The Ming Dynasty: My sister, Empress Ma

After the banquet, Ma Wenyuan remained in the palace.

Ma Xiuying said that she was not allowed to leave until her injury had healed.

Ma Wenyuan had no choice but to obey the Empress's decree.

Conversely, the injury healed quickly; if it weren't for the poor medical conditions, it would have healed long ago.

Ma Wenyuan did not live in the inner palace.

The two brothers, Zhu Di and Zhu Su, both said they wanted to share a bed with Ma Wenyuan, but they gave up after being scolded by Ma Xiuying.

However, Ma Wenyuan did not go to stay at Li Zhen's place.

The reason was that the journey was long and Ma Xiuying felt that Ma Wenyuan was injured and not suitable for a major operation.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang want to laugh at the time.

Old Zhu said that Ma Wenyuan had returned from Sichuan, and that these two steps would lead to a major conflict...

Before he could finish speaking, Old Zhu was scolded.

Just like scolding a silly boy, he couldn't utter a single word.

……

In the end, Ma Wenyuan moved into the Eastern Palace.

He squeezed in with Zhu Biao.

The Crown Prince's Eastern Palace is very grand, except for Zhu Biao's Eastern Palace.

It's similar to the houses of ordinary wealthy and powerful people.

After washing up, Ma Wenyuan returned to his room, only to find Zhu Biao still frowning as he looked at the memorials at his desk.

Seeing Zhu Biao's furrowed brows, Ma Wenyuan immediately asked curiously, "What happened?"

"Shaanxi is suffering from a severe drought, and there have been incidents of displaced people rioting in Xi'an."

Zhu Biao suddenly became angry, "These good-for-nothings!"

Major disasters, especially droughts like this one, do not appear suddenly, but are preceded by signs.

Judging from Zhu Biao's expression, he probably just found out.

That is, local officials didn't care about these things, the drought was ignored, and it eventually developed into a serious problem of displaced people causing trouble before it was reported to the imperial court.

It's not that we lack the ability to prevent droughts, nor is it that those officials are incompetent.

It's just that they don't want to get involved.

Most people are selfish.

Those officials who prevented the drought in advance didn't get any benefit from it, yet they claimed they had prevented the drought and saved the common people.

But where is the drought actually happening?

This can still be prevented.

If prevention is inadequate and wastes resources, it will be even more frustrating.

Furthermore, they only profit when the imperial court provides disaster relief.

If the imperial court doesn't give them money, what are they greedy for?

Admittedly, the Hongwu Emperor was very strict in cracking down on corrupt officials.

But Ma Wenyuan really didn't believe there were no corrupt officials; the only difference was whether they were openly corrupt or secretly corrupt.

Throughout five thousand years of history, when has there ever been a time without corrupt officials?

Even during the turbulent Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, there were still plenty of petty people, let alone in the Ming Dynasty, which had just ended a period of chaos.

Ma Wenyuan did not respond.

However, Zhu Biao took the initiative to ask directly.

"Uncle, what do you think the imperial court should do?"

"Disaster relief," Ma Wenyuan said, uttering a meaningless phrase.

"How can we provide disaster relief?" Zhu Biao persisted.

"This disaster relief."

Ma Wenyuan spoke reflexively,

"First of all, we cannot provide disaster relief blindly; we must do it in a planned and organized manner..."

He only got halfway through his sentence.

Seeing Zhu Biao's serious expression, Ma Wenyuan swallowed his words again, still not wanting to fool his nephew.

"The first step is to assess the disaster situation and restore lifelines."

Ma Wenyuan walked up to Zhu Biao and explained earnestly, "First, we need to find out the affected counties, population, grain prices, and the number of deaths. It would be best to have the people from the Imperial Guard investigate."

"Secondly, the state and county governments should open their granaries to distribute grain, with fixed soup kitchens set up in large cities and mobile soup kitchens in small villages to ensure that no one starves to death."

"If there isn't enough grain locally, we should get it from Shanxi. We should avoid using the imperial grain supply if possible, and let merchant ships transport the grain. Just give them some benefits."

"Secondly, once the situation eases, we should use public works to revitalize the economy. We can have the people repair water conservancy projects, official roads, and even city walls, so that the court can reduce its expenditures and the people can have a way to make a living."

Seeing that Zhu Biao was listening attentively, Ma Wenyuan continued speaking.

"The main concern is preventing hoarding of food, speculative merchants, and security issues, as there will definitely be people taking advantage of the situation to commit arson and looting."

After hearing this, Zhu Biao became somewhat curious about his uncle.

It seems quite remarkable that an eighteen-year-old can talk about these things so eloquently.

"Secondly, there is the issue of epidemic prevention. Major disasters are bound to be accompanied by plagues. It is best to properly handle the corpses, burn them in a centralized manner, and then disinfect them."

Ma Wenyuan continued, "Finally, there's the post-disaster reconstruction, which isn't too troublesome; the imperial court can provide loans."

"loan?"

Zhu Biao could understand everything else, such as work relief and epidemic prevention.

We should learn from the past to guide the future; history is full of such examples.

Zhu Biao was a little confused by the new term "loan".

"The government lends wheat and bean seeds, as well as oxen, which will be returned interest-free in the autumn. Land belonging to families without heirs will temporarily belong to the government estates and be leased to tenants for cultivation."

Ma Wenyuan explained it in detail.

This made Zhu Biao's eyes light up. The people in this year of great disaster would have an especially hard time in the coming year, and the reason was this seed.

After all, people need to continue to live, so they have to continue to farm. But last year, people couldn't even survive due to the famine, so how could they have seeds to cultivate?

Therefore, every year in the following year, people would try every means to buy some grain seeds.

But how could those merchants and landlords who held the grain seeds sell them off cheaply?

Forget about selling it cheaply; it would be a good thing if the price didn't increase several times over.

If the government could really lend seeds, the lives of ordinary people would be much easier.

And the government won't suffer any losses either; it's a fair exchange.

What?

Not paying back?

These days, there's no pressure from public opinion, so which ordinary citizen would dare to take advantage of the government?

"Uncle, have you ever thought about becoming an official in the Eastern Palace?"

Zhu Biao suddenly asked tentatively.

"I'm not going."

Ma Wenyuan immediately shook his head. He knew his own limitations; in his previous life, he could only be a Marquis of Baili at most.

Now he has become the Right Vice-General and concurrently the Commander of the Wude Guard, and he also has to run schools.

Just these three positions combined are already quite demanding.

Don't even mention entering the Eastern Palace.

The Eastern Palace is hardly a good place. If it were the Eastern Palace of the Tang Dynasty, Ma Wenyuan might consider it, since there are only a few in line to inherit the throne, and entering the Eastern Palace would just mean receiving a salary.

The Eastern Palace of the Ming Dynasty, especially during the Hongwu reign... let's just forget about it.

Ma Wenyuan wanted to live a few more years, rather than be worked to death at a young age.

"Uncle still wants to start a school?" Zhu Biao smiled but didn't try to persuade him further.

Everyone has their own ambitions.

"Enlightening the people is, in my opinion, the most important thing for the Ming Dynasty."

Ma Wenyuan said seriously.

Compared to wielding power in the central government, Ma Wenyuan preferred to do practical things.

"Isn't everyone talking about keeping the people ignorant? Why is Uncle doing the opposite?"

Ma Wenyuan shook his head.

This involves Zhu Yuanzhang's values.

More than ten years later, in his "Imperial Edicts, Third Edition", Emperor Zhu said, "The Yuan government was not upright, and Heaven was about to change its fate, and foolish people who liked to cause trouble would rise up."

This reflects Zhu's patriarchal mindset, which is not something that can be changed overnight.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang now also believes that people should just live their lives peacefully and lawfully.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang did not completely follow Shang Yang's "policy of keeping the people ignorant"; he also carried out education.

For example, he promoted the "Great Proclamation" and forced everyone to learn it. Zhu Yuanzhang wanted a stable and moral society, but his method was "control" and "education".

This means to imprison thought and restrict its flow in order to achieve stability.

But is this right? Can it be right?

At least Ma Wenyuan thought it was wrong. What's the difference between a person without their own thoughts and a walking corpse?

That's what he said, but it's not easy for him to say it.

Who knows what Xiao Zhu is thinking?