Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1127 Text
The situation in Kangcheng (Soonkyung) is surprisingly stable.

Among the nearly [-] residents, most of them were from military backgrounds, so they naturally succumbed when King Kang surrendered.

In the same way, Zhu Cunqu directly made a fortune from the treasury and scattered [-] silver dollars as an appeasement, and for the soldiers under his command who had outstanding achievements, he scattered [-] silver dollars.

This directly caused the abnormal prosperity of the entire Cannes.

"It's a pity. I thought I could fight a battle and measure the effect of training, but now it's all in vain."

The prince sighed: "If I had known this, why wasted a year?"

Zhu Jing disagreed and said: "Your Highness, if it hadn't been a year's work, how could we have made an forced landing in Kangguo?"

"For example, if a person eats steamed buns and is full after eating the fifth one, can he fill his stomach by eating only the fifth steamed bun?"

Zhu Cunqu was a little sweaty and had to smile bitterly in his heart.

This thirteenth uncle is quite upright.

"Your Highness, news came from the west that Dayan Eqir Khan was defeated, fled Lhasa, and went to Shigatse to reorganize his army. The tunnel garrisons in Dangxiong, Ali, and northern Tibet also came under his leadership, and the scale exceeded [-]..."

"Where's Li Laiheng?"

"He garrisoned in Lhasa and has stagnated. Now he has sent envoys to discuss surrender matters."

"Oh?" Zhu Cunqu chuckled and said, "He is quite sensible and knows what cannot be done. So what are the conditions?"

"Be kind to King Kang, appease the generals, and give it to Shi Jue."

Hearing these words, the prince frowned: "I don't want the first and second items, but Spyker is to show his nobility, and it can't be expressed without great achievements."

"Li Laiheng, I can only give him one Spyke. This is for the sake of the [-] troops. The others, Viscount and Baron are enough."

When he said this, he showed his sincerity and his face was full of disdain: "After you just forced Chongzhen's traitor to death, how can you be too generous?"

"If it spreads, it will cause controversy."

Zhu Jing agrees with this, but he knows the magic of politics.

Glancing at the prince, he said calmly: "Your Highness, Li Laiheng is not the leader of the generals. If he treats others poorly, he may arouse the anger of the army, and Wei Zangguo is still there..."

With that said, he took the prince to the room, where there was a map of Wei Zangguo.

The huge Uizang Kingdom is in the shape of a semicircle, with Lhasa in the center of the southwest part.

At the same time, Shigatse, Damxung, Ngari region, and Nagqu in northern Tibet are all marked, as well as the most peripheral small countries of Ladakh, Bhutan, and Sikkim and other sects.

"Your Highness, the Lhasa Valley is now in the pocket, but it is far from enough. The huge plateau area is only a little bit."

Zhu Jing said in a deep voice: "Although I don't know why Your Majesty is so enthusiastic about the plateau, I think it makes sense. Naturally, we have to implement it."

"Compared to our army, the Kang army is more adapted to the plateau climate. Wouldn't it be nice to let them cover the plateau and let our army enjoy the success?"

"The court will have nothing to say if he is awarded the title of Spylord after he has made great achievements."

Zhu Cunqu looked at the huge plateau. Such a huge area seemed to be more than enough to cover the entire four provinces of Sichuan, Chongqing, and Huguang.

"General Zhu, how should we govern this place after we conquer it?"

When Zhu Jing heard this, she also had a headache: "The general didn't study much, but I guess he should be like the grassland, canonizing nobles, setting up governors, stationing military households, and respecting Buddhism!"

Zhu Cunqu was silent.

Such a huge area is a huge burden for the imperial court, and not a few are invested every year.

But there is no way, who made the current emperor like martial arts?

"Let his envoys come to see me!"

The prince said slowly.

After a while, a dusty big man walked in. When he saw the young prince in gorgeous clothes, he immediately knelt down and saluted.

"The young general Zhengxi sends his regards to the prince..."

Immediately, he was not ambiguous and directly revealed the conditions: "We dare not do anything against Master Wang, we only want peace and stability!"

"This is a gift to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

As he spoke, he took out a sheepskin from his arms.

Zhu Cunqu took a look and didn't recognize him at all.

But he understood that it was Zang Wen and immediately found an interpreter.

"Your Highness, this is the household register of Weizang Kingdom. It records the number of nobles, temples, and taxable land in Weizang Kingdom."

Zhu Cunqu listened to the data.

There are 5000 noble families, [-]% of which are Mongolian. There are [-] temples and more than [-] monks.

As for ordinary serfs, there is no data on land.

The tax record is obvious, with annual revenue of about 200 million grams.

"What is a gram?"

"Your Highness, one gram is about 23 kilograms (mingjin). On the plateau, the land is divided into three grades. If you sow a gram of seeds on the top land, you will have to pay ten grams of highland barley."

"For medium-grade fields, it is seven grams, and for low-grade fields, it is five grams."

Zhu Cunqu calculated in his mind that it was [-] stones.

Good guy, how much is this?
If all of it is considered midfield, it would only be about 30 acres.

Impossible. If the plateau had only such a small population, how could it have been possible to compete with the Tang Dynasty?

"Nobles and temples don't pay taxes, right?"

"Yes!" the interpreter said seriously: "The nobles will bring the best upper fields under their control and let the serfs cultivate them, and then give some of the middle and lower fields to free people and serfs to cultivate and collect taxes..."

The majority of serfs were divided into three types: Chaba, Duiqiong, and Langsheng.

Chaba accounted for half of the serfs. They received part of the land from the serf owners for farming, which was equivalent to the tenants of the Ming Dynasty.

Among them, the top "Chaba" acted as the second landowner who subcontracted the land to other serfs for farming.

Duiqiong is a second-class serf, with the same number as Chaba. They have no freedom and only a small amount of land. They have served the serf owners for generations. They are analogous to long-term workers.

The serfs who were even worse than "Duiqiong", "Langsheng", originally meant "household slaves".

This kind of serf has no means of production and no personal freedom at all. It is basically the private property of the serf owner.

Not only did they have to be slaves to serf owners for generations, they were also given away, dowed, sold, and even tortured and killed at will.

None of the three types of serfs had complete freedom or their own land. They could only live on renting land from nobles and relied on nobles and temples for their livelihoods.

There is no possibility of farmers, small landowners, businessmen, etc. appearing at all.

Many of these great nobles were even passed down from the Tubo era, and they could be said to have been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds or thousands of years.

"Except for the nobility, it's the temple!"

Zhu Cunqu was filled with emotion: "The huge plateau land was divided up. Dayan Oqil Khan managed the nobles, while the two major lamas managed the temples, each in his own place."

Looking at it this way, the difficulty of governance becomes much simpler.

If you manage the nobles and trumpets well, you can stabilize the plateau.

And this is also a required course for the future Ming Dynasty.

But there are also difficulties.

Lamas are all selected from noble families. The two are related to each other, collude with each other, and help each other. They are said to be two parts, but in fact they are one part.

Therefore, during the period of the second generation of Dayan Ozil Khan, the Kashote Khanate had to give up power to Darai, from monopolizing power to equally sharing the rights.

Heshuote, who originally arrived on the plateau as a savior and master, suddenly became a bodyguard.

"Difficult!" Zhu Cunqu sighed in his heart.

I don’t know how the emperor coped with it.But he felt that enfeoffing vassal kings was the most appropriate move, but the fate of assimilation was difficult to change.

"Tell General Li that I have admired him for a long time, so I can't agree to any conditions, but I have conditions."

With that said, he wrote a handwritten letter and asked him to take it to Lhasa.

"What? Capture Dayan Oqil Khan alive, offer it to the two great lamas, and take it to Tibet!"

Li Laiheng did not expect that just the Marquis would have such harsh conditions.

But the generals are still enthusiastic about the war.

Tian Jianxiu expressed everyone's feelings: "We have worked hard for many years, and we only have a viscount. How can the baron feel at ease? We need at least a count to maintain the wealth for generations."

"Let's fight, Dayan Ozil Khan is just struggling to his death, and the other small countries are also backhanded."

"Fight, keep fighting!" Everyone agreed to do it.

Using the lives of the soldiers under your hands to protect their wealth is a good deal no matter how you calculate it.

What's more, those people under his command also want to plunder the wealth accumulated by the plateau for hundreds of years, and they don't want to give up easily.

"Then fight!" Li Laiheng said to the messenger: "Go to Shunting and tell the prince that I need food and supplies. As long as there is no shortage of these, I will take him down on the entire plateau!"

He didn't care at all about the Heshuote soldiers who had been softened for decades.

When the two contacted, the city of Beijing was also waiting for news from Gao Yuan.

At this time, the summer harvest has passed, and data from various places have been reported, preparing to implement the project that will be handed over to the national treasury.

Compared with the southern provinces, the one that surprised Zhu Yixi the most was Liaodong.

Taxes, especially business taxes, increased massively.

In the fourth quarter of last year, it was only about two million, mostly made up of iron and wine, but now another addition has been added: sugar.

After many years, sugar beet has finally become popular in Liaodong, with a planting area of ​​hundreds of thousands of acres. It is planted in almost every county and town, thus producing a large amount of sugar.

The sugar was transported through the grassland to Chahar and Horqin, as well as Heilongjiang and Jilin further north.

In times of scarcity, sugar is the best way to relieve fatigue, and sweetness is also the happiest thing.

The tax on sugar cooked from beets has exceeded 30 yuan in just the two quarters of this year. Although this is due to the heavy tax ([-]%), it is undeniable that it has naturally become the largest sugar factory in the Northeast.

The three major items transported to the grassland in previous years were wine, salt, and tea, and now sugar was added.

In other words, those iron sheep money, after going around in circles, will eventually return to the hands of the court.

"Very good!"

Zhu Yixi praised: "The winter in Liaodong is long, there is no shortage of time to cook sugar, and there is no shortage of wood and fuel, so it is most suitable."

Duan Mengshu, the Minister of Internal Affairs, smiled and said: "From Huangzhuang to Xunzhuang, it is now spreading to the common people. Beet is no longer a scarce thing, and sugar has also flown to thousands of households."

"The happiness of all the people depends entirely on His Majesty's kindness."

Zhu Yixi just smiled and said nothing.

To put it bluntly, if it had not been for its strong popularity, I am afraid it would have been three to four hundred years before sugar beets took over the north.

Mongolians want to eat sweets, but they may have to wait.

You know, although there is now large-scale sugar production in Taiwan, Luzon, Guangdong and other places, coupled with folk maltose, there is no shortage of sugar.

But this is just a big city.

For example, rock sugar and soft white sugar are only available in a few big cities such as Nanjing and Beijing. It is difficult for ordinary landlords to eat them.

Brown sugar is not expensive, but there are few sales channels.

"After the popularization in Liaodong, it will also be popularized in Horqin and Chahar. There is so much sugar so that ordinary herders can afford it!"

Zhu Yixi emphasized again and again.

No matter how the sugar industry develops, there will be no bottlenecks.

Land area and productivity are limited here, but the more, the better.

"Your Majesty, the prince's secret box."

At this time, Liu Afu came over and said, his face full of nervousness.

He couldn't help but be so nervous.

This is the prince.

"I excuse myself!" Duan Mengshu hurriedly lowered his head and left.

Zhu Yixi opened the wooden box and a volume of letters appeared in front of her.

In just over a thousand words, the entire Southwest War was described.

"Xikang Province was established as planned, so the Governor of Sichuan and Chongqing should not set it up to avoid becoming too powerful."

Zhu Yixi was not as excited as expected.

Years of erosion by Jinyiwei have made the entire Kang State like a sieve, which can be said to be effortless, like picking out objects from a bag.

This was originally a meritorious service specially set up for the prince to establish his prestige in the army.

Sichuan and Chongqing are originally one, and it would be inconsistent with centralization to allow them to be closely connected.

Therefore, it can be set as Governor Chuankang.

Let Sichuan help Xikang, thereby stabilizing the situation and enhancing the court's control over Xikang.

When she read that Li Laiheng and other generals were asked to attack the plateau, Zhu Yixi couldn't help but nodded: "The prince knows how to use his strength to fight."

"The political level has improved very well."

Let these remnants of the invading army beat the plateau to pieces, and the imperial court can finally clean up the situation, and the rule of the grassland can be established as quickly as possible.

He is most happy to do this kind of cheap thing.

As for some titles, Zhu Yixi did not attach much importance to them.

It is beneficial to add some new blood to the noble system, and it also increases the influence of the prince on the noble group.

These remnants of thieves must be close to the prince.

After reading, a piece of sheepskin was placed in another wooden box, and matching it was the translation paper.

"Nobles, temples!" Zhu Yixi murmured: "Well, even the landlords have been completely reduced to serfs, directly implementing flat management."

How does this work?
As we all know, the foundation of feudal society is the landlord class, and among them, the owner-peasants, such as middle-class small landowners, are the basis of rule, while the big landowners are the cancer.

The nobles on the plateau are naturally also cancerous.

"The land must be divided!"

Zhu Yixi couldn't bear it anymore and wrote in person, telling the prince that Li Laiheng and others must eliminate the large and medium nobles and leave only some small nobles.

The excess land can be distributed to the serfs.

These talents are a wide source of tax collection and troops.

"and many more!"

Suddenly, Zhu Yixi caught a glimpse of the sheepskin and rubbed her hands unconsciously.

"Is this Zang Wen?"

"How long has it been since Zang Wen appeared?"

His face turned ugly, and he immediately tore up the letter and wrote it again.

Zang Wen should disappear into the long river of history like the Burning Wen in Yunnan, so as to maintain unity and integrity.

(End of this chapter)