Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 223 Li Shanchang was depressed, but he was manipulated by Zhang Cheng!

In traditional farming societies, the biggest burden for the common people was not taxes, but corvées.

Especially the large-scale corvee tasks that required building rivers, digging canals, and building walls to transport grain would cause many strong laborers to die of exhaustion and illness in other places, not to mention causing families to go bankrupt.

Not to mention ordinary people, even many wealthy households fear corvee labor as much as they fear tigers.

Therefore, many common people would rather serve as slaves to the families of officials and wealthy families than become free citizens with the task of serving.

Now, the emergence of cement can save a lot of manpower in large-scale infrastructure projects, which will indeed allow more people to farm and work in their hometowns with peace of mind.

However, the land in the world is limited, and so are the job opportunities.

Therefore, Liu Bowen, like Zhang Cheng, knew that this would undoubtedly lead to many idle people with nothing to do in the world. In order for these idle people to work and live in peace and stability, they should be allowed to cultivate more fields outside. , creating more jobs.

But in this case, it is also necessary for those in power to further enlighten the people's wisdom, so that the people realize the importance of observing order, and then be willing to do things to increase the cake, not to grab the cake of vested interests, nor to cause trouble at the bottom.

"Mr. Zhang, Mr. Zhang, you are really powerful. Things that make the rulers have to enlighten the people have indeed become a reality."

After all, if they were allowed to go directly to local officials to serve as officials, no one knows whether these Confucian scholars would follow the ideas of Datong Society in both overt and overt ways.

After all, he has now decided to join the Datong Society, so he naturally does not dare to let Zhang Cheng doubt his loyalty.

After all, for the people at the bottom, books are almost the only channel for them to obtain advanced knowledge.

“It also forced scholar-bureaucrats to sit back and watch the reality that their status was about to decline.”

In this regard, Zhang Cheng decided that before the newly compiled book is officially published, it will be reviewed carefully by a dedicated person, so that there is no need to worry about big problems.

Following Zhang Cheng's instructions, he began to plan how to compile some popular historical books and reference books for retrieving texts, articles, and poems. He also drew up a list for Zhang Cheng, hoping that the cabinet could recruit some Confucian scholars recommended by him. As a scholar, he worked in the Department of Civil Affairs and assisted in the compilation of corresponding books.

The next day.

It is always better to let those Confucian scholars from the Old Rites period be responsible for the construction of books than for them to be responsible for government affairs.

In order to strengthen the construction of books and allow more popular science readings and dictionary reference books to appear, Zhang Cheng also specially compiled some drafts of reference books for Liu Bowen. For example, he proposed a compilation draft for Liu Bowen based on the model of Xinhua Dictionary. According to the draft of the dictionary, he was asked to compile a dictionary that could meet the basic needs of people all over the world for looking up words.

Therefore, to enlighten people’s wisdom, book construction is very important.

"Although what he did was just to promote miraculous skills, it is precisely this kind of miraculous skills. Once it rapidly advances to the point where it can benefit the people and the country on a large scale in a short period of time, no matter how moral it is, no matter how noble it is, , Even the most resourceful people cannot prevent this situation from happening. "

He wants to build large-scale roads as well as railways in the future.

Of course, these Confucian scholars are responsible for the construction of books, and there may be cases of stuffing private goods.

Liu Bowen was quite surprised by Zhang Cheng's emphasis on book construction, especially on dictionaries and word pronunciation.

However, Liu Bowen also lamented: "Perhaps in China in the future, everyone will really know the national justice. Although this will make it difficult for everyone to govern everyone, it will save China from having to be destroyed by the barbarians again." also!"

After the emergence of cement, Zhang Cheng officially started production.

Zhang Cheng naturally agrees that the Yuan Dynasty's loose management and insufficient attention to cultural undertakings made the achievements of book construction inferior to those of the two Song Dynasties.

Liu Bowen couldn't sleep that night because of this, and he couldn't help but sigh.

Therefore, Liu Bowen did not dare to neglect.

Now, Zhang Cheng wants to restore China and prosper Chinese culture, so he will naturally increase his efforts to build the book industry.

He really didn't expect that Zhang Cheng was not only interested in exploring various creative skills and theoretical interests among the people, but also really focused on specific cultural and educational projects to open up people's wisdom, and even went so far as to unify the pronunciation of Chinese characters in the world.

But Zhang Cheng did not dare to directly start large-scale construction, at least he did not dare to directly use corvee methods to recruit people to build a large-scale transportation system. It was still just a method of hiring idle labor with high wages.

Because of the limited civilian capacity, although agricultural food production is currently very high, the non-agricultural population is mainly employed in the military and industries serving the military.

Large-scale infrastructure construction will have to wait until the basic unification tasks are completed in the future.

Even cement, according to Zhang Cheng's plan, will be mainly used in the military.

For example, Zhang Cheng currently plans to build taller lighthouses and stronger shelters at important coastal ports after the cement production is put into operation, so as to improve the safety of the navy in subsequent sea operations and enhance the Chinese military's combat capabilities at sea. Prepare to send the fleet to Japan to develop Iwami Ginzan next.

At present, the Chinese army has captured Mingzhou, which will later be known as Ningbo. This has always been an important route for Japanese people to come to China and for Chinese people to go to Japan. According to the historical records of Ming Dynasty officials, it takes seven days to reach Satsuma, Kyushu, from Mingzhou.

Now, the Chinese army's warships have been improved to new large sailing ships with integrated cabins and ships that are more suitable for sea navigation. Therefore, as long as the ships are sent from Mingzhou, it will be faster and safer.

However, the weather at sea is complicated, and it is inevitable that warships will return without success due to strong winds. This requires a lighthouse on the shore to be high enough so that warships can quickly find a safe haven and avoid greater losses.

Zhang Cheng has asked Shu Anguo to serve as governor of Zhejiang, specifically responsible for organizing manpower, material resources, and financial resources to build lighthouses, shelters, and shelter seawalls.

Now the Hangningshao area in Zhejiang Province has just come under the rule of Datong Society. There are many landless poor people who need to be resettled. Now it is time to organize the construction of lighthouses, shelters and shelter seawalls.

When Shu Anguo goes to Zhejiang, he only needs to bring a large amount of food and organize the landless poor to work in the name of work-for-work relief.

However, secrecy has always been important in governing.

Therefore, Zhang Cheng did not tell too many people that the purpose of building the lighthouse and seaport was to go to sea to seize high-quality minerals such as Iwami Silver Mountain. He only told Zhu Yuanzhang and a few other people who could decide the direction of Datong Society that he would strengthen the maritime The true purpose of naval power.

Zhang Cheng only said to the outside world that he was strengthening the construction of the navy so that he could better destroy the Yuan in the future and speed up the process of unifying Kyushu through land and water.

Because of this, many Datong Society officials who are not really loyal to the Datong concept are still collecting money crazily, mainly collecting gold and silver crazily, in order to occupy more wealth in the future.

For example, Hu Weiyong has already collected a lot of gold and silver from corruption, and has also attracted many civil and military officials to collect gold and silver with him, frantically destroying the integrity within the Datong Society.

Li Shanchang became even more speechless because of Hu Weiyong's behavior.

Li Shanchang had to dissuade Hu Weiyong and said: "More and more people are joining the Datong Society now. Even famous people like Liu Bowen have taken the initiative to join the Datong Society. You must remember to restrain yourself and don't let others have the opportunity to step on you and me." Head on!"

Hu Weiyong didn't take Li Shanchang's advice seriously. He didn't think Liu Bowen, a Confucian scholar from eastern Zhejiang, could do anything to him. After all, he believed that the binding of interests would spread his power across the government and the public. Not to mention Liu Bowen, it would be Zhu Yuanzhang. He Zhangcheng couldn't do anything to him.

But on the surface, Hu Weiyong still respectfully bowed his head to Li Shanchang and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Ge, the disciples will definitely pay more attention and won't let them get caught."

Li Shanchang nodded: "That's good!"

For Li Shanchang, he now feels very conflicted and annoyed.

On the one hand, he is obsessed with the feeling of being treated respectfully like a master by people like Hu Weiyong. On the other hand, he hopes that overseas minerals such as Iwami Silver Mountain can really be discovered, so that he, as the founder of Datong Society, can also get a share. Plenty of bonuses.

Li Shanchang did not expect that things would turn out like this.

Zhang Cheng had not yet begun to corrupt and degenerate as he expected because of his excessive power and was controlled by people like himself. However, he could not help but become corrupt and degenerate and was hijacked by Hu Weiyong and others.

At the same time, he had not influenced Zhang Cheng to the point where he would not hesitate to start a bloody internal fight for power, but he was influenced by Zhang Cheng and wanted to quickly develop external resources.

In short, Li Shanchang is now in a dilemma.

However, he did not tell Hu Weiyong what Zhang Cheng said at the Tingyi Bureau about Shi Jian Yinshan.

He will not let these resources be divided by one more person.

The same goes for Guo Tianxu. He did not tell Guo Tianjue what Zhang Cheng said at the court meeting about Shi Jian Yinshan.

This has led to Hu Weiyong and Guo Tianjue now having no idea about the layout of the top power circle of Datong Society, and they are still indulged in the activities of giving and accepting bribes and making friends, and they think that it is because of their attitude that the higher-ups cannot do anything to them. Sample.

But what they didn't know was that by the beginning of the next year, when the corresponding lighthouse and shelter were almost completed, Tang He's fleet officially began its first eastward journey after arriving in Mingzhou.

at the same time.

Liao Yong'an was also ordered to lead the navy southward from Mingzhou to prevent the Yuan navy navy such as Shi Moyisun and Chen Youding from going north.

Yu Tonghai was ordered to lead the navy northward to attack Shandong.

The information provided to the outside world by the Privy Council through the "China News" only stated that the large-scale naval dispatch was only to block the Hu Yuanliang Road.

Because Chen Youding and others in Fujian are still delivering food to Yuan Ting by sea.

The Datong Society could not sit idly by and watch this behavior of Han people helping the captives. It not only wanted to criticize Chen Youding's behavior of betraying the nation in the "China News", but also dispatched military force to resolutely eliminate it.

(End of this chapter)