[On the first day of June in the eighth year of the Apocalypse, five drums, the whole Shaanxi sky is as red as blood, the child is yellow, and the sun is high and suspended in the air. Zhan said that this red eye is also, the main drought is great, and there are urgent soldiers ......]

"Let's talk about it......"

Zhu Youzhen sat in the Chengcheng County Ya, and in front of him stood a row of Qintianjian officials who went out with him.

In the face of Zhu Youzhen's questioning, a doctor from Qin Tianjian could only stand up and say:

"The sky is red like blood, indicating the fortune of a country......"

The sage thought that "the red one is the master of the war", so the blood moon and the bloody sky were regarded as ominous signs of disaster, especially military disasters and droughts. ”

"The Tang Dynasty Taishi Ling Li Chunfeng's "Yi Si Zhan" has a cloud: "The red air comes out of the heavenly ship, and there will be self-reliant people in less than a year......"

"The one who is red and bloody, the ...... of blood"

"The red air is like blood, the drought is great, the people are hungry, and the red land is ...... for thousands of miles"

"Chiyun Lin surrounded the east and west, and the country and the army ......"

"Those who stop the red qi whirlwind, there is a soldier's blood flowing under it......"

"The sky is light and clear, and those who turn dark are unknown; The miserable white, mourning, red as fire and blood, the army rises, and the world is in chaos. ”

This man stood up and said many things, all in the tone that the Ming Dynasty was about to die, and the other man also stood up and said:

"Your Highness, this kind of celestial phenomenon has happened many times in all dynasties, and most of them appeared in the last years of the dynasty."

For example, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty changed the Yuan Dynasty to build Yasukuni, but on the first day after the Yuan Dynasty was reformed, there was a vision of "red air in the sky" at night. ”

"When the Jin soldiers attacked Bianliang in the first year of Jingkang, there were also celestial phenomena such as "red qi in the sky" and ......"

"During the reign of Emperor Yuan Shun of the previous dynasty, there were also many visions of "red air in the sky"......"

"This ...... This...... Perhaps there are people who are not subordinate who try to stand on their own feet and disturb the ...... of the court."

The more this person spoke, the more his voice trembled, and he looked up at Zhu Youzhen's expression from time to time, but Zhu Youzhen's expression was flat throughout the whole process, but Sun Chuanting, Gu Bingqian and others who were standing on the left and right had ugly faces.

Someone stands on their own? Looking at the world, who can stand on their own? In addition to Zhu Youzhen's ability, who else can have the ability?

I don't know if I interpret this celestial phenomenon, and I thought that Zhu Youzhen was going to be reversed.

Therefore, everyone waited for Zhu Youzhen to speak, and wanted to figure out what the attitude of the highness who was meant to be pointed out was.

However, in the face of their waiting, Zhu Youzhen sneered, and immediately got up and said:

"You say that this celestial phenomenon indicates that the world is in danger, the monarch is in a bad situation, and the fall of the imperial court is ......" Zhu Youzhen changed his words:

"But I want to say that this is the image of the prosperous world!"

After that, Zhu Youzhen said to many officials of Qin Tianjian: "Write! ”

"Write...... What to write? The officials of Qin Tianjian were confused, but Zhu Youzhen looked down at them, and said calmly with his eyes:

"Write that Zhu Youzhen, the king of Qi in the Ming Dynasty, has a saying, the sky is as red as blood, it is the prosperity of the country, the image of the prosperous world!"

"This ......" Hearing Zhu Youzhen's "great rebellion", the officials of Qin Tianjian knelt down one after another and admonished:

"Your Highness, this is a celestial phenomenon summarized by the ancestors, and it is impossible to add or change it at will......"

"Ancestors?" Zhu Youzhen sneered: "After a hundred years of loneliness, he is also an ancestor, how can he not add, delete or modify?" ”

"Write!"

His tone was aggravated, and one word came out, and the officials of Qin Tianjian could only hold the astronomical book in their hands, and tremblingly wrote twelve characters such as "The sky is as red as blood, the country is prosperous, and the image of the prosperous era" is written.

"Lone told you and others, Lone does not believe in fate, if God really does not let the Ming Dynasty have the image of prosperity, then the person who suffers from God's punishment is also lonely, and it has nothing to do with you!"

After saying that, Zhu Youzhen waved his hand and signaled the officials of Qin Tianjian to go out one after another, and they could only swallow their saliva, and under Zhu Youzhen's gaze, they staggered out.

It was only after the officials of Qin Tianjian left that Gu Bingqian still stepped forward and said to Zhu Youzhen:

"Your Highness, although the proverbs are just nonsense, but there is a great drought in the eight provinces of the country, and it has even more spread since the beginning of autumn, if there are any perverse people like Han Chao in the officials below, then it is not surprising that someone stands on his own."

The advantage of Gu Bingqian is to judge the situation and take advantage of the situation......

What is Potential? Whoever he does under him is the power.

Historically, Wei Zhongxian was not politically smart, and he was often bewitched by the people below as a knife, Gu Bingqian saw it, but did not remind Wei Zhongxian.

Because he knew very well that even if he reminded Wei Zhongxian, Wei Zhongxian would still be bewitched by someone to be a knife, and if he reminded him, he might be dealt with by someone with a heart.

So in the face of the policy issued by Wei Zhongxian, he obediently approved it.

However, Wei Zhongxian is Wei Zhongxian, and Zhu Youzhen is Zhu Youzhen.

After all, Zhu Youzhen has been a soldier, a grassroots cadre, and a poor person.

In other words, he was at the grassroots level in his previous life, and he was very clear about what was at the grassroots level, and in this life, as a powerful person, the top of the Ming Dynasty class, he was also very familiar with the top level.

Such a person, to put it bluntly, is a weakened version of Zhu Yuanzhang.

The only thing Zhu Youzhen doesn't know much about is that he is tired of the middle level, and Gu Bingqian, as a minister, has come up step by step from the middle level, and he doesn't dare to say anything else, but he knows the middle level of cat greasy very well.

Therefore, he was vaguely reminding Zhu Youzhen not to delegate power to the middle level, because once the power is delegated, whether it is to the grassroots or the middle level, the trend of the situation will be difficult to control.

The meaning of his words, Zhu Youzhen roughly understood what it meant when he heard it, and when he responded:

"Long live Shangshu, please supervise the department and the newly appointed Imperial History of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Six Sections, and the judge of Dali Temple will organize the Beijing inspection."

Jingcha, the sharp weapon of the party struggle back then, has rarely been mentioned since the Donglin Party was defeated step by step in the third year of the Apocalypse, and the reason is very simple......

To put it bluntly, at the moment, the Qi Wang Party is powerful, and whoever mentions Jingcha just wants the Qi Wang Party to do its own thing, so the Eunuch Party and other small parties have shut their mouths.

However, at present, the matter of Jingcha has been brought up again by Zhu Youzhen, and he has to revise Jingcha.

Glancing at Gu Bingqian and the others, Zhu Youzhen continued:

"In addition, please abolish the power of Nanjing Jingcha, and only use Beijing Jingcha from now on."

"The Governor's Office of the Northern Army temporarily transferred the three battalions of the Gongwei Battalion to assist in the defense of Shanxi, Shanxi and the Gongwei Battalion of Beizhili changed defenses, the Shandong Gongwei Battalion and the South Zhili Gongwei Battalion exchanged guards, and Fujian and Zhejiang Gongwei Battalions exchanged guards."

"The local Gongwei battalions in Jiangxi and Huguang were sent to Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Huguang to recruit new troops."

The abolition of Nanjing's power in Jingcha is tantamount to directly cutting off the right of Jiangnan civil officials to speak in Beijing.

In order to prevent the gentry from inciting the people, Zhu Youzhen chose to exchange the Gongwei battalions in various provinces, and requisitioned three Gongwei battalions to Nanzhili and Zhejiang.

That is to say, before the start of Nanzhili in Jingcha, in addition to a relatively special Xiaoling Guard, there will be six battalions of soldiers and horses stationed in the local area, and Zhejiang is also stationed in six battalions of soldiers and horses.

Six battalions of soldiers and horses, totaling more than 18,000 people.

This may not seem like a large number, but it is enough to leave at least 1,000 men in each province.

A thousand Gong Guard Battalion, even if it is a civil uprising of tens of thousands of people, it can be suppressed, if anyone is not long-sighted, Zhu Youzhen does not mind killing another batch of people.

The tens of thousands of head-level scenes under the Yellow River are still vivid, from the fourth to the ninth grade, and the heads in the river are readily available.

In the face of Zhu Youzhen's methods, everyone didn't say anything, but Zhu Youzhen felt that there was still not enough manpower, so he said:

"How many students are there in the third and fourth schools in Yanshan?"

"Back to Your Highness, there are more than 12,000 people in total." Wang Chengen stood up, and Zhu Youzhen said after going through his mind:

"The decree is that from now on, the official schools of the three provinces of Beijing, three prefectures and four provinces, including Beizhili, Taining, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Liaodong, and Hexi, will be replaced with Yanshan textbooks."

"The students of the third and fourth institutions will be upgraded from six taels of study silver to eighteen taels of teaching silver, divided into five subjects with the main subject, and granted the status of official school teaching and learning, and take over the official school."

"In addition, students of government schools are exempt from all tuition and miscellaneous fees, and a separate department of government schools is set up, and the children who are enrolled in government schools for five years, and children who do not study before the age of 10 in childhood will be punished with 10 lashes from each of their parents."

"After six years, except for the third and fourth schools in Yanshan, the rest of the schools were changed to a three-year school system."

"The third and fourth institutions will be removed, and the rest of the institutions will be split and relocated to the provinces, and in six years there will be one in each province."

"The third and fourth schools of Yanshan were changed to Shuntian and Yingtian schools."

"Those who are excellent in official learning can enter Yanshan University without all fees, and those who are excellent in Yanshan School can enter Yingtian and Shuntian Schools."

"Those who enter Yingtian and Shuntian schools, in addition to exempting tuition and miscellaneous fees, will be rewarded with six taels of school silver every year."

Zhu Youzhen is trying to snatch the right to speak among the people, and this move undoubtedly makes everyone present nervous.

"Your Highness, although it is only carried out in one capital, three prefectures and four provinces, I am afraid that there are no less than ......millions of children affected."

"Millions of children need a lot of education."

"If you teach silver according to one person and eighteen taels, I am afraid that it will be a big expense to teach silver in the future......"

After Zhu Youzhen expressed his thoughts, the first to stand up was indeed Bi Ziyan, the great housekeeper of the Ming Dynasty.

Bi Ziyan's calculations are very clear: one capital, three prefectures, and four provinces, based on the latest number of people on the Yellow Book, the total is more than 37 million, of which Dingkou accounts for half.

Although there are no statistics on the number of children under the age of 10, the number of births counted last year shows that there are at least 4 million people under the age of 10 in the three provinces of Beijing.

The teaching ratio of Yanshan Academy, Bi Ziyan is clear, and the number of students cannot exceed 30 at most.

That is to say, according to the five subjects of teaching, in the case of teaching, a maximum of 150 people will be covered.

Of the more than 4 million children, more than 60,000 are men, even if they are 2 million.

According to 18 taels of silver per person, these 60,000 people need to spend nearly 1.2 million taels a year.

This doesn't seem like a lot, but Bi Ziyan knows that one capital, three prefectures and four provinces is just the beginning......

His Royal Highness, in the end, will inevitably be extended to the entire Ming Dynasty, two capitals and seventeen provinces.

At that time, the amount of money spent per year would be astronomical.

Besides, this is only the cost of teaching, as well as the students' meals and books.

Bi Ziyan was not afraid that this policy would make him busy and responsible, but he felt that it was necessary for him to remind Zhu Youzhen.

However, in this regard, Zhu Youzhen has already made up his mind.

"The income of the household department is sufficient, as long as the land tax and commercial tax are clarified, plus the wine department that started this year, I am not afraid that I will not be able to get the money."

Zhu Youzhen responded to Bi Ziyan's worries in a dignified manner, and said:

"After collecting so much tax from the people, could it be that it should be used for pleasure? Or is it a reckless force? ”

"Taking it from the people and using it for the people is the way to go through the world."

Zhu Youzhen didn't believe that hundreds of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty couldn't squeeze out this bit of silver.

During the Tianxi period of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were only more than 30 million people, and as a result, more than 21 million guan could be received only for commercial taxes and monopoly.

The people during the Great Ming Dynasty were several times that of the people during the Tianxi period of the Northern Song Dynasty, and even if the taxes were halved, it was far more than the more than 20 million taels of silver collected at present.

Collected so much silver and so much grain, Zhu Youzhen didn't collect it for his own enjoyment.

So much money and grain must be taken from the people and used by the people.

Frontier affairs have opened up territories and expanded territory, popularized government education in internal affairs, provided relief through work, relocated people to the border, distributed acres of land, and alleviated land annexation......

The taxes collected by Zhu Youjian are to be used for these.

Therefore, after telling Bi Ziyan not to worry about not having any money, he decisively said:

"One Beijing, three prefectures and four provinces will begin to release news from now on, the household department will allocate money, and the Ministry of Industry will begin to repair the official schools in various places, and on the first day of September next year, all localities will begin to recruit students, and on the first day of October, the government students of the three prefectures and four provinces in Beijing will begin to enroll."

"The subordinate receives the order...... Bi Ziyan sighed helplessly in his heart, and could only respond.

Compared with his pessimism, Zhu Youzhen did not have any pressure.

The lack of land due to the rapid increase in population may have been a disadvantage for other dynasties, but not for him.

As long as the Ming Dynasty solves the problem of taxation, with his system, it is enough to become the third powerful unified dynasty in addition to the Han and Tang dynasties.

If corruption cannot be curbed, it will be replaced, and as long as there are millions of students, Zhu Youzhen will not believe it, and he will not be able to find hundreds of thousands of capable officials.

supported the north to fight against the south, and finally disintegrated the official and private schools in the south, and took over the official and private schools in the south, and the gentry's right to speak was most of the excavators by Zhu Youzhen.

However, this is still a political means, and what he needs to deal with now is the matter of Shaanxi.

"Can the number of victims in Shaanxi be found out now?"

Zhu Youzhen asked Sun Chuanting, and Sun Chuanting also replied:

"At present, the victims of Qingyang Mansion, Pingliang Mansion, Yan'an Mansion, Shuofang Mansion, and Ningxia Mansion and the Yellow Book have been calculated under the inventory of the Gongwei Battalion, and the acres of land have also been measured and identified."

"Only Xi'an Mansion, Fengxiang Mansion, Hanzhong Mansion, Gongchang Mansion, and Lintao Mansion have not yet started to ......"

"However, judging from the inventory of the five prefectures in northern Shaanxi, the population of the five prefectures in southern Shaanxi is about 4 million, and the total population is about 8 million."

"The people of the five prefectures in southern Shaanxi still have some money and food, but the five prefectures in northern Shaanxi have been overwhelmed, among the 3.82 million people, except for the people of Shuofang Mansion and Ningxia Prefecture, there are still more than 1.93 million people in the other three prefectures, and it can be said that they are all affected by the disaster."

Sun Chuanting's words made Zhu Youzhen breathe a sigh of relief.

The Ming Dynasty can still deal with the less than two million victims in the three provinces of Yan'an, not to mention anything else, just the nearly 8 million stone rice and wheat obtained from this raid are enough for these two million people to eat for a year.

If it weren't for Zhu Youzhen's relocation of people to Shuofang, Hetao and other places in the fifth year of the Apocalypse, I am afraid that the number of victims would have doubled.

"The victims of Qingyang, Pingliang, and Yan'an organized to move to Hexi, and the migrants were given 12 stone food stamps, farm tools and clothing."

"Those who don't want to move will be given food stamps of six stones first, and the errands of the Yellow River hired workers can also be done first."

"In addition, the people of southern Shaanxi can organize the relocation to the four prefectures of Tongchuan, Baoning, Shunning, and Chongqing in eastern Sichuan."

"As for the victims in Shanxi and Henan, if they can move to Liaodong, they will be Liaodong, and if they can't, they will be Hexi."

Zhu Youzhen explained to Sun Chuanting, and then said to Bi Ziyan:

"The confiscated gold was sent to the capital for temporary storage, and the silver was transferred to Huangdian, who raised money from Sichuan, Huguang, Jiangxi, Nanzhili and other places to buy grain."

"How much grain is there in the official warehouses of the three provinces?"

"About more than 10 million stones, most of the corrupt officials at all levels have been sold, and the official warehouses of the other five provinces still have more than 10 million stones after investigation, it is estimated that they have not had time to embezzle too much ink...... Bi Ziyan responded, making Zhu Youzhen frown.

The imperial court sent more than 40 million stones to relieve the disaster, but the victims did not eat a grain of rice, most of the grain was sold, and more than 7 million were saved by them.

If Liu Si and others had not revolted and killed the corrupt official Han Chao, I am afraid that less than 10% of the more than 40 million stone grain would have been delivered to the people.

"Counting the seizures, how much food is there in the eight provinces, and how long is it enough for the victims to eat?"

Zhu Youzhen continued to ask, and Bi Ziyan already had a draft in his chest, and replied in an orderly manner:

"There are still more than 29.3 million stones of relief grain sent by the eight provinces, and in addition to the direct distribution of grain to the victims in Weibei, the relief grain in other places can still be closed to stabilize local grain prices."

"It has been decreed that the price of grain in various places shall not be higher than 500 wen." Zhu Youzhen frowned and ordered, ignoring the words of the original seven hundred words.

Perhaps he saw that if he dared to set 700 wen, the officials dared to raise the grain to 699 wen together with the grain, and he set it at 500 wen, and under the collusion of officials and businessmen, he dared to raise the grain price to 499 wen.

The bottom line of this group of people is even lower than he and Bi Ziyan thought.

It is better to hope that their conscience will find out, than that the drought will go away.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen also asked Bi Ziyan: "It's already June now, and according to the estimate of the household department, how many ...... Tian Fu is there this year?"

"Probably less than 20 million stone ......" Bi Ziyan responded, and Zhu Youzhen looked at Wang Chengen, and Wang Chengen also responded:

"Shaanxi Juntuntian has 70% of the harvest, Hexi has 30% of the harvest, Shanxi has 50% of the harvest, Beizhili has 40% of the harvest, Henan has 20% of the harvest, Guangdong has ...... of 50%, and Fujian "

The reason why the harvest data can be collected so clearly is because of the fact that the grain harvest can be seen from April.

After the report on the situation of the military tuntian in each province, Wang Chengen said:

"This year, more than 99 million troops are tun fields, and it is estimated that more than 42 million mu will be harvested, and the land that can be harvested is probably less than 30 million stones."

One is less than 20 million stones, and the other is less than 30 million stones, and the conclusion is that the total income of Daming Tianfu this year is probably less than 50 million stones.

This is a field that could have collected nearly 80 million stones, but now it can only collect 60%.

If there is no army tuntian, relying solely on the household department, and also exempting the three rings and various miscellaneous taxes, I am afraid that the Ming Dynasty will perish earlier than in history.

"The grain harvest is gone, what is the price of wine this year?"

After a moment of silence, Zhu Youzhen asked about the price of wine, and Bi Ziyan also said:

"According to the reply of the wine department, the price of wine in the world has risen by two percent this year."

"They have risen by 20%, and we have also risen by 20%, and the soju in Huangdian has risen to 10 Wen." Zhu Youzhen turned his head and instructed Wang Chengen.

Obviously, Zhu Youzhen no longer counts on Tian Fu, he even more expects the silver of the wine department.

As long as there is silver to pay and pay money, there is no need to fold the field, so the Ming Dynasty will always have tens of millions of stone grain in the hands of the mobilization and disaster relief.

With the size of the Ming Dynasty, these tens of millions of stones are not much, so Zhu Youzhen still needs to attack the population.

"Shanxi, Beizhili, Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong, the five provinces of Beijing, find out the accurate amount as soon as possible, and the millions of people involved will be relocated to Jiugang and Nanzhou according to the distance and successively."

Reducing population density, this is the best way to do it.

Although the six major shipyards and the Jiaozhi shipyard that have begun to be built are building ships at a fast pace, Huangdian also has enough volume to relocate hundreds of thousands of people at one time.

However, such a migration takes several months and a lot of manpower and material resources, and millions of people are relocated a year, which is already the largest migration volume that Daming can do to the old port and Jiaozhi at present.

The population density of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Beizhili, Shandong, and Henan, Zhu Youzhen has been working since the White Lotus Uprising in the second year of the Apocalypse, and as long as he continues to walk, then the pressure on disaster relief will only become smaller and smaller.

The only thing that needs to be cared about is Nanzhili and the two provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangxi.

These two provinces account for one-third of Daming's population, and if Zhu Youjian remembers correctly, they did not have a great impact in the first stage of the 17-year drought in the Xiaoice River.

The entire seventeen-year drought in Xiaoice River at the end of the Ming Dynasty is divided into two stages, the first stage is the seventh year of the Apocalypse to the eighth year of Chongzhen, and the current is the fifteenth year of the Apocalypse.

At this stage, the drought is mainly in the north, and Sichuan, Fujian, Huguang, and Liangguang have basically not experienced more than three consecutive years of severe drought, and only a few prefectures and counties close to the north in the south of the Yangtze River have been affected, which is not particularly serious.

But in the second stage, that is, when the Ming Dynasty was unable to maintain internal repression and external defense, the situation completely changed.

From the ninth year of Chongzhen to the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, the great drought not only continued to rage in the north, but even covered the entire Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi.

At this stage, except for Yunnan and Liaodong, which did not suffer from a major drought, the rest of the provinces were also covered for at least one year.

In other words, if Zhu Youzhen could not reduce the population density of Jiangnan, the two provinces of Beijing, before the fifteenth year of the Apocalypse, then the situation he would have to face would be very cruel.

Historically, there have been no large-scale starvation deaths in this province, because the local industry and commerce are developed and the groundwater is easily extracted.

Thus, even though the rice fields were not producing, they were able to feed themselves from mulberry trees and textiles.

However, although the three provinces, which account for one-third of the population of the Ming Dynasty, were able to feed themselves, their grain production declined.

Holding the silver money, they bought grain in order to survive, which led to the grain being sold out when it arrived in Nanjing.

Knowing that the price of grain in Jiangnan was high, the grain merchants all transported grain to Jiangnan, and in the end, it was the people in the north who starved to death......

The economic structure of these three places determined that they would not be able to move on a large scale because of the imperial court's land, unless Zhu Youzhen could give each of them hundreds of acres.

This condition is destined to be difficult to achieve, and it is also difficult to relocate them.

It is almost impossible to get the local people to take the initiative to relocate, but this is also difficult for Zhu Youzhen.

From this case, he probably figured out a way to settle people without spending a lot of money.

That is "rejuvenating a big case and moving prisoners".

How many clean Jiangnan officials have? If one is caught and convicted of relocating the nine clans, hundreds or thousands of people can be moved.

As long as a big case is raised, corrupt officials are convicted, and the nine clans are relocated and exiled, it is not difficult to get millions of people away.

However, if you want to make a big case in Jiangnan, then Zhu Youzhen has to make some preparations in advance......

(End of chapter)