Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 380
"At first, I always think about you deeply and sincerely, and then I always have a clear and superficial flirtation..."

In the first month of the year, when the south of the Yangtze River is still a little chilly, the sun is still shining brightly in Yunnan in the southwest.

When all the men of the Duke of Guizhou were fighting in Guizhou, the sound of melodious music came from the palace of the Han Dynasty. Dozens of musicians in two groups played various musical instruments, and more than ten plump dancers in the palace danced to the music.

Although they are neatly dressed, they can give people the ultimate charm, giving people a sense of beauty with their clothes flowing from the wind and their long sleeves crisscrossing each other.

"Your Highness, open your mouth..."

"Yeah, it's delicious."

Zhu Gaochi, who was sitting in the main seat in the hall and had a fall, had a cast on his foot, but he had two dancers in Luo Yi in his arms.

The two girls are pretty and plump. They are leaning in Zhu Gaochi's arms and feeding him fruits from time to time.

Zhu Gaochi's hands were also restless, exploring the two women's bodies. Occasionally he touched some graceful and soft places, and he couldn't put it down and kept kneading them, causing their cheeks to turn red.

"Keep going……"

"Oh, you're here, come on, come on... We just happened to watch "Feng Yue" arranged by the second brother."

On the ninth day of the first lunar month, the chieftains in Zhenkang rebelled. After learning the news, Wang Xuan immediately led his troops to Zhenkang. Together with his brother Wang Kui, who was stationed in Zhenkang, he suppressed the local rebellion and took the opportunity to convert the local chieftains into exile.

Yi Shiha said this, Zhu Gaoxu thought for a while after hearing the words, and finally sighed: "You told them about this, right?"

After Yishiha finished explaining, he waited quietly for Zhu Gaoxu to speak, and Zhu Gaoxu muttered: "Did you buy it?"

"Haha..." Mrs. Zhang chuckled a little, not bothering to expose him, so she just took out a letter from her sleeve.

"In addition, all the land purchased will be measured for me and let the people in the yamen register it to prevent tax evasion."

Zhu Gaochi greeted Mrs. Zhang as if nothing had happened. Upon seeing this, Mrs. Zhang frowned and crossed the crowd, walked to Zhu Gaochi and sat down next to him, and immediately grabbed his hand and smelled it.

The memorial in his hand was about the impeachment of Zhang Huai, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, about Li Shi, Li Qi and others' forcible purchase of land in Su Song's second mansion.

"They are all brothers from Bohai. Although His Majesty and Your Highness are generous with rewards, they have no other way to make money except the more than a thousand acres of farmland given by Your Majesty and His Majesty."

Unfortunately, before he could enjoy it enough, he heard a sound coming from the palace door.

For any country, the end of the year and the beginning of the year are undoubtedly the busiest periods, and the same is true for Ming Dynasty.

Due to the successive rebellions in Daxueshan and Zhenkang, Zhu Gaochi and the others were unable to go to Nanjing for a while. After learning the news, Zhu Gaoxu also issued edicts to let He Fu and Wang Xuan put down the rebellion as soon as possible.

"This is written by the Crown Princess. Your Majesty, my mother, and my second son have asked us to prepare for a family trip to Nanjing. It seems that my mother's condition is not very good."

"My servant thought so, so I told them about it after knowing that His Highness planned to use the Susong Second Mansion as a pilot project for soil fertilizer."

At the time of their actions, the situation in Yunnan was actually not that stable.

Yishiha first explained his attitude, and then said with shame that he had purchased more than 2,000 acres of farmland for his brothers at home.

Upon seeing this, Zhang quickly sent someone to clean up the matter and wrote a letter to Guo Yan personally, explaining that they would go to the capital.

"Over the years, they have often complained to me that many people in the Yan Mansion have purchased shops and fields in the capital, but they only have a small amount of land because of His Highness's restrictions, and their money is gathering dust."

"On the other hand, the gentry and wealthy households annexed the cultivated land of the common people in pieces, so the land they bought was connected in one piece."

After Zhu Gaoxu heard this, he pondered for a moment before speaking:

"Slave..." Yishiha knelt down, lowered his head and said:

In the north of Yunnan, a rebellion also broke out in Jianchang Daxue Mountain in Xingdusi, Sichuan. After hearing the news, Muchun sent He Fu to divide his troops to suppress the rebellion.

Zhu Gaoxu raised his head and asked Yi Shiha. Hearing this, Yi Shiha replied: "It belongs to the rich and the gentry. After all, the cultivated land of ordinary people is scattered and it is not easy to buy it."

Hearing the obstruction outside the hall, Zhu Gaochi quickly took his hand out of the gentle village and signaled the two dancers to get up and dance.

Zhu Gaochi became anxious when he mentioned his mother.

Therefore, when Mrs. Zhang broke in, she only saw Zhu Gaochi who was sitting in his seat quietly watching the dance music.

Ms. Zhang was a little worried when she saw Zhu Gaochi limping, but Zhu Gaochi regained his composure: "No, since my second son is urging me, he must think something is wrong with my mother."

"How about we stop recuperating and wait until the leg heals?"

"Does the land bought by force belong to the wealthy gentry or the common people?"

"Quick, quick, get up and dance!"

Holding the memorial in his hand, Zhu Gaoxu in the Chunhe Hall frowned, and Yi Shiha next to him was also very nervous.

"My mother?!" After hearing Zhang's words, Zhu Gaochi quickly grabbed the letter and read the entire letter at a glance.

"They can buy land in Susong Second Prefecture, but only in Susong Second Prefecture."

When the two dancers saw this, they adjusted their collars and quickly stood up to dance.

Zhu Gaochi smiled happily, even though he had two in his arms, his eyes were still looking at the dozen dancers and music girls.

"Princess, Your Highness, he..."

"I don't have a slave. After all, I am alone. I won't take you with me until I die. There is no need to buy it. But I bought more than two thousand acres for my brothers at home."

[Zhang Huai, censor of the imperial court...]

"You ask people to pack their things now. We will take Zhan Ji to Nanjing in three days. Zhan Yun and Zhan Yong are too young, so they will stay at the house and wait for us to come back."

If Mrs. Zhang pointed out something, Zhu Gaochi could only smile and say: "I just drank a few cups of milk, and the second child said that drinking milk is good for the bones."

"Your Highness's hands have a lot of flavor..."

"Don't worry, Your Highness, this servant has already explained this." Yi Shiha nodded quickly. Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also shook his head. After putting down the memorial in his hand, he continued to deal with other memorials.

However, most of these memorials are about the purchase of land by the Yanfu and Bohai generals in Susong Second Prefecture. Because these guys are rich and powerful, the price of cultivated land in Susong Second Prefecture has been raised from twelve guans per mu to two liters. Sixteen passes.

Upon seeing this, many poor people and rich farmers sold their farmland and organized themselves to become their tenants.

At first, Zhu Gaoxu thought that the nobles were buying and selling by force and forcing the farmers to be their tenants.

However, upon closer inspection, it turned out that many farmers could not withstand the temptation and sold their fields, and used the help of nobles to sign up as tenant farmers.

Since Zhu Gaoxu had already issued relevant policies, tenants during the Yongle period were still guaranteed. For example, the landlord's land rent could not exceed 60%.

In this way, the tenants can harvest 40% of the grain, which works out to one hundred and twenty or thirty kilograms per mu, and the land tax will be paid by the landlord.

Therefore, the speed of land annexation in Jiangnan was much faster than Zhu Gaoxu thought. The people thought that they had received money and found long-term jobs, but they did not know that this was just a little cleverness. The real cleverness was the nobles and ministers who got the policy.

Most of the officials in Susong Second Mansion have been replaced by officials from Bohai. In their memorials, after the news of soil fertilizer spread, land transactions in Susong Second Mansion became very frequent.

Under the New Deal, land transactions required going to the government office to replace a new land deed, and the name of the landowner on the land deed would also be changed.

In the entire transaction, the government will charge a deed tax of one hundred thousand guan per acre of land. In the past six months, the Susong Second Mansion has collected a total of more than 446,000 guan in deed tax.

In other words, in the past six months, the land transactions of Susong and Songfu were more than 4.46 million acres.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't know whether there were repeated transactions, but he didn't need to stop this momentum.

Firstly, it is difficult to stop it, and secondly, such land annexation makes it easier to collect taxes.

It is much easier to collect taxes from thousands of distinguished and wealthy households in the second government than from three million people.

However, the prerequisite for collecting taxes is that the court must be able to suppress this group of people, otherwise they will begin to hide their fields and evade taxes, just like the group of wealthy Jiangnan households in the late Ming Dynasty.

The two Song dynasties did not restrict land annexation, but they rarely failed to collect taxes. In the final analysis, it was still a management issue, and the management in the late Ming Dynasty was simply shoddy.

Of course, these two problems are only secondary reasons. The main reason why Zhu Gaoxu did not stop it was that he wanted to use the generals of Bohai and Yanfu to enter the land market of Susong Second Prefecture, and then start measuring the land of Susong Second Prefecture.

The more they annexed, the easier it would be to measure the land when Zhu Gaoxu implemented the New Deal, because Bohai and Yanfu were undoubtedly dependent on the imperial power, and many of their actions were disliked by Jiangnan officials.

Putting them into the Jiangnan market to compete with Jiangnan officials would do no harm to the imperial power.

The only thing we need to pay attention to is to prevent them from collaborating.

After sorting out the memorials in his hands, Zhu Gaoxu put aside the memorials impeaching Su Song's second house for land annexation and did not deal with it.

He planned to use Susong Second Prefecture as a pilot to see whether the three million people in Susong Second Prefecture would be affected if the land annexation was not prevented.

If the impact is not big and it can help the court increase tax revenue, then I can also promote this policy to the six prefectures in Jiangdong, and more than a dozen prefectures along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and along the Yangtze River.

Thinking like this, the sound of singing also came from outside the hall.

"Sun Cheng, the right minister of the household department, would like to see His Highness..."

There was a sound at the palace door, and I have to say that although Sun Cheng was a civil servant, his voice was really loud.

"come in."

Zhu Gaoxu opened his mouth to answer, and soon he saw Sun Cheng walking into the hall.

Seeing him come in, Zhu Gaoxu also closed the memorial and waited for him to sit down and speak.

"Thank you, Your Highness..."

Before taking his seat, Sun Cheng thanked him and saluted, and then took his seat.

After he took his seat, he did not hide anything, but directly bowed and said:
"Your Highness, the 20,000 subordinate officials sent to Guizhou have arrived in the capital and are now waiting for orders at the nearby cathedral in the outer city."

"Have they all arrived?" Zhu Gaoxu didn't expect it to be so fast. But it’s not surprising if you think about it carefully. After all, as the policy is issued, as long as students are not blind, they can feel the tightening of the imperial policy for graduates to serve as subordinate officials. No one wants to miss this opportunity for the whole family to enjoy because of being late. Opportunity.

"We have all arrived. Now we are waiting for you, Your Highness, to assign subordinate staff to each county."

"In addition, this is the transfer notice that Shangshu Xia asked me to forward to His Highness."

Sun Cheng took out a memorial. Zhu Gaoxu took it from Yi Shiha and opened it and looked at it carefully.

The lists in this memorial are basically candidates with political achievements among the current New Deal officials from the three provinces of Liaodong, Shandong, and Sichuan and the five governorates.

There were candidates from government offices to county offices, but the number of people who took the initiative to sign up from Guizhou was very small. Zhu Gaoxu counted only sixty-seven people.

This situation made Zhu Gaoxu frown. Under the New Deal, there were more officials in a county than during the Hongwu period. There were six people in total, namely the magistrate of the seventh grade, the county magistrate of the eighth grade, the chief administrator of the eighth grade, and the ninth grade. The edicts and the history of the Nine Ranks, and the inspection of the Military and Horse Department.

Officials and inspectors were not included in the ranks before, but under the New Deal, they were ranked at the lowest rank, Ninth Grade.

Although the official position is low, there is a way to rise. However, the subordinate officials, town mayors, district chiefs, grain chiefs, etc. need to take the imperial examination and pass the exam in order to continue to rise.

Although the exam for candidates is not as difficult as the Jinshi exam, it still has to compete with hundreds of thousands of people for less than 2,000 places, and it is still the only one in a hundred.

"Sixty-seven people can maintain one mansion at most."

Zhu Gaoxu frowned and looked at Sun Cheng, who also bowed and said: "Xia Shangshu means to first send officials to Zunyi Prefecture, which is separated from Bozhou, to maintain the smooth flow of food and grass for the army ahead."

"As for other palace officials, they can be selected from this year's imperial examinations."

"In addition, among the sixty-seven officials, those located in Sichuan have already gone to Zunyi Prefecture and brought with them corresponding skilled subordinates."

After Sun Cheng finished explaining, Zhu Gaoxu nodded slightly, and then closed the memorial.

"Since that's the case, let's do this first. The subordinates and officials will set off together."

After the explanation, Zhu Gaoxu continued to look at Sun Cheng. Sun Cheng had nothing else to do, so he stood up, bowed and left slowly.

Not long after, the sound of Zhu Gaoxu's ink pen marking could be heard again in Chunhe Hall.

While he was reviewing, the rugged mountain road from Chongqing Prefecture in Sichuan to Zunyi Prefecture in Guizhou was also crowded with people.

It's still cold in Guizhou in mid-February, and the thick fog in the mountains makes people's hair full of water droplets. From a distance, it seems that everyone has gray hair.

On the rugged mountain road less than two feet wide, thousands of people drove their horses to pull various tools and walked last. In front of them were thousands of craftsmen of various types and hundreds of scholars.

"Meng Ming, this road is too difficult."

In the crowd, a Confucian scholar in his late twenties complained, while the young Confucian scholar in his early twenties next to him chuckled:

"If this place is not remote enough, it will not be our turn to come and serve as senior officials."

Facing the slippery and rugged mountain road, the young Confucian scholar can still laugh, which is admirable.

"Honestly, do you regret it now?"

Wiping the dew from his beard, the twenty-seven-year-old Confucian scholar asked, and the young Confucian scholar he asked also smiled: "What is there to regret?"

"If it weren't for the grace given by the imperial court, how many of us would have difficulty even studying, and our whole lives would be nothing more than fishermen on the beach and laborers carrying goods on the dock."

"Now that I, Xu Shuo and Xu Mengming, have been promoted to the prefect of Zunyi by the imperial court, it is already a great favor. How can I dare to regret it?"

Xu Shuo chuckled and spoke, and the man next to him also smiled bitterly and said: "It's not bad if you want to compete like this."

"Okay, we are still twenty miles away from Tongzi County. You have to be well prepared." Xu Shuo patted his shoulder to comfort him, and the two of them chatted without saying a word and continued walking forward.

After spending an hour, they finally reached the so-called Tongzi County out of breath, which was also the first county they entered Zunyi Prefecture.

It's a pity that this so-called county is completely different from the county in their impression.

“This is my county?!”

Standing on the hillside, looking at Tongzi County, which was surrounded by a wooden wall and where more than a thousand people lived, the twenty-seven or eighty-year-old Confucian scholar couldn't believe it, and Xu Shuo beside him also felt his heart sink.

They led the team down the mountain anxiously, and then met two subordinate officials who had been waiting for a long time at the gate of Tongzi County.

When they saw Xu Shuo and the others, they hurriedly ran forward to greet them: "Zhang Cheng (Liu Cai), I have met Xu Zhifu and Wang Zhixian."

The two of them were subordinate staff sent by Xu Shuo and the others two months in advance to communicate with them, so they naturally knew Xu Shuo and the others.

"Is this Tongzi County?" Wang Zhang, the county magistrate, looked at this simple country-like place in disbelief. Zhang Cheng also smiled bitterly after hearing this:

"There are not many places suitable for setting up a county in Zunyi Prefecture, and Tongzi is already considered a flat place."

"Before, this place was just a post station. Apart from the post house and stables, the remaining walls and 200 wooden houses were built by Duke Qian and others."

Zhang Cheng reported on the situation in Tongzi County. After hearing this, Wang Zhang and Xu Shuo looked at each other and gritted their teeth and said:

"I knew that with my political achievements, I could only be a minor official, and now being promoted to county magistrate would definitely not be a good place."

"Let's go and have a look first." Seeing that the market town couldn't even be called Tongzi County, Xu Shuo couldn't help but feel uneasy.

Although he had been mentally prepared when he discussed with Jian Yi and decided to go to Guizhou, he did not expect that Zunyi's situation would be like this.

Now he is a little worried about the situation in Zunyi County (Bozhou City) where he is governed. It cannot be the same as Tongzi County.

Thinking of this, Xu Shuo and Wang Zhang walked into the wooden wall of Tongzi County with five officials and more than forty subordinates from Tongzi County who were stunned.

Inside the stockade, the two hundred wooden houses have been occupied by people, and they are still processing wood in preparation for continuing to build houses.

They wore blue and black clothes. The men wore blue and black left-flap tops and trousers, and the women wore right-flap tops and round-neck cross-chest tops. The bottoms were various pleated skirts and trousers, and the colors also varied. There are more blue and black colors.

"These people are all Miao people who were left behind by the returned chieftains. Yesterday Liu Qianhu, who was in the army, said that there were more than 2,000 cave barbarians migrating. Counting that, there are almost 4,000 people here."

Zhang Zhang explained, and the group of people looked at them in fear and stopped their movements.

"There are a hundred armored military brothers in the stronghold, but they generally don't care about the people and are only responsible for maintaining law and order."

"When I came here, Liu Qianhu said that they were only responsible for training in our Military and Horse Division, and then they would go south to quell the rebellion."

"They will not interfere in government affairs during this period. If you need help, they can help."

The charter explained all the situations in Tongzi County, and at the same time took out a brochure from his arms: "This is all the situations in Tongzi County."

Wang Zhang took it and opened it, and Xu Shuo also came over.

[Two hundred and sixty-seven households, 1,627 persons, 526 males, 324 pre-teens, and 777 females. 】

[Two hundred houses, one posthouse, one stable, twenty-six cattle, twelve draft horses, thirty-four pigs, four hundred and twenty-seven poultry, three thousand six hundred dan of grain... 】

"Meng Ming, you have to support me!"

Looking at the document in his hand, Wang Zhang suspected that he was not managing a county, nor was he a county magistrate, but a town mayor.

Different from Xu Shuo's identity, Wang Zhang was a student who passed the official examination in Liaodong. Although he was also outside Guan, he was never as good as Xu Shuo, who was born in Jilin City.

Xu Shuo was able to be promoted to the prefect of Zunyi, not only because no one wanted to come, but also because of his status in Jilin City.

This time Xu Shuo entered Guizhou, Jian Yi gave him a lot of help. He had more than 700 subordinate officials and more than 1,600 craftsmen, in addition to 600 draft horses and more than 20,000 stones of grain. More than five thousand dollars.

Wang Zhang really doesn’t know who he should cry about poverty with if he doesn’t cry with Xu Shuo.

"I want to help you, but now I have to see what the situation is in Zunyi County, and I have to visit various counties to see what the situation is like."

Xu Shuo swallowed. There are five counties in Zunyi Prefecture: Zunyi, Tongzi, Suiyang, Renhuai, and Meitan. If every county is as poor as Tongzi, then he may really have to ask the court for help.

"I will leave you three thousand stones of food first, ten craftsmen of each type, thirty subordinate staff, ten teachers and one translator from the Seiyi Hall."

"For the rest, wait for me to visit for a month and then allocate them to you."

Xu Shuo made a promise, and then walked on the dirt road with Wang Zhang. Occasionally he wanted to communicate with these people, but was unable to communicate because of language problems. He could only rely on the translation of the Siyi Pavilion to understand each other's difficulties.

"Although I know the Miao language, I don't know the Dong language and other languages. Wangzhi County needs to find someone to translate."

The translator of Siyi Pavilion bowed with shame, and Wang Zhang was exhausted mentally and physically after hearing this. He just thought that Tongzi County might be his retirement home in this life.

"There should be people in the army who are proficient in these languages. When I arrive in Bozhou, I will write to the Duke of Guizhou and ask for a few people to help you."

Xu Shuo patted Wang Zhang on the shoulder, not wanting him to be discouraged. After all, the topography of Tongzi County could be said to be the best place along the way. If it is developed well, there is still hope for further progress based on merit.

"I hope so, but there is no arable land in Tongzi County. It seems that I can only sit back and have nothing."

Wang Zhang looked at the only two acres of vegetable land on the brochure and didn't know how to describe his emotions.

"I went to Zunyi to take a look. There should be a lot of farmland under the Yang family. Otherwise, what would they eat?"

"Even if not, you don't have to worry. At worst, just like you were a pawnbroker in Dazhu County, you will lead the people to slowly open up wasteland. I will find a way to provide food."

Faced with Wang Zhang's discouragement, Xu Shuo continued to cheer him up, and at the same time looked at the situation in Tongzi County, and then asked the officials behind him to order all craftsmen to come to Tongzi County to expedite the construction of some houses for Tongzi County.

Soon, more than a thousand craftsmen cut down trees and made clay walls, and built more than ten single-room houses in just half a day.

Although very crude, it is better than nothing.

Looking at the dozen or so simple houses and the empty surroundings, Xu Shuo couldn't help but be speechless and prayed that his government would not be so poor...

(End of this chapter)