Li Xi looked at his father, although he also had a premonition in his heart, otherwise he would not be so anxious, but what happened, Li Xi still didn't understand. But seeing his father's expression, Li Xi knew that something was really wrong this time.

"Dad, are you alright?"

Glancing at his son, Li Zhongxing said helplessly: "The emperor sent Zhang Whale to leave Beijing at this time, this is intentional!" ”

"No, you have to find a chance to meet the emperor." Li Zhongxing waved his hand, and the expression on his face kept changing.

"Dad, we haven't sold illicit salt, and we have been doing business for all these years, so there's nothing to be afraid of, right?" Li Xi looked at his father with some hesitation and asked.

Li Zhongxing had a wry smile on his face: "How can it be so simple, this time it's really troublesome." ”

"Dad, although the child doesn't know what the trouble is, if you want to see Your Majesty, Zhang Whale can't go this way, but the child thinks that he can take another way." Saying that, Li Xi said cautiously: "Father can go to Xu Wei and Xu Wenchang!" ”

"Looking for him?" Li Xi was stunned for a moment, and asked hesitantly.

Li Zhongxing is naturally no stranger to Xu Wei and Xu Wenchang, whether it is in the southeast or in the northwest, Li Zhongxing has heard of the name of Xu Wei and Xu Wenchang. But can this Xu Wei and Xu Wenchang help him meet the emperor?

"Dad, the kid just found out!" Li Xi hurriedly said: "Xu Wei Xu Wenchang is now the left senator of the General Political Envoy Department, although he has an official name, but in fact he doesn't do anything. ”

"The most important thing for Xu Wei and Xu Wenchang is to accompany the emperor all day long."

"It is said that yesterday Xu Wenchang entered the palace to accompany the emperor to play chess, and then drank too much in the palace."

When Li Zhongxing heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he said with a little emotion: "Who would have thought that Xu Wei and Xu Wenchang, who were very down-and-out back then, would actually develop today, but we still have a relationship with him." ”

"Although your father and Xu Wenchang are not familiar with each other, they are still very familiar with Wu Dui, the secretary of the Ministry of War."

"You go and send a message to your father, let's go visit this secretary of the military department." Speaking of this, Li Zhongxing said with a smile: "Prepare a few gifts, don't be too expensive, our local products in Shanxi are good." ”

Li Xi looked at his father with a speechless expression, are you too picky?

"You know!" Li Zhongxing glared at his son, and said angrily: "Go and prepare!" ”

Looking at his son's back, Li Zhongxing shook his head helplessly, his son is good at everything, but his brain is not bright, it seems that he still has to cultivate for some years. Now like this, it is estimated that the Li family will soon be defeated.

Although there was a lot of disturbance outside, the palace was calm inside.

Zhu Yijun found two people and drove all the people in the hall out, and the three of them conspired in the house.

These three people are two old men, the one on the left is Xu Wei and Xu Wenchang, the left senator of the General Political Envoy Division, and the one on the right is the General Political Envoy Si Zuo Tongzheng Hai Rui Hai Gangfeng. Although the two of them blew their beards and glared at each other as soon as they met, Zhu Yijun could see that the two old men got along quite well.

The two old men who have no family, no descendants, and have stayed in the southeast together, have a little sympathy for each other now.

"I came to the two Aiqing today because I want to tell them something." Zhu Yijun looked at the two of them and said with a smile: "I often hear about the country of Huaxu, and I am also familiar with the story of the Peach Blossom Spring, so I also thought, 'What kind of place is this country of Huaxu and the Peach Blossom Spring?' I don't know. ”

"At that time, I thought, what should I do to govern this world well, so that the world is like the country of Huaxu or like the Peach Blossom Spring?"

The two of them glanced at each other, although they didn't know what Zhu Yijun wanted to say, but the two of them knew that the matter that the emperor wanted to say was definitely not small.

"I've been thinking about it all day, but I'm still puzzled." Zhu Yijun looked at the two of them and said, "The country of Huaxu is a legend after all, and no one has ever seen the Peach Blossom Spring, so I don't want to think about it." ”

"I came to the two Aiqing today to show them the ideal country I outlined."

The two of them were stunned for a moment, and then Xu Wenchang smiled and said, "That minister listens attentively." ”

Zhu Yijun nodded: "This is the picture I painted!" Saying that, Zhu Yijun pulled over a wooden blackboard, the kind with wheels underneath, and then pasted a pencil drawing on it, picked up a small wooden stick in his hand, and began to show them.

"I don't know what kind of life is a good life for the people, so if something is wrong, the two Aiqing must tell me in time."

"Don't worry, the emperor won't let the minister say it, and the minister will definitely say it!" Hai Gangfeng said.

Zhu Yijun glanced at Hai Rui, nodded at him, and then said: "In my opinion, whether the people's lives are good or not, the first thing to solve is the problem of food and clothing. ”

"If you can't eat enough, everything else is empty talk, so I will make filling your stomach the first element of people's lives."

Hai Rui and Xu Wenchang nodded together, as the so-called "the world eats the biggest", and it is the most appropriate to list a full stomach as the first.

"There are two kinds of people among the people, one who owns his own land, and this kind of person I call yeoman farmers, that is, those who cultivate their own land. One is the tenant who rents other people's land, that is, the tenant farmer, who is called a tenant farmer. ”

"For a yeoman farmer, there are three things that determine whether he can eat enough or not."

"The first thing is whether the wind and rain are smooth, the second thing is whether the land is enough, and the third thing is whether the taxes are heavy."

"Needless to say, the first thing is that if his land is not enough to support his family, then he needs to rent someone else's land or find other ways to support the family."

"And the harsh government is fiercer than the tiger, and this is also very harmful to the people."

"So I think that to solve the problem of homesteaders not having enough to eat, it is God's business to adjust the wind and rain, but I can do my best to help them, such as opening canals for drinking water and digging wells for irrigation."

"As for the question of whether there is enough land, I think that on the one hand, we can increase the yield of food and promote high-yield crops, such as potatoes and sweet potatoes. On the other hand, it can be reclaimed through reclamation, and with the characteristics of potatoes and sweet potatoes, a lot of wasteland in the past can now be reclaimed. ”

"But even so, the land still can't support the whole family, what should I do?"

"Then you have to rent other people's land or work to support your family."

"The third thing is the problem of harsh government, once the officials are expropriating and expropriating, no matter how good the life is, the people will not be able to live, and it will be very difficult to eat a full stomach."

After Zhu Yijun finished speaking, he took a sip of the tea bowl, then turned his head to look at Xu Wenchang and Hai Rui, and said, "I don't know if the two Aiqing think what I said is inappropriate?" ”

"The minister is amazed inexplicably!" Xu Wenchang said with emotion.

Hai Rui said with a serious face: "What the emperor said is very thorough, not only in simple terms, but also far-sighted, and the minister has nothing to say." ”

"Okay, since that's the case, let's move on!" Zhu Yijun said with a smile: "Knowing these things, then I have to ask, if I want the people to eat, what should I do, or what should the court do?" ”

"The first thing, building water conservancy, can be done, and the second thing, organizing reclamation and promoting crops, can also be done. I also thought about whether it was possible to open a workshop in the county, not a small workshop, but a large one. ”

"Hire people to work, and then pay them to support the family."

"The third, harsh government, then the imperial court needs to strictly require officials and a perfect supervision system."

"If these three things are done, then the yeoman farmers will be able to fill their stomachs, let's talk about tenant farmers." Zhu Yijun pointed to the two words of tenant farmers: "They have no land and need to pay heavy low barriers, which makes their life far inferior to that of yeoman farmers." ”

"If you want to solve their problems, you have to start with the land."

"First of all, it is tenant rent, and the court should come forward to determine the rent, and collect the rent according to the grade of the field, which can be raised in good years and reduced in disaster years, but the limits of increase and reduction can also be stipulated."

"If it goes beyond this point, the imperial court can condemn it as an illegal lease and confiscate its land."

"If the land is allowed to be abandoned, then after one year of abandonment, the land will be ownerless wasteland, which can be recovered by the imperial court and reclaimed from the ground."

Zhu Yijun said this, Hai Rui said: "Your Majesty, this strategy is not appropriate, if someone wants to forcibly occupy the land, they can falsely accuse the other party of abandoning the land, once there are officials to protect it, then many people's land will be embezzled." ”

Slightly stunned, Zhu Yijun thought about it, nodded and said, "Hai Aiqing is right, this is not appropriate, then cross it out first." ”

"I think tenant farmers rent land because they don't have any other way to make money, so this can provide them with a whole new way of thinking." Zhu Yijun pointed to the workshop and said, "This is the benefit of the workshop." ”

"If tenant farmers could work in the workshops to support their families, they wouldn't have to rent other people's fields."

"There is another way for the tenant farmers to live, and the landlords do not dare to oppress them too much."

Xu Wenchang looked at the workshop that Zhu Yijun said, pondered for a moment and said, "Does the emperor want businessmen to open workshops?" ”

Zhu Yijun shook his head and said: "That will only fatten those merchants, I mean that the imperial court will run a workshop and be managed by officials, similar to the armed forces department of the imperial court, but the people who work in the workshop will be paid." ”

"What the workshop produces can be sold to the imperial court, and the imperial court of the province buys it from the merchants."

The productivity of the Ming Dynasty was very low, and many things were very expensive, such as books and paper, although they were already very cheap compared to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, but it was still very difficult for the poor to study. For example, Hai Rui Haigangfeng, his study days are difficult to describe.

When there is a surplus of things produced by Daming, they can't be sold, and there is a backlog, it's time to boost demand, Zhu Yijun is really looking forward to that day, what is the best way to boost demand? Of course colonization, of course foreign wars, of course foreign dumping!