Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 195: Lecturer Fang Xiaoru!
Fengtian Temple.

The morning court session is over.

Although he only rested for an hour or two last night, Zhu Yuanzhang did not dare to be idle for a moment and began to deal with daily government affairs early.

A lot of officials were filled in the imperial court, but four of the six ministries were vacant. Without exception, the political affairs of these departments fell on Zhu Yuanzhang alone. Zhu Yuanzhang did not feel pressured by this. Instead, he felt a sense of accomplishment when he saw the memorials that were handled every day.

It's just too hard to handle on your own.

He is old after all.

Reading more than a thousand memorials, each of which contained at least two or three items and at most five or six items, his eyes could not bear it. Over the years, he had gradually let the scholars of the Hanlin Academy read the memorials for him, and he only made the final comments.

The scholar reciting along now is Fang Xiaoru.

Fang Xiaoru was the son of Fang Keqin, the former prefect of Ningfu. Fang Keqin was a diligent official, but later he was involved in the empty seal case, was convicted by the court and was executed. However, after looking at Fang Xiaoru's relevant situation, Zhu Yuanzhang pardoned Fang Xiaoru and his brother.

In the 15th year of Hongwu, Fang Xiaoru entered the court due to the recommendation of officials such as Wu Chen and Jie Shu.

After hearing that Fang Xiaoru was the son of Fang Keqin, Zhu Yuanzhang felt a touch of pity. Fang Keqin's death was actually a misjudgment. However, as an emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang would not admit his mistake. However, he did give Fang Xiaoru more preferential treatment.

He has tested Fang Xiaoru's knowledge many times over the years.

Fang Xiaoru was a learned man.

He also studied under Song Lian.

During his years in the Hanlin Academy, he often took it as his responsibility to promote the way of governing the world with benevolence and righteousness and to achieve peace in the world.

Therefore, he was appreciated and trusted by Zhu Yuanzhang.

As his eyes became more cloudy, Zhu Yuanzhang gradually handed over the task of reading memorials to Fang Xiaoru in order to train Fang Xiaoru's ability to handle political affairs and make it easier for him to work for Zhu Biao in the future. Fang Xiaoru did live up to everyone's expectations and worked diligently and conscientiously.

As a lecturer, Fang Xiaoru never dared to overstep his authority.

After finishing reading the memorial in his hand, Fang Xiaoru waited respectfully by the side, waiting for Zhu Yuanzhang to review it, and then followed Zhu Yuanzhang's instructions and continued to pick up the next memorial to read.

After Zhu Yuanzhang finished reviewing the memorials, he did not rush to review them again. Instead, he looked at Fang Xiaoru and said, "You understand me. You know that I don't like those long-winded words, so you simplified the contents of these memorials. When Ru Taisu handed me a memorial, it was only a few hundred words of key points, but you forced me to write more than 10,000 words."

"We in the Ming Dynasty do not favor those red tapes, nor do we tolerate those pedantic things. I heard that you also despise writing?"

Fang Xiaoru said, "Your Majesty, I really don't like writing. Nowadays, the world is full of trivial matters. If everyone reports their gains and losses, a huge amount of ink will be consumed every day. But if we can abandon these red tapes and focus on writing memorials, the efficiency of governing the world will undoubtedly be greatly improved."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "Well said."

"These words should be heard by those ministers. What do they do every day?"

"What have you done that you must write a long article about? You should write a memorial for us, and then write the administrative documents from now on, which will be issued to the Chinese and foreign people, so that the speaker can explain the gains and losses without any complicated words. If anyone dares to write a long article again, we will let him be beaten with fifty sticks first."

"I obey your order." Fang Xiaoru said hurriedly.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded with satisfaction. As the saying goes, changing people is like changing knives.

The previous lecturer was Wang Min, the Secretary of the Central Secretariat. However, Wang Min was too honest and just read the memorials word for word, which made Zhu Yuanzhang fall asleep. Especially now that he had more and more memorials to bear, Zhu Yuanzhang became more and more dissatisfied with Wang Min, and finally he simply replaced him.

Never thought about it.

The one that Xiaoru got in return is pretty good for him.

He waved his hand, indicating Fang Xiaoru to read the next one.

Just as Fang Xiaoru was reciting, a figure entered the hall. Seeing that Crown Prince Zhu Biao had arrived, Fang Xiaoru hesitated for a moment, but still finished reading the memorial. Then he bowed respectfully to Zhu Biao and said, "Your Highness, I, Fang Xiaoru, pay my respects to the Crown Prince."

Zhu Biao nodded.

Zhu Yuanzhang raised his eyes.

He glanced at Zhu Biao and couldn't help but snorted coldly.

"Are you going to see Xia Zhibai again?"

Zhu Biao smiled bitterly and nodded directly: "Father, I did summon Xia Zhibai just now."

Zhu Yuanzhang lowered his head and continued to review the memorial. He said indifferently, "Tell me, what did Xia Zhibai tell you that made you come to me so anxiously? I am surprised. There are so many ministers in the Ming Dynasty, why do you look at Xia Zhibai differently?"

“How many of his ideas are worth listening to?”

Zhu Biao smiled awkwardly and said helplessly: "Father, I have never looked down on any minister of the Ming Dynasty. It's just that Xia Zhibai's footprints all over the northern border did give me a lot of ideas. I think these ideas are feasible."

"Then you speak first." Zhu Yuanzhang showed little interest.

Fang Xiaoru looked around and was about to leave the hall, but was stopped by Zhu Yuanzhang.

"no need."

"You listen too."

"Give us some advice, by the way."

"Yes." Fang Xiaoru was startled and spoke respectfully quickly.

Zhu Biao glanced at Fang Xiaoru but didn't take it too seriously. He still admired Fang Xiaoru very much. He was a very talented man, highly appreciated by his father, and had great insight.

Zhu Biao said: "Report to the Emperor, Father."

"Xia Zhibai suggested that the imperial court 'reduce the power of the vassal states'."

"But it's not the vassal kings that are being cut, but the 'economy' of Jiangnan." "Nowadays, Jiangnan is basically self-sufficient in terms of food, clothing, housing and transportation, and even has surplus food shipped out. This has also led to the people of Jiangnan being arrogant and not taking people from other parts of the world seriously. Although the court has made many effective moves against Jiangnan, it has not been able to change the status quo."

"Jiangnan's fiscal revenue still accounts for half of Ming Dynasty's."

"For many people in the Jiangnan region, the area south of the Yangtze River, especially the northern border, is a burden to the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty was basically supported by exploiting the south, so they have always maintained an attitude of abandoning the northern border. This concept is deeply rooted."

"If your majesty wants to bridge the gap between the north and the south, you must break this rift."

“But relying on conventional means such as relocating people and suppressing businesses in the Jiangnan region has achieved some results, but the results are not very good.”

"And Xia Zhibai gave me a good suggestion."

"It is better to unblock than to block."

"Since the imperial court cannot contain the prosperous economy of Jiangnan, then it will not contain it, but let it develop. However, what the imperial court needs to do is to make the South and the North realize that you are in me, I am in you, so that they are entangled with each other. Although there will still be some resentment and disgust, there will no longer be any suspicion of division between the North and the South."

"I think this idea is very feasible."

Zhu Biao bowed slightly.

He expressed Xia Zhibai's thoughts.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded.

He raised his head, and a glimmer of clarity flashed in his cloudy eyes.

He looked at Zhu Biao with some interest, and asked, "How come you are in me and I am in you?"

Zhu Biao said: "Your Majesty."

"Business!"

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard the word "business", his face turned dark.

Zhu Biao also realized that Zhu Yuanzhang's face was not right, and hurriedly said: "Father, I think that commerce cannot be condemned with one stick. Commerce is indeed a part of the Ming Dynasty's economy, and in the past, the most common exchange between the north and the south was commerce."

"But now, with the intervention of the imperial court, trade between the north and the south is decreasing to a certain extent."

"That's a very bad sign."

"Less communication means less mutual understanding. If we rely solely on the imperial court to migrate people or rely on post stations to transmit information, over time, the south will not know the north, and the north will not know the south. They will be two completely different regions. This is extremely dangerous for bridging the north and the south."

"Now, relying on the power of the imperial court, we can no longer make any further progress in bridging the gap between the north and the south."

“So we need to rely on the power of the people.”

"Xia Zhibai has conducted a field investigation in northern Xinjiang. He said that northern Xinjiang is rich in 'iron coal'. Steam engines are quite popular in the south now. Once steam engines are really put into operation in the south, a lot of iron coal will be needed. Then there will be the possibility of sending iron coal from the north to the south."

"Open up the closed market in the south through iron and coal."

“That’s not a bad idea.”

"With coal and iron, more goods from the north may be transported to the south in the future, especially cattle and sheep. With the help of these merchants, the people in the north and south will have a deeper understanding of each other."

"in addition."

"Xia Zhibai also suggested opening the sea."

"Open certain trade routes along the coastline."

"Let the merchants traveling from north to south get greater benefits."

"And the most important thing is not only to reduce the expenditure of trade, but also to provide another way of transporting materials for the Ming Dynasty, a road other than the canal transport. The Ming Dynasty cannot only use the canal transport to transport materials, otherwise when the canal transport becomes large, it will inevitably become too big to be eliminated."

"The Ming Dynasty cannot walk on only one leg!"

"At the same time, according to Xia Zhibai, he is also planning to develop textile industry in the north."

"The north has a large population and a vast territory, so we can grow more cash crops, which can then be transported to the south."

"Whether it's textile factories or iron and coal, the imperial court is taking over."

"The bulk of the profits are in the hands of the court."

"Through these methods, the exchanges between the north and the south will increase, and the mutual misunderstanding will gradually decrease. This will be of great benefit to the stability of the Ming Dynasty and the reduction of the dominance of Jiangnan. I think the Ming Dynasty can do this."

"Father, please give me a clear warning."

Zhu Biao looked serious and spoke out his thoughts.

Zhu Yuanzhang had a gloomy face. He didn't like everything Zhu Biao said.

Because these ideas are in line with Xia Zhibai's asset theory.

Fang Xiaoru frowned and thought.

He pondered the feasibility of this in his mind, and after thinking about it, he nodded secretly. These ideas were indeed bold, but if they were really implemented, it seemed that they could indeed bridge the gap between the north and the south, and allow the court to collect a lot of money and grain.

However, before Fang Xiaoru could speak, Zhu Yuanzhang spoke first.

"Since you know so much, how do you know that Xia Zhibai has no selfish motives?"

"How do you know this will actually happen?"

(End of this chapter)