Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 214 Huangpu River Shencheng! Old Zhu: I can't govern the world?

Jiangnan.

After staying in Suzhou for a while, Zhu continued his journey eastward and arrived in Songjiang Prefecture.

Suzhou has been prosperous since ancient times.

In comparison, Songjiang Prefecture at that time was not a very famous place.

However, when Lao Zhu actually arrived here, he was shocked by the scene on the street.

Everywhere you look, you see bustling crowds of people.

Various vendors were walking around, and the sounds of hawking their wares were endless.

It is ten times more lively than Suzhou Prefecture.

Old Zhu felt very strange, so he got off the car and asked an old man.

The old man laughed and said, "You are also a businessman, so you should be well-informed. How come you don't even know this?"

Old Zhu couldn't help but smile awkwardly and said, "We have been on the road all this time and haven't inquired about what's going on outside."

The old man said, "Now that we have the Ming Daily, you should read more newspapers when you are out and about. Since His Majesty the Great Grandson took over as regent, the Ming Dynasty has been changing rapidly. Even an old man like me is dazzled and can hardly keep up."

He sighed softly.

Lao Zhu was stunned for a moment.

Although I had cut off contact with the court during this incognito visit, I read the "Da Ming Daily" every day. However, I couldn't think of what content in it would affect the prosperity and bustle of Songjiang City.

"Songjiang Prefecture is not far from the sea." The old man stroked his beard and said, "In the past, the imperial court was worried that the common people would secretly collude with the Japanese pirates, or pretend to be Japanese pirates to commit crimes, so the common people were not allowed to go to sea."

"In order to enforce the imperial court's ban, local officials prohibited people from living near the coast. As a result, the fertile farmland along the coast became wasteland."

"Now, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has led his army to eliminate the Japanese pirates, subdue Japan, and lift the maritime ban."

"The unowned wasteland along the coast is extremely fertile, and everyone is rushing to reclaim it."

"Songjiang is a transit point to the coast, so naturally there are more people."

It turned out to be the case.

Old Zhu nodded slightly, still a little puzzled, "Are there so many people going there to reclaim wasteland?"

The old man shook his head and said, "No, there are so many people in Songjiang City for two other reasons."

"First, once the coastal defense was opened, many people wanted to go out to sea to do business or go fishing, so many people came to Songjiang."

"Secondly, the imperial court is currently building a large-scale road from Songjiang Prefecture to the coast, as well as the port along the Huangpu River. Construction is underway everywhere, so Songjiang Prefecture has naturally attracted a large number of people to come and work."

"Especially down the Huangpu River, a few dozen miles away from Songjiang Prefecture, a new city is being built, and it will be large in scale."

"With so many people gathering in Songjiang Prefecture, Songjiang Prefecture has naturally become prosperous."

"If you go over there and take a look, you'll find that there are more people there than in Songjiang City, and it's even more lively."

Old Zhu suddenly remembered that it seemed to have been published in the "Da Ming Daily".

The imperial court wanted to build a new city beside the Huangpu River, and Zhu Yunhuan personally named it "Shencheng".

Lao Zhu did not pay much attention to this.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the construction of new cities has been ongoing.

But the construction of new cities is mainly concentrated in the northern part of the Saibei region.

The purpose was to use the city as a bridgehead, immigrate and reclaim wasteland, and enrich the border.

In Zhu's eyes, this is also an important means to control the grassland tribes.

Since the problems of the grassland tribes cannot be solved in one go, let’s take it step by step.

Play steady and steady.

Slowly build a city on the grassland, year after year, slowly advancing.

It can be brought under control after a hundred years or even thousands of years.

This is the plan in Lao Zhu’s mind.

Except for the northern border, generally speaking, no new cities are built in the Jiangnan region.

But now that the Japanese pirates have been wiped out and Japan has surrendered, a large amount of barren land on the coast has been developed, so it is not surprising that several new cities have been built.

For the local people, this is a big deal.

However, the territory of the Ming Dynasty was so vast that building a new city in one place was not a big deal for the supreme ruler, so he naturally would not pay special attention to it.

After hearing what the old man said, Lao Zhu finally remembered.

There are so many people gathered in Songjiang City, but the old man said that there are more people over there. It seems that the scale of this new city must be quite large.

Old Zhu became interested. After resting for a night in Songjiang Prefecture, he ordered his troops to go to the newly built Shencheng early the next morning.

An extremely wide cement road was built from Songjiang Prefecture to Shencheng.

There are also many pedestrians on the road.

Looking out the car window at the fields outside, you can vaguely see a lot of newly reclaimed farmland and farmers working in the fields, creating a thriving scene.

Old Zhu couldn't help but sigh: "Once the Japanese pirates along the coast are pacified, a lot of farmland can be developed. It seems that in the next few years, our Ming Dynasty will not be short of food."

Yoshigaki smiled and said, "Your Highness the Crown Prince is good at governing the country, Your Majesty can rest assured."

Old Zhu stroked his beard and said, "Huer is indeed good at governing the country, but he also has some shortcomings."

"In the past, I felt that the wealthy families in Suzhou and Hangzhou were extremely extravagant and corrupted social morals."

"Most of these people still miss Zhang Shicheng."

"After the Ming Dynasty conquered Suzhou and Hangzhou, they still privately called Zhang Shicheng "Prince Zhang" and called our emperor "Old Man."

"Now they are very supportive of Huer's policies, and their evaluation of us has also improved a lot, which is a good thing."

"However, we couldn't stand the extravagant lifestyle of the Suzhou and Hangzhou gentry, so we cracked down on them severely, imposed heavy taxes on Suzhou, and forcibly relocated many wealthy families to our hometown in Anhui."

"Over the years, the atmosphere in Suzhou and Hangzhou has changed greatly. There are no longer as many wealthy families as before."

"But now it seems that the wealthy families in Suzhou and Hangzhou are on the rise again."

"The food and drinks in the restaurant we stayed at before were so expensive that ordinary people couldn't afford it."

“The increase in the number of wealthy households is not a good thing.”

"For ordinary people, who are not nobles or officials appointed by the imperial court, a few hundred strings of cash is enough."

"They are too rich. The court should find a way to bankrupt them and distribute their wealth to the poor people."

"Otherwise, these people will use the money to eat, drink, have fun, sing and dance, and corrupt social morals."

"Besides, they have never done anything good for the Ming Dynasty, so why should they enjoy the good life?"

"Huer's policies are all good, except that they are not enough to crack down on and suppress these people."

Lao Zhu doesn't understand any economic principles, he just looks at the problem from the perspective of an old farmer.

Anyway, in Zhu Yuanzhang's view, apart from the meritorious officials who fought with him to conquer the world, other common people should not be rich.

Now that everyone is rich, who will work?

As long as I can fill my stomach and not starve to death or freeze to death, that's enough.

Save some money at home?

That's not okay.

Old Zhu couldn't stand it.

If there is no surplus food at home, the people will work hard to farm.

If you save money, you will be lazy and take a rest.

And it will also cause trouble.

Because when people have free time, they will discuss various things.

Criticizing the imperial court and government.

They work like oxen and horses every day, without rest from morning to night, and have no free time to think about anything and come up with things that are bad for the court.

Of course, the cattle and horses must be well fed and clothed, and they must not be starved or frozen to death.

There is a limit to this.

It is not good for ordinary people to not have enough food, nor is it good for them to make too much money.

Struggling to just have enough to eat is the best thing to do.

As for other economic principles, such as how to stimulate productivity and how to increase economic growth, Lao Zhu has not thought deeply enough about them.

When it comes to governing the country, what Zhu Yuanzhang wants is stability and long-term peace and order.

All national policies are implemented around this point.

Let the Zhu family's rule last longer.

The existence of wealthy people in the south of the Yangtze River will make the people jealous and hateful.

The luxury of rich people and their feasting has always been a reason for common people to rebel since ancient times.

Only when everyone is poor, with just enough to eat and no surplus, can the rule be stable.

Of course, there is another reason for this.

That is, Lao Zhu himself came from a poor family.

In his opinion, it is enough for people to have enough food to eat and not feel hungry, and enough clothes to wear and not feel cold.

It would be wrong to have any more extravagant hopes.

This kind of "poor people" thinking was actually very normal in the society at that time.

Not a drop of food can be wasted.

If clothes are torn, you can mend them and wear them again. Why should you throw away old clothes and buy new ones just because they have a hole in them? That is called squandering resources and you will go to hell and be punished!

People can't just sit there and do nothing, that's just not right.

Lao Zhu demands the same of himself and others.

I feel like taking a break is a crime.

Only when the oxen and horses never rest and cannot eat too well or dress too well can Lao Zhu feel at ease.

Even after becoming emperor, this thought was still deeply engraved in Zhu's mind.

As an emperor, he never rested or indulged in enjoyment, so of course others should not do so either.

When you have enough food to eat and enough clothes to wear, you should be content. If you are lazy and don't work, you should be whipped.

However, Zhu Yunhuan's current policy does not seem to be like this.

According to the current national policy, the people will become richer and richer, and there will be more and more wealthy people, which makes Lao Zhu feel uneasy.

Yoshigaki smiled and said, "Your Majesty is right. However, I think that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is also doing this. The tax bureau's imposition of additional commercial taxes is one of the measures."

He actually didn't know whether that counted as an attempt to suppress wealthy businessmen, he just subconsciously spoke well of Zhu Yunhuan.

Yoshigaki has now fully understood the Emperor's temperament and character. No matter when, it will always be right to speak well of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

On the other hand, if you echo the Emperor's blame on His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and say something bad about him, you will probably not see the sun tomorrow.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Old Zhu nodded slightly and said, "That's not bad."

"If we were sitting in the palace and only looked at the memorials submitted by the ministers, we would have thought that the tax commissioner was really guilty of a heinous crime, causing trouble everywhere and harming the people."

"I came out for a walk and realized that it was not the case at all."

"We were almost deceived by those treacherous villains."

The two chatted in the carriage, and before they knew it, they arrived at the newly built Shencheng.

Standing on the bank of the Huangpu River, you can see countless docks and ships traveling back and forth on the river.

Next to the pier is a cement paved avenue and countless newly built houses.

There are many houses further away, still under construction.

The entire city of Shanghai is like a huge construction site, with countless migrant workers working hard on it.

Unlike the houses built with blue bricks and wood commonly used by most people in the Ming Dynasty at that time, the houses in Shanghai used a large amount of cement, presenting a completely different architectural style, which brought a great visual impact to Zhu Yuanzhang, who had never seen such buildings before.

It is indeed a brand new city, completely different from other cities in the Ming Dynasty.

Old Zhu was stunned and deeply shocked by the scene before him.

"Isn't it said that Shencheng is a newly built city? Why can't I see the city wall?"

After a while, he came to his senses and asked suddenly.

Yoshigaki and Jiang Lin were also stunned and didn't know how to answer.

In their view, building a new city means just building a wall to enclose an area.
Without walls, can it still be called a city?

Old Zhu entered Shanghai along the avenue beside the Huangpu River.

The workers on the dock were busy loading goods.

Not far away, we saw many people rushing onto the boat.

Lao Zhu stopped a pedestrian and asked.

"They all go to Japan by boat." The man said with envy, "In the entire Ming Dynasty, only Shencheng has a special passenger ship that can take a boat from here to Japan."

"The Japanese were conquered by His Royal Highness, and the people of the Ming Dynasty were treated favorably by the Japanese when they went there to do business and work."

"Da Ming Bank and Da Ming Daily also opened branches there. They are in urgent need of manpower, so they recruited many people to work there, offering very high salaries."

"Unfortunately, I have an 80-year-old mother and hungry children at home, so I really can't leave."

"Otherwise, I'm going to Japan, too. That's a good place to make a fortune."

Old Zhu was stunned for a moment, then asked, "The sea is dangerous, they are sailing to Japan, aren't they afraid?"

The man laughed and said, "People used to say that going out to sea is so dangerous. It's really hard to go to Japan."

"I couldn't figure it out at that time. If it was so difficult, how did those Japanese pirates come?"

"Why can the Japanese pirates come to our Ming Dynasty, but it is so difficult for people from our Ming Dynasty to go to Japan?"

"That doesn't make sense, does it?"

"It was not until His Royal Highness the Crown Prince returned from his expedition to Japan, Japan surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, and the imperial court opened shipping to Japan that we realized that going to Japan was not a big deal."

"If we take a boat from the dock in Shencheng and everything goes smoothly, we can reach Japan in just ten days."

"It's the same when I came back from Japan."

"This is much closer than going to Huguang or Jiangxi."

Ordinary people have no idea of the distance between two places, and have no way to actually measure it.

They only know how to calculate based on the time required for the journey.

The more time you spend on the road, the greater the distance.

Rough, simple and practical.

"In the past, there were few people going out to sea, the routes were unfamiliar, the sea was vast, and even the direction was difficult to discern. It was difficult for ships to sail, which led to the poor traffic."

"Now the direction of the imperial court's trip to Japan has been explored. The ships built by the shipyard are very fast and can travel both upstream and downstream. It will be easy to go to Japan."

Old Zhu still looked a little puzzled, and asked again: "Have all those pirates on the sea really disappeared? Aren't you afraid of being robbed when you go out to sea?"

"Even if the Japanese pirates are gone, we have heard that there are still many remnants of Zhang Shicheng who are dissatisfied with the Ming Dynasty and are causing trouble at sea."

"Although the imperial court has wiped out a large group of bandits, there must be some areas that have not been completely cleared, right?"

The Japanese pirates have been wreaking havoc on the coast for so many years, and the imperial court has spent many years clearing them out.

Although Zhu Yunhuan led his army to destroy the main force of the Japanese pirates, that was only the main force.

There are still many small gangs of bandits scattered around.

They are like weeds, impossible to eradicate or eliminate.

For the military, it's not a big deal.

But it is still a serious threat to ordinary people.

Old Zhu also did not think that those small gangs of bandits would disappear overnight just because the imperial army won a victory.

If it were that easy, they would have been wiped out by local authorities long ago.

The man smiled and said, "I can't say it has completely disappeared, but normally, it shouldn't be easy to encounter it."

"Nowadays, it is probably more difficult to encounter pirates on the coast than to encounter robbers on the official roads inland."

Old Zhu asked quickly: "Why is this?"

The man said, "The Japanese pirates were all wiped out by the army led by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and Japan was also conquered. We dare not allow the Japanese pirates to come again. This is one reason."

"Secondly, in the past, people took risks because they couldn't survive. Now, everyone has food, clothes and jobs, so who would want to be a pirate on the sea?"

"Do you really think that's a good thing?"

"It's very hard to make a living on the sea. If you are not careful or have bad luck, you may lose your life."

"If there is really no other way, who would be willing to go?"

"At present, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is in charge of the country and the maritime ban has been lifted. Along the coastal areas, the court is building roads, cities and reclaiming wasteland everywhere."

"We can make a living by doing anything, why go to sea and become pirates?"

"Even former pirates, most of them have retired and stopped doing this."

"This is the third one." He pointed to a tall tower in the distance and said, "Do you see that?"

"That's called a lighthouse. At night, the lighthouse will light up, and the light can be seen within dozens of miles."

"The court also has special naval vessels that patrol the seas and combat pirates."

"The tax commissioner is also inspecting taxes on his ship. If they encounter pirates, they will kill them. The tax commissioner is not a pushover."

"Not to mention, most of the ships sailing out to sea are official ships of the imperial court. How could any pirate be so bold as to rob them?"

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is not the original Emperor. He is much more powerful."

"With a multi-pronged approach, pirates will no longer have a foothold."

Old Zhu was stunned, his face slightly reddened, and he smiled and said, "Do you think His Royal Highness is more powerful than the current Emperor?"

Upon hearing this, Ji Yuan and Jiang Lin next to them were shocked.

Yoshigaki even winked at the man.

But that person didn't know Lao Zhu's identity, and didn't pay attention to the changes in Ji Yuan and Jiang Lin's expressions. When he heard Lao Zhu's words, he laughed and said, "Do I even need to ask this?"

"Your Majesty is just an old man who was born into a peasant family."

"He only knows how to lead troops to fight, how can he know how to govern the world?"

"In my opinion, his ability to govern a country is not even as good as Zhang Shicheng's."

"Compared to His Royal Highness, it's a far cry."

"No comparison! No comparison!"

The man shook his head repeatedly, as if he looked down on the current emperor.

Dismissively.

Old Zhu standing by turned pale and blue in the face, and looked extremely ugly.

But the man didn't care and continued talking to himself.

"Even when it comes to leading troops to fight, His Royal Highness is a hundred times more capable than the current Emperor."

"Your Majesty the Emperor has been suppressing the Japanese pirates for so many years, but he is still helpless against them."

"They will only implement a maritime ban policy to prevent ordinary people from going to sea."

"It has made it difficult for people living along the coast to make a living. They are living in poverty and are in great hardship."

"As soon as His Royal Highness took power, he easily defeated the Japanese pirates and pacified Japan."

"Based on this alone, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is much stronger than the current Emperor."

"I heard that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has sent troops to conquer the Northern Yuan Dynasty. In my opinion, it won't be long before the Northern Yuan Dynasty will surrender to the Ming Dynasty like Japan did."

"This is the ability of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince! He is a hundred times better than the current Emperor!"

"However, at least the current emperor did a great thing by choosing His Royal Highness the Crown Prince as the crown prince. It was a good choice!"

"It is for this reason that the people in our area now call him His Majesty the Emperor."

"If it was in the past, we would privately call him the little old man with the surname Zhu."

"Hahahaha!"

……

(End of this chapter)