"Sigh the law ......"

On June 15, the second year of the Apocalypse, when the Fujian military newspaper was sent back to the north with the neighing of war horses, the two figures in Yanshan also laughed happily.

"Good, good! Well done Shen Yourong and Huang Long! Reward! ”

The hearty laughter sounded, and it was Zhu Youxiao who was wearing a regular uniform, and opposite him was Zhu Youzhen, who was also wearing a regular uniform.

General Zhu Youxiao handed the newspaper to Zhu Youzhen, and after Zhu Youzhen took it, he read the entire military newspaper in ten lines at a glance.

[On the ninth day of the first month of June, at three o'clock (5:45), Rong led the troops from Kinmen, crossed the sea to attack Penghu, and shelled Jibei Island at four o'clock in the afternoon (12 o'clock), and the battle began. 】

[At 6:00 p.m. (12:30), sink the enemy ship on Jibei Island and recover Jibei Island]

[At seven o'clock in the afternoon (12:45), the acting commander-in-chief Huang Long defeated and captured the enemy's main general, Lei Ye, and captured three enemy ships. 】

[Before the time (13 o'clock), all the enemy troops were annihilated and Penghu was recovered. 】

[In this battle, our army beheaded 296 Hongmaoyi, sank two enemy ships, captured 656 Hongmaoyi, captured five warships, and captured ...... enemy generals, Lei Ye, Enzuosi, and captured ]

"Mystery of Translation ......"

Looking at this translation, Zhu Youzhen was also helpless, obviously sent officials from the Siyi Pavilion, but the translation was still difficult to explain.

But it's not surprising, after all, I know the meaning of the name, and it is estimated that it is also a direct transliteration......

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen continued to look down, probably because Shen Yourong and Huang Long separated after the war.

Shen Yourong arranged for a fleet to escort the captives north to the capital, while he led his troops to continue to Guangdong, preparing to encircle and suppress another Dutch expeditionary force.

As for the Yellow Dragon, half of the fleet was left behind and sailed towards the Ryukyus.

Seeing this, Zhu Youzhen also put away the military newspaper and said to Zhu Youxiao:

"Brother and Hongmaoyi have been annihilated, and the other will not be rampant for long."

"Now you can set up a prefecture and county in the Great Ryukyu and relocate the group of lazy people in the nursing home."

"Hmmm! Shen Yourong and Huanglong did a good job, they should be rewarded! Zhu Youxiao said, and turned to Liu Ruoyu, the eunuch next to him, and said:

"Shen Yourong is the general soldier of Guangdong, and Huanglong is the general soldier of the three guards of the navy, and the general soldier of Fujian, opening up the Great Ryukyu and defending Hongmaoyi for Fujian."

"Slave maid leads ......the order," Liu Ruoyu responded, and Zhu Youxiao also turned his head to look at a row of courtyards not far away.

In that row of courtyards, Zhu Youxiao's portrait hangs high on a wooden board, under the portrait is the teaching of lectures, and below are more than 20 students.

They sat in their seats, and in their hands they were holding "Yanshan Arithmetic".

All the textbooks about Yanshan, Zhu Youzhen gave them to his imperial brother, so Zhu Youxiao naturally read them.

However, he didn't read it too carefully, he just read it hastily and put it down, but about the book "Yanshan Civil Engineering", he read it several times.

Zhu Youzhen naturally didn't know this, he only thought that his brother had seen it, so he raised his hand and explained to his brother:

"Brother, there are two schools in Yanshan at present, with a total of more than 80,000 people, and the students are selected from the orphans of the generals and soldiers who died in the war, and they are loyal and reliable."

"With the current progress, in September of the fifth year of the Apocalypse, more than 40,000 civil and military officials will be able to come out."

"Forty thousand?" Hearing this number, Zhu Youxiao was a little surprised, after all, in his memory, those who could serve as court officials were all people who needed to study hard for more than ten years.

In just five years, so many civil and military officials have come out, and they are all in their teens and twenties, is it possible?

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao cautiously put forward his opinion without hitting his younger brother:

"My brother thinks well, but has my brother ever thought that five years is too harsh on some young children in the academy?"

"Brother Huang can rest assured of this!" Hearing that his brother was worried about this, Zhu Youzhen returned the salute and continued:

"Invincible Begins with Sacrificing to the Ancestors"

"The children of Yanshan do not mean that they have to leave school after five years of study."

"Their role is to supplement local positions as reserve officials after punishing corrupt officials and corrupt officials."

"What if the local officials play tricks?" Zhu Youxiao raised his mind to consider it, and asked Zhu Youzhen with a smile.

"That's very simple, from officials to officials, all of them will be abolished, and then a sentry will be sent to escort Yanshan students to their posts."

"In addition, after taking office, the younger brother feels that the official system of the Ming Dynasty can also be changed at that time."

"Change?" Zhu Youxiao asked suspiciously, and Zhu Youzhen continued:

"Change, from the nine-grade eighteen-level official system to the ten-grade, twenty-level official system."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youzhen said solemnly to his brother:

"Since ancient times, most of the officials have no grade, or even a good fortune, so they have to live a good life."

"But if our dynasty also includes the officials in the official position, sets up twenty grades, and promotes the officials to ensure the life of the hundred officials, then how can we not let the hundred officials be diligent?"

"Even if there is a group of black sheep, but after finding out, it will be wiped out to the end."

"Looking at my China, all dynasties and dynasties have drawbacks, and the drawbacks of things are three, that is, redundant officials, redundant soldiers, and redundant expenses, which are three redundant."

Zhu Youzhen said the three redundancies, and pointed out in detail the shortcomings that Daming also encountered.

The so-called "redundant officials" refers to the huge administrative organization of the Ming Dynasty, the number of officials is extremely large and increasing year by year, but it has not reached an efficient administrative speed, but has reduced the operation speed of the imperial court while increasing the number of officials and officials. ”

"What I need at the moment is not 100,000 civil and military officials, but Xu officials who have room for improvement and can do practical things."

"There are more than two million officials in the world, and it stands to reason that each person is only in charge of a few dozen people, but they can't be managed in this way."

"If there are 500,000 officials who can handle things, then the yellow book and tax collection of the Ming Dynasty will be very simple."

As for the "redundant soldiers", it refers to the phenomenon that the size of my Ming army and the number of soldiers are extremely large, such as the so-called two million guards, in fact, it has no effect at all, and my brother must know it. ”

Zhu Youzhen's rhetorical question made Zhu Youxiao nod.

Since he mastered the military power, Zhu Youxiao can also walk out of the palace, and he can naturally see what the so-called guards look like.

Therefore, while Zhu Youxiao nodded, Zhu Youzhen also said:

"The system of the guard, the essence is the tuntian system, Emperor Taizu Gao used this system because the north withered at the beginning of the country, and when the population needed to move north, it played a role in stabilizing the north and reducing military expenditures."

"However, since the beginning of the Xuande period, the guard has fallen into a situation of corruption and uselessness, and even the seed grain of the army is getting less and less."

"The Tang Dynasty changed from the government military system to the conscription system in just over a hundred years, and although I tried to change, it was interrupted because of finance, which is also the reason why my Ming Dynasty was full of military equipment, but it lost Nuergan and Sanxuan and Liuwei one after another."

Zhu Youzhen said very clearly, and Zhu Youxiao woke up and knew that his younger brother's original practice of abolishing the guard post was to gradually solve the problem of "redundant soldiers".

"Brother, as long as you can solve the problem of "redundant soldiers" of the guards and battalion soldiers, the Ming Dynasty only needs to ensure that 700,000 to 800,000 soldiers and horses are enough to sweep the four empires. ”

Zhu Youzhen's words made Zhu Youxiao nod uncontrollably, and then asked:

"How is my brother going to solve this redundancy."

Seeing Zhu Youxiao asking about this, Zhu Youzhen had already written the manuscript in his heart, so he immediately said:

"Redundant expenses, in fact, is to deal with the problem of "redundant officials" and "redundant soldiers", because the huge number of officials and troops are supported by the imperial court's finances, which will inevitably cause a huge cost of making ends meet and eating food. ”

"The Song Dynasty fell because of the "three redundancies", and the "three redundancies" problem is not unique to the Northern Song Dynasty, but a problem that has existed in all Chinese dynasties, but the "three redundancies" problem in the Song Dynasty is the most serious, and there is no one. ”

The seriousness of the "three redundancies" of the Song Dynasty is the "Qingli New Deal" of Song Renzong, the "Xining Reform" and the "Yuanfeng Reform" of Song Shenzong, all of which ended in failure without exception, and the reasons for the failure are many. ”

"The Song Dynasty lacked bold and decisive monarchs, and bold kings were short-lived, so when weak kings faced strong opposition from the bureaucratic aristocracy, they would always give up halfway."

"But my brother is different from the king of the Song Dynasty, as long as he masters the military power, and then waits for the students of Yanshan Institute to become adults, he can change the law of the "three redundancies"! ”

Zhu Youjian's confident appearance made Zhu Youxiao can't help but feel itchy.

"I can't wait to hear my brother say that."

"If you can, the first thing is to replace the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Yanguan first!"

"Uh......" Hearing this, Zhu Youzhen understood how much his brother hated Yanguan and the group of mouths of the Imperial History of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

But it's not strange, don't talk about each other, even if you hate it......

"By the way, brother, this time I came to Yanshan, not just for this matter, there is one more thing, you see."

Zhu Youxiao suddenly remembered what was going on, and then turned his head to look at Liu Ruoyu, seeing this, Liu Ruoyu also took out a document book and handed it out with both hands.

Zhu Youzhen took it suspiciously, and immediately frowned after opening it.

This document records all the impeachment proceedings from September of the first year of Taichang to May of the second year of the Apocalypse, and it can be clearly seen that the target of impeachment gradually changed from party disputes to Zhu Youzhen and the Imperial Horse Supervisor.

"Co-authored party fight over me?"

Looking at the more than 3,000 impeachment notes in this document in May, more than 700 copies of the King of Qi and the Imperial Horse Supervisor appeared, and Zhu Youzhen knew that the five parties of Donglin and Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuankun began to regard themselves as one party by default.

"Qi Wang Party? It seems to be good......"

Zhu Youzhen smiled contemptuously, then closed the booklet and said to Zhu Youxiao, who was standing on the rammed ground:

"Brother, let them jump the beam for a few more years, and after three years, they will have no place to jump the beam."

"What you said is easy......" Zhu Youxiao pinched the bridge of his nose with a slight headache:

"It's me who annoys them......"

"I believe my brother has a way to clean them up." Zhu Youzhen said meaningfully, and Zhu Youxiao was stunned when he heard this, and then he looked up and said:

"You kid......"

"Let's talk about it! How are you going to dismiss the people of Liaoxi? Zhu Youxiao said and laughed, and then walked towards the outside of Yanshan Institute, and Zhu Youzhen also followed and said:

"It's simple, it's just overwhelming."

"Three cavalry guards and six battalions of soldiers and horses are more than 30,000 troops, and when the time comes, 20,000 Liaoyang and Zhejiang soldiers will be transferred to Guangning, which will be 50,000 troops."

"An army of 50,000, and some lucrative conditions, even if Zhu Wanliang and Jiang Bi want to make trouble, they must also consider whether the people below are willing to make trouble with them."

"That's a good thing, but you still have to think about people's hearts." Zhu Youxiao's chin was satisfied, and Zhu Youzhen was mentioned by the way.

Zhu Youzhen returned the salute when he heard this, and then continued:

"It is difficult to fathom people's hearts, but the younger brother believes that the military salary given to the soldiers and horses in Liaozhen is enough for most people to waver."

"It only takes this moment of vacillation, and the matter of dismissing the soldiers and horses in Liaodong Town will be settled."

The two brothers talked as they walked, and soon walked out of Yanshan.

Looking at the land of Yanzhao in June, Zhu Youxiao only felt a heroic feeling growing in his heart.

He did what his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father failed to do for three generations, which is enough to make people sing his praises.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao remembered what happened after the dismissal of the soldiers and horses in Liaozhen, so he said:

"After the removal of the soldiers and horses of Liaozhen, it must be under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, can the younger brother afford the soldiers and horses of Liaozhen?"

"This ......" Zhu Youzhen smiled bitterly:

"At present, the soldiers and horses related to the Imperial Horse Prison in Liaozhen are a total of 32 battalions and three guards, with a total of 113,800 people."

"I have recruited six battalions of soldiers and horses, and after the soldiers and horses of Liaozhen are removed, ten battalions of soldiers and horses will also be left, so Liaodong Town should finally be three guards and forty-eight battalions, with a total of more than 162,000 people, but it is not certain, maybe it will be lower than the forty-eight battalions."

"Anyway, the military salary of these soldiers of the 3rd and 48th Battalion will not exceed 2.44 million taels per year, and with the addition of grain, it should not exceed 3.8 million taels."

"At present, Liaozhen has a total of 20 guards in the hands of the imperial court, 112,000 military households, and 5.6 million mu of military tuntian."

"With the grain yield per mu in Liao Town, the grain that can be supplied to the Imperial Horse Supervisor is probably only about one million stones, and the local grain price is discounted, at most 800,000 taels."

"I'm afraid that the Imperial Horse Supervisor will have to spend an additional three million taels, which is indeed a bit difficult to bear."

"There are a lot of soldiers and horses in Liaozhen...... Zhu Youxiao frowned, and Zhu Youzhen also said:

"The younger brother also thinks so, but the old slave has 100,000 soldiers, and with 160,000 against 100,000, he can be sure of stabilizing the entire territory of Liaodong."

"After recovering the entire territory of Liaodong next year, the folded silver should be able to reach one million taels."

"When the time comes, the younger brother wants to transfer Sun Chuanting's headquarters, plus the six battalions of soldiers and horses in Liaozhen to Shanxi, and the headquarters of Yang Wenyue, and the six battalions of soldiers and horses in Liaozhen to Shandong and Henan."

"In this way, not only can the soldiers and horses of Liaozhen be reduced to the 36th battalion of the three guards, but also the guards and clans in Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong and other places can be renovated."

Zhu Youzhen explained his plan very clearly, and Zhu Youxiao also said after hearing it:

"Listening to what my brother said, are you preparing to transfer Sun Chuanting and Yang Wenyue, with a total of 56,000 soldiers and horses, to Liaodong to participate in the next battle of Liaodong?"

"Hmm......" Zhu Youzhen nodded and said:

"The 300,000 troops of the main auxiliary army are in Guizhou, which is too wasteful."

"Right now, Sun Chuanting and they have just recruited new pawns, and they still need to be tempered, so they need to wait."

"While waiting, you can start to dismantle Liaozhen, and this process is estimated to take a year."

"Waiting for the spring of next year, you can transfer Sun Chuanting and Yang Wenyue to the north, and fight back against the old slave after the autumn harvest."

Zhu Youzhen did not show great confidence, after all, Nurhachi's military ability is obvious to all.

With the addition of Sun Chuanting's two divisions, that is, the Ming army's 210,000 regular soldiers against Nurhachi's 100,000 regular soldiers, twice the number, even if the losses are heavy, it is enough to recover the entire territory of Liaodong.

"Transfer Sun Chuanting and Yang Wenyue, it's almost 70,000 auxiliary soldiers, right?"

Zhu Youxiao calculated that if the 70,000 soldiers and horses were transferred, there would be 230,000 auxiliary soldiers in Guizhou to encircle and suppress the rebels, which would not be too bad.

"Since my brother has thought about it, then let's do what my brother says."

"Minister, long live Xie trusting ......" Zhu Youzhen made a gesture of exaggeration, exaggerated thanks, and asked Zhu Youxiao to raise his hand and pat him on the back:

"Don't show off, you have so many plans piled together, and there is a big gap on the side of Daliuqiu, you have to weigh it yourself, don't exceed the ability of the Imperial Horse Supervisor."

"I won't ......," Zhu Youzhen said with a smile:

"The people of the three provinces are scattered all over the place, and although there are 270,000 people, it may take several months to relocate them to Ryukyu for cultivation."

"The climate of the Great Ryukyu is not as cold as outside the Guan, and in winter, the land is like an iron plate, which is difficult to cultivate, but the climate of the Great Ryukyu is pleasant, and it can be cultivated all year round."

"As long as the lazy people who move to the nursing home go, plus distribute cattle and grain, the people along the coast will definitely be willing to move."

"The only problem is that there are many natives on the Great Ryukyu, and I am afraid that they will hate my Han family and even launch an attack."

"This is also the reason why the younger brother sent Huang Long to stay behind the two water guards."

"However, if it is properly developed, the land of the Great Ryukyu Prefecture will be enough to support a million people."

Zhu Youzhen said confidently, and Zhu Youxiao was also curious: "My brother is very confident. ”

"It's nature!" Zhu Youzhen responded with a smile.

Even if others don't know, can he still not know?

Zheng Zhilong and Xiong Wencan used the finances of Fujian Province to move 100,000 Fujian people to Ryukyu before the death of the Ming Dynasty.

This time span is 14 years, and at present, Zhu Youjian has invested 560,000 taels of silver per year.

He is not afraid of losing money, after all, as long as the more than 200,000 lazy people can be self-sufficient, then he can also start to control the Bass Strait.

He is not ready to be like Zheng Zhilong, only charging protection money, but is ready to control the entire coast.

To control Guangdong, he is now a little beyond the reach of the whip, but what if he only controls Qiongzhou Mansion (Hainan) and dismisses Hainan Wei in Qiongzhou Mansion?

Two naval armies, one stationed in Ryukyu Province and the other in Qiongzhou Province, controlled the shipping lanes with two large islands and banned all maritime trade.

To put it simply, Zhu Youzhen wants to eat the trade of the entire East Asian shipping route.

Eliminate all smuggling and maritime merchants, and only allow the Imperial Horse Supervisor to dominate the family.

At present, the sea trade market in East Asia has a full trade volume of six or seven million taels, of which one million is the trade route with Japan, two million is the trade route between the East and the West and the South Seas, and the remaining three or four million are the domestic demand of the Ming Dynasty.

To the maritime merchants, they don't pay taxes, so it's better to directly let the imperial shop monopolize the trade.

In addition, only European maritime merchants were allowed to trade in the southern part of the Ryukyus and the southern part of Qiongzhou, so as to sell goods directly to Europeans.

As a result, the sea trade was monopolized by him.

He didn't have to be afraid of pirates, because with the size of the Imperial Horse Prison Emperor's ship, as long as they were equipped with artillery and traveled together, there would be no pirates who would dare to rob the Imperial Shop fleet.

Eat the entire maritime trade, enough to fatten the soldiers and horses of the imperial horse supervisor, and expand the three guards of the navy.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen continued to say to his imperial brother:

"When the reclamation of Ryukyu Mansion is over, I hope that the imperial brother can allow Henghaiwei to be stationed in Qiongzhou Mansion and make Qiongzhou Mansion a Zhili Mansion."

"Huh?" Zhu Youxiao frowned, a little confused what his younger brother wanted Qiongzhou Mansion for, that place used to be used by exiled prisoners.

"Okay, as long as my brother doesn't bother." Zhu Youxiao shook his head, and Zhu Youzhen also happily responded.

At this time, the two brothers had already ridden back to the Yanshan camp, and at the same time, a familiar figure also appeared at the door of the camp.

Man Gui, dressed in regular clothes, stood at the gate of the camp and saluted the two brothers Zhu Youxiao from afar.

Seeing this, the two of them immediately went up, but Zhu Youzhen did not move, and Zhu Youxiao also knew that his younger brother had given the benefits of Corporal Lixian to himself, so he turned over and dismounted, and helped Man Gui up and said:

"Man Gui, you did a good job outside the gate!"

"The minister does not dare to live up to His Royal Highness Long Live and King Qi."

Zhu Youxiao praised as soon as he opened his mouth, but Man Gui exposed his shortcomings in politics at this time.

His reply made Zhu Youzhen, Liu Ruoyu, Lu Wenzhao and others who followed Zhu Youxiao frown.

Because of this situation, as a general, it is best not to mention the prince who promoted him, but Man Gui didn't think about it so much, and only knew that it was Zhu Youzhen who promoted himself, so he mentioned it.

The atmosphere fell into embarrassment for a while, but Zhu Youxiao laughed and said:

"Good! It's a good thing that you don't forget your brother's kindness to you, and this time you were asked to go to Liaodong to dismiss the soldiers and horses in Guangning and other places, and it was also proposed by your brother, what do you think? ”

"The minister doesn't have any ideas, he just knows that if someone dares to rebel, he will be killed!" Man Gui was as upright as ever, which made Zhu Youzhen and others embarrassed, but it made Zhu Youxiao very happy.

"It's a good chop!" Zhu Youxiao nodded in agreement, and then turned to Zhu Youzhen and said:

"Brother, I kind of know why you like to use Mangui so much."

"If my brother likes it, I can let Man Gui go to the three guards of the Imperial City." Zhu Youzhen said modestly, but Zhu Youxiao glanced at Man Gui's awkward expression, and then smiled:

"Forget it, he's a reckless man, it's better to be outside Beijing, if he walks in the imperial city, he may be impeached by Wenchen in some way."

After that, Zhu Youxiao patted Man Gui: "Whether the imperial court can abolish Liaozhen this time depends on you." ”

"The minister will never give up!" Man Gui returned the salute, and Zhu Youxiao also left with satisfaction when he saw this, and walked towards the inside of the camp.

Zhu Youzhen walked up, looked at the upright Man Gui, angry and happy, and when the scolding words came to his mouth, he could only scold: "You rammer!" ”

After that, he also walked away, and then Liu Ruoyu looked at him and shook his head, and left.

Man Gui could only hold Lu Wenzhao and wondered: "Why did Your Highness scold me for ramming goods?" What did I say wrong? ”

"No, you're saying that." Lu Wenzhao glanced at this guy, and then walked away, leaving only Man Gui with a puzzled face.

scratched his head, and finally only held back one sentence:

"It's really hard to serve you literati......"