Chapter 42 Struggle

Zhang Fu guessed well.

The so-called once a son of heaven and a courtier.

This statement is earthy, but it is very true.

No matter how loyal Zhang Fu is to Zhu Qizhen, Zhang Fu is still not cultivated by Zhu Qizhen, and there is a gap between the two. But Meng Ying is different.

If Zhu Qizhen promotes Meng Ying, Meng Ying will probably be idle at home in this life.

So although Meng Ying is also a famous general. But at the moment, the political label attached to his body is the emperor's person.

In the same position, Zhang Fu may have the courage to refute the emperor's words, but Meng Ying never has the confidence.

But it was not without reason for Zhang Fu to prevent Zhu Qizhen from promoting Meng Ying, he said: "This dynasty has a degree of rewards and punishments, and the knights are not lightly sealed, and now there are only five dukes in the court." Although the Marquis of Baoding has meritorious, but he will never be crowned a duke, His Majesty will give land, gold, marriage, reward the house, and hide the descendants. However, the Marquis of Baoding is the duke, and the minister is afraid that he has harmed the Marquis of Baoding, not to mention anything else, once the Marquis of Baoding is crowned, can His Majesty use it outside? ”

When Zhu Qizhen heard this, his heart suddenly moved.

Secretly said: "What Zhang Fu said makes sense. ”

The remaining five dukes of the Ming Dynasty, the Duke of Wei, the Duke of Dingguo, out of the line of King Zhongshan, Xu Da's great exploits, needless to say, Xu Zengshou is sorry for Emperor Jianwen, but he is definitely worthy of Emperor Taizong, so there are two dukes in this vein, and Zhang Fu's British duke, before the king of Hejian rescued and died, and then Zhang Fu destroyed Annan's merit, only then did the Duke of Guo.

Chengguo Gong Zhu Nengnai was Taizong's right and left hand when he was martyred, and he made many military exploits to have the position of the Duke of the country, and the Mu family is in the same vein, and Mu Ying's credit is never small.

The world only knows that Mu Ying is guarding Yunnan, but they don't know that before guarding Yunnan, Mu Ying has already fought in the world and fought many battles, not to mention that the Mu family is the adopted son of Taizu. Not even a surname is given.

Therefore, although Baoding Hou Mengying has merit, compared with these people, it cannot be compared at all.

Although the Luchuan Rebellion is a little bigger, it is not as good as the destruction of Annan.

And Zhang Fu's last words really touched Zhu Qizhen's heart.

Although Zhang Fu is old, he has always been in good health, if Zhang Fu is allowed to compete with Meng Ying in riding and shooting, Zhang Fu may not be as good as Meng Ying, but why does Zhang Fu have to stay in Beijing all the time.

Naturally, Zhang Fu has become a British duke, and there is no seal, and the wealth is enough, and he has really made great contributions. How should the imperial court award the reward?

Zhu Qizhen's positioning of Meng Ying has never been a marshal guarding in Beijing, but a general who leads the army in a big battle. Because it is enough to have one Zhang Fu in Beijing.

Only then did Zhu Qizhen say: "What Guogong said is extremely true, but I think badly. ”

Zhang Fu said: "If Your Majesty really wants to reward the Meng family, the minister thinks it is best to rehabilitate the Meng family." In those years, many cases were implicated, but now that the situation has changed, Your Majesty should also show leniency and tolerate it

。 ”

Zhu Qizhen felt that Zhang Fu's attention was good.

The reason why the Marquis of Baoding was so displaced in the Hongxuan and Xuan dynasties was because they were too deeply involved with the Hanshu people.

If it is true that they were wronged, then it is not necessarily.

But as Zhang Fu said, now that the situation has changed, it is not necessary to investigate who is too close to the Hanshu people.

Although the king of Han has now been nailed to the pillar of shame, he can even only be called a Hanshu person. But one thing has to be admitted, when King Han assisted Taizong to fight the world, he was indeed very brave and had extensive connections in the army.

Meng Ying is just one of them.

The people who are really too deeply involved with the Hanshu people and cannot be cut off have long since died, and most of the people who survive today are just unlucky people who have been implicated.

Therefore, this amnesty can reward Meng Ying for her work, and from then on, the black history of the Meng family will be closed, and no one can turn over the old accounts. At the same time, it may be possible to gather a group of talents.

Zhu Qizhen said: "It depends on the meaning of the Duke of the Kingdom." ”

Zhu Qizhen immediately asked the Hanlin scholars around him to draw up an edict, send it to the cabinet, and then go through the process and send it to Yunnan. Among them, he also told two sentences about the matter of King Xiang, let King Xiang discuss the matter of Luchuan in the domain, let King Xiang discuss with Wang Ji and Meng Ying, and after discussion, draw up a charter and play it in Beijing.

At this time, Zhu Qizhen didn't have the heart to worry about King Xiang.

Even the war in Yunnan is not the most important thing in Zhu Qizhen's heart. The most important thing is still the current drought.

Zhu Qizhen came to the Wenhua Palace.

Yang Shiqi, Yang Pu, Wang Zhi, Hubu Shangshu Liu Zhongfu. All four of them are wise.

The first thing Zhu Qizhen said when he came in was "Did Qin Tianjian say when it would rain?" ”

Yang Shiqi said: "The minister has already asked Qin Tianjian that in the past ten days, the water vapor has been scarce, and there should be no rain." ”

Zhu Qizhen was not surprised by this, as the drought intensified, Zhu Qizhen asked Qin Tianjian almost three times a day, and the first thing he did when he got up every morning was to ask Qin Tianjian about the weather, and he saw that the minister also asked this sentence.

It's just that Qin Tianjian's ability is also quite limited.

They are judged by a few experiences. The error rate is extremely high, and it is even a little more accurate than looking at the sky yourself.

Zhu Qizhen said: "How much food is left? ”

Liu Zhongfu said: "The twelve warehouses in Beijing are nearly half empty, and the grain in stock is only six million stones, and the minister thinks that the grain in Taicang can no longer be moved." ”

One stone in the Ming Dynasty was approximately ninety-two kilograms. Six million stones is only more than 550,000 tons. For individuals, this is an astronomical amount, but it is different for Beijing, a city with a population of one million.

Not to mention the general disaster in the north, the grain that is being relieved everywhere and the grain that is provided for work in lieu of relief must come out of Taicang, and even the grain that stabilizes grain prices is all grain in Taicang.

That's why it's consumed so quickly.

In just two or three months, millions of food were spent.

Generally speaking, except for Shaanxi, the drought in the whole north is not serious, and the drought in the rest of the places is particularly serious, and Zhu Qizhen approved a concession in the previous announcement, exempting a county in Shanxi from paying taxes of more than 10,000 stones.

And Zhu Qizhen had a feeling that he was worried that this was just the beginning.

Therefore, it is impossible to transfer grain from Shanxi.

But if the grain doesn't come out of Taicang, where does it come from?

In many places in Hebei, May is the harvest season, but most of them are not harvested, that is, near the river, there is some harvest, but it has been plagued by locusts. Not much has survived.

From the locust plague in March to May, the locusts exploded within a few months. Zhu Qizhen swallowed locusts as a statement, and hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of people in Hebei were thrown into the extermination of locusts.

It's just that compared with later generations, there are still too few people in Hebei.

Especially during the Jingnan period, Hebei was the main battlefield, and I don't know how many people died on the battlefield. Therefore, Hebei's vitality is slower to recover than other places.

Therefore, compared with Hebei Province in later generations, even if Shuntianfu is added to Zhili Province today, there are not many people. In the face of such an overwhelming number of locusts, it is only to be culled during the day, or lured by light at night.

The absolute truth of an agrarian society is that there is strength in numbers. Without enough population, these locusts simply cannot be eradicated.

At the time, it was not useless.

The birthplace of these locusts is Hejian Province, Baoding Province, and some other lands that were flooded last year, which are suitable for locusts to lay eggs.

With such a large-scale culling, Hebei's agriculture was finished, but it did not allow a large number of locusts to fly to Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan. So these places are just droughts.

Otherwise, Zhu Qizhen will face an even more cruel situation.

But for the people of Zhili, this is meaningless.

Because of such a large number of actions, there will naturally be a large amount of food support behind it, whether it is exchanging locusts for food, or directly paying the people for work relief, a huge amount of food support is needed.

Now I can't support it anymore.

Yang Shiqi also said: "The battle of Luchuan is over, and the minister has already deployed Huguang grain into Henan. Now Shandong, Fengyang, Henan, the disaster has been contained. ”

"It's just that Zhili and Gyeonggi are afraid that the famine will spread to the beginning of autumn, so the six million stone grain in Jingshi is far from enough."

Zhu Qizhen said: "Mr. Wang, how is your righteous people's policy?" ”

Even if Zhu Qizhen was unwilling, he compromised before the cruel situation. agreed to Wang Zhi's move to sell his official position in disguise.

That is, the people of Zhili pay 500 stones, the plaque of the righteous people, and various privileges such as exemption from labor.