Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 245 The king was furious: You are deceiving God!
Chen Youliang did what he said. He no longer followed the Yuan system and respected Neo-Confucianism. Instead, he copied the system of Datong Society. He also set up a court council, a cabinet and a privy council, and ordered the emperors to divide the land.

At the same time, Chen Youliang also lifted the ban on Datong coins and allowed trade with Datong Society.

For this reason, Chen Youliang also sent people to express his goodwill to Zhu Yuanzhang and seek peace.

Here in Datong Club, everyone was relieved and even more excited after defeating Chen Youliang.

Zhu Yuanzhang's personal prestige also reached an unprecedented peak.

At the same time, the concept of Datong has become more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang himself admired the concept of Datong brought by Zhang Cheng even more.

As Zhu Yuanzhang said, it doesn't matter whether he likes it or not, the truth is the truth.

But when Zhu Yuanzhang learned that Chen Youliang also wanted to implement the concept of Datong, carry out internal affairs reforms, and also set up a community to enrich the people, he became worried. He came to Zhang Cheng specifically and asked Zhang Cheng:

"Mr. Zhang, do you think Chen Youliang can make it?"

"It can't happen!"

Zhang Cheng gave his answer without hesitation.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked: "Why?"

Zhang Cheng replied: "He learned too late!"

"Not to mention that there won't be many people around him who support him. Even if they are really selfless and willing to support him, if he wants to enrich the people and strengthen the army, he must also develop industry and open up markets!"

"But these all take time. By the time it develops, we have already controlled the world's markets, and we have made the people richer."

"At that time, he couldn't make money from industry at all. He would only forcefully develop industry at the expense of agriculture, making people's lives worse. And the people would rather join Datong Society than work with him."

"Besides, we are all compatriots of the same race. As long as the people have a political power that can lead everyone to get rich together, they will not need another one."

"Unless the first one gives up on his original intention."

After Zhang Cheng said this, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded solemnly, with a thoughtful look on his face:

"We understand that to forge iron we need to be strong. As long as we always insist on seeking wealth for the people, we are not afraid that Chen Youliang will succeed!"

"That's exactly what it means!"

"As the people's wisdom expands, the people of the world will gradually realize that they are the masters of the world. The role of the people will become greater, and they will take the initiative to eliminate those who are not suitable to lead their regime."

After Zhang Cheng said this, he added: "So, I plan to continue to use the opportunity of recycling a large amount of cloth coins to build additional railways and use the steam locomotives that have been developed in industry! At the same time, let Zhang Shicheng agree to let us do it for him Build the railway and prepare for the future Northern Expedition!”

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang asked: "Will Zhang Shicheng agree?"

"Will do!"

"Because now Zhang Shicheng has no ambition. He only knows how to build a large-scale construction project and pursue a life of luxury and enjoyment. He also wants to commend his benevolence and reward and allocate money everywhere. There will be no shortage of places to spend money."

"It is said that it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. Taking this opportunity, when Zhang Shicheng encounters insufficient money, he will naturally need to borrow money from us. Then we will encourage him to build the railway, and He was asked to use the right to operate the railway as collateral for the loan. At that time, it was impossible for him to be unwilling for the sake of his own luxurious and peaceful life. "

Zhang Cheng replied.

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang thought attentively and said: "We give him a loan, and he has to buy various handicrafts and industrial products from us, and we make a fortune. Then we build a railway for him and make another fortune from them. Then he got the mortgage rights of his railway and made another fortune. Doesn’t that mean that Zhang Shicheng got nothing, but the traffic was controlled by us? "

"Yes, this is equivalent to letting him take the initiative to put the rope we tie around his neck, so that he will take the initiative to become our dog in the future and accept our recruitment! After all, if he doesn't listen to us , he will be strangled to death by us.”

Zhang Cheng replied with a smile.

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and pointed at Zhang Cheng: "Well, Mr. Zhang, your method of forcing people to take the initiative to be slaves is really clever!"

"As long as the world's resources and troops belong to the people, then Zhang Shicheng will just become a slave of the people. This is a good thing for him!"

Zhang Cheng replied with a smile.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded.

Then, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Zhang Cheng again: "So, can Chen Youliang be dealt with in this way?"

"As long as he shows good will and is willing to cease the war, he can naturally do so. It is best to surrender without fighting. It can preserve the population as much as possible. Population is also a resource. Besides, the purpose of our Datong Society is to make everyone as wealthy as possible."

Zhang Cheng replied.

Zhu Yuanzhang put his hands on his hips and said: "Okay, we will allow him Chen Youliang to negotiate peace. From then on, we will still only use troops against Hu Yuan and the forces loyal to Hu Yuan!"

Later, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Zhang Cheng: "Do you think Hu Yuan will also promote the concept of great harmony?"

"That won't happen!"

"There is no reason to kill yourself."

Zhang Cheng replied decisively. Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "Yes!"

Besides, Zhang Shicheng also soon learned the news that Chen Youliang was defeated and lost more than ten cities in a row.

This made Zhang Shicheng laugh uncontrollably: "Chen Youliang is even worse than Gu, hahaha!"

"Gu Zaonian said that Datong Society can't afford to offend him, so don't do it, but he didn't listen. What happened? Even the newly established capital was taken over by others."

Zhang Shicheng laughed and continued talking.

Zhang Shixin then chimed in and said, "Brother is right. In my humble opinion, sometimes, tolerance is also a skill. As long as we can tolerate what ordinary people cannot tolerate, we can also obtain benefits that ordinary people cannot obtain."

"You are not ignorant, this is true knowledge!"

Zhang Shicheng now acted as if he had won this great victory by himself. He held his head high and his chest high. When Zhang Shixin was summing up, he interjected this sentence and said:

"If Gu didn't hold back and still socialized with Datong, how could I, Dazhou, be as prosperous as I am now?"

Zhang Shicheng's regime of the Great Zhou Dynasty was indeed very prosperous. Not only did the treasury revenue increase significantly, the peasant uprisings also rarely occurred because Zhang Shicheng's efforts to provide work-for-relief were greater than before. The increase in productivity brought about by the work-for-relief also made the Great Zhou The total social wealth of the regime has increased a lot, and naturally it appears to be very prosperous.

And because of this, Zhang Shicheng felt that he was smarter than Chen Youliang, so he chose to get along well with the Datong Society instead of thinking about destroying the Datong Society, and actively suppressed his own enterprising spirit.

But precisely because Zhang Shicheng lost his enterprising spirit, he paid more and more attention to the taste of life, and the palace expenses increased.

And his princes and ministers also followed suit. After all, he, as a king, loves to enjoy, so they will naturally enjoy it even more.

As a result, it didn't take long for Zhang Shicheng's treasury to begin to dry up.

This made Zhang Shicheng start to have difficulties. If it weren't for the officials and merchants of Datong Society who increased his main income, he would have wanted to collect business taxes ten years in advance.

But fortunately at this time, Zhang Cheng sent someone to meet Zhang Shicheng and said that in order to promote trade between the two parties, Datong Society could provide them with loans to help them build the railway, but they only needed to use the completed railway operating rights as collateral.

"Your Highness, I cannot agree, this is Zhang Cheng's treacherous plan!"

"He wants to control our traffic, and then control our lifeline, and even achieve the goal of easily destroying our Great Zhou!"

"Obviously, his Datong Society cannot directly annex us because he has to use his troops elsewhere, so he came up with such a vicious plan."

Naturally, there were sensible people under Zhang Shicheng's command, and his right-hand Prime Minister Mei Sizu immediately persuaded Zhang Shicheng to come.

Zhang Shicheng nodded. He also knew that Mei Sizu was right, but when he thought about his current huge expenses, he couldn't object directly. He only asked other ministers: "Do you have any different opinions?"

"Brother, troops and horses came to report yesterday that the river burst again. Three counties were flooded with river water. There are about 100,000 victims in need of relief."

"But now that the treasury is depleted, if we don't agree, we will have to watch the more than 100,000 victims turn into refugees, then into thieves, and finally rebel. By then, it will still cost money to annihilate them, and the key is that they will be easily Datong Society took the opportunity to launch an attack.”

"So, in my humble opinion, it is better to agree to a loan to build the railway. This will at least solve the problem of the victims having no work and food to eat, and it will indeed make the trade routes smoother."

Zhang Shixin put forward his own opinion at this time.

Zhang Shicheng nodded: "The people are orphans. Since they have been affected by the disaster, how can we not provide relief and force them to become rebels?"

"Think twice, Your Highness!"

"The Trade and Commerce Datong Society has benefited the people and harmed our sovereignty. If we agree to loan money to build the railway now, we will undoubtedly be killed!"

"The river will not burst open sooner or later. I'm afraid it's the work of spies colluding with the Datong Society."

Minister Gong Boyue also stood up and expressed his opinion at this time. When he said this, he glanced at Zhang Shixin. He suspected that Zhang Shixin deliberately caused the river to burst, and continued:
"Besides, even if the river bursts and we need to provide disaster relief, we can definitely impose additional taxes on the people of other states. To achieve the purpose of relief, there is no need to use loans from Datong Society."

"Is it the act of a benevolent king to increase taxes and levy taxes on the people?!"

"How can I let my brother do something that is detrimental to his holiness?"

"And as a descendant of a noble saint, how come you only know how to suffer the common people?"

"Although the affected people were comforted, it forced other people to rebel. Can the public bear this responsibility?"

“I really don’t know if the public is incompetent or has no love for the people!”

Zhang Shixin refuted Gong Boyue.

Gong Boyue was so refuted that he blushed. He lost his composure and said, "If I had known this, I should have practiced frugality instead of spending too much money on construction projects!"

"presumptuous!"

Zhang Shicheng couldn't help but start shooting.

Because Gong Boyue is obviously saying that he is not frugal.

Therefore, Zhang Shicheng was furious and said: "I only have ten sets of regular uniforms in the four seasons, and my daily expenses are no more than ten thousand yuan. When did I spend so much? Isn't my expenditure mainly used on disaster relief and rewards for you and other officials and soldiers? You guys actually To say so is simply deceiving!”

(End of this chapter)