Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

August 22nd, everything is suitable.

Zhu Di left the eldest prince Zhu Gaochi, Dao Yan, and Qi Duke Qiu Fu to guard Nanjing.

Appointed Zuo Dudu, Duke of Chengguo, Zhu Neng, to command the army. He led Chengyang Marquis Zhang Wu, Tong'an Marquis Huoli Huozhen, Jing'an Marquis Wang Zhong, Anping Marquis Li Yuan, Sien Marquis Fangkuan and other troops, with a total of 50,000 infantry and cavalry troops. Seven thousand people, auxiliary soldiers and civilians only recruited a total of 32,000 people because the supply line was extremely short.

The army came out from the Shence Gate and Jinchuan Gate on the north side of Nanjing City, and the Taiping Gate and Chaoyang Gate on the east side of Nanjing City. Some soldiers and horses went eastward by boat along the river.

Because Zhu Di crossed the river and proclaimed himself emperor at the Jinchuan Gate, the Jiangnan region was left alone. Therefore, since Zhu Di ascended the throne, his invincible Yan army cavalry has not actually set foot in the core areas of Jiangnan such as Susong, Jiahu and so on.

Upstairs in Shence Gate Dysprosium, several green-robed officials from the cabinet were gathering to watch the army leave the city.

Forests of spears and spears cover the sky, and flags cover the sky. The cold armor shines coldly under the scorching sun; the armor is mottled with bloodstains that cannot be washed away, reflecting a heart-stopping light in the sun.

Such a majestic and murderous army made the civil servants who stood at the top of the city and watched with fear. Even those who claimed to be accustomed to the world were secretly beating their hearts.

There are seven people in the cabinet, including Xie Jin, Huang Huai, Yang Shiqi, Hu Guang, Jin Youzi, Yang Rong and Hu Yan.

Except for Jin Youzi who was accompanying him, the remaining six people were here.

In fact, in terms of positions, except for Hu Guang, who did not take sides, and Jin Youzi, who was determined to be a solitary minister, the remaining five people's positions were all in favor of the eldest prince Zhu Gaochi. It was just a matter of degree.

But this is external. Once these brightest young talents from the Ming Dynasty gather together, their respective positions will become even more interesting.

Of course, now that the emperor's decision has been made, no one dares to say that it is not good to work as a slave in front of his competing colleagues, so they can only discuss it sideways without leaving any excuses.

As the person with the highest status in the cabinet, Xie Jin was the first to speak. He looked at the horizon and recited a Tang poem: "The rosy sword on my back is shining on the frost, and the autumn wind is riding out of Xianyang. I have not taken back the emperor's land in Hehuang, and I don't want to look back at my hometown." "

After chanting, Jie Jin started the conversation, and looked at Hu Yan, who was mature, steady, and slightly honest. Hu Yan was recommended by him. This person has a standard Confucian style, and everything he says and does is well-behaved.

"Little virtues flow, and great virtues turn into Dungeons. This is why the world is so great." Hu Yan had to say a few words because of Xie Jin's face, but he refused to go into details. He just borrowed a sentence from "The Doctrine of the Mean" , expressing his attitude paradoxically.

The wallflower Hu Guang would not fall to any side until everything was settled, so he stood at the end, shrinking his neck and trying to hide himself and reduce his sense of presence.

"That's not the truth. Virtue cannot promote political decrees." Huang Huai and Xie Jin have similar seniority. Since it was his turn to speak, he naturally spoke to Hu Yan at this time, "It is a national event to share the labors and enter the land. We have to use the force of soldiers and armor." It can’t be pushed.”

As soon as the topic started, Yang Shiqi, who was slightly less qualified than Jie Jin and Huang Huai, naturally didn't have too many worries.

"It is not difficult to see what His Majesty means from the uncles who are leading the army."

"Oh?" Hu Yan was curious about what Yang Shiqi meant.

There are only two people who know the military in the cabinet. One is Jin Youzi, a typical tactical consultant with invincible micromanipulation, and a role similar to that of Fazheng of the Shu Han Dynasty. The other is Yang Rong, who is not good at giving advice on the battlefield, but is better at planning and logistics matters such as farming, border defense, food and wages, and is a bit like a low-end version of Zhuge Wuhou.

Yang Shiqi looked at Yang Rong and said, "Brother Mian Ren, can you please explain?"

Yang Rong, who was keeping warm with Yang Shiqi's newspaper group, softened his stern face when he listened to Xie Jin's speech, and immediately took over the words: "There is no need to say more, Zhu Neng, Duke of Chengguo, will definitely be an honorable minister in the future."

Everyone nodded. Zhu Neng was only thirty-two years old now, but he followed Zhu Di from Zhengmobei to Jingnan and fought all the way. He was very talented. When Zhu Di led his troops to retreat, it was Zhu Neng and Zhang Yu who commanded the Yan army. .

In the Battle of Jingnan, Zhu Neng defeated Geng Bingwen and Li Jinglong in succession, and captured Ping'an and other famous generals of the Southern Army during the decisive battle of Lingbi. He was the second-largest figure among the Jingnan officials after veteran Qiu Fu.

If nothing else goes wrong, in the future Zhu Neng will definitely become the white jade pillar of the Ming Dynasty and the purple golden beam of the sea.

Yang Rongfu added: "As for the two marquises, Chengyang Hou Zhangwu was originally the Yanshan Right Guard Baihu, and Tong'an Hou Huolihuozhen was a Tartar official, and was originally the Yanshan Central Guard Qianhu. They are all fierce generals under His Majesty's command, and are known for their bravery and open-mindedness."

"Wang Zhong, the Marquis of Jing'an, used his elite cavalry as a surprise force in every battle. Li Yuan, the Marquis of Anping, was good at using disguised troops to set up ambushes. These two men surrendered during the Battle of Weizhou. Fangkuan, the Marquis of Sien, is the only representative figure of the Daning faction. , The soldiers are very mature.”

At this point, Yang Rong stopped talking, and several smart people in the cabinet understood what he meant.

Zhu Di put a lot of thought into selecting generals.

As the head coach, Cheng Guogong Zhu Neng can dominate the field in terms of both ability and status. The two direct marquises dare to fight and charge, and the three equally tried-and-tested descendants have room to complement each other and display their strengths. .

"Then what is your Majesty doing?" Xie Jin suddenly asked.

"Do you want to see Jiangnan with your own eyes?"

Jin Youzi rode a mule with Zhu Di, followed by Ji Gang, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, Tong Xin, the commander of the Zhongyi Guard, and several old guards who had been with Zhu Di during the reign of King Yan.

Several people dressed up as pedestrians, this time Jin Youzi pretended to be the host, while Zhu Di and others pretended to be guards, and they did not stay away from the marching route of the army.

In fact, to be precise, he was surrounded by an army.

After leaving Nanjing, more than 50,000 troops marched by land and water, heading east along the Yangtze River, passing Zhenjiang Prefecture and Changzhou Prefecture. In just four or five days, they entered Suzhou Prefecture, Songjiang Prefecture, and Jiaxing Prefecture in the Taihu Lake Circle. Huzhou Prefecture, also known as Susong Jiahu Jiangnan Chongfu District.

And the army was divided into six groups with the five Hou Bo as generals. These six groups were like the mighty rivers of soldiers and horses. As they moved from east to south, they would also appear in every county, town, and township. , divided into smaller tributaries.

If seen from the sky, it really looks like a flowing river made up of people, penetrating into every capillary of the behemoth Susong Jiahu Mansion.

Within a radius of fifty miles around Zhu Di, thousands of loyal cavalrymen were scattered at varying distances, and they could arrive in an instant with a single blast.

Unlike the northern region, where the rule was firmly established, this place seemed extremely unfamiliar to Zhu Di. He had stayed in the north for so long that he didn't even remember that he had been to these places when he was a child.

In the same autumn, unlike the sky full of yellow sand in Saibei and the dyed maple forests in Peiping, the autumn in Jiangnan is long and soft. The air is mixed with the elegant fragrance of osmanthus, as if you are in a landscape painting.

"Everyone says Jiangnan is good, but tourists only like Jiangnan."

On the dirt road in Songjiang Prefecture, you can see the mooing buffaloes in the paddy fields on the roadside, the farmers who are barefoot making their last efforts, the children jumping around, and the women speaking Wu Nong’s soft language.

Zhu Di took the reins of the mule and sighed: "The wind in the south of the Yangtze River is warm, and it really wears off your energy after being exposed to it for a long time."

"Your Excellency, are you from Jiangbei?"

Zhu Di's voice was not lowered deliberately, and was listened to by several scholars coming from the same direction.

The scholars were all dressed like college students. Although they were all a little plain, their demeanor revealed an arrogance that only scholars could possess.

Zhu Di signaled to the guards not to be nervous and simply stopped the mules.

The young scholar who was riding in front of the donkey also stopped the donkey, handed over his hands, and asked in a questioning tone: "Since you have come to Jiangnan, you must have experienced the customs and customs of Jiangnan. "The warm wind makes tourists drunk, and they only refer to Hangzhou as Bianzhou." Using words and phrases to mean something is not the behavior of a polite person."

Several other students also chattered like little magpies, but there were no unpleasant words like country people. Their somewhat soft accents could not be heard as angry, they were just yin and yang weird quotes from classics.

Probably when he had reached the point where he had nothing to say, a scholar finally asked.

"Can I ask you your name?"

Another young scholar next to him answered: "If you knew the scenery and people in the south of the Yangtze River, you would not be as emotional as you are now! Scholars like us should read the books of sages sincerely, how can we criticize them casually?"

Zhu Di frowned slightly.

Jin Youzi, pretending to be the host, quickly stood in front and said with a smile: "I am coming to Jiangnan for the first time and I am not familiar with your place. I apologize for any offense I may have caused."

Jin Youzi was not afraid of these Jiangnan scholars, but he was worried that these young scholars would anger His Majesty the Emperor and cause unexpected disasters - after all, His Majesty the Emperor had a bad temper recently.

As Jin Youzi spoke, he stretched out his right hand to the side and made a "please" gesture, indicating to these young scholars to continue moving forward. If they met by chance on the road, they would just pass them by.

Hearing Jin Youzi's Jiangxi accent, the faces of the scholars brightened slightly. Jiangxi is also a place of culture. They must be scholars who came from Jiangxi to visit Jiangnan, so they nodded and wanted to continue moving forward.

Two groups of people passed by by mistake.

But one of the scholars glanced at it inadvertently and suddenly fell silent with fear.

"What's wrong with you?" His companion asked curiously when he saw him staying where he was.

"Mongolian!" He pointed with trembling fingers at Tong Xin wearing a hat.

"Mongol?!"

The other three people were also startled and looked over as he pointed.

Hidden in Jin Youzi's team, they saw a man with a strong body, arms as long and agile as an ape, and bright eyes, looking towards them.

As for this man, there was a bulging thing wrapped in cloth placed diagonally on the saddle of his mule.

"They are really Mongolians!" the four people exclaimed in unison.

They are all local children and scholars from various prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River. Although they have not seen the toughness and savagery of the steppe barbarians like the older generation, the bad reputation of the Mongols in the south of the Yangtze River has been deeply rooted in their bones since they were young, following their grandmother's stories. The whole time was filled with fear, and the lower parts of the body could not help but tremble.

In particular, this Mongolian man looks so weird!

If Jiang Xinghuo were here, he might blurt out something.

——What a Durant!

Of course, as the world's number one marksman, Tong Xin had to have long, powerful arms and eyes like an eagle. It was this weird appearance that made him the first to be exposed in the crowd.

Jin Youzi saw that the situation was not good and hurriedly shouted: "Don't panic!"

After hearing this, the four people came to their senses and immediately shifted their attention to Jin Youzi in front of them.

At this time, they no longer cared about the insult and retreated back like frightened rabbits, as if they were facing a powerful enemy or a tiger's den.

"This is a descendant of the Mongols I hired in Quanzhou. They are no different from Han Chinese. They are not thieves. Don't be afraid."

Hearing this, the four soldiers were stunned for a moment, and then they breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that the other party did not mean any harm.

Jin Youzi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Although these Jiangnan scholars were scholars, they were still quite clear-headed, or rather easy to fool, and they did not let themselves down.

If they really scattered and fled, it was hard to say whether they would be shot one by one by Tong Xin.

After all, once they escape, Tong Xin and Ji Gang cannot guarantee whether these people pretended to be afraid of the Mongols because they recognized the emperor, so as to inform the opposition forces among the people.

They can't afford any eventuality.

"I am indeed a Mongolian, which shocks everyone." The silent Tong Xin spoke, speaking fluent Fengyang Mandarin.

After the scholars on the opposite side calmed down a little, the leader of them spoke to Tong Xin and said softly: "Everyone, relax, there have been many Mongolians in Quanzhou since the time of Shibosi. This time we came to Songjiang Prefecture, and we haven't seen them either. Many descendants of Mongolia? Have you forgotten that these days are the days of gatherings, and now that the war is in chaos, it is not uncommon for wealthy families to hire some tough Mongolian guards."

I don’t know if the leader believed what he said, but the three companions believed it anyway.

Everyone was stunned and relieved.

Yes, the person in front of me is a guard, just responsible for protecting the owner, so there is no need to be afraid.

They relaxed one after another and returned to their usual appearance.

"Since we are guards, it will be fine."

"Let's go do whatever we need to do!"

"let's go!"

After the few scholars finished their discussion, they went forward each other, but the speed of driving the donkey was somewhat crazy.

Ji Gang and others breathed a sigh of relief when they saw this, and cursed in their hearts. It turned out that they were just a bunch of people who were stupid because of reading, and they were fooled so quickly.

They gathered their thoughts and moved on.

After the students disappeared from the camera, Tong Xin raised his head and whistled, and a sea turtle in the sky spread its wings after hearing the sound.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid that these people are pretending. Do you want to?" Ji Gang made a gesture of cutting his throat.

"Need not."

Zhu Di was riding a mule slowly. Behind and to the left and behind them, three thousand horsemen from the Zhongyi Guard were scattered around in groups of a hundred households. There was no danger.

Zhu Di didn't seem to be in a hurry at all, and kept observing the customs and customs of Jiangnan along the way.

“Why don’t these farmers plow the land without buffaloes?”

Zhu Di stopped his mule again, looked at the farmers working on the terraces not far away, and asked questions.

I saw a fat and strong green buffalo wrapped in a layer of mud lying lazily on the edge of a field basking in the sun.

But the farmers, whole families of all ages, went into battle together. They all bent their waists and bowed their backs, sweating profusely under the scorching sun, working in knee-deep paddy fields.

The green cow gave a leisurely "moo" sound, as if it was the master.

Jin Youzi was speechless for a moment.

"You don't know either?" Zhu Di was a little surprised, "Or are their cows sick?"

"To answer your Majesty's question, Jiangxi is very mountainous, so there are many terraced fields, which are quite different from the large flat paddy fields like Susongjiahu in Jiangnan."

Jin Youzi tried his best to explain, and then under Zhu Di's eyes, he took some copper coins and walked to the paddy field to ask questions.

Zhu Di watched Jin Youzi lift up the hem of his robe, follow the ridge head, and walk along the field ridge with his boots one foot deep and one foot shallow to avoid the crops.

Jin Youzi chatted with the farmer for a while, then walked back along the original road along the field ridge.

Ignoring the mud on his feet, Jin Youzi explained to the emperor: "It's not that they don't want the buffalo, or that the buffalo is sick, but the crops here do grow in different shades, and the cattle make them rough, so people have to work one by one." Let’s get it done.”

Zhu Di nodded.

Jin Youzi planned to ride on the mule and continue moving forward, but Zhu Di suddenly asked.

"How much do they actually pay in taxes here?"

Jin Youzi said: "Today, the edict of Emperor Taizu Gao in the 21st year of Hongwu is still followed. The average level in the Ming Dynasty is half a dou of rice per mu of land, and in Songjiang Prefecture, it is about three dou of rice."

According to statistics in the 26th year of Hongwu's reign, the eight prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River (Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yingtian, Jiaxing, Huzhou, and Hangzhou, today's southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang) collected a total of 6.86 million shi of rice and wheat, accounting for the country's total tax revenue. 23.3%. Among the prefectures, Suzhou is the largest, and the tax and grain taxes paid by Suzhou alone are nearly one-tenth of the country's total.

The high tax system in the grain-producing areas south of the Yangtze River was due to both imperial power and realistic financial needs.

But no matter what, this theoretical value is still within the reach of landlords and farmers.

"What they told you was also three measures of rice?"

Jin Youzi nodded, Zhu Di breathed a sigh of relief and continued to move forward.

But this time, after walking about two miles, Zhu Di stopped again.

"what is that?"

In the distance, there was a wooden basin floating on the canal that diverted water for paddy fields. There seemed to be something in the basin.

"Could it be that Huan Sha Nu's basin has drifted away?" Jin Youzi speculated.

"no."

Tong Xin squinted his eyes and said with certainty: "There is a baby wrapped inside."

"Go and fish it out." Zhu Di said simply.

Tong Xin nodded, whipped the black mule under his crotch, and when he reached the ditch, he dismounted gracefully without even stopping. Then he jumped up to the edge of the ditch in three steps and two steps at a time. He fished it out with his long arm. He pulled the wooden basin slowly floating down the ditch.

When Tong Xin came back with the wooden basin, Zhu Di and others saw that it was a very cute little girl.