"In February, Jiashen, the Laotian Tuguan Dao Line led the small states of Mengsao, Mengzhang, Mengchuan, Mengzhan and other places to pay tribute to Kunming, and asked to enter Beijing to pay tribute."

In February of the fourth year of Yongle, while Zheng He was passing through Nanyang, the news of the destruction of Annan by the Ming Dynasty also began to spread.

The Tusi of Laos, the closest to Annam, began to collectively send envoys to Kunming, Yunnan Province, begging to pay tribute to Beijing.

In this regard, Zhu Di also moved the idea of including Laos in the system of three propaganda and six comforts, so he summoned Zhu Gaoxu to Wuyingdian.

"I am going to merge all the toasts who asked for tribute this time into the Lao Military and Civilian Propaganda Department, and use the local officials and swords as the consolation envoys, and order the Ministry of Rites to cast the seal to them, what do you think?"

In the hall, Zhu Di said that he wanted nothing more than to use the knife to unite all the Tusi in the entire Laos region, and then achieve the goal of restraining the local area.

Faced with Zhu Di's thoughts, Zhu Gaoxu analyzed it according to the historical materials he had read over the years and the intelligence collection of Xichang in the Indochina Peninsula, and then said:

"Dad, it's easy to pay tribute to canonize the Tusi in the south of Laos, but it's more difficult to control this place, how much do you know about this place?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Zhu Di, but Zhu Di was also stopped by this.

Not to mention him, even Li Zhigang, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and even the officials of the Ministry of Rites, who are in charge of the three propaganda and six consolations, do not know the situation in Laos.

Daming's external intelligence has always been scarce, so the West Factory has become an institution to fill in this area.

"If you ask me, it means that you know the place, and in that case, you can talk to me."

Zhu Di is also upright, and asks if he doesn't understand.

"Borrow my father's map." Zhu Gaoxu stepped forward, and Wang Yan hurriedly pulled up the map hanging behind Zhu Di one by one, and finally revealed the rough map of the Indochina Peninsula that Zhu Gaoxu had drawn at the beginning.

"This map is a bit old, my son will replace it for you another day."

Looking at the many erroneous maps of Laos, Zhu Gaoxu admitted the mistakes he made when drawing this map, after all, he did not have so much time to look through the historical materials of Laos, and Xichang did not grasp the situation of the land in Laos, so it is not surprising that there were mistakes.

Faced with this problematic map, Zhu Gaoxu revised the map with a brush, and then explained to Zhu Di:

"Father, the toasts you mentioned just now are all Thai city-states in the middle reaches of the Lancang River (Mekong River)."

"During the Zheng period, Mengsao (Luang Prabang) merged Mengzhang (Vientiane), Mengchuan Khouang (Chuankhouang), Mengzhan (Champasak) and other city-states to form the Thai alliance country "Mengnanzhang" (Lancang State), whose territory is the Lancang River (Mekong) Basin, starting from the Changshan Mountains in the east, connecting Mengyan (now northern Thailand) and Mengsu (now central and northern Thailand) in the west, connecting Zhenla in the south, and Mengxi (Xishuangbanna) in the north of the Cheli Xuanwei Division. ”

"Actually, they are not very close, so it is right to canonize the prestige among them."

"However, in this way, it is easy to make the knife line grow stronger, although he is very deferential to the imperial court, but the imperial court has to guard against it."

"The son watched Kunming's recital, and Qianguo Gong also admitted that the road from Kunming to Cheli (Xishuangbanna) is narrow and rugged, from Cheli to Laosu, and even to Mengzhang, Mengzhan and other places further south, not to mention, you can only take the waterway."

"If the imperial court wants to strengthen its control over the local area, it must build a land post road from Kunming to the car, and then build a water post road from the car to Mengzhan."

"Zheng He's side, if Zhenla can feel the sincerity of the imperial court, then this water post road can be built from Mengzhan to Zhenla's capital in the future, all the way south to Nanyang."

Speaking of which, Zhu Gaoxu was also worried that Zhu Di didn't know who Zhenla was, so he deliberately pointed to the south: "Zhenla is Gan Xiaozhi and Khmer." ”

"Your method is good, but it costs a lot." Zhu Di followed Zhu Gaoxu to look at the basin of the Lancang River, and had to praise:

"Mastering this river, the imperial court's control over Laos and Chenla will be greatly strengthened in the future, and I am not afraid that they will make trouble."

"Is this the river, can it only be navigable from the car?"

Zhu Di asked Zhu Gaoxu, but Zhu Gaochu didn't remember the starting point of the navigation of the Lancang River in modern times, and only remembered that he could get on the boat from Xishuangbanna and go south, so he nodded:

"Judging from the ancient books and materials that Erchen has mastered, the car is the best place to set sail, from the car all the way to the south, at least about 1,000 horses and boats can be navigated, and the wet season can reach 1,500 materials."

After all, it is a dry geology, and Zhu Gaoxu doesn't know anything else, but he still remembers these work-related things, not to mention that he traveled to Xishuangbanna in his previous life.

"If that's the case, then it's up to you to send someone to check it out, and if you can, build it."

"Yes!" Hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu nodded his head.

Zhu Di didn't stop the topic, he personally pulled the map back to the "General Map of the Four Yi Binfu in the World", and then took the command pole from Zhu Gaoxu's hand, pointed to the Xifan District and said:

"Before, the imperial court had to fight, so I didn't have the energy to manage Xifan, but Xifan was an important horse production area for the imperial court, and I wanted to build two post roads, from Xining and Songpan to Derge, and then, as you said before, all the way to Shigatse, where the Sakya sect exists."

"I remember that you recruited 3,000 Western Firearms Battalions to train in the army, for this post road, right?"

He looked at Zhu Gaochu with satisfaction in his eyes, after all, many of Zhu Gaoxu's political views were too close to him.

As far as the construction of the Duogan and Wusizang post roads is concerned, except for his two fathers and sons, I am afraid that no one is willing to invest millions of dollars and grain to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau that is in a difficult place and has no output except for war horses.

"My son does think so, but now my son thinks about three."

Zhu Gaoxu took the command rod from Zhu Di's hand, pointed to Lijiang and said: "The Mu family of Lijiang Tusi actively responded to the imperial court's policy of changing the land and returning to the river, and now the imperial court has sent officials to enter the local area, and the two sides have cooperated to govern the local area for half a year without any contradictions. ”

"The Mu Tusi are a Naxi tribe, and they like to follow the trend, so as long as the court does not exploit the local people, then they are happy to accept the governance of the court."

"For such a toast, Erchen thought that he could make more use of it, such as building a post road from Lijiang to Santang, Qamdo and other places, and using Lijiang Mu to maintain local peace."

Zhu Gaoxu was very impressed by Mu's toast, mainly because he had traveled to Lijiang in his previous life and saw various information about Mu's toast.

Historically, the Lijiang Mu clan backed the Ming Dynasty but did not have much support, but still went deep from Lijiang to Qamdo, Batang, Litang and other places, mining gold mines in the local area, suppressing local rebellions, and ensuring that there would be no big forces in the local area to threaten the Chengdu Plain.

Not only that, they were not distressed when they paid taxes to the Ming Dynasty, and they also actively donated gold and silver in the late Ming wars such as the Anti-Japanese Aid Dynasty, the Battle of Salhu, and the Extravagant Rebellion.

If Zhu Gaoxu remembers correctly, the gold and silver donated by the Lijiang Mu clan to Daming during the period of Wanli, Tianqi, and Chongzhen should not be less than 50,000 taels.

For the big Tusi in a remote place like Lijiang, being able to donate so much gold and silver to Daming is enough to prove their loyalty, and as for the subsequent Qingqing, Zhu Gaoxu can also understand.

In terms of the population of the Naxi people, if there is really a conflict with the Qing army, I am afraid that they will disappear from the history books after the First World War.

"What are you going to do?"

Zhu Di asked Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Gaoxu said: "I am going to send Liu Zhao and Li Ying to control the 7,000 soldiers and horses in Xining and Beijing, enter Tibet from Songpan and Xining respectively, and inform Wusizang, Duogan, Oli and other places about the construction of post roads, and let the local Tusi cooperate with the imperial court." ”

"At the same time, let Lijiang command Mu Tu to lead 3,000 soldiers and horses from Lijiang to Qamdo, and then go to Lhasa and Shigatse after joining Liu Zhao and Li Ying."

"In this way, we can first demonstrate the strength of the imperial court, and then let the local toasts cooperate with the imperial court, and finally know it with affection and reason, so that the whole West knows the importance of this post road."

"Erchen has calculated that once this road is successfully built, the annual influx of tea from the imperial court into the West can exceed five million catties, which is also good for the West Fan Tusi, and the court can also obtain enough horse resources from it."

"These three post roads were built at the same time, and it will take at least ten years to complete, and the imperial court needs to produce food, and the Western Tusi needs to contribute manpower."

"According to the construction of 50,000 people, the rations consumed by 50,000 people are not much, and if you count 10,000 troops, it will be 300,000 stone at most."

"But compared to this, the real cost is the wear and tear on the road."

"This loss can't be calculated even now, only by walking through it."

Zhu Gaochu and Zhu Di said, but Zhu Di stroked his beard when he heard this, and did not answer immediately, after all, judging from Zhu Gaoxu's words, the cost of building the Tibet Post Road must be not small, and looking at his appearance, it seems that he is still preparing to garrison troops in the West.

"There's no need for a garrison in the West, right?" Zhu Di tried to speak, but Zhu Gaoxu shook his head and said:

"Only the garrison can maintain the maintenance of the post road, and can push the horse fu originally formulated by the grandfather into the depths of the west."

When Zhu Yuanzhang first recruited Xifan, he mentioned "losing horses as endowments", the original text was "3,000 households will have a horse in three households, and four households will have a horse in four households. ”

However, this policy was only implemented in Xining, Songpan and other places, and it could not be implemented further into the west, so Zhu Yuanzhang also made people reduce the import of passionate.

Zhu Gaoxu also knew about this matter at that time, but he also knew that tea alone could indeed keep the West from disturbing, but it was impossible for them to pay taxes.

Only by stationing troops in the West can the West be able to honestly lose horses.

Judging from the number of households played by the Western Fan Tusi itself, if this policy can really be implemented, the northwest of the Ming Dynasty can get 20,000 or 30,000 horses every year, which is definitely not a small number.

Even if a horse is worth ten times, it is enough to maintain the garrison of the West in the future.

As for whether there will be a rebellion in the Tusi Society, Zhu Gaoxu didn't consider this at all.

Judging from the historical situation of Liu Zhao's construction of the post road, Zhu Di's request to garrison troops, and Zhu Di's dispatch of the Ming army to order Pazhu Dixi to hand over the Sakya Hall and give it to the original owner of the Sakya faction, there is no doubt that Xifan at this time is very weak and cannot even resist the Ming Dynasty.

Even if they occasionally encountered the disobedient little Tusi attacking the Ming army, most of them were killed by the Ming army as thieves.

However, it is not surprising that the scale of the Ming army's mission to the West has always been not small, ranging from 400 to thousands of people, and this kind of power is not something that Xiao Tusi can deal with.

The current internal regime of Qinghai and Tibet is divided and not mentioned, and the resources are basically obtained from the Ming Dynasty, and it has long lost the style of the Tang Dynasty.

The army of 10,000 people advanced into the west, not to mention the attack of Xiao Tusi, and even Pazhudi had to honestly accept the edict of the Ming Dynasty.

"The matter of Xifan, I am going to send Hou Xian to be an angel, he is from Xifan, it should be good to do this."

Zhu Di listened to it and made sure that he and Zhu Gaoxu were relatively close except for the matter of garrisoning, so he said who he wanted to send.

"Hou Xian is really good." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, and when Zhu Di saw this, he said to Wang Yan on the side:

"You go to Hou Xian later to talk about this and let him come to see me."

"Slave and maid leader" Wang Yan replied, and Zhu Gaoxu saw this and said, "Father, does there anything else?" ”

"No, you can go." Zhu Di stroked his beard, his expression was very flat, like a prodigal who lifted his pants and didn't recognize people.

"The minister is gone." Seeing Zhu Di like this, Zhu Gaoxu could only smile bitterly and shake his head and leave the Wuying Palace.

The new year has begun, and he has a lot of work on his hands, especially the exams in the past few days.

Because Zhu Gaoxu added the content of "Arithmetic" in the imperial examination, even he himself is not sure whether the ranking of this year's imperial examination is the same as in history.

But he didn't care, after all, this imperial examination was just a test for him, and if the ministers reacted violently, then he would slowly figure it out.

It's just that at the moment, they don't have any violent reactions, and it's not surprising to think about it, after all, he didn't add too many junior high school math problems in the arithmetic chapter this time, and the candidates in the Ming Dynasty can still handle it.

I just don't know what will happen to those candidates who are not good at arithmetic when geometry, calculus, equations and other problems appear in the future.

Between thoughts, Zhu Gaoxu also returned to the Chunhe Hall by Buyu, and sent someone to send a message to Li Ying.

After an hour or so, Zhu Gaoxu heard footsteps, and without waiting for the eunuch on duty to speak, he said in advance: "Let him come in." ”

His early opening caught everyone by surprise, but the eunuch on duty still let Li Ying enter the hall.

Li Ying came here a lot, after all, Zhu Gaoxu would summon him from time to time to test him for questions.

"The commander of the capital of Wu Sizang, Li Ying, see His Highness!"

Li Ying made a singing salute, and Zhu Gaoxu also put down the brush in his hand, rubbed his eyebrows before he spoke:

"Calculating the time, you have also been training with 3,000 soldiers for a year and a half."

"I remember when you said that 6,000 soldiers and horses could withstand more than 10,000 armored soldiers, but what about now?"

Zhu Gaoxu looked at Li Ying with interest, wanting to see what he could say.

Li Ying, who heard this, puffed up his chest: "If there are enough guns, then the three thousand in the Jingxi Firearms Battalion are enough to defeat tens of thousands of soldiers." ”

From the original 6,000 to the current 3,000 enough to defeat, it is not without reason that Li Ying is so proud.

Not to mention anything else, the shotgun shells of the field cannons alone were enough to crush the morale of the Western Fan vanguard cavalry, as long as the vanguard was defeated, the defeat of tens of thousands of troops was only an instant.

"I have just come back from Wuying Palace, and the imperial court will issue an order in a few days, ordering you to accept the moderation of the eunuch Hou Xian of Xifan, and Liu Zhao of Hezhou and Mu Tu of Lijiang each led soldiers and horses, a total of 10,000 people, and the soldiers entered Xifan in three ways to appease Xifan, and issued an edict to Xifan Tusi to build three post roads for the imperial court."

"Whether your Uszangdu commander is remote or in control of real power, it's up to you."

Zhu Gaoxu picked up the teacup and took a sip, while Li Ying was very excited to hear it.

Without waiting for him to speak, Zhu Gaoxu added firewood to his fire: "According to your age, if you do well in Wusizang, you should be able to enter Beijing and enter the Right Army Governor's Mansion around forty-five." ”

"Yes! Do your best! Hearing that he could enter the Governor's Mansion of the Right Army, Li Ying couldn't help but raise his voice and bowed.

"Specifically, Hou Xian should be looking for you in the next few days, and he will tell you what to do." Zhu Gaoxu said, looking at Li Ying calmly:

"I still say the same thing, the money given by the court is enough for errands, and the reward for you will never be less."

"Things like Xining taking in fugitives and opening up granges in private, I hope it won't happen in the future."

"Minister......" Li Ying's mouth was dry, but he didn't expect that to happen, Zhu Gaoxu still remembered: "Follow the teachings." ”

"Let's go down." Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand, and Li Ying was also surprised and delighted when he saw this, and carefully withdrew from the Chunhe Palace.

Seeing him leave, Yi Shiha, who was standing in the hall, said cautiously: "Is Your Highness worried that it will not be able to control him?" ”

"He and his men are all from the West, and if you hold power in Uszang but don't have a sense of reverence, it will be bad for the court."

Zhu Gaoxu said, and at the same time said to Yisha: "What happened to the hundreds of thousands of Jianwen ministers exiled by the imperial court in Yunnan? ”

Directly exiling the Han people to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is undoubtedly sending them to death, but if they are exiled to Yunnan first and then to Qinghai-Tibet, it will be much safer.

Of course, Zhu Gaoxu is not ready to exile this group of people, he is ready to recruit Han soldiers who can be stationed in Qinghai and Tibet in this group of people.

"There are not many people who die from miasma and disease, mainly because Your Highness has taught well, their group of people are afraid of death, and they all remember what they can eat and what they can drink."

"In the three years since they entered Yunnan, they have basically settled down in the local area, and Yunnan has also profited from this, reclaiming nearly one million acres of private land."

"A few days ago, the slave maid also went to the Governor's Mansion of the Six Armies to see it, counting the military tuntian, the imperial court's cultivated land in Yunnan is nearly 3 million mu."

Yi's words made Zhu Gaoxu chuckle and churn, obviously very satisfied.

In terms of Han population and cultivated land, the current level of development in Yunnan is comparable to that of the Jiajing period in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

Even if Zhu Gaoxu does not interfere in anything now, and only relies on the arrangements of the Yunnan Chengxuan Political Envoy himself, the number of Han people in Yunnan will not be less than one million in 20 years, and it is possible for the cultivated land to develop to four or five million mu.

If Zhu Gaoxu is willing to tilt part of the resources of the imperial court to Yunnan, then the speed of Sinicization and land reclamation in Yunnan will also be accelerated, which can support the Ming army to go deeper into the southwest, and change from weak fetters to strong fetters for Sanxuan and Six Comforts.

"What is the situation in Liaodong, Shandong, Bohai, Daning, arable land, population, horse politics, education, etc."

Seeing that Yunnan was on the right track, Zhu Gaoxu set his sights on his own basic plate, the big granary of the northern Ming Dynasty in the future.

"Last year, the task of clearing the wasteland was delayed because of the Northern Expedition, but the situation is still very impressive."

Yishaha first gave Zhu Gaoxu a wake-up call, and then explained:

"There are more than 240,000 people in eastern Liaoning, the number of cultivated land registered last year was nearly 9 million mu, more than 3,400 water conservancy projects were built, and the local grain yield per mu was basically maintained at about eight buckets."

"There are more than 76,000 horses, more than 20,000 horses, and more than 4,000 military horses."

"There are more than 390,000 students in Liaodong, more than 106,000 students have graduated, and more than 67,000 people can participate in government affairs."

Yizha paused when he said this: "Sun Cheng asked what the more than 39,000 students who were too young should do. ”

Zhu Gaoxu said this without thinking: "Let them teach students from Liaodong, Shandong, Bohai, Daning and other places who will just enter school next year and are less than ten years old." ”

The government students are too young, and Zhu Gaoxu can't solve this problem for the time being.

It will take at least four years to start the second phase of secondary school, and he can't afford to make this group of young students wait four years.

Therefore, it is the best way to let them go to Shandong and Liaodong to teach students who are under the age of 10.

"Yes" Seeing Zhu Gaoxu's instructions, Yisha wrote down his words, and then continued to report.

"Shandong has more than 57 million mu of cultivated land, more than 520,000 mouths, and about 360,000 students.

"As for the more than 1.2 million mu of cultivated land in Daning, there are 170,000 people who have been distributed according to the number of mouths, but there are less than 50,000 in the north of Modong Sanwei, more than 20,000 horses, 5,000 horses, 2,000 military horses, and more than 20,000 students."

"Bohai is a little richer, with more than 520,000 mouths, more than 95,000 students, and ...... arable land."

Yishiha reported on Zhu Gaoxu's basic situation, and it has to be said that he has made great progress.

However, in this regard, Zhu Gaoxu still made a special explanation: "Liaodong and Bohai cannot only focus on agriculture, but more importantly, industrial and mineral, wood and other workshops and workshops. ”

"Sun Cheng must know how much gold, silver, copper, and iron coal mines are mined in Liaodong every year, how much wood is cut, and how much firewood is transported."

"I will take the more than 30 million catties of firewood, 6 million catties of coal, and 500,000 catties of iron ingots supplied to Shandong by the Liaodong Sea Road last year, and these two revenues will generate more than 40,000 yuan for Liaodong, and after deducting the wages of lumberyards and coal miners, Liaodong will make a net profit of 20,000 yuan."

"These things are all things that can be seen everywhere in Liaodong and the Bohai Sea, and we must learn to use the water transportation of the Yalu River and the Liaohe River to transport firewood, coal, and iron materials."

"In addition to these, can Bohai organize the following villages to go hunting collectively, hunting furs for the dignitaries in Jiangnan to make money?"

"We used to be able to make money with this, why not now?"

Zhu Gaoxu taught Yizha to make money, and Yizha also wrote it down, preparing to let Sun Cheng organize these things.

In Zhu Gaoxu's view, it is true that the Northeast will be the granary for Beijing in the future, but the Northeast will also become the "industrial" base of the Ming Dynasty.

Blindly relying on the land to eat, then when the Xiaoice River period arrives, when the northeast encounters the floods of the three rivers, I am afraid that it will be difficult to even be self-sufficient, once the emperor of later generations still tries to exploit in the northeast, then I am afraid that it will be the million-dollar version of "Houjin entering the customs".

Making the Northeast an exporter of resources and handicraft goods and increasing the proportion of workers is the long-term way for now......

(End of chapter)