Zhu Youjian saw the worried look on Nizi's face and knew that he was worried that there were too many honorable military households and it would be difficult to control them in the future, so he asked: "Brother Chun, do you know why I have to confer so many honorary titles and recruit so many A military household?"
Why?
Zhu Cihong said in his heart: Because you are not a good person! If you are a feudal **** emperor, you know that you launch a war of aggression with force and force, which has brought serious disasters to people all over the world! What's even more hateful is that you continue to exploit me, the most filial son in history... I now know what Emperor Taizu Gao asked me to do, which is to clean up the mess for you, a **** element!
Of course, Zhu Cixiang would not dare to say these heartfelt words... Otherwise, Ming Dynasty would have to fight over the foundation of the country!
So Zhu Cixiang finally answered like this: "My father did this, of course, to lead our Ming Dynasty out of the cyclical law of the rise and fall of dynasties!"
"Periodic law?" Zhu Youjian asked, "What do you mean?"
"Throughout the dynasties of China, there has been a cyclical pattern of ups and downs, chaos, and back-and-forth cycles. So far, no dynasty or generation has been able to truly break out of it..." Zhu Cihong paused, and then said: "Except it's not The unified Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, as well as the subsequent dynasties of Guozuo, all have a hard time of 300 years. From the founding of a country, to the prosperity of the times, to the chaos of the world, the subjugation of the country, and the sinking of the land, it is difficult to exceed 300 years. .”
"That's not right," Zhu Youjian said, "there were 29 emperors in the Han Dynasty, and the country lasted for 407 years. There were 18 emperors in the Song Dynasty, and the country lasted for 319 years... The Han Dynasty and the Song Dynasty were considered to have passed the 300-year period. Bar?"
"My father even said that there were two Han and two Song Dynasties." Zhu Cihong sighed, "Between the two Han Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty's southern crossing, there was a cycle of chaos, rise and fall!"
Zhu Youjian nodded and said: "It has been 278 years since the founding of Emperor Taizu Gao of this dynasty... Can it continue to be passed down?"
"Yes!" Zhu Cixiang replied categorically, "What my father is doing now is to extend the life of the Ming Dynasty. In 300 years, we will definitely be able to break through!"
That must be broken through! Otherwise, Zhu Youjian would not be the king of subjugation, and Zhu Cihong would have to hang his neck on a tree!
"Really?" Zhu Youjian looked at his son and asked word by word, "Then tell me... how did I lead the Ming Dynasty to break this 300-year period?"
This question is a trap! Because ordinary filial sons will think that the Ming Dynasty, under the leadership of Emperor Chongzhen, has broken out of this 300-year cycle.
If Zhu Cixiang thinks so, then his national status will be shaken!
"Father..." Zhu Cixiang's face was solemn, "My Ming Dynasty has not escaped from the 300-year cycle of rise and fall!"
"Not yet? Why?" Zhu Youjian looked at his son.
"Because behind the 300-year cycle of ups and downs is actually the contradiction between man and earth... Food is the basis of the people, and the earth is the basis of food."
Zhu Cixiang said: "When dynasties first prospered, it was often the end of troubled times. China's population has suffered heavy losses in troubled times, and the dynasties it prospered in often had fewer people and more land. Often 20 to 30 million people farmed ten With hundreds of millions of acres of farmland, even if you plant extensively and harvest little, you can still live in peace and have enough food, so it will naturally be easy to stabilize. Even if there is a major disaster, you will be able to survive because there are few people, the land is vast, and there is sufficient food. It is easy to save surplus food in good years. If The major disasters from the first to the seventeenth year of Chongzhen occurred during the Hongwu period, and the court would never be so difficult.
Nowadays, the country is barely surviving the disaster years, but the population remains the same, reaching more than 20 million, and the number is increasing by more than 2 million every year... Within a few decades, it has increased to 40 million. It is possible! By then, China's billions of acres of land will not be able to support a population of 40 million people. Therefore, this 300-year period does not really count as an escape. But my father has worked very hard to jump outside the cycle! "
"It makes sense!" Zhu Youjian nodded and said with a smile, "Brother Chun, you are indeed my good son... I will grant 4,000 noble families, recruit 3 million military households, start wars from east to west, and conquer from north to south. , just to give the excessive population of Middle-earth a place to go.
If one hundred and eighty thousand households could be rehabilitated every year, the life of Guo Zuo of the Ming Dynasty could be extended by more than a hundred years! In this way, my generation, your generation, the generation of wealthy children, and the generation of sons of wealthy children will all have nothing to worry about. "
Of course Zhu Youjian didn't know how long Zhu Cihong had extended his life for the Ming Dynasty in his previous life, but he felt that a hundred years of life extension was still stable.
The idea is good, but the issue of profit and loss... Zhu Cixiang was also a little speechless.
Emperor Chongzhen's three-level feudal system of vassals, nobles, and military households was actually a feudal colonial system that expanded externally.
The vassal king conferred the title of king, and the noble children who followed the vassal king to hang out became the vassals and officials of the vassal state. The ordinary military households became the citizens or warriors of the vassal state after they went out.
In addition, according to Chongzhen's feudal plan, feudalism had to be carried out in the Ming Dynasty before large-scale external feudalism. The current Ming Dynasty in the mainland is not all governed by provinces, prefectures, counties, and officials. There are also many feudal vassals. place.
Roughly speaking, in 14 provinces including Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Anhui (Huaixi plus Taiping, Ningguo, Huizhou, and Chizhou), Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Guangxi In terms of territory, the vast majority of government offices and prefectures and counties managed by roving officials accounted for an absolute majority, while the territories managed by chieftains or thousands of households accounted for only a minority.
Within the eight general military jurisdictions of Yunnan, Guizhou (the two provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou have been abolished), Liaodong, Liaoxi, Yanning, Xuanda, Anxi, and Hexi (Shaanxi has been demarcated), feudal land and thousands of households are The land owned by Hexunzhuang accounts for the majority, and the land managed by Fuzhou County accounts for the minority.
These eight general military areas are all places with few people and vast land. Of course, Qianhusuo and Xunzhuang have to be moved there continuously. At least half of the military households who went to further places to establish kingdoms had to be drawn from the Qianhusuo and Xunzhuang in these eight general military areas. There were more military households who had lived and cultivated land in these places for a period of time. They have combat effectiveness and can adapt to the environment of the target area, so they must be used as the backbone to form a military immigration group with strong combat effectiveness.
And outside the 14th direct provinces and the eight general military areas, there is also the land of control... which is the territory that is nominally annexed, but in fact it is difficult to control, or simply Zhu Youjian thinks it is the Ming Dynasty. soil of! For example, this is the situation now in most areas of Northeast China (including outer Northeast China), Qinghai and most areas of the snow-covered plateau.
Zhu Youjian not only had to send military households to those places (including Xunzhuang households), but also sent troops to conquer those who refused. This time Zhu Youjian personally conquered Northeast China and North Korea in order to eliminate the remnants of slaves and thieves there so that more feudal households could enter.
In addition to the vassal state, the general military area, and the Jisi area, Emperor Chongzhen also developed the concept of "brotherly states", which was to be passed on to Zhu Cixuan's Great Mongolia and Zhu Cijong's target Japan... A lot The feudal households and military households from Han Dynasty will eventually migrate to these two countries.
At first glance, Zhu Youjian's set of feudal colonization is similar to Zhu Cihong's colonization in his previous life, but there is one difference. Zhu Youjian did not consider profits at all, and he did not calculate costs very much. Naturally, he would not regard areas that were easier to make profits as priority areas for colonization - unlike Zhu Cixiang who initially targeted the wealthy west coast of America and Southeast Asian trade nodes. Zhu Youjian paid more attention to historical origins and the need to prepare for northern nomads, so the Western Regions, Monan Grassland, and Northeast China were his focus.
Before the end of the Little Glacier season, colonization in these areas will not only be costly, but also difficult to make a profit.
Therefore, Zhu Youjian's feudal colonization was all at a loss, and a large amount of wealth needed to be collected from the southeast of the Ming Dynasty to fill the colonial deficit.
Of course, in Zhu Cihong's view, Zhu Youjian's colonial route was not without merit. He invested a lot in the southern grain-producing areas, and also established friendly cooperative relations with the Dutch, which allowed Ming Dynasty to obtain several reliable grain-producing areas.
(End of chapter)
