"Sister-in-law and younger siblings, don't worry, I will ...... with Your Highness in a while"

"Your Highness Chitose-"

In the former dormitory, when Zhu Gaoxu walked into the palace, he happened to see Guo Yan and Zhang sitting together chatting, and a girl in palace clothes who looked like she was only fifteen or sixteen years old.

"Your Highness......"

Seeing Zhu Gaoxu suddenly appear, the three of them were taken aback and got up to salute one after another.

"Sister-in-law and brother and sister are here?"

Zhu Gaoxu smiled and saluted in return, then stepped forward to take a seat, and gestured: "I just came in and heard that you have something to tell me, I don't know what it is?" ”

He looked at a few people curiously, with a smile on his face, after all, he had just come back from Wuying Palace, and after watching the old man's performance, he couldn't stop laughing.

"That's ......"

When Guo Yan saw Zhu Gaoxu asking, he also took Zhang and the girl who was also called His Royal Highness Zhu Gaoxu to sit down.

"Sister-in-law said that the Yunnan Political Envoy said that the money and grain were supplied below, so the construction of the Han Wangfu was also sluggish, so I want to come and talk to you."

"You just went to the Wuying Palace, so you missed it, but now that you're back, I'll tell you about it in person."

"That's it." Zhu Gaoxu was not angry after hearing this, after all, now that Yunnan has migrated hundreds of thousands of Jianwen ministers, it is normal for Yunnan to be unable to come up with extra money and food.

What's more, in order to pacify Annan, both the Yunnan Political Envoy and the Yunnan Metropolitan Division began to reserve military rations to prevent the interruption of grain and grass during the southern expedition of the army, so it is understandable.

"How much is the expense on the East Palace's side?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Guo Yan, and Guo Yan was also open and honest when he heard this: "Mother allocated 150,000 guan and 200,000 stones, but it didn't take that much." ”

Guo Yan knows Zhu Gaoxu very well, when he was in Jilin, he often transferred money and grain from the palace to subsidize the people of Jilin, and now the meaning of this sentence is probably also a road.

"So be it." Hearing that the expenses of the East Palace are allocated so much every year, Zhu Gaoxu also said happily:

"I will allocate 50,000 yuan from the East Palace to Yunnan to set up political envoys, so that they can speed up the construction of the Han Palace, and also take the opportunity to expand the construction, so as not to be too small for the heirs to live in the future."

"How does this work?" Zhang was taken aback, and hurriedly got up to salute, but Zhu Gaoxu stopped with a smile:

"I didn't eat much with the crown princess in the East Palace, and the palace people were also transferred to the inner court, the cost was not too high, and the transfer of 50,000 yuan was also implemented, and the right was the gift list I gave to my sister-in-law and brother when they got married."

"This ...... This ......" Zhang looked at Guo Yan, and Guo Yan also smiled: "Since His Royal Highness has opened his mouth, it will not be good for my sister-in-law to refuse again." ”

"Then I'll thank Your Highness for the one in our family first." Zhang knew very well how much Zhu Gaochi's existence was an eyesore, although Zhu Gaochi said that Zhu Gaochi was good to him, but Zhang never believed it, but now that she saw it, she believed it.

She sees people very accurately, people like Zhu Gaoxu are confident and generous, and few people can be taken into his eyes.

With his own personality and strength, Zhu Gaoxu didn't have to worry too much at all.

As long as the one who goes to Yunnan doesn't do anything, then his family may have a good life.

"This is a brother and sister, right?"

Zhu Gaoxu's voice pulled Zhang back to reality, she looked at Zhu Gaoxu, but saw that Zhu Gaoxu was communicating with the Xu family of Zhao Wangfu.

Xu is only sixteen years old, the niece of Ning Yuanbo He Fu, and she just got married half a month ago.

However, because Zhu Di definitely attended the wedding and was busy with government affairs, Zhu Gaoxu failed to make it, but he also asked Guo Yan to go on his behalf and sent a gift list worth 2,000 yuan.

"Back to His Royal Highness, the political secretary of Huguangbu came to say, saying that the construction period of Zhao Wangfu is ahead of schedule, and it will be able to set off in Layue next year, and it will be fully completed in April of the following year."

"Mother came to say just now, saying that she would let His Royal Highness King Zhao take up the domain in September next year, and after hearing this, His Royal Highness King Zhao came to tell me that I would come to the palace to find the crown princess and see if I could let him stay longer."

Princess Zhao was young, and Zhu Gaoxu didn't say anything about him because of this incident, but just soothed: "Tomorrow, you call the third child over, and I will tell him personally." ”

"Yes......" Princess Zhao could only respond when she heard this, and the Zhang family also knew that the matter was almost over, so she got up and saluted with a smile:

"Now that the matter is over, the two of us will go back to the house first."

"Sister-in-law, go slowly." Zhu Gaoxu bowed his head, and Guo Yan also got up with a smile: "I'll send my sister-in-law and younger siblings." ”

Accompanied by Guo Yan, the two quickly left the former dormitory of the East Palace with the maidservants of the Han Palace's Mansion and the Zhao Palace's Palace.

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at the female officials in the palace: "Let the cook get some food, it's enough to get one meat, one vegetable and three bowls of rice, don't make too much." ”

The female official responded to the "slave maid to lead the ......," and then ordered someone to go to the kitchen to make people cook.

After a quarter of an hour, when Guo Yan came back, the palace maid also walked into the hall with her with food.

"Didn't Your Highness eat in the Wuying Palace?"

Guo Yan was surprised, Zhu Gaoxu shook his head and said, "The old man doesn't care about food, so he is in a hurry to drive me away." ”

"What's more, I'm not used to eating Wuyingdian's food, it's not suitable for my taste, and we have to eat it comfortably in our own cook."

Zhu Gaoxu likes spicy, so Bohai's cook is taught by himself, after all, he also has a hand in cooking, although it is not as good as the imperial chef who specializes in cooking, but it is no problem to train two people and get some coarse tea and light rice.

For example, a plate of garlic pork belly fried with pepper and dogwood, a plate of leek eggs, three bowls of rice and a cup of tea are Zhu Gaoxu's lunch.

"Your Highness is a little too frugal."

Guo Yan watched Zhu Gaoxu gobbling up food, and couldn't help laughing: "When my mother came before, she told me that I wouldn't get more food for you." ”

"Huh...... You reply to her and say that her son is not taboo and not greedy. Zhu Gaoxu smiled and took a sip of tea, and also quipped:

"If my grandfather-in-law sees my food, he may also say that I am harsh on you."

Zhu Gaoxu and Guo Yan's three meals are basically maintained at four dishes and one soup, not to mention compared with Xungui, even some military attaches and rich families eat better than them.

It's not a show, but they are used to eating delicacies from the mountains and seas in the palace and the Hou Mansion before, and the food is basically the same, so eating is just a stomach for them.

The difference is that Guo Yan is not used to eating pepper and dogwood, so although the husband and wife eat together, they often have two dishes and one soup each.

If you can't eat enough, Zhu Gaoxu will ask people to order noodles, and Guo Yan will eat some pastries and desserts.

Rao is like this, after their days were seen by Queen Xu, even if they saw Queen Xu, who was as frugal as Queen Ma, it was inevitable that the two of them had a bad life.

But people, you just need to know how you are doing.

"Have you been home to save your family recently?"

After Zhu Gaoxu finished lunch, he wiped his mouth, rinsed his mouth with tea, and asked Guo Yan.

"I went, but my grandfather-in-law lives in the school now, so he rarely goes home."

Guo Yan replied with a smile, but Zhu Gaoxu paused after hearing this: "Staying on campus?" ”

"Well, because the textbooks are not allowed to be taken out, I live on campus." Guo Yan couldn't help laughing as he spoke.

Obviously, Guo Ying was interested in Zhu Gaoxu's various army, artillery, navy, and other military textbooks at the National Defense University.

In fact, not only him, but even Zhang Yu and others who are backwards are very interested, and at the same time feel hopeless.

The advent of arquebuses and cannons, although they could not overturn the traditional methods of warfare, did add a lot of knowledge that needed to be learned.

Not to mention that the textbooks compiled by Zhu Gaoxu are also full of a large number of examples of over-the-top battles.

For example, the Battle of Songjin in the late Ming Dynasty, the entry of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the Battle of Baishan in the Thirty-Year War of the same period, the Battle of Blenheim in the War for the Spanish Throne, and so on......

From the Ming and Qing wars to the Napoleonic wars, these battle stories were used by Zhu Gaoxu as topics for teachers and students to study.

They could be the Ming army in the Battle of Songjin or the French army in the Napoleonic Wars.

This kind of subject can only be touched by them in their senior year, but Guo Ying, Zhang Yu, Chen Heng and others, who are teachers, can be exposed in advance, so they are confused by the battles in these topics.

After teaching every day, a bunch of old ministers from the Hongwu years got together to study how to solve the problem.

They need to fight one battle after another under the situation of restrictions, and it can be said that Zhu Gaoxu has come up with a new set of board strategy games in addition to Go and chess.

Each campaign has a sand table for them to use, and there are 32 topics, including 32 large, medium and small battles.

In the final assessment of the senior year planned by Zhu Gaoxu, you must clear three assessment small battles in order to be considered a theoretical graduate.

After graduating from theory, you also need to go to the grassroots level of the army in your fifth year to practice.

Compared with Lao Zhu's simple assessment of martial arts, Zhu Gaoxu's set is more effective, at least he can ensure that most of the military attaché's children can understand the army from a small flag officer.

Of course, the premise of the internship is that they can make it to the fifth year......

"I heard my uncle say that during this time, many students have dropped out of school?"

Guo Yan looked at the snickering Zhu Gaoxu and asked curiously, and Zhu Gaoxu also bowed his head when he heard this: "There are almost 5,000 people." ”

The reality did not surprise Zhu Gaoxu, and nearly 5,000 of the pampered military attaché children had already dropped out of school on their own initiative in less than two months after they entered school.

Today, the number of students has plummeted to more than 10,000 and 42 students, and a dozen or even dozens of students apply to withdraw from school every day.

This is still two months after entering the school, and by the time of the final exams, Zhu Gaoxu estimates that there may not even be 7,000 people.

He didn't feel cruel, because after the suspension of this group of military attachés, the imperial court would choose to grant them the rank of martial arts.

Daming's martial arts rank also has grades, but only the first grade to the sixth grade.

In order to make the military attachés less resentful, Zhu Gaoxu also made concessions and added the rank of captain of the seventh rank of Zhichong and the captain of the military academy from the seventh rank.

In addition, the military rank awarded this time is based on the grade of the military attaché's children, and as long as the inherited military rank still exists, the children and grandchildren of the military attache can also be admitted to school with this, which can be said to be the final guarantee.

Under this system, if it is the hereditary commander of the guard in the family, then he will be awarded the general Zhaoyong of the three grades.

According to the regulations of the hundred officials in the Hongwu period, the annual salary of General Zhengsanpin Zhaoyong was 420 stone of rice, which was equivalent to the output of 200 mu of cultivated land in the south of the Yangtze River.

This loose rank of theirs will be lowered by one rank from generation to generation, that is to say, the commander of the third rank of the guard, who has the highest hereditary official position, can inherit ten generations at most.

Of course, the number of officials in the hereditary guard command is only a few hundred, and it will get lower and lower as the ranks are demoted.

As long as the kings of later generations do not wantonly grant hereditary military positions and ranks, the finances of the Ming Dynasty will not be too burdened.

After all, the number of military attaches who were affected by the afterglow of Hongwu and Yongle was only more than 20,000, and most of them were hereditary officials of 100 households and 1,000 households.

Not to mention the kings of later generations, just Zhu Gaoxu alone, maybe he can survive them for two or three generations.

For this policy of his, some military attaches are happy, while others are uncomfortable.

Happy military attaches are well aware of the ability of their children and grandchildren, for those who have no ability, give up their military positions to take a loose rank, and they still hold it, and people can be a lot safer.

In case there are capable people among the descendants, they can also obtain admission qualifications by virtue of their status as a loose rank, and rejoin the army to get a military position.

Even the lowest-level Zhengliupin hereditary hundred household officials can be hereditary for four generations, which is not a short time span.

As a result, a large number of military attachés had nothing to say.

If the children and grandchildren have the ability, then they will directly graduate from the National Defense University, and then inherit the military position, if the children and grandchildren are incompetent, then don't go to the battlefield to harm people, honestly take the loose steps, and lead the money to live.

Because of this, the military attache of the Governor's Office of the Six Armies inherited the restructuring this time, but it did not cause too many waves.

Of course, the reason why it did not cause too many waves is also because there are people who support this restructuring.

"If these 5,000 students don't take up their posts, then there should be more than 500 martial arts positions with real power, right?"

Guo Yan was amazed, and at the same time said: "No wonder many wives of military attachés of Yan Mansion have tried to come to the East Palace these days, I originally thought that they were chatting with me about family affairs, but now it seems that they were sent by their husbands to find out the news." ”

Guo Yan said and glanced at Zhu Gaoxu carefully: "Do you want to tell this news?" ”

"Let's say, anyway, the imperial court needs military attachés, and most of the military attaches in Yan Mansion are young and strong, instead of handing over the soldiers and horses to the children of the military attaches who don't know soldiers, it is better to hand over the soldiers and horses to them, at least they can lead the troops to fight."

Zhu Gaoxu took a sip of the teacup, the reason why he inherited and reformed the military attache was that he wanted to let a large number of military attachés of Yanfu and Bohai who did not have military power take the position.

Lao Zhu wants to be good to the old brothers in Huaixi, and Zhu Gaoxu can understand it, but the phenomenon of the military attache of the guard station changing from military to civil is too serious, and the hereditary system of military attachés has begun to affect the armament of the Ming Dynasty.

Historically, Zhu Di also has a responsibility for the same problem.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di canonized too many hereditary military attachés, resulting in fewer and fewer generals who could fight in the Ming Dynasty in the future, and civilian officials like Wang Ji began to emerge, but only Zhang Fu, Chen Mao, Jiang Gui, and Zhu Yong, who were veterans of Yongle on the side of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, began to act as a façade.

It was these four people who could fight during the orthodox years, plus Shi Heng, Shi Biao, Sun Bo, Mao Zhong, Yang Hong, Fang Ying and other generals.

At first glance, it seems that there are quite a lot, but Zhang Fu and others are old, and there are only four people in the Qingzhuang faction: Shi Heng, Shi Biao, Fang Ying, and Guo Deng.

This is still the Qingzhuang general trained by Empress Dowager Zhang and Zhu Qizhen to organize three Northern Expeditions and Siping Luchuan during the orthodox period.

When Shi Heng and Shi Biao were killed, only Fang Ying was the only one who could support the field, and as a result, Fang Ying also died of illness in the same year because of the perennial suppression of Tusi in the southwest and the suppression of three propaganda and six comforts.

In the end, only Guo Deng was left to support the field, and he was sent to Gansu by Zhu Qizhen.

If it weren't for the old minister Sun Bo who was strong and lived until he was eighty years old, and lasted until the seventh year of Chenghua, plus Liu Yu, Zhu Yong, and Zhao Fu were enthusiastically produced after the change of Tumubao, it is estimated that Zhu Jianshen would have no use if he wanted to clean up the mess.

It is precisely because of this that Zhu Gaoxu seized this opportunity and set about changing the system of military attachés inheriting their posts.

Now it seems that the progress is good, and the next five or six years will just have to wait for the effect.

Zhu Gaoxu thought so, but heard footsteps outside the hall.

Not long after, Yisha appeared in the former dormitory.

"Your Highness, Yu Shangshu is asking to see you in the Chunhe Palace, there is movement below!"

Yishaha's tone was a little excited, and Zhu Gaoxu also put down the teacup when he heard this, and said to Guo Yan: "You rest first, I'll go and come back later." ”

"You can handle government affairs with confidence." Guo Yan's eyes smiled like a crescent moon, and Zhu Gaoxu also chuckled in response when he saw this, and then walked out of the front dormitory with Yisha.

On the way to the Chunhe Palace, Yizha also talked to Zhu Gaoxu about the so-called movements.

"Yu Shangshu is here, recently many officials went to find Yu Shangshu and asked about the official Western Trade Zone, Yu Shangshu had no confidence in his heart, so he came to Chunhe Hall to see His Highness."

"This news should not have spread completely, but there can be such a movement, which means that they can't bear it anymore."

As he spoke, Zhu Gaoxu also bowed his head in approval, and the master and servant walked quickly into the Chunhe Hall one after the other, and also saw Yu Xin who was sitting and waiting.

"His Royal Highness Chitose ......"

Yu Xin was also about to bow five times and knock three times, but Zhu Gaoxu held him: "Yu Shangshu, I have told you many times, although you come to me to sit and rest, you don't have to care about any red tape." ”

Zhu Gaoxu is very close to Yu Xin, Huang Fu, and Xia Yuanji, and with the three of them supporting the scene, there will be no major problems in the household department, the officials department, and the Ministry of Industry, and they can also help them solve some small problems.

The reason why Zheng He's trip to the East went so smoothly was because the three of them were working on it below.

"Ministers are afraid ......"

Yu Xin had a smile on his face, but he still insisted on doing it.

Fortunately, he straightened up after he finished his work, and Zhu Gaoxu also sat on the chair next to him when he saw this, and motioned for Yu Xin to sit side by side with him and talk about things earlier.

But even so, Yu Xin still kept standing and talked to Zhu Gaoxu about the following things.

"In the past two days, officials from Jiangdong, Zhejiang and other places have written to me, and many household officials in Beijing have also come to test the tone, it seems that the private Western trade zone made by His Royal Highness has indeed given the coastal merchants a glimmer of hope, otherwise they would not be in such a hurry to act."

"Indeed." Zhu Gaoxu bowed his head, he calculated the time, it has only been 50 days since Hu Lun sent people to spread the news, but the news has already spread all over Jiangdong, Zhejiang and other places, and the merchants and officials in these places have also reacted quickly.

Being able to react so quickly in such a short period of time proves that some merchants along the coast are still unwilling to get into trouble with the imperial court.

Since someone intended to cooperate with the imperial court, Zhu Gaoxu's goal of dividing the coastal merchant gangs and temple officials was achieved.

"Your Royal Highness, the minister has read the ancient books, among which the commodities produced by Tianzhu and Nanyang are mainly spices, if the imperial court operates Nanyang and the maritime merchants operate the small Western Ocean, then when the official trade is guaranteed, the private spice trade will be difficult to be guaranteed."

Yu Xin's words explained why Da Ming did not have the motivation to continue exploring the ocean after Zheng He went to the West.

The reason why Europeans were motivated to explore the seas was for gold and silver, as well as the goods of the Ming Dynasty, as well as the spices of the East.

To this end, they stumbled upon the Americas, discovered gold and silver along with the Americas, and explored the shipping route to India.

But the problem is that these things they want, Daming can find them around his country.

Not to mention the official trade, even smugglers can get these things.

For smugglers, if they want gold and silver, they can go to Japan, and if they want spices, they can go to the South Seas.

You can do business with a fishing boat at your doorstep, and who will run far away.

Zheng He has discovered everything that should be discovered when he went to the West, and the reason why he did not go to Europe was completely because he had no motivation, after all, the trade between Europe and the Ming Dynasty could be carried out through the Ottomans, and Europe did not have the necessities and commodities that the Ming Dynasty needed, so it naturally lacked motivation.

Just like Zhu Gaoxu at the moment, he never thought of making a move against India, Central Asia, and European countries, because the Nanyang and Japan in front of him, as well as Luchuan, Annan, and Modong on land, were enough for him to be busy.

Similarly, because there are many commodities in the small Western trade area and conflicts with the South Seas, the government and private enterprises will also become competitors in the spice market, and the non-governmental coastal merchants are worried about this, so they will ask Yu Xin, and Yu Xin will go to the ancient books and tell Zhu Gaoxu about this problem.

It's just that this problem is not a problem for Zhu Gaoxu, because he wants the coastal merchants to go to Xiaoxiyang to do business, not just to do business.

He wanted to turn the small western coastal area into a large version of the late Ming Dynasty Nanyang.

"What do you think if mines are discovered in some places in the small western ocean, and the imperial court sells these drawings to them at the cost of collecting a mining tax of five taxes and one tax?"

Zhu Gaoxu spoke slowly, which made Yu Xin's worried heart even more anxious.

"Your Highness, do you mean to say that there are gold, silver and copper mines in the Little Western Ocean, and there are quite a few of them?"

Yu Xin opened his mouth to ask, and Zhu Gaoxu also bowed his head and said:

"Silver mines are hard to find, but gold mines are really easy to find, and the local people are well resourced."

Zhu Gaoxu did not explicitly mention Kunlun Continent, because as long as he dared to say Kunlun Continent, many officials who had seen the Wuying Hall and the Chunhe Palace, the two "General Maps of the Four Yi Binfu in the World", would inform the coastal merchant gang of the news.

Although Zhu Gaoxu does not think that they can find gold mines in a general direction, it is always good to be prepared.

Similarly, Nanzhou (Australia), which is rich in gold and copper mines, did not point it out, after all, compared to the distant Kunlun Continent, Nanzhou is easier to be occupied by the Ming Dynasty after the Ming Dynasty.

"If that's the case, then with some concessions from the spice market, maybe they will support the imperial court, but how can they believe it?"

Yu Xin opened his mouth to ask questions, but Zhu Gaoxu was not worried after hearing it: "The matter of the gold mine will be announced slowly when Zheng He goes to the West in the future." ”

"What the imperial court needs to do now is to draft a "Small Western Trade Book", give prices for all kinds of goods, and let some maritime merchants who have not been to the small Western Ocean know how much profit they can make from the small Western trade if they join the private trade operated by the imperial court."

"This matter will be handed over to Yu Shangshu, and they must ensure that they have a profit, and the court will not lose money."

Zhu Gaochu looked directly at Yu Xin, and Yu Xin also understood Zhu Gaoxu's thoughts, to put it bluntly, he used this "Little Western Trade Book" to win over those who had never swayed in the Little Western trade.

In the final analysis, the imperial court is now fighting for the originally huge coastal smuggler gang to attract them from smuggling to legal and compliant private merchant gangs.

As long as the coastal merchant gangs are completely divided, the time will be able to attract large-scale private merchant gangs to crack down on smuggler gangs.

It is very difficult for the government-run monopoly to win the battle against smuggling, but if a large number of private businessmen are brought together to crack down on smuggling, it will become much easier.

It's just how to win them over so that they don't collude with the smugglers in the future, which is something that Yu Xin hasn't figured out yet.

However, he believed that since His Highness dared to speak, he must have been well prepared.

"Decree ...... of the Minister's Decree"

Yu Xinzuo returned the salute, and then slowly withdrew from the Wuying Palace.

Seeing him leave, Zhu Gaoxu also withdrew his gaze and set his eyes on Yishiha.

"Tomorrow, the third child should come to the Chunhe Palace, if he doesn't come, you will bring someone to invite him."

Zhu Gaoxu said as he spoke, his eyes revealing a bit of mockery: "Recently, he has not been very worry-free, and I, who is an elder brother, have to teach him well......"

"Yes" Seeing Zhu Gaoxu say that, Yizha couldn't help but mourn for Zhu Gaosui tomorrow.

(End of chapter)