Ming Dynasty: A hundred-year-old immortal cultivator, Zhu Yuanzhang’s biological father

"Princess Zhu was released from prison so quickly... Is it possible... that the old man was fanning the flames?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the central hall of Xu's mansion fell into endless silence again.

Xu Miaojin was very curious: "Why do you say that? The old man doesn't know Mr. Zhu."

Xu Huizu looked at Xu Miaojin and said in a deep voice: "What if I know her?"

Xu Miaojin was stunned for a moment, staring at Xu Huizu, and asked in a trembling voice: "Brother, what do you mean by this?"

Xu Huizu shook his head: "I don't know, I haven't figured it out yet. I'll tell you after I find out."

"In any case, let's keep our troops in place."

"Well! Let's speed up the development of the academy. It will also leave a way out for the Xu family."

"hope……"

Xu Huizu's eyes were somewhat complicated, and he said: "I hope the old man is not targeting the Xu family!"

Memorials flew into the Jinshen Hall of the imperial palace like snowflakes.

The censors of various departments and the Censorate were all persuading the old man to stop the killing.

More and more people were being executed, and the people of Yingtian City were in panic, which was not conducive to the stability of the dynasty.

However, when the memorial entered the palace, it seemed to fall on deaf ears and there was no response at all.

Of course they didn't know that Zhu Yuanzhang was not in the imperial palace at all.

On the outskirts of Jiangning, Zhu Xiongying was walking along the ridge of a field with an old man on his arm.

Who could have imagined that the emperor who had stirred up the bloodbath in Yingtian was now just like an old farmer, leisurely strolling in the fields?
Likewise, who could have imagined that the eldest grandson of the Ming Dynasty, who had caused the death of a high-ranking official thousands of miles away with just a piece of paper, was now walking in the countryside with his old man?
Jiaozhi, thousands of miles away.

A document is urgently delivered by a knight, and the peaceful Jiaozhi City will also be plunged into a bloody storm!
Two killing machines, two promoters of killing, one in Yingtian, the other in Jiaozhi, competing in slaughter!

It rained in southern Xinjiang.

It relieves some of the heat in southern Xinjiang.

Jiaozhi is located in a tropical rainforest climate, where it is dry and hot all year round.

It's chilly in Yingtian in spring, but it's extremely hot here.

A dusty knight came from Yingtian City to Jiaozhi in the dust.

The Jiaozhi Chengxuan Administration was different from the prefecture and county system of the Ming Dynasty. There were eleven departments here, including the Jiaozhi Department, Wuping Department, Wenlang Department in the north, Junning Department, Jiuzhen Department in the middle, and Huaiteng Department, Jiude Department in the southernmost part.

Looking around, the entire Jiaozhi's urban construction is extremely backward, and almost all the houses are made of mud.

Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, they have been barbaric tribes with backward production, economy and culture.

Now, after the Ming Dynasty conquered Jiaozhi Provincial Administration, the tribal system here began to gradually transform into a prefecture and county system.

The Ming Dynasty's political power and culture are gradually invading the various tribes in Jiaozhou.

The Jiaozhou Provincial Administration Office was the first office in charge of Jiaozhi. There was no governor here because the governor was a high-ranking official of the second rank registered by the imperial court.

The imperial Ming court would not send a super-prefect to govern this barren land.

Therefore, the nominal highest official of Jiaozhi Provincial Administration was Xie Jin, a fifth-rank left councilor and Xie Dashen.

At this time, in the adobe yamen, Xie Jin lit a kerosene lamp and was processing the documents of the eleven tribes on the table as well as data on land statistics, population statistics, financial statistics, etc.

The entire Governor's Office is so shabby that it makes people sigh in admiration.

Compared with the luxurious and imposing buildings in the Central Plains, the Jiaozhi Provincial Government Office is not even as good as the rural areas in the Central Plains.

In fact, apart from the architectural complex in the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty, the conditions in many places are similar to those in Jiaozhou.

Why did the officials of the Ming Dynasty call these places barbaric and barren lands? Because that is exactly what they meant!
High-ranking officials of the dynasty have always been arrogant and disdainful of these places.

This is also true.

Because compared with the powerful Ming Dynasty, they really did not deserve the slightest respect from any official in the court.

Except for the Nine Provinces of China, all the places you see are barbarians!
The conditions were very difficult, and the officials transferred from the imperial court, especially the old scholars and bureaucrats, all complained.

The hardships here far exceeded Li Jin's expectations.

The total amount of money left over from the entire Jiaozhi was no more than a few hundred thousand taels of silver!

These hundreds of thousands of taels of silver are not as much as the Tianyun Temple’s income in half a year.

For a Chief Secretary, this amount of money can do nothing!
In addition to financial constraints, the people's farming was even more backward. They used straight plows from the pre-Tang period for farming, which was time-consuming and laborious.

Medical care... There is no such thing as medical care at all. When people here get sick, they either recover on their own or wait to die.

Etiquette education?
There is no need to be extravagant about this. The literacy rate in Jiaozhi is only a little bit. If you go out on the street and catch people, you will find that almost all of them are illiterate.

The infrastructure is scarce, with only mud houses; the finances are weak, with a total of more than 100,000 taels of silver; the medical care is backward and almost non-existent; education is difficult, with the average person being illiterate!
All of this is a fatal problem for Xie Jin!

However, Xie Jin had no complaints. On the fifth day of the year, he left Yingtian and traveled day and night to get here.

Xie Jin never thought of retreating in the slightest.

Zhu Xiongying’s bold words kept echoing in Xie Jin’s mind!

He said that he would give the Crown Prince a prosperous kingdom!

He also knew that he had a long way to go. The success or failure of Jiaozhi was the key point for the eldest grandson of the Ming Dynasty and the crown prince to be exposed to the world.

The importance here is not only about governance, but also about Zhu Huai’s future and the future of the Ming Dynasty!
Late at night.

Xie Jin rubbed his swollen head. He hadn't had a good night's sleep in the past nine days.

Although Xie Jin still has the confidence to improve the above problems, the biggest difficulties at present come from within.

Since officials from all walks of life in the government institutions did not cooperate, Xie Jin's work could not be carried out at all.

The majesty and authority of the Chief Secretary were nothing but empty talk and became a laughing stock.

No one cares about this young left-wing politician, and no one is afraid of him. Although he appears to be friendly on the surface, he is actually disobeying his will behind the scenes.

Over time, the Chief Secretary will become too powerful to be implemented and no policy will be able to be implemented.

We need to cut the Gordian knot!
dong dong dong.

There was a knock on the door, and Xie Jin said nonchalantly, "Come in."

"grown ups!"

A knight knelt on one knee.

Xie Jin was shocked: "A letter?"

"Give it to me!"

Xie Jin hurriedly opened the letter, and there were eight words written on it: "Kill him to establish authority, everything is up to me!"

These eight simple words seem to carry some kind of magic.

It made Xie Jin's face twisted with excitement!

He knew that old bureaucrats like Hong Xuebin had powerful networks in Yingtian City.

It’s not that he didn’t dare to kill, but he was afraid of the impact on Yingtian.

Now after seeing Zhu Xiongying's reply, Xie Jin no longer had any worries.

"You've worked hard, go and have a rest."

Xie Jin finished speaking to the knight calmly, and the sorrow of the past few days slowly faded away from his face. He washed his face, reviewed some documents, and then went to bed.

The next morning, the governor held a regular court meeting. Like the governor of Jiaozhi and the governor of Ming Dynasty, all the officials under its jurisdiction would gather at the governor's office for a meeting every day.

As usual, several old scholars came early and sat on the armchairs to drink tea.

Hong Xuebin was lazy. He was transferred from editor of the Hanlin Academy to left councilor of Jiaozhi Provincial Government. Logically speaking, he was promoted.

Not only was he the Left Counselor of the Provincial Government, he was also the chief official of the three departments in the southern part of Jiaozhou.

The authority in Jiaozhi is very great.

At this moment, he was holding a cup of tea and drinking it slowly. As an old bureaucrat, he was still very Buddhist, with the style of remaining calm even when the sky was falling.

"Master Hong."

A provincial government official said calmly, "What do you think Mr. Jie is doing so hard?"

"How long are we going to stay in this wild place?"

Hong Xuebin raised his eyelids, looked at him, took a sip of tea and said: "I don't know, it's a good thing that Master Jie is attentive. After all, it's the first time he has held an important position, so naturally he has to do something. We just need to cooperate, haha."

Councillor Hong was a very knowledgeable official, and his words were always serious, but he only pretended to obey.

"But," said the experienced official, "we have already measured the land once before. Why are we doing it again this time? Isn't this a duplication of work? How can we have so much time to accompany Jie Canzheng to make trouble?"

Hong Xuebin said with a smile: "Whatever Lord Jie wants, we will give it to him. It's not like we won't give it to him."

"But, we still give you the data from last time... We just changed it manually. Sir, will you find anything?"

Hong Xuebin laughed: "Wang Jingli, do you think a young boy can find anything? Does he know how to measure land? Does he know that it takes a month or more to measure land? Does he know how big an acre is?"

"I don't even care to say anything!"

"I don't even know why the emperor sent such a loser to Jiaozhi? Who is the person behind him? Why did he have such great power to bring him here?"

"What qualifications does he have to teach me how to do things?"

"Haha, but it's good. With this young man like this, if anything happens in Jiaozhi, it can't be blamed on us."

"The implication is that they can just mess around. The court will evaluate the quality of Jiaozhi's governance, and it will also evaluate Xie Jin. It has little to do with them."

"Wang Jingli, you are also a veteran in the officialdom. Why are you still acting like those young officials?"

"Look at those young officials. They are working hard now, but what will be the final result?"

"After five years of assessment, thousands of soldiers and horses have fought their way out. Only by luck can one be promoted to a half-level official. Even those with bad luck may need ten years or even longer!"

"The Ministry of Personnel of the Ming Dynasty has a rule that any official who has not committed a serious fault will be promoted to a higher level every ten years."

"As long as we don't do anything, we won't make mistakes. If we don't make mistakes, we can get promoted in ten years. Why bother making ourselves unhappy?"

Since ancient times, grassroots officials have been most afraid of this kind of old bureaucrat.

Because they are well versed in the rules of officialdom, they have no effect on the development of the country.

The demise of the Song Dynasty is the best lesson. There were too many redundant officials and too many officials who did not do their job, which eventually brought down the Song Dynasty!

In the late Ming Dynasty, it was the existence of such a group of people that made the precarious Ming Dynasty even worse, and finally became the last straw that broke the camel's back!
While talking.

Xie Jin walked in.

Everyone remained silent for a moment.

Xie Jin looked around and finally fixed his eyes on Hong Xuebin: "Sir Hong, it seems that you haven't given me the results of the land survey of the three southern parts of Jiaozhi yet."

Hong Xuebin said disapprovingly: "Oh? Really? I'll go get it right away."

"No need!"

Xie Jin stopped Hong Xuebin and said, "Master Hong, the land has not been measured yet. Have you done the population census? How many people are there in Wuping?"

Hong Xuebin said: "About 30,000."

The room fell into silence.

Everyone stared at Hong Xuebin with strange eyes.

Xie Jin sneered: "Master Hong, do you know that the Wuping tribe is not in the south, but in the north? Which three tribes are under your jurisdiction?"

Hong Xuebin was stunned: "This... um, I forgot for a moment."

"Somebody come!"

Xie Jin shouted sternly: "Tie up Hong Xuebin, the left councilor of Jiaozhi's provincial government!"

The sky is deep blue, like a huge mirror, dotted with a few white clouds.

Inside the courtyard of Jiaozhi Provincial Government, no one had time to appreciate the beautiful sky.

Everyone was shocked by Xie Jin.

He... kidnapped Senator Hong?
Hong Xuebin didn't expect that the young man in front of him would be so tough.

He screamed: "Mr. Jie! What do you want to do?!"

Xie Jin stared at him and looked around at the officials in the Governor's Office.

He took out a land survey result of Wuping and Wenlang tribes from his wide sleeves.

"Before I took office in Jiaozhi, I asked you to measure the land twice."

"The results of Wuping and Wenlang are out. I have verified them on the spot. They are accurate in all the villages."

"What about you, Senator Hong? You don't even know the population of your jurisdiction, or even the number of departments under your jurisdiction! What are you busy with, Senator Hong?"

"Okay, that's nothing. After all, Councillor Hong hasn't been here for long, so it's normal for him to be overwhelmed."

"But the emperor has ordered that all the people of Jiaozhi are also subjects of the Ming Dynasty and should be treated equally."

"Councilor Hong governs the three southern tribes. People from different places compete with each other for land. The tribes with more young and strong people encroach on the young and old people in the tribe, causing the balance of land distribution to tilt."

"I asked you to deal with this matter intensively within five days."

"What about now? The fields in the three southern regions are in chaos again. As long as the village is strong, more and more land will be distributed. In a village, many people have more than a hectare of land, while the elderly can only get land a hundred steps away."

"Councilor Hong, are you ignoring my words?"

Hong Xuebin looked at Xie Jin angrily: "I don't have time to educate those barbarians! They can only be solved by force. What can I do?"

Xie Jin said calmly: "How they solve the problem has nothing to do with whether you care about them or not."

"If all the officials of Jiaozhi are like you, who only know how to sit in the government office and drink tea and take naps, how can Jiaozhi be governed? What is the point of Your Majesty conquering Jiaozhi? What is the point of us coming thousands of miles to govern Jiaozhi?"

Hong Xuebin sneered: "Don't threaten me with His Majesty. I'm not afraid of being scared! What have I done wrong?"

Xie Jin said indifferently: "Master Hong asked me what you did wrong?"

"He is lazy and incompetent, idle and arrogant, disobeys orders from above, and leads the way in corrupting Jiaozhi officials!"

"You are wrong as an official, but your heart does not care about the people!" "You are wrong as a minister, but your heart does not respect the king!"

"You are wrong for being disrespectful to your superiors!"

"You are wrong in living a life of idleness and waiting for death, and you are wrong in being useless. You have made too many mistakes that I can no longer count them all!"

At the end, Xie Jin shouted loudly, and his roar reached the sky.

"Someone come! Cut him down!"

(End of this chapter)