Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 637
"Woooo-"

In October, when Kandahar, Kabul and other places were recovered, the Mughal army, which was still trying to break out of the Khyber Pass, began to retreat and built fortifications behind the Khyber Pass.

Seeing that the Mughal army was silent, Zhu Ciran also ordered the Western Expeditionary Army and the Northern Army to switch defenses.

At the same time, Zhu Ciran generously gave every soldier of the Western Expedition Army a half-year vacation, and the salary was paid accordingly.

At the same time as the news of the victory of the war came, Zhu Ciran also sent someone to ask Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao who were far away in Yunnan about the policy of governing the river, and how to deal with the peace talks in the direction of Lin Danhan.

The sound of the train whistle meant that Zhu Youjian had boarded the train with Zhu Youxiao. Yang Lian didn't come to see Zhu Youjian off because he knew that the emperor didn't want to see him.

After a month and a half away, the two brothers met again on the train, and naturally they exchanged pleasantries.

"Brother has hacked a lot..."

Looking at Zhu Youjian who was much darker than a month and a half ago, Zhu Youxiao who got into the car and embraced Zhu Youjian enthusiastically began to sigh.

"Men's black spots are better." Zhu Youjian replied with a smile, and sat down with Zhu Youxiao.

"Beep-"

When the whistle of the train departed, Zhu Youxiao had nothing to ask Zhu Youjian. After all, he knew that Zhu Youjian had been visiting farmland, schools, and folks with Yang Lian for the past month and a half.

On the contrary, Zhu Youjian was very interested in Zhu Youxiao's experience, but he resisted his curiosity and first commented on the things in the west.

"The entire territory of Hezhong has recovered, but the situation is not optimistic."

"According to Cao Wenzhao's report, the land in the river is as vast as the Central Plains. Although most of the area is the Gobi Desert, there are many places where people can live."

"However, in the huge river, there are only 12 Semu people, and all of them believe in religion, which is difficult to control."

"For these 12 Semu people, it is impossible for the imperial court to hand over tractors to them for farming. Maybe someday they will bring the country's most important weapon to seek refuge in Persia, Mughal and other places."

"The most urgent task right now is to send prisoners and their families from all over the world to the river to enrich the local population, and at the same time distribute tractors to them."

"It is necessary to restore more than one million acres of land in the river to production in the shortest possible time, and at the same time reclaim new arable land to feed the army."

Zhu Youjian knew very well that Ming's westward rule had actually reached its limit long ago, and the reason why Zhu Ciran hastily withdrew the [-] western expeditionary army was because of supply difficulties.

Now that the [-] Western Expeditionary Army has been withdrawn, and the [-] permanent guard camps have been replaced, the supply has been eased, but the safety of the river has also become a problem.

Anxi and Beiting are now the transportation hubs of the Ming Dynasty in the western region, but even they only have a population of more than 170 million, and one tenth of them are family members of the local garrison.

In addition, the arable land in the two provinces has been invested by nearly 400 tractors in the past three years, and the current total is only [-] million mu.

It is very difficult to feed the local people on these farmlands, and Hexi's support is needed, let alone Hezhong and Lingbei.

In addition, there is no railway to the place leading to the river. If you want to transport one stone of grain to Mengchi Prefecture, you can afford to transport at least five stones, not to mention Hezhong and Hezhong Prefecture far away from the West Sea.

It was a cruel situation where twenty shi of grain was transported and only one shi was delivered to the front line.

What is even more cruel is that the output of various local grains is only seven buckets per mu, and after the husks are removed, it is only five buckets, which is less than [-] catties of wheat.

With a million mu of arable land, in the current situation where there are nearly 15 soldiers and civilians, although they can be fed as long as production resumes, in the next year, Daming will have to transport grain from the Central Plains to Hezhong.

15 soldiers and civilians need at least 30 shi of rice and wheat. If they want to transport these rice and wheat to the front line, they can afford to transport at least 600 million shi.

Perhaps for Zhu Youjian, the only good news is that they captured more than [-] cattle and horses and more than [-] million sheep from the Khiva Khanate.

These sheep are enough to solve the meat problem of the local soldiers and civilians, and the more than [-] shi of grain obtained from the capture of Kandahar and Kabul is not tasty, but it can also solve part of the problem.

Therefore, in Cao Wenzhao's memorandum, the amount of food adjustment required for the local soldiers and civilians was only [-] shi.

This is good news, because if it is delayed for a few months, next year there will be more arable land in the Western Regions, and more grain will be produced. Grain can be transported directly from the Western Regions to the river, and the loss on the road will not be so great.

However, from this question alone, it can be seen that it is quite difficult for Daming to rule Hezhong.

Although Khiva, Bukhara, Kazakhstan, Mughal and other countries also cultivated land in the river, the world temperature in Ming Dynasty was too low, and there were too few places that could be cultivated before industrialization.

Recovering Hezhong would not be worth the loss for the current Daming. Before entering the era of internal combustion engines, the temptation of this place to Daming was not great.

Fortunately, Zhu Youjian took Zhu Ciran, Zhu Youxiao, Hong Chengchou, and Sun Chuanting, four people who will rule the Ming Dynasty for at least 20 years in the future, to see various technological models of the Military Armament Academy, and described the future development of oil and oil in the Hezhong area. Variety.

Zhu Youjian couldn't guarantee it in other periods, but it is impossible for Daming to give up Hezhong in the next 20 years.

After 20 years, the railway will be opened to traffic, even if there is no progress on the internal combustion engine, it is impossible for Ming to give up the Hezhong area.

"The current drought is in the south, and it may be difficult to emigrate to the river."

Zhu Youxiao looked at the Ministry of Household's memorial to the drought, and answered with a face of embarrassment, but then he was relieved because he saw the memorial of Zhou Yanru, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment:
"However, on the Ministry of Criminal Justice's side, many officials were involved because of Jin Yiwei's self-examination. The number of prisoners has soared to more than [-]. If all of them are exiled in the river, it should be able to restore production in the river and cultivate new farmland. .”

Jin Yiwei's self-examination, this is undoubtedly Zhu Ciran's handwriting, and Zhu Youjian has no dissatisfaction with this.

Since he has decided to hand over power, he will not regret it.

"The self-examination of Jin Yiwei is just the beginning, and the officials who bribed them in the past will also be dismissed one after another."

Zhu Youjian glanced at the memorial, looked at Zhu Youxiao and continued:

"There are so many corrupt officials in the world, even if only one tenth of them can be caught every year, it can restore the prosperity of Hezhong in the Han and Tang Dynasties."

"What is needed in the river is population. Only with population can we use tractors, build water conservancy projects, and continue to cultivate new arable land."

"With the potential in the river, Guochao can maintain more than one billion mu of grassland and 8000 million mu of cultivated land."

"In this place, it is not a problem to feed 2000 million people. The problem is that there must be talents."

"In addition, if the population is sufficient in the future, it should be established step by step as a province."

Zhu Youjian talked about his views on Hezhong, which was also nodded and approved by Zhu Youxiao.

"How does my younger brother plan to deal with the peace negotiation between the tiger and the rabbit?"

Zhu Youxiao asked about Lin Danhan's begging for peace, and Zhu Youjian also tapped his finger on the table and said:
"It's okay to negotiate a peace, but Lin Danhan's plot must be a firearm."

"Firearms can be sold. Guochao still has 10,000+ rifles in his arsenal, but Tiger Rabbit Squat doesn't have enough money to buy them."

"I am going to let him use the land east of the Volga River and west of the Ural River as a condition for peace."

"As for the purchase of supplies, if there is gold and silver, the court can sell them to him; if not, he can sell land to the court."

Zhu Youjian expressed his thoughts.

For Daming, the 10,000+ rifles are already eliminated products, and it is not necessary to sell them to Lin Danhan, not to mention that Lin Danhan can also use Lin Danhan to stir up the situation in Eastern Europe, which is very beneficial to Daming.

"I'm afraid it won't be easy..."

Zhu Youxiao frowned, feeling a little unrealistic about his brother's thoughts.

The east of the Volga River and the west of the Ural River are the main pastures of Lin Dan Khan.

If Lin Danhan ceded this land, he would only be left with more than 1000 million mu of grassland west of the Volga River.

Peace was not the only thing he wanted, food, iron, and firearms were all he wanted.

Zhu Youjian asked him to sell the land, which means that Lin Dan Khan will return to the situation of nomadic tribes.

If he can't seize the land of other countries, then his people will just leave him.

"He doesn't have many choices. With his strength, he can't fight Lu Miguo (Osman)."

"Although Lu Mi's military equipment is not strong, it still has a population of nearly 2000 million, 20 soldiers and horses, and a national strength of 200 million taels per year."

"Crimean captives plunder people in Eastern European countries every year, all for the purpose of selling them to the Lumi country."

"Therefore, Lu Mi Kingdom will definitely protect the safety of the captives, so it is destined to send troops to drive away the tigers and rabbits."

"Guochao's relationship with Persia and Lu Miguo is not bad at the moment, and we can't directly tear our face apart for the time being. Therefore, it is doomed to support the tiger and rabbit squatting to contain Lu Miguo."

"You can canonize Tiger Rabbit Squat as the King of Shunning, and let him serve as the screen vassal of the country to buy time for the country to immigrate to Eastern Europe."

"As for the matter of land, the country will not let tigers and rabbits squat at a disadvantage. Cultivated land is five taels per mu, grassland is one tael per ten mu, a rifle is ten taels, a Yanshan five-jin cannon is one hundred taels, and gunpowder is one catty one tael." Two, to serve as the criterion for land transactions."

Zhu Youjian was snickering when he said this so-called principle.

As the Ming Dynasty’s mining industry entered the first industrial revolution, the price of iron materials began to decline, and the decline in raw materials also allowed the cost of rifles and artillery to begin to decline.

Now the cost of a rifle is only two qian, and the Yanshan five-jin cannon is only 20 taels.

That is, a two-coin rifle can be exchanged for two acres of cultivated land, or one hundred acres of grassland.

It is impossible for Daming to lose money on this deal.

Moreover, using land to maintain trade is also forcing Lin Dan Khan to invade other countries in disguise, thereby stirring up the situation in Europe.

Now the Western European battlefield has entered a climax, and this climax will last for three to five years at most, and then it will enter a low tide period, and countries will become war-weary.

As long as the people of various countries start to get tired of the war, then in the end, Da Ming can stand up and be a peacemaker to completely end the war.

However, according to this trend, the 30-year war may have to be changed to the 40-year war.

In the past ten years, what Ming has to do is to digest the Hezhong area, and at the same time support Lin Danhan to become the little overlord of Eastern Europe, or directly become the overlord of Eastern Europe.

Only in this way can Ming Dynasty provoke the second and third European wars.

Once the 40-year war is over, the Great Mongol Kingdom will be able to march west...

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian handed over the content of the peace talks and land trade terms he had written to Lu Wenzhao who had been standing beside him.

"Give it to the prince and the cabinet, and then send officials to negotiate."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao bowed in response, took the two memorials and stepped back.

Zhu Youjian turned his head to look at Zhu Youxiao, only to find that he was sipping tea with his head down:
"Hehe, my brother went to Luchuan this time, what did you discover and understand?"

Knowing that Zhu Youjian asked the question knowingly, but Zhu Youxiao still said happily:
"Well, after I went to Luchuan, I discovered the benefits and importance of immigration."

"The land of Luchuan is not as barren as the civil officials said, but the land is fertile and very rich."

"When I went to Luchuan, more than [-]% of the local population was Han Chinese. It is said that Hong Chengchou ordered the relocation of the local natives to Dimasa Mansion in the northwest of Luchuan."

"The West Sea Railway has not been completed, so I don't have the life of the native people in Demasa Mansion."

"It's the life of the Han people in Luchuan, Mengyang, Mubang and other prefectures. After reading it, I really feel a lot of emotion."

Zhu Youxiao's face showed reminiscence, and then he came back to his senses with a wry smile and said:

"I thought that the lives of the people in Sichuan and Yunnan would satisfy me, but the lives of the people in Luchuan made my eyes shine, and I also understood what my brother said that the needs of the people will change."

Zhu Youxiao sighed: "People in Shanxi and Shaanxi have seven or eight people in a family, and their annual income is no more than five or six taels of silver. All they want is to have enough food. A meal of meat during the New Year is enough."

"The people in Yunnan and Sichuan, although there are seven or eight people in a family, have an annual income of 27 taels. Their needs are not only enough to eat, but they hope to eat meat every meal."

"When I arrived in Luchuan, the local people had five or six people in a family, but their annual income was more than fifty taels of silver."

"People no longer have much demand for food, but demand for travel and housing."

Having said that, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but leaned forward:

"Does my brother know? I even saw some people in Luchuan who were dissatisfied with the narrow road built by the government, so they took the initiative to raise money to help the government widen the road."

"There are still people who can't wait for the government, so they raise money to build bridges and roads. It really opened my eyes."

Zhu Youxiao sighed, and the things he said, although this phenomenon also happened in Daming, but those who have the qualifications and money to do such things are local gentry.

It is as difficult as heaven for ordinary people to earn dozens of taels of silver a year.

It's just that under the policy of immigration and land distribution, the people of Ming Dynasty became richer and richer, and the court became richer and richer.

All this is because of my younger brother...

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but look at Zhu Youjian, and became more and more reluctant to leave his brother.

Although he felt that his son and himself could do well, he didn't think they could do better than his younger brother.

Zhu Youxiao's uneasiness about Qi also stems from this.

If Qi State did not have Zhu Youjian, it would be just a relatively powerful vassal state under the Ming Dynasty.

But if Qi State had Zhu Youjian, it would be more than just a vassal state.

"It's a pity that Emperor Qin, Emperor Han, and Wu slightly lost their literary talents, and Tang Zong and Song Zu were slightly less coquettish..."

As time went by, Zhu Youxiao felt that it was his younger brother's words describing himself.

"Where are we going next?"

Zhu Youxiao asked about Zhu Youjian, but Zhu Youjian replied without thinking: "Jozhi..."

"The Kunming-Zhanjiang Railway has been completed. We can go to Jiaozhi again, take a ship from Champo to Qiongzhou and Guangzhou, and then take a train to Huguang and Henan, and return to Beizhili."

Zhu Youjian didn't plan to go to Jiangnan because his brother had lived in Jiangnan for several years and knew the situation in Jiangnan very well.

Secondly, after he started his feudal domain, it took several months to prepare, and he had plenty of time to study Jiangnan.

In addition, the Ming Dynasty was a two-capital system. As long as the imperial power was not restricted, the emperor could live in Nanjing in the southern Zhili at will. This is different from the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China, and later generations.

The only things Jiangnan needs to pay attention to are Jiangxi and Zhejiang, and Nanzhili is just a patchwork product. It is more specifically called the fourteen directly-administered state capitals.

As long as the imperial power is unrestricted, the emperor's government orders are unimpeded in the local area, which is why after Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, he and later emperors did not split Nanzhili like the Qing Dynasty.

The emperor is in the north, so the southern Zhili is the fourteen directly-controlled state capitals, and there is no need to split it.

In the past, when paying taxes, the North Zhili and the South Zhili were the first to pay, because they were under the direct jurisdiction of the central government.

After splitting Nanzhili and establishing a province, the center will lose a financial source that can be directly controlled. Not only will there be an additional chief secretary in the middle, but also an additional inspection department, so that the two provinces separated from Nanzhili will have a solid foundation Soldiers and horses are not worth the candle.

Later generations criticized Nanzhili and felt that Nanzhili should be abolished into two provinces.

For the Ming Dynasty, Nanzhili was the basic platform for the rise of the Ming Dynasty, but the Qing Dynasty was different.

Due to too many killings at the customs, Jiangnan hated the Qing Dynasty extremely, which made it impossible for them to maintain the Ming Dynasty's two-capital system for Nanzhili.

In addition, there were too many Han people in the area, and the Qing Dynasty was a small Ling family, so we had to guard against it.

After setting Nanzhili as Jiangnan Province, the Qing Dynasty still felt that it was not safe, so it divided Jiangnan Province into east and west provinces.

The main reason for this is that neither province can have a complete line of defense on the Huaihe River, nor can it have a complete natural barrier on the Yangtze River, which is also in line with the principle of canine teeth.

But for Daming, allowing Nanzhili to have the Huaihe defense line and the Yangtze River natural barrier is to ensure that no northern force can directly cross the two defense lines to attack Nanjing City.

The two-capital system gave Daming enough flexibility. The emperor was in the south, and the fourteen directly-controlled prefectures in Nanzhili immediately had a unified command, which was a good retreat for the emperor.

For the imperial power of the Ming Dynasty, it was Jiangxi and Zhejiang that were difficult to control, and these two provinces were difficult to split, let alone split.

Migration of the population is what Zhu Youjian has to do, and after 22 years of policy restrictions in these two provinces, no less than 600 million people have migrated out during this period.

Including Nanzhili, the total number of migrants in the three places is no less than 1000 million.

But even so, the population of the three provinces is still more than [-] million.

However, this also shows that the potential of the three provinces is indeed huge, and they will continue to undertake the heavy responsibility of foreign immigration in the future.

As long as the two-capital system does not disintegrate, there is a need for Nanzhili to exist.

Worrying about the growth of Nanzhili is like worrying about the economic growth of the capital of a country. Worrying is unfounded...

"In the future, Brother Ran and Brother Ran will still travel more often in southern Beijing, and continue to maintain the two-Beijing system."

"As long as there are no problems in the two capitals, the imperial court can directly collect one-fifth of the imperial court's taxes without going through any chief secretary."

Zhu Youjian explained to Zhu Youxiao, and Zhu Youxiao nodded solemnly.

The two brothers looked at each other and smiled, and Zhu Youjian also said:

"It's mid-morning, and it's really time for a lunch break."

"Brother, go to bed first, and I'll read the national policies you wrote." Zhu Youxiao responded.

Seeing this, Zhu Youjian didn't say much, and after nodding, he turned and left the carriage.

Zhu Youxiao was left alone, and he also immersed himself in the various national policies written by Zhu Youjian in the past one and a half months.

Compared to the two of them's leisure time, Zhu Ciran who is far away in Beijing can be said to be extremely busy.

In the Spring Harmony Hall of the East Palace, eleven tables and chairs were neatly arranged.

At the main seat, Zhu Ciran sat, with three hundred memorials piled up like a mountain on the table.

The two on the left and right are the cabinet ministers Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting.

Further down, there are Li Changgeng, Zhou Yanru, Wen Tiren, and Jin Xuan.

These six people are the cabinet ministers of Daming, behind them are Sun Kewang, Liu Shun, Zhang Xiu, and Du Yinxi from the East Palace.

Li Yongzhen, the eunuch of the East Palace, stood beside Zhu Ciran, and was responsible for delivering memorials one after another.

These memorials were handed over to various ministries, and then passed on to Hong Chengchou.

Although Hong Chengchou dealt with these memorials quickly, he was extremely unhappy in his heart.

Since Sun Chengzong became an official, he has always felt that he is the next chief minister of the cabinet.

However, reality gave him a slap in the face.

Neither the king of Qi nor the emperor announced who the new chief assistant was, but kept the position vacant.

If it's just like this, it's fine, Hong Chengchou has endured it for more than [-] years, and he can endure it in the past few years.

But the problem is that the king of Qi and the emperor later announced that Jin Xuan and Yan Yinshao would join the cabinet, and asked Hong Chengchou to handle the matters that should be handled by the first assistant.

This way of handling is like letting an ordinary employee do the supervisor's work, but the treatment and title are still the same as ordinary employees.

Although people who come and go call him Hong Chengchou "Old Hongge", only he, Hong Chengchou, knows it.

Before the imperial decree came down, he was always just a cabinet minister, not a cabinet elder.

This situation is like an inspection period. During this period, Hong Chengchou has to be cautious in everything he does, for fear that if he does something wrong, he will get a "bad review" from King Qi.

This method is not torture for people like Sun Chuanting, because Sun Chuanting doesn't care about his position, he cares more about how much he can do, and he even worries that he is not worthy.

But when he arrived at Hong Chengchou's place, he felt that his appetite had been hung on all the time, and he was suffering double torture that he shouldn't have to bear mentally and physically.

The emperor couldn't think of such a method, because he couldn't figure out his own character.

Only King Qi, only he can come up with such a method...

Thinking of this, Hong Chengchou wanted to cry, but he couldn't cry. Looking at the memorial that only the chief minister of the cabinet can be regarded as the right to approve the red, Hong Chengchou could only sigh in his heart.

In front of King Qi, he was really played around like a mouse.

This feeling is really uncomfortable for him...

(End of this chapter)