Hearing Han Du's words, Zhu Biao not only turned to look at him curiously, but also asked tentatively: "Do you think it was wrong for the former Song Dynasty to emphasize culture over military affairs?"
Han Du smiled and did not answer Zhu Biao's question directly. Then he said: "Then Your Highness thinks that a child carrying gold bricks is causing trouble. Is there anything wrong with this?"
"Well, if a child makes trouble with a gold brick, it will inevitably arouse the covetousness of others. Of course it is inappropriate." Zhu Biao already had a clear understanding of Han Du's meaning, but he still said it truthfully.
Han Du nodded slightly, "In the former Song Dynasty, commerce was very prosperous, and the annual income from sea trade alone exceeded 140 million guan, which can be said to be a treasure trove of gold and silver. The Ming Dynasty's current annual taxes are not even 30 million guan, and even other people's Not even a cent.”
A trace of guilt flashed across Zhu Biao's face. He didn't know whether it was because the Ming Dynasty's financial resources were denied to the former Song Dynasty, or because the people's lives were not as good as those in the former Song Dynasty.
"But the former Song Dynasty was so rich in money, but it was too weak in terms of force. The lack of sufficient force directly led to the weakness of the former Song Dynasty in foreign wars. Not to mention a powerful country like the former Yuan Dynasty, even Xixia, which was relatively peaceful, They can even push Qian Song to the ground and rub him."
"Certain land, indemnities, marriages, annual coins... it's simply a shame that goes around in circles. People in the world live without dignity at all. What's the use of being so rich?"
Han Du's eyes were blurry, as if he had returned to the Song Dynasty more than a hundred years ago, and his tone was cold and stern, full of weakness and hatred for the Song Dynasty.
Seeing Zhu Biao bowing his head in deep thought, Han Du continued: "Although our Ming Dynasty is still far behind the former Song Dynasty in terms of taxation, the Ming Dynasty is rich in military virtue and has hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Whether it is the usual clearing of the grassland or the In every war, we have always won a complete victory.”
"They are all Mongolian people. In the former Song Dynasty, they were beaten into disgrace and fled, and in the end they were even destroyed. It was a shame for China for five thousand years. But the Ming Dynasty was able to conquer many times with poor soldiers. Bei Yuan even destroyed their imperial court. Does your Highness feel much clearer after such a comparison?"
Zhu Biao smiled... more than knowing it, a sense of pride and ambition arose spontaneously. In the past two years, as the Ming Dynasty's national power has grown stronger, it has been relatively easy to conquer the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. The first few years after the founding of the country were the most difficult.
On the one hand, Meng Yuan, who had just been driven back to the grassland, was very unwilling to do so. He could not forget the colorful world of the Central Plains and would disturb the border many times a year.
On the other hand, at that time, the Ming Dynasty had just ended its internal war, the world was in a mess, and everything was in ruins, and it could be said that it was extremely poor. Even so, we still have to invest a lot of money into the army every year.
As Han Du said, "poor soldiers", it is absolutely correct.
Why did the emperor personally reclaim land in the imperial garden to grow food? Isn’t it just because I am too poor and can hardly afford to eat, so I want to supplement it a little.
Life has gotten better in the past two years, and Zhu Biao has never heard of Lao Zhu farming anymore.
Zhu Biao sighed and turned his attention to Kaifeng City in front of him.
"At first, my father was planning to seal the fifth brother in Kaifeng, but the fifth brother refused. In the end, he did not even ask for a kingdom, and stayed in the capital to study his Qihuang art."
"Your Highness, you can't figure out why His Highness, King Zhou, ignored the good feudal state and instead studied medical skills?" Han Du answered with a smile.
"Yes." Zhu Biao sighed and nodded.
When Han Du heard this, he turned to look at Kaifeng City and said: "How should I put this? Maybe everyone has their own ambitions. In His Highness's opinion, the vassal is the best. But in His Highness King Zhou's opinion, this is not the case. Maybe He thought it would be better to have medical books to read and diseases to study."
Seeing that Zhu Biao didn't want to go into details, Han Du said with a smile: "Besides, Kaifeng is not a good place."
"Why do you say that?" Zhu Biao raised his eyes and looked at Han Du.
Han Du pointed at the Yellow River adjacent to Kaifeng City, "Your Highness, please see, the bottom of the Yellow River is higher than that of Kaifeng City. In the former Song Dynasty, it often flooded and changed its course. At that time, the former Song Dynasty used this place as the capital, and in the Yellow River Under the threat, they had long wanted to move elsewhere. Of course, in the end this did not happen due to various reasons.”
"But from this we can see that this is indeed not a place where people can live and work in peace and contentment. The risk of living here is really too great. Your Highness doesn't want King Zhou to live here, right?"
As the eldest son, Zhu Biao had always been very protective of his younger brothers, so he naturally had no intention of putting King Zhou in such a dangerous place. Now it seems that it was a good thing that the fifth brother had no choice but to join Kaifeng.
...
After stopping in Kaifeng for a while, Zhu Biao and his party set off again, passing through Luoyang and heading towards Xi'an.
Xi'an used to be Zhu Xi's fief, but since his extortionate expropriation came to light, Lao Zhu ordered him to be recalled to the capital. Later, he simply left for Fan Annam and never came back here again.
Originally, after seeing the prosperity of Henan, Zhu Biao thought that the famous Xi'an, with its eight hundred miles of Qinchuan, should be no worse than Henan.
But along the way, Zhu Biao saw everything was in ruins. The people do not have the vigor and vitality of the people in Henan, and even the roads are repaired in a perfunctory manner.
Zhu Biao looked at his feet. It was indeed a cement road, but it was covered with mud.
It was fine that the weather was sunny, but at most it was just dusty along the way. But if it rained, wouldn't it be as muddy as before? So what is the difference between whether the cement road is repaired or not? Most of the people were unkempt and ragged. All the way to Xi'an, Zhu Biao felt that this was very similar to the situation of the people in his impression, rather than the unbelievable prosperity of Henan.
Moreover, the city of Xi'an is completely different from what Zhu Biao imagined. Xi'an started from the Zhou Dynasty and continued from the Qin, Han, Jin, Sui, Tang, etc., with a total of thirteen dynasties having their capitals in Xi'an.
"The land of true dragons throughout the ages, the capital of emperors for hundreds of generations."
But what Zhu Biao saw now in Xi'an was a dilapidated scene. The city of Chang'an, once visited by thousands of nations and surrounded by eight rivers, experienced wars in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. The palaces had long since been reduced to ashes, leaving nothing but ruins in the entire city.
Even though Zhu Ping was the vassal here, the Ming Dynasty also repaired Xi'an City a lot, otherwise it really wouldn't even have a decent appearance.
But since Zhu Xi left, the court stopped all construction work here. Even the former Qin Palace was empty and completely deserted.
"Is Your Highness disappointed?" Han Duce immediately stepped forward and came to Zhu Biao's side and asked.
Zhu Biao glanced sideways at Han Du and sighed, "That's right~ I never thought that Chang'an City, which was once the most beautiful city in the world, would become what it is now."
Han Du stood on a high place and looked down at the city of Xi'an standing on the plain, and sighed: "The four passes guarded the city, the floating rivers occupied Jing, the golden city was thousands of miles away, and the land of abundance was in the past. But all of this has passed. Guanzhong once occupied Han Valley. The fertile fields of Guan Tianxian and Longshu are thousands of miles away, the wealth of Bashu is to the south, and the convenience of Hu people's livestock farming is to the north. We can defend on three sides and contain the princes to the east. As long as we hold on to the Wei River to transport the capital, when there is a change in the east, we can follow It flows down. As the saying goes, a golden city thousands of miles away is a land of abundance."
"Then why is it like this now?" Zhu Biao was very confused and looked sideways at Han Du with a puzzled face.
Han Du smiled and said, "It's normal to go through a lot of changes."
"Normal? This place used to be so prosperous, but now it has become like this. How is this normal?" Zhu Biao couldn't help but raise his voice and asked Han Du with some sharpness.
Han Du let out a breath and said patiently: "I wonder if His Highness noticed something?"
Zhu Biao raised his eyebrows, "What's the matter?"
"On our way here, I found that the land here is a little white." Han Du continued: "The color of the soil is actually very barren. Logically speaking, Guanzhong is a thousand miles of fertile wilderness, and the land should not be This is the way it is.”
"Do you know why it happened like this?" Seeing Han Du's confident look, Zhu Biao guessed that he knew the reason.
Han Du nodded, "Everyone knows that fertilizer is needed to grow crops, otherwise the crops will not grow well. But no one knows that even if fertilizer is applied, this amount of fertilizer alone is not enough to support the growth of the crops. Every year The crops will absorb some of the nutrients from the land, although it is not much, but year after year, no matter how fertile the land is, it will not be able to bear it."
"The land in Guanzhong has supported the people for more than a thousand years. Isn't it natural that it should turn from fertile to barren?"
"So that's it..." Zhu Biao nodded slowly.
Han Du continued: "The land is barren, and the rain in Guanzhong has gradually decreased over the years. The eight rivers that once surrounded Chang'an have disappeared. How can people live in a place without water?"
There is another sentence that Han Du did not say. Zhu Ping exacted excessive taxes in Xi'an. Although Lao Zhu later issued an order to compensate him, it was only a drop in the bucket.
"Then Xi'an can only continue to suffer the decline of people's livelihood like this. Is there no other way?" Zhu Biao couldn't help but sigh.
Han Du shook his head, "Usually there is no good solution, but now the people here have begun to grow sweet potatoes, at least food and clothing are not a problem. As for the rest, we can only look at it later. If we can find a few here A large coal mine, or something else valuable, will take off."
Zhu Biao didn't say a word after hearing this. He picked up the reins and spurred the horse to walk a few steps quickly.
After passing Xi'an, Zhu Biao led everyone directly north to Taiyuan, Shanxi.
Taiyuan is the fiefdom of King Zhu Fan of the Jin Dynasty. Zhu Biao's trip was obviously to inspect the world on behalf of Lao Zhu, but he only went to Henan and Shaanxi. Even including Shanxi, which he was about to go to, there were only three places. .
Compared with the statement that he was patrolling the world on behalf of Lao Zhu, Han Du now seems that Zhu Biao's actions are more like patrolling his vassal brothers. But this doesn't make sense. After all, there are no vassal kings in Kaifeng, Henan and Xi'an, Shaanxi. Why did Zhu Biao also go?
Although Han Du was confused in his heart, he did not show it at all on his face and followed Zhu Biao as if he was unaware.
Anyway, no matter where Zhu Biao said he wanted to go, Han Du didn't object, he just followed his lead.
Although the Ming Dynasty set up nine important towns to defend against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, the most important defense line in the entire north was dominated by King Zhu Fan of Jin and King Zhu Di of Yan, who were the horns of each other. Both of them had more than 100,000 soldiers under their command.
Moreover, Zhu Fan also had Feng Sheng and Fu Youde under his command.
Of course, Zhu Di now also has Lan Yu leading troops to assist. However, given the relationship between Zhu Di and Lan Yu, I really don't know whether Lan Yu, who led the troops stationed in Yandi, would assist Zhu Di more or monitor him more.
Han Du followed Zhu Biao into Taiyuan and immediately felt a completely different atmosphere from other places. If Henan feels extremely prosperous, Xi'an feels desolate. The feeling that Taiyuan gave Han Du was that of tension, and there was an aura that the building was full of storms.
Not long after Zhu Biao entered Taiyuan, a group of cavalry ran past him on the pipeline in the distance. The leading centurion rode up to the front, reined in the horse's hooves, and shouted loudly: "Who is coming? Tell me your name!"
After all, Taiyuan must always be on guard against the Mongolian people on the grassland. Although Zhu Biao and his party were under the banner of the Ming Army, tens of thousands of people entered Taiyuan after all, and it was inevitable to be interrogated.
Han Du picked up the reins, spurred his horse forward, raised his finger and cursed angrily: "You are blind, I am Han Du, the Marquis of Zhenhai. This is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince patrolling Taiyuan according to the emperor's order. Why don't you hurry up and pass?" Would you like King Jin to come and greet you?"
Han Du suddenly waved his hand and asked someone to knock out Zhu Biao's flag. Then he took off his belt and threw it towards the centurion.
The centurion took the badge and checked it, but found no problem. In addition, when he saw the flag sign indicating that the Crown Prince was traveling and hunting on behalf of the sky, he had no doubts in his mind.
As for him personally stepping forward to verify the identity of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, if he wanted to verify it, it would be the King of Jin himself who came to verify it, and he did not have the qualifications yet.
The centurion turned over, walked a few steps quickly to get under the head of Han Du's horse, clasped his fists and bowed in the direction of Zhu Biao: "The general will pay homage to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and pay homage to the Marquis of Zhenhai."
Then he returned the token to Han Du and said, "Please keep it, Lord Marquis, and I will go back and report to the Lord."
Han Du reached out his hand to take the token calmly and hung it on his waist again.
Seeing this, the centurion took two steps back, turned around and ran back to get on his horse. "The others will stay, Lao Xu and Xiao Luo will go back with us to report to the prince."
Of course, the centurion left the people behind to follow Han Du and others for surveillance. After all, the identity of Han Du and others has not yet been completely determined. Some precautions are also very necessary. If there is really a problem with Han Du and others, how can a group of cavalry escape as long as they are not surrounded by others? Go back and report the news.
Han Du ignored the remaining cavalry and followed Zhu Biao toward Taiyuan.
Along the way, more and more cavalry under the command of the King of Jin followed, and in the end there were thousands of cavalry.
These cavalrymen kept a distance from Han Du and others, and followed them not too far or too close.
Han Du didn't care about these cavalry. Anyway, he just marched and made new troops, and he camped and set up camp, completely treating them as transparent.
These cavalrymen were careful not to get close and just followed.
Until noon the next day, when Han Du was walking beside Zhu Biao, bursts of dull sounds seemed to come from underground. Han Du, who had witnessed the charge of the Meng Yuan cavalry, immediately knew that this was a movement that could only be caused by a large group of cavalry galloping.
Looking up and looking ahead, I saw a huge "Jin" character on a flag, swaying in the wind.
"Your Highness, Prince Jin is here." Han Du looked happy and raised his hand to point Zhu Biao over.
Zhu Biao nodded with a smile, "I saw it."
Then he raised his left hand and made a movement that stopped everyone. Zhu Biao said, "Just wait here for your third brother."
As King Jin got closer and closer, Han Du could clearly see that the galloping speed of the cavalry gradually slowed down, and even the roar began to fade away.
The cavalry brought by King Jin stopped twenty feet away, when Zhu Fan saw Zhu Biao wearing a bright yellow python robe. A look of great joy instantly appeared on his face, and he quickly rode forward and came to Zhu Biao.
Turning over and dismounting, he knelt down to Zhu Biao and said, "My dear brother, I pay my respects to my royal brother."
Zhu Biao also laughed happily and got off his horse. He quickly stepped forward to help Zhu Fan up. He laughed and said, "Third brother, we are all brothers, why are we so polite?"
Han Du also followed Zhu Biao and dismounted, stepped forward and bowed his hands in greeting: "Your Majesty, Han Du, pays homage to His Highness the King of Jin."
Zhu Fan turned his gaze sideways and nodded towards Han Du.
Then he turned around with surprise on his face, hugged Zhu Biao hard, and said excitedly: "Brother, you are fine, are you okay when you come in?"
Zhu Fan and Zhu Biao became disciples of the great scholar Song Lian together. The relationship between him and Zhu Biao was not only brothers, but also classmates. Naturally, their relationship was unusual. Moreover, although Zhu Fan was born as a prince with a golden key in his mouth, he not only had extraordinary appearance, handsome features, dignified appearance, wisdom, and majesty, but he was also an all-rounder in both civil and military affairs.
But despite Zhu Fan's handsome appearance, he has a very tough personality. Zhu Di has always regarded himself as brave, but when he faced Zhu Fan, he could only be crushed.
There was such an incident. A thousand households under Zhu Fan actually occupied Zhu Di's orchard in Damingchuan. The matter may not be big, but the impact of this incident is not small at all.
Let me ask you, how can a mere thousand households dare to seize the prince's orchard? Moreover, it was King Yan who was famous for his bravery. Obviously, the reason why this Qianhu was so bold was because he knew that King Jin behind him was not afraid of King Yan at all. With King Jin supporting him behind his back, what can he not dare to rob?
The weirdest thing is not just that, but Zhu Di's way of handling this matter.
After all, Zhu Di is the prince, and the other party is just a small Qianhu under Zhu Fan. Even if Zhu Di is not Zhu Fan's opponent, he is unwilling to confront Zhu Fan head-on. But at least there is no problem in rushing forward and catching this Qianhu and giving him a good beating, right?
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