Zhu Yuanzhang can see my dreams

Chapter 369 Disarmament
Wang Buli hummed first, then said casually:

"Father-in-law, it's better not to speak too quickly about things like this. We have similar interests.

He doesn't have much sense of rules, and I am the same. As for the other princes, they have received formal palace education, and they think they are superior to others, and they disdain to associate with common people like us."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly. In fact, he did not simply send the fourth son to Fengyang to train troops and experience the lives of the people.

Except for the crown prince, most of the other older princes went together, but most of them just dealt with the matter perfunctorily. The fourth prince's behavior was indeed different.

Just eating and living together in the military camp is something that few people can do.

When in Nanjing, Zhu Di often took his people on hiking trips, and Zhu Yuanzhang knew all about it.

He understood the fourth brother's thoughts, which was to completely destroy the Northern Yuan Dynasty when he was stationed in Peking in the future.

When they arrived at Yong'an Village, all the villagers became Wang Buli's tenants.

This piece of land does not need to pay taxes to Zhu, it is entirely the harvest of the princess's mansion.

However, Wang Buli did not keep all of it in his own hands. Instead, he used the method of "rewarding and profit sharing" to completely turn these people into his own people.

Zhu Yuanzhang stood at the entrance of the village and looked at the factory in the distance. That was a factory. New things were often made in it, and then mass-produced one or two. In addition to selling them to high-ranking officials in the court, they were also sold to Goryeo and other countries for trade.

The other area is a well-organized farmland with plenty of oxen for farming.

Looking further inside, there are newly built houses, and the planned roads are not straight at all, which looks a bit like the Bagua formation.

When Wang Buli was standing at the entrance of the village, someone came to greet him and said that the prince consort had arrived. He was going to the medicinal field to deliver food.

"Just get busy. I'll just stand at the entrance of the village. I'll have to go out with His Majesty on an inspection tour later."

"My Lord, I will take my leave."

Zhu Yuanzhang did not have much feeling about Wang Buli's building.

But he suddenly remembered that during the Jiajing period, the Japanese pirates were able to kill their way out of Nanjing City, and the villages outside the city suffered a lot.

Wang Buli has done all these things in advance to prepare for a rainy day. If the Ming Dynasty really declines in the future and Japanese pirates invade here, this village will still be able to resist the enemy.

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Wang Buli meaningfully. He always felt that Wang Buli was cautious in nature and had radical policies, but he was very conservative at heart.

This was unlike anyone he knew.

Or perhaps Zhu Yuanzhang found a thread of commonality between the two of them in Wang Buli, that is, they both tried to change the future of the Ming Dynasty by their own efforts.

Can't figure it out.

Zhu Yuanzhang was really confused. How much did Wang Buli know about the future of the Ming Dynasty?

But even if he changes some of the Ming Dynasty's policies now, will it really be feasible when future emperors implement them?
This is all impossible to say.

"From here, we can see that this manor is overflowing with wealth."

Zhu Yuanzhang stroked his beard and smiled: "Don't you have any precautions?"

Wang Buli felt that Zhu Yuanzhang should have sent someone to investigate the matter long ago, so he said:

"To let your majesty know, every year after the busy farming season, we will send people to give military training to the able-bodied men and women in the village to prevent thieves from coming.

Although it is under the emperor's feet, neither the soldiers nor the yamen runners will take the initiative to patrol the countryside, so it is inevitable that there will be some scoundrels."

"Oh, why do even women have to undergo military training?"

"Will the thieves let them go just because they are women?" Wang Buli said leisurely with his hands behind his back.

"Besides, the women of our Ming Dynasty are not like the women of the Southern Song Dynasty who needed to bind their feet.

They can be seen working in the fields, weaving cloth, and even repairing canals to earn money for their children to eat more meat. What's more, the profit from the cloth they weave is no less than that from farming. How can they feel inferior to others?

I don't ask them to fight in battle, but it is enough for them not to panic when they encounter bandits."

Zhu Yuanzhang raised his eyebrows slightly when listening to Wang Buli's words.

He always thought that Wang Buli didn't have much concept of hierarchy, but he never thought that he had no differences with gender either.

"So do you think women can also show their faces in public?"

"What's the big deal?" Wang Buli looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and smiled:

"With Empress Ma taking the lead, women in the world should naturally learn from her, be good wives and helpers, support the family, and make life easier for her descendants and her later years."

Wang Buli brought up Empress Ma, but Zhu Yuanzhang really had no intention of refutation. He just said quietly:

"There are also female officials in the palace, but there are not many of them. We have also heard of many stories of women supporting their families after their husbands died. Men farm and women weave. Perhaps it won't be long before Jiangnan cloth and brocade will be able to clothe the world again."

"If there are such examples in the Ming Dynasty, Your Majesty should reward them to encourage their tenacity and set an example for future generations."

"Well, that's a good idea."

Zhu Yuanzhang also wanted to promote such women in order to publicize the Ming Dynasty's educational achievements.

The legal status of being a daughter in the Ming Dynasty was first to obey her father, and among her brothers and sisters, her status was mainly determined by the "order of seniority". Only when the family was extinct was the legal inheritance right of an unmarried daughter recognized.

Thanks to the efforts of Empress Ma, the status of women in marriage laws in the Ming Dynasty has been significantly improved compared to the previous dynasty.

However, the period of greater improvement was the period of chaos in the ruling order in the late Ming Dynasty. Coupled with the spread of the School of Mind, the sage idols of orthodox Confucianism were denied, and the asceticism of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism of "preserving the laws of nature and eliminating human desires" was denied.

Against this background, a wave of sympathy for women's suffering emerged among the scholar-official class.

They opposed the clichés that "women are the root of trouble" and "women's virtue lies in their lack of talent"; they advocated widows remarrying; they advocated freedom of marriage and the liberation of personality.

But in general, they are still vassals of men, whether married or not.

Now that Wang Buli treated them as men, Zhu Yuanzhang was quite satisfied. After all, he himself was an ox or a horse, so were oxen and horses divided into male and female?
As long as you work hard, it will be beneficial to the Ming Dynasty.

"Jiangnan is too rich to be controlled, and these women weavers should not be exclusive to this place." Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a moment:
"I have also heard that Shu brocade is also very good. Prime Minister Zhuge used Shu brocade to sell to Wei and Wu to support his northern expedition and the construction of water conservancy projects in Yizhou and other places. The people of Sichuan should also engage in weaving."

Zhu Yuanzhang had always wanted to weaken the large number of wealthy families in Jiangnan, and he had been causing trouble for them over the years, especially using the Hu Weiyong case, which resulted in many people being forcibly relocated to the north.

The policy of cracking down on the enrichment of the people and the heavy labor service of the Lijia system in the early Ming Dynasty were also a serious threat to the development of large families, often forcing people to divide up their property prematurely.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not want any other powerful families to emerge besides the Zhu family.

“What my father-in-law said makes sense. In fact, it’s not just Sichuan. I heard that Lu silk is also quite famous.

Especially since the Ming Dynasty opened the Silk Road and smuggled goods to Mongolian nobles, transportation costs would be lower.

It can also help revitalize Shanxi and balance the power of Hangzhou.”

"Yeah." Zhu Yuanzhang was very satisfied with Wang Buli's idea. The best solution was a three-way balance of power. This way, Hangduan would not be the only dominant player.

"The North can produce silk, but it's a surprise to me!"

Lu silk gradually began to flourish after Zhu Yuanzhang's son was granted the title of Duke of Changzhi and set up a manufacturing bureau.

After a hundred years of development, it is said that the locals can afford to wear Lu silk.

In the past, Lu silk only had a long history of development, but it was not prosperous, and no one was engaged in this thing on a large scale.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, almost every household in Changzhi had a loom, and there were large tracts of mulberry forests.

"Father-in-law, I also saw it in ancient books. It is said that it has existed since the Sui Dynasty."

Wang Buli explained the situation to Zhu Yuanzhang as if he had plugged a bug.

Zhu Yuanzhang just nodded and had no intention of investigating further.

Although he believed that Wang Buli did not know as much about the history of the Ming Dynasty as he did, Zhu Yuanzhang had a vague guess in his mind that Wang Buli definitely knew more than he showed.

Even if he has not glimpsed the entire historical context of the Ming Dynasty, this kid may know many of the key nodes.

But Zhu Yuanzhang did not test it easily.

He still vividly remembers the lightning strike a few years ago, which ruined his chance of entering the fairyland.

Now that the relationship has finally been renewed, Zhu Yuanzhang is no longer willing to take any risks.

"Buli, do you think there will be a wealthy family in this village?"

Zhu Yuanzhang stood at the entrance of the village and asked, which made Wang Buli speechless: "Why does my father-in-law ask this question?"

"In recent times, the customs have been inherited and have become extravagant. The people in the streets and villages are no different from the officials in terms of food and living conditions. This is probably because the Yuan family was weak, and their power and authority were transferred to the lower levels, which led to chaos."

Zhu Yuanzhang chuckled and said, "We will not allow the local nobles to expand their power, so we will follow the example of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty who moved the richest people in the world to Guanzhong to fight against them. In the past few years, we have moved 140,000 households of people from the south of the Yangtze River to Fengyang, most of whom are landlords.

We are also planning to relocate a group of wealthy families from Jiangnan to Nanjing."

Wang Buli understood Zhu Yuanzhang's intention. He wanted them to be moved away from their original hometowns so that they would lose their wealth and power and would not be able to harm the Ming Dynasty.

At present, Zhongdu and the capital are the places where the Ming Dynasty has the strongest control, which also controls the powerful families, making them dare not resist.

"They probably won't be able to become a powerful family."

"Oh?"

"The current policy is biased towards the capital and its surroundings, allowing them to take advantage. In the future, if your majesty's policy moves south or north, it will naturally benefit the rest of the people. At most, these people will have an easier life.

I heard that some of the Jiangnan landlords who were relocated to Fengyang were nostalgic for the luxurious life in their hometown. They often disguised themselves as beggars when they went home to visit relatives and sweep graves, singing their own Fengyang flower drums along the way to vent their dissatisfaction with Your Majesty. "

“How do they sing it?”

Wang Buli did not know the tune and could only repeat: "My family lives in Luzhou and Fengyang. Fengyang used to be a good place, but since Emperor Zhu came to power, it has been famine nine years out of ten."

"Hahaha."

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help laughing. He had heard these words before, but he never thought they would be said in this way.

Fengyang is his hometown, how could he treat his fellow villagers like that?

He is not Cheng Yu, a pervert who likes to use the meat of his fellow villagers to cook and thinks it tastes delicious.

In an era when the concept of localism was extremely strong, such people could not even be buried in their hometown after their death.

Fang Xiaoru once commented on Zhu Yuanzhang: "Emperor Taizu Gao used divine power and great determination to rule the country, and he was against the custom of annexation. During his 30 years in office, many wealthy people violated the rules and lost their ancestral lineage."

Old Zhu has been dealing with many wealthy families.

"You want everyone to be rich?"

"I'm afraid this is very difficult." Wang Buli sighed and said, "I'm afraid it may take many years to achieve this."

"Ah."

Zhu Yuanzhang also felt that Wang Buli's idea was a bit too naive. Yong'an Village could at most radiate to a few surrounding villages, and it could not even cover an entire county.

The two of them didn't say much, but got into the carriage and went to the next stop.

At this time, Li Jinglong accompanied Empress Ma and led the way for the emperor.

Going down the river, we must first visit Zhenjiang and Yangzhou.

It wasn't a small boat, but the ocean-viewing ship that Wang Buli saw at the shipyard.

Standing at the bow of the ship, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the scene around him.

Thinking back then, Chen Youliang’s large ships had already rushed in front of him, and now no one knows whether Zhang Dingbian, the most powerful general, is dead or not.

Zhu Yuanzhang was too lazy to send anyone to look for him, probably because he had changed his identity.

He also knew that many people were unwilling to serve the Ming Dynasty, but it didn't matter, because he had won the world after all.

And he thinks he governs much better than others.

"Buli, we know that the Ming Dynasty's military system is somewhat inappropriate, but we have never thought of any specific solution."

Zhu Yuanzhang held the rudder and smelled the water vapor coming from the river: "Do you have any ideas? Tell me."

Wang Buli didn't have any good ideas either, so he stood aside and thought for a while:
"Your Majesty, we all know the drawbacks of the military farming system. The garrison troops have to pay taxes to the court, called military farming grains. As far as I know, there has been no unified collection amount for so many years, which is not advisable.

Also, before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, when the economy was in ruins and people were leaving, especially during the war to unify the world, military farming would not cause a shortage of food for the army.

But now that the Ming Dynasty has become unified, it is extremely inappropriate to ask so many soldiers to farm. There is no need to blindly rely on military farming and desperately expand the army. Large-scale military farming will do more harm than good. "

Wang Buli's words were not pleasant at all, but Zhu Yuanzhang just held the rudder and did not answer immediately.

He believed in Wang Buli's judgment because the value of the Ming Baochao really began to decline as Wang Buli said.

Fortunately, some silver mines have been found in the Ming Dynasty, which can be directly used to cast silver.

However, many people did not need too much silver for transactions, which was really a headache for Zhu Yuanzhang. He sent people to Yunnan to explore for minerals and there was some progress. After the war in the north was over, he would prepare for war in Yunnan with all his strength.

"So you mean to sheath your weapons and put your horses away?"

(End of this chapter)