Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 334 Exploring Jianlu
"cut!"

"Pfft-"

In July, as the corruption case caused by the civil uprising in Shaanxi gradually came to an end, the number of officials arrested by surveillance gradually changed from the four drought-affected northern provinces to the four southern provinces.

Officials who were found to be corrupt one by one were crushed to the west markets of various counties on July [-]th, and their heads were separated with a "cut".

The death of corrupt officials has brought in a group of new officials who have not been polluted.

It's just that no one knows how long these Yanshan officials, who are wearing official robes and are full of integrity in their eyes and hearts, can last in the officialdom...

[On July [-]th, there was a strong wind in Shaoxing, and the sea water went straight into the county town, and the market could be used by boats. 】

[On July 22, tens of thousands of people were drowned in Shanyin, Kuaiji, Xiaoshan, Shangyu, and Yuyao. 】

[July 23, Haiyi, Zhejiang Province, countless people and animals were drowned in huts, Jiaxing hurricane and rain, coastal and suburban residents were drowned...]

"It's time for disaster relief, it's time to distribute food and food..."

"This natural disaster is endless, day-to-day..."

On July 27, when Zhu Youjian, who was in Mizhi County, Yan'an Prefecture, stood on a low hill and sighed, he kneaded his brows and held a copy of memorials sent from the south.

Bi Ziyan, who was standing in front of him, also frowned, and said sadly:

"This is already the beginning of autumn, and the No. 12 flood in the south."

"It doesn't rain where it's supposed to rain, and it's like a leak in a place where it shouldn't."

"The floods in various parts of Zhejiang this time involved no less than 50 victims. I am afraid that there is no 200 million taels of silver. It is difficult to transfer to Annan and Jiugang for resettlement."

"Do your best and obey the destiny." Sun Chuanting next to him also echoed, while Zhu Youjian raised his head and looked in front of him.

He saw that under the low hill in front of him, there were rows of disaster victims queuing up to receive food.

Looking around, these people are all old, weak and young children. The reason why there are no young men and women is because they all went to both sides of the Yellow River and left their food stamps with their families.

One catty of food stamps can receive one catty of rice and wheat, or three catties of sweet potatoes, and food stamps are issued every ten days, and once issued, they will be issued a monthly share.

It seems that they were frightened by corrupt officials, so many people did not choose rice and wheat after getting the food stamps, but chose more sweet potatoes.

However, due to storage problems, the number of sweet potatoes is actually not much, because they are planted in April and harvested in October, and they can be kept for half a year at most.

Most of the sweet potatoes currently being harvested are shipped from Sichuan and Yunnan-Guizhou, and the quantity is not very large.

By October, tens of millions of stone sweet potatoes will be transported northward to provide relief to the disaster-stricken areas.

"How are the food stamps issued?" Zhu Youjian looked sideways at Bi Ziyan, and Bi Ziyan frowned and replied:

"After taking back the food stamps in the hands of corrupt officials, more than 93 shi have been issued."

"According to 93 shi a month, the official food in Shaanxi is still enough to last until March next year."

"However, after October, some places in southern Shaanxi can produce a lot of grain. The officials have ordered people to buy it in advance. The amount is about two million stones."

"In addition, grain purchases in the provinces near the disaster area have also been ordered in advance, about 3000 million shi."

Zhu Youjian was slightly relieved by Bi Ziyan's words, but he still looked at Bi Ziyan and said:

"How much money do you have from the house raids?"

"Currently the fourth division's inspection is still going on, there are still more than 64 million taels of silver, and [-] taels of gold that were escorted to the capital." Bi Ziyan responded.

There are more than 600 million taels left... It is still under the premise that more than 3000 million taels of grain have been bought at the price of five hundred and one shi.

Such an amount can only make Zhu Youjian lament that Ming Dynasty's official administration has become so corrupt that throwing a brick can hit a group of corrupt officials.

"Call..."

When Zhu Youjian sighed, Lu Wenzhao took several Jinyi guards up the short hill, and after reining in his horse, he got off his horse, bowed in front of Zhu Youjian, and handed out a military report:

"Your Highness, this is a military report from Hong Jinglue."

"Hmm..." Hearing that it was a military newspaper from Hong Chengchou, Zhu Youjian opened it and read it.

It has been seven months since he won the whole territory of Jiaozhi, during which Hong Chengchou did not cry to Zhu Youjian for his poverty, nor did he ask for any other help.

Now that Hong Chengchou suddenly sent the military report, Zhu Youjian was a little curious.

However, when the military newspaper was opened, Zhu Youjian didn't see any bad news, but a piece of good news.

[The lower official Hong Chengchou reported to the Qi Palace, and hoped that His Highness would personally approve it, since...]

Zhu Youjian almost finished reading the eloquent five or six hundred words with a smile, and the reason why he laughed was also very simple.

"Hong Chengchou requested to hand over the confiscated gold to the imperial court, 300 taels of gold, 120 taels of silver, and various jewels, jade, ivory and coral..."

Zhu Youjian spoke to Bi Ziyan, and such news made Bi Ziyan breathe a sigh of relief.

He also thought that Hong Chengchou had encountered some difficulties in managing Jiaozhi, and wanted to ask the Ministry of Households to allocate money and food, but he didn't want Hong Chengchou to feed back to the Ministry of Households.

"More than 230 million acres of newly developed land in Cochin, a new Cochin shipyard, more than 17 cement yards, and [-] prisoners sent to the old port..."

Zhu Youjian told everyone what Hong Chengchou had done, and every time he said something, there was a smile on his face.

Obviously, what Hong Chengchou did was in line with his wishes, especially in the short period of seven months, hastily opened up 230 million mu of new land.

Although the 230 million mu of land will take two years to be sorted out, after clearing the most difficult trees and stones, only 10,000+ people will be able to clean up and fatten the 230 million mu of land .

Looking at the speed of these more than one million reformed-through-labor people, I am afraid that in ten years, Daming will be able to obtain a large granary in the vast Red River Delta.

But before Zhu Youjian was happy, Lu Wenzhao bowed and continued:

"Your Highness, the end of Jiaozhi is almost over. There are more than [-] people killed or injured among the children of the various feudal clans. The feudal kings have a bad attitude towards the court..."

"To the imperial court? I'm afraid it's to Gu..." Zhu Youjian snorted lightly.

For this group of vassal princes who want to train their children but don't want to suffer death or injury, Zhu Youjian is too lazy to get used to them.

If it wasn't for the further strengthening of the Daming vassal system, he wouldn't even bother enfeoffing them.

Now Zhu Youjian just wants to send them out early, and sending them out seems to be about to start.

But before starting, Zhu Youjian still needs to confirm some things:
"How is the situation of Xiaoxiyang Supervisor? How much money and food was harvested last year?"

Zhu Youjian was asking Bi Ziyan, and Bi Ziyan also bowed and said:

"Last year, Xiaoxiyang harvested a total of 800 million shi from land tax. However, according to the arrangement your Highness said, these 800 million shi were not included in the revenue of the household department, but were stored locally."

Xiaoxiyang Supervising Envoys has a total of more than [-] million mu of arable land. Daming's local land tax collection is five and two, and there are no other miscellaneous items and taxes.

For the local natives, such a high land endowment is naturally unacceptable, and riots are also normal.

However, after the "convincing people with virtue" by the local Huang Fei, the natives on the island whose population has dropped sharply were allocated a large amount of land, and they were naturally able to support themselves without causing trouble.

800 million stone rice, it can be said that winning Ceylon Island is a correct strategic goal formulated by Zhu Youjian.

With the island of Ceylon as a bridgehead right now, it will be much easier to gather troops there.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian ordered:

"Order Huanglong and the various vassals, and the children of the various vassals will board the ship and go to Xiaoxiyang to supervise the envoy. In addition, the Southern Army's governor's office will dispatch [-] Gongwei Battalion to accompany the army to Xiaoxiyang to supervise the envoy."

"The old port area recruited another [-] arch guard battalions, the Ordnance Bureau allocated firearms, transferred Liaodong inspector Lu Xiang to be promoted to Xiaoxiyang inspector, and navy captain Huang Long presided over the recovery of the domain."

"The humble post takes orders!" Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, Lu Wenzhao bowed in response, but before Zhu Youjian finished speaking, he asked Bi Ziyan:
"How many people and prisoners have moved to Xiaoxiyang this year?"

"About [-] people..." After thinking for a while, Bi Ziyan gave an approximate number.

There are more than 4000 people, which is already a lot, but it has not yet reached the size that Daming can move now.

During the Yongle period, Daming was able to preside over the feat of tens of thousands of people sailing to the West, not to mention that it was just relocating and establishing a supervisory envoy on the island of Ceylon.

"Intensify the relocation to Xiaoxiyang. Among the prisoners this time, some women can be transferred to Ceylon, where they can combine with the army's auxiliary soldiers and civilian husbands to multiply."

Zhu Youjian made a request to Bi Ziyan, but Bi Ziyan said:
"Your Highness, both the north and the south are immigrating. Although the seven major shipyards have been operating at full capacity, there are only more than [-] cargo ships that can be launched each year. Moreover, the number of teak trees in Siam and Ganbozhi has dropped sharply. Shipbuilding ..."

Bi Ziyan stopped what he said next, as if he didn't want to talk too much, but Zhu Youjian asked rhetorically after hearing the words:
"How much is it for me to buy teak from Siam?"

"After removing the bark, it costs 50 Wen a piece of material. Siam provides 20 materials every year, and Gan Bozhi provides 70 materials every year, totaling [-] materials." Bi Ziyan said:

"Except for the two countries, the old Hong Kong Cheng announced that the political secretary will provide 30 materials per year, a total of 100 million materials."

"The 100 million pieces of teak wood need to be combined with other 300 million pieces of wood to make three hundred nine-thousand-piece cargo ships..."

"These three hundred cargo ships with nine thousand supplies can only carry more than a thousand people at most. However, some ships are still needed to carry supplies, so it is said that there are three hundred ships, but only about a hundred can be used."

One hundred ships, one with more than a thousand people, that is, it can transport 10,000+ people in one breath.

Such a delivery capability, looking at the entire seventeenth century, few countries said they could do it.

This has been counted since Columbus discovered America until now.

In the past 130 years, only 40 people migrated across Europe and landed in the Americas.

Then, at the end of the seventeenth century, after more than 200 years of migration, no more than 300 million people from Europe migrated to the Americas.

Although this is due to the small size of the European population, it also shows that the delivery capacity of small countries is always limited.

Such as the great migration that Ming Dynasty carried out every year, the migration of millions of people is unimaginable in Europe.

It's just that for Zhu Youjian, such a migration ability is still a bit weak...

"Seven shipyards are not enough, then build two more shipyards!"

He said so, and Bi Ziyan knew that he could not persuade him when he saw this, so he could only bow and retreat.

After all these things were done, Zhu Youjian turned his attention back to the victims who were queuing up to receive the rice and wheat.

Looking at them, Zhu Youjian understood what the real "governing a big country is like cooking a small fish" is.

He thought that the people in Weibei had already stored dozens of stones of food, and that they could be stable for several years without the government's disaster relief, but he didn't want corrupt officials to teach him a lesson.

The current situation is caused by a moment of inattention.

With a little guilt, Zhu Youjian turned and walked down the short hill, and Sun Chuanting and others followed suit.

But when they walked down the low slope, a group of envoys from Nuergancheng also walked into Jin Guoxing's capital.

Among the Nurgan envoys dressed in coarse linen and animal skins, the leader was a man in rough armor.

If you look carefully, you will find that this is Guo Sangdai sent by Zhu Youjian to win over Beishan Jurchen, and why does Guo Sangdai appear here at this moment?This is to follow Zhu Youjian's military order and come to confuse Nurhachi.

"You wait here, I will go in and inform the Great Khan."

Walking to the gate of the Xingjing City Imperial Palace, the leader Zhenghuang Qi Niu Luerzhen explained to Guo Sangdai and the others, and Guo Sangdai nodded to show that he understood.

Seeing this, Niu Luerzhen greeted the Jurchen who was in charge of monitoring Guo Sangdai and others, then turned and walked into the simple gate of the imperial palace.

After he left, Guo Sangdai sized up the so-called Imperial Palace of the Kingdom of Jin with the Beishan Jurchens behind him, and a little contempt flashed in his heart.

Along the way, the entire city of Xingjing was almost entirely populated by Jurchens, with only a small number of Han and Mongols, and these people were still Jianlu's battalion soldiers.

Needless to say about the population problem, the entire city of Xingjing has only 10 people, of which there are only [-] men, but there are many women and children.

It's just that they live in all adobe houses, and the most valuable things in the house are probably ironware, bows and arrows.

Although Guo Sangdai was only a naturalized Donghai Jurchen from Liaodong, at least he had seen Fushun, Shenyang, and seen the "prosperity" of these places.

Compared with these places, this so-called Xingjing City is simply a large village, let alone the capital of a country, it is not even as good as Huang Taiji's Shangjing City.

At least the upper capital that Huang Taiji planned to govern was neatly planned. The imperial palace also had a stone wall of two feet as a barrier, while the wall of the outer city was three feet high and four feet thick. Although there was no luxury, it looked simple and heavy.

However, no matter how well the city wall was built, it was useless. When Daming freed his hand, they could only disappear into this world powerlessly.

"Great shaman, don't we bring too many gifts?"

Guo Sangdai was still belittling Jianlu, but a Beishan Jurchen next to him questioned Guo Sangdai.

Guo Sangdai did not reveal that he was the Great Khan of Beishan Jurchen, but came here as a great shaman.

Generally speaking, Jurchens will not kill shamans from other tribes, so this identity is very safe.

What's more, killing Beishan Jurchen, the force that came to "surrender", is not in line with Nurhachi's ideas.

"Hey! Come in!"

Before Guo Sangdai could answer, the Zhenghuang Banner Niu Luerzhen who had rushed to the inside of the palace appeared at the end of the city gate corridor and waved to Guo Sangdai and others.

Seeing this, Guo Sangdai turned around and led someone to pull the bullock cart full of gold and silver into the corridor of the palace, and the so-called corridor of the palace was only about ten feet long.

Walking through the corridor, what came into view was a palace built on a stone platform, but this palace was almost made of logs. It can be seen that at the beginning of construction, no one thought that they would stay here for a long time.

"Xuan... Beishan savage Jurchen big shaman fierce tiger!"

Two angry voices yelled at the gate of the palace on the dozens of steps, and Guo Sangdai heard the other party calling his pseudonym, so he walked up the steps carrying the gift list.

He walked up the steps step by step, and then saw two guys who looked like Han people standing at the door.

He glanced at the two of them, then walked into the hall.

This palace is pitifully small, no more than eight zhang wide, no more than two zhang high, no more than three zhang deep, it is extremely poor.

However, although Guo Sangdai disliked it, he glanced at it the moment he entered the hall, then quickly lowered his head, walked up and down step by step, and then knelt down and said:
"The Beishan Jurchen is fierce and the tiger, the acting head Guo Sangdai sends his greetings to the Great Khan..."

"..." Guo Sangdai pretended to say hello, but there was no sound coming from above, which made him unable to bear to look up.

It's just that he didn't see Nurhachi, but saw a screen between him and the dragon chair.

Behind the wooden screen, one can vaguely see a stooped person sitting, but for some reason, the other person did not speak.

"Tell me what..."

After a long time, a voice came from behind the screen, and when Guo Sangdai heard Nurhachi's hoarse voice, he subconsciously guessed that the other party might still be in pain, so he said:

"Headman Guo Sangdai asked me to come to Da Khan and was willing to become Da Jin's vassal. I just hope Da Jin will stop chasing Beishan Jurchen tribes."

"To express my gratitude, the head of Guo Sangdai asked me to present this..."

As he said that, Guo Sangdai handed over the gift list hypocritically, and Mang Gurtai also walked out with a face of displeasure, grabbed the gift list as if snatching it, glanced at it, walked to the audience, and handed the gift list to In the hands of a burly literati who wore ordinary clothes but shaved money rattails.

"This guy should be Fan Wencheng..."

Looking at these four-faced robust literati, the words "Fan Wencheng" subconsciously appeared in Guo Sangdai's mind.

The reason why he reacted so quickly was not because Guo Sangdai knew Fan Wencheng well, but for a reason.

After Huang Taiji, Daishan, and Mang Gurtai succeeded in seizing power, he exchanged some soldiers and horses in Xingjing City and Shangjing City.

He transferred Daishan's two red flags to Yimihe City, Mangurtai's Zhenglan Banner to Huifa City, and his own Mongolian banner soldiers and Han camp soldiers back to Xingjing City.

In this way, Xingjing City and Shangjing City are places he can directly control.

But except for critical times, Huang Taiji was always in the capital, and this time Guo Sangdai and the others came to revitalize the capital, and they also got Huang Taiji's tacit approval.

It's just that among them, Guo Sangdai didn't dare to meet Huang Taiji, for fear that his identity would be seen by Huang Taiji.

"The gift is good, I accepted it..."

The weak and hoarse voice made Guo Sangdai doubt whether Nurhachi could survive this winter, but he was even more curious about what happened to Nurhachi, why he used a screen to cover himself and did not show up directly.

"Khan, we hope to buy some more food and go back to slaves to work."

Guo Sangdai pushed forward and tested Jin Kingdom's bottom line little by little, but for this bottom line, before Nurhachi could speak, other Jurchen generals cursed:
"It's just a group of savages from Beishan, and they are also worthy of doing business with Dajin?"

"Shut up, dog slave!"

Sentences of scolding kept appearing, but it didn't make Guo Sangdai afraid, on the contrary, he was very happy.

Jianlu was unwilling to sell grain, obviously because they didn't have enough grain, or just enough.

This is important information for Daming.

With this information in hand, the Ming army will be able to carry out the Northern Expedition before the autumn harvest. At that time, they only need to besiege the few cities of Jianlu and slowly harvest food. Then Jianlu will starve to death in front of the city. Among them, the Ming army did not even need to fight to destroy Jianlu.

"Gifts are good... But trade is impossible... You go back and tell Guo Sangdai that if he is really sincere in trading, he will send 5000 people to revitalize the capital, and I will set up two banners for him alone."

Nurhachi's voice sounded, and Guo Sangdai could only pretend to show a regretful expression when he saw this, and then obediently kowtowed:

"I will pass the news to the head of Guo Sangdai, Great Khan Wanfu..."

"Let's go back, take a good rest for a few days and then go back..." Nurhachi issued the order to evict guests, and Guo Sangdai also kowtowed when he saw this, and then turned and left the simple palace.

After he withdrew and walked down the steps, there was a coughing sound in the hall, and Fan Wencheng, who was standing in front of the screen, couldn't bear to turn his head and glance at Nurhachi.

I saw that Nurha was skinny and skinny, like a sick ghost, and a pair of trouser legs was empty, and Qi Gen disappeared.

After coughing a few times, he leaned on the dragon chair out of breath, breathing like a bellows.

"Back to the palace..."

Nurhachi yelled out these two words with pain, and then several flag men who were in the yellow flag walked out, lifted Nurhachi into the wheelchair, and pushed him back to the bedroom.

Looking at their backs, Fan Wencheng felt sad.

No one would have imagined that Nurhachi, who had wiped out all three parts of the Ming army in the Battle of Sarhu, and who had run for more than [-] miles day and night to defeat the Ming army, would now look like this, which is embarrassing...

"how?"

When Fan Wencheng was sad, Guo Sangdai and others were sent to a simple post house under surveillance.

As soon as they returned to the post house, a Beishan Jurchen gesticulated on his hand and wrote these two words.

Seeing this, Guo Sangdai drew a secret sign on the palm of his hand, indicating that the matter was roughly settled.

Seeing this, the man breathed a sigh of relief, obviously he was also sent by Jin Yiwei to slave to work for the Jurchens.

"I still need to find Liu Aita, His Highness needs him to do something."

Guo Sangdai gestured, and the man nodded when he saw this, and said after gesturing:
"I will arrange someone to contact him, don't worry."

"Hmm..." Guo Sangdai responded with gestures, and then signaled to the other party that everything was as usual.

Seeing this, the man nodded, and then left Guo Sangdai's room.

After he left, Guo Sangdai also thought suspiciously of what happened today. After thinking about it, he still felt that Nurhachi had something to hide from him.

But it doesn't matter, the food problem has been found out now, as long as Liu Aita is recruited again, he will complete His Highness's task.

Thinking of this, Guo Sangdai narrowed his eyes...

(End of this chapter)