Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 190 Zhu Yuanzhang: The rebel army is strong because of Mr. Zhang!
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Feng Guoyong with a smile: "You just thought of it?"

Feng Guoyong couldn't help but be startled: "Since the superiors have already thought of this, why did they listen to Mr. Zhang's order and not allow the rebel academy to marry women with bound feet?"

"Can we not agree?"

"Mr. Ta Zhang can live without our Zhu Yuanzhang, but our Zhu Yuanzhang cannot live without Mr. Ta Zhang!"

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed and said:
"You stay in Taiping and keep an eye on Guo Tianjue and the others to prevent them from misbehaving. Let's go to meet Mr. Zhang to prevent things from really changing and Mr. Zhang to lose. He will also think that I, Zhu Yuanzhang, is causing trouble in the dark and deliberately borrow money from Yuan. The soldiers got rid of him, and then in a rage, they took Guo Tianxu and others elsewhere, leaving millions of mouths for us to take care of. "

Feng Guoyong hesitated for a while, and then agreed.

When Zhang Cheng attacked Jiqing, Zhu Yuanzhang did not take long to bring Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and others to Jiqing.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang soon heard the news on the road that Jiqing had been captured by Zhang Cheng and others.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang frown and hurried to Jiqing.

When Zhu Yuanzhang came to celebrate, Zhang Cheng was asking Guo Tianxu, Zhang Tianyou, Shao Rong and others to confiscate the property of the Yuan court nobles and bureaucrats, and asked Yang Xian and other civil servants who accompanied the army to immediately distribute salaries, gold and silver to the soldiers, and he Zhang Cheng himself also took one thousand taels of gold as his annual salary.

That's right.

Zhang Cheng said with a smile: "It is within easy reach to capture Jiqing City and pacify the entire south of the Yangtze River. The entire cause of expelling the Tartars and restoring China has also reached a new milestone. It is just a matter of how to do the next thing well and how to do it well." We must be careful, we cannot imitate Hu Yuan and stabilize the foundation at the expense of the people."

Zhu Yuanzhang chose to confess directly to Zhang Cheng: "Feng Shenzheng advised us to get rid of you, and he was worried that Mr. Zhang would really conquer Jiqing and join forces with Guo Pingzhang and the others to establish themselves as kings!"

"It's true!"

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, and still expressed his views very seriously, and took the initiative to raise the topic of internal purges.

While Zhang Cheng was giving out gold and silver rewards, he also encouraged his soldiers to spend money.

Zhang Cheng nodded and said bluntly.

After all, he is now Zhongshu Shengpingzhang and the second-in-command, so naturally his salary cannot be too low.

After hearing this, Zhang Cheng asked Zhu Yuanzhang: "What do you think?"

Just when Zhang Cheng was distributing salary and silver rewards to the soldiers, Zhu Yuanzhang came to celebrate.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang favored the low-salary system, he could not defeat Zhang Cheng because he was afraid that Zhang Cheng would resign directly because of his insistence on the low-salary system, so he had to hold his nose and agree, and sit back and watch Zhang Cheng give him, the number one figure, The salary was also set at fifteen thousand taels of silver.

"But during their breaks, we should encourage them to consume and encourage them to circulate their gold and silver goods, so that while they can relax, the people in the market can exchange wealth through their own labor."

"Of course Mr. Zhang said so."

then.

As soon as Zhang Cheng saw him, he smiled and said, "You got here pretty quickly."

"But we feel that what matters now is our internal affairs. After defeating Jiqing, we must immediately correct some problems and eliminate some unhealthy tendencies!"

Zhang Cheng then looked at Zhu Yuanzhang: "Did someone say something to you?"

Zhang Cheng had already raised his annual salary from a thousand taels of silver to ten thousand taels of silver.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked serious: "If we come later, Mr. Zhang will be suspicious of us."

The soldiers were naturally happy, and their resistance to strict military discipline was reduced a lot.

"After the salary reward is reduced, the soldiers will be allowed to take turns to take vacations to spend money. Although military discipline requires strict rules, they are not allowed to act recklessly!"

Zhu Yuanzhang said solemnly: "We were very angry at that time! We were angry that he had evil intentions!"

"But he is a member of the Zhongshu Province in the rebel army and is one of the officials in power. Therefore, even if we are the prime minister, we cannot deal with him directly. We just want to convene a political hall meeting at that time to criticize his thoughts at the meeting and let others The ruling government expresses its views and allows him to reflect on it."

Zhu Yuanzhang answered his thoughts.

"To be honest, Guo Pingzhang and Zhang Zuocheng expressed their intention to serve me as their master after they captured Jiqing."

Zhang Cheng looked at Zhu Yuanzhang seriously.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled slightly after hearing this: "We knew they would do this, but this can be regarded as their self-knowledge. They know that Mr. Zhang is more suitable to be emperor than them."

"Ascend!"

"You are right, we should hold a political hall meeting to sort out this matter."

"We should all take out what is in our hearts and talk openly and honestly."

"Now that Jiqing has been captured, Wen Zheng has also captured Changzhou and Hepingjiang in advance. Sooner or later, the entire Jiangnan will belong to our rebels."

"At this time, the soldiers will inevitably have more ideas, including those of us in power. Whether we want to continue to unite or go our separate ways, we have to make it clear again. In addition, we have to make it clear who will be the emperor and who will be the ministers. The monarch and his ministers What kind of etiquette should be agreed between us must be made clear.”

Zhang Cheng looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and said seriously.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and asked: "Mr. Zhang, you might as well tell me first, what are your thoughts?"

"In my mind, this imperial system needs to change and become an imperial system that conforms to the new etiquette. As I said before, the king must be appointed by the people."

"In this case, the nobility must be determined by the people, not the king."

"The world cannot be dominated by one family, nor can it be ruled by one person. It can only be governed by people who can represent all the forces in the world."

When Zhang Cheng said this, he looked at Zhu Yuanzhang: "The superiors must think about which force you are from."

Zhu Yuanzhang said solemnly: "We have said that what we want is that our family and the people in the world will never starve to death again. They can die of illness, even be killed by others, or even be struck by lightning, but they cannot be alive." starve."

"Then you want to represent the people of the world?"

Zhang Cheng asked.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and asked, "Where are you, Mr. Zhang?" "I represent myself."

Zhang Cheng replied.

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed dumbly.

Zhang Cheng looked at Zhu Yuanzhang seriously and said, "I'm serious!"

"It's just that you can understand that I want to represent the whole of China. My purpose from beginning to end is to hope that China will become more prosperous, which will also make my own benefits greater."

"Mr. Zhang, you always say the most selfless words in the most selfish words."

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head, smiled, and asked Zhang Cheng: "Mr. Zhang, do you think you have to express yourself in this way before we can believe that you are sincere?"

"I just don't want to pretend."

"We're not pretending either!"

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly became serious.

Zhang Cheng nodded: "I know you are not pretending!"

"Now, let's just say that one of us is doing it for the country and the other is for the people. But now that the country has to become a tool to achieve wealth for the people, then the emperor of this country cannot be the same as before, just to satisfy the prosperity of his family. He has just established such a country and established the world's etiquette. He should live under this supreme constitution that fulfills his responsibility for the prosperity of the people!"

Zhu Yuanzhang clenched his fists and looked at Zhang Cheng with a solemn expression:
"Then let's have a meeting!"

"Ask Guo Tianxu, Zhang Tianyou, Li Shanchang, Feng Guoyong, and Shao Rong, who do they want to represent? Do they want to be emperor themselves, or do they want to support someone to become emperor? If they want to support someone, what kind of emperor do they want to support? ”

"Call Wen Zheng, Tang He, Chang Yuchun, Deng Yu, Xie Zaixing, and Liao Yong'an as well! Let him observe the collegial meeting of the Political Affairs Hall."

"Now that they are also a force, I am afraid that some of the Confucian scholars around them are also trying to persuade him to pursue his own career as emperor."

Zhang Cheng reminded.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, then sighed and said with a smile:
"If you think about it carefully, it is not easy for our rebel army to reach this point. When my father was there, it almost fell apart. When my father passed away, it almost fell apart. And now, compared with other forces, now It’s really disappointing that they can be put together and sit on the Jiangnan Road! ”

"Yes!"

"On King Xiao Ming's side, Du Zundao has been killed by Liu Futong."

"Over at Tianwan, Chen Youliang spent a lot of money to buy a large amount of ordnance from our ordnance store, and then merged with Ni Wenjun's department."

"Not to mention Hu Yuan's side. Emperor Hu Yuan would rather destroy the Great Wall than let Tuoduo live."

"Our rebel army is logically more complex than theirs. It includes powerful landowners, literati and gentry, as well as ordinary people, and even thieves and water bandits. As a result, there has been no large-scale conflagration so far."

Zhang Cheng shook his head and smiled as he spoke, but at this time, Zhu Yuanzhang bowed solemnly to him: "It's all because of Mr. Zhang that you are different from other Confucian scholars. It is because of you, Mr. Zhang, that our rebel army has an internal The number of killings has decreased, but more people are alive, whether they are soldiers or civilians, even the surrendered soldiers captured by us, and even the gentry, so you, Mr. Zhang, should be worshiped by Yuan Zhang!"

Zhang Cheng returned the gesture and said, "I hope that in the next discussion, we can still unify our consciousness, and gradually move from the initial temporary union to true unity!"

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded: "It's all down to you, Mr. Zhang."

Zhang Cheng smiled slightly: "You also need to cooperate."

Next.

Li Shanchang, Feng Guoyong, and Zhu Wenzheng all received orders from the Central Secretary's Office asking them to gather to celebrate and discuss important events.

In order to ensure that they would not affect the military and political affairs of the entire rebel army during their absence, Xu Da was ordered by Zhongshu Province to stay in Taiping as the governor of Jiangnan and manage all affairs in Jiangnan;
Wang Guangyang was ordered by Zhongshu Province to stay in Chuzhou as the governor of Jiangbei and manage all affairs in Jiangbei.

Geng Bingwen was ordered to temporarily take charge of Suzhou and Songjiang affairs as governor of Susong.

While waiting for Li Shanchang and others to come to celebrate, Zhang Cheng and Zhu Yuanzhang were not idle either. They both had a lot of things to do.

Because the Jiqing City they took over was a city that had been run by the powerful officials of the Yuan Dynasty for a long time, there was a lot of wealth to be counted, including land and property.

"Are you saying that 70% of the entire mansions and shops in Jiqing City are not yours, but belong to Hu Yuan's dignitaries?"

Zhang Cheng specifically asked about Jiqing's social and economic situation on this day.

Fushou honestly answered what he knew: "Yes, many of them belong to the Crown Prince, Pingzhang Hama and others. After all, they are the ones in power now."

"You have quite a few of your own, right?"

Zhang Cheng asked.

Fu Shou said: "There are quite a few."

Zhang Cheng nodded after hearing this: "It seems that most of them can be confiscated directly."

Fushou couldn't help but look dim.

Then, Zhang Cheng asked: "What about the fields on Jiqing Road? How much of it is yours?"

"About 60% of it is official land given by the emperors of the past dynasties to the clan, concubines, princesses and heroic relatives."

Fu Shou replied.

Zhang Cheng asked again: "How many fields do you own in Jiangnan?"

Fushou replied: "About one thousand two hundred hectares."

"How much is the annual rent?"

"About half a million dan."

Fu Shou replied.

(End of this chapter)