The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 447 Showdown
Chen Jingke naturally knew why Zhu Yuanzhang hesitated, and it was not because no one had done this before.

Lao Zhu has never been a person who follows rules, and he will not stick to the experience of his predecessors.

He won't be afraid to do something just because others haven't done it before.

The reason he hesitated was that he was afraid something might happen to the army.

What would the soldiers think if we sent troops to fight floods and provide disaster relief?
Will they agree?

If they harbor resentment, it is hard to say whether they will save people or kill people.

As someone who had survived the turbulent times, he knew the dangers of war better than anyone else.

Chen Jingke also knew the danger of doing so, and he would not take this step if there was any other way.

But this is indeed the only solution at the moment.

We can only hope that ten years of appeasement will lead to the success of the system.

And there was another reason why he took the risk...

"Your Majesty, do you still remember the warm and cold changes? We are about to enter a period of alternating warm and cold weather, and extreme weather will only increase more and more."

"You must be very familiar with the natural disasters during the reign of Emperor An of the Eastern Han Dynasty. They were caused by the alternation of warm and cold weather."

"The Ming Dynasty will soon face the same situation, and our territory is even larger than that of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and our population is larger than it was then."

“The disasters suffered will also be more severe.”

"What should the court do then?"

"Let the natural disaster wreak havoc and then provide relief after it subsides?"

In the first year that Emperor An of Han ascended the throne, heavy rains caused a complete crop failure in four states in September, and in six states in October.

In the second year, a total of 18 places suffered earthquakes, 41 places were hit by heavy rains, and 28 places were hit by wind disasters and hail.

The natural disasters that can be recorded in history books are all large-scale natural disasters, and some local natural disasters are not counted.

If all were counted, the numbers would be even more terrifying.

There have been natural disasters almost every year since then.

The longest rainstorm record occurred in Shandong Province, where it lasted for more than half a year.

After the heavy rain, there was a half-year-long drought and locust plague...

After a great disaster comes a great epidemic, with all kinds of diseases breaking out.

The local people were suffering terribly and the imperial court was also in a state of panic.

The only thing to be thankful for was that the Eastern Han court was still able to control state power at that time, and the previous emperors had accumulated a lot of wealth.

The imperial court could provide relief to the victims to a certain extent, greatly reducing the losses.

However, no matter how wealthy one is, one cannot withstand such continuous hardships.

Within a few years, the imperial court's wealth was gone.

Because of the natural disaster, local forces were strengthened, which laid the groundwork for the subsequent rise of powerful families.

Most famines throughout the dynasties were caused by distribution problems.

The best description is that while the rich have wine and meat, the poor freeze to death on the streets.

Only the famine in the late Eastern Han Dynasty was caused by insufficient total grain supply.

Decades of extreme weather, coupled with man-made disasters, have led to widespread crop failure.

The landlords don't have much surplus food.

To the extent that in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, using human flesh as military rations was common.

Cao Cao slaughtered the people of Xuzhou, and even if all the food was collected, it was still not enough for the army.

In the end, they had no choice but to use human flesh as military rations.

Because even the army could not collect much military rations, which shows how serious the food shortage is.

This kind of large-scale consumption of human flesh is extremely rare in Chinese history.

Zhu Yuanzhang naturally knew about these situations.

Part of it was told to them by Chen Jingke specifically in order to make them pay attention to the changes in temperature and cold.

Another part was what he saw when he was looking through historical materials in order to verify the authenticity of Wen Hanbian.

The situation in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty was indeed shocking.

As a monarch, he would inevitably be involved. If the Ming Dynasty faced such a natural disaster, what would it do?
The answer frustrated him, and there was no better way.

The final result was that the last bit of family assets was exhausted under the impact of repeated natural disasters.

Then they lost control of the local area and repeated the tragedy of the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

In order to prevent this situation from happening, he actively supported the new policy and supported the management of Nanyang.

He implemented policies such as the land-based tax system and tax reform with an iron fist despite opposition.

The planting of grass and trees in the northern Shaanxi Plateau and the Hetao region required the imperial court to spend several million strings of money and grain every year.

But there is almost no visible benefit.

No one knows how many people have blamed the court for this matter, but he remains unmoved.

The purpose is to take advantage of the current strong court to accumulate more capital for future generations.

The more you accumulate now, the more powerful cards your descendants will have in their hands.

It gives you more hope of getting through it.

At least it can last a few more years.

Now, Chen Jingke has proposed a new solution.

Use the army to fight natural disasters.

Is this approach feasible?
The answer is... it seems possible.

No matter how severe a natural disaster is, if there is enough power to rescue, the losses can be minimized.

However, faced with a disaster that affected several provinces, ordinary forces are just a drop in the bucket.

Only the combined efforts of everyone can achieve results.

Someone said that we could temporarily recruit civilians.

However, it takes time to recruit civilian laborers, and managing so many of them also requires a lot of administrative costs.

It is also necessary to provide some simple training to the laborers so that they know how to cooperate and how to rescue people.

The fire has already burned my eyebrows, where is the time?

By the time the imperial court organized the laborers, the disaster had already passed.

Far water cannot quench near thirst.

Moreover, conscripting civilians would also cause crop yields to decrease in areas that were not affected by the disaster due to lack of labor.

Other measures such as work-for-relief are only implemented after the natural disaster is over.

What is needed now is to confront natural disasters head-on. Conscripting civilians is like jumping into the river with stones in your arms, seeking your own death.

Therefore, conscripting civilians to provide disaster relief is simply not feasible.

Only the army is the most suitable.

They are basically young and strong men who have undergone systematic military training and can start working as soon as they pick up a shovel.

It also has an independent and complete command system, which enables better coordination and cooperation.

It is the best embodiment of "the power of all people".

It’s not that no one in previous dynasties had thought of this, but no one dared to do it.

The reasons have been mentioned before, so I will not repeat them here.

So, if the Ming Dynasty can do this, the court will be able to deal with the extreme weather caused by warm and cold weather more calmly in the future.

It's a big gamble.

If we lose, it will be a military mutiny, but if we win, the benefits will be too many.

So is this gamble worth it?
Zhu Yuanzhang gave the answer almost instantly, taking advantage of the current strong court to leave more assets for his descendants.

So he looked at Chen Jingke and said, "Tell us in detail how to use the army to fight disasters and save people."

Zhu Xiongying and Chen Jingke were both very happy, as his words meant he agreed.

Chen Jingke immediately recounted some of his experiences from his previous life.

The first thing is ideological education. We must do a good job of ideological work for the soldiers. We cannot just use ordinary preaching about loyalty to the emperor and patriotism.

We must let them understand that everything they do is for the entire Chinese community and is a just act.

And it cannot be just verbal remarks, the court must also show a corresponding attitude.

For example, recognition from the court, such as publishing the deeds of the sacrificed soldiers in newspapers, commending them, etc.

These alone are still not enough, because not everyone can understand these principles, and not everyone cares about the justice of the ethnic group.

Therefore, they must also understand what is the whole and what is the individual.

The Chinese Ming Dynasty is a whole, and if the southeast is destroyed the entire country will be affected.

When the North was in ruins, wasn’t it able to survive only by relying on the heavy taxes levied by the South?

And who can guarantee that the next disaster won’t be in your hometown?
If you don't help them today, next time your family is hit by a disaster, can you expect others to rescue you?

Only by doing a good job in ideological work can we reduce the probability of mutiny and enable soldiers to unleash their fighting power.

Then there are reasonable disaster relief measures, various tools and equipment, and everything that can be prepared should be prepared as much as possible.

There are also various supplies that need to keep up.

He talked about so many things that it took him almost half an hour to finish.

Seeing how thoughtful he was, Old Zhu felt less worried.

This shows that Chen Jingke did not come up with the idea on the spur of the moment, but rather it was the result of careful consideration.

Based on past experience, the decisions he made after careful consideration were rarely wrong.

Then Lao Zhu asked some detailed questions and had a general understanding of how to carry out disaster relief.

Afterwards, he summoned the cabinet scholars as well as Lan Yu, Tang He, Fu Youde, Feng Sheng and others to discuss the military's efforts to fight the disaster and save the people.

The result was naturally opposition from everyone.

Obviously, everyone is afraid of war.

Chen Jingke came forward and explained the reasons for mobilizing the troops and the general strategy.

But it was obvious that the ministers were not moved at all.

It cannot be said that they are cold-blooded, but they are afraid to take risks.

As long as the army is not in chaos, the country will not perish no matter how big the problem is.

The army is in chaos, and no amount of good policies can remedy the situation.

You can bet on anything except the army.

Chen Jingke naturally knew that he couldn't convince them with these words, so he prepared another set of arguments:
"In the future, there will be a great change in heaven and earth, and similar natural disasters will become more frequent."

"If the imperial court does not dare to try to explore more paths today, our descendants will be trapped in the future."

Ministers:? ? ?
What do you mean?
Marquis Anping, who usually disdains all superstitions, has actually started to study metaphysics, right?
Someone immediately questioned: "Marquis Anping, please stop exaggerating."

"You said there was a big change. What is that change? When will it happen?"

Even his staunch allies Xu Da and Qiu Guang'an thought he was trying to scare everyone on purpose.

Chen Jingke remained silent. Only a very few people knew about Wen Hanbian, and he couldn't tell anyone about it without Old Zhu's permission.

Just when everyone thought that his lies had been exposed and he was speechless, Lao Zhu spoke up:

"Do you know that summer insects cannot talk about ice?"

Everyone's face changed. This was a derogatory word. By using it here, wasn't Lao Zhu mocking their short-sightedness?
Old Zhu ignored their thoughts and continued:

"Summer insects have a short life span and are unaware of winter."

"In the face of heaven and earth, what is the difference between humans and summer insects?"

"But humans are not insects after all. They have thoughts, can speak, and can write. They can record what they see and pass it on to future generations."

"People in later generations can glimpse the existence of winter based on the records of the ancient sages."

"However, only a few people can glimpse this secret from history books."

Everyone finally understood that Zhu Yuanzhang was not mocking them, but they were filled with doubts.

What do you mean?
From what Your Majesty said, it seems that something extraordinary has been discovered in the history books.

But what exactly is it?
Your Majesty is willing to take the risk and mobilize the army to fight the disaster.

However, Chen Jingke knew that Zhu Yuanzhang was preparing to show his hand, and he couldn't help but admire his courage again.

Zhu Xiongying had a similar attitude, but he was a little more excited.

Is the showdown finally coming?

Many things will be more convenient to do in the future.

And once the existence of Wenhanbian is confirmed, even if it is just to make most people believe it exists.

From now on, when civil and military officials do things, they will involuntarily take this cyclical change into consideration and make preparations for it.

The imperial court can even directly include preparing for the Wenhan change in its century-long plan.

At that time, all officials will be forced to have a long-term vision - a vision spanning a hundred years.

In this case, conservatives will also become reformists.

The reformists will completely overwhelm the conservatives.

The development of the Ming Dynasty will enter a new era.

Li Shanchang and others looked at each other, not knowing what Zhu was talking about.

Moreover, Old Zhu looked mysterious, which also made them a little worried.

Could it be that he has been possessed by a demon?

Tang He relied on his closest relationship with Zhu Yuanzhang and asked:
"Sir... ahem... I wonder what great secret you have discovered in the history books... ahem..."

Hearing Tang He coughing repeatedly, Lao Zhu asked with concern: "Are you feeling unwell?"

Tang He said nonchalantly, "Thank you for your concern, it's okay to catch a cold. State affairs are more important."

Recently, family members have been sick one after another, which makes Lao Zhu a little sensitive about this. Upon hearing this, he immediately said to Chen Jingke:

"Jing Ke, give Tang He some treatment first."

Chen Jingke diagnosed and treated him despite Tang He's objection, and found that it was indeed typhoid fever and there was no serious problem.

"But you have insufficient yin and excessive yang, and your internal fire is burning... You still need to take good care of it."

Then I prescribed him some medicine.

Tang Heke didn't dare to be stubborn with Chen Jingke. After thanking him, he carefully put away the prescription.

Seeing that he was fine, Lao Zhu felt relieved.

He did not directly answer Tang He's question, but turned around, picked up a stack of documents from the desk and handed them to several people.

The document is not thick, only about ten pages.

The above lists in detail all the significant abnormal climate events with written records since the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.

Several people were very confused. What was this thing?
What is the relationship between these records and this typhoon in the southeast?
They continued to scroll down, and saw a summary at the end.

The climate changes in a cycle of about three hundred years, with three hundred years of cold periods and three hundred years of warm periods.

Periods of extreme and abnormal climate are times of transition from warm to cold.

Therefore, after the extreme climate passes, there will either be a warm period, a stable climate with good weather and harvests, or the start of a prosperous dynasty.

Either there will be a cold spell, with lower temperatures and less rainfall, which will lead to lower crop yields...

It often sends away an era.

One can imagine how shocked Li Shanchang and others were when they saw this conclusion.

They hurriedly reread the previous historical records and silently calculated the time in their minds.

I found that it actually coincided with the final conclusion.

Although the cycle is not exactly three hundred years, it is roughly within this range.

But even so, they still couldn't believe that the record was true.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang sighed:

"Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty is at the critical juncture of turning from warm to cold."

(End of this chapter)