Ming politicians

Time has entered April, and Su Tiancheng is even busier.

After occupying Fujian and Zhejiang, Su Tiancheng learned of the imperial court's arrangement and planned to mobilize Zuo Liangyu from Wuchang, Huang Degong from Luzhou, and Sun Tai from Nanzhili to assemble an army of 30 to attack him.Hearing this news, Su Tiancheng was not in a hurry. He knew very well that a decisive battle with the imperial court was about to break out. If he could wipe out the 30 troops, Zhu Youjian would lose most of his reliance. His goal of unifying the Central Plains , can also be realized within the shortest possible time.

Su Tiancheng was not in a hurry to attack South Zhili, including Huguang, Jiangxi and Guangxi, because he had important things to do, and Zhejiang and Fujian had to be stabilized, which required a large number of officials, and officials were always drawn from Shandong, yes It is unrealistic. As more and more places are occupied, they will always be transferred from Shandong, and there will be no successors.

Zhang Pu arrived in Fujian, Yang Sichang also came to Zhejiang, and Lu Shanji also took office in Jinan, Shandong. Su Tiancheng was not particularly satisfied with such an arrangement, but there was nothing he could do about it. Fortunately, it was only a temporary arrangement.

The school built in Dengzhou has become the focus of Su Tiancheng's attention. He asked Zhu Shenxuan to be responsible for all the affairs of the school. Su Pingyang, went into the school, and told all about how he did things when he was the magistrate, and Su Pingyang's key public relations object was Xu Eryi.

Fortunately, Su Pingyang is indeed capable. Through many facts, he persuaded Xu Eryi, let Xu Eryi accept many concepts, and began to teach them to the students in the school.

Su Tiancheng paid attention to this school because the students in the school were unusual.

Many officials in Zhejiang and Fujian.Those who have a good reputation among the common people have all gone to this school to study, usually for a month to two months, have they learned something, have they changed their understanding, and there is a final exam in the school.All those who pass the exam will be arranged to be officials in the prefectural and county yamen.

Talent is the most important thing, and it is even more important to be able to employ people well. Any idea of ​​Su Tiancheng, including any point of view, needs to be implemented by local officials. That Su Tian achieved the unification of the Central Plains.It is also difficult to fundamentally change this dynasty.

Including Yang Sichang, Zhang Pu, Lu Shanji and others, they all studied in the school for a month.

The second is the matter of merchants.

Su Tiancheng attaches great importance to economic development, but he is also very clear that economic development is necessary, and it is even more necessary to control the unlimited growth of merchants. Otherwise, merchants will start to think of controlling the government after they grow to a certain extent.Let officials become their own spokespersons, and money can turn ghosts.

Su Tiancheng's thoughts.We need to support merchants, but the support is limited. After merchants develop to a certain scale, the government will begin to impose heavy taxes to restrict the unlimited development of merchants. As for industries that involve the national economy and people's livelihood.It must be directly controlled by the government, such as preventing land mergers, controlling grain prices, etc. These things involve the vital interests of the common people.It also involves the stability of the dynasty.

The world is developing, and there is no perfect development model. Su Tiancheng knows this very well. What he asks is to be the best. At least he has traveled through hundreds of years, and he has many advanced development models in his mind.

The things of the feudal dynasty are not necessarily things that have declined. The wisdom accumulated a few years ago is the result of the exploration of the predecessors. The development of the times needs to be gradual and cannot be achieved overnight. Su Tiancheng knows this very well, so he has always Very cautious, but also invested a lot of energy in this regard.

What caught Su Tiancheng a little off guard was that Zhu Shenxuan and others wrote a letter. The content of the letter was very clear, asking Su Tiancheng to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor.

Although Su Tiancheng has already called himself King De, there is a huge gap between the prince and the emperor. In this era, only the emperor truly holds power and is the symbol of success.

But Su Tiancheng doesn't want to become emperor for the time being, but he needs to be cautious when dealing with this matter.

Zhu Shenxuan must have thought carefully about writing this letter, and said bluntly, after Su Tiancheng proclaimed himself emperor, he is by no means the only one who can benefit, and there are too many people who can benefit.It is normal people's psychology that people work hard to follow you, not just to find an official position, but also to glorify their ancestors.

There is also a key point. Yang Sichang, Fan Jingwen and others have different identities in the past. Yang Sichang is the former chief assistant of the Ming cabinet, and Fan Jingwen is the current bachelor of the Ming cabinet. Without a clear identity, it seems nondescript. After a long time, it is strange that people have no ideas.

Not only Yang Sichang and Fan Jingwen, but also Lu Xiangsheng, Lu Shanji, Zhang Pu and others, not to mention Zhu Shenxuan.

Ordinarily, Su Tiancheng's proclaiming the emperor would not cause any huge repercussions. On the contrary, doing so would make his conquest seem logical. The Empress Jin's Huang Taiji has proclaimed himself emperor and occupied such a small piece of barren land. He cannot be compared with Su Tiancheng.

But Su Tiancheng had his own considerations, mainly because he felt a little uncomfortable in his heart.

It can be said that rebellion was not Su Tiancheng's original intention, nor was it an inevitable choice. He chose to take this path at the beginning because he felt that the Ming Dynasty did not have much hope, its roots were rotten, and superficial changes could not have much effect. It is necessary to give these confidants a way out, otherwise they will lose confidence. Prompted by various circumstances, Su Tiancheng finally rebelled, and Not long after the rebellion, he proclaimed himself King De, expressing his disobedience to the leadership of the Ming court.

But the relationship between Su Tiancheng and Zhu Youjian is not bad. Zhu Youjian is fine as a friend, but he is obviously not capable enough to be an emperor.

Sometimes people are very strange, they are occupied by a thought, and they can't turn around for a while. Even Su Tiancheng, who is wise enough, has encountered such a problem.

Just when Su Tiancheng was about to reply to Zhu Shenxuan's letter, Qu Qingze also came to his door.

Qu Qingze is Su Tiancheng's most important confidant.

Seeing Qu Qingze coming, a wry smile appeared on Su Tiancheng's face, before Qu Qingze could speak, he spoke first.

"Old Qu, are you also here to persuade me to become emperor?"

Qu Qingze's attitude was very respectful, from this respectful attitude, Su Tiancheng felt the meaning behind it.

"Your Highness, I just came here to make suggestions. Your Highness has already occupied Shandong, Fujian, and Zhejiang. Next, you will control the entire south. As the saying goes, only a good name can make a good name. The court has always criticized and praised you as a traitor. , I feel uncomfortable, I hope that His Highness can rectify his name, so that the ministers can also hold their heads up."

Su Tiancheng sighed lightly, proclaiming himself emperor is inevitable, but not now.

But he couldn't directly reject Qu Qingze's request, otherwise it would hurt everyone's hearts, and he had to find a suitable reason to come out.

"The king of Jin also wrote a letter, asking me to proclaim myself emperor. I have thought about this issue carefully. Proclaiming emperor is a matter of time. Everyone sees it, and it can also inspire fighting spirit, but the situation in front of you is not suitable, don't you realize it?"

Seeing Qu Qingze's suspicious eyes, Su Tiancheng smiled.

"Proclaiming the emperor means establishing the capital. We have occupied Shandong, Zhejiang and Fujian, including Taiwan, Fuzhou, Gaizhou and Xuanzhou, but these places cannot be established. Judging from the geographical location of the Central Plains, Look, these places are by no means the center. My ideal capital is three places. One is Beijing, which goes without saying, the second is Nanjing, and the third is Wuchang. It goes without saying that Beijing and Nanjing are located in the middle of the country. , to facilitate coordination from top to bottom.”

"Of course, I don't mean to say that you must occupy Beijing before you become emperor. After you become emperor, you can establish a temporary capital, but no matter what, the temporary capital must be located in a suitable place. Can we waste money and people? .”

"After proclaiming the emperor, there will always be an imperial court and hundreds of officials, and there will always be a place to do business. These palaces are indispensable. It would be too wasteful to rebuild them. Besides, we still have a lot of things to do, and there are even more places to spend money. That’s quite a lot, so, in my opinion, after taking down Nanzhili and occupying Nanjing, we can consider proclaiming the emperor, at that time, we will have a ready-made palace.”

This time it was Qu Qingze's turn to be dumbfounded. Proclaiming the emperor is indeed a big deal, but because Su Tiancheng considered the affairs of the palace and the capital, he did not proclaim the emperor for the time being, which seemed too cautious. After proclaiming the emperor, Dengzhou can be used as a temporary There is absolutely no problem with the capital city. As for the palace, it is completely possible to temporarily change the governor's mansion into a palace.

However, Su Tiancheng said that after occupying Nanzhili and becoming emperor, it doesn't matter. According to the current development, Nanzhili can be completely occupied in at most three months. At that time, it is also possible to become emperor.

What Qu Qingze felt relieved was that Su Tiancheng attached great importance to the matter of proclaiming the emperor, not what everyone worried about. The more Su Tiancheng attached importance to the matter of proclaiming the emperor, the more he would consider everything It's very detailed.

"Okay, Lao Qu, let's not talk about proclaiming the emperor for the time being. Recently, you and Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangsheng and others have a good discussion to see how to deal with the 30 troops sent by the imperial court. The key issues that need to be considered are the [-] sergeants under Liu Zeqing who surrendered. The selection work must be stepped up, and the unqualified ones must not be accepted. continued..)