Chapter 205: Not short of money but short of food, Zhu Yuanzhang suffered from insomnia! ! (Please subscribe!!) what? !
Is this the sun coming out in the west? Your Majesty was not angry or exposed, but agreed with what Lu Chang said!
This is incredible.
Just when the civil and military officials were still confused, he said again: "Okay, the matter of Beizhili has been discussed for a long time. This matter is over. From now on, whether you use my method to deal with businessmen or Ouyang I don’t think there’s any problem with Lun’s method of dealing with businessmen, but the first thing you have to do is refuse the temptation given to you by businessmen!”
"If I find out in the future that any of you dare to collude with businessmen and harm the people, I will never forgive you!!"
"Follow His Majesty's will!"
Civil and military officials shouted in unison.
"Yes." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded with some satisfaction.
Although what Zhu Yuanzhang said was true, in fact, he wanted to give Ouyang Lun a blow in his heart, and even wanted to insert a few holes in Ouyang Lun's body with a knife. How could he think that Ouyang Lun was better than him? This was just nonsense. It's just an act of patience.
Because this is the least damaging way Zhu Yuanzhang can think of.
After all, if we really want to fight to the end, we must first kill the old guy Lu Chang, and then we must attack Ouyang Lun. It is easy to kill Lu Chang, but it is difficult to attack Ouyang Lun. At that time, it will definitely cause a chain reaction. The Northern Territory of the Ming Dynasty will become unstable in an instant. Will Beiyuan take the opportunity to take action? Besides, Ouyang Lun is now presiding over the construction of the new Great Wall, and his reputation is at its peak. If Ouyang Lun is killed at this time, the saliva of millions of people in Guangbei Zhili can drown him, Zhu Yuanzhang!
In addition, who has a better way of dealing with businessmen is completely incomparable with whether to abolish the prime minister system.
If the prime minister system is not abolished, what will be affected is the death in Zhu Yuanzhang's hands. But admitting that Ouyang Lun is better than him, Zhu Yuanzhang, will at most bring a little loss of face. Zhu Yuanzhang has even been a beggar, is he afraid of losing this face?
Zhu Yuanzhang thought he could clearly distinguish between the importance of imperial power and face.
It was precisely after thinking about these joints that Zhu Yuanzhang stopped being angry and laughed, and he became much more relaxed.
All civil and military officials saw that Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to be telling the truth. Although they were shocked, they slowly accepted the result.
In any case, Zhu Yuanzhang did not become furious, which is something to be thankful for.
With Zhu Yuanzhang's explanation, the atmosphere in the court became more relaxed.
"Your Majesty, I have an instruction book!"
Guo Zi, the Minister of Household Affairs, stood up and said.
"Guo Aiqing, tell me what's wrong with you. Are you saying that the treasury is empty? When you allocated 500 million taels of silver to Beizhili, you promised me that the court would never be short of money in the future. ." Zhu Yuanzhang said.
"Your Majesty, there are currently 800 million taels of silver in the national treasury. Although it is much less than the more than 2000 million taels before, it is still considered rich. We are not short of money." Guo Zi replied.
"There is no shortage of money, haha, I love hearing this! As long as there is no shortage of money, life will be easy!" Zhu Yuanzhang had a smile on his face.
"But we are short of food." Guo Zi's confidence was a bit weak.
"Huh!?" Zhu Yuanzhang's face froze, his smile faded, and he said quickly: "Since we are not short of money or food, then use the money to buy food!!"
"Do you still need me to teach you this?"
Guo Zi said helplessly: "Your Majesty, if only Guangdong Province is short of food, then we can go to Fujian Province, Beizhili and other other provinces to buy and distribute it, but now the entire Ming Dynasty is short of food!"
"Why is this like this? Although there have been several droughts in the Ming Dynasty in the past two years, and there has been an epidemic in Guangdong, isn't Beizhili rich in food? If there is no food, go to Beizhili!" Zhu Yuanzhang said solemnly.
Zhu Yuanzhang had a deep feeling about starvation. Many times a bowl of gruel can save a person!
One of his greatest wishes as emperor was to ensure that people all over the world had enough to eat.
Guo Zi continued: "Your Majesty, I am planning to report to you that natural disasters and epidemics have occurred one after another in the past two years. Not to mention the food harvest, many original acres of land have been abandoned. Except for Beizhili, all other provinces have Grain output has been declining almost every year, and most of the taxes put into the treasury are money paid, with grain accounting for a small proportion. Originally, Beizhili, a major grain-producing province, supplies the whole country, and the Ming Dynasty's overall grain supply is enough."
"However, since Beizhili is building a new Great Wall, almost 200 million craftsmen have been recruited. The daily consumption of one of these workers can be compared to the consumption of three normal people. The daily consumption of these 200 million craftsmen will be astronomical figures!"
"Official documents have been submitted from Beizhili. At present, the food produced in Beizhili can only be consumed internally by Beizhili and can no longer be provided to the whole country. The government needs to find a solution for the food gap. This situation will continue until at least next year. And if there are other major projects to be built in Beizhili in the future, I am afraid that the food shortage will continue!"
Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang frowned deeply.
In fact, the Ming Dynasty was short of food. This situation has existed for a long time. However, under the leadership of Ouyang Lun, North Zhili has rapidly emerged. The food produced by North Zhili can not only be supplied to the province, but also through the 'Zhonghua Grain Industry' and other Grain merchants supply the whole country and stabilize grain prices, completely covering up this problem.
Even Zhu Yuanzhang once believed that the Ming Dynasty's food shortage had become history! The major project of building the new Great Wall was to reopen the problem. Only then did Zhu Yuanzhang realize that the problem of food shortage in the Ming Dynasty had never been solved, and because of the cover-up by Beizhili, the situation in other provinces became worse. more serious.
The food problem must be solved!
Zhu Yuanzhang was very anxious in his heart, but there was no solution in his mind.
"My dear friends, do you have any good ideas?"
Zhu Yuanzhang asked in a deep voice.
Zhu Yuanzhang's words echoed in the Tai Chi Hall, but all the civil and military officials lowered their heads one by one.
Just kidding, the food problem has been a problem since ancient times. If this problem could be solved so easily, there would not be so many changes of dynasties, and it would be difficult for you, Zhu Yuanzhang, to have the chance to become emperor.
Why attach great importance to agriculture, actively reclaim wasteland, and reduce taxes? These are common policies that the court has been doing all the time. And who has the nerve to talk about these policies again? There is no foolproof and effective way, it is better not to speak! Seeing all the civil and military officials being silent, Zhu Yuanzhang was quite speechless. He lost his temper when the critical moment came. You guys are worse than Ouyang Lun!
Wait, why did I think of Ouyang Lun?
No matter how powerful Ouyang Lun is, he can't solve the food problem now. Being able to run Beizhili into the northern granary is probably the limit of his ability, unless I hand over the entire world to Ouyang Lun. Humph. Then It would be better for me to just give up the position of emperor to Ouyang Lun.
After some muttering, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes fell on Li Shanchang, "Li Shanchang, do you have any good ideas?"
"Ahem, Your Majesty is now the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Growing grain is not within the scope of my responsibilities!"
"There is really nothing I can do!"
Old slick! "Lu Chang, what about you?" Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Lu Chang again.
"what?"
At this moment, Lu Chang was still immersed in the fear of having just angered Zhu Yuanzhang. When Zhu Yuanzhang asked this question, he was so frightened that his legs almost weakened and he knelt down again. Fortunately, Wu Jingzhi on the side supported him in time.
"Master Lu, the Ming Dynasty is short of food. Your Majesty asks you what to do?"
"Your Majesty, I don't know how to grow food!"
"Have a good rest!" Zhu Yuanzhang said angrily.
He was really afraid that if he asked any more questions, Lu Chang would be frightened to death, and the history books didn't know how to record him.
Next, Zhu Yuanzhang named several ministers in succession. These ministers either shook their heads or talked a lot of nonsense, without any practical solution.
"That's it for today. You all should think about it carefully when you go down. If anyone can come up with a good way to increase food, I will reward you greatly!" After saying that, Zhu Yuanzhang waved his sleeves and left angrily.
After watching Zhu Yuanzhang leave, all the officials also dispersed one after another.
"Your Majesty is really strange today, and his mood is very unstable."
"I originally thought that His Majesty would be furious today, but in the end he just let it go. This is not like His Majesty's style!"
"What do you know? His Majesty is wise and mighty, and he is the Emperor. How can His Majesty's thoughts be guessed by us ministers?" Li Shanchang came over and said.
"Elder Li!"
"Hello Mr. Li!"
Li Shanchang's prestige among officials was very high. When they saw it was Li Shanchang, they all saluted and smiled.
"Master Li, now our Ming Dynasty is short of food, what should we do?" Song Lian, the Minister of Rites, caught up and asked.
Li Shanchang frowned and sighed, "Master Song, why don't I want to share your worries for Your Majesty, but food is completely dependent on the sky. In the past two days, there has been either drought or insect infestation, and it has not stopped at all."
"The available methods have been used a long time ago, but food production just cannot increase. Food has been a problem in all dynasties."
At this time, a rather young official said: "If there was that kind of grain that could double the output, wouldn't all the problems be solved?"
As soon as these words came out, the surrounding officials laughed.
"This idea of yours may only come true in a dream."
"It would be great if the food production doesn't decrease these days, but you still want to double it!"
"It's probably going to take a god coming to this world."
Li Shanchang scolded: "Instead of dreaming about unrealistic spring and autumn dreams here, it is better to go home and think about whether there is a good way to increase food production!"
"Yes Yes!"
"That's what Mr. Li taught me."
"I'm waiting to take my leave."
The officials hurried away.
Only Song Lian, the Minister of Civil Affairs, sighed: "Hey, it seems that this food problem cannot be solved by human power! Why don't I write to your Majesty to hold a grand sacrificial ceremony to plead with God?"
Li Shanchang nodded helplessly, "Maybe this is the most reliable way."
Because of the food problem.
Zhu Yuanzhang was so worried that he couldn't eat or sleep well!
I couldn't sleep most of the night, so I simply got up to deal with the memorial.
Wang Zhong added some oil to the lamps in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. After doing this, he came to Long Ben and said, "Your Majesty, it's already the second watch. Why don't you go and rest."
Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand, "I can't sleep!"
"Repairing the Great Wall is a good thing, but I never thought that it would cause people in other provinces of the Ming Dynasty to go hungry!"
"If this matter is not resolved in time, the people will cause trouble."
Wang Zhong comforted and said: "Your Majesty cares about the people. This is something everyone in the world knows. I believe the people will understand."
"It's so easy. When I was a common people, even if the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty allowed me to have a full meal, I couldn't resist him!" Zhu Yuanzhang said solemnly: "The emperor is as big as the heaven and the earth, and there is no way to eat it. Da, when it comes to the time when we really don’t have enough to eat, let alone me as the emperor, even if I, the King of Heaven, come, it won’t be of any use.”
Wang Zhong: "I don't know much about this, but I heard that Your Majesty once praised Beizhili's farming methods. The grain output in Beizhili has increased year by year because of Ouyang's method. Why don't Your Majesty bring Beizhili farming methods into full use?" Promote it in a subordinate way?"
Zhu Yuanzhang smiled bitterly and said, "You are talking about the contracting system. This method is indeed good, but the interests involved are too many and too wide. It is a powerful medicine like arsenic. If this method is used at this time, it will be successful. If it fails, the foundation of the country will be shaken, and then it will not only be the common people who will cause trouble, but also the landlords and gentry."
"You don't understand why I'm telling you this."
At this time, a eunuch came in and reported, "Your Majesty, the commander of the Imperial Guards, Jiang Ying, is asking for an audience."
"Why is he here so late? Missing!" Zhu Yuanzhang was very dissatisfied with Jin Yiwei's recent performance. Although Jin Yiwei had paid a lot of money, his business capabilities were getting increasingly stretched. Beizhili and Beiyuan The intelligence collection work has not made much progress.
Naturally, he was dissatisfied with Jiang Wei, the leader of the Jinyi Guards.
"Your Majesty, I heard that Ji Gang seems to have returned from Beizhili. Is it possible that Commander Chiang brought Ji Gang to report on his duties? Maybe he can know the latest situation in Beizhili."
Wang Zhong's words instantly fell into Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.
"Did Jiang Yu come alone, or was there someone else?"
"Your Majesty, in addition to Commander Jiang, there is also a man wearing a brocade uniform to guard the envoy."
You should just use Ji Gang.
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded immediately, "Let the two of them come in."
"Yes!"
After a while, Jiang Yu brought the tired Ji Gang to the front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
During this period of time, the Jin Yiwei were not doing their job well, which made His Majesty the Emperor very dissatisfied with their Jin Yiwei. Jiang Gu knew this very well. Originally, as the commander of the Jin Yiwei, he could freely enter and leave the Hall of Supreme Harmony, but now this right has been taken away, which is somewhat embarrassing.
Fortunately, Ji Gang lived up to his expectations and brought back a lot of useful information, hoping to improve His Majesty's attitude toward the Imperial Guards. Therefore, after Ji Gang dared to come back, he immediately brought Ji Gang to meet with His Majesty the Emperor.
"Your Majesty, Jiang Yu (Ji Gang), pays homage to your Majesty."
"Well, get up."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Jiang Yu and Ji Gang stood up.
"Ji Gang, tell His Majesty what you saw and heard in Beizhili during this period, and what you heard about!"
"Yes!"
(End of this chapter)