Chapter 10: Hiding the Beautiful Little One in the Golden House (Three)

Any reform has to pay a price, sacrificing the interests of some people, even blood and life, which is inevitable. Although Zhang Juzheng's reform was very good, he also sacrificed the interests of some officials, gentry, landlords, and reversed the difficult situation of the annual fiscal deficit of the court at that time. However, his reform was not thorough, and he himself represented a certain interest class. Coupled with the limitations of history, as a generation of power ministers, he had monopolized power, and there must be a large group of suitors of vested interests. He could not reform the interests of these people, and he himself represented the officials, gentry class.

Therefore, his reforms were not thorough and could not be maintained. Although the top-down reformers supported by the emperor did not end up in the end. Shang Yang and Wang Anshi were just like this. It was not easy to see the result of their reforms. Their endings were all bleak. Only the reforms led by the emperor could be realized. Only when standing at the highest point of power could success. King Wuling of Zhao succeeded in Hufu and casing, because he was a powerful person in Zhao State. In the country he ruled, no one had more power than him. So he succeeded and left his reputation for eternity.

Looking at China's history, if any major socio-economic change is not involved and dominated by the emperor, and firm will, the possibility of success is extremely small.

Sima Guang's purpose of writing "Zizhi Tongjian" was to let future generations learn from history. It is based on this point and based on Zhu Yinglong's understanding of history that he had the confidence to choose this extremely difficult path.

Since the abolition of the six ministries in Nanjing, the power center of the entire Ming Dynasty has been moved to Beijing. Some officials who were laid off and merged into Beijing have been delegated to local officials, and some have been transferred to newly formed yamen. The officialdom in the capital has been constantly changing throughout the first half of the year. Today I heard that a yamen was laid off by the court, and tomorrow I heard that the court has established a new yamen. Every day, emerging things appear, which makes the people in Beijing feel a little dazzled. The sales of the Beijing Weekly have soared, and various news has been constantly appearing on it. The simplest advertisements have appeared. An emerging industry is constantly urging production and is slowly changing the lives of the Beijing people.

The streets of Beijing are also constantly changing. The first traffic regulations of the Ming Dynasty were formulated by the Wucheng Patrol and Defense Yamen, the first traffic regulations of the Ming Dynasty: "Road Law Commentary", which were submitted to the cabinet for approval and were first implemented in Beijing. The "Road Law Commentary" first stipulates the behavioral norms of "walking on the right", and gives some simple traffic signs, and changes the Wucheng Patrol and Defense Yamen to the Wucheng Traffic Patrol and Defense Yamen.

The sanitation and transportation of a city can best represent the image of a city. For the capital of a great country, Zhu Yinglong naturally spared no effort to change the dirty and messy habits of the Chinese people. Under Zhu Yinglong's instruction, the Imperial Hospital collectively submitted a "Tentative Draft of Health Management in the Ming Dynasty". After discussion in the cabinet, and after review by Zhu Yinglong's pen, it was announced to the world and guided the implementation.

Time is like fine sand passing through the gaps in the fingers. Soon, half a year of busy time passed. This half year is Zhu Yinglong's busiest half year, because in this half year, the imperial court had more than 100 legislation alone. Of course, many laws cannot be implemented in an instant. This is not just a matter of the quality of the people, but more of them are many advanced clauses. When it is really used, it may take decades or even longer.

Zhu Yinglong focused on government and military affairs, and could not help but be a little neglected to the harem. Therefore, all the girls in the harem were a little dissatisfied. However, because he was not too partial to one, he was still calm and there was no jealousy or internal fighting. This made him feel a little guilty and comforted.

"Emperor, Lord Hong Chengchou sent someone to offer you a fast horse, a total of twenty baskets of lychees. The servants have to use ice cubes to ice. Do you want to taste it? Are the concubines of each palace..."

"Who asked him to give me these things to me and regard me as Emperor Minghuang of Tang!" Zhu Yinglong said angrily and amused.

"This..." Xu Yingyuan had already figured out Zhu Yinglong's temper and secretly glanced at the playful smile on Zhu Yinglong's face, knowing that the emperor was not really angry.

"Send it, give it to you." Zhu Yinglong shook his hand and said, "Send it to you. Several imperial concubines and several princes in Beijing, and several cabinet masters also give it to you. You can do the rest."

Hong Chengchou was doing a prosperous life in Fujian. After accepting the fleet of the Zheng family in Fujian, he, as the naval minister, suddenly became rich. Long before entering Fujian, he submitted a memorial to Zhu Yinglong in detail, explaining in detail that the Ming Empire's vast waters were so difficult for a fleet to take on such a heavy coastal defense task. Therefore, he strongly suggested that he add another fleet, and even he had already thought about the port where the fleet was stationed. However, at that time, he felt that the time to set up another fleet was not ripe, and the court did not have the ability to build two fleets at the same time in finance, so Hong Chengchou's memorial was suppressed.

However, Hong Chengchou was smart. No one dared to deduct his memorials from the Military Machine Pavilion. The only way to deduct his memorials was the emperor himself. There was neither a reply nor any news. What does this mean? The emperor did not want to set up another fleet. One reason was that the emperor was undecisive about his memorials. Second, the emperor believed that the time to establish the second fleet was not yet ripe, or that the court had no money. Of course, if it was an indecisive monarch, the first possibility was relatively high, and he thought that the current emperor was definitely a ruthless lord, the reason could only be the latter. Therefore, he did not continue to submit memorials to question. Instead, he presented some local Fujian water and vegetables to Zhu Yinglong every once in a while, and every time he asked the post office to send memorials to Beijing to transfer them to the palace. The censor could not pick up any stings.

Zhu Yinglong also scolded the memorial several times, but Hong Chengchou still did his own thing, and in the end he didn't care. He would just take it as soon as he gave it to him. There weren't many things anyway. For example, this time, there were twenty baskets of lychees delivered at one time. This was the first time that he used the Eight Hundred Li Kuaiyi. As far as he knew, it would be very expensive to go from Fujian to Beijing. What exactly did he want to do at such a big cost?

The first thought that appeared in Zhu Yinglong's mind was that Hong Chengchou's memorial might have followed him. What would be written on his memorial this time?

Sure enough, the next day, Hong Chengchou submitted a memorial from Fujian Kuaima to his imperial case.

He gently tapped the hard seal on the front of the memorial. Zhu Yinglong was now afraid of seeing Hong Chengchou's memorial because he felt that this memorial would definitely give him a huge surprise. He could not tell what it was.

"Xu Yingyuan, have you seen this memorial by several masters of the Military Machine Pavilion?" After a moment of contemplation, Zhu Yinglong raised his head and stood up on the right side, asking Xu Yingyuan.

"Report to the emperor, this is a secret copy of Lord Hong Chengchou. According to the rules, the military masters of the military machinery pavilion do not have the power to read it."

"Oh, yes, it's a secret copy!" Zhu Yinglong found that he was a little unfocused and actually forgot that this was a secret copy, which he took out from the secret box just now.

“Is lychee delicious?”

"Back to the emperor, it's delicious, every grain is as big as longan and as sweet as honey. The empresses praised Lord Hong for being kind."

"Yes, he is quite considerate, but he has used all his thoughts here!" Zhu Yinglong said a little angrily, letting him eat his filial piety first, it is difficult to refute his memorials. When did Hong Chengchou learn this twists and turns in the officialdom, he also used it on himself.

"The emperor calms down. Lord Hong is also loyal to the emperor, so..."

"Hmph!" Xu Yingyuan didn't say this, but when he said this, Zhu Yinglong's heart became even more angry and said angrily: "You have eaten someone's soft-mouthed mouth. You have never seen this Lord Hong for a few faces. Just a few lychees can make you speak for him. It seems that I am too relaxed to you!"

"I deserve to die, please forgive me!" Xu Yingyuan was immediately scared and sweated in a cold sweat. He quickly knelt down and said nervously.

"Go to Wang Chengen to get twenty boards!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Xu Yingyuan hurriedly retreated while wiping his sweat.

After Zhu Yinglong read Hong Chengchou's secret letter, his head became bigger. He actually asked the imperial court to send troops to Xiao Liuqiu (Taiwan) to expel the Spaniards and Dutch people on Xiao Liuqiu by force. In fact, there was only one goal, to add a fleet, and maybe this Hong Caizi had already prepared almost, and he was waiting for his will.

Should we set up a second fleet now, and should we use force to drive the Dutch and Spaniards on Xiao Liuqiu into the sea? These are two huge problems facing Zhu Yinglong.

It is undeniable that the Ming Dynasty's maritime power has absolutely the ability to recover Xiao Liuqiu, and it is also capable of maintaining a certain degree of maritime territory integrity. However, from an economic and political perspective, maintaining the status quo is more powerful for the Ming Dynasty. After the trade between the court and Europe passed the Japan transit station, it has made huge profits. Now the coastal ports have been repaired and put into use one after another. However, the Ming Dynasty has not had a direct additional relationship with European countries. Therefore, only a few ports in Guangzhou and Fujian allow navigation, but trade transactions are strictly controlled by the court, so the trade volume is not very large. Even if the control is liberalized now, it is impossible.

All of them were all released all at once, and domestic development requires a lot of money. Where did the money come from? The political situation that has just stabilized in China and the meager tax revenue cannot meet the needs at all. Therefore, it can only be discredited. Now that the dispute with the Dutch people of the "sea coachman" is equivalent to cutting off the business path in Europe. With the current naval capabilities of the Ming Dynasty, it is still acceptable to maintain its achievements but not to explore. Building a strong navy is by no means a matter of a day or a night. If the business path is cut off, it will not be able to earn money from Western colonists. Domestic finances will rarely be able to recover within a few years. There are also Jin people staring at them in the north, and many things will be forced to stop or postpone, which is unbearable for Zhu Yinglong.

Moreover, Zhu Yinglong deliberately left Hong Chengchou in Fujian for several years, and many people were staring at Hong Chengchou, but Hong Chengchou was too smart and couldn't understand it, and seemed a little impatient. Based on the above considerations and the needs of the country's basic policies and policies, Zhu Yinglong criticized the word "suspended" in Hong Chengchou's memorial, took a lychee core, and then ordered people to send it to the post office, and the officials of the department immediately sent it back to Fujian.

When Hong Chengchou received the memorial from the return a few days later, he opened it and looked at the unknown lychee core. He could only smile bitterly three times. In fact, he had already guessed that it was the result and sighed to Song Xiance: "The holy intention is really hard to predict!"

Song Xiance did not agree with this time. He advised him not to write this secret copy before Hong Chengchou wrote the secret copy to Beijing, but Hong Chengchou did not listen and wrote it. He smiled and replied, "Governor General, do you still understand?"

"What do you understand?" Hong Chengchou didn't know what puzzle Song Xiance was slapping him. He looked a little surprised and asked back.

"Why did the Lord send you to Fujian? There is also this lychee core. Do you really don't understand?" The weather was hot, and Song Xiance opened his official uniform with a palm-leaf fan and smiled indecently.

"Ah, Lord Song, what do you mean? And you mean that the Emperor asked me to do this..." Hong Chengchou was instantly enlightened, as if he suddenly saw a shining meteor in the dark night sky, illuminating the direction he was moving forward.

However, Hong Chengchou quickly became depressed and said frustrated: "I am afraid I will stay here for three or five years, hey!"

Song Xiance had no expression on his face, but just smiled indifferently and said nothing. There were only too many things that could be understood and could not be expressed in words.

In fact, Hong Chengchou should be glad that Zhu Yinglong still received his affection, otherwise he would have been severely scolded by Zhu Yinglong for a long time with his memorial. He would not have just sent him a lychee core for him to understand it himself.

Of course, Hong Chengchou can still understand it based on his political awareness, but his mind was hot for a moment, and he was in the situation, so Song Xiance gave a tip and realized it suddenly.

Without mentioning that Hong Chengchou finally settled down in Fujian to perform his duties. After Xiong Tingbi arrived in Shaanxi, after half a year of hard work, he laid off the old and weak and carried out military camps. In this way, he laid off half of the troops on the three sides, and then selected young and strong. Since the three sides were bitter and cold places, and with the sparse population in Shaanxi, Ningxia and Lanzhou, he finally got him to raise about 100,000 troops and horses, and organized according to the organization of the new army in the capital. Finally, he was reorganized into three group armies, twenty brigades plus one direct teaching brigade, a total of twenty brigades.

This is actually a process of streamlining government. After the reorganization, the strength of the three sides increased instead of decline, and its command became more flexible, becoming a powerful shield in the northwest. Xiong Tingbi lost a whole circle because of this, while Lu Xiangsheng was transferred to the Three Side Army during the reorganization process and served as the supreme commander of the First Army of the Three Side Army.
Chapter completed!