Chapter 80: The Northland Rises in Liaodong

Yingtianfu, Nanjing.

Xianglin Temple is next to Lake Biwa, just at the gate of the imperial city, as the royal temple of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang sometimes comes here to pay tribute to the soul of the old soldiers who died in the Ming Dynasty's conquest for the country.

Since the beginning of Zhu Yuanzhang's rise, in fact, he has never believed in the mandate of heaven, nor does he believe in gods and ghosts, but in his later years, especially when his son Zhu Biao and the emperor's eldest grandson Zhu Xiongying went to Beiping, even Zhu Yuanzhang was not exempt from vulgarity, and took a walk in the temple by the way to visit Queen Ma.

Today, Li Shanchang and Tang He are also by his side.

These days, Li Shanchang's power is greater, Daming Royal Bank is promoted in various places, everywhere is inseparable from Li Shanchang's auxiliary left, the nobles respect Li Shanchang, the civil officials are afraid of Li Shanchang, the power of the Li family once exceeded the lords and civil officials, and now everyone in Nanjing City says that the wealth of Li Shanchang's family is comparable to that of Shen Wansan's family.

The Shen family has been running a maritime business for generations, and there are tens of thousands of acres of reed salt fields in Jiangyin, and every year the private salt alone can enter millions of taels of silver, accumulating several generations, even if it was beaten by the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, when building the Nanjing city wall, the family took out at least two million taels of silver, and now it is still rich and rivals.

Li Shanchang's younger brother Li Cunyi is now the president of the Daming Royal Bank and is known as the God of Wealth of the Daming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang, Li Shanchang, Tang and the three stood in front of the main hall.

Zhu Yuanzhang carried it with one hand, and inserted three sticks of incense into the incense burner with the other hand, sighed slightly, and asked Tang He: "Tang He, you said that if we want the people to eat enough, how many silver dollars do we need?" ”

Tang He is now also gray, as the Duke of Daming Xinguo, he and Zhu Yuanzhang, the Son of Heaven, are fellow villagers, they have known each other since childhood, and they are the leaders of Zhu Yuanzhang to join Guo Zixing's righteous army.

He was slender and had a dark and thin face, and now he looked tall, thin and kind, but more like a civil servant.

The founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty, the generals, when they were young, were all able to fight field battles, and attacked the elite of the Yuan army at night.

On the contrary, he is not as high-spirited as Li Shanchang next to him.

Tang He bowed down, helped Zhu Yuanzhang straighten the three incense sticks, and said: "It's hard for us to say, but let's see that now, at least the common people are serious about farming, and it's no problem to eat well, but it's us military households." ”

"And the boat owners over there in Zhejiang......"

Tang He's words made Li Shanchang frown.

This matter was originally military, but during this time, because Li Wenzhong's health was not good, and Li Jinglong went to Beiping again, although Fu Youde Lanyu and others had returned to the dynasty, Fu Youde's credit was too great, and after pacifying Yunnan, he had to seal a lot of money, grain and land, so Zhu Yuanzhang intended to let Tang He share Li Wenzhong's military.

"It's mostly Fang Guozhen's old department, right?"

Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

Tang He sighed.

At that time, Fang Guozhen was entrenched in Zhejiang for more than 20 years, his brothers, sons and nephews, all of them were good at naval warfare, entrenched in Zhejiang to rob passing merchant ships, when Zhu Yuanzhang was strong, he called Zhu Yuanzhang a minister.

At the same time, he also proclaimed himself a vassal to the Yuan Dynasty.

For a period of time, because of the endless wars in the Central Plains of Henan and other places, taxes could not be transported to Dadu, and Fang Guozhen also sent his own sea ships to transport the grain that Zhang Shicheng gave to the Dayuan court to Dadu.

This person is good at both ends of the first rat, speculating back and forth.

In the end, Tang He led the army to fight Lianke, Fang Guozhen had to surrender, most of his subordinates were dismissed, and they were divided into boat households all over the Ming Dynasty.

As soon as the economy booms, something will happen.

The Ming Dynasty is now prosperous in maritime trade, and the surrounding Luzon, Annam and other places, merchant ship trade is frequent.

These boat owners can't sit still.

When they were pirates and pirates, they were very comfortable, and the Yuan Dynasty was a free-range management of these places, and you were stronger, and then maintained a certain order in the local area, collecting some tolls, and our Mongols did the same, as long as you don't call the king, I can also give you an official.

In the same way, there is also Zhang Shicheng.

Da Yuan made them officials, and he didn't care about them, as long as you paid taxes to me Da Yuan, and didn't call me king, how you liked to toss and toss, after all, Da Yuan used to play the tax package system.

Therefore, those who were strong in the rich maritime areas back then, such as Zhang Shicheng, Fang Guozhen, Fujian Chen Youding, etc., were very firm supporters of Dayuan.

Now, after Fang Guozhen's death, his brothers, sons and nephews are not allowed to be reused.

The shipowners lost their restraints, and fearing their rebellion, did not take them into the guardhouse.

Now, these shipowners have gathered together to do their old business and harass the merchant ships along the way.

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed deeply, his eyes flickered, and he understood that this was because after Fang Guozhen Hongwu died in the seventh year of Fang Guozhen Hongwu in eastern Zhejiang, the local boat owners were scattered and did not receive effective management, forming a hidden worry.

Before the ban on the sea, the merchant ships on the sea were only the merchant ships of the Ming government, and they did not dare to move.

Nowadays, private merchant ships are also frequent, and there are more and more of them.

"No one can resist the taste of fat meat, we accepted Fang Guozhen back then and scattered the boatmen under him, originally to prevent them from making trouble, who would have thought that they are now scattered all over the place and making trouble everywhere."

Zhu Yuanzhang walked towards the front with his back on his back, and Li Shanchang and Tang He followed left and right.

Tang He glanced at Li Shanchang and sighed: "Yes, the upper position, we didn't kill Fang Guozhen's old subordinates back then, and I am responsible for this matter, and I hope that the superior will forgive the crime." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang turned his head with a smile and glanced at Li Shanchang thoughtfully.

He glanced at Tang He again.

Raising his head slightly, looking at the ginkgo tree next to him, Zhu Yuanzhang said: "If you are guilty, it is also our crime, it is we who ordered you not to harm the innocent people in eastern Zhejiang, and these boat owners are also a last resort, there are few fields in the mountainous areas of eastern Zhejiang, if you don't go to sea, there is no way to live, and they are still a little particular, as long as they give enough money, they will not take the lives of merchant merchants......

Zhu Yuanzhang's words made Li Shanchang also smile bitterly.

During the Yuan Dynasty, the approval of the death penalty was very broad.

Because the Mongolian steppe is vast and sparsely populated, slaves are very precious, every family needs a few slaves for cattle grazing, if someone commits the death penalty, most of them are reduced to slaves, and life is worse than death.

The other is to make more money.

Yes, in the Yuan Dynasty, the death penalty was dispensable, and the boundary between having and not was how much money you had, and if you gave enough silver, you could not be sentenced to death at all.

And Fang Guozhen's group of boat owners still adhered to the principle of being pirates in the Yuan Dynasty, robbing money but not life, robbing enough tolls and sending them out of the country, after all, they will continue to collect money next time.

A meal full of food, Fang Guozhen's subordinates can still carry it.

This is also the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang did not kill Fang Guozhen's gang of boatmen after Tanghe conquered Zhejiang.

The Son of Heaven of the Ming Dynasty, the Prime Minister, the Duke of the Kingdom, and the three of them looked at each other, all crying and laughing.

"What words do you have to teach us?"

Li Shanchang squinted his eyes and took a breath, pondered for a while, and said: "Holy Lord, now my Ming royal merchant ships, private merchant ships, frequent exchanges, sea trade last year, for my Ming Dynasty tax of more than 1.7 million taels of silver, equivalent to more than 3.4 million yuan of Ming silver dollars, among them, there are many tax evasion. ”

"On the coastal shores, pirates are rampant, and pirates are in rebellion."

"Some of these pirates can be co-opted, and some should be exterminated."

"The minister suggested that instead of letting these boat owners and Tan people loot and collect protection money on the seaside, it is better for me to build more guards along the coast and incorporate them on the spot, like the Tianjin Guard that is about to be built."

"Zhejiang and other places, can set up some small guard stations, a dozen people, set up a small guard, connected into a line, one to prepare for disaster protection business, the second to anti-smuggling and theft, third, is to include these boat households into the health station, the implementation of positive management, their anti-smuggling income, just to provide, but also to deter those who evade taxes of maritime merchants."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded.

He grinned and pointed at Li Shanchang: "Or Li Hangong understands us, how can we be separated from you Li Hangong!" ”

As he spoke, he reached out and patted Li Shanchang on the shoulder.

Li Shanchang hurriedly arched his hand and said, "The minister is panicked. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang and Tang He glanced at each other, laughed, and the three of them talked about political affairs again and walked towards the front.

Not far away.

Mao Xiang held a piece of information in his hand, frowned tightly, he hesitated, but still rushed forward, kneeling on one knee and playing: "Holy Lord, there is an eagle letter from Jindi!" ”

"It's a red letter!" Mao Xiang added.

"Oh?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was originally joking, but at this moment, his eyes wrinkled, his eyes flashed with a solemn look, he stretched out his hand to take Mao Xiang's eagle letter, and did not shy away from Li Shanchang and Tang He.

But Li Shanchang and Tang He both bowed down and took two steps back.

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at it a few times, and the more he looked at the eagle letter, the amier it became, and he laughed and said: "The officials of Jin have a letter, saying that the king of Jin intends to occupy Juntuntian and wants to rebel!" ”

"Huh!?"

Li Shanchang and Tang He were both shocked, Li Shanchang's eyes were wrinkled, and he thought of Deng Zhen's rough and fierce cheeks for no reason.

Tang He scolded: "King Jin rebelled? Where did this rumor come from! ”

Zhu Yuanzhang handed the eagle letter to Tang He and motioned for them to take a look together, this was sent by the magistrate of Jindi using the highest-level official letter of the post station, it was very precious, and it was naturally impossible to joke about this kind of thing.

As the economy of Daming becomes more and more prosperous, the demand for pigeon letters and eagle letters is also increasing.

But the falcon is a thing that the domestication is mostly good at in the steppe Mongolian tribes, and the Ming Dynasty now inherits fewer and fewer falcons to send letters, unless it is very important, the officials of Jindi should not hang their heads on the waistband of their trousers to challenge Zhu Yuanzhang's temper.

After reading Tang He and Li Shanchang, their eyes were wrinkled.

As one of the founding generals of the Ming Dynasty, one of the few people who has a beginning and an end with Zhu Yuanzhang, and is a perfect person who has the friendship of monarchs and ministers, Xinguo Gongtang and not only very capable of fighting, but also has a very high political consciousness, and he immediately felt that this matter was related to the land reform of the northern army and Juntian.

However, this matter also involved the Huaixi magnates.

So Tang He wisely chose not to speak, he took a deep breath, stared at the ground, and didn't say a word.

Today, the Huaixi Xungui Group of the Ming Dynasty is also divided into various factions, and they are unhappy with each other.

For example, Zheng Guogong Chang Mao, there is quite a gap between him and his father-in-law Feng Sheng, and for this reason, it also affected Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, Zhu Hu secretly hid from Zhu Yuanzhang, met with his father-in-law Feng Sheng, and talked about some unknown things.

After this time, Chang Mao's family's fertile land in the north, especially in the Central Plains of Henan, was basically sold cheaply.

Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, was reprimanded by Zhu Yuanzhang for this, punished him for not being allowed to run around in the palace, and thought about it, originally he was in Hongwu for 15 years, and was ordered to escort grain and grass, and went to Beiping on the Tongji Canal.

"The Legend of the Fairy Tree"

This also made Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, hate Chang Mao.

And the matter in Shanxi is even more complicated.

Yongping Hou Xie Cheng, who followed Xu Danan to fight in the north, and partnered with Deng Yu, was deeply rooted in Shanxi, and the officers and soldiers of the school guard were basically from his Xie Cheng family.

Therefore, when Zhu Li, the king of Jin, was in Shanxi, Zhu Yuanzhang gave marriage and let Zhu Li marry the daughter of Yongping Marquis Xie Cheng as the princess of Jin.

It stands to reason that as a nobleman, he should abide by the law, but Xie Chengjiu is in Shanxi, the land of the Jin Dynasty in Shanxi, the people are fierce, and there are many Beidi, so it is inevitable that the military leaders under his command have the things of greedy ink and killing good people.

After Zhu Li, the king of Jin, passed, relying on his father-in-law Xie Cheng and the dignified Zhu Ming royal family, he once wanted to stop the bad wind of the Shanxi Ming Military Guard, but as a result, the cook poisoned him and he whipped the cook......

There are some things that Xie Cheng can not master.

Land, no matter at any time, is hard currency for the large landlord class in China, even if the Ming Royal Bank has transferred some of its influence, but this influence is far from the Ming nobles and big landlords, giving up the embezzlement of fertile land.

There are many immigrants in Shanxi, and there are many ancient ethnic groups in the local area, such as the Yuan Haowen family at the end of the Jin Dynasty, the Yuan family, which is the descendant of the royal family of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the mother family of the Tang Dynasty Prime Minister Yuan Zai, which is very large in the Tang Dynasty.

In order to warn Xie Cheng to restrain his subordinates, Zhu Yuanzhang personally issued an order, and did not reward Xie Cheng with a marquis of 1,000 stone Gongtian, blamed Xie Cheng, and then promoted Xie Cheng's son.

This move is to warn Xie Cheng, if you don't restrain your subordinates, I will attack you, and our kindness to you will be repaid on your son!

"In the name of Juntian's land reform, the general of the Jin Dynasty took Tuntian for himself, and did not distribute it to the low-level military households, and also privately swallowed the Shanxi immigrant fields, classified them as military tuntian, and placed the second field into a good field......"

Li Shanchang took the eagle letter and read it.

He and Tang He glanced at each other.

Both of them are people who follow the superiors, and they have followed Zhu Yuanzhang for many days, and they can touch Zhu Yuanzhang's temper when they touch it.

Zhu Yuanzhang put his hands behind his back and looked at the courtyard where Zhu Xiongying and Queen Ma lived in the distance, they had a small courtyard to live in on Biwa Lake next to Xianglin Temple, with morning bells and dusk drums.

It is only separated by a wall from the imperial city, but it does lack a lot of intrigues.

Queen Ma's mood and body have visibly improved.

During this time, it was not without palace fights, because Queen Ma was recuperating outside the palace, and Concubine Li Shufei was temporarily in charge of miscellaneous affairs in the sixth palace, and as a result, Concubine Li Shu died violently.

Now, in the harem of the Ming Dynasty, the power is actually in the hands of Concubine Guo Ning, she gradually took the six palaces alone, and the crown princess Lu was expelled from the palace after the old man of the Lu family was expelled, and she was much more low-key, and she was dedicated to cultivating Zhu Yunwen.

And the important ministers of the court, seeing that Concubine Guo Ning was favored, many nobles and Guo Xing and Guo Ying walked very closely......

Zhu Yuanzhang's eighth son, Zhu Zi, the king of Tan, has gone to Changsha to take up the domain, it is strange to say, Zhu Yuanzhang will Chen Youliang's old general, Ningxia Du commander Yu Xian's daughter to marry Zhu Zi, the king of Tan, this person was Chen Youliang's general, was very famous in Jingchu, after surrendering, was sent to Ningxia to the border.

Chen Youliang's two brothers Chen Youzhi when Chen Youzhi, after the surrender of the Ming Dynasty, one was named Gui Renbo, one was named Bad Enbo, the two were taken aback when they heard the words, and begged in a book, although Changsha is some distance from Wuhan and Jiangxi, but it will arrive in an instant down the river, and Jing Chu, Jiangxi was the old place of Chen Youliang, and there are still some old people who miss his kindness at that time, and set up temples to worship.

Now that Zhu Zi, the king of Tan, has been sealed to Changsha, supplemented by Chen Youliang for the old people, isn't this the old pearl?

But Zhu Yuanzhang didn't pay attention to it, but specially sent Chen Youliang's former prime minister, Linchuan Marquis Hu Mei, to personally supervise the mansion of Zhu Zi, the king of Tan.

Hu Mei was originally Chen Youliang's confidant, in Jiangxi, Jing Chu was very popular, and his wife Concubine Hu was also promoted by Zhu Yuanzhang.

This made the Ming Dynasty suddenly nervous......

After all, Chen Youliang died that year, and his other prime minister, Zhang Bixian, disappeared, Zou Pusheng was incognito, and there were palace people who bewitched Zhu Zinai, the king of Tan, as Chen Youliang's widow...... The intentions of the Son of Heaven are as secretive as deep.

It is strange to say that even Zhu Yuanzhang himself, when he walked out of the Forbidden City in the high-walled compound, felt that he was in a much better mood.

Zhu Yuanzhang squinted his eyes and looked into the distance, pondered for a moment, and said with a twitch at the corner of his mouth: "The land reform of the Northern Guard's army is suspended, and we will wait for the supervisors of our Taixue and Guozijian to finish measuring the fish scale atlas of the whole country." ”

"If you measure ten years, you will average it after ten years, and if you measure it for twenty years, you will average it after twenty years."

"As for the south, all parts of the southern Zhili must carefully promote the Juntian, so that the military households are good and the tenants of the Huangtian official fields in various places have land to cultivate."

"Zhejiang coast, let's go with you, let's worry about other people, we can't suppress Fang Guozhen from leaving those old departments."

Back then, it was Fang Guozhen who was personally recruited by Tang He.

Afterwards, Fang Guozhen's old department was also resettled by Tang He, and he also had a lot of appeasement for Fang Guozhen's children and nephews, so he had great prestige among those boat owners who changed their careers to their old jobs.

After Zhu Yuanzhang finished speaking, he looked into the distance with his hands behind his back, and turned his back to Li Shanchang and Tang He.

"Can Feng Sheng still eat?"

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly asked a somewhat off-topic question.

Li Shan's eyes narrowed slightly, and he said in a low voice: "If it is to conquer Liaodong, Feng Sheng alone is not enough to pacify Liao." ”

The trouble of the Ming Dynasty is not inside.

Nowadays, as long as the external troubles are solved, the internal worries will naturally be slow and dull.

The two monarchs and ministers glanced at each other, and everything was silent.

Seeing this, Tang He lowered his head.

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