynasties, it was on the same level as the Six Tribes during the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

The Liubu of the Ming Dynasty was also of the second rank. The level of the Minister of Dali Temple was raised to the second rank of Zheng, which was considered to be on the same level as the Sixth Bubu.

They were on the same level before, and they are still on the same level now, so of course no one said anything.

Only the officials of Dali Temple could not close their mouths with joy.

This is normal. If it were someone else who would rise several levels straight away, they would be happy.

But no one knew that the emperor was playing a big game.
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On the other hand, due to the implementation of the rotation system, laborers no longer deliberately contract diseases.

After all, getting sick is uncomfortable, and there are certain risks.

If you can rest normally, no one wants to make yourself sick.

The village where the patients are housed is becoming emptier every day.

Chen Jingke, who proposed that everyone take turns to rest, naturally became everyone's great benefactor.

Coupled with his status as a miracle doctor, he was naturally well received.

And he controlled the typhoid fever as soon as he arrived... Regardless of what the real situation was, everyone felt that he was worthy of his reputation as a miracle doctor.

Therefore, he had only been here a few days and already gained the heartfelt respect of the slave laborers.

Li Qi is already convinced by Chen Jingke.

Li Shanchang had told him something before, but he still had some doubts in his heart.

But after this incident, he no longer had any doubts.

After that, he took advantage of this rare opportunity to build a good relationship with Chen Jingke.

Chen Jingke naturally would not reject his kindness.

Although Lao Li will definitely retire, he will have a dignified exit.

As the consort, Li Qi was not implicated in his previous life, and the possibility of being implicated in this life is even smaller.

The key is that Li Qi is indeed a pragmatic person.

As the nominal person in charge of diversion of the Yellow River, he actually had no involvement in technical matters at all.

Full power was given to Bai Ying.

And he himself does the organizational management work in an orderly manner.

Just looking at the lice eggs in his hair, you can tell that he must be working on the front line.

Such people are indeed worth getting to know deeply.

There will be many major projects to be carried out in the Ming Dynasty in the future, and such responsible officials will also be needed.

So the relationship between the two developed quickly.

Chen Jingke also learned in detail about the construction of the Yellow River.

Generally speaking, it is divided into two sections, one is in Henan and the other is in Shandong.

The Shandong side belongs to the lower section. Local people voluntarily went to build river embankments. The progress is very fast and it is almost completed.

The upper section in Henan is more important, so Bai Ying personally led the construction team.

Relatively speaking, the people of Henan are not so enthusiastic about the diversion of the Yellow River.

After all, even if the route is not changed, the Yellow River will still pass through Henan.

It just changed from the original east-west direction to a north-south direction.

That’s why people deliberately contract diseases.

But no matter what, this section is almost completed and can be combined with the next section.

It is worth mentioning that the Yellow River burst its banks and flooded some time ago, and Bai Ying took the risk of opening the gates to release water in advance.

He didn't act blindly, but made a detailed plan.

Because of the need to confine water to attack sand, sand discharge outlets were set up at regular intervals in the new river embankment, and sluices were built. The people around the sand discharge port had been moved away long ago, and the sand discharge port was used to release floods at this time.

The Yellow River water carries a huge amount of sediment and is discharged from the flood discharge outlets, which perfectly resolves the flood.

"The sediment discharge outlets are located in low-lying areas. The sediment from the Yellow River can silt these places, and with a little improvement, they can become fertile farmland."

"There are several places in Henan that are low-lying and heavily saline-alkali, and crops cannot grow even if there is water."

"I deliberately set up sand discharge outlets in these places... which can not only raise the local terrain, but also press down the salt and alkali with abundant water."

"I have made a rough calculation. This time the Yellow River is diverted, just by discharging sand and sand, hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile farmland can be transformed."

"With the subsequent irrigation from the Yellow River, more fields will be turned into fertile fields."

Bai Ying took a wooden stick and drew a map on the ground, encircling the sand discharge areas along the new river channel.

Chen Jingke couldn't help but nod. Several areas among them had indeed suffered from salt-alkali in previous lives.

In some areas, many model figures have been born.

I hope Bai Ying can successfully help these places get rid of the harm of salt-alkali this time.

Speaking of saline-alkali land, Chen Jingke is also worried. China is one of the countries with the most saline-alkali land in the world.

It seems that the area of ​​saline-alkali land reaches [-] billion acres, ranking among the top three in the world.

Of course, this is also related to the vast land area.

But China’s cultivated land area is only [-] billion acres.

Calculated in proportion, the ratio of cultivated land to saline-alkali land is [-]:[-].

It's actually a bit high.

If half of these [-] billion acres could be converted into cultivated land, how many people would be able to support it?

Fortunately, our country's agricultural experts in previous lives have made significant achievements in sea rice.

It is said that millions of acres of saline-alkali land have been transformed into farmland to cultivate seawater rice.

It's a pity that he was soul-pierced and couldn't bring some rice seeds.

Otherwise, just by relying on sea rice seeds, he could get the title of Shennong.

In the next period of time, I visited the entire construction site and saw with my own eyes how people here work.

There are no powerful tools, everything depends on the shoulders and hands.

The workload of thousands of people in one day is not as much as that of one excavator and one truck.

Therefore, industrialization is the future of mankind.

But it’s too early to talk about this word.

Arithmetic is the foundation of all sciences. Without a solid foundation of arithmetic, everything will be vain.

That's why he organized an arithmetic class and spent a lot of time on it.

Strengthening the planning and official system is only an incidental goal.

The real purpose is to lay the foundation for science.

After staying at the construction site for a while, Chen Jingke found that he was visibly sloppy.

I don't take a shower for three to five days. I only wash my clothes when they are so dirty that the original color cannot be seen.

But what followed was that the skin began to turn black and there were many small animals on the body.

It wasn't until he blindly caught a blood-sucking louse on his head that he realized what he was doing.

I found a mirror and took a closer look. There were many white lice eggs on my hair roots.

This gave him goosebumps, but more importantly, he felt helpless.

The environment is like that.

He was already paying great attention to it on weekdays, but he still became like this unknowingly.

Not to mention others.

It's not that there's no other way out, just shave your head.

It can reduce more than [-]% of head problems.

To put it more exaggeratedly, just shaving one’s hair can reduce [-]% of the current diseases of the people.

But it’s too difficult to shave your head in this day and age.

Confucianism has one more crime.

Just when Chen Jingke was complaining about Confucianism, an unexpected person appeared.

Fang Xiaoru.

Chen Jingke was very surprised and said, "Brother Fang, why are you here?"

Fang Xiaoru said with a smile: "Jing Ke can come, why can't I come."

After making a joke, he said: "People suffer from thousands of hardships, and corvée service is one of the worst. How can I not come and take a look."

Chen Jingke had to admit that what he said made sense, so he asked:

"Can I get something?"

Fang Xiaoru said: "I did get something, but it's not what I wanted to see."

Chen Jingke asked doubtfully: "What did you want to see? What did you see again?"

Fang Xiaoru said: "What I want to see is the real suffering of the corvee, but this time the Yellow River diversion benefits the people in Henan and Shandong."

"The laborers requisitioned are all common people from both places, and they are all direct beneficiaries."

"So the laborers are not disgusted with this corvee, but are very happy."

"I came from Shandong, where many laborers came to build river embankments on their own initiative."

"That's just unheard of."

Chen Jingke nodded, it was true.

Otherwise, with such high-intensity corvee, the people would have rebelled long ago.

Precisely because they were the ones who benefited, they would rather get sick and be lazy than have other ideas.

Fang Xiaoru continued: "I came to the conclusion from this that the best way to control the people is to induce them with benefits."

Chen Jingke said with deep approval: "It is true. People are not afraid of hardship or tiredness, but they are afraid that they will not get any reward for their hard work."

"The key is that some people still think this is a blessing for the people..."

Fang Xiaoru then said: "Exploitation, this is what you call exploitation, right?"

Chen Jingke said: "Yes, this is naked exploitation. Not only exploiting the people's labor force, but also trying to enslave the people mentally."

Fang Xiaoru nodded and did not continue talking about this topic, but continued:

"Originally, I thought my understanding was very profound, but after understanding the rotation system you implemented here, I gained a new understanding."

Chen Jingke said with interest: "Oh? What insights?"

Fang Xiaoru said: "The way of heaven is like a bow and bow? Those who are high suppress it, those who are low lift it; those who have more will damage it, and those who have less will make up for it."

"Man is like a bow. He cannot be drawn for a long time, nor can he be drawn too far."

"Otherwise, you will be overtired mentally and physically, which will not only make you prone to illness, but will also reduce your efficiency."

"Just like building river embankments this time, they will benefit even if the Yellow River changes its course."

"But long-term fatigue still makes them close to collapse."

"The same is true for controlling the people. The people's power must be used with a certain degree of relaxation."

"The same goes for governing a country. The law cannot be taken too far, otherwise it will easily turn into a bad law..."

Chen Jingke was very impressed. How did this person's brain grow?

He is so good at association.

"Brother Fang is a great talent, I admire him."

Fang Xiaoru smiled reservedly and asked, "I just saw Jing Ke's brows furrowed. He seems to be in trouble. Can you tell me something about it?"

(End of this chapter)