From the head of Orange Island, you look east to Changsha, to the west to Yuelu, and to the north of the Xiangjiang River. The water and sky are the same color. Who is in charge of the ups and downs?
At the south end of Orange Island, Zhu Cixiang climbed up to a pavilion and looked at Changsha City, Yuelu Mountain and the vast Xiangjiang River. At this time, tears filled his eyes...
This is his hometown! He, a wanderer who has been wandering for more than 200 years, finally returned to Changsha, Hunan Province, which he had always dreamed of, and saw some of the same scenery as before. It's just that things and people have changed, and everything has changed. The relatives and friends of the past were not born yet... and we can't see them again!
"Master Chitose, Brother Prince, why are you crying?" Zheng Chagu came over with a pretty face and asked curiously. Only then did Zhu Cixi realize that his face was full of tears, and his eyes were probably going to be red from crying. He had been losing his composure for who knows how long. The surrounding guards, eunuchs and maids all stared at his cry with half-open mouths.
These people are probably thinking in their hearts: What sad thing has this prince thought of? It’s not easy to think about it! For such a big man, in the past two or three years, he has rarely lived in peace for a few days. He was either at war with the Tatars or with the bandits. He also had to find time to deal with a bunch of rebellious ministers, thieves, and corrupt officials. Now we have to lead so many refugees from the North to beg for food!
Zhu Cixiang was really worried about these northern refugees! In order to move more than two million people who are starving from various refugee camps (Zhu Cixiang has always been concerned about the refugees fleeing from the north and built refugee camps for them in Fengyang, Huai'an, Yangzhou, Jiangpu, Yizheng, etc., To provide housing for some of these people who are deprived of food and clothing), brought out from the line of death (starving to death), naval warships and merchant ships on the Yangtze River, canals on the canals, sand ships anchored in Shanghai, and even some can be used on inland rivers The sailing bird boats were all urgently requisitioned by the Generalissimo's Palace.
The Cabinet Office also issued a letter to the prefectures (states) and county (states) along the Yangtze River, along the Gan (river), along the Han (water), and along the Xiang (river) to fully cooperate and prepare a list of local wealthy businessmen and gentry in order to welcome The prince brings people over for dinner!
Of course, Zhu Cixiang is reasonable and will never eat other people's food in vain - all the wealthy households who have provided food will settle their accounts with them.
No matter how much you eat, the compensation will be doubled (it was originally planned to add 50%, but later considering the high price of rice, it was changed to double), and it will be deducted from future land taxes.
In addition, all the local tyrants and evil gentry who warmly entertain His Highness the Crown Prince and the begging people can continue to rent the official fields, military villages, and hidden fields they occupy with a "preferential land rent" of three to seven buckets of rice after clearing the land, and they provide Food for refugees can also be included in the deposit at one and a half times the amount.
Inspired by a series of preferential conditions and the prince's personality charm, the gentry everywhere still knew the general situation... Anyway, no one dared to confront Zhu Cixi's army of beggars behind closed doors, and they all obeyed obediently. Donate the food!
It seems that the gentry in the southeastern part of the Ming Dynasty is worth saving... They are all "loyal gentry", "righteous gentry" and "intelligent gentry". It seems that the Ming Dynasty has been cultivating scholars for more than 200 years, and finally it has some effect. .
In addition to begging for food, Zhu Cixiang also had to resettle some refugees along the way.
The process of refugees fleeing all the way from the north is actually a process of eliminating the old and the weak. Therefore, most of the refugees who followed Zhu Cixiang to beg for food were young and strong. At least most of the men among them met the selection criteria for new army soldiers.
So Zhu Cixiang placed them in Anqing, Jiujiang, Wuhan, and Yuezhou (Baling) on their way to beg for food, and also sent some to Jingzhou, Xiangyang, and Nanchang. When the begging army arrived in Changsha, the original two million people were Now there are only more than half a million left.
According to Zhu Cixiang's plan, 200,000 northern refugees will be arranged in Changsha. The Prince Ji's Mansion and the Prince's Guard Station, which occupies half of Changsha City, will all be allocated to these 200,000 refugees. Prince Ji's Mansion, other county princes' mansions, general's mansions, and some related government offices will also be demolished. The masonry, wood, and land obtained were given to these refugees for them to use in building houses.
The Wangzhuang outside Changsha City (not only the Wangzhuang of King Ji, but also the farms of the five kings of Jing, Liao, Rong, Chu, and Min) and the military fields guarded by the royal palace will also be given to the northern refugees who resettle in Changsha.
In addition, Zhu Cihong will also set up a "Changsha General's Mansion" to manage and resettle the 200,000 refugees in Changsha. If these 200,000 people are taken as a household, they are more than 40,000 households and less than 50,000 households.
In addition to this "Changsha General's Mansion", Zhu Cixiang also established a general's mansion in all state capitals where a large number of northern refugees were resettled.
However, these "general mansions" are not the same thing as the general mansions stationed in the Qing Dynasty in history. They only temporarily took care of the refugees, and were also responsible for recruiting soldiers and conducting basic military training for new recruits. It is somewhat similar to Yingyang Mansion and Zhechong Mansion in Sui and Tang Dynasties.
However, their recruitment target did not target the northern refugees - the northern refugees were not military members, nor were they a privileged class like the bannermen.
Zhu Cixiang didn't want them to eventually become banner men of the Ming Dynasty, nor did he want them to become new military households of the Ming Dynasty. He just wanted to give some of them a chance to rise and become the upstarts of Beifu who supported him. Most of them still slowly Integrate into the local area... As a feudal dynasty, if you want to achieve rejuvenation, you will inevitably produce a group of new nobles. However, Prince Zhu does not want the new noble group to have too many people. There will be too many wolves and not enough meat!
Since Zhu Cihong handed over the Prince Ji's Mansion in Changsha City (which had been destroyed by Zhang Xianzhong) to the General Mansion in Changsha and the refugees, his residence was located in the Yunlu Palace (Taoist Temple) on Yuelu Mountain on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River.
At the same time, he also found a villa belonging to a wealthy family on Orange Island. Sometimes he would bring Wu Sanmei and Zheng Chagu to live there, and take a look at the Changsha City that haunted him... .But I didn’t expect to cry just watching it.
Huang Xiaobao saw Prince Zhu crying for no reason, and didn't know what happened, so he had to go up and ask: "Master Qiansui, Mr. Cao, Governor He, Mr. Chang and Du Fantai have all gone to Juzizhou. Do you want to Don’t want to see them?”
"See you!" Zhu Cihong wiped his tears, "Have Ji Kun and Wang Fuzhi arrived?"
"Here they are, they arrived early."
"Then ask them to come together!"
"Here!"
The place where Zhu Cihong met Cao Youyi, He Tengjiao, Chang Yanling and others was the villa on Orange Island, a very elegant place surrounded by orange groves.
The purpose of Zhu Cihong summoning them here was to discuss the Guangdong issue and the Xiangxi (including Shizhouwei) issue with them.
Now the plain area of Huguang has basically been effectively controlled by Zhu Cixiang. Among them, Hubei asked Li Zicheng to clean up, and Zhu Cihong just went to grab the fruits of victory. Although the process had many twists and turns, the result was not bad.
The plain areas in Hunan include Yuezhou Prefecture, Changde Prefecture, Changsha Prefecture, and Hengzhou Prefecture. Through the two general mansions of Yuezhou and Changsha, and later setting up a general mansion of Hengzhou, we can basically have firm control.
But Guangdong and Xiangxi are not so easy to deal with! In the former, there are conflicts between natives and tourists, and there are also many merchants and pirates, all of whom are thorny! The latter group of Xiangxi native warlords, whether they were chieftains or guards, were all dissatisfied.
In the original history, this group of monsters and monsters were tormented until the founding of New China before they were eradicated. Zhu Cihong was a founding prince, but he did not dare to compare with New China.
So I don’t think about completely razing it down or anything...
On a small building where you can see Yuelu to the left and Changsha to the right, the seven people who came from Zhu Cixiang had a banquet. It is not a feast, but a meal, just like the ancient kings did when they entertained their ministers.
After three rounds of wine and five dishes of food, Zhu Cixiang smiled and said to He Tengjiao, Cao Youyi, and Chang Yanling: "Two generals, He Futai and Dufantai, I invite you here today just to make a plan." How to deal with the territories in Guangdong and western Huguang that are used to drive barbarians and develop industries? Yushi Ji, Huang Taichong, Master Gu and Master Wang jointly wrote an article called "Admonitions to Feng Suggestions on Politics". Have all three of them read it?"
