"Drive!"

In the cold winter, the snow in the north is thicker and rains more heavily than in the south of the Yangtze River.

Braving the cold wind and winter snow, a team of Tang cavalry sent the latest news from Jiangnan to the north.

Faced with the news of Fu Youde's death, everyone was in shock, but after the shock, they all set their eyes on the four feudal clans of Qin, Jin, Yan and Zhou.

"It's good that I didn't contact your grandfather......"

As the closest to Nanjing and the first vassal king to receive the news, Zhu Hu, the king of Zhou, sat on the chair of the palace and sighed.

Regarding the news of Fu Youde's death, he could only be glad that he listened to his son's advice and was not busy contacting his father-in-law.

Thinking of this, he looked to his side.

Beside him, a sixteen-year-old boy dressed in a prince's suit was holding a brush and writing and drawing in a book.

From the side, Zhu Hu could see what the proposition on the first page of the book was......

"Li Yaxian Flower Wine Qujiang Pool"

"I said earlier, you don't want to get involved in the affairs of Nanjing City anymore, you see that you study crops and medicinal herbs and fruit trees every day, and I write opera scripts every day, isn't it good?"

Facing Zhu Hu's gaze, the young man responded to Zhu Hu without looking back while writing the opera script, and asked rhetorically by the way: "Do you want to go to Yunnan again?" ”

"Uh, this ......" Zhu Hu was speechless by his son.

In this week's palace, the only one who can make Zhu Hu so deflated is his eldest son Zhu Youstew.

As early as childhood, Zhu Youlian showed extraordinary talent, when Zhu Hu was demoted to Yunnan by Zhu Yuanzhang because of his secret meeting with Feng Sheng in private.

In the days when Zhu Hu left, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Zhu Youlian, who was only ten years old, to manage the Zhou Palace, and as a result, he not only showed his precocious side, but also managed the Zhou Palace's Mansion in an orderly manner in three years.

Because of his intelligence, Zhu Yuanzhang likes this grandson very much.

In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang registered the thirteen-year-old Zhu Youlian as the son of Zhou in advance, an honor that other sons could not reach, and Zhu Youwei also took the opportunity to ask Zhu Yuanzhang to approve his father Zhu Lu to return to the fief.

Zhu Yuanzhang saw that Zhu Youyou stewed and had filial piety, and Zhu Hu's performance in Yunnan was okay, so he approved Zhu Hu's return to Henan.

In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, Zhu Youstew took advantage of the time when he and Zhu Hu went to Nanjing, cultivated a relationship with Zhu Yuanzhang for a period of time in Nanjing, and cleared his father's former crimes.

Zhu Hu was not only not scolded by Zhu Yuanzhang, but also received the pasture of Hetao Town.

Of course, in the past two years, he has been following his son's words and has not exchanged too many letters with Feng Sheng, which is why Zhu Yuanzhang forgave him.

Compared to him, Zhu Li in the north doesn't have such good patience.

It was precisely because of his impatience that Fu Youde was killed.

"Isn't it good for you to fiddle with crops and flowers in the palace, why do you want to learn from Sanbo?" Zhu Youstew wrote opera scripts and taught his father.

Zhu Hu originally intended to refute, but Zhu Youstew stood up and made a gesture to leave.

However, before leaving, he still glanced at his father: "I look at the third uncle, and a catastrophe will come soon......"

"Bastard !!"

Almost at the same moment when Zhu Youstew blurted out, Zhu Li of Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province also got the news of Fu Youde's death, and in a fit of rage, he raised his sword and slashed all the artifacts around him.

After these two words, Zhu Li dropped the long sword in his hand and sat on the ground of the Cunxin Palace.

"It's over......" spit out these two words, Zhu Li only felt a hot pain in his chest, and he couldn't swallow it.

He stood up strongly, but the moment he stood up, he felt that his eyes were dark, and he immediately fell to the ground.

"Your Highness!"

Seeing this, the guards outside the hall were shocked and ran into the hall to support Zhu Li, but no matter how they called Zhu Li, Zhu Li had no trace of waking up.

"Dead ......"

Soon after Zhu Li fainted, Zhu Zhang, the king of Qin, who was in a snowy forest thousands of miles away, also got the news of Fu Youde's death.

Holding the bow in his hand, he was stunned at first, but then he smiled: "Good death!" ”

He turned to look at a few cronies beside him: "Fu Youde is dead, I can think about the northwest." ”

"You have a good eye on the place, as I expected, the Qiangfan in the west will definitely rebel this year, once the rebellion occurs, you will immediately use my tone to my father to distract, just say......"

Zhu Fan slowly raised his longbow and arrows, aiming at a little color in the snow forest.

At the moment when the arrow was fired, he also blurted out: "Lone wants to fight the rebellion!" ”

The arrow leaped dozens of paces, and one arrow hit the colorful pheasant, and although it fluttered its wings and tried to take off, it could only die on the spot after a few flutters.

Seeing that the pheasant was hit by an arrow, Zhu Fan didn't have the heart to hunt in the Qinling Mountains, so he turned around and left with the guards, leaving only a few soldiers to pick up the prey.

Under the big news of Fu Youde's death, the prince of Yanfu was canonized, and the news that Zhu Gaoxu was canonized as the king of Bohai County was particularly small.

In addition to the people related to them who will pay attention to this news, everyone else is focused on Fu Youde's news.

It's just that when the people related to them saw this news, they couldn't help but sigh that Zhu Gaoxu could not inherit the throne.

"Dad set up Gao Chi as the son, Gao Xu was sent to Jilin Shipyard, and that place was set up by Dad as Jilin Wei and controlled by Gao Xu."

"By the way, he was canonized as the king of Bohai County......

"Well, I don't know if that's okay."

In Beiping, in front of the palace in front of King Yan's Mansion, the tall and dark Zhu Di was standing in front of the palace gate, turning his back and practicing how to explain to his sister Xu.

Behind him, Yao Guangxiao was wearing a black monk's robe as always, but with a cloak on his shoulders.

His old god was holding a string of Buddhist beads and calculating, obviously Zhu Di had been practicing here for a long time.

"Forget it, let's just say it, anyway, I don't know how to explain, Sister Xu has to blame my father if she wants to blame."

It seemed that he couldn't think of a better way, Zhu Di simply put it up, and after secretly cheering himself up, he turned around and walked into the front bedroom with Yao Guangxiao.

"Sister Xu......"

Zhu Di shouted quietly, but when it was a shout, it was actually no different from talking.

"Has Your Highness made it up?"

Zhu Di probed his head and shouted, but he didn't want Xu's voice to come from behind him, startling him.

He turned to look, but he didn't want Xu to stand on the side of the temple gate, only separated from himself just now.

Obviously, everything he had just practiced was useless, because the Xu clan already knew.

"Sister Xu, I... Hey hey ......"

Zhu Di used a smile to hide his embarrassment, but Xu's mind was not on him, but took a few steps forward, and sat on the chair used to entertain guests in the former dormitory past Zhu Di.

She waved her hand and motioned to the palace maid to lift the chair for Zhu Di and the two, and after the two sat down, she said with a worried look:

"Your Majesty's move, didn't it make Gao Xu start anew?"

When Xu said this, Zhu Di looked at Yao Guangxiao in embarrassment, obviously they both knew Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts.

The canonization of Zhu Gaochi as the prince of the world is no problem from the perspective of etiquette, but the canonization of Zhu Gaochu to a place so far away from the Jilin Shipyard is obviously deliberately separating Zhu Gaochu from Yanfu.

After all, it was his father, and Zhu Di still had to make excuses for his father in front of his daughter-in-law, so he said carefully:

"Maybe Gao Xu has the ability to let him go to Jilin to guard the border, after all, the treatment that my father gave Gao Xu is almost better than that of Shangjingjiang."

"Your Majesty has indeed treated His Royal Highness very well." Yao Guangxiao also stopped his calculations, opened his eyes and echoed Zhu Di.

"You don't need to talk about this." Xu Shidai's eyebrows were slightly furrowed, one hand was on the chair, and the other was on her lap, although the sitting posture was fine, but the momentum gave people the illusion of a female general.

"I asked Zhang Yu earlier, and he told me that there are only more than 6,000 people in the Jilin Shipyard, and there are only one or two thousand men."

"Even if Your Majesty adds another 500 guards to Gao Xu, according to the three battles and seven tuns of the guard, Gao Xu's men are only less than a thousand."

"You all know better than me about the Jurchens in the north, they can pull out thousands of people from time to time to plunder the border people, and Gao Xu has to defend the city and prepare the border, if something happens......"

Xu's brows didn't seem to have stretched, and he was worried about his second son in his heart.

Seeing that his sister-in-law was unhappy, Zhu Di said the reason why Zhu Gaoxu was sealed in Jilin:

"The fifteenth brother (King of Liao) is only two years older than Gao Xu, and he has not been through the war, although my father intends to let him be a vassal in Guangning, but the military and civilian labor in Liaodong is heavy, and there have been voices on the Korean side to invade Liaodong."

"In addition to the fact that this year, Xiyang in the north and the Jinzhou Zhongzuo in the south were burned by the Japanese invaders, and Liaodong is really a place with frequent problems on the second side outside Yunnan."

"Over there in Yunnan, my father sent Yun Gong, Song Sheng, and Qu Neng to them, and Zhou Xing in Liaodong couldn't take care of the three sides alone, so he could only let Zhou Xing focus on Liaodong and Liaonan, and the fifteenth brother should focus on Liaoxi, and then hand over Liaobei in the north to Gao Xu."

"Actually, Sister Xu, you don't have to worry, Lao Seventeen is guarding against Wuliangha in Daning, Gao Xu just needs to fight."

"As for the north, although there is Xiyang Hana knocking on the side, as long as Gao Xu sticks to it, it will not be a problem."

"It's really not good, I send Zhu Neng to accompany him to search the mountains from time to time, it's always safer."

Xu is worried about Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Di is not.

Liaodong was already dangerous, and Zhu Gaoxu had to be appointed by Zhu Yuanzhang to defend the northern border, and while guarding against the Jurchens, he also had to guard against the surprise attack of Wu Liangha, which was very dangerous.

Of course, the more important thing is that it is some distance from Liaodong.

From Jilin Shipyard to Liaodong the nearest Weizu is more than 500 miles, there are only three post stations in the middle, once the post station is cut off, and Jilin Shipyard can not be self-sufficient, then Zhu Gaoxu will face the danger of running out of grain.

From Zhu Di's point of view, he thinks that his father put Gao Xu in such a position, and naturally recognizes Gao Xu's ability.

But no matter how Zhu Di persuaded himself, he couldn't settle down.

"Your Highness and the princess, it's best not to meddle in the affairs of Your Royal Highness."

When Zhu Gaoxu and Xu were worried about Zhu Gaoxu, Yao Guangxiao opened his mouth inappropriately, and the content made the two of them furious.

"Old monk, why do you say that."

Zhu Di finally comforted his sister-in-law, but was defeated by Yao Guangxiao, an old monk, with a word, and he was really angry.

Yao Guangxiao also knew that Zhu Di was bold, and what blurted out was not a scolding, but a rhetorical question, so he explained:

"Your Majesty said to Taisun in Wuying Hall earlier that maybe you can put His Highness's feudal state in Kaipingwei, but now it has suddenly changed to Jilinwei."

"Although Your Highness, what you said is very right, but looking down from Your Majesty's position, I am afraid that Your Majesty is a little jealous of His Second Highness, and intends to seal him to Jilin, so as to isolate my Yan Mansion and Second Highness."

"Besides, now that the Second Highness has not asked the two for help, it means that all this is still in the hands of the Second Highness, and he is not to the point where he cannot control the situation and needs to ask the two for help."

"In the humble opinion of the poor monk, if His Royal Highness really asks for help, he will inevitably take the canal to the north, stop when passing through Beiping, and ask for help with the two."

"If His Royal Highness has self-confidence and sees that His Majesty doesn't want him to be too involved with Yanfu, then I'm afraid he will go to Denglai, cross the sea by boat to Jinzhouwei, and go from southern Liaoning to Jilin."

Analyzing this, the Buddhist beads in Yao Guangxiao's hand continued to calculate:

"What the situation facing His Royal Highness is, you only need to look at which path he takes."

Yao Guangxiao stood as an outsider and analyzed everything, and Xu gradually relaxed after hearing it, but after all, he was still worried:

"This kid hasn't written to me since last year, and it's been a year now."

"Yun Gong also said that he has changed a lot this year, but he doesn't know what happened to him and what happened to him."

Xu instinctively felt that his son had changed a lot, but Zhu Di was not so delicate, he smiled:

"There are a lot of things you can learn by following my father, and you don't have to worry too much, Sister Xu."

"I think Gao Xu's change is quite good, and when my father wants to open it in the future, maybe he can let me lead the troops to attack Mobei with him and sweep the lair of the northern captives."

As soon as he thought that he could take Zhu Gaoxu to sweep the Mongols' lair, Zhu Di couldn't stop laughing.

But when he couldn't close his mouth, Zhu Gaoxu also couldn't close his mouth.

"Your Highness, this is Yang Bin from Huai'an Mansion."

In Nanjing, under the reminder of Yishaha, Zhu Gaoxu, who was sitting at the round table and feasting, raised his head.

At this moment, he is in a place similar to a restaurant, and in this private room, almost every corner is full of prosperity.

The spacious hall is full of pendants, and rows of tables and chairs with yellow pears are delicately spliced and beautifully carved.

In the center of the private room is a large round table with yellow pear, and the walls around it are adorned with artworks of various shapes and colors, such as delicate faience, carved stones and corals.

In front of him, a round table was placed with a total of eighteen dishes such as nine meats, six vegetarian soups, all of which were used to entertain him.

Across the table stood a man in his thirties with a round figure.

He was dressed in ordinary silk cloth, and if he hadn't eaten well, he would have looked like a small rich peasant among the common people.

Behind the man, there was a wood-inlaid jade screen in the private room, and through the gap in the screen, Zhu Gaoxu could see five or six fair-skinned musicians with slender and plump bodies and long eyebrows playing music.

And behind this group of music girls, there is a long stepping bed, which is enough for several people to rest.

"Take a seat."

Zhu Gaochu greeted with a smile, and Yang Bin, who was wearing silk cloth, also came to Zhu Gaoxu's left side to take a seat when he was seated next to Zhu Gaoxu.

"Do you want a thousand salt and a thousand catties of tea in my hand?"

Zhu Gaoxu did not hide it, but chose to get straight to the point.

His openness and honesty caught Yang Bin, who was accustomed to officialdom and sophistication, off guard, in the past, he waited until he was almost drunk before starting to do things, and those noble officials and clans looked high.

Now that there is a sudden frankness, he will not cope.

Yang Bin's embarrassment was seen by Yi Weiha, and he smiled and comforted:

"Yang Shanren, I told you a long time ago that His Royal Highness is different from the ordinary noble clan, but you don't believe it, but now it's credible?"

"Faith, faith! His Highness is truly different. ”

In the round of Yisha, Yang Bin also poured wine for Zhu Gaoxu, while constantly nodding his head, and at the same time said to Zhu Gaoxu:

"Your Highness, the grass people heard that you are going to be a vassal domain, and they are worried that Jilin is bitter cold and the products are not abundant, so Mao recommended himself and wanted to solve some things for you."

Yang Bin did not blatantly say that he wanted to buy the salt in Zhu Gaoxu's hands, but changed his words.

Zhu Gaoxu is also very familiar with the salt introduction system during the Hongwu period, after all, he has an excellent memory, and many things have been recorded in the past few months.

The salt administration system implemented for most of the time in the Ming Dynasty was the "open middle system", and the opening of the middle method, which is commonly referred to as 'nano middle salt', is one of the main components.

In the early and middle Ming Dynasty, salt law and military supply played an important role in the transportation of grain from the south to the north.

In the twenty-seventh year of Hongwu today, there are 219 counties in the Ming Dynasty that produce salt, and the salt-producing areas are divided by the imperial court to set up salt farms.

These salt farms are under the management of six Metropolitan Salt Dispatch Divisions and eight Salt Divisions, and the production of salt is the responsibility of specialized stove households.

Because the salt production method is mainly decoction and drying, the quality of salt also varies depending on the production method and the place of origin.

At present, the treatment of stove households is relatively good, and the salt production is 400 catties, and the money is given twice, and the miscellaneous labor is exempted.

Because of the good treatment, the stove households are not only responsible for salt production, but also responsible for preventing the sale of illicit salt.

This kind of treatment has been improved after Zhu Gaoxu's "Money Law" was released, due to the appreciation of treasure money, so the imperial court will 'give money twice' and convert it into money, so the treatment of stove households has generally been improved.

If the treatment keeps up, the sense of responsibility will be stronger, so it will be more difficult to sell illegal salt along the coast.

For salt merchants, it is difficult to buy private salt, so they can only continue to follow the path of official salt and salt.

According to the specific process, the imperial court will issue a list of investment in various places every year according to the needs of various places, clarify the needs of various places, and the corresponding number of salt quotations in each district, so it is called "Kaizhong".

After the salt merchants in these places saw the list text, they would apply for salt according to the list text, and transport the designated 'goods' to the designated place according to the requirements, in exchange for warehouse money, which was called "reporting the goods".

The salt merchant holds the banknotes to the transportation department to wait for the exchange of salt, and then the transportation department checks the number of this year according to the base book and the warehouse banknotes sent by the warehouse.

After the opening of the middle school, the transport department will send the bottom book and the warehouse banknotes to the Nanjing household department for verification, and then the Nanjing household department will print the salt and send it back to the transportation department, and then the transportation department will hand over the salt to the salt merchant.

At this point, it can be considered that the stage of "opening the middle system" is over, and the salt merchants need to wait for the instructions of the imperial court to go to the designated salt field to support the salt according to the regulations, also known as "Shouzhi".

After the salt merchant distributes the salt, it is necessary to send the salt to the designated inspection office, which will verify the salt when it reaches one order.

Only after the verification is correct, the salt merchant can transport the salt to the designated salt area for sale, and the salt will be handed over after the sale.

It can be said that the process of taking official salt is not only cumbersome, but also not necessarily queued, and many salt merchants have a headache because of the twists and turns.

In comparison, it is much easier to go through the royal palace and the noble salt introduction, you only need to open the door of the palace, and then with the token of the royal palace and the verified salt quotation, you can quickly sell official salt, and the efficiency is several times faster than that of the salt department.

Zhu Gaoxu has 1,000 salt in his hand, which is converted into 400,000 catties of salt, enough for 200,000 people to eat for a year.

You must know that this was in the early Ming Dynasty, and there were only a dozen cities with a population of more than 200,000 in the entire Ming Dynasty, so this thousand salt introductions can actually meet the local needs of a state, a county and even a government.

In Yang Bin's view, Jilin Wei is bitter cold and produces little grain, if Zhu Gaoxu hands over this thousand salt to himself, it is estimated that he will be nano-lost, and let him transport grain to Jilin Wei.

The nanometer medium loss stipulated by the imperial court is generally two to five stones in the four hundred catties, which is about 600 wen to about five yuan at the current price of rice.

However, in fact, according to the current market price, 1,000 salt can be exchanged for at least 8,000 yuan.

In other words, if he wants to lose nanometers, Yang Bin only needs to transport 2,000 to 10,000 stone rice to Zhu Gaoxu, but afterwards he can use this salt to attract salt sales and buy at least 26,000 stone rice.

It is true that the journey to Jilin from the customs to transport grain is long, and the transportation consumption is extremely great, but it is not more than twice as exaggerated, especially to go to Jilin can take eighty percent of the waterway, only need to take two percent of the land route, this loss in peacetime, in fact, does not exceed three percent.

After all, it is the "middle loss" of the palace, and no side general dares to stop the card.

According to this algorithm, Yang Bin can earn at least 10,000 stone of profit from the salt of the Bohai Royal Mansion every year, which is about 3,000 yuan.

It is precisely because of this that he is so eager to find Zhu Gaoxu.

However, he may have found the wrong person.

If someone else faced Jilinwei's situation, he would naturally choose to "lose in nano", but Zhu Gaoxu didn't plan to do that.

'Your Highness, look......

Yang Bin saw that Zhu Gaoxu didn't speak for a long time, so he cautiously filled him with a glass of wine again.

Looking at the wine that Yang Bin gave him, the corners of Zhu Gaoxu's mouth were slightly raised, and he reached out and drank all the wine that Yang Bin had poured out.

Without waiting for Yang Bin to react and continue to pour wine, he covered the wine glass with his hand, and then turned his head to look at Yang Bin with a bright smile:

"Eight thousand kan, salt has sold you......"

(End of chapter)