"Xuan, the prefect of Luzon Prefecture, Xu Chai Lao, saw the ......"

With the summons of the inner eunuch, Xu Chai Lao, with his two sons and one daughter, followed behind the inner servant tremblingly, and stepped into the center of this huge empire.

Thirty years ago, when he had to go to sea to earn a living because of his family's poverty, he never imagined that he would one day be able to stand here.

Nowadays, cement has been common in Yingtianfu, and the streets and alleys outside have been replaced with cement floors, but in the palace, except for the eunuchs and palace maids, most of the road surface is still specially fired gold bricks.

Walking on such a road and looking at the majestic palace city in front of him, Xu Chailao's eyes couldn't help but moisten a little.

He raised his head and looked at the sky, but remembered that this was a sign of transgression, and quickly lowered his head again.

But this time, he noticed that the two sons and one daughter were trembling and looked nervous. He hurriedly reprimanded in a low voice: "Take it easy, Your Highness, it's not like you haven't seen it." ”

These two sons and one daughter are the most important descendants of Xu Chailao, and apart from the eldest son who stayed in Luzon, he has the highest expectations for these two sons.

These two sons are not only sisters-in-law, but they have been educated by Xiucai since childhood, and they are also the smartest of the seven sons.

And this daughter, although born to a concubine, is the most beautiful among his daughters.

Three years ago, this daughter was only eleven years old, so naturally she couldn't be sent to Zhu Zhanji. But now that she is fourteen years old, he brought it into the palace just to see if Zhu Zhanji would be interested in this daughter.

Anyway, for him, there is no vanity of those scholars, and in his early years, in order to grab business and land, he also did a lot of black work.

If he hadn't met the Duke of Dian and given him an identity, he would still be a pirate.

If you can become a relative of the emperor, lose a little face, and lose the reputation of selling a woman for glory.

He is already old, and no matter how capable his two sons are, they are only in business. It is impossible to inherit the position of prefect like him.

If the Xu family doesn't want to decline, they must start thinking of ways now.

He brought his two sons to Beijing this time, just to arrange for his two sons to go to Yulin Weixue, as long as they can study there for three years, the Xu family will not have to worry about it in the future.

Entering the side hall of the Jinshen Palace, Xu Chai Lao was surprised to find that this was not like the main hall in the early dynasty, Zhu Zhanji sat on it, and he couldn't even see his face clearly.

Now Zhu Zhanji has changed into a bright yellow regular clothes, and this dragon robe is exactly the same as the emperor wears except for four claws.

However, he now sat on the sofa with Erlang's legs crossed, like a son-in-law, not a majestic imperial heir.

As soon as he entered the door, Xu Chai didn't dare to slack off, and only took one step forward, leaving a kneeling position for the three children, and knelt down. "Weichen Xu Chai Lao and his children knock to see His Highness."

Zhu Zhanji waved his hand and said, "This is not a big hall, you don't need a big gift, come and sit ......."

Xu Chai was still hesitating, Xie Jin, who knew him, knew that he didn't understand the rules, and said with a smile: "You can be at ease here, according to His Highness's orders...... Sit. ”

Today, there are only six ministers sitting on either side of Zhu Zhanji's back. But with the standing chamberlain and brocade guard, a powerful aura was still formed.

Xu Chai followed Li Liang's arrangement tremblingly, sat in the first position of Zhu Zhanji's right hand, and stared at the big tea table in front of Zhu Zhanji above with some curiosity, a beautiful figure.

How can a woman appear in this important place of the country?

However, seeing her beautifully using a set of purple sand tea sets to brew a pot of fragrant Tieguanyin, he somewhat understood.

After the tea was brewed, the woman took the lead in serving a cup to Zhu Zhanji, and the other cups were served to several ministers, and there was still one cup left, which was served to Xu Chai Lao by an inner attendant.

Zhu Zhanji said with a smile: "Governor Xu was born in Jinjiang, so he must now know that Fujian has become the largest tea producing area after Zhejiang, right?" ”

Xu Chai Lao complimented: "Weichen has always been disgusted with Fujian tea in the early years, and it is not as good as Longjing and Maojian. However, under the promotion of His Royal Highness, the price of Tieguanyin has risen sharply today, which is really a blessing for the people. ”

Zhu Zhanji asked: "It is said that you have been transplanting tea to Luzon in the early years, and now you have a harvest?" ”

Xu Chai Lao said with some embarrassment: "Luzon is windy, rainy, there are only two seasons a year, and the tea is far inferior to the local one. ”

When Zhu Zhanji went to sea, Nanzhou was discovered, and Zhu Di, who got the news, asked the ministers to rename the places.

Nanzhou (Australia), Nanyang (Southeast Asia), Xiyang (South Asia), Xizhou (Africa), Europa, these are all names officially determined by the Ming Dynasty.

And the Ming people in these places are called the Ming Dynasty, and they must be called local.

This native area is a bit larger, bounded by the Arctic Ocean in the north, the Ural Mountains in the northwest, Lake Daqing (Lake Balkhash) in the west, and the Himalayas in the southwest.

Although it is currently bounded by Daqing Lake, which is still the boundary between Yili Jiangli and Timur for the time being, from Zhu Di's inclusion of the Ural Mountains into the Ming Dynasty, it can also be known that the ambitions of the Ming Dynasty are far more than that.

If it weren't for the fact that Europe was too far away and the people were too mixed, Zhu Di would have wanted to wrap the whole earth around.

He insisted on attacking the country of Timur, and the purpose was also to fight the western border of the Ming Dynasty all the way to the Caspian Sea. He has always wanted to regain the glory of the Tang Dynasty.

As for how to manage it after the fight, he won't care.

After chatting with Xu Chai to make him feel less nervous, Zhu Zhanji asked about the current situation in Luzon.

The development of Luzon was actually beyond Zhu Zhanji's expectations, and in his mind, even if Najib became the granary of the Ming Dynasty in the future, it would take more than ten years.

However, after Xu Chai Lao was named the governor of Luzon by Zheng He in the third year of Yongle, he had actually entered a benign development.

In the past, Xu Chai Lao relied on his own ability to develop the local area. Although he taught the local natives to cultivate wasteland, grow grain and tea, and build ships and make pottery.

But his personal strength was too weak to meet the needs of the whole of Luzon.

Moreover, the natives of Luzon are too lazy, and the fruits from the trees can fill their stomachs, so why bother to work?

Good-looking clothes are so expensive, they will break after wearing them for a while, why should I wear clothes? What's more, Luzon doesn't need to wear clothes at all!

Therefore, although Xu Chai Lao has developed in the local area for more than ten years, he has not driven the development of the entire Luzon.

But since Zhu Zhanji discovered Nanzhou, a large gold mine was found on it, and the news was transmitted back to Daming, everything was different.

What's more, there are also large gold mines on the island of Luzon.

The distance between Luzon and Yingtianfu is actually closer than to Cochin, except that there is no mainland connection.

Now, Luzon has become the bridgehead for the Ming Dynasty to develop Nanzhou, and the attention it receives is naturally different.

Originally, Fujian's sea ban had already existed in name only when the water village was re-established on Dongfan Island.

Now, under the propaganda of the government, a large number of landless peasants were sent to Luzon in batches with the help of the navy and the internal supervision fleet.

They brought back grain from Nanyang, and pulled people from Fujian, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang to places where there were many people and little land, so that the boats would not be empty back and forth.

The mobilization of the government is completely different from the sneaky development of private individuals, and a large number of people are transported to Luzon, where the land can be developed at will.

Not only can the government lend seeds, tools, but also tax exemptions for five years. What's more, the food that can't be eaten can be sold to the government.

Although life was a little inconvenient, every once in a while, the trading fleet of the Inner Prison was able to bring salt, cloth, tools, and even cattle brought back from the Western Ocean (India).

Since ancient times, India has been the largest cattle farm in the world, and in later generations, they had 300 million head of cattle, although there are no statistics now, but the number will not be less than 100 million.

This is a very staggering number, and the key reason is that in India cattle are sacred creatures and cannot be killed.

The history of Hinduism is 2,000 years, and for 2,000 years, very few cattle in India have been killed except for natural old age.

This kind of breeding has caused the proliferation of Indian cattle.

The internal prison was doing business with the Indians, and in the past, cloth, porcelain, and tea were brought back the largest number of cattle in addition to gold and silver.

These cattle are sold to farmers at a fair price, and as long as they survive for three years, they can pay half of the money less if they return a calf to the government.

This also makes the people's passion for raising cattle have been mobilized, and now Daming not only has many horses, but also the number of cattle has increased rapidly.

It was in this environment that Luzon entered a period of rapid development. In more than three years, Luzon has increased by 300,000 Han Chinese, developed more than 2 million mu of land, and with the original 3 million mu of land, the grain output can now reach more than 20 million stones.

One acre of land can produce four stones of grain, not because the land is fertile, but entirely because it is harvested three times a year.

In fact, the people there are much easier than the people in Daming, they don't need intensive cultivation at all, except for weeding, there is almost no input.

When the news from Luzon gradually spread back to the Ming Dynasty, the people of the Ming Dynasty became more inclined to emigrate.

also because Luzon has increased so many people, so when Zhu Di arrived in Luzon, Xu Chai Lao proposed to set up a political secretary in Luzon, because a prefect cannot manage so many pieces of land and so many people.

But Zhu Di put the responsibility on Zhu Zhanji, he is now bent on fighting with Timur, where does he have the heart to care about Luzon's affairs.

Xu Chai Lao had the intention to come to the capital to be loyal to Zhu Zhanji, so he was naturally very happy. After serving Zhu Di, he prepared everything and came to Yingtianfu.

Zhu Zhanji had a good understanding of the situation in Luzon and also knew that it would be difficult for a single prefect to manage an island of 110,000 square kilometers.

It was imperative to set up a political secretary in Luzon, but the arrangement of the political envoy was a troublesome matter.

According to reason, Xu Chai should continue to serve as the political envoy, after all, Luzon developed under his leadership, and no one has the prestige he has there.

However, not only is he not from a professional background, but he has not even been able to read the Four Books and the Five Classics smoothly. That is, after he became developed, he followed Xiucai to learn to read and write, and now he can barely understand the official documents of the imperial court.

A prefect in a remote area is nothing, but a political envoy is a provincial official in later generations!

At such a time, of course, most people will not agree.

Therefore, Zhu Zhanji did not discuss the selection of political envoys in front of Xu Chailao, but only agreed to his proposal and agreed to arrange his two youngest sons into Yulin Weixue.

As for Xu Chailao's daughter, Zhu Zhanji has long passed the stage of hunting for beauty, and his current women are unevenly distributed, how can he still provoke the minister's daughter.

This is not a "gift", you can play and throw it aside, and go to the good fortune once you think about it.

Therefore, Xu Chai was a little disappointed while being happy, but when he left, Zhu Zhanji gave him another surprise.

Because he sent his two sons to study in the capital, Zhu Zhanji gave him an empty house in Taipingfang.

This house was originally inhabited by an elderly waiter in the household, but it was vacant because he returned to his hometown.

Xu Chai Lao was overjoyed, and he didn't come to the capital without the intention of buying property, but he didn't expect to be "assigned" to such a house.

Because it's not just a house, it's a status symbol.

Moreover, let him live in the mansion of the squire, which also means that Zhu Zhan basically has the intention to let him sit in the position of this political envoy.

Everyone else saw this, so after Xu Chai left, they persuaded Zhu Zhanji one after another.

Their reason is nothing more than that Xu Chai Lao does not learn and has no skills, and he serves as a second- or third-grade officer, which is really not in line with the system.

The prefect of the Ming Dynasty is basically the fourth grade, and there are only a few places, such as Yingtianfu Mansion Yin is the third grade.

However, the political envoy can start with at least three grades, and if the secretary of the political department is hung up in front of the announcement, it will be from the second grade.

Zhu Zhanji said: "I can grant Lin San and his wife the position of earl, and I can allow Xungui to expand overseas and expand the benefits of foreign countries. This Xu Chai Lao didn't cost me a single soldier of the Ming Dynasty to turn a place the size of Jiangsu into my Ming territory, how can I not make an exception? ”

As soon as they said this, others immediately knew that Zhu Zhanji had made up his mind.

The others didn't dare to persuade again, but Xie Jin didn't care so much, and said: "Your Highness, this Xu Chai Lao is also my old acquaintance, and I have no bias. If you make him an earl, you can make him a governor, but you can't only make a political envoy. This is an official of the imperial court, and it should not be taken lightly. ”

When Jian Jin said this, Jian Yi immediately said: "Your Highness, as a minister of the ministry, he shoulders the responsibility of assessing hundreds of officials. If this Xu Chai Lao is inferior every year, how should His Highness deal with himself? What's more, his Xu family has a big business in Luzon, just like a big man. It is more appropriate for such a person to be included in the list of nobles. ”

Zhu Zhanji thought about it, this Xu Chai Lao was originally a big man, but he became the prefect by chance. But in reality, he still manages Luzon in a patriarchal way.

Now that the imperial court has included Luzon in the border, it is better to make him a political envoy, so that the title can continue to be passed down, and it will not affect the "purity" of the civil official sequence.

After changing his thinking in this way, Zhu Zhanji also felt that it was more appropriate to give Xu Chai Lao a knighthood than to give him an official position.

So, Zhu Zhanji nodded and said: "What you Aiqing said is very true, it is simple to think alone. However, Luzon is still the overseas territory of our Ming Dynasty, and we can't follow our homeland in everything, so the position of the Prosecutor's Department must be held by a general who is familiar with the Nanyang people's situation, not a civilian official. ”

At this point, several ministers will not directly oppose it, and directly respond.

Anyway, in the military general system, there are many people who are familiar with the situation in Nanyang, and it is good to find a suitable candidate, and the favor is still theirs.

Zhu Zhanji sat down again and asked, "Who is the next person to meet?" ”

"Your Highness, it is the envoy sent back from Guyuan by Yu Shiji, the prefect of Xiangyang, and now that the disaster relief in Guyuan has come to an end, we are waiting for His Highness's next instructions."

Li Liang looked at Wang Yan with some envy and talked eloquently, and introduced the situation in Guyuan to Zhu Zhanji.

This is also the preparation that must be made before meeting the personnel, otherwise, Zhu Zhanji will not know anything, what if he sees someone who says something that should not be said and makes a joke?

It has been two months since the incident in Guyuan happened, the grain that should have been transported has been transported, and the people who should have been saved have also been saved.

Although the local losses are heavy, most of the time, the common people can only consider themselves unlucky.

Like now, if the imperial court can send people to send food and seeds, so that the local people can survive, it is already a great kindness.

After listening to Wang Yan's introduction, Zhu Zhanji nodded and said, "Then call them in......

It wasn't until almost noon that Zhu Zhanji met with the last governor from western Sichuan, and today's work came to an end.

He is actually very relaxed now, because most of the affairs are assigned to the ministries, and basically only major matters and personnel problems come to him.

In addition to these, it is the handling of military issues and unexpected accidents. Even some criminal cases that were originally difficult to hold accountable are rarely sent to him for processing.

If a case that can't even be solved by the three divisions of the trial, it is not nonsense to bring it to him and let him make an idea.

The ministers were also very happy with Zhu Zhanji's decentralization, in the past, no matter how big or small the affairs, Zhu Di liked to meddle, as if he could not show the importance of his emperor without this.

Actually, this is completely unnecessary.

As long as the emperor grasps the money bag, the barrel of the gun, and the appointment of personnel, he basically does not need to worry about other affairs.

What's more, these ministers in the early Ming Dynasty were still more conscientious.

He delegated power, and the ministers were happy. This is equivalent to an increase in the power in everyone's hands.

However, in order to delegate power, Zhu Zhanji's Jinyi Wei and the Advisory Department still closely supervise the entire officialdom system, and the affairs of various ministries are backed up in these two yamen, and they will also be reported to Zhu Zhanji in the form of briefings every ten days.

He can let go of some things, but the affairs of the entire imperial court, as the grandson of the prison country, must have an understanding.

Moreover, some things that do not conform to his handling opinions can also be used to show his existence, so as not to let those ministers think that he is easy to deceive.

However, on the whole, he, the grandson of the prison country, is still relatively relaxed.

So much so that sometimes I feel bored in the afternoon, wondering if I should find more things to do for myself.

But after thinking about it, forget it, it's good like that.

"Your Highness, please stay ......"

Zhu Zhanji looked back and saw that it was the Guozi priest and the scholar Hu Yan. "Hu Aiqing still has business?"

Hu Yan took out a stack of folds from his sleeve and said: "The ministers see His Highness every day, so naturally they will not compete with those foreign ministers to see His Highness." However, the examiners from all over the country have already been selected, and I want to ask His Royal Highness to look at it first, and then go to the court to discuss it. ”

Autumn is after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the season when osmanthus blooms, so it is also called Guibang.

It will be the first day of June in two days, and some places are thousands of miles away, so it is indeed time for the examiner to select and let them go.

Zhu Zhanji nodded, took the fold and said, "I'll watch it in the afternoon, and give Aiqing advice tomorrow." ”

Hu Yan bowed down again and asked, "It is reported that His Royal Highness will add Yiren's current politics and geography to the examination questions for next year's Spring Festival, can there be such a thing?" ”

Zhu Zhanji didn't hide it, nodded directly and said, "Gu Zheng has this intention." ”

"These eight strands of literature are the ...... of Taizu"

Zhu Zhanji interrupted him and said: "Aiqing, don't mention history, the ancestral system." At this time and again, the original Ming Dynasty couldn't even find a few scholars, and the Guozijian was established for 20 years, and the students in it were assigned to various positions before they were assessed.

But now? Today's students are ten times more likely to read than they were back then, can they still use the same questions? What's more, my Daming is thriving day by day, with new changes every day, and the area is getting bigger and bigger.

What is the use of those rotten Confucians who can only read dead books and write a few articles, but do not understand agricultural affairs, diplomacy, or customs of various parts of the world? ”

Hu Yan's face was blue and red when he said it, and Zhu Zhanji was very worried that he had cerebrovascular disease, and if he was not good, he would have a cerebral hemorrhage.

So he changed his tone and said: "The current affairs of the world, the geography series has been printed and distributed all over the world. I have more than half a year to get acquainted with it, and by February next year, those literati who still don't read these books will cut off their futures......"

Hu Yan was given a step by Zhu Zhanji, and his face was a little better. But he was still unwilling, and said: "But in all dynasties, there has never been a precedent for my Chinese people to learn the knowledge of the Yi people......"

Zhu Zhanji asked rhetorically: "That gentleman and six arts, how many literati can be proficient in all of them now?" ”

Hu Yan was completely speechless, Zhu Zhanji's question can be said to have directly exposed the bottom of the story.

Confucianism has been in a state of change since ancient times, and they say that they should stick to the tradition, but in fact, they abandon the old tradition faster than anyone else.

According to the standards of officials during the Zhou Dynasty, there are almost no qualified civil officials today.

The official school of the Zhou Dynasty required students to master six basic talents: etiquette, music, archery, royalty, calligraphy, and mathematics, before they could become officials.

Confucianism has incorporated this into its own education system, but what about now? There are fewer than ministers who can master half of these studies.

You yourself have lost the tradition, and now you still have the face to say that others do not abide by the tradition?

Of course, Zhu Zhanji's words are much more subtle, but this is what they mean. If he dared to say it directly, Hu Yan would probably dare to die directly in front of him.

Zhu Zhanji didn't have much affection for this minister, because he was not a talent. But there is not much bad feeling, because of Hu Yan's ethics and character, he is still good.

Hearing Zhu Zhanji say this, he could only bow down and bow again, sighing: "The old minister will spread this news all over the world......

(Today's big seal pushes, and a more chapter will be added later.) ）

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