Shi Yusi.
A row of copper urns filled with ice cubes were laid out between Zhu Yijun and the ruling ministers. At this time, Zhu Yijun himself was holding a goose feather fan to fan himself with a gentle breeze while asking Fang Fengshi and Qi Jiguang:
"What kind of border defense strategy have you come up with?"
"Your Majesty, according to Zheng Butang's wishes, if you want to avoid barbarian invasion now, you can cooperate with Sanniangzi to mine for profit, so as to lock the barbarians!"
"Because there are many poor people in Hudihu in border towns now, especially after the border trade with Gongtong."
Fang Feng said in advance.
Zhu Yijun nodded after hearing this: "Could it be that ordinary Hu people are more exploited by their nobles?"
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!"
Fang Fengshi then continued to answer: "After the border trade with Gong, although more horses and yellow sheep of the Hu people can be sold to the Chinese mainland, more of these horses and yellow sheep are controlled by the nobles of the Hu people, making ordinary people The horses and sheep that the barbarians can exchange privately are greatly reduced!"
"Because of this, many times, our governor had to limit the number of horses sold by the Hu tribes, in order to prevent their nobles from exploiting their herdsmen too harshly, which would lead to an increase in the number of roving cavalry and even their escape into our country. There are refugees in the Ming Dynasty, which will only increase the pressure on our country to stabilize the people!"
Fang Fengshi was the governor of Xuanda before being transferred to Beijing, so he has always been very aware of border trade matters.
Zhu Yijun then continued: "Therefore, he, Zheng Luo, believed that the imperial court could cooperate with the Hulu nobles to mine mining profits, so that these ordinary Hu people who were becoming more and more trapped could become settled Hu people with jobs. Furthermore, it was not easy for the nobles to instigate the invaders, and it was easy to be monitored because they settled in the mining area. It also benefited the barbarian nobles and made them give up the idea of provoking the emperor for the new gift?"
"Is such that."
"According to Zheng Butang's intention, even if there are still barbarian nobles who want to cause trouble, it will be difficult to gather a large-scale barbarian bandit. At most, there will only be a hundred or a thousand riders."
"It just so happens that the price of charcoal in the customs has been rising year by year. This is all due to the hardship of the small people in Dasu since His Majesty came to the throne, so the number of wealthy people has increased greatly. In addition, the weather is getting colder, so the demand for charcoal has not decreased!"
"What's more, the smelting industry in this dynasty has greatly increased, so the demand for charcoal has also increased greatly, which in turn has caused a large increase in charcoal."
"However, the area outside the Pass where the barbarians live is a good place for quarrying. Therefore, Zheng Butang wanted to use a profitable method to end the war."
Fang Feng replied at the right time.
Coal is coal.
Since Jingtai in the Ming Dynasty, the technology of using screened coal to make iron began to appear.
Therefore, Fang Fengshi mentioned here that the demand for coal increased due to the increase in iron-making demand in the Ming Dynasty.
"That's a good idea."
"It might work wonders."
"Zheng Luo is a capable minister. He can actually think of such a mutually beneficial and win-win solution."
Zhu Yijun nodded and then looked at Shen Shixing and other ruling ministers and said: "In general, as long as the people of the country are enriched and the country has no internal worries, external hidden dangers will not be a problem and they can be solved well, even It is completely possible to defeat others without fighting."
"What Your Majesty said is that if you regard benefiting the people as the foundation of governing a country, the wealth of the world will no longer be a certainty. In this way, you can extend the emperor's favor to foreigners, apply benevolence and righteousness, and achieve the result of becoming a king."
Shen Shixing said with a smile.
Other ministers also agreed.
Zhu Yijun then asked: "Has your Privy Council discussed any other solutions?"
Then, Qi Jiguang said: "Your Majesty, we are going to organize and train the border people!"
"Because most of the border residents are military households, although most of them have become farmers, most of them still have the foundation to defend the border and fight against the invaders. At least there are still many who can ride horses. Therefore, the court can completely train them as militiamen and make them part-farm A half-battle, or a warning for the camp."
"And because most of them have lost their land, they are also in poverty. They can't spend much money on training them. Instead, they can take this opportunity to subsidize the border people. After all, because the livelihood of the border towns has become increasingly difficult, even though His Majesty has been given sufficient military pay since he took the throne. , but there is still a phenomenon of military households migrating southward, which makes the border guard population
Less than a year. "
"This is true, the population of border towns has indeed been decreasing over the years, so much so that the officials no longer strictly test the number of border town household registrations to become border ministers."
Zhang Xueyan, the Minister of Civil Affairs, followed.
Zhu Yijun nodded after hearing this.
He also knows that due to the influence of the Little Glacier climate, the reduction in grain production in the north is getting more and more serious. The migration of northern border residents to the south is not just a matter of whether the officials are clean and honest, but a general trend caused by climate factors. Even many Mongolians are The nomadic economy was severely damaged by the Little Glacier climate, and a large number of them fled into the hinterland, or became refugees in Gyeonggi Province, and even had the opportunity to recruit into the Ming Dynasty's border army when the Ming Dynasty began to implement the camp system.
"Then let's train."
"Border residents who participate in training and perform border security tasks will be given subsidies during training and early warning patrols. If they die in battle, they will also be given a pension."
"You guys should discuss it and formulate subsidy and pension standards."
Zhu Yijun said.
"According to the order!"
At this time, Qi Jiguang said again: "Your Majesty, what you mentioned just now is only about strengthening the border preparations, the strategy for dealing with the people and the barbarians, but has not mentioned the border army. In my opinion, for the border army, we need a capable person." A general who is good at fighting can take the initiative to suppress individual captive chiefs at any time who still have ambitions to annex China and are unwilling to accept new gifts and Chinese culture."
"Who do you recommend to the Privy Council for this general?"
Zhu Yijun asked.
Fang Fengshi replied: "I recommend Li Rusong, the general who conquered the barbarians, who has returned to Beijing. He is a border general of the Northern Army. He also knows the internal affairs of the northern border soldiers and often has contact with the Yiding. There are many people in his family who are in the Tartars." The various ministries of Tarvala are engaged in business and have enough insight, so they are more suitable for this task than the southern military generals."
"Right now, there is no big battle that requires more than 100,000 troops, so it would be appropriate for him to do this."
Zhu Yijun said.
"What your Majesty is saying is that Li Rusong was very resourceful in Burma, but obviously lacked coordination, which gave Mang Yingli the opportunity to withdraw to the west. He could have avoided attacking Dagon himself and instead instigated Siam to send tens of thousands of troops. His command is to go deep into the western part of Dongwu and build a stronghold to cut off his retreat. I asked him to think more about long-term plans before leaving the capital, but it is obvious that his strategy is still limited to seeking temporary great achievements, and he has forgotten to plan for a general strategy as a commander!"
Qi Jiguang said at this time.
Zhu Yijun smiled and said: "Then you should talk to him carefully about this matter after he comes to Beijing. There are few people who are born with sagacity, and they still need someone to guide them."
Qi Jiguang raised his hand and said yes.
…
Li Rusong was already on his way back to Beijing and had arrived in Yuezhou Prefecture, Huguang.
In order to complete the task assigned to him by Zhu Yijun, Li Rusong had to travel wherever he wanted to collect information, and then wrote it down in a secret memorial. When he stopped at Yuezhou Fucheng, he wandered around incognito.
Because of this, Li Rusong was able to see a scene of government soldiers destroying a baby drowning tower by the river outside the city of Yuezhou Prefecture, and then asked a ferryman: "Does your land also drown female babies?"
"Yes, he not only dotes on girls, he also dotes on men!"
"No way, we can't feed so many people."
"But it's different now. The number of children determines whether or not to be exempted from military service. As a result, instead of drowning, everyone buys babies and raises them! After all, compared to the benefits of exemption, raising a few children is nothing."
When the boatman came back, he smiled and said, "My daughter-in-law has given birth to a daughter now, so I don't want to throw it away."
After hearing this, Li Rusong returned to the inn and wrote a secret note to Zhu Yijun, saying: "The imperial court has corrected the folk customs by waiving military service, and it has had a miraculous effect. The number of infant drownings has been greatly reduced. The Yuezhou government office has begun to intensively demolish the towers of infant drownings..."
