The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 506: Being a wise ruler in a prosperous era is not easy

Nurgandusi, Zhaozhouwei.

This is a newly established garrison, and the Acropolis has not been built yet.

After Wanli and his entourage arrived, they could only live in tents.

It just so happens that he can let the little ones experience what it’s like to camp in the wild.

The afterglow of the setting sun gradually faded away and night fell quietly.

There were bonfires everywhere in the Ming army camp, just like the sky full of stars.

Camping outdoors is naturally inseparable from campfire barbecue.

Now that the Grand Canal has been completed, the supplies here are becoming more and more sufficient, and a lot of pigs, cattle and sheep have been brought here.

Wanli simply issued an order to slaughter pigs and sheep and celebrate with great fanfare.

The soldiers of the Beijing camp and the garrison troops originally stationed here were all smiling, and the little princes and princesses were even happier.

They have never tried campfire barbecue because they are young and have only left the palace this year. Apart from the Nurgandusi, the farthest place they have been to is the Beijingxingdusi.

The south of the Beijing Xingdusi is mountainous and densely populated with citadels. There is also a temporary palace on the Daning Guard side, so there is no need to set up camp at all. They have never camped in the wild before.

This feeling was really novel. They all nestled in their mother and sister's arms, and they were so happy.

The happiest ones among the little ones were Princess Yunmeng and Prince of the South Zhu Changzhi, because they had not seen their mother, Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan, for a long time.

Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan also held one in each hand and was reluctant to let go.

Princess Yunhe and Northern King Zhu Changxu sat beside her, happily grilling the meat skewers prepared by Li Xuancheng.

Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan already has four children. Among all the concubines, she has given birth to the most princes and princesses.

She is also the most favored one.

However, this time Wanli suddenly left her and her son behind and hurried back to the capital, which made her feel a little uneasy.

Now Wanli has brought his concubines and princes and princesses here to play. The issues in the capital should have been resolved, right?
She endured it again and again, but couldn't help asking, "Your Majesty, what happened in the capital that made you rush back in such a hurry?"

How do you say this?

Wanli blew on a few skewers of roasted mutton and stuffed them into little Zhu Changxun's hands. He then sighed and said, "There's nothing wrong in the capital, except that Xun'er's uncle was deceived and stole more than 10 million taels of lamp oil.

This kid is so easily deceived. He was so bewitched by a few beauties from the Western Regions that he didn't even know what he was doing."

It turned out that something happened to the king's uncle Wang Bing.

This matter is related to the Queen Mother, so it’s better for her not to ask.

Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan looked at the little Zhu Changxun in Wanli's arms, and she couldn't help but sigh inwardly and didn't ask any more questions.

Fortunately, her two precious sons do not have to face this kind of thing.

Although the princes did not have as much power as the emperor, they also did not have as many worries.

She nodded slightly and said without comment: "Oh, so it's the uncle who has something to do."

Then, she turned around and urged, "Xu'er, how is it? Is it roasted? Look at your brother, he's almost chewing his fingers as if they were roasted meat."

Little Zhu Changzhi bit his fingers and nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, second brother, hurry up, I'm so hungry."

Seeing this, Wanli couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan was quite sensible. Knowing that this was a matter concerning the Queen's family, she did not ask any further questions.

His harem is relatively harmonious. If he didn't know the history and didn't know the consequences, and favored Concubine Zheng, then the harem would definitely be full of intrigue and endless fighting.

It is not easy to be an emperor, especially the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, especially a wise and benevolent ruler in a prosperous era.

Because a prosperous era represents huge interests, and these interests are the source of the struggle for power and profit. The greater the interests, the more intense the struggle.

The current Ming Dynasty can be said to have entered a prosperous era. The interests he controls alone are enough to drive many people crazy. Even if there were no three major families in Puzhou and the Zhejiang Party, there would be plenty of people competing for it.

He also needs to be careful about this.

Now he still employs people who are not too greedy or who can control their greed. Once these people grow old, the next generation will take over.

Can their next generation be guaranteed not to be greedy?
Even if their next generation is not greedy, can we guarantee that their relatives and friends, and their next generation’s relatives and friends will not be greedy?
This cannot be expected. Everyone has greed, but some people can control their greed, while others cannot.

He had to establish rules to prevent this from happening, or in other words, to warn those who couldn't control their greed.

To be honest, this is a bit difficult.

Throughout the dynasties, for thousands of years, it seems that no one has been able to do this.

How to formulate this charter?

He looked at his close associates such as Qi Jiguang, Zhang Yuande, and Qin Bangping, then looked at the dark night sky, and couldn't help falling into deep thought.

The next morning, just as the sky was getting light, the little ones got up again.

They all clamored to go out and play on the real grassland.

This place is indeed still grassland. They have just built the canal, and the houses that can withstand the severe cold have not yet been completed. It is naturally impossible to open up wasteland for farming and try to grow various crops.

There happened to be a large number of cattle and sheep raised for meat in the south of the camp, as well as the war horses of the Shenwu Camp, which were so densely packed that they were impossible to count.

Wanli did not spoil the fun of the little ones. If they wanted to play, then let them play. Those who learned to ride horses could ride horses, and those who did not learn to ride horses could ride in open-top grain carts.

In the morning light, the grassland south of the camp was suddenly filled with laughter and joy, and the little ones were shouting with joy.

Little Zhu Changxun was also very happy. After all, he was still a child, and he still had a childish heart. As soon as his brothers and sisters called him, he became excited. However, he couldn't play with his brothers and sisters all the time.

At around noon, when the sun was rising, it was time for him to go to study.

There's nothing we can do about it, since he is the future emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

Wanli was very concerned about the training of his successor. Even on the boat, he would teach little Zhu Changxun to read and write every morning.

In the afternoon, I take the little ones to broaden their horizons.

I have seen all the little Zhu Changxun that I can see on the ship.

What can this Nurgan Dusi have to offer that can broaden one's horizons?

It was still around 3:00 p.m., when the sun was high in the sky, Wanli took little Zhu Changxun out of the camp again.

This time he also brought Qi Jiguang, Zhang Yuande, Zeng Tongheng and others with him.

They did not go to the Zhaozhou City Wall which was under construction, but to a centurion station which was about to be completed not far south of the main camp.

The centurions here are different from those in Liaodong.

The courtyards of the Baihu Suo under the Liaodong Regional Military Commission are basically arranged in a circle and are basically built on small hills. The courtyards are distributed in a staggered manner according to the terrain.

The centurions here are different because this is a large plain with few hills in between.

Moreover, because they need to connect to heating pipes, the courtyards of the garrison troops cannot be of different heights or scattered around.

The hundred-household offices here were built directly on the plain. They were two huge rectangular frames, each of which contained more than fifty households connected together. The two huge rectangular frames seemed to form a square.

Seeing this, Wanli couldn't help but ask curiously, "Yuan De, why is this place built like this? Isn't this a waste of space?"

He knew that more than fifty households were connected together for the convenience of connecting heating pipes.

The problem is that the rectangular box formed by more than 50 households is quite large, and the open space in the middle is at least hundreds of acres. The open space between the two rectangular boxes is two to three hundred acres.

There are not just a few or even dozens of hundred-household units here, but tens of thousands of them. Building them like this would probably waste millions or even tens of millions of acres of land.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yuande seemed to exchange glances with Qi Jiguang before explaining in detail, "Your Majesty, this humble official has discussed this with General Qi.

The winter here is so cold that you can't stay outside for long even if you wear a thick sheepskin coat. You can't stand the cold wind at all.

After discussing with General Qi, I decided to build city walls for all the hundred-household and thousand-household units here to block the cold wind.

As for the land in the middle, it is actually not a waste. It is used for growing vegetables by the garrison troops.

There is no vegetable garden in their yard, so this way the structure can be more compact and some iron pipes can be saved.

Besides, there's plenty of land here, so giving each household an extra mu or two of vegetable plots wouldn't be a big deal. After all, even if the three million households were given 50 mu of land, it wouldn't be enough."

Oh, it turns out that the purpose was to build a city wall to block the cold wind.

This idea is indeed good. Although the cold wind cannot be completely blocked by the city wall, the city wall can at least slow down the cold wind.

It wouldn't be that cold if the wind wasn't too biting, and it's impossible for the wind to howl every day in winter here. When the wind is not very strong, the city wall can basically block it completely, and then people living inside the city wall can go out.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "I'm afraid the city wall can't be built this year?"

Zhang Yuande nodded repeatedly and said, “Yes, there is not enough time this year, so they can only build their own courtyard.

However, it's not a big problem, because there's nothing growing here this year, and they don't have to go out in the winter. They can stay home and rest so they don't get hungry easily, and this way they can save some food."

Wanli nodded slightly, then pondered: "Next year, you can also consider having them build a greenhouse in the middle, the kind that uses a coal stove for heating. Just make sure it's not too cold in the winter.

If we open more glass windows on the walls of this greenhouse to let in sunlight, they can grow vegetables in the winter and still have fresh vegetables to eat in the winter."

Well, glass is expensive.

Zhang Yuande heard this and said cautiously, "Your Majesty, selling glass like this will probably cost a lot of money. They probably can't afford to buy so much glass."

Glass is expensive only when it is sold to outsiders. The cost of glass is very low.

Wanli said without hesitation: "This doesn't cost money. When the time comes, just report the quantity and I will make it for you."

so good!
Upon hearing this, Zhang Yuande bowed repeatedly and said, "Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty."

Seeing that he had made all the arrangements, little Zhu Changxun carefully asked, "Father, why did you make them go to all this trouble to build a greenhouse to grow vegetables?"

This is for vitamin supplementation.

The problem is, you still don’t understand what I’m saying.

Wanli thought for a moment, then explained in detail, "In fact, the elders in this family all know that eating vegetables is good for you, but if you don't eat vegetables for a long time, you will easily get sick.

The problem is that it is very difficult to preserve vegetables here in winter. If the vegetables are not frozen, they will go bad in a few days. If they are frozen, they will be destroyed immediately.

So, I asked them to build some greenhouses and grow some vegetables in the winter.

This means thinking about the people under your rule. As an emperor, you cannot be without thinking about things all day long. In the future, you must think more about the people under your rule. Only in this way can you ensure long-term stability. Do you understand?
Also, you should pay attention to eating more vegetables in the future, try a variety of vegetables, and don't always stick to meat."

Oh, it turns out that not eating vegetables for a long time can easily make you sick.

No wonder my father and mother always stuff vegetables into my mouth.

If the garrison troops here always get sick in winter, it will be a big problem.

It's freezing and snowy here in the winter. If you get sick and don't have the right medicine, you can't go somewhere else to buy it, which would easily lead to death.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun thought about it carefully, then slowly nodded and said, "Son, I understand."

(End of this chapter)