The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 189 Everyone misses me Dayuan

After coming out of Wei Guogong's mansion, looking at the bright sunshine, Chen Jingke's mood returned to normal.

There was no betrayal, I learned experience, and gained the attention of many people...

No matter what you say, you will be the winner in the end, and there is really no need to be pretentious.

As for the matter of shaving his hair, he no longer paid attention to it, and there was no need to pay attention to it.

The matter is a foregone conclusion, time will do the rest.

Afterwards he returned home and began to prepare for the New Year.

In the midst of this busyness, several major events happened.

The first thing is that King Zhu Su of Qi died.

Last year, Zhu Yuanzhang sent the human skin of Deng, the second concubine of King Qin, to Zhu Su, hoping to scare his violent son.

The effect is really good, a little too good.

This King of Qi once took pleasure in picking off bird's nests, kneading the chicks into meat, or burning them into ashes.

I have become so precious about life that I am reluctant to step on an ant to death.

Later, he became a devout believer in Buddhism, eating fast and chanting Buddha's name every day.

But I still feel like there are ghosts of enemies around me, so I don’t dare to be alone and I can’t sleep at night.

Five days ago, he woke up from a nightmare and shouted that an evil spirit was seeking his life, intending to burn the evil spirit to death with a candle.

Eventually he set fire to the bedroom and was burned alive.

This news was really shocking, and the ministers didn't know how to deal with it for a while.

Zhu Yuanzhang was angry and sad. Angry that he didn't fight, sad that he died early.

But to everyone's surprise, when the ministers applied to give Zhu Shu a posthumous title, he directly gave the word "ugly".

When Chu Wei goes out, he is called Chou, which is a standard bad posthumous title.

He also wrote all of Zhu Su's evil deeds in his eulogy, and gave him an evaluation that was worse than a beast.

This time, it was the officials' turn to be unable to sit still, and they all advised to leave some dignity to the deceased.

Queen Ma and Zhu Biao were also alarmed and tried to persuade them.

Although Chen Jingke felt that given Zhu Shu's behavior, it was appropriate to give him the word "ugly".

But after the previous arrangements, he understood that politics cannot be based on one's temper.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang was also persuaded to change his posthumous title.

After everyone's persuasion, Zhu Yuanzhang calmed down and changed his posthumous title to the word "min".

Although it is also a relatively bad posthumous title, at least it is not an evil posthumous title.

Because he had no children, his country was destroyed.

This is the end of the lineage of King Qi.

Zhu Zhu's incident passed like this, but the warning it brought to the vassal kings was even greater than Zhu Xi's incident.

After all, Zhu Ping was just dismissed as a commoner. Although he lost his freedom after being imprisoned, his life was actually not bad.

Zhu Shu was different. Not only did he lose his life, he was also left unharmed after his death.

This shows Zhu Yuanzhang's aversion to illegal activities.

For a time, the alarm bells in the hearts of the vassal kings all stopped ringing a lot.

The thirteenth son of the emperor, King Yu Wang Zhu Gui, was just like a different person, he did not dare to speak too loudly.

Another thing is that the diversion of the Yellow River was officially completed, and Li Qi returned to Beijing with Bai Ying and other heroes who built the river.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy and everyone was rewarded.

The main one is Bai Ying, who was awarded the position of Doctor of the Ministry of Water, officially in charge of the Ministry of Water, and was in charge of political orders related to waterways.

All boats, water transportation, irrigation, canals, rivers, lakes, etc. are all under its jurisdiction.

To put it bluntly, he can have a hand in anything related to water.

The person holding the position is high and powerful, but he is still a fat man.

This position is usually stared at by many people, and every time it is changed, there will be a private battle.

But this time Bai Ying accepted his fate and no one objected.

There is no other way, the contribution of presiding over the diversion of the Yellow River is too great.

Anyone who dares to obstruct it will definitely be cursed by countless people if word spreads.

Chen Jingke's contribution was also mentioned. After all, Zhu Biao admitted in public last time that he was the one who planned the diversion of the Yellow River.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang only said:

I have my own considerations on this matter, so I will not award the reward for the time being.

But everyone knows what Zhu Yuanzhang means, and the marriage between Chen Jingke and Princess Fuqing is now known to everyone.

It must have been kept until the time of marriage, and the reward was given as well.

But the thing that attracts the most attention is undoubtedly the re-evaluation of meritorious service.

After several months of review and several private battles between nobles and civilian officials, a result satisfactory to both sides was finally produced at the end of the year.

In this wave, tens of thousands of people were promoted to the Jin Dynasty, either knighted or decorated, with the majority being awarded honors.

They have the same title, but there are differences between them. Most people do not add the word "founding the country", which means they have to be demoted to the title.

Only a few people joined the founding of the country, and they were hereditary and retired with the country.

As for Xun, there are only three first-class Zhuguo, namely Xu Da, Li Shanchang and the late Chang Yuchun.

There are only sixteen second-class guards, including Feng Sheng, Fu Youde, Li Wenzhong, Deng Yu, etc.

There are more third-level captains. Lan Yu, Cao Zhen, Zhang Yi, etc. are all of this level.

Lan Yu only got one captain. It was not that anyone deliberately suppressed him, but that he had never led an army independently.

Not to mention the first-class Zhuguo.

In principle, only those who have served as the commander of the front army are eligible for the second-class guard army.

As a pioneer general, Lan Yu often went to war as a deputy general, so he could only be awarded the title of captain.

But for him, it was also a great thrill.

After learning that he only had one captain, he was already gearing up to lead the army independently next time.

Zhu Guo didn't dare to think about it, but he had to get a guard back.

There are countless generals who think the same way as him.

It can be said that a military meritocracy instantly boosted the morale of the Ming Dynasty's military.

The following few honorary titles were awarded to more people.

Especially Xia Sanxun, the number of people who have received it is the largest.

Many of those who received honors died in the founding war more than ten years ago.

Their families have long forgotten that they are also the home of the founding fathers, and have never enjoyed preferential treatment from the country because of this.

Many people are even living a very hard life... suddenly they have an extra honorary title.

Although he only received three honors, he was also allocated corresponding land and qualified for exemption from corvee.

The key is social status, which has been qualitatively improved.

From then on, the fate of the entire family changed.

Similar things are happening in many places.

These families whose fortunes suddenly changed will be Ming's staunchest supporters for a long time.

Continuing with the topic of conferring titles, some generals have made many great achievements since the founding of the country, and their titles have been promoted.

For example, Fu Youde was granted the title of Duke of Yingguo from the Marquis of Yingchuan.

It's just that his title of Marquis of Yingchuan was added with the word "founding of the country", while Duke Ying Guo did not have the word "founding of the country".

In other words, when he dies, his son can only inherit the title of Marquis of Yingchuan.

Fortunately, the title of Marquis of Yingchuan can be hereditary.

If he wanted to add the word "founding of the country" to his Ying Guogong, he would need to make more contributions.

According to the current default rules, it must be at least equivalent to the destruction of the country.

Fu Youde looked calm on the surface, but since then he has developed a habit of looking at maps.

I also have another hobby, learning about foreign landforms, customs and customs.

Like him, many nobles who originally wanted to lie down were stimulated.

I want to add the words "founding the country" before my title.

He is sharpening his knife and looking at everyone like a lamb to be slaughtered.

So much so that at the New Year's dynasty meeting, all the vassal states who came to worship had chills on their backs and were trembling with fear.

Especially the Goryeo envoys felt like a light on their backs. This is all because the current King of Goryeo, Wang You, is a man with both ends of the spectrum. He is a minister to both the Northern Yuan and the Ming Dynasty, and is actually closer to the Northern Yuan.

At present, many people in the Ming Dynasty are eyeing Liaodong, including Korea.

This is all credit.

Overall, this year has been a very successful year for Daming.

When Lao Zhu offered sacrifices to Haotian and the ancestral temple, his voice became much louder.

All civil and military officials also gained something, and everyone was very happy.

Zhu Yuanzhang has not been idle this year. He can't wait to set out the tasks for the new year just after the new year.

Needless to say, the construction of the new capital was still personally responsible for the construction of the new capital.

The plan to sort out the Huai River also won unanimous support from the ministers.

This is actually part of the Yellow River diversion plan, which was agreed upon at the beginning.

Once the Yellow River is successfully diverted, the Huaihe River system will be sorted out and production in the Huaihe River region restored.

Naturally, Bai Ying is also responsible for this work.

In line with the principle of using it to death, Li Qi was once again appointed to work with him.

But Li Qi himself also likes this job.

The work content is the most familiar and it is very easy to do.

You don’t have to worry about the most troublesome technical issues at all. Once the thing is done, you will get a lot of credit.

He enjoyed this work.

Military reform and political reform continued.

Zhu Yuanzhang issued a death order that on April 1st, the preparations for the establishment of the township government office must be completed according to the original plan, and the political reform work must be completely completed.

As for military reform, the focus this year is to retrain the military and allow some elderly and disabled soldiers to retire.

At the same time, military households were installed in the Jiangnan provinces and continued to mix sand.

Jiangnan has a large population and doesn’t have so much open space to house military households?

It doesn't matter, the population in the north is small, and if some people migrate from the south to settle in the north, wouldn't it free up space?

As for whether it will be unnecessary...

Absolutely not. It is already clear that the court's purpose is to attack the gentry and clan forces.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang also knew that he could not suppress him too much, and he had to give him a sweet date to hit him with a stick.

So he announced in the court: "If the immigration and resettlement of military households go smoothly, the taxes in the south of the Yangtze River will be equal to those in the north from next year."

As soon as this order came out, the officials in the Jiangnan Department wept with joy and praised one after another:

"Your Majesty is holy."

Officials from other places also lamented.

Although Jiangnan is prosperous, the double taxation has made the people here miserable.

Now we finally see the light of day.

After learning about this, Chen Jingke was also sincerely happy.

During the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the people in the south of the Yangtze River had the best life during the Yuan Dynasty.

The Southern Song Dynasty was located in a corner of the south of the Yangtze River, and its taxation was the highest in all dynasties.

During the Yuan Dynasty, the population in the south of the Yangtze River was surveyed, the households registered as residents, and the land was distributed.

Although their purpose of doing this is to collect taxes better.

It has indeed improved the living conditions of the people in Jiangnan.

Moreover, taxes in the Yuan Dynasty were relatively light, with the mu tax being only three liters.

By the Ming Dynasty, because the north was poor, they could only collect more taxes from the rich south.

The per-mu tax in the south is as high as eight liters, not counting various exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes.

The Qing Dynasty once again increased the emphasis on the Ming Dynasty.

Kangxi went to Jiangnan incognito for a private visit, and what he saw was a dilapidated scene.

Because of this, some people even jokingly said on the Internet in the past life that the people in Jiangnan all miss me, Dayuan.

Although it is just a joke, you can still see the sadness in it.

Now that they have traveled through time, Chen Jingke naturally wants to change this situation.

However, if we want to change the situation in the South, we must restore the vitality of the North.

Therefore, changing the course of the Yellow River is not only to benefit the north, but also to relieve the pressure on the south in disguise.

In addition, he had also talked to Zhu Yuanzhang from time to time about unfair taxation.

He said that when the North recovers in the future, the people in the South must be loosened.

And he said jokingly: "Otherwise, the people in the south would miss the Yuan Dynasty."

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang always boasted and glared: "If you dare to be ignorant, we will charge them four times the tax."

But it was obvious that he listened to these words.

Now this effort has finally come to fruition.

Zhu Yuanzhang relented for the first time and publicly stated that he could reduce pressure on the South.

Although there are certain conditions, this is already the best news for the people in Jiangnan.

In fact, this is indeed the case. When the news of tax cuts came out, Jiangnan was boiling.

The people are even happier than during the Chinese New Year.

As for the resettlement of military households, no one objected anymore, and even actively cooperated with the court.

The migration to the north also went relatively smoothly.

There is no need to force them, and many people take the initiative to apply to return to the north.

Most of these people were people who fled from the north in the late Yuan Dynasty and later settled here.

The Chinese people have the most rural mentality.

Even if they have lived in the south for many years, many people are still willing to go back if they have the opportunity.

The space they vacated was just used to house military households.

Of course, only a few people are willing to leave, and the land is still not enough to accommodate so many military households.

At this time, the imperial court set its sights on the large local clans, and some of them had to be separated and moved to the north.

The clans in these places also know that they have no room to resist.

The imperial court was already strong, but now it used tax cuts to win the hearts and minds of the people.

Whoever dares to obstruct this matter is the enemy of the people of Jiangnan.

Therefore, even though they knew that the court was trying to crack down on the clan, they still had to split it up.

The Jiangnan area is where the clan power is strongest and the sanding work is most difficult to carry out.

In this way, the imperial court settled the matter with a tax reduction policy.

Even Jiangnan is like this, and other places are even more successful.

Of course, there is another reason why it went so smoothly. The military generals actively promoted it.

If you want to make meritorious deeds, you have to fight, and if you want to fight, you must first complete military reforms.

With everyone working together, the military reform is advancing rapidly and is expected to be completed this year.

Time soon came to March, and the political reform work was completed ahead of schedule. For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang specially gave a banquet to commend the ministers.

After the banquet, Zhu Yuanzhang summoned Li Shanchang alone.

No one knew what they said. They only knew that not long after, Li Shanchang reported that his brother Li Cunyi was involved in the Hu Weiyong case.

Zhu Yuanzhang was furious, but for Li Shanchang's sake, he did not execute him, but dismissed him from office and was exiled to Fujian.

At this time, Fujian is no longer the bitter cold place it once was, and it is no longer difficult to live here.

The so-called distribution is just a formality.

As for Li Shanchang himself, he also requested to become an official.

After several attempts to persuade him to stay, Zhu Yuanzhang finally agreed, but he did not allow him to return to his hometown. Instead, he allowed him to be raised in the capital.

The Li family, which was so prosperous just a moment ago, suddenly became officials and was exiled.

This change was so fast and sudden that all the officials were stunned.

Many people are worried whether the emperor will take the opportunity to reopen the Hu Weiyong case.

After waiting for a long time and seeing no other movement, everyone slowly felt relieved.

At this moment, another thing happened, making Chen Jingke the focus.

Lan Yu's two concubines gave birth to sons one after another.

(End of this chapter)