Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 293 The Crown Prince is in a state of panic
“Ah~!”
"Don't move! Boyun, please don't move. You have too many wounds and the doctor has just finished bandaging them. If you move too loudly, the wounds will burst open and that will be bad."
"Huh? Dazhen? Why is it you?"
"Why can't it be me? Are all the people who graduated from our Donglin Academy evil and treacherous? Are you the only ones in Fangshan who are good?"
"Uh...that's not what I meant."
"Haha, I was just joking." Hou Xun said seriously, "Senior Ye is not what you think. He has been ostentatious and openly accepting bribes. He is actually luring the snake out of its hole. In recent months, not only have you made great achievements in the front. He has also focused on those who gave more money. Speaking of which, I have also arrested three or five clerks recently."
"Um...where's Brother Boya?"
"Brother Bo Ya is next door."
"How is the injury? Is his life in danger?"
"Bo Ya doesn't have as many wounds as you, but the doctor said one of the wounds is very deep. He will lose a lot of blood and may get infected. So the Jinyiwei has sent a team of elite soldiers to Xuanfu to buy penicillin."
"Oh, that's good. Dazhen, you guys?"
"Hey! You guys made too much noise in the front. Senior Ye said that if you do that, your lives will be in danger. So for the past month or so, we have been watching you from behind."
"Hiss~~ As expected, the older you are, the wiser you are. I'm so ashamed."
…
Putting aside Li Jia's self-reflection, at this moment, Zhu Youdong, who was hundreds of miles away from Zhangjiakou in Beijing, was also in a very bad mood.
"Your Highness, as of October this year, no new disasters have been reported from various places. It can be said that we have survived half of this locust plague. The rest is mainly to provide relief to the affected people before the summer harvest next year.
According to the statistics of the Cabinet, from May this year, in the five months, we have distributed a total of 15.3 million shi of disaster relief grain and mobilized 2.53 million strong laborers to build roads. In addition to the Beijing-Tianjin highway that had been completed before the disaster, seven new highways were started in the five months, namely Beijing-Zhangjiakou, Beijing-Shan (Haiguan), Beijing-Luoyang, Beijing-Jinan, Luotai (Yuan), Taitai (Tong), and Luoxi (An). In addition, His Royal Highness the King of Shu built the Chengyu Highway in Sichuan.
According to the current progress of the project, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou and Beijing-Shantou highways can be completed before the spring ploughing next year. For the others, at least 20% can be completed, and at most about 60% to 70%.
So far, more than 18,000 people have died in the affected provinces of North China, and about 300,000 refugees have been created. Currently, local officials are actively recruiting these refugees to participate in road construction. The provinces of North China are generally stable, and the household registration is also roughly stable. "
After finishing the report, Xu Honggang leaned forward and said, "Your Highness, despite such a severe disaster, the number of victims is so small. Your Highness has done a great deed!"
Immeasurable merits? Why do I feel this is a deep mockery? Well, that's not right. For officials in the Middle Ages, more than 20 million people were affected by the disaster, but only more than 10,000 people died. This is indeed extremely remarkable and a great merit.
But, I am a time traveler! I cannot set such low standards for myself.
However, during these months of disaster relief, Zhu Youdong also deeply realized that he had made many mistakes based on assumptions.
First of all, he overestimated the shamelessness of officials in this era: wages were raised, and a large number of imperial censors were sent to conduct inspections. The Jinyiwei, Dongchang and other secret agencies were mobilized at full capacity. The court reports, daily newspapers, imperial edicts, and religious orders repeatedly emphasized the distribution of disaster relief materials, requiring local officials, clerks, and runners not to get their hands on them.
What was the result? After more than 100 censors and more than 300 newly-appointed scholars went down, they investigated and punished nearly 2,000 officials in five months... You have to know that there are only 80,000 officials in the entire Ming Dynasty! After deducting the officials in Beijing and the southern provinces, there are only 27,000 to 28,000 officials in the five provinces of North China.
This is the case with all officials. There are a large number of clerks who are responsible for specific work. In this major inspection, more people were caught...
In addition to the overall corruption of officials that made him feel chilled, the overly enthusiastic work of the new scholars was also a bit uncomfortable for him as the actual ruler of the country - anti-corruption is right, but it would be bad if the anti-corruption campaign shook the officialdom across the country.
In addition, he also underestimated the country's mobilization capabilities at that time: among the 20 million disaster victims, local governments only mobilized more than 2 million, which was half of his estimate of 4 to 5 million.
He also overestimated the engineering technology of this era: although he now sets the lowest rural road standards in the 21st century, the construction progress of various roads is still far below his expectations.
He also found that he had underestimated the shamelessness and incompetence of the Zhu family's princes: at the royal family meeting in April this year, he made the cement production technology available to more than a dozen princes free of charge, and promised that the roads built by these princes could continue to charge tolls for ten years.
As a result, these guys actually built cement factories after acquiring the technology, and several princes' new factories have even started producing cement. However, except for the King of Shu who started to build roads, the others all directly resold cement to the court - making quick money is much more comfortable than building roads by yourself!
You said you were making quick money, forget it. After all, the imperial court is currently building seven highways at the same time, and the cement is of very poor quality. But the cement produced by these guys is of such quality...
In short, the disaster relief this year was considered remarkable by many officials in the imperial court: not to mention that only a few people died, but the fact that more than two million migrant workers gathered on dozens of large construction sites and the overall order was still good was remarkable. Where did the demise of the Yuan Dynasty begin? Wasn't it because the state organized millions of migrant workers to build the Yellow River waterway? From the Xia Dynasty to the present, which country is not afraid of too much concentration of people?
However, from the perspective of the time traveler, there are problems everywhere, and he is dissatisfied with everything, which makes him feel completely overwhelmed.
I have so many things to do! After the contents of the bamboo slips from the Yinqueshan Han Tomb were published in the six major newspapers, the whole country had already started to re-learn, understand and study the various schools of thought of the pre-Qin period. However, the locust plague that swept across northern China swallowed up the waves that had just been set off.
In human history, since the collapse of the Roman Empire, Eastern civilization has always been ahead of the West before the 15th century. From the 15th to the 17th century, the West was catching up. During these hundreds of years, Eastern and Western civilizations each had their own characteristics and advantages, with little or no gap.
Since the 18th century, it has become an indisputable fact that the West has been ahead of the East.
There are three things that cannot be ignored that led to such rapid development of the West from the 15th to the 17th century: the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Age of Discovery.
The first two liberated the mind and promoted the progress of science and technology. The latter opened up the market, which in turn liberated the mind again and put forward higher requirements for science and technology - in this way, the Industrial Revolution came naturally!
As a time traveler, he can climb the technology tree alone and start the industrial revolution directly - however, if a country is not prepared ideologically and economically and starts the industrial revolution directly, then the country may not collapse, but the huge social turmoil caused by it is definitely inevitable.
Therefore, in Zhu Youdong's plan, various scientific research headed by steam engines must be done, but the ideological emancipation and reconstruction of the entire nation must be prepared before the start of the country's industrial revolution - the six major newspapers are the first step, and then by launching a wave of re-learning the various schools of thought and finally defeating the Yanshenggong line, the Ming Dynasty's own Renaissance will be completely completed.
Originally, Zhu Youdong had been laying out these things in an orderly manner, and it was almost time to close the net. As a result, such a large locust plague came! And in the process of disaster relief, Zhu Youdong also discovered that there were more problems in this country...
So His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is tired, anxious, and overwhelmed at this moment.
However, God did not love Zhu Youdong alone. It seemed that he did not have enough troubles. In addition to the disasters at home, he also had to deal with foreign affairs.
Just as Zhu Youdong was about to say something to his ministers, there was a hurried knock on the door of the conference room.
The State Council meeting system has been established for many years, and the guards outside the door are very familiar with the rules. Under such circumstances, how can they knock on the door so hastily?
Sure enough, after getting Zhu Youdong's permission, the door opened. A messenger with three red flags on his back ran in breathlessly: "Your Highness, superiors, an urgent report from Yunnan, this September, Siam invaded Burma on a large scale , Burma was defeated, and the main force was lost! Burma Xuanwei Division asked for help from the Ming Dynasty!"
