Zhu Yuanzhang can see my dreams

Chapter 310 Enriching the Frontier
Wang Buli ignored Zhu Biao's question.

Some time ago, Zhu Yuanzhang had issued an order that all his subjects who wished to write letters or memorials could send them to him and he would read them one by one.

It can be said that Zhu Biao’s current workload not only involves many officials of the Ming Dynasty, but also many people who want the emperor to “see me”.

Of course, those people who can write memorials are not ordinary people.

Zhu Yuanzhang did this to show that he had access to outside information and would not be deceived by his subjects, but he really did not consider how huge the workload would be!
The idea is beautiful, but the reality is cruel.

Wang Buli looked at Zhu Biao's dark circles and couldn't help but complain:
"Brother Prince, you should have a good rest. As the saying goes, a smart child who doesn't rest will become stupid."

"Hey, that's true." Zhu Biao patted his rather thin body and said, "Although my physique is not as good as yours, it is still much better than the average person."

"Well, you're right."

Wang Buli stopped worrying about this matter and listened to Zhu Biao saying:

"I heard that you set up several special crime-solving teams in the county government. How are they going?"

"If difficult cases were so easy to solve, there would be no need to spend so much manpower and resources." Wang Buli leaned back in his chair and said in boredom, "None of them have been solved yet."

"Is there no progress in the civilian dismemberment case?"

"This is a Shangyuan County case and has not been transferred to Jiangning County. Therefore, I don't know the specific details and I haven't asked about it."

Zhu Biao glanced at Wang Buli. He remembered that Wang Buli had gone to the crime scene with his father. But when he saw that it was related to the White Lotus Sect, he immediately distanced himself from it.

The beggar who reported the case also died in the counterfeit money case, so some details were recorded in the case file and there would be no other progress.

"These cases are difficult?" Zhu Biao tried to persuade him again: "I remember you are Wang Bansheng from Jiangning County!"

"That's just my fair judgment. I'm not very good at solving cases." Wang Buli glanced at Zhu Biao again: "For a case like this with very few clues, even a detective would be scratching his head, unless..."

"Unless what?"

Wang Buli sneered when Zhu Biao asked:
"Unless the detective is tortured into confessing, solving the case this way will save everything.

The consequences are that the murderer escapes, the wrongly accused dies in vain, and is cursed, but who cares?"

Zhu Biao looked at Wang Buli and heard him say leisurely: "Brother Crown Prince, have you ever heard a saying?"

"what?"

"The one who wronged you knows how wronged you are even better than you do." Wang Buli spread his hands and smiled:

"Why do the people want to cry out for justice? Except for a few who did it on purpose, most of them just have no way to redress their grievances."

Zhu Biao nodded slightly. He had no idea about what Wang Buli said. Although he had read a lot of letters from grassroots officials recently, there was no detailed description of the case.

"Brother-in-law, do you think there really is a lazy emperor who doesn't deal with state affairs for decades?"

"Yes."

Wang Buli saw Zhu Biao looking at him in shock and said nonchalantly:
"Where there are diligent emperors, there are naturally lazy emperors. Emperors as diligent as your Majesty are rare, and many emperors feel that they deserve to enjoy themselves.

An emperor who can control his desires is extremely strong, but most people cannot control their desires.

For example, I also want to go to work every day, but I would rather sleep in and spend time with my family, and postpone government affairs if they are not urgent.

Anyway, I have so many people under my command. If I don't use them, wouldn't it be a waste of money to give them money? "

Wang Buli's words did not eliminate Zhu Biao's suspicion, but instead increased it.

Because he felt that Wang Buli's answer was too affirmative.

It's like he knew that one of his descendants named Wanli would become emperor and would not attend court for thirty years.

So he could only grope for the seat: "Brother-in-law, what should I do if I have descendants like this?"

"Just serve it cold."

Wang Buli began to play with the jade beads in his hand without paying any attention:

"It is a basic principle that a policy will cease to exist when a person dies. If the policies you formulate can last for a hundred years, I think it is already very impressive."

"Are you so pessimistic?"

Even though Zhu Biao had advised his father in the fairyland, it was still very difficult for him to accept it after hearing it from other people.

After all, everyone has a different stance.

"Are you so confident?"

Wang Buli folded his bracelets and smiled:
"Brother Crown Prince, you have always been generous to others. When you become the emperor, if you want to preserve your reputation, you might change your father's strict governing policies and continue to be generous to others. Who knows."

Zhu Biao did not refute because he felt that what Wang Buli said made some sense.

Over the years, the time he spent with his father was definitely not as long as the time he spent with his teachers.

Therefore, Zhu Biao was instilled with the Confucian idea of ​​"being kind to others" since he was a child.

Especially when it comes to showing leniency to others, who are the groups that will ultimately benefit?
We can get a glimpse of the whole picture from the governing philosophy of his son Zhu Yunwen.

"I can't refute what you said."

Zhu Biao looked at Wang Buli's skewers and felt a little itchy, so he went back to find one for himself to try.

"But isn't it good to be lenient?" Zhu Biao said with a smile while holding a pen: "It's good for you, it's good for me, it's good for everyone."

Wang Buli paused for a moment, then took out a piece of cloth and carefully wiped the jade beads:

"The Yuan Dynasty is known for its generosity. Look at how these scholars and officials in Jiangnan repay the Yuan Dynasty.
Each of them is crazy about getting benefits for their own family. It is because of the difference between Mongolians and Han people that their status is even lower than that of the Han people in the north and they cannot get any high official positions.

That is why they are willing to be fooled by Your Majesty and help Your Majesty unify the world.

However, after the imperial examination was launched, His Majesty discovered that none of these scholars were useful.

Instead, they were all more greedy for money than others, and brought the bad habits of the Yuan Dynasty with them.

This is how the imperial examinations were stopped, curbing their expansion in officialdom."

Zhu Yuanzhang sought cooperation with the landlord class in Jiangnan for the sake of mutual benefit.

After Zhu Yuanzhang, the leader of the peasant uprising, turned into a warlord, he actively united with the landlord class.

After gaining control of the world, he decisively began to suppress this group of people.

As a result, the landlord class in Jiangnan is now very resentful towards Zhu.

But at present, the court is full of people from the Huaixi Group, who have left the Zhejiang East and other parties powerless to fight back.

The Ming court's control over the Jiangnan region weakened after Renzong came to power.

Zhu Biao agreed with Wang Buli's analysis.

This is also the reason why my father has always wanted to move the capital, but he kept this matter to himself.

The rest of the Ming Dynasty was too poor, and the court could only desperately exploit the Jiangnan region to effectively maintain the support of the army, officials, and the royal family.

"Rather than being deceived by them and then rectifying the situation, it is better for you to continue your father's harsh policies."

Wang Buli pointed to the distance and said, "Don't think that those gentry will be on the same page with your royal family."

"You speak so confidently, as if you know the consequences of my policy of leniency."

Wang Buli just turned the beads and did not answer Zhu Biao's words.

There is a very obvious contrast between Yongzheng and his good son Zhangzong.

As soon as Mr. Zhang came to power, he showed his magnanimity to others and overturned his father's harsh policies everywhere. He stated that gentry should pay taxes and serve as officials, and that gentry did not need to serve as officials.

As a result, these gentry in the south of the Yangtze River were so good at making trouble after getting the upper hand that when the flood occurred, not only did they refuse to work, they also asked the court for food as disaster relief.

Just because I have money, you can't withhold relief food from the court and gather a crowd to cause trouble and attack the government office.

This made the young Mr. Zhang very confused. I am so lenient with you, why are you doing this?
Why didn’t you dare to do this when my father was around?
According to Yongzheng's temper, if there is a flood in Jiangnan, all of you gentry will have to go up and fill the soil, and you must use your own food to feed the people affected by the disaster.

You dare to gather a crowd to attack the government office. You guys are a rebellion. Your heads must be chopped off and hung at the city gate for public display.

Zhu Yuanzhang currently has such a strict policy.

Otherwise, so many people in the world are hoping that Old Zhu will suddenly pass away, and the Crown Prince Little Zhu can immediately ascend the throne and become emperor!
Only the days without Zhu Yuanzhang are good days!
support.

We must support Zhu Biao.

We are all princelings!
There are so many conflicts of interest behind this.

Seeing that Wang Buli avoided the question, Zhu Biao did not ask any further questions.

Since he started handling government affairs, he has actually been slightly influenced by his father, and is not as "lenient" as he was under the guidance of his teacher.

But gossip can make one believe something, and Song Lian and others were not with Zhu Biao, so they naturally did not notice that the "disciple" they had taught for many years had quietly changed.

Perhaps it was after more than a decade that everyone discovered that Xiao Zhu's kindness had been worn away during his years of training in government affairs.

Xiao Zhu is going to become like Lao Zhu. I wonder how many people are so worried that they can’t sleep.

So much so that he wanted Xiao Zhu to die.

The good news is that after Zhu Biao passed away, Zhu Yunwen was established as the crown prince, and countless ministers were delighted.

Old Zhu was old, and he no longer had the energy to train his grandson. And the Huaixi Group was almost completely cleared out by Old Zhu.

How could the new emperor's policies not be influenced by the group of literati he valued?
"After dealing with such complicated government affairs, I realized how difficult it is to be a wise ruler."

"really."

Wang Buli quite agreed. Everyone wants to be a wise ruler, but is it so easy to be a good emperor?

While the two of them were talking, Zhu Yuanzhang saw his grandson coming back.

Wang Buli was lying lazily on a chair, but when he saw Lao Zhu coming, he quickly stood up and saluted.

Zhu Biao couldn't help but shook his head and smiled.

Sure enough, Wang Buli gave him a vivid lesson.

When he saw his father, he was like a mouse seeing a cat, but when he saw me, the prince, he treated me like a friend and had no awe in him.

It turned out that what my father said was right. When you become an emperor, you are alone and it is difficult to have any close friends.

Look at the ministers who used to be brothers to my father. Which one of them is not respectful now?

Even Tang He, with whom he had the best relationship, did not dare to do anything that overstepped the rules.

It turned out that there had been a deep gap between everyone.

Perhaps after he became emperor, Wang Buli would never sit opposite him and chat and laugh as easily as he did today.

"Are you willing to go out in the middle of summer to patrol the construction site?"

"As the commander-in-chief, I must conduct spot checks from time to time so that I can better identify problems."

Wang Buli quickly added something.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly, and was not very interested in the conversation between the two of them about sending the eunuch away.

He believed that Zhu Biao would not hide anything from him about this matter.

"It's really not easy for our son-in-law to achieve this!"

Listening to Zhu Yuanzhang's sarcastic words, Wang Buli refused to respond.

Although everyone is doing the work of an ox or a horse, you cannot really treat yourself as an ox or a horse.

Wang Buli does not have the same mindset as Zhu Yuanzhang. We are all workers, so who can empathize with the capitalists?

Unless he has a bubble in his brain!
Zhu Yuanzhang found that Wang Buli was becoming more and more shameless, so he continued:

"Buli, we hope day and night that you can be a minister like Zhuge Liang."

Wang Buli:? ? ?

You deserve it!
Are you Liu Bei's character?
Or is your son Zhu Biao Liu Chan?

No emperor in the entire Ming Dynasty was worthy of her.

But when the words came to his lips, Wang Buli pointed at himself:
"Your Majesty, am I worthy of being compared with Prime Minister Zhuge?"

Zhu Yuanzhang could only sit on the dragon throne in the face of Wang Buli's disobedience:
"People can only make progress by constantly learning. Zhuge Liang did not become prime minister all of a sudden."

“No.” Wang Buli waved his hands repeatedly: “Your Majesty, you don’t know that sometimes, no matter how hard you work, you can’t beat your talent.”

Then Zhu Yuanzhang listened to Wang Buli start to imitate characters like Han Xin, Huo Qubing, and Li Shimin.

After all, no matter how hard many people try, they can never catch up with other people's talents.

Zhu Yuanzhang paused again and did not want to argue with Wang Buli.

This kid is really rude, he keeps retreating.

Zhu Yuanzhang thought that I was not that scary.

Even though it was a large-scale crackdown on officials, only a hundred people were actually killed in the Empty Seal Case, and quite a few people were dealt with.

They deserve it for daring to deceive me.

Even though Wang Buli had defended the actions of those officials, Zhu Yuanzhang was not sure whether Wang Buli was telling the truth.

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's understanding, it was impossible for this kid to tell too much truth to the head of the Ministry of Justice, whom he had just met.

Zhu Yuanzhang has always been prejudiced against minor clerks in the county government.

"Buli, your method of random inspection is very good. We will also send people to conduct random inspections. Take a look at your former colleagues."

Zhu Yuanzhang asked the eunuch to hand a memorial to Wang Buli.

Wang Buli actually held the note in his hand and didn't want to stay here any longer, facing the memorial sent by the eunuch.

Could it be that something happened with County Magistrate Song?
The counterfeit money case has resurfaced, but there has been no progress so far.

Wang Buli could only open it and take a look, probably it was a misunderstanding.

Zhu sent people to check whether the clerks were doing their job. It turned out that Zhu Shengyi, a jailer in Kunshan County, Suzhou Prefecture, disobeyed the orders of Li Jun, the county magistrate, and beat up the imperial envoy's bannermen.

When Wang Buli saw the report, he was shocked.

Sure enough, even if it was not far from the emperor's feet, there were people with great courage everywhere.

The Banner Army was also a regular army and was a regular garrison soldier.

Old Zhu required that every military household must provide one regular soldier and then bring one extra man to the garrison.

The surplus soldiers were there to help the regular soldiers maintain their daily lives. In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang just wanted to save money by transferring the cost of raising soldiers to the military households, and the court did not pay to raise the surplus soldiers.

It was this group of people without a regular job who ignored the magistrate's dissuasion and dared to beat up people with a regular job!
Especially since they were sent by Old Zhu, Wang Buli didn't know how to evaluate them, he could only say that they were quite brave.

If Old Zhu died, it would be normal for the county clerks to bully the garrison soldiers.

Now, you are really looking for death.

But the two people who were beaten were not innocent.

"I know what you want to say. Even if these imperial envoys arrive at the local level, there are problems with corruption and abuse of power.

The correct approach for local governments should also be to report to the court and request an investigation and handling.

How can I allow my imperial envoys to be beaten at will by the clerks? "

Zhu Yuanzhang's double standards were easily revealed, and Wang Buli would not plead for them. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang had made his decision.

This matter probably has some political implications.

"How do you think we should kill him?"

Wang Buli closed his mouth and reported: "Your Majesty, such a villain cannot be killed."

"What?"

Before Wang Buli could finish speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang could no longer hold back.

The regular soldiers obeyed the emperor's orders.

That represents the emperor's face, but they were beaten and not killed?

How come you have become so generous like Biaoer?
"So how do you want to deal with this?"

Wang Buli pretended not to hear the chill in Zhu Yuanzhang's words, and instead bowed and said:
"Your Majesty, the northwest is now winning battles one after another, and we are in need of people to go to the northwest to work. Instead of killing them, it would be better to exile them. This can also be considered a contribution to the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang thought about it for a moment, then took out another report and asked, "Do you think this is just an isolated case?"

"Shen Shang, a clerk in Changshu County, Suzhou Prefecture, beat up the county magistrate Deng Yuan in public in the county hall.
Xu Wenliang, a clerk in Kaihua County, Quzhou Prefecture, beat up the county magistrate Tang Shouqing in public in the county government office.

After reading it, Wang Buli was very surprised: "Your Majesty, these two reports don't mention why there was a conflict between them!"

But he thought about it and based on his experience as a minor official.

Unless they were pushed to a certain extent, who would beat the county magistrate in public? Do you want to stop working in the county government?
The magistrate has the power to dismiss an official.

Especially, everyone knew how much Zhu Yuanzhang despised officials like them, and they were afraid of being caught and killed by him.

Zhu Yuanzhang ignored Wang Buli's words: "Even if there are reasons, they are still officials!"

"There are many corrupt and incompetent officials. Many officials have no ability to handle government affairs and rely on their subordinates to do the work."

Wang Buli felt that many officials of the Hongwu Dynasty were not able to handle government affairs, so it was quite normal for someone to help maintain the operation of the county government.

Otherwise, why would the county magistrates use their own salaries to reward the officials under them?

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang became very angry. He put the imperial pen on the shelf and stood up:

"Of course I know that these two rampant clerks will be punished, but it is really shameful for officials to be bullied by clerks like this!"

"Your Majesty, according to my son-in-law's wishes, the clerks will be sent to the north to work until they die, and the bannermen and officials who made mistakes will be sent to the south to work until they die."

Wang Buli spread his hands and said, "Let them never see each other again in their lifetime, which will help enrich the border."

(End of this chapter)