The second thing Zheng Haizhu wanted to talk to the emperor today was about his plan that had a complex system but could be tried now.
"Your Majesty, since the rebellious behavior of Jianwen's descendants, I have thought of my vassal in the Ming Dynasty, and would like to give advice to Your Majesty and ask for help."
"Oh?" Zhu Changluo's sitting posture returned from leaning to leaning forward.
He just loves hearing new ideas.
What's more, Zheng Haizhu also mentioned the word "Qingying".
How could she, a woman, ask for help regarding the issue of the Zhu family clan?
"Master Zheng," Zhu Changluo smiled as if he was amused and said, "You want me to cut down the vassal, right?"
Zheng Haizhu shook his head and said bluntly: "Today is different from the past, and it is not a strong vassal, so what can be reduced? Your Majesty, what I have seen, heard and thought in these years is exactly different from the rumors. As far as I know, now I Although the Ming dynasty had more than 30 princes, hundreds of princes, and more than 10,000 generals of Jingguo and Zhenguo, the "Zonglu" incident criticized by scholars all over the world was not what they told the people. , accounting for most of the local expenditure on grain, rice, and money."
Zhu Changluo's eyes lit up, and he patted the table unconsciously, and blurted out: "That's right! On the day of the late emperor's grand visit, I listened to the lecture in front of the bed, and the late emperor put it in his head and told me not to default on arrears to the clan again. Lu! Zong Lu is not a huge waste."
After Zhu Changluo said these words, he paused. He seemed to be a little worried about whether it would be inappropriate to tell Zheng Haizhu about the situation on the day Lingqian ascended the throne.
Zheng Haizhu, like grabbing the reeds on the water, hurriedly continued: "The late emperor was wise. Even if the Lumi of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan has been changed into a 'permanent quota', plus the Zonglu of Qilu, Lake, Guangchuan, Shu and other vassal areas , the annual expenditure is less than 10% of the imperial government's expenditure. What's more, the yamen in various places have to drag it out, and it is not clear whether they can actually pay half of it every year. How come everyone from scholars to commoners will be Zong Luchuan is like a locust eating away the income of the Ming Dynasty."
Zhu Changluo asked in surprise: "How did you know?"
Zheng Haizhu said calmly: "I have been to Shandong several times in the past few years and learned that King Lu has resigned from the prince's lineage, Lumi Luyin. When I was traveling from Yanzhou to Dengzhou, I saw him several times. , there were actually members of the clan, such as Fu Guo, Feng Guo Lieutenant, County Lord Yibin, etc., dragging their children and daughters to the gates of prefectures and counties to beg for money they owed. There were even beggars on the streets. At the beginning, how could I dare to believe that they actually It's a vassal. After thinking about it carefully, I understood that distributing rice to the clan was far behind the errands of transporting grain or sending money to the capital for local yamen. How can the local officials take them seriously? From King Lu to General Jingguo, the Lu vassal whom I made friends with because of my investigation of the Wenxiang Rebellion was well-managed. There were many people in Zhuangtian and Meishan. The harvest not only supported the expenses inside and outside the palace, but also contributed thousands of taels of silver to the capital. Even so, there must be many other clans of Lu Fan who are unable to succeed because of the imperial court's arrears of lumilu silver. , so King Lu just submitted a petition to resign from Zonglu, which is like telling the Shandong Prefecture that he is willing to give up the one hundred thousand taels of silver and distribute it to the clan below, so as not to starve them to death."
Zhu Changluo sighed, "The Lu Fan is indeed like the British Duke, who has been loyal and good for generations."
But his expression didn't soften. Instead, the more he listened, the more his brows knitted to the point of killing mosquitoes.
No matter what, they are all surnamed Zhu. These descendants of the Zhu family are not rebels. For the emperor, even if it is not about emotions, it is about face.
With royal blood, he ended up working as a beggar on the street. Is the feng shui reversed and making the world laugh at his Zhu family? After all, is it still inseparable from the word "begging"?
The most hateful thing is that the rumor outside is that Zongfan Lumi has squeezed out military pay.
"Wang An, how many kilos of Lumi do you get from all the sects and vassals from all over the country in a year?"
Wang An served as the Superintendent of Ceremonies and was no stranger to the memorials sent in by the Ministry of Household Affairs. After a brief memory, he said: "Long live my lord, many Lumi are now folded into silver coins. It is hard to tell the tricks inside. I am brave!" I estimate that the total amount of salary that each feudal vassal should pay out of the amount of silver is about two million, and it is common for the actual debt to be over one million."
Zhu Changluo sneered: "My Zhu family has conquered the country. Up to now, I have to ask for 800,000 to 900,000 taels of silver every year to make ends meet, and I get scolded by the civil servants! Haha, that's right, I owe the vassal. Don’t be afraid of the money, can they really smash the state government’s government office? We can’t owe Beilu money.”
Zheng Haizhu listened quietly.
It is normal for the emperor to feel aggrieved by this.
The emperor believed that she, Zheng Haizhu, cared more about the facts than the courtiers outside, which was good.
But the emperor's thinking was wrong.
Even though it was your Zhu family who changed the surname of these thousands of miles of land, it was the people who worked hard to maintain it.
There is no real difference whether the annual expenditure is 800,000 to 900,000 taels, or the expenditure is 8 to 9 million taels. They are all the people's wealth that your Zhu family eats and drinks freely.
The land taxes and silver that the people paid by working as cattle and horses turned into military expenditures, which could be said to be exchange for a peace that would not be invaded by foreign invaders.
Why do you want to become Zong Lu and raise the descendants of your Zhu family?
This huge group of people must be brought out to work.
Over there, Zhu Changluo cursed a few times and felt calmer. Then he turned to Zheng Haizhu and asked, "What did you have in mind just now?"
Zheng Haizhu stood up, took out a piece of paper from his sleeve, and handed it to Cao Huachun who was standing aside: "Thank you, Eunuch Cao, for sending this to the Long Live Lord."
Zhu Changluo took it after the Long Case, reading it and talking about it.
"Change 'Study five years to get Lumi' to 'Last five years to get Lumi'?"
This first item surprised Zhu Changluo.
Zheng Haizhu explained calmly: "Your Majesty, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the men of the Ming Dynasty were even more powerful than the nine-sided force today. During the Hongwu Dynasty, the remnants of the Northern Yuan Dynasty were still arrogant and wreaking havoc. Taizu enfeoffed the Nine Characters in On the defense line from Guangning in the east to Ganzhou in the west, the kings of Liao, Ning, Yongle, Gu, Jin, Dai, Qin, Qing and Su were the "nine fortress kings". The number of elite soldiers ranges from a few thousand to more than ten thousand. They can defend against the enemy if they advance, and the people can be safe if they retreat. The scene back then was such that the warriors could swallow up thousands of miles like a tiger. It's a pity..."
Zheng Haizhu stopped expressing his emotions.
The words that followed "It's a pity" didn't sound very pleasant to say.
Since ancient times, in the emperor's family, there have been too many sons who can beat each other. It is a principle that blessings and misfortunes depend on each other. They are indeed a bluff to others. When fighting internally, it is a life-and-death drama.
Zhu Mingjiangshan has only been passed down to the second generation, and because of the reduction of vassalage, his uncle rebelled against his nephew. After Zhu Di came to power, he continued to reduce the vassal status, which was just a little smoother than his nephew's approach, but the consequence was that the vassal kings on the border became increasingly weak.
When the Tumubao Incident happened and the Mongols came again, the descendants of the frontier princes, King Qin, were sleepwalking. King Dai, King Lu and King Jin wanted to take their wives and children to escape to the interior for refuge. Finally, King Su of Lanzhou and Heping Liang The King of Han was still a bit bloody, so he each gathered several hundred men and horses to prepare for the King. The highlight was King Lu, who quickly mobilized the palace guards and handed them over to the generals stationed in Linqing for the court to dispatch.
At this moment, Zhu Changluo, who was sitting on the dragon chair, certainly understood what the woman standing opposite was feeling regretful about.
However, what she was thinking about was the word "pity", while she, the emperor, was still thinking about the word "terrible"!
"Master Zheng, if the disciples of the vassal clan develop strong soldiers, will it happen..." Zhu Changluo did not hide his worries.
Zheng Haizhu said without hesitation: "Yes or no, it still depends on how to practice." Take the Lu Fan, which has a huge population in the vassal, as an example. In the vassal, there is no matter whether it is the Prince's Palace, the County Prince's Palace, the Jingguo Protector General's Palace, or even In the Lieutenant's Mansion, those who are over fifteen years old, except for the eldest son of this lineage, regardless of the legitimate concubine, will go to the military camp for a period of five years. After the second term, they can receive a salary of silver, and the salary they receive can not only buy land , you can also go out to do business and sell goods without being bound by the old rules of the previous dynasty. In this way, if you don’t gather people in the camp for a long time, you can also get new profits when you return to the fiefdom. How could they become the so-called strong vassal under Emperor Jianwen? They can live and work in peace and contentment. Moreover, the imperial court continues to strengthen its army, so why and how do they dare to rebel?"
Zhu Changluo looked at the memorial in his hand thoughtfully. Indeed, the second article said that those who completed their military service were allowed to buy land, do business, or even become lawyers, which were originally strictly family-related occupations. If they did not become camp soldiers, Not only were they not given a clan salary, but members of the clan were still prohibited from doing many things that common people could do.
Zheng Haizhu added: "Your Majesty, the rule that you can only receive Lumi after five years of study was originally set by Lord Jiajing. I believe that the late emperor's purpose is to warn the children of the clan not to be uneducated and incompetent. So, please ask your Majesty Take a step further and make the young man of the royal family not only become a dandy, but also become a great man of the country."
Zhu Changluo took a sip of the tea soup and asked Wang An: "Look at Wang Banban, is Master Zheng's idea so whimsical?"
Wang An hurriedly bowed and said: "I don't know much about this. I just read a few old stories from the previous dynasty when I was blessed by the Holy Spirit to learn literacy in my study. I remember that in the late Tang Dynasty, there were many arrogant generals in the feudal towns. As time went by, the emperor could not control them." Live with them. Now, it’s a good thing that the border generals of Liaodong and Xuanda can fight, but Long Live Lord still has to save more of his own people."
Zhu Changluo nodded and turned to Zheng Haizhu: "You have already mentioned this, and I think about it carefully. Let me ask you, if you try to choose two sects first, which two will you choose?"
Zheng Haizhu said: "The first one is the acting king of Datong. Datong is an important military town, and there are many people who act as vassals. Lord Qia Wansui said that General Ma has been ordered to go to Xuan Da. If I recommend one more person, he will be Long Live Zhang Mingshi was pardoned after he ascended the throne. Zhang Mingshi was good at firearms, and Ma Xianglin was good at riding and fighting. There are similarities between Beilu and Jiannu. When Qi Shaobao was in Beiguan, in addition to cavalry, he also focused on handling firearms."
Zhu Changluo squinted his eyes: "Where's the second one?"
"The second one is the Lu vassal. The King of Qi has eliminated the vassal, and the three vassals of Lu, De, and Heng in Shandong are very useful. Your Majesty, please allow me to stay in the tent of the naval general Xu Yilong in Chongming. He also trained the children of Lu Fan in Dengzhou under the command of Qi Jin, the commander-in-chief of Zhenjiang."
Zhu Changluo nodded and said: "So, your idea is to go around the border, one to resist the Northern captives, and the other to target the Jiannu at the other end of the Liaohai Road?"
"Your Majesty is wise."
