Five thousand people in the capital are like a drop of water in the ocean.
After all, there are twelve guards in the palace alone.
But the concept of these five thousand people is completely different, because under Zhu Ying's command, there are no tasks to be performed, and they are completely at Zhu Ying's disposal.
Zhu Yuanzhang asked Lan Yu to choose people, and the meaning was very obvious. It was obviously to let Lan Yu choose the soldiers in Huaixi to follow him, forming a core group of soldiers and confidants headed by Zhu Ying.
"Brother, how many people can you spare?" Lan Yu asked after thinking for a while.
Lan Rong frowned and said in confusion: "That's why you came to see me because of this matter. You are in charge of the Central Military Governor's Mansion and you only have no predecessor, so you can adjust it at will."
Lan Yu is currently a high-ranking general, and can easily dispatch even 50,000 people, let alone 5,000.
Lan Yu shook his head and said: "That can't be the case. Although His Majesty has not said anything, His Highness Changsun is not aware of this matter yet, but I can only have a thousand people on my side, and the rest can only be selected from other places, and Select the most elite soldiers."
When Lan Rong heard this, his eyes towards his younger brother Lan Yu suddenly changed, and he couldn't help but ask, "Are you still afraid of avoiding suspicion..."
Lan Rong knows the character of his younger brother best. He has always been fearless. He grew up with his brother-in-law Chang Yuchun and learned that aura.
When fighting, he takes the lead and is the most courageous. Although he is always strategic, he is reckless and unscrupulous in other aspects.
When Lan Yu heard her eldest brother Lan Rong teasing her, instead of saying anything, she said in a deep voice: "Brother, you have never met His Highness Changsun, and you don't even know the details of His Highness Changsun."
"I saw the information related to His Highness Changsun at His Majesty's place yesterday. Only then do I know why Your Majesty is so sure of His Highness Changsun's true identity."
"To be honest, His Highness Changsun doesn't look like a brave general, but his personal bravery far exceeds mine. The day before yesterday, I dined at the Great Tribulation of Chang Mansion. I had a small trial with His Highness Changsun and failed miserably."
When Lan Rong heard this, he was a little in disbelief: "What did you say? You were defeated by His Highness Changsun. How is this possible?"
As the eldest brother, he knows the abilities of his younger brother Lan Yu best. He may be a little worse than his brother-in-law Chang Yuchun, but he is still an absolute warrior.
When my younger brother Lan Yu said this, he could only be convinced by His Highness Chang Sun.
However, Lan Yu's subsequent narration was the beginning of Lan Rong's shock.
As Zhu Ying's detailed information was revealed by Lan Yu, Lan Rong's mouth could hardly close and his eyes almost fell to the ground.
"This, this is too legendary."
Lan Rong could not imagine that it took an eight-year-old child ten years to establish such a huge force.
It is simply too exaggerated, as outrageous as listening to a fairy tale.
Is this still something that humans can do?
Before seeing Zhu Ying, the seeds of Zhu Ying's invincible figure were already planted in Lan Rong's heart.
From the beginning of the Western Region, to the desert and grassland.
His Highness Changsun created a huge power group without receiving any help.
"Sure enough, your majesty's grandson is a true grandson of the dragon and a born emperor. Only with this kind of blood can he create such glory."
Lan Rong was amazed, that is, the current Ming Dynasty has no concept of shit.
Otherwise, it would be nothing if Lan Rong sent out dozens of fucks in a row.
It was at this time that Lan Rong truly understood why His Majesty had so much faith in His Highness Changsun, and why he did not think it could be controlled by ordinary people.
For such a character, there must be ten more fucks.
Just like Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Lan Yu, Lan Yu also looked at his elder brother Lan Rong with a smile, and felt an inexplicable pleasure in his heart.
"So, His Highness Changsun's five thousand people can only be mobilized from different places. Otherwise, it will arouse His Highness Changsun's suspicion, which will be regarded as more gain than loss."
Lan Yu said.
Lan Rong nodded. This is absolutely correct. From these things alone, he can control such a large and scattered force.
His Highness Changsun’s thoughts and methods are beyond ordinary people’s imagination.
He is really His Majesty's grandson, so these methods can be said to be half-measured and comparable.
In fact, in Lan Rong's heart, he always felt that His Highness Changsun's methods were more clever than His Majesty's.
"How do you plan to allocate personnel?" Lan Rong asked seriously.
Lan Yu pondered slightly and said: "I plan to send five hundred elites each to gather five thousand for His Highness to use. It is best if he can understand the priority of fire guns. Your Highness is particularly good at firearms. There will be no shortage of firearms equipment in the future."
Lan Rong felt the same and said, "Then I will mobilize the most elite five hundred soldiers to supply His Highness."
Lan Yu said again: "I will write a letter to ask Taiping to come back and follow His Highness."
Lan Rong couldn't help but ask: "Why didn't you ask Nao'er to come over?"
Lan Yu shook her head and said: "Nao'er's character is too out-of-the-box. On the other hand, Taiping is more honest, honest and steady. When doing things in front of His Highness, he should be steady."
Lan Yu knew the two sons, Lan Nao'er and Lan Taiping, very well. Although Lan Nao'er was the eldest son, Lan Taiping obviously met the requirements better.
Besides, as the eldest son, Lan Nao'er can inherit everything from him in the future. The second son, Lan Taiping, will follow His Highness the Grand Sun and will also be able to accomplish something in the future.
.......
Along the Qinhuai River.
Zhu Ying did not expect that the old man would come at this time, and he was told to let him enter the palace tonight.
Why did he come directly?
"Why, we can't come here yet?" Zhu Yuanzhang pretended to be angry.
Zhu Ying was helpless, feeling that the old man always liked such a childish attitude recently, but after looking at the old man, whose temples were already turning gray, he understood.
"No way, the place where my grandson lives is also my grandfather's home. It will be the same no matter what time I come over." Zhu Ying replied.
Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely happy, and then said: "Today you go to sleep in the palace. Later I will take you to meet someone. I used to tease you a lot when I was a child."
Zhu Ying nodded, and he knew without even thinking that it must be some elder who knew about his existence and wanted to meet him.
When we meet in the palace at night, based on this information alone, it is not difficult to guess that the person we meet must be a concubine in the harem.
The person who can be mentioned by the old man personally has a very noble status in the harem. However, Zhu Ying is not familiar with the harem, and he can only know who it is by meeting him.
"Yueqing, make tea and bring it directly to the study later." Zhu Ying casually ordered.
"Yes, boss." Ye Yueqing, who was accompanying Zhu Ying, bowed his head slightly and left directly.
"Why, you are the roundworm in our stomach, aren't you? I guess I have something to talk to you about?" Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile.
"Grandpa, it's already this time. Just ask your grandson to prepare dinner. If your grandson still can't guess it, I'm afraid it will be an insult to your reputation." Zhu Ying said with a smile.
Zhu Yuanzhang felt very comfortable when he heard his grandson indirectly flattering him.
Dasun's flattery is the same as others, but after thinking about it carefully, he even flattered himself.
The grandfather and grandson entered the study, accompanied by Jiang Yu and Liu He, who were waiting in the yard.
Zhu Yuanzhang took a sip of the tea brought by Ye Yueqing, took out a memorial from his arms, handed it to Zhu Ying and said:
"Let's see, these things really make us feel extremely upset, so I just came here to see if there is anything I can do about it."
Zhu Ying took the memorial. He originally thought that the old man came here to discuss the situation there with the work-for-relief program.
I didn't expect it to be something else.
No longer hesitating at the moment, he opened the memorial and looked at it carefully.
It was still a familiar classical Chinese text, but now Zhu Ying was more accustomed to it, and even if there were no sentence breaks, it would be smoother.
Huh.
After just reading the first few paragraphs, Zhu Ying let out a sigh in his heart. He was planning to read from the back. Most of the memorials were extremely complicated and could be omitted.
But this is the only one for now, so Zhu Ying read the beginning. The reason why Zhu Ying was so excited this time was that he found that this memorial was different from the others in that it told the whole story from the beginning.
Zhu Ying then began to study it carefully from the beginning.
This memorial talks about things related to the famine in Henan. Zhu Ying was a little surprised at first. In the case of famine, the work-for-relief effect was good, so he wouldn't let the old man come to find him personally.
However, as she watched, Zhu Ying's expression began to become more serious, her brows furrowed.
In fact, the scale of this disaster is too huge, and the number of people involved is beyond imagination.
Reading between the lines, although there is no specific statistical data, the disaster almost summarizes nearly half of Henan.
It’s not just one disaster, it’s multiple disasters.
Floods in the south, droughts in the north, locust plagues in the east, and even the most shocking plague.
It is completely conceivable that the entire Henan region has almost become a hell on earth.
The memorial said that there were about 300,000 people, which made no sense at all. Such a huge disaster affected at least millions of people.
Only then did Zhu Ying understand why the old man came in a hurry to find him.
Today's Ming Dynasty, faced with a famine of this scale, has no other way but to print a large amount of treasure money and buy food to provide disaster relief.
After closing the memorial, Zhu Ying also noticed the old man's thoughts. If it was really that simple, the old man would come over specially to find him, presumably because he encountered some kind of problem.
It is not difficult to guess that nine times out of ten there is not enough food, or even insufficient purchasing power of treasure money.
As the head of the Qunying Chamber of Commerce, Zhu Ying understood very well that in this special situation, those grain merchants hoarding goods, especially in places far away from the capital.
Most of them only accept transactions of real gold and silver. If people from the government use Daming treasure money to buy, they will lie and claim that they have no grain.
After thinking for a moment, Zhu Ying asked: "Grandpa, how many stones of grain have been prepared for this famine in Henan?"
Zhu Yuanzhang hesitated and stretched out three fingers.
Zhu Ying frowned and said: "Three thousand stones are not enough, but it can solve the urgent need. However, more food will need to be mobilized in the future to stabilize the current situation."
"It's not enough in terms of food alone, the plague..."
Before Zhu Ying could continue to speak, he was interrupted by Zhu Yuanzhang, who said helplessly: "It's not three thousand stones, it's three hundred stones."
"What!"
Zhu Ying exclaimed and stood up from her seat.
What can we do with three hundred shi of grain? Isn't it just watching the people of Henan starve to death? From transportation to mobilization, it will take at least half a month.
Moreover, it can be seen from the memorial that the famine has been going on for nearly half a month, and this has already reached the limit of the victims.
Many people will definitely starve to death along the way, but as long as the food is in place, most people can still survive.
But these three hundred stones are enough to last for several days. No matter how thin the porridge is, it will definitely not be able to survive the arrival of the next wave of food.
By then, the number of people who have starved to death will truly be littered with corpses.
Those people who are extremely hungry may even roast and eat their corpses. This is hell on earth!
"Why don't we know? We are also people who came out of the famine. Three hundred shi of food may not be enough for the whole of Henan. A few bowls of gruel per capita may not be enough."
"Over at the Banking Bureau, we have asked them to print treasure banknotes. The current three hundred shi of grain is still the limit that the Ministry of Household Affairs can mobilize."
Zhu Yuanzhang said sadly that the people in Henan were all his people. Seeing them starve to death, Zhu Yuanzhang felt very good.
Zhu Ying was just silent for a moment, then called Ye Yueqing who was outside.
"I'm waiting at the Chamber of Commerce in Ming Dynasty. How much food and grain is there that can be mobilized? All of it, I mean all of it, all of the money and food!"
Zhu Ying asked Ye Yueqing.
Ye Yueqing didn't hesitate at all and said directly: "Two million guan of treasure notes, more than 870,000 taels of silver, and about 1,600 dan of grain."
Zhu Yuanzhang, who was standing by, had his eyes wide open and looked at Ye Yueqing in disbelief, even suspecting that he had heard wrongly.
He knew that the eldest grandson was rich, but he never thought that the eldest grandson was so rich.
The fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty last year was very high. If Zhu Yuanzhang remembered correctly, the annual income was only more than three million taels.
The eldest grandson is just a businessman, but the liquid silver he controls is more than half of the Ming Dynasty's treasury's annual income. This is simply too exaggerated.
This was something Zhu Yuanzhang had never thought of.
The most critical one is the grain of 1,600 shi.
This is more than five times more than the grain mobilized by the Ministry of Revenue.
Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang also knew that this sounded a bit exaggerated. In fact, the grain currently controlled by the Ministry of Revenue was far more than 300 shi, and even 3,000 shi was available.
It's just that these grains are the amount that can be mobilized on the premise of ensuring the capital and other disaster-stricken areas.
It is impossible to ignore the Henan area and other disaster-stricken areas, and the officials and people in the capital will not eat. That will only make the entire Ming Dynasty turbulent.
After Zhu Ying listened, he made some calculations in his mind, and then said solemnly:
"Following my instructions, in addition to ensuring two months of personnel expenses, the rest of the mobile money will be used to purchase food and send it to Henan for disaster relief."
"My grain merchants used all the grain reserves and sent the rest while ensuring that they could eat."
"In addition, in the name of the Qunying Chamber of Commerce, we will lend grain to all transactions. We can borrow as much as we want. The interest rate does not matter, as long as we can borrow the grain."
"It is necessary to prepare enough food in the shortest possible time to alleviate the famine in Henan."
Zhu Ying only paused for a moment before continuing: "There is also a question about medicinal materials. Immediately mobilize all the doctors from the Chamber of Commerce to start studying the situation of the plague. We must work out a usable prescription in the shortest possible time."
"According to the prescription, send all relevant medicinal materials to the Henan plague area."
"I instruct the doctors to strictly abide by the Chamber of Commerce's standards for dealing with plagues and not to be careless."
