Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 862
The arrival of the Russians did not cause waves in Fengjing City, but it gave Manqing a great sense of security.

Without him, the Russian caravan brought [-] catties of gunpowder, which is about [-] barrels of gunpowder.

For the Manchus, it was gunpowder and armor that restricted their combat effectiveness. The abundance of gunpowder was enough for them to take advantage of the big ones.

After the occupation of colonial strongholds such as Barguzin, the Russians actually wanted to fight back, but the existence of geographical factors, coupled with financial constraints, forced them to choose to submit.

The Russians needed mink fur to resell to ease finances; the Manchu Qing needed iron and gunpowder to satisfy wars.

The relationship between the two quickly heated up.

After the Ming Dynasty took over the Western Regions, the Russians became the active side. They were eager to check and balance the Ming army, and the Manchus were an important part of it.

It is conceivable that as Daming becomes more and more powerful, the relationship between the two will continue to develop, and even forming an alliance is not a problem.

In the dead of night, Fan Wencheng met with Hong Chengchou.

"Yanyan, do you think we can take down the tribes in Mobei?"

Fan Wencheng poured a cup of tea.

"Yes." Hong Chengchou raised his head and said decisively: "The tribes in Mobei are all in the bag."

"However, the Ming army will not let it go."

Fan Wencheng got sad on his face: "You and I both know that Mobei is barren and there are almost no iron mines. It is extremely difficult to maintain Fengjing City."

"Once Mobei is captured now, the Ming people will definitely not let it go, and it will definitely be difficult for the imperial court to settle down and build a city."

"In the end, like those Mongolians, nomadic, drinking blood, wanting tea but not getting it, being bullied by businessmen—"

Fan Wencheng sighed: "Don't look at the roughness of the porcelain in my hand, but even in my house, it is difficult to find a whole set of tea sets. The grandchildren can only drink tea with pottery."

Hong Chengchou was silent.

The barrenness of Mobei is not just talking.

Porcelain made in folk kilns in the past, even servants would throw it away, but now it is worth a thousand gold on the grassland.

Merchants are unwilling to transport fragile porcelain, and are often broken, let alone across Mobei, so the price is naturally extremely high.

Without iron ore, farm tools, and weapons cannot be forged; without tea, greasy meat and dairy products can kill people and make people sick.

Food is so precious that wine cannot be made; cloth is scarce, and nobles can only wear felt and unkempt.

Although Fengjing City is well maintained now, it is just lingering on its last breath. If it continues, the complete nomadicization of the Manchu and Qing courts will not be far away.

Just like the Yuan court back then, after returning to the grassland for decades, the centralization of power quickly degenerated, and even Genghis Khan's thousand-household system could not be maintained, completely feudal lordship.

Today, this trend in the Manchu Qing Dynasty is very obvious.

"A few years ago, the nobles of the Eight Banners advocated the division of Buryatia and Mongolia in order to make up for their vitality. The grasslands and herdsmen were all divided up. Although the imperial court occupied the majority, the Eight Banners took a lot of it."

As Fan Wencheng narrated, worry appeared on his face: "After a few years, these nobles have their own tribesmen. Although they are still very obedient now, what about the future?"

"As you think, if you annex the entire Zasak tribe and the Tushetu Khan tribe, then the imperial court will definitely not be able to directly control such a vast grassland—"

Hong Chengchou was stunned, and suddenly startled: "You mean, this will be another enfeoffment?"

"That's right." Fan Wencheng squinted his eyes: "The nobles will definitely want to carve up the tribe, but the emperor and the court will never go against the will of the people, and it is beyond their reach..."

Hong Chengchou went on to say: "In order to reward the credit, completely devour the tribes of Mobei, rather than let the original nobles occupy it, it is better to let the Eight Banners rule—"

Speaking of this, he fully understood: "If you do this, you will follow the old path of the Mongol Empire."

"That's right." Fan Wencheng said succinctly: "There is nothing in the present age, three to five years, ten years, after the next generation, the nobles of the Eight Banners will inevitably lose their morality, and the court will collapse without a fight—"

"Then, no troops?" Hong Chengchou asked tentatively.

"If you don't send troops, isn't the Chechen Khan annexed for nothing? Don't the Eight Banners nobles who have been trained for many years feel resentment everywhere?"

Fan Wencheng chuckled and said, "Now the arrow is on the string, so I have to do it."

Good guy, Hong Chengchou is completely clear.

Annexing the entire Mobei, unless they can quickly integrate their strength and go south to the Central Plains again, otherwise, the Qing Dynasty will end sooner or later.

In other words, when Shunzhi returns to the west, the court will be over.

Even before that time, after the annexation of the Mobei tribes, the Eight Banners nobles and Mongolian nobles will soar in strength. Once united, it will be easy to overthrow the imperial court.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help losing interest, and he seemed to have no strength in his body.

He is getting old, and now the only thing that can support him to continue to do things is to go all the way to the dark.

But now, even if he wants to break his head, he still feels that it is impossible to continue to rule the Central Plains.

In other words, even in the Chongzhen Dynasty, if the court was more careful, the Manchus would not be able to enter the customs at all, and would only become a disease of moss scabies, at most a second in the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

Entering the customs at this time is too difficult...

"Mr. Fan, I understand Zhuge Liang's difficulty." Hong Chengchou sighed a few words, sat down on the kang, turned his head and said:
"God's will is unstoppable, the situation is unstoppable, and all the tricks are useless—"

After saying that, Hong Chengchou left.

As soon as he went out, he heard the news:
Zu Dashou died of illness...

Hong Chengchou's footsteps stopped, he looked back to see Fan Wencheng hurried out, glanced at each other, and walked towards the palace side by side.

Although Zu Dashou has been under house arrest all the time, his sons, grandsons, and nephews are all generals in the Han Eight Banners, and there are many generals and generals.

As a representative of the Han army, he caused a lot of waves.

Fan Wencheng even felt a sense of bleak autumn wind.

The death of Zu Dashou means the withering of the famous generals, and the situation that Manchu Qing wants to replenish talents like before will never happen again in the future.

At this time, in Liaodong Province, it is already the season when the heavy snow melts and everything recovers.

Shenyang Prefecture, Chang'an County.

In the shooting range, there was a sudden "whoosh", and a hardwood arrow was shot towards the archery target. The arrow flew about ten feet before falling into the weeds, three or forty feet away from the target.

With the bow in hand, Cao Xi could still feel the "buzzing" sound of the bowstring, but he heard a "chi" smile behind him. Looking back, he saw the smiling face of his friend Li Shizhen.

The latter also laughed without hesitation: "Wanbi, why are you still not good at archery?"

"This matter cannot be accomplished overnight, so don't laugh at me."

Cao Xi said angrily: "Why don't we compete, and I will let you shoot three arrows."

"Forget it, I, with thin arms and legs, will never be able to match you."

Li Shizhen shook his head, pretending to be chic and said: "To be an official, you have to hold a pen."

Cao Xi was anxious and chased after him.

The two used to be the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, but were betrayed by Hauge and stayed in Shenyang to be captured and became captives.

Then they were incorporated into the army and became waiting to return.

I thought this could only be like this in this life, but who knows if it will be so peaceful, but in the end, because of my knowledge, I became an official, from a young official to the county Liufang Book Office.

Under the rule of Ming Dynasty, at the county level, the county magistrates were the main ones, and the seven ranks were in charge, followed by Jiaoyu (study), Tongju (supervision, litigation), and county magistrates (deputies), who were in charge of the seven ranks.

In Chang'an County, there are seven houses, including officials, households, rites, soldiers, criminals, workers, and inheritors.

Punishers have establishments, but they are not popular, and they are generally promoted from among them to serve as book offices.

Regardless of the number of seven houses, in Gyeonggi, in addition to the six houses, most counties also have grain houses, salt houses, warehouses, recruiting houses, Cambodia houses, and ten houses such as Chengfa, household general, taxation, and river channels.

Added together, it even reached sixteen rooms.

The book office of Zhengjiupin is an extremely important starting point for the two of them, from a person who has committed a crime to an official!

After rushing to the county government office, the county magistrate kept a short story and said bluntly: "The annual provincial examination is coming, you should prepare more..."

After saying that, he left directly.

Cao Xi and Li Shizhen sighed, and they had no choice but to let it go.

Since the diversion of officials and staff, although the troubles of subordinate staff have been heard endlessly and have become popular among the ruling and opposition parties, in fact, this thing changes according to the situation of the subject and the guest.

The reason why state and county officials rely heavily on scribes is, in fact, to put it bluntly, because they want to collect various extrajudicial tributes from them on a regular basis, so that they can turn a blind eye to the troubles of subordinate officials.

But in fact, as long as the county magistrate is as clean as water like Hai Rui, the subordinate staff are like mud, and they can't make waves at all.

"Shizhen, this job is getting harder and harder."

Cao Xi sighed, the county magistrate is lazy in politics, they are the ones who are so tired, and they are the ones who are responsible.

"Officers always have no future."

Li Shizhen raised his head suddenly: "Wanbi, do you want to take the provincial exam?"

"Don't you think so?" Cao Xi was startled.

"That's right, I think, but what I want to take is the imperial examination." Li Shizhen said seriously: "Nowadays, officials are also private households, and they can also participate in the imperial examination."

"Even if you are a scholar, your future is much better than ours now."

As he spoke, he became excited: "Literary style in Liaodong is not strong. Compared with a private school within three to five miles of Guan, there may not necessarily be a teacher in a hundred miles of Liaodong."

"Scholars, juren, even if they are juren, can be directly awarded to the county magistrate. This is the county magistrate!"

"I understand." Cao Xi nodded: "In Jilin, as long as there is a juren, it will be directly awarded to the magistrate. Who doesn't know in Liaodong?"

Although General Jilin is stationed in Jilin City, he has not been in vain all these years. He has been diligently opening up wasteland, farming, emigrating, and building new cities.

After all, the two of them left the county after their mood calmed down.

At this time, outside Chang'an County, the land was muddy and overgrown with weeds, and some land was turned over here and there, exposing grass roots.

"There are [-] hectares of land in Chang'an County. This is recorded in the household houses. Most of them are Xuntian allocated by the imperial court in Liaodong."

Li Shizhen came here casually: "At the beginning when the imperial court was in the pass, one mu was replaced by three mu, so the soldiers had to go out of the pass, but due to the shortage of manpower, there were only [-] hectares of land for planting grain."

Cao Xi on the side smiled wryly and said: "At the end of last autumn, corvees were conscripted to repair the canals. Good guy, all the strong men are added together, and there are only [-] people."

"After [-] miles of repairing, let it go."

Over the years, Liaodong has continuously introduced measures to encourage immigrants, but in fact the situation of lack of manpower has never changed.

It is conservatively estimated that the population of Liaodong Province has not yet reached 200 million.

On average, it is less than [-] yuan per prefecture, and even less in the counties.

"I hope this Duke of Jin's mansion can serve you better..."

The two looked at each other, and rode away to the east.

Soon, on a plain about [-] miles east of Chang'an County, I saw a few men in strong clothes, exuding a murderous look, looking at the river.

Behind them, several handsome horses were grazing with their heads down.

"It's all well-watered fields here—"

Cao Xi was speechless, shaking his head and laughing.

"Hey, the key is this location." Li Shizhen lowered his head and said, "It's close to Shenyang, but it's only about fifty miles away. It's close to the official road and the river."

"People in Duke Jin's Mansion really know how to choose positions."

Seeming to see the soap robes of the two, several people moved closer.

"Are you from Chang'an County?"

"This is Chang'an County Household Book Office (I'm the clerk of Li Fang)—"

"Why are there two here?" The leader waved his hand: "It doesn't matter, I am very satisfied here, let's save this place!"

As he said that, he called a document from the household department.

Li Shizhen took a look and saw his letter:
By His Majesty's orders, the Duke of Jin, Li Yu, established the country and made outstanding contributions. Therefore, he was given [-] hectares of land. It is located in Liaodong Province, Shenyang Prefecture, and Chang'an County. There must be no mistakes——

Obviously, the characters such as Chang'an County in the back were filled out and stamped by the Liaodong Governor's Yamen.

According to the usual practice, the fifty hectares are in the pass, but the land is no longer granted in the pass, so if it is moved outside the pass, it will be tripled.

That is 150 hectares, or [-] mu of land, which is a huge sum.

And this group of people from Jin Guogong's mansion found such a land without an owner by relying on the four characters of Chang'an County.

The terrain is flat, close to the official road, close to the river, no worries about floods and droughts, and the vision is really good.

"Naturally." Li Shizhen had no second thoughts, and he had no intention of antagonizing Duke Jin's government at all.

After saying that, he filled in his own name on the title deed, and then added the county magistrate's name.

Afterwards, he picked up the magistrate's huge official seal from his horseback and stamped it directly.

"Very good." The person who came was very satisfied with his decisiveness, and directly threw out a bag of money: "It's a small idea, please accept it."

After Li Shizhen fumbled around, he found about ten silver dollars, which was not bad, so he didn't make a trip in vain.

Leaving them to enjoy the scenery in place, Li Shizhen took Cao Xi away.

On the way, Cao Xi exclaimed: "How many years will it take for this imperial examination to have this 150 hectares of land?"

"Military exploits are the best way to get rich."

The two returned the title deed and the official seal, and immediately left the government office.

Before half drinking in the house, a few broke in:
"Li Shuban, our Zhang family has been looking forward to this field by the Pu River for a long time, why did we give it up today?"

The big butler said sharply, "Are you looking down on our Earl's Mansion?"

Li Shizhen was stunned for a moment, and said with a smile: "The pot on the stove has blackened your heart, you just know that the land has been favored by others, so do you know whose house it is?"

"Who's? Then we have to pay attention to first come, first served."

"Duke Jin's Mansion, go find it!"

For a moment, Man Yuan was silent.

(End of this chapter)