Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 147 The beginning of the Crown Prince’s New Deal, making the world submit to the Ming Dynasty!

"Selling newspapers, selling newspapers, breaking news, His Majesty the Emperor has appointed a grandson!"

"King Wu was officially appointed as the crown prince and is in charge of state affairs."

"The Ming Dynasty is about to usher in a brand new beginning."

……

The cries of newsboys could be heard in the streets and alleys of Jinling City.

In the past, the only way to know about such important court events was to hear them from officials or to see them in official notices.

It often takes a long time for news to spread.

Now with the help of the "Da Ming Daily", the people of Jinling City knew everything almost within one day.

Further away, it's just a little bit later.

Because the horse-drawn carriages carrying newspapers are transporting large quantities of newspapers to all parts of the country at the fastest speed.

After several months of rapid development, Da Ming Daily has established more than 30 branches across the country.

Once the newspaper was printed and distributed, the news could quickly spread throughout most of the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, the expansion of the Ming Daily is far from stopping, and new branches are still being planned and built.

The next step is to open branches in all cities across the country.

Along with the Ming Daily, the Ming Bank also expanded rapidly.

Branches popped up everywhere like mushrooms after rain.

With the foundation laid by Jinlingcheng and the unremitting publicity of the "Da Ming Daily", Daming Bank easily gained the trust of the people.

From local gentry to ordinary people, everyone rushed to deposit silver and copper coins into banks in exchange for new banknotes.

Some people just want to save money.

Because depositing money in Ming Bank not only does not charge any storage fees, but you can also earn interest.

Although the interest rate was not high, the commodity economy was underdeveloped in that era and the return on investment was generally low. Many wealthy people simply dug kilns to bury their silver without making any investments.

In comparison, the interest income from bank deposits becomes extremely attractive.

With sufficient financial support, the large-scale expansion of Ming Bank will naturally not be a problem.

The only thing that limits its expansion speed is the geographical distance limitation. It takes time to dispatch personnel to the local area.

The second is the recruitment and training of employees, which cannot be completed in one day.

But in general, whether it is the Ming Daily or the Ming Bank, both are extending their tentacles into every corner of the Ming Dynasty at a very fast speed.

For the people, these two things have brought about visible changes.

It also made them full of expectations for the Crown Prince to rule the country.

"Has the King of Wu finally been appointed as the crown prince? That's great!"

"Yes! Yes! King Wu is a man of unrivaled talent. Under his governance, our Ming Dynasty will surely get better and better."

"Of course. You haven't heard the saying 'When the King of Wu is established, the world will prosper and the world will be stable from then on; there will be peace for 800 years'. That was said by the gods in heaven."

"I've heard it before. Who in Jinling City hasn't heard it? A few days ago, we were thinking about submitting a 'Book of All Citizens' to His Majesty, requesting that the King of Wu be appointed as the Crown Prince. I didn't expect that His Majesty would have already appointed him in the blink of an eye."

"Yes! His Majesty not only appointed King Wu as the Crown Prince, but also handed over all state affairs to him. I heard that His Majesty will carry out drastic reforms and eliminate bad policies."

"That's great!"

……

Compared with the common people who were running around to tell others and clapping their hands in joy, the reactions of the civil and military officials in the court seemed calm.

The King of Wu had already been regent before this.

The ministers also knew that it was only a matter of time before His Majesty appointed him as the crown prince, so they were naturally prepared.

However, after he was officially enthroned and entrusted with full authority to handle state affairs, many people still felt uneasy.

Unlike the poor, what the ruling class wants most is not change but stability.

A society that never changes and where classes no longer flow will make the poor despair, but it is the paradise that the rulers most desire!
Judging from the series of measures taken by King Wu after he became regent, he will definitely carry out comprehensive reforms once he takes over.

And this is what the ruling officials and gentry are most worried about.

However, no one knows now what changes the Crown Prince intends to make.

However, some people with a keen sense of smell noticed an editorial published in the Da Ming Daily.

The editorial was sharply worded and its content directly pointed out the issue of changes in commercial taxes.

It is said that ever since the Crown Prince changed the business tax, local governments have been lazy and inactive, or have acted arbitrarily, collecting business taxes in a random and arbitrary manner.

Tax collectors arbitrarily oppress powerless merchants and allow well-connected merchants to evade taxes.

All these illegal acts are shocking.

The order to increase commercial taxes had been issued several months ago, and the court had repeated it again and again, but the taxes collected had not doubled.

Corruption among tax officials was rampant, and the court had to make a major effort to rectify the situation.

This editorial was published in a corner of the Ming Daily and was not eye-catching.

Most people focused their attention on major events such as the enthronement of the Crown Prince.

The imperial court has been calling for changes in commercial taxes for a long time, but it has been all thunder and no rain.

Naturally, everyone didn't take it too seriously.

Only a very small number of people with a keen political sense feel that the origin of this editorial is probably unusual.

Because a lot of content about commercial taxes had been published in the "Da Ming Daily" before.

But basically, they were all clamoring for the court to change the commercial tax and describing the various benefits of the commercial tax reform.

This editorial gives people the impression that the government is sharpening its knives and preparing to take action against tax officials.

Perhaps, this is the first blow that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will strike with his new policy?

……

After being named the Crown Prince, Zhu Yunhuan moved back to the Eastern Palace.

The original Prince Wu's Palace was entirely allocated for use by the Da Ming Daily.

As the scale of the Ming Daily continued to expand and the number of staff increased, the previous space was no longer sufficient.

The vacated Prince Wu's Palace was just enough to meet his needs.

Together with the newspaper, there is also the Investigation Department and the newly established Ming Intelligence Bureau, which is secretly recruiting and training personnel.

The Intelligence Department itself was established under the banner of gathering information for the Ming Daily, so it was only natural for them to work together.

The Ming Intelligence Bureau operates under the name of the overseas branch of the Ming Daily.

This makes it easier to send spies to other countries to lurk.

When necessary, intelligence personnel can transform themselves into reporters for the overseas branches of the Ming Daily.

If the identity is exposed and rescue from the Ming Dynasty officials is needed, there will be a name and excuse for intervention, which will facilitate the handling.

The Intelligence Bureau and the newspaper were combined into one, and were only separated internally so that they could conceal their identities from the outside world.

The city of Jinling has a population of over a million, and it is a mixed crowd. There may be spies sent by other countries.

If a separate office and location is set up, it will easily be exposed to the public.

It was hidden inside the headquarters of the Ming Daily, which not only facilitated Yao Guangxiao's work, but also cleverly concealed the identity of the personnel. The original Xianwang Mansion became the headquarters of the Ming Bank.

The Ming Bank expanded very quickly, and its original site was no longer sufficient.

Now that Zhu Yunwen is under imprisonment, the Prince Xian's Palace is vacant, so it is a good opportunity to make use of it.

The palace covers a vast area, which is more than enough for the Ming Bank to use as its headquarters.

……

East Palace.

With Wen'er's help, Zhu Yunxun, who had just woken up, finished washing up and ate breakfast while reading the "Daily Brief" that had just been delivered to him.

The procedure for enthroning the Crown Prince is very complicated, and matters such as offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, ancestors, and the country must all be done personally.

After a few days, Zhu Yunxun, who usually lived a life of luxury, was exhausted.

Now that it's finally over, I can live a leisurely, relaxed and happy life again.

Unlike the Ming Daily and the court's gazette, the Daily Brief is a top-secret newspaper.

After the compilation of this newspaper was completed, there was only one person who could read it, and that was Zhu Yunhuan himself. No one else was allowed to read it.

Unless there is additional approval from Zhu Yunyun.

Old Zhu handled state affairs and reviewed countless memorials every day. Even if 007 worked day and night, it was still difficult to complete the work.

In order to prevent himself from forgetting things, Lao Zhu even pasted all kinds of notes in the room he lived in.

After finishing one task, tear off one.

Fortunately, Mr. Zhu is energetic and has an ability to withstand stress that is far beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Otherwise, if an ordinary person were to do this for a long time, he would probably become schizophrenic due to the pressure.

But when Zhu Yunhuan read through the memorials submitted by the ministers, he found that at least 90 percent of them were useless nonsense.

Of the remaining 10%, most are not important things.

Less than one percent of the content is truly high-value.

Therefore, Zhu Yunhuan ordered the Tongzhengsi, which was responsible for handling memorials, to summarize the contents of the memorials and compile them into a briefing.

For example, if more than a dozen people including the Censor, the Secretary of the Court, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court impeached the Minister of Revenue together, if Zhu Yunhuan wanted to read the memorials, it would take most of the day just to read the impeachment memorials from more than a dozen people.

But when compiled in a briefing, it becomes just one sentence.

Even if I wrote it in more detail, it would only be two or three paragraphs.

For example, local officials would submit memorials reporting disasters and military situations. Since different officials would submit reports, many of the contents of the memorials were repetitive and similar, so compiling them into briefings would save a lot of time.

As for the congratulatory messages submitted by the ministers, there is no need to mention them.

It seems to take a lot of energy to write each article, which is completely unnecessary.

Summarizing and processing is the correct approach.

When officials from the Ministry of Public Administration received memorials, they had to open them in public in the lobby to prevent someone from keeping the memorials privately and missing out on important information.

After opening it, excerpts are made and then reviewed three times by three different officials to confirm that the excerpts are correct before being compiled into a briefing.

The original memorial was copied twice and placed in three different places for sealed archives.

If Zhu Yunhuan felt that the news was important while reading the briefing and wanted to know more, he would check the original text of the memorial, which would then be taken out and delivered to him by an official.

If not, it would be unnecessary.

Hundreds of memorials were compiled into a few thin newspapers, all written in easy-to-understand vernacular Chinese, and it only took half an hour to read them all.

As for marking, it is also very convenient.

First of all, the contents of most memorials were only reported to the emperor, and did not actually require the emperor to review them personally.

The six ministries and other government offices will handle it themselves.

The so-called emperor's comments were nothing more than writing "I understand" on it.

These memorials were collected in a briefing and Zhu Yunhuan reviewed them in the same way.

For example, dozens of local officials submitted memorials to report the disaster and then gave instructions on how to deal with it.

It is essentially one thing, there is no need to make different instructions for it.

In addition, since you are just reading a briefing, your efficiency can be said to be improved by more than a hundred times.

The same applies to other memorials.

In addition to the briefings on excerpts from memorials, he would also read the intelligence gathered by the Intelligence Bureau every day, which was also a briefing.

It just contrasts with the content in the memorial.

It can not only prevent officials from reporting false information in memorials, but also prove the intelligence-gathering capabilities of the Investigation Department.

If the memorial submitted by the official is consistent with the intelligence reported by the Investigation Department, it can basically be judged to be true.

Otherwise, it is time to review it carefully.

After reading these two briefings, it can be said that Zhu Yunhuan had a clear understanding of the entire Ming Dynasty's movements.

This is actually a common measure adopted by modern countries in later generations.

Compared with the Ming Dynasty in the feudal era, the complexity of modern state governance has more than increased a hundred times.

The amount of affairs that the head of state needs to deal with every day is unimaginable for people of this era.

Generally speaking, in later modern countries, intelligence agencies, national security agencies, etc. will compile important intelligence information for the head of state to understand the situation.

For example, the first thing the Eagle Country's leader does after getting up every day is to check the "Daily Brief" submitted by the Intelligence Bureau, so that he can have a clear understanding of domestic and global affairs.

Otherwise, if Zhu Yuanzhang had continued to review memorials one by one in the inefficient way he did before, future heads of state would have died of exhaustion before they could finish processing all the memorials.

Zhu Yunhuan was inspired by the saying that governing a large country is like cooking a small fish and introduced this measure into the Ming Dynasty.

Lao Zhu finished the work that would require 007 working day and night in just one hour.

Then you can enjoy life leisurely.

There was not much important information in today's "Daily Brief", so Zhu Yunhuan took a look at it during his breakfast break, and then finished reviewing it casually.

Another important plan that had been planned for a long time and was about to be implemented emerged in his mind - recruiting and training new troops.

To start a war against the Japanese pirates or even Japan, it would not be feasible to rely on the Ming Dynasty's original old-style army.

It doesn’t mean that we can’t win.

Not long after the Ming Dynasty was founded, its soldiers were all elite warriors who had experienced many battles.

The generals are also veterans who have been tested in the battlefield.

At this time, it was not a problem for the Ming army to defeat the Japanese pirates.

But doing so would be too inefficient, would result in a large number of casualties, and would be a heavy financial burden.

Zhu Yunhuan wanted to quickly and efficiently wipe out all the Japanese pirates and force Japan to surrender, so he needed a brand new army.

A powerful navy that the Ming Dynasty has never had before!

He wanted to make this army the sharpest sword of the Ming Dynasty.

Wherever the Ming army points to, the whole world will tremble and surrender under the powerful ships and guns of the Ming Dynasty.

……

(End of this chapter)