Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 213: Zhang Cheng wants to achieve economic hegemony, Hu Weiyong’s ambition

In the first month of the sixteenth year of Zhengzheng.

New Year has just passed.

Zhang Cheng personally came to the newly built Martyrs' Shrine and led Zhang Tianyou and Li Shanchang to pay homage to the fallen in previous battles who had moved into the Martyrs' Shrine.

At the same time, Zhang Cheng also personally expressed his condolences to the families of those who died in the battle.

Including the family members of Zhao Jizu and others who were reported to have been killed in the Battle of Huzhou not long ago.

These family members were very moved, especially after seeing Zhang Cheng personally paying them generous pensions and clearly stating that they would give their children preferential treatment in school. Many family members wanted to kneel down to Zhang Cheng on the spot.

After Zhang Cheng paid homage to the Martyrs' Shrine, he began to organize the camp field army to harvest potatoes.

Because now it's potato harvest time.

When the scholars and people saw a large number of potatoes being dug out, they were even more amazed at Zhang Cheng's foresight.

Miao Daheng nodded.

Li Shanchang raised his hand and said yes.

"From now on, we must not only control their supply of firearms, but also their food supply, so that they are not only too lazy to make weapons, but also too lazy to resume farming, and are only obsessed with the fight for power and land in front of them."

then.

Li Shanchang had already guessed that Zhang Cheng wanted him to recommend someone to be responsible for railway construction.

Later, Zhang Cheng said to Li Shanchang: "Now that there are enough grains such as potatoes, we must hurry up to build the railway. I am going to set up a Railway Administration. Who do you think is suitable to be the Railway Administration?"

Miao Daheng, who was responsible for leading the sergeants to dig potatoes, was so moved that he couldn't help but said to Miao Zhen:
"Mr. Zhang is indeed a saint for the people of the world. The potatoes he asked to be sown are actually so high-yielding! What we should worry about now is no longer whether there is enough to eat, but how to eat them all."

Miao Zhen also laughed and said.

Zhang Cheng smiled after hearing this.

"I'm afraid that in the future, the normal number of people will be more than 60 million."

"I'm planning on selling too."

Zhang Cheng started talking with a smile, and told Wang Guangyang, the third assistant: "My father-in-law is now in charge of foreign trade. Go tell Cheng Renmo and ask him to try selling a batch of potatoes."

"There is one person I can recommend to my subordinates. His name is Hu Weiyong. He is currently participating in politics on the right side of Jiangbei. When he was in Hezhou, he joined the Datong Society after being introduced by his superiors. He is also an old man in my Datong Society. He is smart and capable. He has been responsible for everything from Hezhou to Li Yang's food path."

Li Shanchang took the initiative and asked: "But even if we encourage births now, it will take many years to wait for the batch of children to come out and eat potatoes. But now these potatoes are estimated to be harvested at no less than 7 million dan. We govern the military and civilians, etc." I’m afraid I won’t be able to finish it, so it’s better to sell it.”

At this time, potatoes were being transported into the warehouse of the Cabinet Secretary for Food and Agriculture one by one.

Wang Guangyang raised his hand and said yes.

Zhang Cheng was also looking at the carts of potatoes being transported into the warehouse and said to Li Shanchang:
"We need to introduce a policy to encourage childbirth as soon as possible. Find someone to discuss it and draft a regulation. Anyone who has more than a certain number of children will be rewarded with exemption from military service or financial subsidies. When the time comes, the superior will come back and let him approve it."

Because this project is a huge project, there are many things that need to be done, and it also involves the mobilization of a lot of resources, money and food, and personnel. It even requires contact with the military to undertake military transportation, just to let the battalion repair The director will definitely be too busy.

"In the name of assisting them and relieving the people, we will sell some cheap potatoes to Zhang Shicheng, Liu Futong, and Chen Youliang, so that they can also rely on us for food supply."

"Yes, it is foreseeable that the number of Han people in the world will increase dramatically in the next few decades."

Therefore, Li Shanchang had already begun to look for candidates, and when Zhang Cheng asked him this question, he immediately replied:

Zhang Cheng's smile made Li Shanchang feel nervous.

Because he recommended Hu Weiyong, although he was interested in Hu Weiyong's ability, it was also related to the fact that Hu Weiyong came to trouble and gave him two hundred taels of gold.

He had no intention of collecting it originally, but at that time Hu Weiyong controlled the grain road from Hezhou to Liyang. He was worried that his sudden big case would cause problems with military supplies and affect the key tasks of attacking Taiping and Jiqing at that time. Received.

It's just that Li Shanchang has always been afraid that Zhang Cheng and Zhu Yuanzhang would find out about this.

But in fact, Zhang Cheng didn't know about this. His Imperial Guard Department was mainly used for external investigations, but he didn't pay much attention to internal officials.

Instead, Zhu Yuanzhang's own inspector was investigating internally.

Zhang Cheng smiled meaningfully at this time, just because Hu Weiyong was very familiar to him.

"Then let him."

"The recommendation from Mr. Ge is good, I think."

"However, I still have to tell him that this railway construction is a plan that affects the country for thousands of years. It cannot be careless. The quality must pass the standard. Technically, he must not make decisions without authorization. He must listen to the technical officers who build bridges and roads."

Zhang Cheng said.

Li Shanchang breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "Mr. Zhang, please don't worry, I will tell him." Hu Weiyong was very happy after receiving Jun's order to promote him to the cabinet as Railway Minister. He knew that his two hundred taels Gold works.

He was actually strong enough to bribe Li Shanchang at that time.

Because he didn't know if Li Shanchang, who was in charge of military and political affairs in Jiangbei at that time, loved money, but he really didn't want to go on like this.

After all, he knew very well that people like Wang Guangyang, Shu Anguo, and Tao Cheng had all joined Datong Society earlier than him, so he had no choice but to take a risky approach and deliberately left two hundred taels of gold in Li Shanchang's house when he visited him. .

In Hu Weiyong's view, if Li Shanchang accepts it, it means that his test is successful and he can make friends with Li Shanchang through money in the future. If Li Shanchang refuses to accept it and exposes him, he will deny that the gold is for Li Shanchang and that he lost it to buy bonds. money.

But Li Shanchang did not expose him, and now he has become one of the doctors in various cabinet departments.

Therefore, Hu Weiyong knew that this meant that Li Shanchang was willing to use money to do things.

Because Hu Yuan has not been completely eliminated yet, and internal affairs are not yet complicated enough to require the establishment of ministerial-level yamen, Zhang Cheng only established a department-level yamen under the cabinet.

But in terms of power structure, becoming a doctor now is equivalent to becoming a minister in the future.

Therefore, Hu Weiyong was very happy that he could become the doctor of Tie Zhengsi.

Of course, Hu Weiyong was not satisfied with just being a division-level doctor. His ambitions were actually very big, at least bigger than Zhang Cheng's.

It's just that Hu Weiyong doesn't know whether Zhang Cheng, Zhu Yuanzhang, Guo Tianxu, Zhang Tianyou, Feng Guoyong, and Shao Rong like to collect money.

If he also loves it, he can directly collect money from his subordinates and give money to his superiors, achieving the leap from a doctor to an assistant minister of the cabinet, and even becoming one of the leaders of the newly established imperial council.

But Hu Weiyong did not dare to test it rashly. After all, he had the courage to bribe Li Shanchang, and he also bribed people around Li Shanchang first. He had a detailed understanding of Li Shanchang and knew that Li Shanchang was extravagant and expensive. , just decided to try it once.

If you ask him to go rashly now, he will certainly not do it.

However, Hu Weiyong still wanted to try.

Successfully bribing Li Shanchang gave him the courage.

And he knows very well that if he gets promoted through bribery and money transfer, he will not have to work so hard for qualifications and abilities, and he will have the opportunity to be promoted into the top power circle.

What's more, if people like Zhang Cheng are tied up through profit transfer, he can use this to control these people and become the most powerful person. Maybe he can also borrow chickens to lay eggs and become the most powerful person in Datong Society, and then use Power corrupts more people, and then corrupts the entire Datong Society, turning Datong Society into a place of anger and resentment. Then, he can use the name of disbanding the Datong Society to win the hearts of the world and rebuild the social model of family and world.

This is Hu Weiyong's ambition.

But he is just thinking about it now. After all, there are still many things on this road that he is not sure about.

What Hu Weiyong can only do now is to determine whether the people around Zhang Cheng, Zhu Yuanzhang and other powerful people can be bribed.

to this end.

After Hu Weiyong came to Jiqing, he did not go to see Li Shanchang first to ask about which section of the railway was currently planned to be built first. Instead, he went to see Qi Xiang, the doctor of the Arch Guard Division and the commander of the Jiqing City Defense Camp.

"Everyone in the world says that Mr. Zhang protected the people from misfortune, and you Qi Dushuai protected Mr. Zhang. Therefore, everyone in the world who respects Mr. Zhang also respects you."

"For this reason, Hu also specially presented the newly made tea at home to show his respect for you."

Hu Weiyong did not give Qi Xiang a heavy gift from the beginning because he was afraid of scaring Qi Xiang. You must know that when he bribed people around Li Shanchang, he did not give money directly at the beginning, but only gave some slightly valuable things. Specialties and souvenirs.

Qi Xiang, as a person who survived several severe crackdowns and retained his hereditary official position throughout the Hongwu Dynasty, was very reliable in terms of ethics, so he stood up on the spot and glared at Hu Weiyong: "What do you do with giving gifts?" What? Are we familiar?"

Hu Weiyong said with a smile: "Nothing else, just to express our gratitude to you and also to express our admiration for Mr. Zhang."

"inappropriate!"

"If you really admire Mr. Zhang, you should know that what you should do now is to ask about the railway planning immediately, instead of contacting me here, a person with city defense power. If you don't know, you will think that you want to join forces. Mr. Zhang is against me."

Qi Xiang replied.

Hu Weiyong was so frightened by Qi Xiang's words that he turned pale and immediately denied it, saying: "No such intention, no such intention!"

Then, Hu Weiyong took the tea back and said with a smile: "I'm leaving now, sorry for bothering me!"

Hu Weiyong was quite disappointed with this. He didn't expect that Qi Xiang was so incompetent that he kept secrets in his words, threatened him in reverse, and seemed to see through his true thoughts in the future.

But Hu Weiyong did not give up. He continued to run for connections overnight instead of focusing on government affairs first.

"useless!"

"You can't do it!"

Hu Weiyong came to see Guo Tianjue, but Guo Tianjue accepted his gift but kept refusing.

(End of this chapter)