Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 89: The Foundation of the Nation Has Decayed (I)
Although it was just a temporary sacrifice, after completing a whole set of tedious procedures, it was already the middle of the You hour and the sky had turned dark.
After listening to Zhu Youdong's eulogy, many officials in Nanjing had somewhat strange expressions on their faces.
No one cares about the literary talent of this memorial. The Zhu emperors always liked to speak in plain language. In the past, Taizu had been a submissive subject of the Mongols for decades, and Chengzu had stayed in the north for too long. Both of them were tainted with the tone of the Mongols who translated Mongolian into Chinese. The imperial edict was written in plain language, but the tone was really uncomfortable to read. In comparison, the memorial of the grandson was already quite good!
What everyone cares about is the content!
His Royal Highness the Grandson reported to Taizu in the sacrificial text without any hesitation that the country is facing big problems now! And he showed his determination to correct and solve these problems without any concealment! This is what everyone cares about.
For a monarch, it is very important to know what to say and when.
When in Beijing, Zhu Youdong was mostly busy with work. He only fought back when he couldn't stand the criticism. But when he arrived in Nanjing, he was already the first person in Jinling, so he had to express his ambitions and opinions publicly. Only in this way would people be willing to follow him. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince could show his hands and feet in the south.
What? You said you want to keep a low profile? Come on, there is more than one traveler in this plane! And the other travelers are all enemies!
After dragging his tired body back to the Nanjing Palace, Zhu Youdong issued an order that night: at noon tomorrow, led by the three Nanjing garrisons, he would go to inspect the Houhu Lake.
The so-called Houhu is Xuanwu Lake. For more than a thousand years, since Sun Quan established his capital in Jianye, it has undergone many artificial transformations because of the safety of a country's capital. And because Nanjing is often the capital of the Southern Dynasty during the confrontation between the North and the South in China, and before Zhu Yuanzhang came into being, the South had never won the confrontation between the North and the South in China. Therefore, Nanjing is often the conquered party during the unification. As a royal lake of the conquered party, the conqueror naturally would not treat it well. Xuanwu Lake was even drained by Wang Anshi in history and turned into fertile fields for the people... In short, this is a lake with many disasters.
After Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty in Nanjing, Xuanwu Lake was located directly north of the Ming Palace. For the safety of the palace, Zhu Yuanzhang built a wall around Xuanwu Lake and cut off part of its water source. The natural landscape of the entire lake was lost. The Xuanwu Lake in the Ming Dynasty was much smaller than that in the Three Kingdoms period, and it was completely enclosed in a wall, completely losing all the artistic conception of ancient Chinese mountains and rivers.
Therefore, Zhu Youdong went to Houhu not to enjoy the scenery there.
During the Ming Dynasty, from the 14th year of Hongwu to the first year of Hongguang in the Southern Ming Dynasty, this was the place where the national household registration files of the Ming Dynasty were stored. This was the purpose of Zhu Youdong's visit.
On the sixth day of the second month, at the hour of Chen, Wang Kun, Liu Maoxun, Xu Honggang, Cao Huachun, Wang Chengen, Zhang Shize, Li Shizhong, Li Chunzhong, Liu Zhaosun, Zhang Yicheng, Xu Guangqi, Zhao Shizhen, Yang Tingyun, Li Zhizao, Cao Sanxi and others were all waiting at the Taiping Gate by the back lake. After Zhu Youdong arrived, Xu Honggang issued an order, and the ferry that had been prepared long ago was loaded with everyone in an orderly manner and began to head towards the several small islands in the center of the lake.
In the gentle flow of water, Zhu Youdong stood up in the cockpit and asked, "Zhang Shize, Li Chunzhong, what do you think of the scenery of Houhu Lake?"
Zhang Shize stood up and said, "Grandson, to be honest, it's not good."
"Well, I don't think it's good either."
After hearing His Royal Highness the Crown Prince call himself "Gu" instead of "We", everyone present knew that the Crown Prince's intention today must be not simple, and they all stood up.
"More than 1,800 years ago, Han Taizu, who was still the Duke of Pei, rushed into Xianyang City first. At that time, from the Duke of Pei onwards, the generals and even soldiers under his command were shocked to the extreme by the various jewels and beauties in the Xianyang Palace. After a brief confusion, these guys began to move a large number of things and even people in the palace to their own military camps. The Duke of Pei even stayed in the Xianyang Palace that night."
The six-year-old child stood in the center of the cabin and talked eloquently. Zhang Shize and others naturally sat down again: In the past two years, the prince rarely spoke at length like this. Once he started, he must have something important to say. More often, it was a reminder to their reading companions.
"Among this group of unsophisticated people who were blinded by the royal wealth, only Prime Minister Xiao remained calm. When everyone was scrambling to loot all kinds of gold, silver and jewelry, he led his personal guards to the Prime Minister's Mansion and the Imperial Censor's Mansion of Qin. Then he organized honest and reliable people to move all the household registration books, maps, laws, etc. from the two mansions..."
If Xu Honggang and others still regarded Zhu Youdong as a child at the beginning, after hearing this, the well-read and well-read Jinshi already knew what the crown prince would say next.
really……
"The next step, of course, was Xiang Yu's entry into Xianyang, the Hongmen Banquet, and the division of the empire. Pei Gong was named the King of Han, with his fief in Hanzhong. Not only that, Xiang Yu also made Zhang Han and three other Qin surrendered generals the kings of Guanzhong, completely blocking the way for Han Yu to go north.
You can imagine. At this time, the King of Han was very upset. It is said that the King of Han once thought of raising an army on the spot and fighting a decisive battle with King Xiang before he went to Hanzhong and his troops were still motivated.
"Well……"
"Zhang Shize, what do you want to say?"
"Your Highness, please forgive me. What I meant was that at that time, King Xiang was at the peak of his power. If the King of Han wanted to fight King Xiang, wouldn't that be like hitting a rock with an egg?"
"Yes, but the King of Han thought at that time, the Righteous Emperor had said that whoever enters Guanzhong first will be the king. But I entered Guanzhong first, and you followed me to take advantage of it. You even drove me to that corner of Hanzhong. If I had gone there, I don't know how many of my subordinates who saw no hope would have fled. It is better to die in a glorious battle than to die in hardship later."
"But the King of Han did not do so after all."
"Yes, because Prime Minister Xiao persuaded him. Prime Minister Xiao said, Your Majesty, I have obtained the most powerful weapon in the world. We will definitely win in the future. There is no need to rush."
"Your Highness, this most powerful weapon is the scroll that Prime Minister Xiao moved from the Prime Minister's Mansion and the Imperial Censor's Mansion of Qin State?"
"Yes. These scrolls are not simple. Prime Minister Xiao said that we have all the household registration information in the country. We know how many people and fields there are in each place. We know how many men each family can produce, how much each field can produce, and how much tax to collect. These household registration information are all clearly written. With this set of information, the whole world is at our fingertips. Prime Minister Xiao also said that according to the household registration information, Hanzhong has a small population, but Bashu to its south has a large population and rich products! With this set of household registration information, we can continuously collect a large amount of money and grain and countless soldiers!"
After taking a deep breath, Zhu Youdong continued, "The four-year-long Chu-Han dispute later proved what Prime Minister Xiao said. The King of Han was defeated countless times by King Xiang on the battlefield, but after each defeat, it didn't take long for the whole army to return. And what about King Xiang? Haha, without the household registration information of Qin, he didn't know how many people there were in his own fiefdom, and how much output it had. How could he fight with the King of Han repeatedly? Therefore , the King of Han fought again and again, but became stronger and stronger. King Xiang won battle after battle, but in the end he was too weak... When it came to the battle of Gaixia, the Han Dynasty established its rule over the world!"
"So that's how it is!" Wang Chengen, Zhang Shize, Li Shizhong, Li Chunzhong, Liu Zhaosun and others all clapped their thighs in unison: "When we read the Records of the Grand Historian, we found it strange that King Xiang was victorious but suddenly lost. And the King of Han was able to rise again after so many defeats, but King Xiang was doomed after just one defeat? It turns out that household registration is so important."
"So, all the dynasties that followed, whether it was the Han, Wei, Jin, Sui, Tang, or Song, attached great importance to the revision and maintenance of the national household registration data." After taking a deep breath, Zhu Youdong said solemnly: "A country needs an emperor and ministers to govern it, and warriors to protect it. But! Where does the money and food to support the royal family, ministers, and warriors come from? Of course, it comes from the people. How to get it from the people? With the household registration as the basis!"
"Your Highness said it well!"
"Your Highness, I am so excited! Your Highness has realized the importance of household registration at such a young age. As the Minister of Revenue, I feel extremely relieved."
"Haha," Zhu Youdong smiled slightly and motioned for everyone to continue sitting down: "After Yashan, the Mongols entered the Central Plains. They didn't fully understand the importance of household registration."
"Hehe! Those Tartars are so crude and vulgar, how can they understand the essence of governing a country!"
"Well, Zhao Sun said it well." Zhu Youdong raised a finger: "When Kublai Khan was alive, there was a red barbarian who came to Hangzhou as Marco Polo. He wrote down this passage in his travel notes: 'Every household has a piece of white paper posted on the door, which shows how many people there are in the family, their gender and age. If someone dies or a new baby is born in the family, the head of the family will modify the white paper on the door.'"
At this point, Zhu Youdong smiled contemptuously and said, "Speaking of which, barbarians are barbarians after all. When Marco Polo wrote this passage, his tone was full of surprise and admiration. But if such a scene were seen by the petty officials of any dynasty of Qin and Han, Wei and Jin, Sui and Tang, or Song , they would probably be so angry that they would spit out blood: How dare the household registration management be done like this? Then whether the country can control the real situation of the country depends entirely on the self-consciousness of the people! Moreover, the period of Kublai Khan was the most prosperous period of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. What will the national strength of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty be like in the future? Do we still need to guess?"
"Hahahahaha~~Barbarians are barbarians after all."
"However, although the Mongols were so chaotic that the country could not fully mobilize its national strength when something happened, the resistance faced by our Emperor Taizu when he started his army was much less. However, unlike when the Sui Dynasty succeeded the Northern Zhou Dynasty and the Song Dynasty succeeded the Later Zhou Dynasty, they were able to obtain a complete and detailed national household registration. After the establishment of this dynasty, the biggest headache for Emperor Taizu was that the Mongols did not have any detailed and authentic household registration information at all!"
"Ah? What should I do then?"
"Well." After a slight smile, Zhu Youdong pointed at the Minister of Revenue Zhang Shipei.
Zhang Shipei's cheeks had already flushed with excitement. Seeing Zhu Youdong pointing at him, he saluted Zhu Youdong respectfully with a sincere heart, and then said to the crowd: "Everyone, after our dynasty's Taizu established his rule over the world, it took him a full ten years to sort out the national household registration. After that, Taizu ordered that the national household registration information be named the Yellow Book, which is cleaned up and updated every ten years. Our Ming Dynasty has been established for 239 years, and the Yellow Book has been revised 22 times. The total number of Yellow Books has reached millions. Now." Zhang Shipei stretched out a trembling finger: "They are all stored on the small island in Houhu Lake! There is the foundation of our Ming Dynasty!"
