"Emperor of Heaven, Emperor of Earth, don't scare my little son... When the Japanese pirates come, don't panic, our army will resist them..."
Time flies, seven days have passed in a blink of an eye, and the time has come to the first day of March.
In early March, even in places like Jilin, the snow began to melt on a large scale.
In Jilin City, thousands of men and women are busy working on two construction sites.
The women dig the soil and the men pick it up. Although some dolls are small, they can also pour the soil into the basket.
On the construction site, the soldiers and civilians of Jilin City who had migrated from Shandong were singing folk songs, and the Japanese pirates mentioned in the folk songs also reminded Zhu Gaoxu, who was watching on the city wall, of the south.
But this thought was quickly dispelled by him, because he did not think that the coastal Japanese pirates could escape from the hands of Li Jinglong, Yang Wen and others.
If we talk about the Japanese pirates in Guangdong and Guangxi, they may still have a way to survive, but the Japanese pirates offshore from Shandong and Liaodong have only a dead end.
With this in mind, Zhu Gaoxu also sat on the Mazha and quietly watched the foundation work on the construction site that was coming to an end.
"Your Highness, we have distributed the fields. After explaining clearly, everyone is working vigorously."
On the city wall about ten feet wide, Zhang Chun, wearing a mandarin duck jacket, ran over with a smile. Zhu Gaoxu also smiled and said: "I said I wanted to go down to work, but you refused. If I go down, I guess everyone can work harder." "
"Don't..." Zhang Chun chuckled and said, "Everyone in the city regards you as a sage. If I let you go down to work in the end, someone will definitely throw stones into my courtyard tonight."
As soon as Zhang Chun said these words, the two soldiers standing behind Zhu Gaoxu also grinned.
These two men were not soldiers who followed Zhu Gaoxu from the south, but soldiers from Jilin City.
But even so, they believed that Zhang Chun's words were not wrong.
Perhaps in the eyes of future generations, Zhu Gaoxu just did ordinary things, but in the eyes of people of this era, let alone Zhu Gaoxu working in person, even if he visited the construction site in person, it would be an act that would shorten all of their lives.
In this era when grain in military camps was generally handed over, and additional land was required to be paid three times out of ten, Zhu Gaoxu not only distributed six buckets of grain to each person in the camp every month, but also distributed military farmland to them. Even if it was only two acres of land, it was It is also an incredible kindness, not to mention the benevolent policy of abolishing Ding taxes and miscellaneous taxes and only collecting ten taxes and two field taxes.
Now Zhang Chun and Lin Su have explained this project clearly to the soldiers and civilians. It is a place for them and their children and grandchildren to learn to read and write.
In the past, they would rather skip meals to save food, and build an academy to help their children become talented. After all, there are only two paths for advancement for military households in the Guards, one is through military merit, and the other is through the imperial examination.
But now, His Highness not only bought books, paper, pens and inkstones with his own money, but also hired officials to teach, without charging them a penny.
Faced with such kindness, they only need to put in a little effort, but they really can't let go of their conscience.
It can be said that although Zhu Gaoxu only came to Jilin City for seven days, he did more things in these seven days than he did in Jilin City in the past seven years as Qianhu.
At the moment, even if Zhu Gaoxu wants some of them to die, they feel that their deaths are worthy.
Zhu Gaoxu's sense of morality brought from later generations is no different from that of a sage in this era.
"Your Highness! I'm back!"
Before the sound of horse hoofbeats could be heard, Lin Su's voice came from outside the city. Zhu Gaoxu and Zhang Chun turned around and saw Lin Su riding back with more than ten cavalrymen.
After a while, they entered the city gate, handed their horses to the soldiers at the city gate, and ran up the city.
Looking at this scene, Zhang Chun also bowed and said: "Your Highness, although Jilin City is built according to the regulations of the fortress, it is not a big city after all. Do you think you should wait for the spring plowing to expand, and your palace..."
"No need." Zhu Gaoxu knew what Zhang Chun meant, but he shook his head and said:
"There is no need to be busy with these things this year. We will wait until there are more people next year. The most important thing this year is to train troops and reclaim wasteland after spring plowing."
"The palace should not be moved like this. The city wall should be expanded and thickened."
In Jilin City, the reclamation of wasteland was extremely slow due to the lack of men and animal power. Now that Zhu Gaoxu has arrived, he plans to use the three hundred draft horses to reclaim more wasteland as soon as possible.
Not only that, he also wanted to attack Xiyang Ha before the autumn harvest.
The purpose of attacking Xiyang Ha is not only to eliminate potential threats, but also to expand the strength of Jilin City.
Although the Jurchens are fishers and hunters, they can actually farm. In addition, they have good relations with Wu Liangha, so some tribes have a lot of animal power.
Xiyang Ha had more than 10,000 people and owned thousands of horses and oxen. Historically, neither Zhou Xing nor Song Sheng could catch up with Xiyang Ha. In the end, they captured more than 600 people and more than 400 horses along the way. match.
If you can defeat Xiyang Ha once, then Jilin City can be full at once.
"Your Highness, the change is back!"
While Zhu Gaoxu was planning how to attack Xiyang Ha, Lin Su and others also climbed onto the city wall, carrying bundles of furs on their backs.
"Ten stones of grain were exchanged for these more than forty furs. Shanchu Fort in the east asked us when the next transaction would be."
Lin Su talked about his gains, and his trip to Shanchu Fortress this time was also ordered by Zhu Gaoxu.
Zhu Gaoxu wanted to see Shan Chu Ba's strength, so he asked Lin Su and other eighteen people to pull ten stones of food on camels to Shan Chu Ba for trade with them for furs.
Now it seems that Shan Chubao's strength is good, and he actually got back more than forty furs, including bear, deer, and mink furs.
"If these things are sold to Yang Bin, I'm afraid I can harvest about eighty kuan."
Zhu Gaoxu knelt down and looked at the piles of furs. Although most of them were deer skins, there were also more than a dozen valuable mink and bear skins.
"This money is enough to buy two hundred shi of food."
Zhu Gaoxu sighed, and at the same time he understood why there were so many smugglers in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. After all, it was such huge profits.
"Have you visited their warehouse?" Zhu Gaoxu raised his head and asked Lin Su, feeling very anxious. After all, Yang Bin would come to Jilin City to collect furs in May.
"Look!" Lin Su grinned: "They have been stocking up for a year, including hundreds of deer skins, hundreds of mink skins, more than ten bear skins, three tiger skins, and a box of ginseng. "
"Being good at leaving the fort means that these things are worth five hundred shi of grain."
Lin Su quoted an extremely low price, which of course was for Zhu Gaoxu.
Five hundred stones of grain could not do much for Zhu Gaoxu, but for Shan Chubao, it was their ration for a month.
In this regard, Zhu Gaoxu did not lower the price, but nodded and said: "Tomorrow you take two hundred brothers to the treasury to get five hundred stones of grain and escort them to Shan Chu Fort, and give me the furs and ginseng in exchange."
"Also, tell E Zhen, who is good at leaving the fort, to ask them to send someone to quote a price after the autumn harvest. I will buy as much fur ginseng as there is."
After the autumn harvest, he had eight thousand shi of surplus food in his hand, and he was not afraid of not being able to eat the furs that were good enough to leave the fort.
"Okay!" Lin Su agreed with a smile. Upon seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also looked at the construction site in the city and asked Zhang Chun beside him: "How many days will it take to complete?"
Although Zhang Chun is young, he is extremely mature. Zhu Gaoxu is very relieved of him and temporarily lets him supervise the construction of the academy in the city. After all, he has lost Futijin City and will not be able to come back for a while.
Zhang Chun did not disappoint Zhu Gaoxu, and continued to tell everyone: "It will be completed in about 12 days."
"Okay!" After hearing Zhang Chun's words, Zhu Gaoxu also made the next arrangements.
First of all, the snow had begun to melt, and there were not enough Mingjia in the city, so Zhu Gaoxu asked Zhang Chun to arrange for craftsmen to supervise the construction of 300 sets of farm tools after the academy was completed.
Because the temperature in Jilin during the Ming Dynasty was lower than that of later generations, crops such as wheat had to wait until early April to be cultivated and harvested in mid-August.
These three hundred sets of farm tools should be made before spring plowing, when the three hundred draft horses brought from the south will be useful.
Although the land plowed by horses is not as good as that of cattle, and one spring plowing can only cultivate 30 acres of land, and it requires bean feed, but Zhu Gaoxu has more than 10,000 bean feed provided by the Liaodong Dusi behind him, so he does not have to worry about insufficient bean feed.
Three hundred draft horses are enough to plow the existing cultivated land in Jilin City within five days. In the remaining days, except for the occasional need to go to Futijin City and to haul furs out of the fort, they can be kept to open up wasteland at other times. .
Zhu Gaoxu has observed that although the current Jilin Bay is not as spacious as it was in later generations, at least hundreds of thousands of acres of cultivated land can be reclaimed after it is completely cleared.
Judging from the fact that after excluding the soldiers, craftsmen, and children, there are only 4,000 people left in the city.
These four thousand people used 300 draft horses to open up wasteland for three months, and they were able to carve out at least 5,000 acres of mature land, and it was clean mature land with all the stone tree roots removed.
In ancient times, the wasteland had deep roots and solid soil, making it very difficult to cultivate. It could only be cultivated in the first year, and the fields could only be cultivated in the following year, and harvest could only be expected in three years.
But if the field can be cured in the first year, then in the second year it will be able to produce normal yields like a normal mature field.
According to Jilin City's land reclamation method, the land cleared this year can be directly used as farmland by burning the grass next year, and the output will be the same as other farmland.
These five thousand shimu of cultivated land will be able to produce 3,000 shimu of grain next year, which can feed at least 500 people.
As long as the number of people and animal power in Jilin City remain unchanged, it only takes more than ten years for Zhu Gaoxu to make Jilin City self-sufficient.
If he could snatch thousands of cattle and horses from Xiyang Ha and other tribes, then this speed could be shortened to one or two years.
In this era, animal power is productivity and cultivated land is the means of production.
As long as Jilin City has more cultivated land, Zhu Gaoxu's burden will be smaller. In the end, he will be able to lift the current policy of allocating six buckets of rice per month and raise more soldiers and horses.
The biggest problems in land reclamation are animal power and food. Once these two points are solved, land reclamation will not be a problem.
Zhu Gaoxu's time is very tight. He must solve the self-sufficiency problem of Jilin City in the shortest possible time, and he must also store military rations in preparation for going south at any time.
According to history, he only has four and a half years, so he is very anxious.
Now he has just begun to lay out Jilin City. Internally, he still needs to make cement, research firearms, and build a gunpowder factory.
Externally, he needs to defeat Xiyang Ha once this year, and next year he will patrol the border with Zhu Quan and fight Wu Liang Ha.
If these two years are gone, then he only has two and a half years left...
"After the farm tools are built, we will first build 600 sets of Mingjia. As for the iron materials, we will transport another 30,000 kilograms in early April. There is no need to worry about insufficient materials."
"In addition, items such as spears, hammers, sabers, arrows, etc. also need to be made."
"Find a few more masons. I need them to go to the mountains to find me some things."
Zhu Gaoxu continued to explain to Zhang Chun and Lin Su, and the two also wrote down Zhu Gaoxu's words to each other according to their respective responsibilities.
After saying all this, Zhu Gaoxu told Zhang Chun: "Do these things one by one. Don't rush the people for the sake of progress."
"Also, keep an eye on the developments in Xiyang Ha. The shipyard also started supervising the construction of warships after the completion of the academy. I brought several craftsmen from the Longjiang Shipyard from the south. They have experience in supervising the construction of large ships with two thousand materials. "
"If there is insufficient ship materials when they supervise the construction of warships, they will send their brothers to go with them to cut wood in the mountains."
Zhu Gaoxu is not worried about wood. Compared with Jiangnan and Qilu in the Central Plains, there are more century-old trees in the Northeast at this time, and there are countless trees around Jilin City.
What he was worried about was that Zhang Chun and Lin Su were trying their best to achieve efficiency. Everyone in Jilin City was Zhu Gaoxu's pet peeve.
"Don't worry, Your Highness, we know how to do it."
Seeing that His Highness was so eager to remind them to be kind to the people, Zhang Chun and Lin Su felt that they were not following the wrong person.
In comparison, some of the vassal kings in the south seemed a bit cruel...
"Eh!!!"
Almost on the same day, when Zhu Gaoxu was leading the people of Jilin City to work, a series of shrill screams came from the Palace of Prince Qin in Xi'an.
Outside a row of inverted rooms, Qin King Zhu Feng, who had returned from the expedition, was taking Chang Shi and several palace attendants to watch the scene inside the house outside the window.
The royal palace chief Shi and the palace officials all turned away because the scene in the room was too cruel, but Zhu Xi watched it with gusto.
Due to insufficient anesthesia, she was wrapped in white cloth and castrated forcibly.
Zhu Ping looked back and forth in front of the reverse room, seeming to be very satisfied with his "masterpiece".
Palace Chief Shi couldn't bear to look at the last room, where dozens of people were still locked up. His face was extremely horrified at this moment, because they all heard the sound next door.
"Look, we have to let these people listen to the screams of their own kind. After being castrated in this way, they will be obedient and no longer dare to resist."
Looking at the fear on the faces of the foreign children, Zhu Xi felt extremely satisfied, and from time to time he showed off his skills to the palace people around him.
One of the palace maids was also a Fan, so she shed tears with shallow eyes, but she didn't want Zhu Ping to be furious when she saw it: "Hold him down!"
"Your Highness! Your Highness! I know your mistake! My slave..."
The palace maid kept begging for mercy, but Zhu Ping knelt down and said fiercely: "You guys don't know how to be a king. I asked you to submit to the king, but you still sympathize with these sons of rebels."
As he spoke, Zhu Xi motioned to the left and right: "Bring the pliers and scissors!"
"Yes..." Although they were all Fan people, facing the tragic situation of their own clan, the other Fan people who entered the palace did not dare to resist. They could only obey Zhu Xi's words and bring pliers and scissors.
During this period, the palace maid kept howling. It wasn't until Zhu Ping got the pliers and hit her on the head several times that the palace maid fainted.
But Zhu Xiang had to do more than just knock her out.
She just took a few steps forward when Zhu Xi hit her on the back of the head with pliers. After a few blows, she twitched and lost her breath.
Zhu Xi's body was stained with a few drops of blood. He immediately threw the pliers aside and threw the robe he was wearing to a palace maid behind him.
However, she seemed to be frightened by the cruel scene in front of her. The palace maid did not catch the robe in time, causing the robe to fall to the ground.
"Your Highness!"
After realizing it, the palace maid knelt on the ground and took the robe into her arms. When Zhu Ping saw this, his eyes also showed anger.
Upon seeing this, the Palace Chief Shi quickly stepped forward and bowed: "Your Highness, this is the grandson of Grandma Li of the Houfu. Please forgive him."
"Bad words!" Zhu Xi could suppress his temper at first, but after hearing Chang Shi's words, he immediately cursed: "How dare a granddaughter who works as a cook dare to insult my clothes?!"
Zhu Xi looked at the palace people around him: "Drag it down, stick thirty!"
"Your Highness, spare your life! Your Highness, spare your life!" After hearing the words of Zang Thirty, Grandma Li's granddaughter was so busy that she knocked her head to the ground, but within three or five times, she saw blood.
However, her begging for mercy did not win Zhu Ping's forgiveness. Under the dragging of the palace people, the palace maid was still dragged to the Chengyun Palace, and was beaten to death by two strong men with thirty sticks in front of the palace...
Zhu Xi didn't care about her death. He just continued to watch the hundreds of children he captured, watching them being castrated and trained in etiquette as they waited to enter the palace.
He had committed such brutal acts not once or twice, and almost everyone in the Qin Palace was in danger. People in Xi'an City often tried to flee to Henan and Huguang to report him, but without exception, they were intercepted and escorted back to Xi'an City, and were eventually arrested. According to the "Da Ming Law", Zhu Xiang emphasized the use of punishment to die.
Compared with him who was complacent and acted recklessly because he obtained military power in Shaanxi, Zhu Fan, who was in Shanxi, faced one round of blow after another.
First, his in-law Fu Youde passed away, and then Dingyuan Marquis Wang Bi was sentenced to death. The Hetao pasture under his jurisdiction was divided up by his father among his other brothers, and his close associates were transferred to Dongshengwei...
This incident made Zhu Fan furious, and he became depressed and fainted many times.
Against this background, Zhu Fan's father-in-law, Yongping Hou Xiecheng, was sentenced to death on the second day of March. When the news reached Shanxi, Zhu Fan knew that the situation was over.
Except for Zhu Han's descendants and wives, all other in-laws were cut off, all the military attaches in Shanxi Dusi were replaced, and the soldiers and horses who had received the most favor from Zhu Han were also transferred out of Shanxi.
In Shanxi today, except for the three guards of the Jin Palace, Zhu Fan has no one he can trust anymore. Even the subordinate officials in the palace have been either sentenced to death or exiled or transferred.
Sitting in the Chengyun Hall, Zhu Fan looked at the empty Chengyun Hall in front of him, his face seemed to be crying but not smiling, which was very eye-catching.
His tragic situation was seen by all the vassals. Except for King Zhu Ping of Qin, all the other kings were in danger.
Among them, Zhou Wang Zhu Ru couldn't help but feel lucky that he listened to his son's words, otherwise his Zhou Mansion would probably be the second Jin Mansion.
Zhu Xi's happiness is a true reflection of many vassal kings, but there are also many vassal kings who are as unmoved as Zhu Xi and still maintain their past style and continue to do evil in the feudal country.
Because of this turmoil, the King of Qi, Zhu Shu, received Zhu Yuanzhang's order. Zhu Yuanzhang asked him to be prepared for Japanese pirates at any time. When encountering Japanese pirates, he should form a formation to kill the enemy. After the war, he should not compete with the generals for credit or bully the people.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang's actions made Zhu Yu think that someone in the palace had informed him, so he killed seventeen palace guards. In order to prevent the news from leaking, he also threatened the palace officials...
These arrogant vassal kings gave Zhu Yuanzhang a headache. Although he issued orders to scold these guys many times, they never changed, because they all knew that their father could not kill him, and the biggest punishment was to move him away. Just stationed in some poor places.
For the vassals, there are few places where they are stationed that are not poor. Even the vassal kings such as Qin, Qi, and Lu do not have a prosperous city with more than 200,000 people. Where to go.
However, as the news spread that Zhu Gaoxu was canonized as King of Bohai County and took office in Jilin City, Qilu and other vassals restrained themselves a little.
Jilin City is no longer a place that can be described by the word poverty.
The emperor can do this to his beloved grandchildren, let alone his own concubines...
It has to be said that the matter of canonizing Zhu Gaoxu and going to Jilin City did make many concubine kings restrain themselves a bit. This may be one of the few things that can make Zhu Yuanzhang happy in the past few months.
"What did he do after he went to Jilin? Is he ready to complain to the public?"
On the sixth day of March, in the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Yuanzhang asked the military attache of Jin Yiwei when he was changing his clothes to prepare for the morning court. The military attache also shook his head and said:
"The wind and snow are too heavy, and the carrier pigeons have not been trained yet, so the news has not been sent out. But what is certain is that His Highness will not easily complain to the doctor..."
With that said, the military attaché told the various conditions that Zhu Gaoxu had promised to escort under his command before setting off for Jilin City, and Zhu Yuanzhang frowned because of this.
Even he didn't expect that Zhu Gaoxu would be so generous to the soldiers and actually promised eighteen thousand military pay. He didn't know if he was stupid or had other motives.
Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang also put on his regular clothes, turned around and walked out of Qianqing Palace, followed by military attachés.
After Zhu Yuanzhang sat on his horse, he continued to the military attaché: "The money and his annual salary allocated by Du Si may not be able to support many soldiers."
"The people here have calculated that even with all the treasury, His Highness can only raise three thousand troops." The military attache nodded and reported back. Zhu Yuanzhang showed no expression after hearing this.
Regarding Zhu Gaoxu's actions, he only regarded Zhu Gaoxu as restraining his ambitions and expressing to the outside world that he was indifferent to the world in Jilin City.
After all, with three thousand soldiers, not to mention standing up for themselves with flags and supporting troops, they are still stretched thin to defend the Jurchen tribes.
"He probably did this to show the enemy's weakness and not to let people notice him..."
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes dimmed a bit, as if he thought of what he had done to Zhu Gaoxu.
At the same time, Zhu Xiang, who was in Xi'an, also received his retribution...
(End of chapter)
