The seventh year of the Apocalypse was destined to be an unstable year, and after cleaning up the Zheng Lord, Hong Chengchou swept up the northern part of Annan and moved more than 300,000 people from the three forces such as the Mo clan living in the mountainous areas to the south.

These people are already in the mountains, and they are often looked down upon by the Annamite people in the plains, so the conflict between the two sides has been intensifying.

Under the operation of Hong Chengchou, more than 100,000 men among the more than 300,000 people became a search team to search the Annan people related to the Zheng family.

For a time, there were four prisons in the north, and there were 1.5 million detainees, and these more than 100,000 search teams were granted some fields in hilly areas by Hong Chengchou according to five acres per person.

The search party that got the field was more active, and at the same time the Ming army was fighting against Nguyen Phuc Nguyen in the south in Layue.

Zheng Jie, who had more than 2 million people in the north and 100,000 troops, was defeated by Hong Chengchou's desperate pursuit, while Nguyen Phuc Yuan, who only had more than 600,000 people, was defeated faster.

The Ming army was unstoppable, and after defeating the 30,000 Nguyen army in Quang Tu, they marched all the way south, capturing many places in one company.

One battle after another allowed the Ming army to conquer many cities in a row, and it was originally a problem in terms of the number of Ming troops and rear supplies.

However, with the mobilization of their own families by the search team, and with the help of more than 300,000 people in the southwest and more than 200,000 people in Annan, the supply line of the Ming army was no longer a problem.

By the 26th of the lunar month, the Nguyen Thi, Champa, and the coastline near the Mekong Delta, occupied by the Annamite people, were recovered by the Ming army.

At this point, the two-year preparation of the Battle of Annam ended, and the political envoy was declared to be in control of the entire territory of Cochin, and the search team began a large-scale search in the south......

The news of the recovery of Jiaozhi did not cause much discussion in Daming, because people were more worried about internal news than external news.

With the spread of drought, the drought that originally stopped in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Beizhili, as well as the northwest of Henan, the south of Fujian, and the east of Sichuan, began to gradually spread to neighboring provinces.

Winter failed to stop the drought, and a drought broke out in Xining Province in eastern Hexi, and Hanzhong Mansion, Xi'an Prefecture, and Fengxiang Mansion in Shaanxi, which had been spared, also suffered a severe drought one after another.

Xunyang Mansion and Xiangyang Mansion in Huguang, Henan Prefecture and Ruzhou Prefecture in Henan Province also had incidents of small streams breaking off one after another.

The drought in southern Fujian and southern Jiangxi spread to Guangdong and Guangxi, and there was no snow and severe drought in the whole territory of Guangdong, and Wuzhou and Pingle in Guangxi were affected.

For a time, the drought in the world affected the land of eight provinces, and the severe drought in the whole territory was Shaanxi, Shanxi, Beizhili, Guangdong, Beijing and four provinces.

Such news made the officials who had originally stepped into the eighth year of the Apocalypse and ushered in the New Year's Day not happy.

The Zhengdan Pilgrimage, which was supposed to be just a congratulatory message, became an occasion for deliberations......

"By the first day of the first lunar month, the household department had printed 43,260,000 stone and 63 catties of grain stamps, with sweet potatoes and potatoes as the main ones in the north and rice and wheat as the supplement, and rice and wheat as the main ones in the south, and sweet potatoes and potatoes as the supplement."

On the Imperial Palace, the head of the household department Bi Ziyan was dressed in court clothes, facing Zhu Youxiao on the high platform, and Zhu Youzhen in front of the hundred officials, and continued while returning:

"In addition, last year, the Imperial Horse Supervisor and the treasury put in a total of two thousand and one hundred and thirty-four thousand six hundred taels of silver, more than three cents and four cents......"

"Tian Fu has a total of 58,724,600 stones, more than 92 catties, and the rest of the miscellaneous items and silk are 1,276,400 taels after folding......

"This year, only 10% of the tax will be withheld for the place, and 90% will be escorted to the capital......" Bi Ziyan said here, and replied:

"On the 20th day of the lunar month, the state funds allocated a total of 165,000 mu of pension land, 1,650,000 taels of silver, 12,065,000 taels of military expenses for the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, and 4,060,000 stone of rice and wheat."

"Eight hundred officials, scribes, soldiers and horses, and officials were paid eight million one hundred and forty-seven thousand three hundred and twenty-one and twenty-five coins of silver, and two million nine hundred and thirty-four thousand stones of rice and wheat."

"The imperial store spent 2.76 million taels, the officialdom spent 1.27 million taels, and 3.27 million stone rice and wheat."

"Last year, the state stockpiled 6,032,020 taels of silver, and after the Governor's Office of the Five Armies and its officials were paid, there were still 1,550,179 taels of silver, and 48,490,600 stones of rice and wheat."

"In addition, Huangzhuang bought 34.06 million stone of sweet potatoes and 7.29 million stone of potatoes."

The long financial report made people have a headache, but at the end of the day, hundreds of officials also reacted.

According to Bi Ziyan's report, before the Ming Dynasty began, the cash was almost exhausted, and if rice, wheat, sweet potatoes and other grains were printed according to the food stamps printed by the household, then the rice and wheat that could be used this year would only be about 30 million stones.

30 million stone of grain, according to the current grain price in Beizhili under the current drought, is almost 15 million taels.

"There's fifteen million taels, it's quite rich."

This sentence is probably the voice of all the officials in the palace, and they have never thought about how long this bit of silver will last......

Facing the hundred officials, Zhu Youxiao glanced at His Royal Highness's Zhu Youzhen, and Zhu Youzhen also turned around and said:

"How much money does the Ministry of Industry need for disaster relief this year?"

"If the number of 1,200,000 people is used, about 4,380,000 taels of silver will be needed......

The Ministry of Labor, who was in charge of disaster relief, spoke, and Zhu Youzhen turned to Zhu Youxiao holding the wat board and said:

"Your Majesty, 1.2 million people, mainly in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan, but now that major droughts have broken out in various places, I am afraid the number needs to increase."

When the courtiers heard Zhu Youzhen's words, they began to look at each other vaguely with the people of their own party, obviously they did not want to continue to increase the number of people who paid for work.

"According to King Qi's intentions, how much does it need to be increased?"

Zhu Youxiao asked magnificently, and Zhu Youzhen said:

"In Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi, you can first migrate people to Jiaozhi and immigrate to Shibian."

"If you can't really move, you can hire to repair and widen the local post road."

"Not only that, from today onwards, all provinces are hit by a major drought, except for the prefectures and counties near the Yellow River that can be put into the Yellow River to comb the Yellow River, the rest of the prefectures and counties should focus on widening and repairing local post roads."

"I'm going to have different widths, so now it's time to set the standard and divide the width according to the level of the post road."

"For example, there should be two zhang post roads in towns and towns, four zhang in county and town post roads, eight zhang in prefecture and county post roads, and sixteen zhang in post roads connecting various provinces."

"It is understandable that it is difficult to open up a post road, so Yanshan will send 17 engineering teams with a scale of nearly 2,000 people to explore and supervise the ......."

"The provinces can also concentrate on the manufacture of gunpowder, the cost of which is allocated by the state treasury."

National money is a new word for the imperial horse supervisor and the national treasury, and since Zhu Youzhen has proposed this matter, no matter whether it is done or not, Gu Bingqian naturally wants to stand in line.

Therefore, after Zhu Youzhen finished speaking, Gu Bingqian stood up and said:

"Your Majesty, the ministers think that what His Royal Highness the King of Qi said is very true."

"The post road can not only connect the provinces with transportation, but also mobilize the army in time to suppress the rebellion, and the victims need a way to live, so it is imperative to widen and repair the post road."

"Your Majesty, the ministers seconded the ......"

When Gu Bingqian finished speaking, nearly one-third of the officials in the court sang in agreement, and it can also be seen how far the power of the Qi Wang Party has developed unconsciously.

However, Zhu Youzhen knows very well that these officials who have taken refuge in him are actually because of interests.

Once there is a conflict of interests between the two parties, they will still end up turning to others.

"In that case, according to King Qi's proposal, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household will draw up a charter and hand it over."

"The minister is ordered to ......," Bi Ziyan responded.

At the end of Bi Ziyan's response, Zhu Youxiao also spoke:

"Recently, the Governor's Office of the Five Armies has found a new continent that is not inferior to my Ming Dynasty in the south of the old port, there is no Fanbang on the continent, and it is very suitable for grazing and farming, so I gave this place the name Nanzhou."

"The two big islands in the east of Nanzhou are named East Pole and South Pole, and these three places are temporarily under the direct jurisdiction of the capital and controlled by the Qi Palace."

"The minister orders ......" Zhu Youzhen responded, and Zhu Youxiao nodded with satisfaction when he saw this:

"If there is nothing to do, let's disperse......"

After Zhu Youxiao finished speaking, no one spoke in the court for a long time, and it was rare to be calm.

Naturally, such a calm is also because the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Liuke Love Mouth Cannon were all assigned by Zhu Youzhen.

The courtiers enjoyed this calm, and Honglu Siqing, who was in charge of the court, saw this, and immediately struck the bell:

"Scattered Dynasty—"

"Hooray, hooray, hooray......"

Hundreds of officials sang, and Zhu Youxiao also got up and left the Imperial Palace.

Seeing this, Zhu Youzhen took the lead in giving gifts, and then after Zhu Youxiao completely disappeared, he walked out of the Imperial Palace in his crown clothes.

When the officials saw him leave, they also followed him out of the Imperial Palace.

After walking out of the Imperial Palace, Wang An found Zhu Youzhen and asked:

"Long live asking, His Royal Highness can arrange it today, if not, please go to the Qianqing Palace to participate in the family banquet of Zhengdan."

"There's no need for a family banquet, there is a lot of backlog in the house, not to mention that I need to go to the armament yard today." Zhu Youzhen also had a headache when he heard this.

New Year's Pass and New Year's Day, these times are the times when there are the most songs, but Zhu Youxiao relaxed and pushed all the notes to him, but the problem is that he can't push it.

He seems to be working hard, being a soldier in his last life to help the poor, and in this life he is a prince and supervising the country.

In the long run, he always felt very uneasy about the notes handled by others, and he needed to read them himself.

Governing a big country is like cooking a small fresh, and you can't be sloppy at all.

"Since this is the case, the slave and maid will retire...... Wang An also knows Zhu Youzhen's difficulties, or the entire court knows that Zhu Youzhen is the busiest in the entire Ming Dynasty at the moment.

Although Zhu Youxiao did not push all the arrangements of the six ministries and the cabinet to Zhu Youjian, the records of the household department, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Officials were all pushed over.

In this way, Zhu Youxiao only needs to deal with the Ministry of Rites, the Criminal Department, the Military Department, and the six sections, which are not very busy.

The affairs of the state are nothing more than the most difficult to deal with economic and border affairs, and Zhu Youzhen is the governor of the five armies, so the border affairs are naturally handled by him.

The music he has handled, Zhu Youxiao basically let people send it without looking at it, so it is strange that he can be tired.

But he is not tired, but Zhu Youzhen is about to die of exhaustion.

After returning home in heavy court clothes, Yang Yuanai and Yang Ru had just helped Zhu Youzhen take off the court clothes layer by layer, and he changed into regular clothes and sat in the study.

In front of him, there were hundreds of notebooks piled up.

These are all opinions put forward by the counties on the taxation of only one percent of the local people, and many of them have been promoted to the county by some Yanshan students.

[The minister thinks that Yicheng intercepts too little, such as Xianju County, Taizhou Prefecture, where the minister is located, has a household registration of only more than 40,000 people, and the dry paddy field is only 260,000 mu, and its tax discount is only ......]

Most of them hope to increase the tax interception, and even more hope to abolish the new policy and restore the policy of withholding and transporting taxes from the local government and the imperial court.

However, in this regard, Zhu Youzhen directly raised his head and said to Wang Chengen who was standing at the door:

"Cheng En, find out the suggestions in the recital, and oppose the tax interception and transportation in the new deal, and reply to the ...... in a unified manner."

"If you don't have enough money and food, you can apply to the imperial court instead of opposing the new policy."

After that, Zhu Youzhen got up and walked out of the study and sat down at the table of the Eight Immortals in the hall.

He used his fingers to strike rhythmically on the table, and Wang Chengen called more than a dozen scribes in the palace to sort out and screen the music.

After a while, Yang Rushi and Yang Yuanai brought the food to the table, and Zhu Youzhen also lowered his head and used the meal.

At this time, Yang Ru knew very well, and consciously walked behind the screen next to him and began to play the guqin.

This was suggested by Wang Kentang and others, because in their opinion, the guqin has an important role, that is, it can regulate the body.

It is said in "Zuo Biography" that music, like medicine, can make people avoid all diseases and live a long and healthy life.

Ancient Chinese medicine has the theory of "five tones to cure diseases", which believes that there are five tones in the sky, people have five organs, there are six laws in the sky, and people have six internal organs.

The horn is the wood sound through the liver, the sign is the fire sound through the heart, the palace is the earth sound through the spleen, the Shang is the golden sound through the lungs, and the feather is the water sound through the kidneys.

Zhu Youzhen didn't believe this, but after trying it a few times, he finally understood why the ancients liked to listen to the sound of the guqin.

When listening to the guqin, it can always make people feel calm, Zhu Youzhen thought about it later, and felt that sound is a kind of wave vibration, and waves are also substances, which will definitely have an effect on the human body, so he retained this habit.

The sound of the guqin, happy but not lewd, sad but not sad, resentful but not angry, its style is consistent with the traditional concept of health preservation.

The peaceful sound of the piano can regulate the internal organs, and if the negative emotions are dispelled, people will feel quiet, relaxed and refreshed.

Although Yang Rushi is still young, Zhu Youzhen likes to take her to read, and when Zhu Youzhen paints, she plays the piano or plays the guzheng next to her.

Over time, this became a form of entertainment.

However, after Zhu Youzhen's meal was over, Yang Rushi stopped playing the piano and got up to clean up the table with Yang Yuanai.

At this time, the scribes also sorted out the notes that Zhu Youzhen asked to sort out.

After these notes were sorted out, there were only fifty or sixty copies of the notes on other things.

Seeing the sudden decrease in performance, Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and felt that the task was much lighter.

Sitting back at the desk, Zhu Youzhen began to process the books one by one.

Most of them come from the newly established Wine Division, or the Tea Division, the Salt Division, and the City Division.

These four taxes, now known as the Four Divisions, will bear nearly half of the taxes of the Ming Dynasty in the future, if nothing else.

In the performance of the wine class division, it is mainly to talk about the problems encountered after the wine class is issued in various places.

The first is that although the number of people in the wine division is large, they have more people to deal with.

At present, all liquor can only be purchased in the imperial store, which requires an increase in the number of officials and a stronger crackdown on the bootleggers who sell alcohol privately in the towns.

At present, the number of government servants in the country is 420,000, and the growth rate is not fast, and the students admitted are all children of good families led by Yanshan students.

With 420,000 people, it is indeed difficult to crack down on the moonshiners among the hundreds of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty.

Compared with the cunning moonshiners, when the common people heard that some miscellaneous taxes had been abolished, they were less resistant to buying koji.

The miscellaneous taxes abolished by Zhu Youzhen have to collect hundreds of dollars from the people every year, and the people only buy koji and don't sell it for a penny and a catty, which is not much pressure.

To put it bluntly, with only two or three days' wages, you can buy enough 30 catties of koji.

Therefore, since the liquor department began to collect taxes from the capital in October, more than 14 million catties of koji have been sold to this day, and more than 14,000 taels of koji silver have been collected.

The silver of koji is only a small head, and the liquor sales of the imperial store are the bulk of the income of the liquor department.

Since October, the sales volume of liquor in Huangdian has increased day by day, from more than 70,000 catties per day on the first day of October, to 190,000 catties per day on the first day of the winter month, and then to 320,000 catties per day on the first day of the lunar month.

The liquor sold in the imperial store ranged from the common people's sweet potato roast to the imperial liquor, and the price varied, reaching 670,000 taels in three months.

This is only the beginning, and there are many officials and scribes in the liquor department who have not yet arrived at the place where they are taking office.

After all of them take office and supervise the crackdown on moonshiners, the tax revenue of the liquor department of the imperial court will only increase.

The reason is simple, that is, drinking is a pastime, and as long as the population grows, there will be more and more people who use it for recreation.

When he thought of this, Zhu Youzhen also got the note of the household department in his hand.

When I opened it, sure enough, the population of Daming had reached more than 108 million people on paper after a year of re-verification of the disaster situation.

"Far more than ......"

Looking at this data, Zhu Youzhen shook his head, because in his heart, the population of Daming should be between 120 million and 160 million.

The internal environment of the Ming Dynasty is similar to that of the Northern Song Dynasty, or even slightly better.

The population of the Northern Song Dynasty could double in a hundred years, and the environment of the Ming Dynasty was more relaxed and the taxes were lower than those of the Northern Song Dynasty, so it was impossible for the population to not even double.

Find out the number of people, check the acres of land, and then divide the land into the acres, and the gentry pay the grain in one ......

This will be the policy that Zhu Youzhen wants to do politically, and this policy will be linked to the economy, and the two need to be carried out together.

Zhu Youzhen did not demand a complete solution to the problem of land annexation, but all he wanted to do was to curb land annexation for several decades, and then open up the territory outward, and move out the people who had little or no land in their hands.

If this thing is done well, Daming can still prosper for three generations......

The thoughts in my head are constantly being conceived, and the movements of my hands never stop.

Soon, there were only three books left on the table that were handled by Zhu Youzhen, and these three books were all relatively important and urgently needed to be dealt with.

The first thing to bear the brunt of was the note sent by Hong Chengchou, and Zhu Youzhen opened it and read it at a glance.

First of all, Hong Chengchou said something about the search team, and secondly, he talked about the children of the feudal clans who went south to participate in the war.

They were sent by Hong Chengchou to Mu Qiyuan and Wu Bikui's soldiers and horses, and saw with their own eyes the process and cruelty of sweeping the tail.

This was requested by Zhu Youzhen, and he personally did not feel cruel, but used it to tell the prince of the domain how to deal with the natives.

What Zhu Youzhen was most afraid of was that there was a virgin among the children of the clans, and finally let the native ride on his head, so he would be angry to death.

Therefore, for Hong Chengchou's arrangement, he did not hesitate to praise:

"Send a field to the search team, let the children of the feudal clans see the cruelty of sweeping the tail, Hong Chengchou's method is not bad......"

After complimenting, Zhu Youzhen raised his head and said to Wang Chengen: "Chuan Wenzhao will come here." ”

"Yes......" Wang Chengen responded, and then asked someone to pass Lu Wenzhao.

As for Zhu Youzhen, he used a Zhu pen to write comments and suggestions on Hong Chengchou's recital.

"If the acres of land are insufficient, local prisoners can be used to reclaim the land, and follow the example of the people of Liaodong, planting millet in one year, potatoes and sweet potatoes in the second year, and rice in the third year......"

"All the money and food needed can be sparse, and those who have spare power in the imperial court can allocate all of them."

After writing, Zhu Youzhen closed the music and picked up the second book.

This second book is written by Shen Tingyang in the old port, mainly to say that as the victims go south, the borderless land of the old port has been exhausted.

Shen Tingyang asked Zhu Youzhen whether the prisoners who were about to be sent to the labor camp in Jiaozhi would be used to reclaim the fields.

In this regard, Zhu Youzhen thought about it and agreed, after all, the population of the old port is larger, which is more conducive to the vassal king's overseas vassalage.

After processing, he picked up the last note, and this note was sent by You Shigong of Mirror City, obviously about the slave and Guo Sangdai.

It was precisely because he saw this book that Zhu Youzhen asked Lu Wenzhao to be summoned.

He didn't rush to open the note, but waited for Lu Wenzhao to enter the study before opening the note and glanced at it, and then said:

"You Shigong said that Guo Sangdai had gathered 160,000 savage Jurchens in Nuergan, and built more than a dozen stone forts in the city, and cultivated potatoes and millet in some places."

"Does Kitajin Fuji know about this?" Zhu Youzhen put down his recital and looked directly at Lu Wenzhao, and Lu Wenzhao responded:

"I know, but the slave is bitter and cold, Jin Yiwei has seen with his own eyes, the yield of potatoes per mu in the local area is only two stones, and the yield of Shu millet per mu is less than sixty catties."

Without the triticale of Tsarist Russia, Zhu Youzhen did not believe that Guo Sangdai could be self-sufficient, but he still had to ask.

It's just that Lu Wenzhao's words gave him a reassurance, so he was no longer entangled, but explained:

"Guo Sandai is the defense line to block Jianyu's escape to the north, and told him to build the stone fort along the north mountain to the west, and by the way, to gather the deer department in the north and the dog department to return to the Ming Dynasty."

"Guo Sangdai's food supply must be strictly controlled to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past."

"I understand, please rest assured, Your Highness." Lu Wenzhao responded, and Zhu Youzhen also leaned back in his chair and asked:

"How's going on with Yan Siqi?"

"Yan Siqi ......" Hearing Zhu Youzhen's inquiry, Lu Wenzhao's thoughts also drifted to Japan on the other side of the ocean......