While walking in the countryside, he suddenly asked Liu Jin to arrange a place suitable for the emperor to stay, but the old eunuch was extremely anxious. Finally, he found the magistrate of Wanping County and chose a relatively clean square courtyard in the county seat.
The magistrate of Wanping County was a person named Zuo Mingshansong who was originally recommended by Gu Renyi. A Jinshi in the fifteenth year of Hongzhi. What surprised the emperor was that this person was Gu Renyi's brother-in-law.
Gu Renyi considered himself to be upright and aboveboard. When recommending people, he would recommend talents without avoiding relatives. He would not care if others wanted to impeach him.
Zhu Houzhao shook his head and chuckled. These literati all had such a sour and stubborn temper.
Of course, the report he heard did say that this person did a good job. But I haven't seen him here today. As an emperor, you have to give favors, but you can't just give them to anyone you meet, otherwise it will be somewhat rash. And since he is Gu Renyi's brother-in-law, as long as he does well, he doesn't have to worry about being buried.
Zuo Shansong saw that the emperor could not succeed, so he had to go back. Unfortunately, he could not sleep well when he went back. After all, the emperor was here. In addition, I also heard that the emperor went out of the palace to inspect the land allocation in various places.
I've been looking at it all the way, and I don't know if I've found any mistakes or omissions.
Helpless, since he didn't have to wait in front of the emperor anyway, he summoned all the people from the county government overnight and carefully went over all the matters related to the land allocation in Wanping County, including how many households there were, how many acres of land were allocated, and the types of grain. How is the distribution going?
In addition, a revised letter should be sent to Gu Renyi as soon as possible.
I have always heard that the emperor attaches great importance to this matter, but no matter how much he attaches importance to it, I have never seen him come out of the palace to see it in person.
At the same time, Wanping County also had an influx of people from Dongchang and Shenwuwei. These people had three floors inside and three floors outside, basically surrounding the square courtyard.
Wang Zhi lives in a side room, so it's hard to fall asleep at this time, so she has to look at the main hall from time to time, where the candles are still burning. Occasionally, a black figure would move in front of the window, and you could tell it was the emperor just by looking at his figure.
The maid said: "Your Majesty is very diligent and does not go to bed even at night."
"After leaving the palace... it should be okay." Wang Zhi guessed, but she couldn't guess why the emperor didn't sleep.
In fact, Zhu Houzhao was writing a letter.
During the day, Wang Zhi said that it was a big deal that the little Tatar prince might enter Datong. The difficulty is that this is just a guess. Now the border guards are in the hands of the commander-in-chief and the governor himself. As the emperor, although he can be easily mobilized, he will disrupt the original defense if he is not careful, and the Tatars He is not a fool. When he sees you making adjustments, he will naturally follow suit.
What if the troops and horses from other places are mobilized to move in the direction of Datong, and the Tatar army really fails to pass Datong?
However, his attitude was very upright. He wrote to inform Yang Yiqing and asked him to consider it and not to omit anything. If something unexpected happened, he would not be caught off guard.
This letter is a secret message.
He originally thought about whether to write a letter to Datong Commander-in-Chief Zhou Shangwen, but later he decided not to do so. He was originally very confident in leading troops into the grassland and attacking the enemy's lair.
As soon as this letter from the emperor is gone, as a minister, he must hesitate in his heart. If he is in a dilemma on both sides and his will is weak, it may easily lead to unclear goals and defeat.
"Liu Jin,"
"My slave is here."
"Remember something for me. Go back and ask the people in the Capital Planning Department. There is an area without city walls outside the south city of the capital. Ask them to submit a memorandum stating how many households and how many people. Oh, let the Ministry of War coordinate Handle it, if the Tatars break into the pass, how will the people outside the city be evacuated and protected."
Zhu Houzhao felt that some of his previous ideas might be too optimistic.
Wang Zhi thought of a breakthrough, and maybe Dayan Khan could think of other breakthroughs.
There is no war in this world that is guaranteed to be won before it is fought, so some precautionary preparations are still necessary.
"Yes, I have remembered this. Your Majesty, it's late at night, should I go to bed soon? I have something to do tomorrow."
"No rush, just wait."
And he couldn't sleep.
After a while, there was movement outside the courtyard, and the people who came were all carrying knives hanging from their waists.
They walked straight to the door and knelt down.
"Commander Mao Yuwen, the commander of the Jinyi Guards, has an audience."
With a creak, the brown wooden door opened, and then Mao Yuwen lowered his head and walked in. The others were waiting in the courtyard outside the door.
Zhu Houzhao didn't say much nonsense. While writing, he asked: "Have the acres around the capital been distributed in place? Are there any evil people who have the idea of annexing the people's fields?"
"His Majesty ordered the courtiers to conduct multiple rounds of inspections. Under heavy pressure, many people were allocated fields. However, the situation in the countryside was complicated. Some people already owed huge debts and were forced to use their fields to pay off the debts. There were also some rural bullies. , the poor people have been afraid of it for a long time. According to what I see, it will probably not be the same this year or next year, but once the court relaxes... the rebound speed will be unexpected."
"It turns out that Gu Renyi also submitted a memorial. He suggested that the court freeze the sale of land. Those who sold the land only need to sue the government, and the government will invalidate the sale, including using the land to pay debts. In essence, this is also a kind of sale. If you use this With this method of punishment, no one will buy the land anymore. However, this kind of blocking of buying and selling transactions will affect the whole body. I only allow it to be implemented in Daxing County. What you said today is different from what he said at that time. That's right. It doesn't matter. After I return, I will order the cabinet to issue an order and spread it."
"Your Majesty is holy."
The reason why Zhu Houzhao has always been worried about the land distribution in the countryside is because in that movie, even if someone stands up for the people, the people are still afraid of Huang Silang from the bottom of their hearts.
The fields can be divided, but it is actually very difficult to get rid of this fear.
"Wherever I walked, Jinyiwei went to touch again, check out those who usually like to bully men and dominate women, and convict and arrest them."
"yes."
"Do you understand my intention?"
"Your Majesty, please give me your instructions."
Zhu Houzhao still kept his head down and wrote: "The people in the world are actually the weakest. The mountains are high and the emperor is far away. Even if I want to, I can't make decisions for them every day. But many of them regard the Holy Spirit sitting on the Golden Palace You should regard it as hope. My leaving the palace this time is not a secret. After tonight, it will be spread throughout the capital. Officials in the court, big and small, also know why I left the palace.
So if I take a trip, everything will remain the same. Even the emperor can't uphold justice for the common people, so isn't the emperor just a joke? Regarding language, you must also pay attention to the fact that the middle and lower classes of Jinyiwei must not collude with local officials. You are an old man next to me. Don't think I'm harsh. These few years are very critical and you can't make mistakes on such critical matters. "
"I understand what your Majesty means."
"What's the news from the Tartars?"
According to Jin Yiwei's current division of labor, North Town Fusi is responsible for spying on the situation outside the country, while South Town Fusi has control over the territory. The last secret letter was also sent by Fu Si from Beizhen.
"Not since last time."
a long time.
The emperor replied, "I understand. You will still follow me secretly tomorrow."
"yes."
When Mao Yuwen was thinking about whether to resign, the emperor had almost finished writing and put down his writing brush. After blowing on it, he folded it again and stuffed it into the yellow envelope that was already prepared on the side.
"Find a stable person and send this letter to the Guyuan Trilateral Governor's Mansion." He emphasized, "Remember, no one is allowed to open it except Yang Yiqing."
Mao Yuwen took it with both hands and then disappeared into the night.
Early the next morning,
After Zhu Houzhao washed up, he went out. When he passed by Liu Jin, he said, "We are going to take a carriage today. Let the girl from Weiningbo's Mansion also get on the carriage. The sun is too hot outside."
"My slave understands."
When he walked outside the door, he found many officials kneeling, but most of them were blocked from approaching. Xu Guan and Liu Jin were not sure. They recognized some people and some they didn't. If they said they were such-and-such officials, couldn't they be pretending to be someone else?
"Why are there so many people?" Zhu Houzhao frowned.
"Your Majesty, they all heard that the Holy Emperor was here, so they came to pick him up."
"Tell them to go back to their own yamen! There are so many fields, and they don't come here until they are divided. I don't need them to accompany me all the way."
After saying that, he got into the carriage himself.
The county seat of Wanping County has generally been cleared, otherwise there would not be so few people around.
Zhu Houzhao didn't want to pursue it further. He dealt with many people for many key things. Forget about such small things, it was better to leave as soon as possible.
Wang Zhiduan was a little nervous as she sat there. The emperor looked bad, so she didn't want to touch his brows.
Fortunately, after the motorcade drove for a while, Zhu Houzhao opened the curtains from time to time and saw golden wheat fields everywhere, and he gradually felt relieved.
"I should have come out earlier. I always stay in the deep palace. I will never see such a scene as an emperor in my lifetime."
After saying this, there was no response.
Zhu Houzhao thought of something, "What's wrong? Are you scared?"
"Yesterday, my brother also said that I don't know the rules in the palace, and I'm afraid that if I say something wrong, I will only make His Majesty angry."
"I left the palace just because I didn't want to pay attention to the rules in the palace."
"Your Majesty is leaving the palace for the sake of the people of Beizhili."
"Same as you, half and half."
Wang Zhi smiled a little when she thought that she had said the same thing yesterday.
"Wang Zhi, judging from the many words you taught Uncle Wei Ning, you still know the thoughts of my emperor. After all, I just hope that everyone in the world can have enough to eat. However, only Beizhili It is already so difficult to make one province, but how difficult must it be to complete such a division of land in two capitals and thirteen provinces in the Ming Dynasty?"
"How can I, a woman, guess the Holy Will? The reason why I can teach my brother to speak like that is because His Majesty's Holy Will has actually been told to the ministers over and over again. I just believed it."
"You're right. I told them a long time ago."
"As for His Majesty saying that dividing the land is difficult, it doesn't matter to me."
"nothing?"
"It takes more than ten years to build a province a year. The Han Dynasty had the rule of Wen and Jing, and the Tang Dynasty had the Kaiyuan Dynasty. It took two or three generations of hard work to achieve great governance in the world. If your Majesty can do it in more than ten years, If all the provinces can be like today's Beizhili, then he can be regarded as an emperor for the ages."
"What if more than ten years are still long enough for me?"
Wang Zhi understood the meaning of the emperor's words, but she couldn't believe it. She could only say insinuatingly: "Your Majesty, no matter how great the profits of Nanyang Company's maritime trade are, they cannot buy all the land in the world."
If there is not enough profit to redeem the land, then the interests of the squires all over the world will be affected, and this relationship will be huge.
Zhu Houzhao also knew that Kang Mazi in the Qing Dynasty had wanted to measure the acres of land in the world several times, but he could not do it several times.
"You are indeed smart."
Wang Zhi's words may seem out of touch, but they are actually very important.
Zhu Houzhao turned his gaze to look at her and found that she had a small mouth, a tender skin on her cheeks, and big and lively eyes. At a glance, she had an extremely pure air.
"You should be of marriageable age."
He is a veteran and extremely thick-skinned. Even though he made such a abrupt transition, he said it very naturally and without any embarrassment.
However, it made a girl like Wang Zhi blush all of a sudden, and she had to say "hmm" softly.
"Why are you not married? Is it because there is no one in the family to help you?"
"Also...it's also me who is willful and doesn't want to get married."
"Oh, that's pretty good."
Zhu Houzhao felt relieved.
"If...if your Majesty really wants to do what you just said, I have a piece of advice."
"you say."
"Reorganize the garrison and take charge of the military."
"Tell me more about it."
"Because of the Nanyang Company in Northern Zhili, many gentry were not forced into panic. However, the remaining provinces did not have such conditions, so it was difficult to guarantee that some chaos would not occur somewhere, and the court would have to use some forceful means. . Coincidentally, the defense posts in various places were already dilapidated, and the imperial court used the name of rectification to rebuild the defense posts. As long as the defense posts in various places are not lost, His Majesty can sit on the Diaoyutai safely. "
"You are a girl, but your words are quite spicy."
"Thank you for your criticism, Your Majesty. I will pay more attention to you, little lady."
"You have to eat food one bite at a time. It's too hasty to rebuild the health center now."
"yes."
Zhu Houzhao opened the fan and fanned it slowly a few times. No matter what, Wang Zhi still dared to think and speak.
"If you don't get married, there won't be a husband who can take care of you. Maybe you can take care of Ming Pao for me. The current man has been doing it for so many years. If he doesn't get promoted, he will be lazy in politics."
"Ah?" Wang Zhi said "ah" directly. She was really surprised, "This... I'm afraid all the civil and military ministers in the court will think it's inappropriate."
"Although it is leisurely to be raised in a boudoir, you have extraordinary wisdom after all. There is really no point in spending the rest of your life there, right? As for the civil and military ministers who think it is inappropriate... If you are an official in the court, that is indeed inappropriate. But "Ming Pao" itself did not open a government office. Even if they talk about it, they can't do anything."
Wang Zhi raised her eyelids, allowing Zhu Houzhao to take a closer look at her true appearance, "If Your Majesty is willing to trust her, I will naturally be willing. Although she is a daughter, Wang Zhi is also a queen of Zhongliang."
"After being a loyal and good person, I can count on you. In fact, in the past, "Ming Pao", as the mouthpiece of the government, actually played some role in controlling public opinion. But it itself cannot be considered particularly successful, and its influence is not It is really limited. Sometimes I think that the scope of business of "Ming Pao" can actually be expanded. This is also my real intention, to use this name to cover it, and then do some things."
Wang Zhi listened with rapt attention.
Unexpectedly, the carriage suddenly stopped at this time.
Because it stopped so suddenly, even Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but fall forward.
Although Wang Zhi was a girl, she always respected and loved the emperor in her heart. In desperation, she hurriedly stretched out her arms to block the emperor, "Your Majesty, be careful!"
At the same time, the horses outside the carriage suddenly neighed.
Zhu Houzhao didn't have time to care about the outside, because he was hitting the girl's leg.
===
My back hurts after sitting for a long time. Today I will update 4,000 words.
(End of chapter)
