Daming: Refining zombies at the beginning, Lao Zhu was shocked

Chapter 126 126: Did Lao Jiu reach out to the court to ask for a penny?

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed inexplicably when he heard this, leaving Zhu Biao confused!

"We have already written to discuss this with Lao Jiu before!"

"Lao Jiu also replied, as long as the court is willing to pay for it, he can give you as much cement as you need, and the price is absolutely cheap!"

"With the current financial resources of the national treasury, there is no problem in building a few cement roads!"

Seeing Zhu Biao's confused look, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and explained.

"So you have already discussed this with Lao Jiu?"

Zhu Biao didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he heard this. He didn't expect that the old man hadn't gone to Hanzhong yet, but was secretly in constant contact with Lao Jiu!

"It's just a few letters exchanged!"

Zhu Yuanzhang said noncommittally.

"If Hanzhong can supply enough cement, there will be no problem in building roads. The only thing to consider is how to persuade the Ministry of Household Affairs to spend the money!"

Zhu Biao looked at the old man and reminded him slowly.

After all, Zhang Wei, the Minister of Household Affairs, is a famous iron rooster. Sometimes, even if the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang wants to use money, he still has to agree to it!

Not to mention the cost of building a cement road, even if Lao Jiu gives a cheap price, it is definitely a very huge number, and it will definitely not be less!

"We will personally tell Zhang Yan that this cement road must be repaired!"

"In addition to road construction, rubber production must be increased. In the future, not only will all official roads be paved with cement roads, but more importantly, rubber tires must be replaced. At least the court and the army must replace them!"

Zhu Yuanzhang said seriously, obviously determined to make this matter come true!

As for rubber planting, Zhu Yuanzhang also wrote to Zhu Yue and mentioned that he wanted to expand the scale of planting, but according to Lao Jiu's reply, this thing can only be planted in the tropical areas of the south!

It was definitely impossible for Zhu Yuanzhang to promote it throughout the Ming Dynasty, so he could only find a way to grow more of it there!

So Zhu Yuanzhang simply regarded the entire island of Qiongzhou as a rubber tree planting base, and personally ordered that the entire island of Qiongzhou be mainly responsible for planting rubber trees!

Hearing that Zhu Yuanzhang had already made up his mind, Zhu Biao did not continue to struggle with this issue.

He knew that the old man's decision was right. Whether it was building cement roads or promoting rubber, it was a good thing that benefited the country and the people!

The only thing he was worried about was that he was taking too big a step and could easily pull his balls!

But at present, it seems that there should be no worries in this regard. I believe that the old man should also be measured!

The most important thing is that the Ministry of Revenue is in charge of the court's money bag. Even if the old man wants to mess around, he can't!

"By the way, dad, autumn is about to come. In addition to Lao Jiu, several feudal princes from the frontier have sent me coupons..."

Zhu Biao suddenly changed the topic at this time. He did not finish what he said, but he believed that Zhu Yuanzhang must know what it meant!

Every year at this time, several vassal kings in the frontier fortress would invariably make excuses for the court. Of course, Lao Jiu was an exception!

Because the Ming Dynasty's autumn harvest is around the corner, and the Tatars in Mobei have to face the pressure of food shortages after winter, there are always some stubborn and iron-headed Tatars who are not afraid of death and go south in groups to 'graze the valley'!

Although they are basically small-scale teams, ranging from hundreds to dozens of people, the villages and towns in the border areas that are harassed by these Tatars do not have the ability to resist these Tatars!

At this time, the court or the army of the vassal king need to stand up and deal with these Tatars who dare to invade the border!

A war will definitely require money and food, so every year at this time, most frontier vassal kings will complain to the court about their poverty and clamor for the court to provide money and food in order to deal with the threat of the Mobei Tatars!

As soon as Zhu Biao opened his mouth, Zhu Yuanzhang understood what was going on, or he had already been used to it!

"Follow the old rules!"

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand, meaning that Zhu Biao should just deal with it according to the usual practice in previous years!

In fact, did these vassal kings really send this little money and food from the court?

It's just an excuse for these sons. Even if they don't give it, it won't affect anything!

"Well... Everything else is easy to talk about, but the Fourth Brother wants a bit more this year!"

When Zhu Biao heard this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"kindness?"

"How much does this kid want to ask for?"

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he frowned immediately.

"They said they wanted 100 million taels of silver and 20 stones of food and grass!"

Zhu Biao directly reported the amount applied for by Zhu Di to Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Does this fourth child really think that all our money and food are brought by the strong wind?"

"With 100 million taels of silver and 20 stones of grain and grass, he really dares to speak!"

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, his eyes immediately widened, and he was obviously very angry at Zhu Di's sudden lion mouth!

In previous years, at most, one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand silver was given as food and salary. One hundred thousand taels of silver could provide food and salary for fifty thousand soldiers for several months!

What's more, Zhu Di's own bodyguards only numbered more than 10,000, and the rest were all imperial troops, and their food and salary were directly allocated by the Ministry of Household Affairs!

"Then let's just give it to him according to last year's standards?"

Zhu Biao looked at Zhu Yuanzhang's angry look and tried with a wry smile.

"No more!"

"This year, all the feudal lords will not give any money. If we have the money, we might as well just use it to build roads!"

"Lao Jiu also supports so many people. When did he ask us for a tael of silver? Why didn't they learn from Lao Jiu?"

Zhu Yuanzhang immediately changed his mind. Not only was Zhu Di's salary ruined, but the salaries of other vassals were also wiped out! Moreover, this debt must be placed directly on the fourth child and Zhu Di should take the blame!

If you want to blame, just blame Zhu Di!

"Okay, we get it!"

Zhu Biao sighed helplessly, wondering in his heart, what is the fourth child so crazy about?

You want to say that you are going to fight a big war, send out troops for the Northern Expedition, etc. It is reasonable to ask for so much money and food!

But even if the Northern Expedition is to be carried out, the old man still needs to agree!

Unless you, the Fourth, can be like the Ninth, you dare to lead an army deep into Mobei without asking for a penny from the old man!

How can we need to supply so much money and food for ordinary border defense?

As for whether these vassal kings can still defend the border after not paying food and wages, neither Zhu Biao nor Zhu Yuanzhang will worry too much about this!

At present, the situation in the northwest is relatively stable, and the Mobei Tatars do not dare to go south to the northwest of the Ming Dynasty at will. However, the grassland situation is complicated, and some small tribes will still take risks to survive the winter and invade the Ming border from Shanxi or Hebei!

Fortunately, these Tatars still know how to behave, they only grab food and don't dare to kill people indiscriminately!

If there were a large number of casualties among the people, the King of Han would definitely pursue it to the end if other vassal kings did not mention it. They would definitely not be able to afford it!

For example, in Shanxi or Hebei, there will be no cases of Tatars entering villages and massacring them!

Although Zhu Fan and Zhu Di's achievements are not as impressive as Zhu Yue's, they have already gained a reputation over the years, and no one is willing to offend these two vassal kings to death!

Of course, small and medium-sized tribes do not have the courage, but if the Oara or Tatar tribes gather a large army, they may not dare to touch the King of Jin or the King of Yan!

But the possibility of this is not high. If the Ming Dynasty does not go deep into Mobei to beat them, they will already be burning incense!

Therefore, this small group of Tatars going south are basically speculators. If they succeed, they will make a lot of money. If they fail, they may end up dead!

Once encountered by the Ming army, the tribes that were lucky enough to escape would quickly decline due to the loss of a large number of young adults, and the final end would be to drag their families with them and be directly merged into other tribes!

In comparison, Zhu Yuanzhang is most reassured by the situation in the northwest!

Outside the northwest, with Hami Guard as a stronghold, there are often patrols by border army teams. Basically, as long as they encounter a Tatar team and cannot produce customs clearance documents or commercial securities and communication certificates, they do not need to report it, and they can be killed directly. Got it!

But how could an ordinary small tribe obtain Hanzhong's trading coupons?

Even if you have trading coupons, you still need a caravan and supplies to trade!

For example, in the trading of cattle, sheep and horses, only the large grassland tribes can cash out the excess!

Otherwise, these Tatars would not have to take the risk of going south!

Small tribes like these don't have fertile grassland pastures, and they basically don't have many livestock. Even if they do have them, they are kept for the winter and cannot be sold to you!

These small tribes can only deal with some small villages in the Ming Dynasty, relying on dozens or hundreds of young adults to support the entire tribe!

The grassland land is not suitable for farming, and the tribes at the bottom are also struggling to survive like the ordinary people of the Ming Dynasty!

Tribes with trading certificates are even less likely to do such a thing. They can only offend the King of Han!

Therefore, in the past few years, the situation on the border of the Ming Dynasty has generally been relatively stable. There is not much need for troops to deal with the Tatars moving south, so there is no need to give these vassal kings too much money and food at all!

This is why Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry. He was really addicted to the imperial court!

During lunch, Zhu Yuanzhang specifically asked Wang Chen to order the imperial kitchen to make potato vermicelli!

At the same time, Zhang Yan, the Minister of Household Affairs, was also summoned into the Fengtian Hall!

Now that we have decided to build the road, we must get Zhang Yan, the Minister of Household Affairs, to deal with it. As long as the person in charge of the money bag relaxes, everything else will be easy to deal with!

By the time the potato vermicelli was served, Zhang Wei, the Minister of Household Affairs, had also arrived at Fengtian Hall.

"Zhang Aiqing, come have dinner with us!"

"Try the potato vermicelli from Hanzhong today for lunch!"

After Zhu Yuanzhang greeted the emperor and his ministers, he invited Zhang Yan to sit down and eat together.

Zhang Yan looked flattered. There were definitely not many people who could be invited by Zhu Yuanzhang to have a meal with Fengtian Hall alone. There might have been quite a few in the past, but most of them were dead!

Anyway, this was the first time he was summoned by Zhu Yuanzhang to have a meal together in Fengtian Hall alone!

Although I was flattered, I also started to feel suspicious.

His intuition told him that the emperor must be asking for money, otherwise there would be no need to be so polite to him!

Thinking of this all the time, how can Zhang Yan still have any appetite?

As the Minister of Household Affairs, Zhang Yan was in charge of the money and grain imports and exports of the entire Ming Dynasty. You can imagine the pressure. Even if the emperor wanted to spend money, he had to make precise calculations and weigh the pros and cons before agreeing!

Judging from Zhu Yuanzhang's posture, the money he will spend this time is definitely not a small amount!

Although the Ming Dynasty's treasury is now much fuller than in previous years due to the glory of King Zhu Yue of Han Dynasty, and can still produce at least millions of taels of silver, in Zhang Yan's opinion, this surplus is not enough. If you encounter any catastrophic disaster, you must throw them all out!

From this point of view, Zhang Yan, the Minister of Household Affairs, is still very competent!

Zhu Yuanzhang recently became fond of eating potato vermicelli, and basically asked the imperial kitchen to cook one every day!

The method of making this kind of potato vermicelli is actually very simple. It is made by drying it in the sun. It is a method specially developed by Laojiu in order to store potatoes for a long time!

Now Hanzhong's potato vermicelli has begun to be mass-produced and sold throughout the Ming Dynasty!

Even those foreign caravans placed orders in large numbers!

Mainly because it’s not expensive and everyone can afford it, and it’s easy to store without worrying about it going bad!

Especially when paired with the chili sauce produced in Hanzhong, Zhu Yuanzhang tasted a completely different feeling. He could eat a bowl every day and his mouth would be full of oil!

Compared with delicacies from mountains and seas, he still prefers to eat this kind of food that ordinary people can eat every day!

Zhu Yuanzhang was enjoying his bowl of potato vermicelli here. He was eating quite casually, and the movement of the noodles was a bit loud!

Just after finishing half a bowl of noodles, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes couldn't help but fall on Zhang Yan!

"Zhang Aiqing, these potato vermicelli have to be eaten slowly to make them taste better!"

"Eat more!"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhang Yan who hadn't moved his chopsticks much and couldn't help but remind him!

How can Zhang Yan have any appetite now?

Although the treasury has been full recently, Zhu Yuanzhang has allocated a large sum of money because he wants to expand rubber planting, which already makes him feel very distressed!

That’s it for rubber trees. Ministers also support planting them in large quantities. After all, this thing is indeed a good thing!

But Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to use money in other ways, and he said from the bottom of his heart that Zhang Yan was reluctant!

Of course, this is only one aspect!

Not being in the mood to eat is just one of the reasons. What's more important is that Zhu Yuanzhang makes a lot of noise when eating noodles. How can he have an appetite?

And as a minister, he didn't have the guts to care about how the emperor ate!

The Ming Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty were different!

In the Tang Dynasty, some civil servants could even directly control the emperor's private life, such as Wei Zheng and Li Shimin!

But Zhu Yuanzhang was different. He was born a beggar and a peasant, and he never cared about this Confucian thing!

There are things in Confucianism that can be learned and used!

But there are some things in Confucianism that Zhu Yuanzhang hates. He will not give face to anyone whose words are not pleasing to his ears!

"Your Majesty, please eat slowly."

Just as Zhang Yu was about to move his chopsticks, he heard Zhu Yuanzhang's voice starting to squish his noodles again, and he couldn't help but remind him!

"It's okay, this is the way to enjoy being a fan. Don't people all over the world live like this?"

While Zhu Yuanzhang was talking, he had already finished the bowl of noodles!

(End of this chapter)