Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 316 Inner Sage Outer King
"The first vassal, Bengal..."

"This place is located in the delta of the Ganga River in the east of Tianzhu. It has a large area of ​​wetland. This place is not suitable for farming. It takes more than [-] miles to the northwest to have a large urban population and arable land."

"Although the geographical conditions of this place seem to be unsuitable, the selection of this place as the site of the vassal was carefully selected."

"This place has the Hooghly River in the west, a river bend in the north, and a salt lake nine miles to the east. It is convenient to dry salt to obtain a large amount of table salt."

"Also, the Hooghly River is wide and deep at Calcutta, making it suitable for a port."

"The only disadvantage is that there are depressions and swamps in this area, which are harmful to health, and it takes a lot of manpower and resources to reclaim them as arable land."

"There are three villages here, with a population of about [-]. If you take this place, you can basically raise thousands of soldiers and use it as a place to attack and plunder towns to the north."

"Budwan, the nearest city in the north, has a population of more than [-]. The taxes paid by these people to the Mughals are about [-] taels of silver every year."

"The seventeen towns in Bengal, according to Beizhen Fusi's estimates, after the stable rule, this place close to the province of Zhejiang, can produce [-] stone field taxes at a tax rate of [-], [-] The remaining two taxes."

"Now we will bid on it, the starting price is [-] taels..."

In front of the Taimiao, after Bi Ziyan finished speaking, he hit the bronze bell in front of him with a mallet the size of a finger.

With the ringing of the bronze bell, Bi Ziyan stopped talking, but among the many vassal princes under the Taimiao, the one who raised the sign first was an unexpected young county prince.

"Biyang King Zhu Qixu, the bid is [-] taels!"

"Zhu Qixu?"

When a county king asked for [-] taels of silver, everyone was stunned, they were all wondering who Zhu Qixu was.

But Wang An, who was standing behind Zhu Youxiao, said in a low voice:

"Long live, this is the concubine's concubine son of the old Tang king. I heard that the old Tang king loves him the most. This time the vassal king is in the vassal. The old Tang king gave him a large sum of money from the Tang vassal."

"What about Tang Wang's son?" Zhu Youxiao frowned. He didn't like Zhu Shuoshui's behavior of pampering the youngest son and ignoring the eldest son.

"The relationship between the old King Tang and the prince of the Tang Dynasty is not good. It is said that he imprisoned the prince and his grandson for several years. If King Qi didn't speak up, he might continue to be imprisoned."

Wang An explained, and Zhu Youxiao nodded slightly to show that he understood.

"Shu Palace, fifty thousand taels!"

The rich and powerful Shu king Zhu Zhishu took out many of the county king's life's property as soon as he opened his mouth, but Zhu Changxun and Zhu Suqin didn't move at all.

Obviously, these two people wanted to compete for other domains, and they didn't want to go head-to-head with Zhu Zhishu.

"Seventy thousand taels!" Zhu Qixu, the King of Biyang who was not afraid of tigers as a newborn calf, gritted his teeth, and Zhu Shuoshui, the King of Tang among the feudal vassals, also had a grim expression.

He wanted to fight for the largest vassal land and vassal state for his youngest son, but although Tang vassal was strong, it was not as strong as Shu vassal.

"One hundred thousand taels!" Zhu Zhishu said with a sneer, and the appearance of raising the price by [-] taels in one breath made Biyang Wang Zhu Qixu unwilling to sit down in an instant.

"The King of Shu offered [-] taels, can you ask for an increase?"

Bi Ziyan's breathing became hotter, he never thought that just one quota could be sold for [-] taels of silver.

If this kind of behavior happens a few more times, wouldn't the household department become rich immediately?

What makes him regret is that all the vassal kings were frightened by the rich and powerful Shu vassal, and no one raised the price.

In the end, Zhu Zhishu, king of Shu, won the qualification to become a vassal in Bengal at a price of [-] taels.

The success of this first peddling also made Bi Ziyan introduce the second and third pieces of feudal land with eloquence.

The second and third vassal states were the states that descended from Bengal to the south in order. They surrendered to the Mughals in name, but they were actually autonomous states. It was less difficult to attack than the Mughals' Bengal.

Zhou Fan made a move for the second vassal land, and Zhou King Zhu Suqin used [-] taels of silver to win the vassal land in a province.

If this place is conquered, the number of natives will be no less than one million, and the annual tax will be no less than [-] taels of silver.

Zhou Fan's fate, naturally no one competed with him, mainly Jin Fan, Dai Fan, Zhao Fan and other powerful Fans.

Zhu Changxun has been sitting very steadily, he is waiting for the third piece of land, and when the third piece of land is called out, he immediately raised his sign and said:

"Fifty thousand taels!"

From [-] taels directly to [-] taels, Zhu Changxun knew very well that this was the upper limit of this place, so he directly raised the price to the highest to avoid arguing.

A mere [-] taels of silver, compared to the subsequent investment, is simply insignificant.

"Deal!" Seeing that no one was competing with Zhu Changxun, Bi Ziyan immediately threw down the gavel, and the bell rang.

When Zhu Youxiao saw that his younger brother was using a quota, he took out hundreds of thousands of taels from the hands of the three feudal lords, and immediately felt a little ecstatic.

In this way, he looked forward to the competition even more.

After the transaction of the three feudal lands that are most suitable for doing business with Ming Dynasty, what remains is the plains on both sides of the central and southern coasts of Tianzhu. These places were divided into more than [-] places by Zhu Youjian.

However, these places are small with only one town, and large with only one county.

Zhu Youjian's original intention was to allow the king of the county to occupy the central and southern parts, so that it would be more convenient for Xiaoxiyang to supervise.

However, to his and Bi Ziyan's surprise, only seven princes and more than [-] county kings ended up facing these small feudal lands, and all of them snatched more than [-] lands.

In this way, the smallest of them has the land of several counties, with tens of thousands of people under its jurisdiction, and the largest one has the land of three prefectures, with hundreds of thousands of people under its jurisdiction.

When they settled down, many princes including Jin Fan, Zhao Fan, Dai Fan, and Qin Fan also began to attack the coastal plain on the west side of Tianzhu.

The excitement of the vassal kings about the vassal land far exceeded Zhu Youjian and Bi Ziyan's estimates. In the end, when all the vassal land was sold, only [-] princes and [-] counties were eligible. king.

Naturally, the money collected in the end was also huge. Just relying on the auction qualifications, the net income of the treasury was [-] taels of silver.

However, the end of the auction of the vassal land was just the beginning. Bi Ziyan sorted out the price lists reported by the vassals and sent them to Prince Qi's mansion, then turned around and said to the vassals:

"I know that there are still five princes and fifty-two county kings who are not eligible for the feudal domain, but you don't need to be angry and anxious."

"The fleet heading to Leviathan will return in May of the next year, and at that time they will bring maps and information that Leviathan is suitable for taking over."

"For the next issue of the various vassals, we will proceed to the second point, which is about the allocation of soldiers and horses."

"For this question, the feudal vassals can write down the number of soldiers and horses they are requesting to dispatch on a note, leave their names and the number of the royal family, and then you can leave."

"As for the relocation of the people, it is still in accordance with the regulations of His Royal Highness King Qi. The relocation will be carried out at a price of [-] taels per person for [-] mu per person and [-] mu per household."

After all, Bi Ziyan struck the bell, and the generals of the Han Dynasty also presented pens and paper.

Seeing this, the feudal vassals, although they still had many questions in their minds, took pens and wrote down the number of soldiers and horses they needed.

When everything was over, the feudal vassals also started to get up, boarded the elephants of their palaces in an orderly manner, and evacuated the Taimiao.

When the last person also evacuated, Bi Ziyan dispersed many big Han generals, and he himself spread out a note at the desk next to Zhu Youxiao to record the situation.

Zhu Youxiao, who finished watching the audience without saying a word, turned his head and watched with his own eyes that Bi Ziyan finished writing the requirements of the palaces.

Finally, after Bi Ziyan finished writing, he was just about to hand over the document when Zhu Youxiao got up and said:

"Show King Qi, I've already seen it."

"The minister leads the order..." Bi Ziyan bowed in response, and then watched Zhu Youxiao sit on the big seat and left the Taimiao.

As for himself, he walked out of Donghua Gate with this recorded document, and then rushed to Qi Wangfu in a carriage.

It was dusk when Zhu Youjian got this document, and the silver taels recorded in the document made Zhu Youjian squint his eyes happily.

In this regard, Bi Ziyan, who was arranged to be seated and served with meals, sat upright and said:

"This time, only two, five hundred and twenty-three thousand and five hundred silver were collected from the feudal clans just for the quota of feudal clans. The only problem is that the feudal clans have a little too much money to mobilize troops..."

While Bi Ziyan was talking, Zhu Youjian also saw the application of the various vassals for the transfer of troops and horses.

Among the applications, not surprisingly, Zhu Youjian, who applied for the largest number of soldiers and horses, was indeed eyeing Zhu Zhishu, king of Shu in Mughal Bengal.

He asked to hire the Seventh Battalion of Gongwei Battalion, with a total of more than [-] people.

Followed by the five battalions of King Zhou, and the four battalions of King Fu, King Jin, King Dai, King Qin, King Chu, and King Zhao.

Most princes choose to hire three or two battalions, while many county kings apply for two or three posts. It is estimated that this is their limit.

"Twenty-seven princes, seventy-one county kings... one hundred and thirteen battalion two guards, it seems that they have a lot of money!"

Looking at the final data, Zhu Youjian said with a smile, without any scruples about what the consequences would be if the Ming Dynasty transferred the [-]th Battalion.

For such data, Bi Ziyan also bowed:
"The twenty-seven princes need to pay [-] million taels of silver to hire the seventy-four battalions. There should be no problem with the money."

"The problem now is that among the seventy-one county kings, roughly only the twelve county kings who hired a battalion can come up with money, and the remaining fifty-nine county kings all use their assets as collateral. Double the loan of silver to forcibly open up the territory."

"If this development fails, I am afraid that the court will not only not make money this time, but will even lose money..."

"Have you ever calculated how much money the imperial court can receive after the transfer of the [-]th battalion's second post?" Zhu Youjian interrupted Bi Ziyan and asked.

"Roughly... [-] million taels of silver is no problem, and the other fifty-nine county kings still owe the court [-] million taels of silver."

Bi Ziyan's words made Zhu Youjian chuckle, he put down the document in his hand and said:
"More than seventeen million taels of silver...it's nothing to their family property."

"It should be about the same..." Bi Ziyan said thoughtfully:

"Most of the wealth of the vassal king is in the land that has been bought and sold for so many years. For example, the land of the Prince of Shu has millions of acres. Based on the current price of seven taels of silver per mu in the mansion of Chengdu, it is worth seven million taels of silver."

"Other vassal kings such as the King of Chu and the King of Zhou also occupy many acres of land, and if they sell part of it, they can get millions of taels of silver."

"So when the feudal lord becomes successful and sells all his property, he should be able to raise a lot of money."

"It's not like that. The Shu Palace has millions of fields, but the palace is divided into many county kings. The Shu Palace can only control hundreds of thousands of acres. The same is true for the rest of the vassals." Zhu Youjian explained, and then if there are Refers to the opening:
"But even so, it's interesting that the property of many vassal kings is not as good as the money involved by the officials involved in the San Niangzi case..."

Since the outbreak of the San Niangzi case, it has involved everything from the Imperial Horse Supervisor to the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, and then to civil officials.

Although nearly [-]% of them are fields, the fields were exiled to the market by Zhu Youjian in the form of land distribution.

But only the mansion, shop and cash, the Ming Dynasty has received more than [-] million taels of cash.

Although a lot has been spent, the current treasury has never been so full.

Besides, this big case has not been completely over yet, let alone the merchants alone have not been cleaned up.

Shanxi merchants, Qin merchants, Qi merchants, Zhejiang merchants, Sukun merchants and other places, as well as a large number of Fujian merchants...

This group of guys, Zhu Youjian, hasn't dealt with them yet. If it wasn't for the fact that the power of the imperial court was not enough to cover the entire Ming Dynasty, and the number of scribes and officials in his hands was too small, Zhu Youjian would have taken them all at once.

Regardless of whether there is this person's name in the Sanniangzi case, as long as Zhu Youjian says there is, then this person's name is on it.

Zhu Youjian's pointing, also made Bi Ziyan smile lightly:

"After all, the vassal kings only have the annual income of the vassal land, so they are naturally inferior to those corrupt officials. In addition, many vassal kings are extravagant, so naturally they can't save any family property."

Bi Ziyan didn't finish his sentence. In fact, he also wanted to say that after all, the vassals often donated money to the court, and they also owed the vassal kings a lot of salary during the Wanli period. Naturally, the vassal kings were not as fast as civil servants.

"The household department buys the arable land of the vassal king at the local price, but does not give money, and gives white strips to relocate the people and buy armaments."

"When they have conquered the feudal domain and want to move the people there, and train their soldiers and horses, and need to buy armor and firearms, these IOUs will be useful."

Zhu Youjian was talking, while Bi Ziyan was worried: "Will it cause conflicts among the feudal clans?"

"How can they resist?" Zhu Youjian chuckled, walked to his seat and sat down.

"How much money and food do you have in the treasury right now?"

While asking, he picked up the chopsticks and moved the food on his table, and motioned for Bi Ziyan to talk while eating.

It’s just that Bi Ziyan is still a civil servant after all, and he doesn’t want to talk while eating, so he just poured himself a glass of wine, took a sip and said:

"After paying the military salaries and clan salaries, there are still more than [-] taels of silver in cash. After the south-to-north grain transfer in February, Taicang still has three hundred taels of silver. Thousands of stones of food."

"How about the severe drought in the four provinces and the flood in the south of the Yangtze River?" Zhu Youjian asked while eating.

"The flood in the south of the Yangtze River used more than two million taels of silver obtained from ransacking their homes to relieve the disaster after killing many criminal officials." Bi Ziyan replied:
"It's just that in the north, after the last disaster relief money and food arrived in the provinces, the price of food has indeed stabilized, but the drought is still going on, and no one knows when it will end. The few million taels of food will last until October at most. "

Bi Ziyan frowned and said, and Zhu Youjian also took a sip of wine and said:
"The money from the household department was ordered to transfer [-] million taels to the Yumajian, and the people in the imperial village of the Yumajian to collect the grain from the army's fields, and transport it to the three major warehouses in Taicang and Yanshan."

"By the way, inform the yamen in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong to rebuild and expand the local granaries. Each province must have ten large granaries that can store five million stones of grain and grass."

"This..." Bi Ziyan's face became a little hesitant, and he asked cautiously and tentatively:
"Do you need so many? As long as this severe drought survives this year, you should be fine..."

"Build it..." Zhu Youjian didn't explain, if the drought would end easily, he wouldn't need to arrange it for so many years.

"Yes..." Bi Ziyan responded, but still didn't move his chopsticks. It wasn't until Zhu Youjian looked up at him with doubtful eyes that he hesitated and said:
"After all the vassals become vassals, even according to His Highness's regulations, I'm afraid there will be tens of thousands of acres of land..."

"At that time, if the feudal vassals want to relocate, wouldn't they be able to relocate millions of people?"

"It won't be that easy, don't forget there are restrictions on farming cattle." Zhu Youjian took a bite of the dish and said:

"Besides, even if millions of people are really relocated, there is nothing to regret."

"Millions of people, it's nothing more than a catastrophe."

"Don't forget Shandong's experience in the past seven years. Seven years of catastrophe. Before the disaster, there were nearly ten million people in Shandong. How many are there now? Less than half?"

"If this kind of disaster lasts for several years and several provinces, and the imperial government can't provide relief, should we watch the people starve to death, or send them out?"

"What's more, sending them out is also for the stability of my Ming Dynasty's overseas vassal state. After decades, these millions of people will inevitably not grow to tens of millions of people."

"The more people there are, the more demand there will be, the greater the volume of trade, and the greater the court's tariff revenue."

"That's true..." Bi Ziyan nodded slightly in agreement when he heard this, but Zhu Youjian didn't say anything else.

He wants to send so many people out to make the customs empty. The essential reason is to let the people have money, then emancipate their minds and carry out the industrial revolution.

Why didn't the Qing Dynasty break out the industrial revolution like the West did?
There are many reasons, but the fundamental reason is that the conditions for the industrial revolution are not met.

First of all, there is a lack of ideological foundation.At that time, Europe had just experienced the Renaissance and the Reformation Movement, and the Enlightenment thought gradually became popular, which laid the foundation for the outbreak of the Industrial Revolution.

At that time, the Qing Dynasty was at the peak of feudal society, Jianlu crazily strengthened the feudal autocratic rule, and destroyed the official and private schools left over from the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties.

The number of official schools in the Ming Dynasty was less than one-tenth of that in the Qing Dynasty. The common people were firmly tied to the land, and officials were reading the Four Books and Five Classics pedantically, and the whole country was lifeless.

Under such circumstances, Chinese people dare not even say a word, they just nod and bow their heads in obedience. It is impossible to achieve political reform.

Chinese people don't know what mathematics and physics are, and without an ideological foundation, the industrial revolution at the institutional and technical levels will naturally not break out.

This is why even the barbarians in the Yuan Dynasty had Han people working for them, but the Qing Dynasty only had the Han landlord class and gentry class.

Official schools and private schools have been destroyed, and only a small number of ethnology is not enough to let the people know what is the cause of the nation, the national shame and the humiliation of the nation.

So much so that when the people of the Qing Dynasty faced the invaders, most of the ignorant people still applauded and watched the fire from the other side.

They neither overthrew the Qing Dynasty nor helped the Qing Dynasty resist the Han people. They only knew that the Qing Dynasty was being bullied blindly, but they didn't know that if the Qing Dynasty was bullied, they would turn their heads to bully the people from taxation.

Of course, thinking is just one point, there are many problems besides thinking, for example, the Central Plains at that time lacked the material conditions for the outbreak of the industrial revolution.

An industrial revolution requires three conditions.The first is labor demand, the second is coal supply, and the third is the market.

During the Qing Dynasty, China's economic center of gravity was in the south, and the main fuel was wood, while China's coal was mainly produced in the north, so it was not cost-effective to transport it to the south.

Second, the Qing Dynasty had a large population, less labor shortages, and less demand for industrialization.

Third, the Qing Dynasty was a self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy. The country's long-term emphasis on agriculture and suppression of commerce led to the country's lack of motivation for industrial development, so the possibility of an industrial revolution in the Qing Dynasty was very small.

Finally, the Qing Dynasty was a regime in which ethnic minorities ruled the Central Plains, and it belonged to backward ethnic groups ruling advanced ethnic groups.

In order to maintain its own rule and prevent the imperial power from falling apart, the Qing Dynasty crazily strengthened its autocratic rule and engaged in literary inquisition. Inventions and creations were regarded as strange skills and obscenity, not technological innovation at all.

Zhu Youjian doesn't need to consider the last of these three main issues and five secondary issues, because Ming Dynasty is a Han Dynasty, which can stimulate national buffs.

The first point is the ideological problem, which is destined to collide with the autocratic monarchy. Zhu Youjian believes that he has no means to deal with this problem.

It's just that, compared to the Zhu family's dynasty, he would rather the Han people stand up.

Therefore, his idea is very simple. Overseas vassal kings will be vassals, not only to expand the basic base of China, but also to keep the descendants of the Zhu family.

It's a very simple thing, as long as the Ming economic circle exists, then either the vassal state or the Ming will be overthrown by peasant uprisings, and the overthrow of his regime will need to consider a problem.

If the Ming emperor and Zhu's descendants were executed, would the new dynasty be targeted by many overseas vassals?Finally an economic blockade and war?

You must know that the Han people are different from the Mongols. Genghis Khan canonized so many descendants, and no one can keep his descendants because of cultural and ideological problems.

But in the Han Dynasty, if Ming was overthrown and the descendants of the Zhu family were massacred, then other descendants of the Zhu family would use this as an excuse to break out a war with the new dynasty.

They are not out for revenge, but to gain control of the Central Plains and compete in the world.

As for whether the power of the vassal state is not enough to threaten the new dynasty?Don't worry about that either.

It is a very simple method, even if the power of the vassal state is insufficient, and they will not provoke the new dynasty, but the new dynasty will give preferential treatment to the descendants of the Zhu family for the sake of the concept of the Ming economic circle and the increasing tariffs.

One of the natural advantages of Zhu's children is that Zhu Yuanzhang won the world from Meng Yuan, and for the Han people, even if they despise the later Emperor Zhu, the system of three kings and two kees still has to be picked up.

Just as in history, Li Zicheng did not really want Chongzhen to die, nor did he kill Zhu Cihong, but instead crowned Chongzhen's three children as kings.

The lives of Zhu's descendants will be preserved with the liberation of their minds, nothing else, just relying on Zhu Yuanzhang's achievements in expelling the Tartars, and Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao's liberation of people's wisdom.

Of course, it is also possible that the descendants of the Zhu family will encounter a person with low political ability to attack the capital and slaughter them all.

However, such a possibility can only show that the descendants of the Zhu family can't even deal with this kind of people who have no political ability. In this way, they deserve to die.

Under the existing system, this is one of the few methods Zhu Youjian can think of that can protect the vassal king and the Ming emperor politically and militarily.

It's just that this method still has many loopholes.

Maybe someone in future generations will be able to think of it, but in the current situation, Zhu Youjian can only choose this way.

The great wave of thought after the enlightenment of the wisdom of the people will eventually conflict with the autocratic monarchy.

There is no such precedent for Zhu Youjian in the history of the Central Plains dynasty. The autocratic monarchy has reached its peak. The new system can only be seen if Zhu Youjian can come up with it in his lifetime.

If he wanted to start the industrial revolution and save the lives of the Zhu family's descendants, he could only do this...

(End of this chapter)