Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 286 Father and son are talented

"All the proceeds from the inspection by the Taxation Department are in the memorial. All the cultivated land acquired was distributed to the landless people, and more than 760,000 dan in back taxes were recovered. An additional 377,000 dan were seized, as well as gold, silver, calligraphy, painting, antiques and other items. There are about 630,000 zhese."

In October Wuying Hall, when Zhu Di listened to the report of Yu Xin, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, he also nodded to express satisfaction, but still asked:

"Taxation Department, are you all sent to Jiangbei now?"

"Back to Your Majesty, they have all been sent to Jiangbei by His Highness."

After being reminded by Zhu Di, Yao Guangxiao and others, Zhu Gaoxu also realized that he was a little proud and complacent.

Therefore, he focused the tax department mainly on the Jiangbei area of ​​​​Zhili, and adopted a conciliatory posture with the six Jiangdong prefectures.

However, because of his voyage to the West, he was never in the same pot as the civil servants.

Zhu Di, who had been radically opposed to the Jiangnan ministers when he came to power in history, now became a conservative.

Seeing Yu Xin saying that Zhu Gaoxu had to give in, Zhu Di also nodded with satisfaction: "Other than that, are there any other changes?"

“The immigration rate in the three prefectures of Shandong has slowed down, and the construction period of sorting out the Yellow River and Canal has also been adjusted to ten years.”

Yu Xin's answer can be regarded as an answer sheet handed over by Zhu Gaoxu.

Except for the construction of Beijing and the voyage to the West, which he did not delay, the pace of other things was slowed down without exception.

"The pace did slow down, but even though he slowed down, the sound in the temple became louder and louder."

Zhu Di glanced at Yu Xin, who also bowed and said: "For some small gain, it is normal for them to be loud."

Yu Xin understood very well that in fact, not only the prince wanted to do these two things, sailing to the West and building Beijing, but also the emperor.

Because of this, the emperor has not interfered with the prince's actions, but has been easing the relationship between him and his ministers.

To put it mildly, the prince now seems to be taking the blame for the emperor.

Obviously the emperor also wanted to do these things, but he pretended not to want to do it very much. One father and son played the bad role, the other played the red face. The ministers in the temple were like monkeys, being played with by the two father and son.

"How is the tax collection in the two capitals and fourteen provinces? Have they been registered?"

Zhu Di asked about the financial situation, and Yu Xinyan bowed: "There are still three to five days before the inventory can be calculated."

"However, in this census, the population in Shandong and South Zhili has increased a lot, as has the cultivated land."

The places where Yu Xin answered are exactly where Zhu Gaoxu took action.

Twenty-four years after Hongwu, the Ming Dynasty's "Yellow Book" and "Fish Scale Atlas" were a bad debt.

All provinces are basically copying the old ones. Only this time, the cultivated land and population of Shandong, Liaodong and South Zhili provinces have changed significantly.

"How much more?" Zhu Di narrowed his eyes and asked, and Yu Xin responded without hesitation when he saw this.

"In the 24th year of Hongwu, there were more than 5,255,000 people in Shandong. Now more than 360,000 immigrants have immigrated. However, after this census, there are still more than 5,246,000 people, only a few There are less than 9,000 people.”

"In addition, the amount of cultivated land has also increased by approximately 4.2 million acres, and now exceeds 57.267 million acres."

"Similar to Shandong, there are Liaodong and Southern Zhili. The specific increase will be able to reach His Majesty the Dragon Case in about three days."

"If we want to give a rough idea, there are 5.246 thousand people in Shandong and more than 57 million acres of cultivated land."

"Liaodong has 1,473,000 people and more than 4,979,000 acres of cultivated land."

"Southern Zhili has a population of more than 11,478,000 people and more than 82,370,000 acres of cultivated land."

After Yu Xin said this, Zhu Di had an idea in his mind. After all, he had read the "Yellow Book" and "Fish Scale Atlas" in the 24th year of Hongwu.

In terms of population, Shandong has not increased on paper, Liaodong has increased its population by more than 400,000, and Southern Zhili has increased its population by more than 700,000.

Cultivated land increased by 4.2 million acres in Shandong, more than 2.4 million acres in Liaodong, and nearly 2 million acres in Zhili.

Counting from the 24th year of Hongwu to the present, in only ten years, the population and cultivated land have increased significantly, and because Zhu Gaoxu stopped inspecting the six Jiangdong prefectures, perhaps the six Jiangdong prefectures will conceal more population and cultivated land.

"Based on this situation, what should be the actual number of people and acres of land in other provinces?"

Zhu Di subconsciously touched his beard, and Yu Xin shook his head after hearing this: "It is difficult to estimate the specific number, but the actual number of people in the country should be no less than 64 million, and the number of acres should have exceeded 420 million. .”

The number given by Yu Xin is the national growth calculated based on the growth in Shandong. This is a method he learned from Donggong.

However, if he really estimates it, he thinks that the number of Damingkou should be no less than 70 million, and the number of acres of land may have reached 500 million acres.

It's just that he couldn't tell the amount. If Zhu Di asked him to clear his father-in-law and he couldn't, then things would be bad.

Clearing his father-in-law's land was not something he could do alone.

"I understand, is there anything else you want to tell me?"

Zhu Di was not as radical as Yu Xin thought, or in other words, with Zhu Gaoxu as a foil, he was not that radical.

So after asking what he wanted to know, Zhu Di had no other questions.

"I have nothing to do to disturb Your Majesty, I will retire..."

When Yu Xin saw this, he immediately sang a salute and left Wuying Hall.

After he left, Zhu Di looked at a military attache in his forties standing in the corner: "Ji Gang, what's going on in the East Palace recently?"

Ji Gang, the commander of the Jinyiwei appointed by Zhu Di after he ascended the throne, controls the huge organization of Jinyiwei.

Although Zhu Di trusted Zhu Gaoxu, he did not let go of his surveillance of Zhu Gaoxu.

"The East Palace has recently appointed Zuo Dudu Fu Rang, Dudu Qian Shi Lin Su, Zhang Chun and others to lead hundreds of people to study in the Shenji Camp. In addition, there seems to be movement in the Ordnance Bureau of Liaodong, but the officials are incompetent and cannot find out the specific information."

Ji Gang was ashamed to respond, but Zhu Di nodded with satisfaction after hearing this, and comforted him: "It's enough to know about it. I will ask the second child for details."

After saying that, he looked at Wang Yan, the eunuch in charge of the Supervisor of Ceremonies: "Send someone to tell Zheng He and ask him to send his second son to Wuying Hall to discuss matters with me."

"Your servant accepts the order..." Wang Yan agreed, and then sent someone to the East Palace to inform Zheng He.

Not long after, Zheng He got the news and asked Zhu Gaoxu to go to Wuying Palace.

Half a month later, Zhu Gaoxu became much calmer, which made Zhu Di a little surprised and a little happy to see him.

"I have met your Majesty. Your Majesty pays you your respects..."

"Okay, okay, calm down a lot."

Looking at the calm Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Di said happily: "I just got news from someone else, saying that you asked Fu to let them go to the Shenji Camp to study, and you are also preparing to transfer things from the Ordnance Bureau."

"I was about to talk to my father about this." Zhu Gaoxu didn't feel surprised when he heard what Zhu Di said. After all, he asked Zheng He to come to him in order to let Zhu Di know his general movements and feel at ease.

Therefore, after Zhu Di asked, he explained the matter:

"Father should know that Annan is instigating a relationship between my chieftain from the southwest and the imperial court. Annan is originally a Han people's place, and now that powerful minister has usurped the throne and intends to sow a relationship between the chieftain and the imperial court. I have an excuse to calm them down."

"Therefore, I let Fu Rang, Lin Su, and Zhang Chun enter the Shenji Camp to study. I allocated firearms to them and prepared them to return to Guangxi to train troops and wait for the imperial court's order to station in Annan."

As soon as Zhu Gaoxu opened his mouth, Zhu Di's eyes lit up.

Zhu Di can naturally grasp the information he can grasp, and Zhu Di has long been unhappy with Annan, so after hearing Zhu Gaoxu's words, he not only did not stop it, but supported it.

"I'm very relieved that you can see what happened in Annan. As for sending Fu Rang and three people to lead the army, this is a bit of a monopoly."

Zhu Di sounded like he was preparing to install someone, but Zhu Gaoxu was also prepared.

"I understand what my father said, so I am here. I hope my father will send a few people to train and send out troops together."

"How many troops and horses are you planning to send to pacify Annan?" Zhu Di asked Zhu Gaoxu, preparing to dispatch Yanfu generals based on the number of troops and horses.

"Fu Rang thinks that 50,000 soldiers and 100,000 civilians are enough." After Zhu Gaoxu said this, he added:

"However, I think that dispatching 70,000 troops and 150,000 civilians will make it easier to govern after Annan is captured."

"My ministers want to appoint the Marquis of Xiping as the Pingnan General, Fu Rang and Yang Wen as the left and right generals, and then send Meng Ying, Lin Su, Zhang Fu, Zhang Chun and others to accompany them."

Zhu Gaoxu selected two new-generation military generals, Zhang Fu and Meng Ying, from the Yan Mansion because these two men also did well in Annan. If they were stationed in Annan later, they would be able to better manage Annan and balance Fu Rang. their role.

"Mu Chun is good. He can control the three armies, and I feel very relieved."

"You can choose Zhang Fu and Meng Ying. I think they have good taste. Let's do as you say."

Zhu Di was very satisfied with Zhu Gaoxu's arrangement. After all, behind Meng Ying and Zhang Fu were two veterans of the Yan Mansion, Meng Shan and Zhang Yu. They were sent to participate in the war to pacify Annan, and the generals of the Yan Mansion would not have any objections.

After talking about Annan, Zhu Di brought up a new topic: "What do you think of the Three Propaganda and Six Comforts?"

"Three declarations and six comforts?" Zhu Gaoxu did not expect that Zhu Di would actually mention the three declarations and six comforts, but he still pondered his thoughts for a moment and then gave a response.

"The three propaganda and six comfort areas include plateaus, rivers, and plains. Each Xuanwei division has different strengths and abilities."

"Since Dao Qianmeng was defeated, Luchuan's power has been greatly reduced, and each Xuanwei Division has its own affairs. It is a good time to split them up."

Although the Lucchuan Dynasty did not occupy a large space in the history books of later generations, in fact their power cannot be ignored.

Its territory stretches from Laos in the east, to Chiang Mai in the south, to the Manas River in India in the west, and to Dali in Yunnan in the north.

They established a tribute system of their own, and the system they adopted was actually very similar to the military merit system of the Qin and Han Dynasties.

According to the institutional regulations, the legal ownership of Luchuan's domestic territory belongs to the king, and every four men form a group. Each man must serve in the army for three months every year, and the four men are rotated exactly every year.

Normally, they have to rotate from the age of sixteen to fifty before they can be released from military service.

Among them, for every five four-person groups, a director-general is set up to manage them.

Every five minor officials are registered, and a list of hundreds of officials is set up for management.

For every ten recording tubes, a recording officer is set up to manage them.

Officials of military organizations at all levels are directly subordinate to the king and can obtain state-owned land allocation. A military merit system is implemented for allocating land and rewarding land.

The last military-based regime that posed a threat to the Central Plains dynasty was Goguryeo, which shattered the teeth of the monarchs of the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties.

After Zhu Yuanzhang twice smashed the rising momentum of Luchuan, and Zhu Di analyzed Luchuan, the Luchuan dynasty has been divided and cannot be reunited.

But the father and son Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Zhanji could not stand the neglect of the southwest policy, which directly led to the reunion of Luchuan and laid a big thunder for Zhu Qizhen.

Of course, if Zhu Qi had not been aware of the situation and had taken action against the Luchuan, Fujian rebellion and Oara at the same time, he would not have been captured and went to Mobei as an overseas student.

However, even so, Zhu Qizhen's policy towards the southwest was much better than Zhu Gaochi letting the eunuchs mess around in Jiaozhi, and Zhu Zhanji abandoning Jiaozhi and being ridiculed by Li Liyitong. Fortunately, the eldest brother has been canonized and granted vassal status in Kunming. As long as the Han Palace in Kunming is well constructed, he can take vassal status.

The southwest he messed with in his previous life was now in his own hands.

Thinking about it this way, Zhu Gaoxu thought it was quite dramatic.

"You're on to the point."

Seeing what Zhu Gaoxu said, Zhu Di also stroked his beard and agreed: "I see that there are finally problems in Luchuan now, so based on the last analysis, I plan to have Wang Xuan and his son from Yongchang move Jianwen Chengchen to the south. Dian, Qianya, Zhenkang and other places are located near the town."

Zhu Di revealed the reason why he summoned Zhu Gaoxu. To put it bluntly, he wanted Zhu Gaoxu to mobilize Wang and his son to advance to the southwest.

From Yongchang to Nandian, Ganya and Zhenkang, it is equivalent to going 200 miles to the southwest.

Although the Ming Dynasty currently controls the whole of Yunnan and the Sanxuan and Liuwei in name, it actually controls only one-third of Yunnan. The Sanxuan and Liuwei can do nothing except collect a certain amount of gold and silver differential taxes. Actual in-depth control.

If we can go deep into Ganya, Nandian, and Zhenkang, then Yongchang, Dali, Chuxiong, and Kunming behind us will be safe.

"It is not difficult to go deep into these three places. The land in these three places is actually very fertile, but the plain area is not large."

Faced with Zhu Di's thoughts, Zhu Gaoxu gave his opinion based on his previous life experience.

He has never been to Zhenkang, but he has passed through Nandian and Ganya when taking the high-speed rail. They are typical wide valley basins.

Judging from the pictures in his memory, if they can all be developed, with the current productivity, it will not be a problem to feed hundreds of thousands of people. Moreover, Nandian has been developed by Luchuan for more than half a century. Although there are no clear acres of land, the scale should be Not small, otherwise Dao Ganmeng would not dare to let Nandian supply food and grass for tens of thousands of troops.

"Nandian, the situation in Qianya is not bad. I don't know much about Zhenkang. My father can write to Wang Zhao and Wang Xuan and his son to check on the situation. My son and I can ask Yishuha to do errands for my father."

"Okay!" Zhu Di nodded. With these words from Zhu Gaoxu, he became confident in further analyzing Luchuan.

He said so much, but actually he just wanted Zhu Gaoxu to express his position.

Now that Zhu Gaoxu has expressed his support, he can make plans for Luchuan.

Seeing Zhu Di's happy look, Zhu Gaoxu could only chuckle in his heart.

If he didn't understand Zhu Di's thoughts at the beginning, he understood it very well now.

But even if he understood, Zhu Gaoxu was not prepared to interfere.

After all, as far as history is concerned, Zhu Di does have a good hand in dealing with Luchuan. He can't think of a better way for the time being, so he might as well follow his way.

What he can do is to find ways to control Ming's finances and population, and help Zhu Di consolidate Ming's interests in the southwest.

"Now that my father has an idea, Nachen has resigned."

Zhu Gaoxu stood up and bowed, but when Zhu Di heard this, he pointed to the table and chairs aside in surprise: "Aren't you going to deal with the memorial here?"

"It's troublesome to come to Wuying Hall from the East Palace every day, but it's nice to stay in the East Palace." Zhu Gaoxu chuckled, and his move to withdraw from Wuying Hall undoubtedly increased Zhu Di's say in the temple.

His sudden concession surprised Zhu Di, but Zhu Gaoxu also had his own ideas.

After the last introspection, he also thought about some things clearly.

At the moment, what he should do most is to secure the education and military in the Northeast. Only by firmly grasping the talents produced in the Northeast can he control the finance and population of the Ming Dynasty.

He now does not have the strength to send enough officials to replace the officials in the pass, so no matter how he suppresses the officials in the pass, he still has to rely on them to govern the government.

In this case, he simply let go and used points to break the surface.

Starting from Liaodong, Bohai, Shandong, and then to Beizhili, Shanxi, Henan...

Only in this way can he firmly control the finance and population of the Ming Dynasty.

"My son, please retire..."

Zhu Gaoxu bowed in return and then exited Wuying Hall.

After he got on the carriage, Zhu Di realized what he was doing and said with a sigh: "It's good to be young. It's easy to correct and learn."

After that, he began to set his sights on Lucuan, ready to think of ways to analyze Lucuan.

However, after Zhu Gaoxu got out of the chariot and returned to the East Palace, Zhu Gaoxu immediately looked for Yi Shiha.

Sitting on the main seat, he gestured for Yi Shiha to take a seat, and then said:

"I'm afraid my father will sometimes ask you to go to Wuying Hall to help. If he calls you, just do it."

"My slave, please accept your order." Yi Shiha agreed without hesitation. When Zhu Gaoxu saw this, he also asked:

"How is the situation in Bohai? How many students will graduate this year?"

"I was about to talk to His Highness about this matter." Hearing this, Yishiha immediately stood up and took two documents from outside Chunhe Hall.

"These two reports, the former is the population and cultivated land situation in Bohai, Liaodong, Shandong, Daning and other places, and the latter is the number of school openings, graduation numbers, and enrollment numbers in these four places."

After Yi Shiha said this, Zhu Gaoxu took over and read ten lines at a time.

In a year and a half, the Bohai Sea has attracted more than 76,000 Jurchens. Now, after the Jurchens have moved in and the Han people have moved out, the Bohai Sea has a total population of 326,000, of which the Hans occupy 214,000 and the Jurchens occupy One hundred and twelve thousand.

The local cultivated land has reached more than 2,797,000 acres today.

If each household has one draft horse and one plowing ox, 326,000 people can definitely farm. However, if this continues, it is estimated that ten acres per person will be the limit.

If you want to continue to reclaim the wasteland of the Bohai Sea, you must relocate the people and distribute cattle and draft horses.

As for the schooling situation in Bohai, there are currently more than 124,000 students enrolled, but the teaching environment is not good, and the number has reached 50 students in one school.

Fortunately, this year is the graduation year for Hongwu students in the 29th year, and the number of graduated students has reached 7,427.

If this group of people devoted themselves to clearing the land within the pass, they would be good at managing taxes, but Zhu Gaoxu has now realized that he still has a long time and his strength is not enough.

Seven thousand people invested in managing a dynasty with a population of 60 million could only stir up a few waves, but could not stir up the pond.

Instead of transferring them to the customs, I should let them serve as teachers and improve the quality of teaching in Northeast China.

After reading various situations in the Bohai Sea, Zhu Gaoxu spoke first: "Shandong immigrants will migrate 100,000 people to the Bohai Sea after April next year. The speed can be slow, but their environment must be protected. I don't want immigrants to die on the migration road. thing."

"In addition, since the Bohai Sea is self-sufficient in cultivated land and grain, and can still have a surplus of more than 700,000 dan, half of the grain surplus each year will be transported to Hanzhou, Kaiping, Tieling and other places in Liaodong to alleviate the pressure on water transportation for the imperial court."

"The remaining half was also divided into two parts. One part was kept for emergencies, and the other part was transported to Zhaozhou to prepare for the imperial court's march to Modong to take root in the future."

As Zhu Gaoxu spoke, Yi Shiha also took a pen to write down the things. After Zhu Gaoxu finished talking about the Bohai Sea, he stopped writing.

Not long after, Zhu Gaoxu also looked at the situation in Daning and Liaodong.

There are more than 1,473,000 people in Liaodong and more than 4,979,000 acres of cultivated land, but the actual grain yield per mu is less than seven buckets. This shows that a large amount of cultivated land is still raw land, and the supporting agricultural water conservancy is not perfect. , this year’s data is only valid until next year’s farming.

However, even based on the actual grain yield of seven dou per mu, Liaodong's grain self-sufficiency rate is only 35%, leaving a gap of more than 5 million shi.

If the gap caused by the continuous increase in immigration is added, the imperial court should still need to maintain the transportation of 6 million shi of sea food next year.

Because when Beiping and Yongping encountered war, a large number of people fled to Daning. Therefore, the population of Daning now reaches more than 107,000, and the amount of cultivated land has not increased much. The reported amount is 226,400. One hundred and twenty-seven acres.

Fortunately, after the water conservancy construction by local officers and soldiers, Daning's real grain yield per mu has been stabilized at seven dou per mu. The local fields can produce nearly 160,000 shi of grain per acre, but there is still a food gap of more than 400,000 shi.

Schools in Liaodong and Daning were fully opened last year, with more than 320,000 students enrolled at the beginning of this year. However, the quality of teaching is worse than in Bohai. In some places, 80 students are even crowded into one classroom.

It can be said that the shortage of teaching resources outside Guanxi is a fact that Zhu Gaoxu has to face.

"Six thousand students who graduated from Bohai will be transferred to Liaodong and Daning to teach, and the rest will be taught in Bohai."

"In addition, 10,000 students with innocent family backgrounds were selected from the Imperial College and the private sector to teach in Daning and Liaodong."

"Including the 6,000 people in Bohai and the more than 10,000 teachers in Daning and Liaodong, the ratio can be reduced to 50 people per school."

"As for schools in Shandong, they will continue to be under construction, but we have to wait for the start of school."

After Zhu Gaoxu finished speaking, he also made policy requirements for those outside the customs.

"For students who are going to school, their families must voluntarily report their household registration number and the status of their farmland, otherwise the students will not be allowed to go to school."

He plans to use educational resources to tie up the people so that they have to truthfully report their household registration and farmland status.

Of course, while tying up the people, he had to allow them to report without any burden, so he said:

"The common people reported that from now on, corvee service and miscellaneous services will be abolished, and all government work will require wages."

"In addition, starting from next year, the taxes in Bohai, Liaodong, Daning, Shandong and other places will be changed from the current tax of one tax per five to one tax per ten."

Zhu Gaoxu lowered the proportion of land tax because his financial pressure has improved and there is no need to maintain the situation of five land taxes and one land tax.

Even if it is only one tax per ten, as long as the taxes are paid honestly, Shandong can still hand over more than 6 million stone fields in tax.

But the "honest tax payment" here refers to the squires and wealthy households.

As long as Zhu Gaoxu guarantees that the situation in Shandong, Liaodong and other places will not lead to the "drench tip kicking" of subordinate officials in the mainland, and changes the status of upper, middle and lower households, then the tax and grain paid by Shandong will not be less than 6 million shi.

Faced with Zhu Gaoxu's policy adjustment, Yi Shiha bowed and responded.

Next, Zhu Gaoxu looked at the population and cultivated land situation in Shandong, but he did not think that the more than five million people and more than 57 million acres of cultivated land were the real situation in Shandong.

Not to mention anything else, 50% of the millions of acres of cultivated land owned by the Confucius family and his relatives were not included in the "Fish Scale Atlas", let alone other officials, squires, and wealthy households.

However, as far as his current strength is concerned, he does not yet have the strength to completely clear Shandong. He will have to wait at least another year or two.

When the students from Bohai graduate one after another, he can take action against Shandong.

When more than 300,000 students in Liaodong graduate, he can take action against the entire north.

In just three to five years, he will be able to transfer the power of grassroots taxation into the hands of the court. Although financial pressure will increase, fiscal revenue will also increase.

He is still young, and he can still afford to wait for three to five years...

(End of this chapter)