Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 215: Imperial Order from Beijing
Early April, Nanjing City.

After two months of governance starting from February.

The South has gradually begun to restore order from the initial chaos.

Zhu Yuanzhang was also very brutal in Yingtian, executing a large number of landlords and corrupt officials in Suzhou, Changzhou and other places, and confiscating a lot of land.

According to their respective reports, starting from Sichuan, he alone obtained 4 million acres of land from the King of Shu Zhu Zhishu.

Then Tang He went on a killing spree in Sichuan, beheading many corrupt officials, and even went south to beat up many local chieftains who were rebelling.

Overnight, nearly 10 million acres of land in Sichuan were registered.

However, during the Wanli period, this number was only 2 million mu, which means that in fact there should be more than 10 million mu of farmland in Sichuan during the Ming Dynasty.

More than 80 to 90 percent of these lands belonged to princes, corrupt officials and large landowners, and no taxes could be collected from them at all.

It is no wonder that during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the amount of farmland in Sichuan reached an astonishing 40 million acres, and in later generations it reached more than 70 million acres of arable land.

Even if we put aside factors such as construction and water conservancy reclamation, who knows how many fields are hidden here?

Many fields were also found in Huguang.

Sichuan and Huguang have been working on this since last year, and this year, under the supervision of Tang He, Xu Da, Feng Sheng and others, the investigation has been almost complete.

The amount of farmland that has been re-confiscated in Sichuan, Hunan and Hubei alone is as high as 40 million acres, and the work of dividing the land is now underway in full swing.

However, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangsu only started this year, and the specific statistical data are reported to Lao Zhu's desk every day.

In addition, Zhu was in charge of personnel, economy, local government affairs, etc. of each provincial government.

After all, if you kill so many salt, grain and tea merchants, it will definitely cause huge fluctuations in the market prices of salt, grain and tea in a short period of time, which will greatly affect people's livelihood.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang had to respond immediately. For example, local officials took over various salt fields and tea mountains, recruited people to dry salt, grow tea and farm, and redistributed the cakes. He also had to handle hundreds of memorials every day and was extremely busy.

It was because Zhu Yuanzhang was as strong as an iron man, and he had Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He by his side to give him advice and help him review memorials. Otherwise, if it were an ordinary emperor, he would have been exhausted to death.

"My dear, this is not a solution."

Inside the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Yunfeng had backaches, felt dizzy, and felt a little dizzy.

He has been working with Lao Zhu for more than a month.

God knows what it’s like to only sleep four or five hours a day and be called up before dawn to help review memorials?
For someone like Zhu Yunfeng who likes to sleep until he wakes up naturally, this is simply torture and imprisonment.

"Yes, ancestor, you are full of energy and can work day after day for decades. We can't do that. If we continue like this, we will die."

Ji He had a pair of dark circles under his eyes, and he felt that helping the poor was less tiring than being an emperor.

Or it is tiring to be a wise ruler.

Old Zhu was full of energy. He glanced at the two of them with dissatisfaction and said, "You two useless guys, you are in your twenties and thirties, the prime of your life, but you are not as good as a sixty-year-old man like me."

"How else can you be one of the three greatest emperors of all time? How can we compare with you? Besides, even if we work like cows and horses, we still need to take a break. We have been working for so many days."

Zhu Yunfeng couldn't help but complain.

Old Zhu is indeed one of the three greatest emperors of all time. The concept of greatest emperor of all time was proposed by Li Zhi, a thinker in the Ming Dynasty. He first said that Qin Shihuang was the greatest emperor of all time, and then said that Zhu Yuanzhang was also the same.

In addition, Wang Zhijian, a scholar from the Ming Dynasty, also praised Li Shimin as the greatest emperor of all time. Therefore, these three are the only ones who are called the greatest emperor of all time in history.

But the evaluation of the ancients is indeed pertinent. Lao Zhu said that he couldn't be ranked first, but there was no problem in maintaining the fourth place and striving for the third place.

The top two are definitely Qin Shihuang Ying Zheng and Tang Taizong Li Shimin.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, could definitely compete with Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, and Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, for the third, fourth, or fifth place, and he even had a great chance of ranking third.

Putting aside other things, just the energy he had in governing the country, sleeping four hours a day and working 4 hours a day, Liu Bang and Liu Che could not catch up with him even if they flattered them.

"Stop talking so much, finish your work today, and I'll give you a day off tomorrow."

Old Zhu shook his head, very disappointed with the two young men.

Although they handled things fairly well, relying on the rich theoretical knowledge of later generations and the ability to identify people in advance, they were able to do a good job in personnel appointments and economic affairs.

But you can't complain about being tired after doing some work. Young people in later generations are too spoiled. If they were on the march or in a war, they might not be able to sleep for several days and nights.

You are at the age of striving hard, how can you not be able to do even such a small thing?

"Great."

Zhu Yunfeng was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling.

Ji He said: "Ancestor, the official document from Zhang Kentang of Fujian has arrived and has been put together with Mao Xiang's. Zheng Zhilong put up a desperate resistance but was suppressed by Mao Xiang's artillery fire and surrendered."

"Humph, this disloyal and treacherous man needs a beating before he behaves himself."

Old Zhu was very dissatisfied.

If it weren't for Zheng Chenggong, he really wouldn't like Zheng Zhilong very much.

"Now most of the southern regions have been pacified, and Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan are basically settled by the order of a proclamation. Forefather, what do you say next?"

Zhu Yunfeng asked again.

"Let's destroy Li Zicheng first."

Old Zhu thought for a moment and said, "He has always been a nuisance since he fled to the Dabie Mountains."

"There's nothing we can do. Heavy weapons can't go up the mountain. We can defeat Li Zicheng with automatic rifles and our two feet, but he's just circling around in the mountains and won't fight with me."

Zhu Yunfeng scratched his head.

It’s not that Zhu Di was incompetent, but Li Zicheng was indeed a master of escape. After all, he had been roaming the Central Plains for more than ten years without being caught, so he must have been quite capable.

Young Zhu Di was a good fighter, but if others didn't fight him, he would just flee. Although he was able to often capture the remnants of Li Zicheng and some of the old camp's elderly, weak, women and children, it was of no use if he couldn't capture his main force.

"Let Lao Si use a psychological attack to pass on a message to Zuo Liangyu, ordering him to lead his troops to Dabie Mountain immediately to help Lao Si encircle Li Zicheng's troops, reduce his living space, and force his troops to surrender."

After a little thought, Lao Zhu quickly came up with a solution.

The current situation is that young Zhu Di has only more than a thousand people chasing Li Zicheng. Although these thousand people have strong combat effectiveness, they can easily destroy an army of hundreds of thousands.

However, although the firepower was strong, it was difficult to shrink the encirclement due to the small number of people, and there was no way to reduce Li Zicheng's escape route and living space.

Therefore, in a situation like this where we have to hide in the deep mountains and forests, the best strategy is to use human wave tactics and shrink the encirclement on a large scale.

In later generations, my country often used this method to catch wanted criminals who fled into the mountains.

It's a bit stupid, but very useful.

"Well, I'll go talk to Feng Sheng now and ask him to give orders to Zuo Liangyu and give instructions to the fourth brother."

Zhu Yunfeng put down the memorial he was going to deal with and walked towards the telecommunications room.

Li Zicheng was not a serious threat to him, but if he allowed such bandits to cause chaos in the hinterland, Zhu Yuanzhang would not be able to go north to Beijing with peace of mind.

Therefore, he had to deal with all the matters and stabilize the south before he could go north calmly. After a while, Zhu Yunfeng came out of the telecommunications office and said, "Grandpa, I have already given the order. The fourth brother has issued a military order to send Li Zicheng's head over within a month."

"It seems that Li Zicheng's constant running away has made Lao Si angry."

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't care about the military order, he just smiled and said: "This is a good thing. The fourth brother is now relying on the power of firearms and is a little arrogant. It's time for him to put the military tactics he learned into practice."

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty."

At this moment, Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying, Han Zanzhou, Zhang Shenyan and others rushed in.

Some of them currently serve as scholars of the Nanjing Cabinet, and some serve as the ministers of the six ministries. Since Zhu Yuanzhang took office in Nanjing, the Nanjing Cabinet and the Nanjing Six Ministries began to operate, and they went from having no power to having power.

Although they still don't have much real power due to Lao Zhu's existence, it's much better than before, and they help Lao Zhu deal with things in various places every day.

Normally, we wouldn't dare disturb Lao Zhu unless it was something important. Now that he rushed in, something big must have happened.

"Why are you so flustered?"

Old Zhu frowned.

Everyone looked at each other, and Han Zanzhou was the one who mustered up the courage, knelt down in front of the hall carefully and said, "Your Majesty, the Emperor of Beijing has issued an imperial decree, asking me to wait."

"Say it all in one breath."

Old Zhu said unhappily.

"Let us conspire to remove His Majesty."

After Han Zanzhou finished speaking, cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He said, "Your Majesty must have been deceived by the traitors and thought that Your Majesty Taizu was a fake, so he acted like this. Please don't blame me, Your Majesty."

"Oh?"

Old Zhu looked around and said, "Have you all received the secret order?"

"Yes"

Everyone answered like quails.

If everyone had not received the secret order, how could they dare to come and tell Lao Zhu?
It's a very simple logic. If Chongzhen only issued the imperial edict to one person, that person would definitely hide himself and pretend not to know out of loyalty to Chongzhen.

But everyone has it. Once they don't ask each other and choose to remain silent, as long as one person reports this to Zhu, it means that they are only loyal to Chongzhen and not to Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty.

If this isn’t courting death, what is this?
So after receiving the imperial edict, everyone tested each other for a long time, and after they were sure that everyone had it, they realized the seriousness of the matter and could only tell Lao Zhu.

Han Zanzhou knelt on the ground and continued, "Grandpa, I have already arrested the person who delivered the secret decree to me. He is a man from the East Factory."

"I was arrested too. He was from the Royal Guards."

"We know that this is a serious matter and dare not conceal it. But Your Majesty must have been deceived by treacherous officials. Please don't blame me, Your Majesty."

"In my opinion, it must be the old villains like Zhou Yanru and Chen Yan who spread the slander."

"I heard that Zhou Yanru was sentenced to death by His Majesty two months ago for accepting bribes and selling official positions and titles."

"."

Several people seemed to be a little confused and they were kneeling there, not knowing what they were saying.

This matter is really too big.

The last emperor wanted to send people to arrest the founding emperor, but they had to be loyal to Chongzhen, so they certainly did not dare to push the responsibility onto Chongzhen, so they could only put it on the cabinet ministers.

In order to exonerate Chongzhen, it was really difficult for them.

Fortunately, Old Zhu was not angry. After all, he had been planning to get rid of this guy.

Chongzhen really took advantage of his hard work of "working day and night" and his courage of "hanging himself to die for his country", otherwise, with his outrageous actions, Zhu Yuanzhang would have wanted to kill him.

Now when Zhu Yuanzhang heard that Chongzhen had issued a secret order for them to get rid of him, he was not really angry, and even found it a little funny.

It's really bad for an emperor to be in such a bad position that he has to issue an edict to ask officials to change their ways.

"All right."

Old Zhu shook his head and said, "Write him a memorial and tell him about me. Shi Kefa."

"The minister is here."

Shi Kefa hurriedly stepped forward.

"Draft an imperial edict and send it back to Zhu Youjian. Tell him that if he comes to Nanjing to see me now and admits his mistakes, I will still look at him with a higher regard. Since he has not lost his integrity even though he committed suicide for his country, I will let him live a peaceful life as a prince. But if he waits until I reach Beijing, then he will be imprisoned in Fengyang until he dies."

Old Zhu said lightly.

Zhu Youjian was indeed diligent throughout his life, worked hard for the country, and even committed suicide for his country, without losing the backbone of the Ming Dynasty.

But this cannot change the fact that he was incompetent and lacked the ability to turn the tide as a wise ruler. His various messy operations even led to the continuous decline of the Ming Dynasty's national strength and ultimately its demise.

To some extent, Chongzhen was at least 50% responsible for the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

If he had followed his brother's example and simply handed over power to the eunuchs, allowing them to engage in corruption, torture the rich and powerful, and extort large bribes to pay tribute to the emperor, it is hard to say whether the regime could have been maintained.

The fact that the Ming Dynasty was now in such a state of ruin had a lot to do with Chongzhen's self-righteousness, inconsistency, suspicion and lack of political, military, economic and strategic capabilities.

So Old Zhu must have wanted to get rid of him.

However, if Chongzhen came south immediately to repent and admit his mistakes, he could be a little more lenient considering his courage to commit suicide.

If you still don't know what life and death is, even your descendants will be imprisoned in Fengyang until they die.

Everyone looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.

Only Shi Kefa showed a smile that was uglier than crying, with cold sweat dripping down his forehead and back.

After all, no matter how bad Chongzhen was, he was still his king. Although Zhu Yuanzhang was also his king, drafting such an imperial edict in this era was indeed a bit disloyal and unrighteous.

I'm just afraid of being stabbed in the back.

But he dared not disobey Old Zhu's words, so he could only kowtow and say, "I obey your order."

"Go back."

"Yes."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and left the Qianqing Palace.

The pressure from Lao Zhu was so great that it was like being stared at by a tiger. They were really scared.

Watching them leaving, when there was no one at the gate of Qianqing Palace and only the blue sky in the distance was left, Old Zhu narrowed his eyes, as if talking to Zhu Yunfeng Ji He, or as if talking to himself, and spoke softly.

"I hope that kid will know the current situation and not let me, an old ancestor, lead people to Beijing to attack. It sounds a bit sad that the founding emperor took away the country from his descendants."

(End of this chapter)