Maria. Clementina's sharp teeth were famous in French aristocratic circles, not even beneath her beauty. The people in the Ming Dynasty are not happy, and after her defense, it seems that it is not that Zhu Datianzi is incapable of governing the country, but that Zhu Jishi is far-sighted and intentional.

In fact, the "people are not living well" in the Ming Dynasty is of course due to natural disasters, wars, more people and less land, and other "irresistible" factors such as the inability of the land to carry too many people. However, the lack of governance experience of the Zhu Ming court, and the fact that the policy adjustment rarely considers the affordability of the people is also an important reason - it is enough to use the left mule as the prime minister to govern the country, and the determination and strength to implement the policy are there, but the flexibility is obviously insufficient, and the consideration of the problem is not very thoughtful, this Zuo Zongtang is not a comprehensive mellow character.

Of course, the "New Deal" implemented by Zhu Ming did not hurt everyone, otherwise Zhu Ming's territory would have been in flames long ago.

In the golden autumn of October, the flood that raged throughout the summer had receded, and the affected areas began to be rebuilt with the assistance of the imperial court. To tell the truth, the speed and financial resources of the Ming court in this disaster relief were incomparable to those of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Although there are disasters, they do not lose the support of the people.

As for the Liangjiang countryside that was not affected by the disaster, it was a noisy and carnival scene, because the Ming court had just inadvertently promulgated a great virtue policy.

Outside Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province, a group of farmers who have just finished harvesting a large mature rice field are gathering to chat. The hookah and the dry smoke were smoked together, and the smoke blurred the face, but it couldn't hide the joy in the words.

"Did you hear that? The Great Son of Heaven has issued a clear edict. Forever exempt our peasants from the endowment! ”

"I heard. Of course I heard about it...... After receiving hundreds of years of endowments, the Holy Son of Heaven will be exempted from a holy decree, and we farmers will always have a few more full meals throughout the year. ”

"Yes, not only is the Cao Fu exempted, but this year's rice price is also one and a half times higher than in previous years (natural disasters and the government's purchase of rice and grain for the Northeast War Tuntian and other reasons have raised the price of grain), although this field is higher than last year, but there is no miscellaneous faction to increase the fire consumption of silver, all with HSBC's silver dollars, copper dollars (HSBC's silver dollars, copper dollars, small copper dollars exchange ratio is fixed, can be used to pay taxes. Therefore, the people do not have the trouble of expensive money and cheap money), and the burden is still much lighter than in previous years. ”

"Now the officials who are in charge of the people are better than in the past, they are all talented masters in our hometown, and those who read the books of sages and sages all have the official bodies of eight or nine grades, and they are also reasonable, which is different from the officials who only knew how to make money in the past."

The peasants were all beaming, and from time to time they arched their hands into the air in the posture of those talented masters, and said a few words of flattering Zhu Datianzi, as if Zhu Datianzi was really a good emperor who loved the people like a son. But then again. The exemption from Cao Fu is indeed a great virtue for the peasants in the Ming Dynasty.

The so-called Cao Fu. It refers to the sum of the grain, consumption and water items levied by the Manchu government. This system was not conceived by the Manchus, but has always existed. The Manchu Qing Dynasty, whose capital was Beijing, had always regarded Caoyun as "the right supply of heaven". In Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Henan and Shandong provinces, the grain was collected and transported to the north through the canal. The theoretical total amount of grain per year is 4 million stones, and the actual amount of grain collected is close to 6 million stones or even more. In addition to the grain, there is also the grain, that is, the transportation cost of millions of stone and rice grain, which is also taken from the people and included in the regular supply. And Cao Xiang has many names such as light money, Xingyue, Xi Mu, gift paste silver rice, Cao consumption silver rice, allowance silver, etc., and the miscellaneous and miscellaneous are added together, and then taking into account the "hard work" of the officials of the Qing Dynasty, this Cao grain has long become a mountain on the peasants of the eight provinces, especially the peasants in Jiangsu (1,794,400 stone in theory), Zhejiang (630,000 stone in theory), and Jiangxi (570,000 stone) who bear the largest share of grain.

In the Manchu court, there were also the Yamen of the Governor of Caoyun, the Yamen of the Governor of the River, and a large number of subordinate yamen, who were responsible for maintaining the unimpeded transportation lifeline of rice and grain to Beijing. Political, economic, and military guarantees are provided almost regardless of the cost. Every three or five is a big work to dredge the canal, the cost is not calculated, I don't know how much the road let the water transport, the officials who manage the river make a fortune.

According to the Manchu Qing Dynasty's own officials' fuzzy study of the cost of Cao Yun, counting the consumption of both the government and the people and all the manpower and material resources, the cost of transporting one stone of rice from Jiangnan to Beijing City is as low as 20 taels and as high as 40 taels! Even if this figure is inflated, the cost of one stone of rice will definitely not be less than 10 taels of silver. Therefore, in Zhu Jishi's view, this grain transportation to the north is purely a blind toss, so a will will be nullified - in fact, he has no reason to levy Caofu, he is now building the capital of Nanjing, and the Suchang granary is by his side, so he doesn't need to be transported at all.

However, there are two sides to everything. Isn't even "blind tossing" sometimes able to boost GDP? Behind the big "blind toss" of the Manchu Cao Yun, there is a huge Cao Yun economic chain, the core of which is hundreds of thousands of Cao Gang disciples who are engaged in shipping, slender men, dock loading and unloading, and river engineering. These people did not have land, so they relied on Cao Yun to eat, and a large part of the grain, Cao Xiang, and additional consumption collected by the Manchu court was used to maintain the livelihood of these people. In addition, a Cao Yun has also brought prosperity to many cities on both sides of the canal, forming a rather deformed Cao Yun Economic Belt.

Now that the Cao Yun has been cut off, so many people have no livelihood, and they are naturally unstable, and the land of these two rivers will of course be in turmoil. Therefore, behind the Zhu Ming court's fee to benefit the peasants of Liangjiang, it was the people who relied on Cao Yun to make a living paying the price.

Therefore, Zhu Damingjun, who is praised by the peasants of Liangjiang, has a rather unbearable image in the teahouse in Xuzhou, an important town of Caoyun along the canal.

"This war is chaotic, the days are getting more and more difficult, and I don't know when this canal will be opened......"

"What if the canal is opened? Now the Ming Dynasty built the capital of Nanjing, and there is no need to transport grain to the north at all. Taking a step back, what if the Zhu family moves back to Beijing? The Zhu family is an overseas emperor, and they can't help sea trade, they have hundreds of large shipping ships in their own house, millions of stone and rice grains are transported by sea ships, and hundreds of ships are enough to run back and forth, and the silver required is not less than Cao Yun? ”

"Is it that there will be no more after Caoyun? What about so many of us who rely on luck to eat? Did you starve to death? ”

"What else can I do? Sell yourself to Nanyang, or enlist to be recruited to Liaodong as a guard soldier to help the Zhu family fight the war......"

"Go to Nanyang...... Go to war as a soldier...... Alas, can you still come back this time? ”

"It's still good when the Qing Dynasty was in the past, and you won't have to worry about food and clothing if you guard the Grand Canal, if the Qing Dynasty can come back......"

"Say what? What to say? Haven't heard of Dongchang Fanzi and Jinyiwei? Our Cao Gang is now under the watchful eye of the imperial court! ”

These words involve the dispute between the Ming and Qing dynasties, and it is true that the partition wall has ears, and all the disciples in the teahouse are silent, but their faces are full of resentment.

I don't know how long it took for Lu Dao to snort again and said: "The Qing Dynasty can't come back, their Tiande Emperor has already declared himself a vassal to the Ming Dynasty and has been named the Duke of Bohai." Emperor Daoguang was even more amused, so he simply surrendered to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and became the king of Zhongshun! Can such a court come back? ”

"So what do we have to hope for? Could it be that he could only sell himself to the South Seas? ”

"Then you can only go to Liaodong to be a soldier......"

When it comes to going to Liaodong, everyone sighs, Xuzhou is not Guangdong, everyone grew up listening to the story of making a windfall in Nanyang, so there is no resistance to going to Nanyang. There are not a lot of Hongjia brothers who have made meritorious contributions to the marquis, so they are extremely reluctant to go to Liaodong to serve as guards, unless it is really time to run out of food, they will not go to the Nanyang labor service companies opened by those Hongmen disciples in Huai'an City or the recruitment office of Liaodong Town to sign up.

Just when everyone was sighing, a man dressed as a priest walked into the teahouse from outside, heard everyone talking, and said loudly: "With the presence of God the Heavenly Father, we will not let everyone go to Nanyang and Liaodong to suffer and die!" (To be continued......)