Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 494 Ascending to the Throne and Reigning Over the Universe
After deploying the overall strategy for the Northern Expedition, Lu Jin still did not let them leave. In the following days, he summoned these generals separately for talks, discussing the campaign deployments, troop allocations, and so on.

The Holy Martial Army currently has six cavalry regiments, equivalent to the size of an army. Zheng Yong leads an independent cavalry division with three cavalry regiments, which is currently stationed on the Shandong-Hebei defense line. The Fourth Front Army also has an independent cavalry regiment, which was previously responsible for the Central Plains Campaign.

There were also two newly formed cavalry regiments. One part came from the Yuan army in Sichuan under Dashibadulu, including surrendered Yuan cavalrymen, and the other part was newly formed by Lu Jin through horse purchases. These forces were then reorganized into two cavalry regiments.

So one of the two newly formed cavalry regiments was assigned by Lu Jin to the Fourth Front Army to help them fight in Shaanxi, and the other was assigned to the Central Route Army to the Shanxi direction. Although Shanxi is surrounded by mountains and rivers, the Fenhe River Valley in the middle can still be used by cavalry, even if it is just to serve as scouts for the whole army, to cover the outer perimeter and scout ahead.

As for the Eastern Route Army, sea transport for cavalry is inconvenient to begin with. It's better to wait until the Liaoxi Corridor is opened up, and if needed, have Zheng Yong travel overland from the coastal route to help them.

In addition to military preparations, arrangements also need to be made for civil officials. This Northern Expedition will establish three new provinces, so it is necessary to prepare a civil service team in advance, including county magistrates, prefects, and three provincial governors.

Lu Jin instructed the Ministry of Personnel to select officials from the provinces of Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. From among the county magistrates and registrars with outstanding political achievements and more than a year of service, candidates for county magistrates in the north were selected. From among the county magistrates with outstanding political achievements, candidates for prefects in the north were selected. Lu Jin himself was to select the provincial governor.

As for the vacancies created by the transfer of these officials, they will be filled by outstanding town mayors from various places.

First, submit the list of officials, and then Lu Jin will personally confirm it before making the appointments.

Then Lu Jin selected several provincial governors and summoned them one by one for a talk. Sheng Wenyu, a civil official who originally belonged to Liu Futong's group, was the prime minister of the Han-Song Red Turban Army in the original history. This time, Lu Jin appointed him as the right provincial governor of Hebei, which can be regarded as a way to win over the Han-Song group.

Ning Anqing, formerly a Vice Minister of the Privy Council of the Yuan Dynasty, was appointed as a Director of the Attendant Department of the Privy Council after surrendering. This time, due to his meritorious service in pacifying Liu Futong's troops and the Central Plains, he was appointed as the Right Provincial Governor of Shanxi by Lu Jin. Shanxi has a strategic geographical location and a large population. The north is also the front line against the Mongols. It is necessary to have someone who understands military affairs to be in charge. Ning Anqing is undoubtedly the best candidate for this position.

Another Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, Zhu Sheng, was transferred by Lu Jin to serve as the Right Provincial Administration Commissioner of Shaanxi. Zhu Sheng is 54 years old this year. He is being transferred out to serve as Provincial Administration Commissioner for one or two terms. When he is over 60 years old, he will be transferred back to the Central Government. After serving in the Central Government for a few more years, he can retire honorably.

Lu Jin specifically called the three of them over and gave them a thorough explanation of the matters they needed to pay attention to after taking office.

"After the Northern Expedition, most of the core provinces of Kyushu were recovered. The country was about to enter the stage of domestic construction. However, due to years of natural disasters and wars, some provinces were very sparsely populated, the land was barren, and nine out of ten houses were empty."

"However, some provinces that have not been affected by natural disasters and wars are densely populated, and there are even many conflicts between people and land. There is limited arable land but a large population, resulting in many landless tenants. What do you think should be done?"

Sheng Wenyu immediately said, "The best solution is of course immigration. We should relocate the landless people from densely populated provinces to sparsely populated provinces to share land and settle down. This will not only solve the problem of the conflict between people and land, but also allow the sparsely populated provinces to recover their vitality as soon as possible."

Lu Jin nodded. "That's right, especially the three provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Hebei that you three are in charge of. Hebei has been affected by floods and war, and many people are still resorting to cannibalism due to food shortages. It's fair to say that nine out of ten houses are empty. After the war, we will definitely need to take in a large number of immigrants."

"Therefore, you must make preparations in advance, such as how many people each prefecture and county will be resettled, how much land and houses they have, how many people they can resettle, and whether the government can provide enough farm tools, food, and livestock for the immigrants. You must conduct investigations and research on these matters in advance, and then submit them to the Provincial Administration Office for statistics and unified reporting."

"In contrast, there are Shandong and Shanxi. Shanxi is located on the Loess Plateau and is almost unaffected by floods. The wars of recent years have not reached Shanxi, so Shanxi has a very large population, estimated to be around five million people. The same is true for Shandong."

"Therefore, after the war, Shanxi and Shandong mainly undertook the task of population outflow, forming pairs with population-importing provinces to form a province-to-province migrant coordination responsibility system. How many people were sent out here, how many could be resettled there, had to be coordinated with each other."

“Don’t send 200,000 immigrants here this year, but only 100,000 can be resettled there. The remaining 100,000 are forcibly relocated, and when they arrive at their destinations, they can’t be resettled either. Won’t they be tormented to death by the government? We cannot do such inefficient and immoral things.”

All three nodded upon hearing this.

Lu Jin then added, "The post-war immigration plan is tentatively set at two million people from Shanxi, one million to Henan and one million to the Hetao and Shangdu regions, which will be nearly half of the population to support neighboring provinces."

"So many people are going to be relocated?!" Ning Anqing exclaimed in surprise.

Lu Jin said, "The purpose of relocating one million people to Henan is to help Henan recover as soon as possible and to reclaim the abandoned fields. The purpose of relocating people to the Hetao and Shangdu areas is to strengthen the border."

"Remember, the army is the key to conquering a piece of land, but the army is ultimately supported by the people. If you lose the land but keep the people, you will lose both the land and the people. If you lose the people but keep the land, you will lose both the land and the people. If there are no people on a piece of land, no matter how much land you conquer now, you will eventually lose it. So if you want to control the Hetao region and Shangdu in the long term, you need to relocate a large number of people to the border."

"However, there is no need to rush to migrate to the grasslands for the time being. We can move to Henan slowly first. After Wang Dayuan brings back crops from Lizhou and teaches the people of Shanxi how to plant them, it will not be too late to migrate to the grasslands."

"If we want to occupy the grasslands and ensure their long-term stability, we must change from herding to farming, build cities and settle down. We can't expect the grassland herders to do this; ultimately, we have to migrate people from the interior."

Ning Anqing then nodded.

Lu Jin continued, "In addition, Shandong will also relocate people in two directions: one million to Hebei and one million to Liaodong."

"According to the intelligence bureau, there are about 600,000 to 700,000 people in Liaodong and the Liaodong Peninsula. However, the local people mainly rely on fishing, hunting and gathering, and very few people farm. This is definitely not acceptable. We must increase the population of Han people in Liaodong and teach the locals how to farm so that they can live in peace and not cause trouble."

"Your specific task is to register households and ensure the population is properly organized as soon as possible. In Shanxi, you need to determine how many people lack land and how many have too little land to support their families; these are all potential immigrants. In Hebei, you need to investigate where the population is least concentrated and where it most urgently needs to be increased. You need to create a priority list and a table for the court to refer to. Do you all understand?"

"Understood!" the three replied in unison.

Lu Jin nodded and said, "After your respective provincial officials arrive, you will hold a meeting with the provincial officials to tell them what needs to be done. Then, during this Northern Expedition, the civil officials will go with the army. Wherever the army goes, our regime will be established there!"

"Yes!"

After the three left, Lu Jincai sighed to himself. In the original history, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty in 1368. What Zhu Yuanzhang inherited was a real mess, with severe population decline in various provinces.

In this timeline, because Lu Jin knew the course of history, he was able to seize strategic opportunities each time, which greatly accelerated the progress of the war. He was the first to unify the Jiangzhe region. Since there was no longer the tug-of-war between Zhang Shicheng and Zhu Yuanzhang as in the original history, naturally fewer people died.

The Shandong region also did not experience the Red Turban Army's Longfeng Northern Expedition in the original history, nor the back-and-forth tug-of-war between Li Chahan, Wang Baobao, and Mao Gui, which resulted in the preservation of most of the population.

During the Zhizheng era, Shandong had a population of about 546 million. However, after Lu Jin recovered Shandong last year, according to preliminary rough statistics, the population of Shandong is now about 490 million.

Historically, the population statistics for Shandong during the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty, founded by Zhu Yuanzhang, showed only 126 million people.
In comparison, Shandong's population loss at this time was extremely small, which allowed him to migrate more people to Hebei and Liaodong to restore the country's vitality more quickly and to maintain more firm control over the border regions.

Similar to Shandong, Shanxi also had a similar situation. Shanxi had about 5 million people during the Yuan Dynasty, but after the wars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, only 4 million people remained. Half of them had voluntarily migrated to other provinces to escape the war, so when Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, only 2 million people remained in Shanxi.

In this timeline, because Shanxi was not affected by natural disasters, the rebel army did not reach Shanxi, and the climate was warm at the end of the Yuan Dynasty with sufficient rainfall in the north, Shanxi had bumper harvests year after year. In addition, some disaster victims from Hebei and Henan fled to Shanxi. As a result, Shanxi's population not only did not decrease, but instead increased against the trend. The current population of Shanxi should have exceeded five million.

In addition, the Lianghu region in the original history had a population of about 940 million during the Yuan Dynasty. It experienced a protracted war between Xu Song and the Yuan army, followed by the decisive battle between Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang. More than ten years of continuous war led to a sharp decline in population.

For example, Xiangtan had a population of 100,000 during the Yuan Dynasty, but by the early Ming Dynasty, only 25,000 remained. Changning had a population of 60,000 during the Yuan Dynasty, but by the early Ming Dynasty, including military households, only a little over 5800 remained—truly less than one-tenth of its population survived.
Until the 26th year of the Hongwu reign, after a whole generation of recovery, and before the start of the large-scale migration of "Jiangxi filling Huguang" in the early Ming Dynasty, the entire Huguang region had only 4.7 million people, which was more than half less than the 9.4 million people of the Yuan Dynasty.

In this timeline, Xu Song was unable to expand significantly. Although he quickly occupied large areas in the first year, the Yuan court's resistance was not strong at the time, and many officials abandoned their cities and fled. The intensity of the war was not high. It was only later, when the Yuan army gathered troops from various provinces to launch a counterattack and drove Xu Song into the mountains to fight as a guerrilla, that the intensity of the war increased.

Compared to the original history, this timeline did not experience the second resurgence of the Xu and Song dynasties, nor the tug-of-war between Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang. This resulted in a large preservation of the population in the Hubei and Hunan regions. According to preliminary statistics, the population only decreased from 940 million in the Yuan Dynasty to about 800 million, which is at least twice as many as the 470 million population in the early Ming Dynasty!
Other places include Jiangxi, which had 12.4 million people before the wars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. After being recovered by Lu Jin, it still had 11 million people. Compared with those places where a large portion of the population would die, this can only be considered a minor loss. Add to that the population of more than 20 million in the Taihu Lake region of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and add up all the provinces in the country, the Lu Jin timeline has at least 10 million more people than the early Ming Dynasty in the original history!

That's the advantage of being fast!
From the Red Turban Rebellion started by Liu Futong and Han Shantong in 1351 to Zhu Yuanzhang's pacification of the south and establishment of the Ming Dynasty in 1368, the entire chaos at the end of the Yuan Dynasty lasted for 17 years.

In this timeline, Lu Jin joined the Chaohu Navy in August 1351. Now, in August 1354, exactly three years have passed. He is about to establish his own country and declare himself emperor, and is about to launch a northern expedition. This ends the war 14 years earlier than in the original history. How many more people could have survived?!
In terms of the speed at which he pacified the country, he could rival even Liu Xiu.
On the first day of the eighth lunar month, the date of Lu Jin's enthronement ceremony was set for two days. However, the two days before the ceremony were filled with continuous rain, which made the civil and military officials anxious. They wished they had chosen another season, such as spring or winter, which would have been the best time. But Lu Jin chose the hot month of August, which is also the rainy season. If it continues to rain tomorrow, how can the enthronement ceremony be held?
Fortunately, the heavens smiled upon us. As the first day of the eighth lunar month approached the hour of Yin (3-5 AM), around 4 AM, the dark clouds dispersed, and a glimmer of dawn appeared on the horizon. Soon after, the sky was ablaze with crimson clouds.

Dressed in his court robes, Li Shanchang exclaimed excitedly, "Auspicious purple clouds above! This is a lucky omen! Heaven has eyes!"

Lu Jin, dressed in his imperial robes, glanced at the sky. It was clearly the morning glow; where did this purple aura come from? However, he did not expose it, but waited until the sky was fully bright to officially lead the officials on their journey to offer sacrifices to Heaven.

Zhang Yunxiu, dressed in a phoenix coronet and embroidered robe, held the still fast asleep Gongshu Tan in her arms, awaiting today's investiture ceremony.

At 3:45 AM, when the sun and moon were in the east and west at the same time, Lu Jin led his officials to the southern suburbs to offer sacrifices to Heaven. Guards cleared the way, and countless people from the city followed. The emperor was ascending the throne, a momentous event that might not happen even once every hundred years.

Chang Yuchun's Ninth Group had already arrived outside the city and was lined up to wait, providing a grand spectacle for the enthronement ceremony. In addition to the officials of the royal palace, envoys from Brunei and Champa were also invited by Lu Jin, so that they could witness the strength of *****!
At 7:00 AM, the ceremony began. Lu Jin was already very familiar with this set of sacrificial procedures. He lit the firewood to welcome the gods, invited the gods to descend, offered jade and silk, presented the sacrificial offerings, offered three sacrifices, and read the prayer.

Lu Jin sincerely presented a memorial to Heaven: "Your subject, Gongshu Jin, kowtows to the Heavenly God: Our Chinese people's ruler, since the end of the Song Dynasty, the barbarian Yuan Dynasty rose from the desert, entered China and seized the imperial throne. Their ruler, father, son and grandson have been in power for nearly a hundred years. Now the dynasty has also ended, and the land, people and heroes of the world are in turmoil."

"Your Majesty bestowed upon me virtuous and capable men to assist me. I then quelled the rebellions in the north and south. In the regions of Huaihe, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hubei, Henan, Anhui, Hunan, Henan, and Shandong, bandits were rampant everywhere. I repeatedly ordered generals and officers to display their might and courage. The four directions were pacified, and the people lived in peace and tranquility."

"All the ministers said: 'The people have no ruler and must wish to elevate the title of Emperor. I dare not refuse. Therefore, on the first day of the eighth month of this year, on the south side of Zhongshan Mountain, we set up an altar and prepared ceremonies to proclaim to the Supreme God that the title of the world shall be Great Ming, and the calendar of the Yellow Emperor shall be called the Common Era. From this day forward, it shall remain unchanged for ten thousand generations!'"

After drinking the blessed wine, eating the sacrificial meat, and burning the memorial tablet, Lu Jin finally came to the side of the altar, ascended the throne, and stood facing south.

At this time, civil and military officials such as Li Shanchang and Liao Yong'an, along with tens of thousands of soldiers from the Ninth Army Group, had already lined up south of the altar, facing north.

Li Shanchang stood at the very front and shouted, "Hail!"

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live!"

(End of this chapter)