Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 325 The third year of Yongle

"Dang...dang...dang..."

"Crack!"

In the early morning, when the bells and firecrackers sounded in unison, the third year of Yongle also arrived as scheduled.

In the streets and alleys, people set off firecrackers and covered their ears. Every household began to tidy up their homes and bought meat such as chicken, duck, beef, and pig to take home to make Spring Festival delicacies.

In days like this, even the people living in the miserable areas of the Ming Dynasty would not treat themselves badly, let alone the most prosperous city in the world, Nanjing.

Since yesterday, thousands of livestock have been transported to the capital, dismembered and sold in the markets of Fangshi.

The thick smell of sulfur announces the arrival of the New Year, and the wisps of smoke from every household also announce the peace of the world.

Inside and outside the Fengtian Hall, thousands of officials in Beijing dressed in court uniforms paid homage to Zhu Di, and Zhu Di, who was wearing imperial uniforms, also raised his hand to signal the officials to stand up.

Just like last year, the Ministry of Revenue and the Sixth Army Governor's Office reported last year's fiscal revenue respectively, and then Zhu Gaoxu stepped forward to allocate fixed quotas for this year's taxes.

However, since there was not much local achievement, Zhu Gaoxu did not increase or reduce the burden on the provinces, and still maintained the land tax quota of 35 million shi.

His calmness made the officials breathe a sigh of relief.

After Zhu Gaoxu finished the topic of quotas, the ministers also began to prepare for the Jiashenko imperial examination that will be held this year.

What he said was that he didn't want Dong Gong to get involved in the imperial examination, but Zhu Di ignored it and still maintained last year's decision.

What is rare is that during this opening ceremony, Xie Jin, Yang Shiqi, Hu Guang, Hu Yan and others who were grand bachelors did not speak, nor did Li Zhigang from the Ministry of Rites.

Perhaps Chen Ying of the Metropolitan Procuratorate did not get Zhu Di's understanding, so he did not impeach the ministers in such an atmosphere.

In short, the Zhengdan Dynasty in the third year of Yongle will end in a strange and ordinary way.

Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu also changed into regular clothes after the court meeting and took large and golden carriages to the Huagai Hall.

Inside and outside Huagai Hall, all the kings in Beijing, their concubines and their children appeared here, all because after the Lantern Festival, many feudal kings were going to the place to join the feudal clan.

These include King Lu of Jiading, King Qi of Guangzhou, King Dai of Ensi, King Han of Chongqing, King of Liao of Xuzhou, King An of Changde, King Shen of Hengzhou, and Zhu Gaoxu’s younger brother King Zhao Zhu Gaosui. There is also Zhu Zanyi of Jingjiang County Prince.

It can be said that except for Ning Wang Zhu Quan who was still guarding the border in Daning, as well as Han Wang, Gu Wang, Min Wang who were entrusted to Yunnan and the construction of their palaces had not been completed, and Tang Wang, Ying Wang and Yi Wang who were too young, the other vassal kings They became feudal lords one after another.

As for Zhu Gaoxu's fifth uncle, Zhu Xi, he had already become a feudal lord last year. After all, he was Zhu Di's biological brother, and Zhu Xi did not dare to cause trouble under Zhu Di's nose.

"I will go to the north then. You have to think of a way to deal with King Qin and King Jin."

After getting off the carriage, Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu walked into the Huagai Hall amidst the bows of the vassal kings. Zhu Di took Zhu Gaoxu to the corner to explain.

According to the "Ancestral Instructions", the King of Qin and the King of Jin have greater legal principles for the throne than Zhu Di. Although the two brothers are dead and Qin and Jin are now nephews, Zhu Di knows these two nephews very well. Not convinced by myself.

"My son, I don't think they can cause any trouble. It would actually be good if they really can make some trouble."

Facing Zhu Di's words, Zhu Gaoxu spoke calmly.

He knew Zhu Di's idea, which was to use the internal conflicts between the Qin and Jin mansions to depose Zhu Shangbing and Zhu Jixi as common people and support their brothers in power.

Zhu Gaoxu's idea was more radical. He was eager for Zhu Shangbing and Zhu Jixi to cause trouble, and then he would take the opportunity to cut down the vassal.

However, judging from the performance of the two brothers in the Battle of Jingnan, it is better to expect them to do something to weaken the vassal than to enforce the law themselves in the future.

"You can handle this matter yourself. In short, if they disobey me and my son, you can think of ways to deal with them."

Zhu Di is still very satisfied with Zhu Gaoxu. Except for occasionally scolding him for not being like him when he is disobeyed, other times he slaps himself in the face and says that his second son looks like him.

If Zhu Gaoxu feels that Qin Jin is at peace, then he can rest assured.

"Let's go out and have a drink and a meal with uncles like you, so that we don't become unfamiliar if we need their help in the future."

After explaining his attitude towards Qin and Jin, Zhu Di took Zhu Gaoxu out of the side hall, called Zhu Gaosui, who was about to become a vassal, and Zhu Gaochi, who would only become a vassal next year, and started to visit the uncles around the table.

In fact, many people in their group were somewhat dissatisfied with Zhu Gaoxu, such as King Dai, King Gu and King Min who were conferred to remote places.

However, when facing Zhu Gaoxu, they still had to act with him with a smiling face.

Compared with the three of them, the other vassal kings had a very good attitude towards Zhu Gaoxu. After all, the places they had vassaled before were all in the bitter cold places in the north. Now the places they have changed their vassals are either Sichuan or Huguang. Although they are not as prosperous as Jiangnan, they are still The one that is second to none is Fandi.

After going through the motions with them, Zhu Di took his three sons back to the main seat, where he sat down to eat with his three daughters-in-law, five daughters, and Queen Xu.

After Zhu Di took his seat, Zhu Gaoxu did not rush to take his seat. Instead, he walked behind Empress Xu and squeezed her shoulders.

"What are you doing?"

Before Empress Xu said anything, Zhu Di stared at him, as if asking why he touched my wife.

Looking at his expression, Zhu Gaoxu was speechless: "You don't even know about the pain in my shoulder these days?"

"Ah?" Upon hearing this, Zhu Di immediately looked at Empress Xu, but Empress Xu smiled kindly: "It's just an old problem. It did hurt just now. Gao Xu squeezed it and it felt much better."

"You open it, I'll squeeze it."

After receiving the answer, Zhu Di immediately stood up, pushed Zhu Gaoxu away, and squeezed Empress Xu's shoulders.

As an emperor, it was the first scene in ancient times to squeeze the shoulders of the queen during a family banquet.

Seeing Zhu Di's happy expression, Zhu Gaoxu also smiled and gave up his seat to him, sitting next to Guo Yan.

"Dad is very fond of mother." Guo Yan looked at Zhu Di and Queen Xu with envy. Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also smiled and said: "How about I get up and pinch it for you?"

"Forget it then. My body is no better than my mother's and I am not strong enough."

Guo Yan stretched out his sleeves to cover half of his face, his eyes smiling like crescent moons.

"Where is Zhan He?" Zhu Gaoxu responded with a smile, and then he asked when he realized his son was not around.

"It's too noisy here, so I didn't bring him here because I was afraid he would cry too loudly."

After Guo Yan finished speaking, he leaned closer to Zhu Gaoxu and whispered, "I had a chat with my sister-in-law just now. She said that my mother helped my father to recruit many beautiful girls, but my father didn't give her a single title."

"He is like this, how can his childhood sweetheart not love him?" Zhu Gaoxu didn't find it strange. After all, Zhu Di's love for Queen Xu was considered a typical one in history.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu looked at Queen Xu with some worry.

Today is the third year of Yongle, but according to history, it should be the first year of Yongle, and Queen Xu died of illness in the fifth year of Yongle.

In other words, my mother-in-law has at most five years left to live.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't know whether Queen Xu's death was related to the hard work of defending Peiping. At least from now on, Xu's body is still healthy.

"Mother." Zhu Gaoxu called to Mrs. Xu, and both Queen Xu and Zhu Di looked at him.

"I would like to send a female medical officer to the inner court every year after the first day of the new year to check the pulse of the concubines."

Zhu Gaoxu actually wanted to ask the medical officers to diagnose Empress Xu's pulse directly, but felt that this was too deliberate, so he changed it to diagnosing the pulse of all the concubines in the harem.

"That's a good thing. Your female medical officer in the East Palace took good care of Yan'er when I saw them last time. It would be nice to take care of the concubines."

Queen Xu didn't think much and nodded in agreement.

"Second brother, please send me some medical officers. I've been feeling depressed and uncomfortable these days."

When he heard about the medical officer, Zhu Gaochi, who had been eating, interrupted, and everyone looked at him after hearing this.

Looking at his fat figure, even Zhu Di, a father, felt disgusted and said, "You just eat all day long and don't even go for a walk or ride a horse. Look at your body."

"Brother, you must have weighed two hundred pounds, right?" Zhu Gaosui also said shamelessly.

"My son, I have nothing to do but satisfy my appetite."

Zhu Gaochi ignored the third child's words and helplessly answered Zhu Di. Zhu Di snorted when he saw this, obviously not liking Zhu Gaochi's weak temperament.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaochi couldn't continue talking, but Zhu Gaoxu helped him: "It's good to have appetite, as long as you don't be greedy for too much."

At this point, Zhu Gaoxu also began to talk about obesity-related diseases, and gave examples of diseases caused by obesity in some ancient emperors.

For example, the emperors of the Song Dynasty had a high incidence of heart and brain diseases. Song Renzong often felt dizzy from sudden storms and had to hold his crown to one side when he was in court to relieve his burden.

Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty even directly told his ministers that he had a headache, and Zhenzong, Yingzong, Gaozong and others also had similar records.

In addition, Zhu Gaoxu also talked about the issue of recipes: "As far as medicine is concerned, grandpa and dad's diet is very balanced, but the eldest brother's is not so good..."

As Zhu Gaoxu spoke, everyone looked at Zhu Gaochi. Even Zhu Gaochi felt that the meat in the bowl was no longer fragrant, and said with a guilty conscience: "Why isn't mine good?"

"Grandpa and dad's recipes contain whole grains and more vegetables, but brother, yours..." Zhu Gaoxu glanced at Zhu Gaochi. Without him having to say anything, everyone else knew what he wanted to say.

Zhu Gaochi's diet was very precise in Peking. He could eat meat but never vegetables, and he basically ate refined grains. It can be said that he was the opposite of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di.

"In the future, the palace's recipes will still have to be modified, and they will have to learn from Emperor Gao."

Ms. Zhang was quite concerned about Zhu Gaochi's health. When she saw what Zhu Gaochi said, she agreed whether it was in person or in her heart.

"Gao Chi, listen to Gao Xu, eat more vegetarian dishes and drink less alcohol."

Queen Xu also showed a worried expression, and picked up her chopsticks to pick up a plate of green vegetables for Zhu Gaochi.

When Zhu Gaochi saw this, he was just about to thank him when he saw his father looking at him dissatisfied. He was obviously angry that his sister Xu was actually using chopsticks to pick up food for him.

"Dad likes to eat this." Zhu Gaochi nervously took the dish from the bowl to Zhu Di's bowl, then took a careful look at Zhu Di and breathed a sigh of relief when he found that he nodded with satisfaction.

"That place in Yunnan is higher than Jiangnan and Beiping. After you go there, you have to pay attention to your diet and don't eat anything high in oil and salt." Zhu Gaochi was still uneasy, but Zhu Gaoxu kept explaining to Mrs. Zhang, and Mrs. Zhang also memorized all these words. Down.

Zhu Gaochi was furious after hearing his words, but he had no choice but to look at Zhang pitifully, hoping that she would remember less.

"A good recipe can add years to your life."

At the end of the topic, Zhu Gaoxu ended with this sentence. When Zhu Di heard this, he also thought of the three brothers in front of him and couldn't help coughing:

"Wang Yan, from now on my meals will be made according to my father's, but I can't miss the crucian carp."

"My slave, take your orders." Wang Yan agreed, and Zhu Di also started to pick up chopsticks to pick up food for Xu. At the same time, he said to Zhu Gaoxu: "Second brother, tell me any other health tips, and let them be a topic after dinner."

"Yes..." Zhu Gaoxu nodded. Just as he was about to speak, he saw that the surrounding vassal kings were looking at him, as if they had already listened to what he just said.

"In fact, this person's lifespan can probably be calculated. For example, the normal age at which the elders die, and what diseases the elders are prone to suffer from, may actually appear in future generations."

"However, this probability is not absolute. For example, marrying a wife and having children will affect it."

Zhu Gaoxu said, but Zhu Di didn't believe it: "What you said makes me so nagging."

He scratched his beard and lowered his voice: "Your uncle, second uncle, and third uncle are all walking in front of your grandpa."

"They didn't die normally." Zhu Gaoxu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Only then did Zhu Di react and nodded repeatedly.

The other vassals didn't think too deeply about it. After all, everyone knew the cause of death of Zhu Biao, Zhu Chong, and Zhu Fan.

Zhu Biao died of back carbuncle, Zhu Xi was poisoned, and Zhu Fan died of depression. None of the three deaths were normal.

Thinking of this, Zhu Di felt relieved: "According to what you said, as long as I don't get sick, I can at least live to the same age as Emperor Gao?"

"Probably." Zhu Gaoxu replied with a guilty conscience, because he still didn't know how long Zhu Di could live.

Historically, Zhu Di lived for sixty-five years, but with his intervention, Zhu Di did not spend four years in the Jingnan Campaign, and no one hindered him politically, so it is hard to say how long Zhu Gaoxu will live.

It was originally sixty-five, but now it's probably a guaranteed sixty-five.

Zhu Gaoxu was not worried at all about how long Zhu Di could live. He was now worried that he would not survive Zhu Di.

"If that's the case, I can live to at least sixty." Zhu Gaochi said cheerfully.

"Okay, don't take this seriously. Gao Xu is just gaining from experience."

Queen Xu interrupted everyone's reverie and stretched out her chopsticks to pick up a few pieces of crucian carp meat for Zhu Di. Seeing this, everyone also started discussing other topics.

When the time came to noon, after the Zhengdan family banquet ended, Zhu Gaoxu also returned to the East Palace with Guo Yan.

Just after entering the East Palace, he heard Zhu Zhanhe's howling cry. Hearing the sound, Guo Yan quickly walked into the Chunhe Hall, and then saw Yi Shiha and others who were busy coaxing the children.

"Leave it to me to hold you."

Seeing Zhu Zhanhe crying, Guo Yan could only take Zhu Zhanhe from Yi Shiha's hand, and after coaxing him, his voice gradually became quieter.

Holding the child in his arms, Guo Yan apologized to Zhu Gaoxu who followed him: "This child is noisy. I will take him back to the front bedroom. Your Highness, you can handle government affairs here."

"Okay, call me if you need me." Zhu Gaoxu was not pretentious. After all, his first identity was the prince, and then he was Guo Yan's husband and Zhu Zhanhe's father.

If he neglects state affairs for the sake of his family, he will not think of rebellion.

"Chen and concubine retire."

Seeing that Zhu Gaoxu agreed, Guo Yan hugged Zhu Zhanhe and left the Chunhe Hall with the female officials.

Watching them leave, Zhu Gaoxu walked to his seat, and Yi Shiha quickly followed.

"Your Highness, Yang Zhan and Fu Rang from Annan have sent a memorial. Now more than 80% of Annan is in the hands of the imperial court, and the remaining 20% ​​is in the hands of Hu's father and son, Chen Jikou and Jian Ding respectively."

"Civil unrest occurred in Taiyuan, Haiyang and other places, but they were quickly suppressed. Xichang has not yet found out the intelligence, but generally speaking, it should be Chen Jikuo and Jian Ding."

After Yi Shiha's report was over, Zhu Gaoxu also sat back in his seat.

"Annan is not that delicious. I have already prepared for this. Have all the three thousand subordinate officials from Qinzhou arrived in Annan?"

Leaning on the chair, Zhu Gaoxu motioned for Yishiha to sit down and answer, and Yishiha sat three steps away and answered Zhu Gaoxu's question.

"They have all arrived in Annan, and have accepted the government offices and county offices north of the Red River. They have begun to organize the people into households, measure the land, and spread the news of equal distribution of fields."

"Judging from the local situation, the people north of the Red River are probably not even half of what they were before the war."

War is undoubtedly the best way to eliminate the population, but Zhu Gaoxu did not expect that most of the 800,000 people north of the Red River would disappear.

"What are Muchun and Fu Rang doing?"

After learning about the situation north of the Red River, Zhu Gaoxu was not worried about the policy of migrating the population and dividing the land equally.

It is impossible for Chen Jikou and Jian Ding to overturn the local rights of Annan's powerful and wealthy households. Therefore, equal distribution of land is undoubtedly the best way to provoke conflicts between the Annan people and these powerful and wealthy households.

Now the Ming army can still stay in Annan in the name of encircling and suppressing the Hu family and his son, so Zhu Gaoxu doesn't want Muchun and Fu Rang to make fools.

"After receiving the imperial court's order, they focused their efforts on clearing out the Che Barbarians in Changshan and suppressing the local rebellion. They used Che Barbarians' heads to disguise themselves as Hu's soldiers and horses, thus leaving Chen Jikou and Jian Ding speechless."

"But Chen Jikou and Jian Ding seem to be impatient." Yi Shiha said, and Zhu Gaoxu also asked: "Has the news that Chen Jikou impersonated the Chen clan been released?"

"Let them go." Yi Shiha nodded: "It was precisely because of the widespread rumors that Chen Jikou and Jian Ding lost their temper. During the twelfth lunar month, they asked the Duke of Guizhou and the others three times for the territory of the Sixth Route to the South."

"That's a good idea." Zhu Gaoxu chuckled, finally understanding why the meeting between Jian Ding and Chen Jikuo failed.

To put it bluntly, they don't know their own advantages at all. If they go to Changshan to fight guerrillas like Li Li, they will still have some headaches. But now they occupy thirty counties in the middle and lower reaches of the Red River Delta Plain, which are relatively wealthy. This is completely Seeking death.

"Should they start recruiting troops?" Zhu Gaoxu asked, and Yi Shiha nodded:

"In the past month, we have recruited 30,000 troops and 50,000 people to bravely defend the city. However, they have insufficient money and food. I think they will definitely take action against our army once they are unsustainable."

"Then wait for them to take action, defeat them first, and then destroy the Hu family and his son."

Zhu Gaoxu gave his answer, and then continued to ask Yishiha: "What is Jian Yi doing recently?"

He mentioned Jian Yi, the "poor man" who was considered by the temple officials to be sent to Sichuan.

"After I went to Sichuan, I didn't do anything. I just visited various places and inspected the prefectures and prefectures."

"He also wrote a memorial to the East Palace, which is on your case."

Yishiha bowed in reply, and Zhu Gaoxu also looked around on the table, and soon he saw Jian Yi's memorial.

He opened it and looked at it. The content was nothing more than what Jian Yi had written about the situation in Sichuan.

Among them, Jian Yi mentioned his hometown Ba County.

He first confirmed that Sichuan is sparsely populated, but judging from the situation in his hometown of Ba County, the number of men must be much greater than when he left Sichuan eighteen years ago.

According to his estimate, the population of Ba County should have increased by more than 30% in the past eighteen years.

If we apply this ratio to the whole of Sichuan, it means that the whole of Sichuan has at least 400,000 more people. Counting the people who have migrated into Sichuan since the Jingnan War, I am afraid that it is now no less than 2 million, and Sichuan's "Huang" There are only more than 1,677,000 people recorded in the "Book".

As for the cultivated land, based on the situation in Ba County, it has almost increased by between 20 and 30%. The cultivated land in Sichuan should be more than the 1,800,000 acres listed in the "Fish Scale Atlas".

"It's about as good as I expected."

After closing the memorial, Zhu Gaoxu looked at Yi Shiha and asked: "Did this memorial go directly to the East Palace, or did it go through six departments?"

"Direct" Yi Shiha replied without thinking: "The envoy Jian sent his cronies to personally deliver the message from Sichuan to the capital without passing through any of the six ministries."

"It's true that I chose the wrong person." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, and then analyzed the information given by Jian Yi.

If Sichuan's population really is 2 million, then at least 5,000 subordinate staff will need to be transferred from outside to control the grassroots level. If it is to be used as a pilot project, I am afraid more will be needed.

"How many subordinate officials are there in Shandong now?"

Zhu Gaoxu raised his head and asked Yi Shiha. Hearing this, Yi Shiha got up and rummaged through the bookshelf at the back for a while. Then he took out a Shandong manuscript and opened it and answered: "The number has increased to more than 8,200."

"However, there is currently insufficient official education in Shandong, but school is about to start on the 30th of the first lunar month. You see..."

Yi Shiha mentioned the opening of Shandong Official School, and Zhu Gaoxu also asked: "How many students are there?"

"Three hundred and sixty-seven thousand, four hundred and twenty-seven people, far exceeding our estimate." The amount given by Yi Shiha gave Zhu Gaoxu a headache. He couldn't help but raise his forehead and said, "How much is still missing?"

"There are still 23,000 vacancies. Without this batch of teaching, at least 130,000 students will not be able to go to school." Yishiha replied with a grimace.

"There is no other way but to adjust the age and let those over thirteen years old enter school first."

Unable to solve the problem of teaching resources, Zhu Gaoxu could only come up with this solution temporarily and explained to Yi Shiha:

"Ask the Chief Envoy of Shandong to tell the people of Shandong that there are too many students enrolled and we can only temporarily satisfy some of them."

"Those who are not ranked this year will continue to be ranked next year. In short, the court will definitely let their children go to school."

"Yes." Yishiha nodded, stuffed the book in his hand back into the bookshelf, and said at the same time:

"It seems that we have to wait until the students from Liaodong graduate at the end of next year, and then we can satisfy the students from Shandong in the fifth year of Yongle."

"But Your Highness..." Yi Shiha showed hesitation on his face, but finally he bit the bullet and asked, "Does the imperial court need so many scholars?"

"..." Zhu Gaoxu was silent for a moment, and finally replied:

"At least for now, the court needs..."

(End of this chapter)