Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 150: The plan is complete and ready to start
"Dong'er, how did you immediately figure out that there was something fishy about the Fujian report?"
In May 1610, Zhu Youdong was urgently recalled to Beijing by Emperor Wanli. As soon as he entered the Qianqing Palace, Emperor Wanli asked him this question.
How do I know? Because I am a time traveler. There are numerous academic studies on the Ming Dynasty officialdom in later generations. Many experts have explained the problems of the Ming Dynasty officialdom very clearly .
Unfortunately, I can’t expose myself and can’t say this.
Fortunately, after receiving Wanli's urgent call, Zhu Youdong roughly understood why Wanli wanted to call him, so he made preparations in advance.
"Uh... Grandpa Emperor, isn't this obvious? Fujian is known as the land of eight mountains, one river, and one field. The province's arable land area is only more than 20 million mu. It's a bit scary that one-tenth of the arable land was damaged by a rainstorm. Who would believe such a thing? In the 30th year of Wanli, the Yellow Book sent to Nanjing by the Fujian Provincial Administration showed that there were 3.98 million civilian households and 60,000 military households. And this time, 100,000 people died directly in the disaster? And the dead were all registered households? Who doesn't know that there are many hidden and escaped households in my Ming Dynasty? How can God be so accurate that only the registered households die? No one without a registered household registration will die?"
"I see, this is what you have been advocating, speaking with numbers." Wanli sighed, and sat down on a step casually. "Although grandpa may not be as smart as you when he was a child, he is definitely the most talented among all the brothers. Although grandpa's teacher Mr. Zhang has many problems, he is also a great man. Why didn't anyone tell grandpa to analyze problems in this way?"
This is the evil consequence of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, who were born in the deep palace and raised by women, after Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty. If the emperors of the Ming Dynasty had been tempered in various substantive positions before ascending the throne like the princes of the Han and Tang dynasties, how could they be so helpless with their ministers?
As for Zhang Juzheng, he was indeed a top politician in the Ming Dynasty. But after he passed the imperial examination, he stayed in the central government and did not have a thorough understanding of local issues. For example, the Single Whip Law. In the words of Mr. Huang Renyu in later generations, if you directly implement the Single Whip Law without setting up a regional silver treasury and a universal government purchasing agency, the final result is that local officials will increase their efforts to exploit ordinary people...
Zhu Youdong was lost in thought, while Wanli sighed and then became furious: "I have been taught by the late emperor and the empress dowager since I was a child that I must be kind to the people. Therefore, for more than 30 years, as long as the local disasters request tax reduction, I have never refused! But, but these shameless people, they scold me for competing with the people for profit and harming the world. At the same time, they do such shameless things! Dong'er, tell me, are the reports submitted by those places in the past as crazy as these bastards in Fujian?"
"Uh... Grandpa Emperor, actually, as long as we have numbers, it is not difficult to distinguish the truth from the false with a little analysis." The Ming officials of this era were all liberal arts students. Except for a few exceptions, most of them were not sensitive to numbers and naturally made up lies. They would be easily exposed by a time traveler like Zhu Youdong.
"Dong'er, Grandpa will ask Li En to collect the data from the past thirty years..." At this point, Wanli was suddenly stunned, and then smiled bitterly: "Grandpa is really angry. How can we collect evidence for the disaster relief decades ago even if we find problems? Forget it, let's forget about the past."
"Grandpa Emperor, I think this is the way it should be. Otherwise, the officialdom will be in turmoil and officials will be in a state of panic, which may not be a blessing for our Ming Dynasty."
"Humph! Even so, I must kill a few people for the Fujian incident this time, otherwise I will never be able to calm down!"
"Grandpa Emperor is the supreme ruler of the world, and his words are law. No matter how Grandpa Emperor decides to deal with the case, what I have to do is to collect the evidence in a more orderly manner and make the case a solid one!"
"Yeah." Wanli stood up with difficulty under Zhu Youdong's support and patted Zhu Youdong's shoulder heavily: "Dong'er, grandpa is old, and I don't know how long I can hold on. You, grandpa is not worried, but in front of you is your father, hey, this useless guy!"
After another inexplicable outburst of anger, Wanli leaned over and whispered in Zhu Youdong's ear: "Your father is really possessed by a demon now. All he does all day is play with women and talk about the good things about his Donglin masters. Grandpa thinks he is really hopeless. But the etiquette and laws restrict us here. Grandpa can't just bypass him and let you inherit Grandpa's position, right?"
Haha, my grandpa, there are certainly many reasons why you can tolerate me causing trouble all day long, but one of the most important reasons is that there is a prince between us, and my relationship with the prince is not good. I need your support no matter what. Isn't that why you trust me so much?
Moreover, the ministers of the Ming Dynasty are so tolerant of my mischief, aren’t they also hoping that my father will depose me from my position as crown prince after he ascends the throne?
In short, Zhu Changluo’s position at this time is very important!
But everyone just needs to understand this in their hearts, and there is no need to speak it out. After all, the sons and grandsons of dragons are all dragons, and the language between two dragons does not need to be too thorough.
"So Grandpa has been thinking that he must prepare enough strength for you in advance, to ensure that if Grandpa suddenly passes away one day, even if your father makes a foolish decision to replace the crown prince, you will have the strength to fight back!"
"Grandpa Emperor..."
Although Zhu Youdong despised Zhu Changluo in his heart and was not afraid that Zhu Changluo would abolish his position as heir, at least at this moment, he was sincerely grateful to Wanli!
"So, after the matter in Fujian is settled, you should talk to Yuan Keli and tell him to stop fighting with grandpa. There are so many things going on in the country now. If he really cares about the world, he should come out and do things earlier. Grandpa plans to make him the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate and the Governor of Fujian. Wasn't your Mr. Sun transferred from the prefect of Mubang to the post of Censor in Zhejiang a few days ago? In this way, your forces in Nanzhili, Zhejiang, and Fujian will be connected."
"Grandson thanks Grandpa for his care. I am so grateful right now. But I still have some ideas of my own."
"Haha, my good grandson always wants to get all the benefits. You tell me."
"Yes, Grandfather Emperor. Yuan Keli is more than qualified to be the governor of Fujian, but he has just cleaned up the Fujian officialdom and is now the chief official of Fujian. So my grandson's idea is to let Sun Chengzong go to Fujian to be the governor. This person has a noble character and a broad mind. It is most appropriate ."
"Well... that's fine. What about Zhejiang? It's a fertile land."
"Grandpa Emperor, Nanzhili and Fujian are both in my grandson's hands. It doesn't really matter whether Zhejiang is ruled by my grandson's trusted aides."
"That's right. What about Yuan Keli?"
"Mr. Yuan should continue to be my grandson's teacher. After all, it is too tiring for my grandson to control the overall situation alone. Of course, being tired is a small matter, but there are indeed many times when there are omissions. With Mr. Yuan around, my grandson feels more at ease."
"It's hard for you." Touching Zhu Youdong's head, Wanli sighed: "Poor your father, he doesn't understand why you work so hard."
In July 1610, the results of the Fujian false disaster case that shocked the court and the public were announced. More than 70 officials at all levels, from the provincial governor to the provincial inspector, were dismissed, had their property confiscated, were sentenced to imprisonment, or were exiled. The prefect of Fuzhou and the magistrate of Houguan County were sentenced to beheaded or imprisoned.
Afterwards, the court issued another decree: Sun Chengzong, who had just taken office as the Zhejiang Provincial Surveillance Commissioner for less than half a year, was transferred to the post of Fujian Provincial Governor.
In the same month, Zhu Youdong left Beijing and headed south again.
Fujian was in hand, and in this way, the strongest navy of the Ming Dynasty, the Funing Town Navy, was also in hand. At this time, the strongest naval commander of the Ming Dynasty, Yu Zigao, would sooner or later be included in the smuggling, right? After that, based on the Chongmingsha and Funing Town Navy, a real Ming Dynasty Navy could be established.
After Fujian is taken, Zhejiang, which is sandwiched in the middle, naturally needs no further explanation. In this way, the entire Ming Dynasty's maritime trade is actually completely under my control, right?
In Fangshan Laboratory, the improvement of steam engines is progressing steadily, and one or two problems are solved every year. Alloy steels of different proportions and compositions are being produced and used in various experiments. Stainless steel suitable for tableware has been discovered . Sooner or later, there will be steel suitable for ships, right?
In Fangshan School, about 200 students will take the Nanjing Prefecture Examination next year, followed by the Provincial Examination and the Imperial Examination. And there will be no less than this number of students taking the examination every year. Even if only 10% of the children pass the Jinshi examination, I will have absolute confidence to control the Ming Dynasty officialdom in the future.
There are more children who will be assigned to military camps, Jinyiwei, laboratories and various industries...
Economy, military, public opinion, technology, talent pool... After ten years, we have finally laid a solid foundation, although it cannot be said to be perfect. The layout of the southwest and southeast has been basically completed, and the crisis in the northwest has been alleviated. So, now is the time to look up and look to the northeast again.
After boarding the ship from Tianjin Port to Nanjing, Zhu Youdong thought seriously for more than ten days on the ship and finally made a decision: Now, his overall layout has been completed, and his strength in all aspects is also worth seeing. Then what's next...
In the east of Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu was still alive and suppressed the Japanese time traveler, making it temporarily unable to focus on the west. And the time traveler in Siam in the south needed more time to unify the Indochina Peninsula. Roughly speaking, from this point in time, he still had about five or six years.
We cannot wait any longer. We must take advantage of this time difference and do our best to provoke Nurhaci of Jianzhou to launch an attack in advance, and then quickly destroy him with a thunderous force!
