Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 351 The real emperor

The feudal system was decided a few days ago. None of the ministers had expected that the emperor would implement it so soon and give away two islands at once.

This surprised them, and at the same time they felt the emperor's determination to implement the feudal system.

Under the temptation of the real fiefdom, the ministers actively discussed and finally decided to select a vassal king and one or several meritorious officials and divide them into two islands.

The specific princes and meritorious officials need to apply on their own initiative, and then the matter will be seriously discussed in the court.

Zhu Youjian ordered the Ministry of Rites and the Zongzheng Temple to organize the relevant information and inform the descendants of princes and meritorious officials who came to Beijing.

The purpose of this division was obviously to allow the disaster victims in Shaanxi to move there. Considering the difficulty involved, Yuan Keli, the Minister of War, suggested:

"Your Majesty, since we need to relocate the disaster victims in Shaanxi, I think that when selecting vassal kings and meritorious officials, those who are born in Shaanxi should be given priority."

"This way, the people of Shaanxi will be more familiar with them and willing to follow them."

"The court can send officials to preside over the migration and relocate some garrisons at the same time, with the soldiers from the garrisons maintaining order in the migration."

Immigration is easy to say, but it is not an easy task. Not only do you have to prepare the place to immigrate to, prepare food along the way, but you also have to make people willing to migrate.

Moreover, the journey is long and many people will die along the way. If some immigrants cannot bear it and are instigated by others on the road, there is a possibility of unrest.

Therefore, Yuan Keli suggested relocating some garrisons and restraining these immigrants under the leadership of the garrison officers and soldiers.

At the same time, since the soldiers of the garrison were still the army after all and had certain combat effectiveness, they could protect the immigrants when they were overseas.

Zhu Youjian had previously thought about how to expand overseas immigration and considered using guards. The Dongning Guard and Jinjiao Guard established earlier were an attempt.

So when he heard Yuan Keli's suggestion, he approved of it and asked him to arrange officials to be responsible for immigration and relocation of garrisons.

At the same time, he told his ministers about the military and civilian guards he had proposed earlier. He believed that all immigrants who arrived overseas should first be organized into guards so that they could be organized and deal with various crises. Only after stability could they be changed into counties.

When immigrants arrived overseas, each household was allocated at least one hectare of land in order to attract refugees and encourage them to migrate overseas.

Military households should be given preferential treatment. When they go overseas, they should be classified as military and civilian households just like civilian households, and they should be allocated at least one square mile of permanent farmland to encourage them to migrate.

Officers will be treated more favorably, and according to their hereditary titles, they will be transferred to corresponding nobles, and will be allocated a territory of at least ten li.

It can be said that Zhu Youjian used his title and territory to buy out the merits of hereditary officials so that the Ming Dynasty would no longer have to bear this burden.

For hereditary officials and military households who did not obey the imperial order and were unwilling to move, if the local garrison was abolished, they could be transferred to other garrisons, or they could be allocated the land left by the garrison based on their ancestors' merits. However, they would be converted into civilian households and no longer receive any preferential treatment.

However, the border defense pressure in Shaanxi is relatively high and requires soldiers to guard it. The specific number of garrisons that can be relocated and which garrisons to relocate require consultation between the Ministry of War and the Five Military Governors' Headquarters and the local governors and garrisons.

A plan also needs to be put in place to distribute the land left behind after the relocation of the garrisons. In particular, the land of some garrisons is now occupied by military officers or local wealthy households. How to get them to give up the land and redistribute it will be a test of the ability of local officials.

For this reason, Zhu Youjian decided to grant the acting Governor-General of the Three Borders Sun Chuanting the Imperial Sword, giving him full responsibility for this matter.

They even planned to impose martial law on the grounds that Shaanxi was the hardest hit area to prevent unrest and facilitate disaster relief.

However, there was great controversy among the ministers about this matter, because according to the martial law law, the emperor could issue imperial decrees directly to the martial law area without discussing it in the court.

Therefore, the ministers generally did not want to increase the martial law area, especially those who were worried about whether a major disaster would occur in Shaanxi, who were very opposed to this.

The statement made by Yuan Keli, the Minister of War, represented the opinions of many officials: "If there is indeed news of a disaster in Shaanxi and migration is confirmed, I think Shaanxi can be designated as a martial law zone, and the prefectures and counties along the migration route can also be included."

"Your Majesty, please be patient and don't lose your composure!"

How could Zhu Youjian not be anxious? Because he knew clearly that the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty started this year, and a major disaster in Shaanxi was certain, brewing a crisis that could overthrow the Ming Dynasty.

Otherwise, why would he pretend to be a god, speak out historical knowledge as if it were a dream, and discuss disaster relief in the court?

But what Yuan Keli said also made sense. Facing opposition from his ministers, Zhu Youjian could only hold back and wait for news from Shaanxi to arrive, so as to avoid confrontation between the monarch and his ministers, which would be even more detrimental to disaster relief.

Today's court meeting was mainly to discuss civil unrest and disaster relief. Zhu Youjian and his ministers discussed many details and arranged the persons in charge of various matters. They were not released until it was getting dark.

After a full day of meetings, all the officials felt exhausted. However, many people did not have time to rest. For example, Xu Guangqi hurried to the church in the capital with the conditions proposed by the emperor to discuss with the Jesuit missionaries.

Yuan Keli, who was appointed as a member of the Anti-Rebellion and Disaster Relief Committee and had almost the power of the Prime Minister, was surrounded by many officials to discuss today's affairs.

Left Vice-Minister of the Imperial Censorate Li Banghua said:
"What happened today is really unbelievable."

"What does Mr. Yuan think?"

Yuan Keli also found it unbelievable and now couldn't believe some of the things that happened in the meeting.

However, as a minister trusted by the emperor and now shouldering an important responsibility, he naturally could not undermine the emperor. He said to Li Banghua and the ministers who were looking at him:

"The Master does not speak of strange things, supernatural powers, or gods; he respects them but keeps them at a distance."

"But your majesty is the emperor after all. We cannot know what he can sense."

"Since it cannot be disproven, we might as well believe it for now!"

What this means is that we will know whether the drought is real or not when we hear news from Shaanxi. This is something that can be verified, so there is no need to be too anxious.

As for now, just treat this as true and follow the emperor's instructions to make disaster relief preparations.

The ministers around him nodded in agreement after hearing this. Most of them were skeptical of the emperor's statement, but as Yuan Keli said, there was no need to be too anxious about something that could be verified in a month or two.

After all, in their concept of time, one or two months is a short time and can be verified quickly.

Under Yuan Keli's persuasion, most of the ministers who wanted to advise on this matter decided to wait for another month or two and decide whether to submit a memorial after receiving news about the situation in Shaanxi.

If there had been no drought in Shaanxi, they would definitely have advised against it, and might even have criticized the emperor to the point of not wanting to meet his ministers, just like they did with Emperor Wanli.

But if the drought in Shaanxi was true, they would have to seriously consider how to face this emperor who could communicate between heaven and earth.

After all, this is the real Son of Heaven, who can communicate with the spirits of ancestors. Who wouldn't feel awe in front of such an emperor?
There are even many people who have been thinking about whether they should make great contributions so that this true emperor will confer the title of god to them.

It can be said that although Zhu Youjian’s dream theory is risky, once it is confirmed, he will have supreme influence in this era.

This is also the reason why he told the history through dreams after pondering for a long time. (End of this chapter)

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