Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 151 Just Be Happy
At the beginning of March in the 16th year of Hongwu, Wu Liang took two ironclad ships and escorted the two emperors and several criminals who killed the Ming envoys to Nanjing.

In fact, strictly speaking, it was not the Japanese emperor who killed the Ming envoy, but Prince Huailiang, the regent of the Southern Dynasty.

But when the Ming army went to capture him, Prince Huailiang had already hanged himself.

His family also set themselves on fire.

The Ming army could only capture the two emperors and some ministers and bring them back to report.

The main culprit was already dead.

Under normal circumstances, you shouldn't hurt others.

However, that is normal.

How can there be normal situations between countries?
Don’t mention the family and national hatred in later generations.

Let’s just talk about the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Japan.

To put it simply, killing the Ming envoy, writing a letter to provoke the Ming Dynasty, and insulting the Ming Dynasty's national system are all acts of humiliation. Given the strength of the Ming Dynasty, the culprit should be arrested.

To put it in a broader sense, doing so would be a blow to the face of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, and it would be justified to launch a war to annihilate the country.

For example, Emperor Wu of Han.

The envoy of the Han Dynasty died here with you.

Sorry about that.

There is no need for your country to keep it.

"Nanyue killed the Han envoy and divided it into nine counties; the King of Wan killed the Han envoy and the head of the county was Beique; Joseon killed the Han envoy and was immediately exterminated." This sentence is clearly recorded in "The Biography of Su Wu".

Therefore, if some things do not involve interests, big countries can ignore them.

But if interests are involved, then you have to weigh the pros and cons.

The fact that the messenger was killed by you guys is the best excuse, isn’t it?
of course.

The slogan of revenge for the messenger must be shouted louder.

It is legitimate and avoids gossip from others.

Domestic publicity must also be in place.

Zhu Yunfeng's county is a typing and photocopying town, so they brought a lot of printers here.

The imperial court published newspapers and magazines and established the Ming Royal Newspaper and Publishing House to publicize this matter.

What was spread out was naturally that Japan killed the envoys first, and the Ming Dynasty sent troops to retaliate later, which frightened the Japanese and captured their emperor of the Northern and Southern Dynasties alive.

This will also boost people's morale and enhance national self-confidence.

Along with the captured emperor, Japan's letter of surrender and the heads of daimyos from all over the country were also sent there.

In the Battle of Heian-kyo, more than 30,000 Japanese soldiers were killed on the spot. The Ming army pursued them all the way and killed tens of thousands more, wiping out the entire samurai class in Japan.

After the war, every household hung white silk hangings, and wailing could be heard throughout Japan.

In this battle, the Japanese finally realized the gap between them and the Ming Dynasty, which was no longer something that could be contended with by human power.

The surviving daimyos and head of noble families in various places wrote letters requesting surrender.

In his words, he was extremely flattering to the Ming Dynasty and put all the blame on Prince Huailiang of the Southern Dynasty and the Toki clan who called on all the princes to go to Kyoto.

The extreme contradictions of the Japanese nation were fully displayed at this moment.

When they encounter those weaker than them, they become extremely brutal.

When they meet someone stronger than them, they become servile and fawning.

The Ming Dynasty had just overthrown the brutal Yuan Dynasty and was in a period of decline, unable to conquer Japan.

They allowed Japanese pirates to harass the southeastern coast, kill Ming envoys, and write letters to ridicule the Ming Dynasty.

Today, the Ming Dynasty has recovered its national strength and is inexplicably many times stronger than before.

They finally realized the power of this new Han dynasty, lowered their proud heads, and became humble servants.

Lao Zhu quickly gave instructions to the fleet via shortwave radio.

The several big families that were in charge were eliminated, and the Ashikaga shogunate reorganized the local government and a group of troops to maintain order, and then conscripted laborers to go to Iwami Province to dig for silver.

The Ming army stationed troops in Naniwa-kyo and Heian-kyo, and then the Ming Dynasty would migrate its population to Kyushu Island, officially incorporating Kyushu Island, Tsushima Island and other places into the Ming Dynasty's territory.

At the same time, the East China Sea Fleet should also frequently cruise around Kyushu and the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty to wipe out the remaining Japanese pirates.

Liao Quan stayed in Heian-kyo, while Wu Liang escorted the two emperors, a war criminal, and the rest of the murderers of the Ming envoy to Nanjing for trial.

Five days later.

Emperor Go-Kameyama and Emperor Go-Komatsu were sent to Nanjing.

The Dali Temple presided over the trial and sentenced them to death on the grounds of actively provoking war.

The news spread to surrounding countries.

Countries like Korea, Vietnam, and Myanmar felt like the sky was falling.

Especially Goryeo.

In 1382 AD, it was the end of the Goryeo Dynasty.

Ten years later, Goryeo general Lee Seong-gye would overthrow the Goryeo Dynasty and establish the Joseon Lee Dynasty.

The most crucial thing happened in the fifth year of Hongwu, which was 1372 AD.

Since Goryeo was more inclined to ally with the Mongols at that time, it killed all the envoys Cai Bin and Lin Mi sent by Zhu Yuanzhang.

In other words.

Goryeo committed the same sin as Japan.

There were many wars between Goryeo and Japan, and Lee Seong-gye stood out in the war with the Japanese.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has even destroyed Japan, the arch-enemy of Goryeo, how could it let them go?
King Wang U of Goryeo and Regent Lee In-im were almost frightened to death.

Because it was Lee In-im who led the Goryeo Kingdom's complete allegiance to the Yuan Dynasty, and it was also he who killed the envoy.

In April, Wang Yu executed Li Renren and sent an envoy with his head and a large amount of gifts to Nanjing to apologize to the Ming Dynasty and express his willingness to pay tribute.

It was early summer, the sun was shining brightly, and inside the Ming Imperial Palace in Nanjing City, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao were dealing with some state affairs with the cabinet.

At this time, great changes took place again in Nanjing.

The urban area continued to expand outward, dozens of streets were added due to the planning of neighborhoods and markets, and the population also increased significantly.

During the early Ming Dynasty, the urban area of ​​Nanjing was mainly concentrated in the area from the Ming Palace to the Confucius Temple, a very small area, and most of it was wilderness. There were only a few streets and the area did not exceed three or four square kilometers.

But today the scale of urban development is far beyond imagination.

In the past two years, the population has grown explosively due to the abolition of the Ding tax.

Not only newborns, but also a large number of unregistered people who have not been included in the household registration system need to be re-naturalized and issued identity cards.

The main thing is that once you become a naturalized citizen, you will be given land. Only a fool would not want to register under this policy.

There are still large tracts of land in the north that are not cultivated, and many places lack water conservancy projects, leaving fertile fields barren.

As long as you registered your household registration, you would be allocated land. The imperial court paid for the construction of water conservancy projects, and more and more landless farmers in the south moved to the north.

This will not only ease the increasingly serious land pressure in the South, but also solve the problems of weak agriculture, economy and population in the North.

This policy was fully led by Zhu Biao and was called the South-to-North Transfer Project.

Moreover, it is not only the northern regions such as Henan, Hebei, Shaanxi, and Shanxi that need population replenishment, but the Northeast also needs population replenishment.

But the problem at hand is that populations don’t emerge out of thin air.

The registered population in the early Ming Dynasty was about 60 million. In the past two years, the imperial court has vigorously promoted the household registration system.

By absorbing the illegal households hiding in the mountains and liberating the slaves and servants hidden by the wealthy families and landlords, the current registered population has reached more than 70 million.

In addition, the fertility rate has increased sharply in the past two years, and it is barely less than 80 million.

Many places in the north are still sparsely populated. Even if the imperial court has money and food, it is difficult to quickly mobilize the population to fill the vacancies in the north.

Therefore, the court must implement policies to solve these problems.

After the beginning of this year's spring, Zhu Yunfeng transported back a new batch of rice seeds from Modern, plus a continuous supply of fertilizers and pesticides.

There is more food than can be eaten.

Zhu Biao has recently been promoting a pig-raising policy, breeding a large number of excellent breeding pigs that Zhu Yunfeng obtained from Hyundai, and then distributing them to agricultural stations of Diannongwei in various places, requiring local farmers to spend money to purchase breeding pigs for breeding.

There were so many things that kept Zhu Biao busy and overwhelmed. He was dealing with all aspects, including education, agriculture, economy, and industry.

Only Lao Zhu had a little more free time, but not much.

Because he has been killing people these two days.

In just three or four years, the national strength of the Ming Dynasty grew explosively, and Zhu Biao implemented various policies to stimulate economic and industrial development.

But what followed was the problem of official corruption.

In the past two years, the salaries of officials have also been rising. Not only are they paid in full silver dollars, but they are also provided with rice and official land. It can be said that even if you are a minor official of the ninth rank, your family will have no worries about food and clothing, and it will be no problem for you to enter the middle class.

The salaries of higher-level officials are higher.

A first-rank official received 180 silver dollars and 540 dan of rice every month. In addition to the official land and other rewards, this monthly salary was enough for the official to buy a mansion in Nanjing, hire dozens of servants, and live a luxurious life.

Although not as exaggerated as that of the Song Dynasty, it was already quite generous, especially since silver dollars replaced treasure notes, ensuring that the money in hand would not depreciate.

However, the human heart is like a ravine, which cannot be filled.

Even though their salaries were not low, some officials could not help but take advantage of the money and grain that the court had distributed like water over the years for infrastructure construction, bridge and road construction, factory construction, water conservancy facilities, disaster relief, and other expenses.

In addition, collusion between officials and businessmen for personal gain has occurred frequently.

This has nothing to do with how well the administration is done.

No matter how good the administration is, as long as there are still human officials, corruption will always continue to breed in the face of the power in their hands and the desires in their hearts.

The difference is just a matter of more or less.

But it is obvious that engaging in corruption during the Hongwu Dynasty was simply because one wished one's life was too long.

Old Zhu was in his study at the moment. Every stroke he made would cost the life of an official.

At this moment, Zhu Biao came in from outside and said, "Father."

"Well, what happened?"

Zhu Yuanzhang put down the brush in his hand, looked up and asked.

Zhu Biao said: "The envoy from Goryeo has arrived and said he wants to see my father."

"hehe."

Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a moment, sneered and said, "Let the Honglu Temple go to meet them. Do you think the small Goryeo needs me to meet them in person?"

The past was before and the present is now.

At that time, the Northern Yuan Dynasty was powerful and needed to unite neighboring countries, so he sent envoys to win them over and re-establish tributary relations.

But Japan did not give face, and neither did Goryeo.

Now that Japan has been devastated, Goryeo is thinking about repairing relations as soon as possible. How could such a good thing happen?

"Then how should the Honglu Temple deal with it?"

Zhu Biao asked: "This time, Goryeo came here, obviously to find out the attitude of Ming Dynasty towards Goryeo."

Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment and said, "Let them shirk responsibility for a while. Scare them first. This matter is like a knife hanging over their heads."

"The child understands"

Zhu Biao nodded.

Fighting Japan is actually for the sake of profit.

With the Iwami Silver Mine and the Sado Gold Mine, the Ming Dynasty had no shortage of gold and silver for 200 years.

But Goryeo was poor, and if it was conquered, troops would have to be stationed there, which would result in high military expenditures, so it was really not worth it.

The main reason is that although the Ming Dynasty seems wealthy now, it is actually only wealthy compared with other countries in the world. Compared with later generations, it is far behind.

The price of food was low, and people could make little money from farming, so there were many people living in poverty.

Therefore, attacking Goryeo, a place with little benefit and requiring garrison and governance, is a loss-making proposition, at least for now.

It would be better to use the money for industry, improve productivity, give people jobs and earn money, and truly achieve prosperity for all.

As for the Goryeo region, we’ll talk about it later.

Anyway, if we don't fight now, we will be richer and have stronger military power in the future, and it will be easier to fight. There is really no need to waste so much money now.

"By the way, Annan also sent an envoy, but I blocked him back."

"Well, the origin of the island barbarian regime is unknown. They sent envoys to the court in the early years, but I did not accept their tribute. They are just traitors who are plotting to usurp the throne. There is no need to pay attention to them."

"The boy withdrew."

"Wait a minute."

Zhu Yuanzhang stopped him and asked, "What are Yunfeng and the fourth brother and little Ji doing today?"

"them?"

Speaking of the three little ones, Zhu Biao smiled and looked outside and said, "They said they were going to have a barbecue."

"Barbecue?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "This is really the style of the three of them."

Zhu Biao smiled and said, "Sometimes I envy them. They are carefree and just need to eat and drink and travel around every day."

"It's just that he doesn't care much about our Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked out the window and said, "But their personalities are just like that. It's fine as long as they like it."

"Care?"

"What do you mean?"

It’s early summer in April and the sun is shining brightly.

Outside of Nanjing, Zhu Yunfeng was riding a tricycle with Pippi Dog, his wife and children on the back seat.

Zhu Di and Ji He brought a barbecue grill and a lot of ingredients.

After getting off the car, Zhu Di asked Zhu Yunfeng if it was not a bit bad that they played like this every day and did not care much about the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yunfeng put his hands on his hips and said confidently, "Leave professional matters to professionals. Our ancestors and great uncles want to learn modern politics. They have a lot of books, opinions from experts and scholars, and modern cases for them to read. Do we need to pay attention to them? They will take care of the country, and we just do what we are good at."

"Yes."

Ji He also said righteously: "Buy online and send it to Daming, that's enough, what else do we need to do? Tell us, what else do we need to do?"

Zhu Di scratched his head, thought about it, and said, "Okay, let's do it."

"Get it done."

Zhu Yunfeng waved his hand and put the dogs down.

Ji Heze and Zhu Di moved the barbecue grill downstairs, brought in tables and chairs, and placed their laptops on them to listen to music.

The grassland on the south bank of the Qinhuai River is green at first glance.

The clear river water flows slowly.

Birds were singing in the distant grove, and occasionally a laborer carrying a hoe walked through the fields.

The fields are also green.

The summer breeze makes people feel relaxed and happy.

Pippi Dog is also six years old this year.

As the great general and divine dog who protects the Ming Dynasty, it can run wild in the imperial palace.

But there were no other dogs in the palace.

Zhu Yunfeng had to leave a descendant for it, so he found a show-quality female golden retriever and successfully bred a litter of puppies.

Both the bitch and her puppies were brought here.

The puppy is now three months old, and it is time for it to destroy the house, causing chaos in Zhu Yunfeng's Prince Wu's mansion.

On the grass now.

Pippi dog and his wife were fighting fiercely.

The little dogs are running around happily.

The warm sunshine shone on them, and soon the aroma of barbecue filled the air.

Zhu Yunfeng stood by the Qinhuai River with his hands on his hips, gazing at the beautiful scenery in the distance with a smile full of accomplishment.

The Ming Dynasty changed because of him.

I don’t expect the Ming Dynasty to break out of the universe.

But there should be no problem in dominating the world and allowing tens of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty, and even hundreds of millions or more than one billion people in the future, to live a prosperous life.

In the future, the people of the Ming Dynasty will be like him. Even if he is just a worker, he can live in a big villa, marry a beautiful wife, let his children go to school, raise a few dogs, and live a happy life.

of course.

That's for later.

Maybe a hundred years later.

But the future of Ming Dynasty will definitely be bright!
As for now.

Zhu Yunfeng and the others just need to be happy.

(End of this chapter)