Hongwu Survival Guide

Chapter 166 The Contrast Is Too Strong

When Zhu Yuan fell asleep, in the imperial city east of the city, Lao Zhu, who had finished his dinner and passed his school exams and left his sons' homework these days, sat down in the imperial study of Qianqing Palace and began to accumulate and review memorials.

It has to be said that Lao Zhu's ability to conquer the world is inseparable from his abundant personal energy.

According to historical records, Lao Zhu often read memorials until late at night, and got up early for decades without dawn. It can be judged that his personal sleep time is usually only two or three hours, which is four to six hours. It is difficult for ordinary people to persist in doing it.

Ma Shi settled down the children and came here.

After entering the door, he subconsciously glanced at the big copper cabinet that returned to the study, waved his hand to signal the servants to step back, walked to her husband, picked up the teapot and refilled Lao Zhu's glass of water, and found A light topic: "Husband, this time... why did you bring a group of ducklings back?"

Lao Zhu frowns slightly and browses through a memorial that clearly suggests that he wants to implement a benevolent government, but in fact he hopes to reduce local taxes. In the past, even if he disagrees, he will not feel that there is anything wrong. After studying all kinds of economics, I instinctively began to dislike it.

If tax cuts can't benefit the people at the bottom, what's the use if they just enrich those big and powerful households?

After reviewing a sentence casually, putting down the pen, Lao Zhu picked up the tea next to him and took a sip, only to realize that his wife beside him was talking to him: "Oh, duckling..." In a blink of an eye, he became interested: "My lady, this is not an ordinary duck!" , It’s the hen that doesn’t brood in the nest, and is hatched in the greenhouse by measuring the thermometer. Yuaner said, with this method, tens of millions of chickens and ducks can be obtained a year, and an industrial chain can also be drawn. Oh, these are important national affairs, you don’t need to know, just put those ducks in the garden and raise them.”

It's only a few words, and it's on 'Yuan'er'.

Mrs. Ma thought for a while, and stopped making rounds, and asked, "Husband, on the pier today, do you want that child to recognize you as... uncle?"

Lao Zhu put down the tea bowl and opened another memorial. Hearing this, he stopped his movements, nodded and said, "I want to tell you too. After the busy days are over, I will let Yuan'er recognize my ancestors and return to my ancestors. I have already married him." As I said before, if he is adopted by my second brother, he will inherit the incense of that family. Also, this seniority...I told you earlier, Yuaner is our own family, details..." Lao Zhu said, He also glanced at the big copper cabinet in the west corner: "...I'll show you next year, I just thought, just count it as a grandchild."

Ma Shi is generally aware of what Zhu Yuan has done in the past half a year.

It was also gratifying.

A few days ago, her husband stopped the child in Yangzhou ahead of time, impatient to see him, and when his son mentioned it intentionally or unintentionally when eating together, Ma became worried.

And again, I was a little bit crooked.

Ma Shi would not allow anyone else to threaten his son's status. He wanted to wait for her husband to come back to try it out, but he did not expect such a turning point.

Slightly relieved, Mrs. Ma soon hesitated again: "Husband, my concubine has heard about all the things Yuan'er has done in the past six months. Can you let people easily?"

Old Zhu read a memorial wholeheartedly, shook his head and said: "I have already told you, Yuan'er is our own family, if it is not too important to inherit under my name, I would not give it to my second brother, this is all wronged him."

Mrs. Ma insisted: "I still think it's wrong."

"What's wrong with exchanging a county king for the eternal generations of our Zhu family?" Lao Zhu turned his head and glanced at his wife who was still insisting, and thought about it: "I'll show you something."

As he spoke, he reached for a stack of documents on the table and handed them to his wife: "You must have read Yuan'er's knowledge. These are the many national policies I discussed with him on the way home in the past few days. Take a look. Let’s compare those rotten nonsense again, heh, there’s a math paper written by Yuan’er, and a paper for Wen Tianxiang’s No.

Mrs. Ma took the document, stepped aside and pulled a chair to sit down, hearing the words: "Husband, Wen Tianxiang is a loyal and loyal person, even the Yuan court has a lot of praise, so can you not allow slander?"

Lao Zhu smiled and said: "I know, huh, Yuan'er said the same way, Wen Tianxiang's integrity must be greatly praised. However, his essays on the palace examination, which are full of thousands of words, are all commonplace. Yuan'er said, he After reading it, I feel that it is only twelve characters."

Ma Shi was curious: "The twelve characters?"

"A virtuous minister, a humble man, cherish the power of the people, and cultivate military equipment," Lao Zhu said, "Look, what can be said in twelve words is a long-winded [-] words. Besides, these twelve words, that king I don’t know? Yuan’er also said that the question is how to do it, this is what ministers should consider and make suggestions, instead of talking about some useless principles.”

Marcus nodded slightly.

But, it feels a little weird.

Ma didn't know the word 'brainwashing', but she felt that her husband had been brainwashed, and she kept saying 'Yuan Er Shuo'.

Is this normal?

After flashing this thought, Ma Shi's attention has turned to the document in front of him.

The first is a military strategy for the grasslands.

The gist of the opening chapter of the strategy is that now that Guan Nei has been conquered, in the next few years, Daming will focus on restoring production in the Central Plains in order to continue accumulating national power.However, while focusing on production, we must not give up the military oppression of the grasslands, so as to prevent the ministries outside the customs from becoming bigger and threatening the Central Plains again.

related measures.

The first one is a strict blockade of ironware, salt, tea and other materials.

Marshall knew this too.

Skip it soon.

The second one is to reverse the blitz tactics of "grass hitting the valley".

The northern guards continued to dispatch cavalry to carry out surprise raids on the grassland, with the purpose of destroying the living forces and disrupting production activities. At the same time, this could also be used to train the Ming cavalry.

Cavalry has always been Daming's shortcoming.

The blitzkrieg tactics of tens of thousands of people going out of the fortress every year are similar to the battle of Feng Sheng and Li Wenzhong's raid on Kaiping. By doing so, we can not only continuously weaken the enemy, but also train more cavalry troops for Ming Dynasty, and completely solve the grassland for the future. The problem lays the groundwork.

The third one is nibbling step by step.

While continuously weakening the grassland tribes through lightning strikes, we must not abandon the policy of softness and recruit grassland tribes who are willing to join.

Furthermore, Daming will continue to build castles and strongholds within the area where its own forces can be deployed, and expand beyond the Great Wall step by step.

For example, to completely eliminate the hostile forces within 100 miles from the northern pass, build a city on the 100-mile border, connect the surrounding fortresses, and even some other defensive measures.In this 100-mile area, it can be handed over to the affiliated tribes for grazing, and it can also be properly used for farming to support military supplies.

And so on.

Behind this strategy, there is also a six-year goal, the so-called two 'three-year plans', to win Kaiping, the capital of the ancient Yuan Dynasty, and incorporate all the areas within this city into the territory of the Ming Dynasty to achieve long-term effectiveness. control, and then use this as a base to continue to expel the grassland ministries north and west.

Following her husband step by step, Mrs. Ma also knows military affairs.

For this strategy, Ma Shi's first feeling is just one word.

stable!
Moreover, Mrs. Ma also saw one of the very important issues. For the past dynasties, the north was not unable to defeat it, but could not defend it. The most special feature of this strategy is that it took into account the word "defense" instead of fighting. It's over, I can't keep it, I have to return it again.

Although there are still many details missing, considering the results of the young boy's management of the ocean in just over half a year, Mrs. Ma also believes that the other party should have a way to achieve a goal in the north without wasting the money of the Ming Dynasty. A "keep" word that can at least achieve self-sufficiency.

This is also key.

Why couldn't the previous dynasties keep it?

It's not a shortage of major generals.

Instead, if ten catties of grain is transported to the north, it may cost nine catties on the way, so it is really unaffordable.

Thinking of this, Ma Shi flipped to the second copy with some expectation.

This is an infrastructure strategy.

Compared with the previous military strategy that can be seen at a glance, "infrastructure" is a new word, and Ma Shi is a little puzzled.

Read carefully to understand.

It is probably related to dredging canals, opening roads, and building bridges.

However, Ma started to understand some of the specific explanations.

For example, it mentioned the "distribution" that she had seen or heard from her husband more than once, which obviously came from a certain teenager's theory, which divided this "distribution" into two types, the so-called "system-level benefit distribution" ' and 'Resource allocation at the geographical level'.

This 'infrastructure' refers to the latter.

There are also examples.

If the Yuan court could smoothly transport the abundant grain from the south to the north to support the court's expenses, raise officials, raise the army, and even raise the people, it would not collapse so quickly. Just broke through most of the way.

However, the key to Yuan Ting's desire to achieve this is the transportation-related infrastructure such as 'canals', 'roads', and 'bridges', which is exactly what Yuan Ting is not good at.

Traffic, another new word.

The strategy also stated that excellent infrastructure can strengthen the imperial court's control over the local area, and while it is more convenient to realize the "resource distribution at the regional level", it can also more smoothly implement the "benefit distribution at the institutional level".

Compared with the previous military strategy, for this one, Ma felt that he understood it, but he didn't seem to understand it.

Because there are too many new things in it.

Finally, there are goals.

The same "three-year plan", one is to dredge the north-south canal from Dadu to Hangzhou, and the other is to improve the water and land transportation from Jinling to Linhao.

There are also annotations.

In three years, it is certainly impossible to complete the dredging of the entire line of the [-]-mile-long North-South Canal. Therefore, we can only take the lead in cleaning up key silted areas. This requires several months of survey and detailed planning.

Then there is the water and land transportation from Jinling to Linhao.

Mrs. Ma's first reaction was that Linhao was her husband's hometown, and that must be the reason, so she inevitably felt that...in the short term, it was not necessary.

Note is, for coal.

A picture is also attached.

A simple hand-drawn map with two points marked with a red pen. One is Linhao Mansion, the hometown of Lao Zhu by the Huaihe River, and the other is Taiping Mansion, where the river was crossed in the upper reaches of Jinling. The word 'iron'.

There is also a line of text below the picture.

The obvious simplified handwriting of a young man: Linhao Coal Mine with a scale of [-] billion tons and Taiping Iron Mine with a scale of one billion tons are enough to complete the initial industrialization.

Don't you mean traffic?

Why is there another... What is this, industrialization?

Ma couldn't understand it even more, but felt that it should be a very important thing.

So I read this document again, savored it carefully, and then continued to turn it back.

Subsequent documents, either about 'Tuntian', or 'Health', or 'Official System', or 'Household Registration Reform', and so on, each of which made Ma frequently feel enlightened.

At a certain moment, Ma Shi realized one thing.

If it's just one or two of them, perhaps no one in the imperial court would have thought of it, but so many new policy measures came from one person, it's simply... indescribable.Mrs. Ma was suddenly a little rejoiced that the boy, um, according to her husband, was a member of the Zhu family. Otherwise, if it fell into the hands of Yuan Ting, or even earlier, into the hands of Chen Youliang or Zhang Shicheng, what would happen to the world? , is really unpredictable.

When there were not many copies left in the thick stack of documents, Mrs. Ma saw the Wen Tianxiang Palace test paper mentioned by her husband earlier.

With a bit of comparison, I read it curiously.

The first is the palace examination questions, the content is very long, Mr. Ma browsed through it, this is His Majesty the emperor asking about the "way of heaven and man" in governing the country.

Great title.

Then there is Wen Tianxiang's answer sheet: "Your Majesty the Emperor has lived for a long time, and at the time of the friendship between Thailand and Thailand, he used the way of two emperors and three emperors to reunite the hearts of all people, and the three disciplines are here. The ministers are encouraged by the sky where kites fly and fish leap, and everyone One of the most popular things in the Dao style, you can't help but enter the court of your majesty, and your majesty talks about the dao. It's been a long time since the dao didn't work, and your majesty's words are like this. It's the blessing of heaven, earth, gods and people. However, the minister said For those who have not understood, today is the time when Dao has been formed, when Dao is in touch with politics, and I will apologize. If you have doubts about ambition and diligence, how can you hope for Dao but not see it? Please go back to the root of Taiji’s movement and movement, and promote the transformation of gods For the test, I use the word "endless" in the holy question to encourage your majesty. Fortunately, your majesty will try to listen. I heard that the heaven and earth and the Tao are one and the same, and the heart of the saint is the same as the heaven and the earth. In the past and present, the news of millions of changes is full of news, and the transfer of millions of changes is complete, so why not say..."

After reading a paragraph, Ma Shi quickly understood.

At that time, Emperor Song asked about the "way of heaven and man", and Wen Tianxiang responded with the word "endless".

There is a saying in the Book of Changes: Heaven moves vigorously, and a gentleman strives for self-improvement.

At the beginning, Ma felt that this was a good match.

Just, continue to read, thousands of words in a row, from the four directions of the world to the past and present, from Yao, Shun, Yutang to Tang Zong and Song Zu, all kinds of quotations and references, over and over again, this is also 'endless', that is also 'endless', Ma Shi soon tasted nothing.

Barely saw half of it, and I couldn't read it any more before I found the twelve characters that my husband said before.

Because the contrast between before and after is too strong.

The various strategies from a certain young man just now are all meaningful and interesting.

Looking at Wen Tianxiang's article again, even though he understands that writing and doing things are two different things, Mrs. Ma still inevitably had a thought: Can the Song Dynasty use these people to govern the country, can it not perish?
Silently putting this palace test paper aside, Ma Shi immediately saw another test paper.

Just by glancing at the various numbers and symbols on it, Ma Shi understood that this was the math test paper that Zhu Yuan had proposed to be used in the imperial examination later on, as her husband had said before.

Curious to start reading.

Question 3.2: A county pays 3.5 shi of tax and grain a year, and has 4.5 households, with an average of [-] people per household.

Question: Calculated according to the thirty-one tax, how much is the county's annual grain output?
Ask again: 16% of the county's population is under the age of 21, and 60% is over the age of 7. The two need 1 liter of rations per day, and the rest of the adult population needs 2 liters of rations. Then, the county's annual grain Production, deducting tax and grain, can it satisfy the common people? If there is more, how much more, or how much gap is there?
Even though he was already familiar with the "Basics of Mathematics", after reading this question, Ma Shi felt a little dizzy at first glance.

The first question is simple.

The second question, there are a lot of conversions, and what kind of percentage, um, tax and food are also deducted, if you forget to deduct it, you will be wrong immediately.

This is really not easy.

Moreover, Ma Shi also saw another thing at a glance.

This question... itself is too inaccurate.

How many people can eat 2 liters of food a day?

Furthermore, issues such as landlords and tenants are not considered in the title.

However, Mrs. Ma soon understood that this question was just a pattern, and behind it... Well, there are many connotations involved, and Mrs. Ma couldn't figure it out for a while. "Tao" test questions, too much to be practical.Afterwards, there are a total of 10 questions, all of which are similar in content. In addition to mathematical calculations, there are also some questions that need to draw curves and charts, and some need to list tables. They are all practical questions that are closely related to the lives of ordinary people.

Mashi finished browsing, and while trying to answer one of the questions, he thought, compared to the "way of heaven and man", this is really the content of the imperial imperial examination.

Before finishing such a question, a voice suddenly came from my ear: "My lady..."

Madam Ma looked up and saw her husband standing up with a smile.

Glancing at the inscriptions on the desk, before he knew it, the time had passed.

Hastily putting away the documents in front of him, Madam Ma stood up and said, "Look at me... I forgot the time."

Lao Zhu still smiled: "If I don't talk about you, I will forget the time when I read it."

Talking about putting away these documents carefully with his wife, Lao Zhu said, "Now, you don't object to me adopting Yuan'er under the second brother's name, right?"

Mrs. Ma paused again, this time without too much hesitation, nodded and said: "Your husband is the master." He remembered something: "Biao'er mentioned to me a few days ago that I want... Yuan'er to teach him Learning, what do you think?"

"That's what I planned," said Old Zhu, "Not only Biaoer, but every one of his brothers must learn from Yuaner."

Mrs. Ma paused again, nodded slightly, but said again: "That's... If this Yuan'er is recognized by the second brother's name, you said before... Grandchildren, don't you want to call Biao'er his uncle?"

Old Zhu smiled and said, "What's the matter? As the saying goes, the master is the teacher, and there is a sequence of hearing. No one said that the nephew can't teach the uncle."

The husband and wife watched and tidied up, and went out of the study together.

Having said this, Mashi mentioned another matter: "Husband, what will you do for your birthday the day after tomorrow, my concubine will prepare for it tomorrow?"

"Let's not do it," Lao Zhu obviously thought about it, shaking his head and said: "The soldiers in front are still fighting, and besides, every time it's my birthday, I always think about my parents... Sigh, I haven't had a good day, "Speaking of this, Lao Zhu's originally good mood suddenly turned to gloom, and he sighed: "Tomorrow...you just need to make arrangements for the ancestor worship the next day, and I will ask them to draw up an edict. Everything will be as usual on the day of the birthday. Congratulations are required.”

(End of this chapter)