Chapter 296 Yueyue’s damaging move

In mid-July, the coffin of "Huizong" was carried to the imperial mausoleum in the eastern suburbs.

Prince Jing was deposed from the military power and was apparently demoted to the imperial mausoleum to guard the tomb of the late emperor. In fact, he was imprisoned in the dungeon of Dongchang.

Without the help of Prince Jing, Li Chi was like a tiger in Jiangnan with only his nails and teeth pulled out. He shivered in the palace all day, fearing that his third brother would remember him one day and attack him for any reason.

At this time, both Li Chi and Li Sheng had heard about the firecrackers in the hands of the father and son in the capital that could shoot 250 steps away and the super artillery with a range of more than 600 steps.

At first, they thought they were spies sent to the south by Lao San and his son, deliberately spreading false news to scare them. But as more and more Chen Jiajun fled back to their ancestral home, and more and more people told how terrifying the weapon was, they

I believed it seven points.

What finally made them completely believe it was that His Highness King Su sent his confidant General Cheng Hongda to drive two steam propeller armored warships built by Li Zhao without sails, oars and paddle wheels to show off his power along the coast of Zhejiang.

Each of these two ships was equipped with twenty rifled guns distributed on both sides of the hull.

He did nothing else but looked for merchant ships south of the Yangtze River and robbed them whenever he encountered them.

At the same time, a government order was issued prohibiting officials from signing road guides to the jurisdiction of Prince Shen's Palace.

In other words, the entire Jiangnan area is now only allowed to go out but not allowed to enter.

Even the people from Jiangnan Weaving who went to the capital to deliver Yun brocade to the new emperor who was about to ascend the throne were forced to stay in the north and could not go back!

Some quick-responsive businessmen in the Jiangnan area directly moved their families and people to other places, either south or north.

As for tea and silk, which are abundant in Jiangnan, the business can be done this year. As for next year and the year after, it is hard to say.

After Jiangnan, an economically developed and densely populated land of plenty and plenty, was "economically sanctioned" by the new emperor, there was a rare labor shortage, food prices began to soar, and famines even broke out in some areas.

This is not impossible. Today, the area of ​​grain cultivation in Jiangnan is not as large as people imagine. Jiangnan has been full of talents since ancient times. There are many talented people, and there are many people with fame. The more people with fame, the more gentry and aristocratic families.

The land owned by the gentry families has not been taxed for a long time, so the government has no control over what they grow.

The government doesn't care, so naturally they will grow whatever is more profitable.

As a result, there will be more people growing mulberry and tea, while fewer people will grow grain. In years when the harvest is not good, the Jiangnan region will even have to buy grain from other regions.

There has been little rain this year, and now we can’t buy food from other places. Will there be a famine?

As a result, population loss became more serious.

The local gentry family were very depressed. Everyone thought that Prince Shen was simply a plague god!

Prince Shen’s Mansion is also in trouble!

It is rare that Li Chi is not too old, and his hair is nearly half gray. The only thing he can rely on to save his life now is the 160,000 troops in his hand. But now that he has no money, the 160,000 troops are demoralized and there is no

A few of them are willing to sacrifice their lives for Prince Shen's Mansion!

After all, they are the army of the imperial court. Prince Shen is a prince, not an emperor! When the emperor fights with the prince, of course they obey the emperor's orders, otherwise wouldn't it be considered a rebellion?

It’s not like you can’t live anymore, who has nothing to do to rebel?

As a result, more than half of the commanders of the Twelve Branches of the Thirty-Four Guards and thousands of households under the command of Prince Shen submitted pledges of loyalty to Beijing. What was even more outrageous was that most of the officials in the Nanjing court also pledged their loyalty to Prince Su.

He wrote the Zhezi and expressed that he was an official of the imperial court and was willing to obey the orders of the imperial court. The prefects of Zhenjiang and Yangzhou even complained in the Zhezi how unkind and unjust King Shen was, forcing them to tax the people violently and so on.

With a lot of shit on his head, he asked King Su to order the arrest of King Shen and return him to the capital. In short, he tried every means to quickly send away the thorn in the side of the future new emperor.

Otherwise, the good life of Jiangnan will be ruined.

When King Su saw the zhezi from the south, he thought it was funny. He showed it to Li Zhao and asked him what he thought.

Li Zhao smiled and said: "Let them work on their own for a while. The squire families in Jiangnan should also take care of themselves. Such a good place can't collect much tax. Even the court is blind!"

The more afraid the deposed prince is, the more he has to collect taxes and raise troops in Yangzhou and Zhenjiang.

Some generals and soldiers who wanted to take advantage of the deposed prince's chaos and make a fortune turned into bandits and robbed everywhere in the name of collecting taxes.

It was a land of plenty and good weather, but it turned out to be a famine!

A large number of homesteaders and tenants in the two towns who could no longer survive fled Jiangnan.

King Su took his time and organized manpower to arrange settlement for the refugees who had escaped from Yangzhou and Zhenjiang.

The new arsenal needs to recruit people, and it would be a waste not to use so many skilled craftsmen in Jiangnan.

Almost all the blacksmiths reported to the arsenal. Guns and gunpowder had to be made. Several generations of emperors in the Zhou Dynasty dreamed of completely driving the Tatars out of the northern grasslands!

Craftsmen in the weaving industry settled nearby in the vicinity of Nanzhili, and the government organized the opening of new factories. After all, the Nanzhili area was a raw silk production area, and it would be inconvenient to open a silk weaving factory elsewhere.

As for the farmers, King Su planned to move them all to Xiaoliuqiu.

The so-called Xiaoliuqiu was the island of Taiwan in later generations. At this time, the Dutch had not yet arrived on the island. The land was fertile and the climate was pleasant, allowing two crops of rice to be grown a year.

King Su ordered Ou Shaofeng to settle in the western coastal area of ​​Xiaoliuqiu with those who were willing to go to Xiaoliuqiu to reclaim wasteland.

Although there are a small number of Dongfan natives and scattered Japanese pirates and pirates on the island, there are 20,000 Nanyang Navy troops stationed here with overwhelming combat power. They dare not come to the west coast, so everyone is safe.

The treatment for settling in Xiaoliuqiu is very generous. The rations for the first half year of settlement are completely donated by the court. The land is distributed free according to the number of people. There is no need to pay taxes for the first three years. If you want to buy cattle or farm tools, you can get a loan from the Royal Bank. You can choose

You can repay monthly, quarterly or annually. The repayment period can be three years, five years or eight years. The annual interest rates are 5%, 6% and 8% respectively.

Most people choose to repay quarterly over five years.

Of course, there are also some wealthy households who want to "money" out of Yangzhou and Zhenjiang. First, they are afraid that King Shen will come to exploit him if he is short of money. Second, they are afraid that King Su will really send his troops south and start a fight directly in Southern Zhili, so they clean up

They sold their belongings and moved to other places to settle down.

This made His Royal Highness Prince Su extremely happy, and he immediately asked Ning San and Guangning Marquis Liu Rong to lead troops from Tianjin and Dengzhou respectively to Yanzhou in southern Shandong.

The 70,000 garrison troops were surrounding Nanzhili, and they were armed with terrifying cannons. This frightened even more wealthy Jiangnan families to hold family meetings overnight to discuss selling their properties and escaping with their gold and silver.

If a fight breaks out and the army passes through, they may not be able to retain anything!

King Su immediately ordered Eunuch Yang, the current governor of the East Factory, to secretly go to Yangzhou and Zhenjiang to organize people to purchase the properties and houses sold by wealthy households at low prices.

While King Su sent people to buy real estate at low prices, he also "mercifully" released the female family members of Prince Shen's palace. The young masters went to Yangzhou to meet Prince Shen and Li Sheng, making the brotherhood beautiful.

Now that things have happened, he is no longer afraid of that person. Who asked the father to give birth to such an upright child as the fourth child?

Ask him to come to the funeral, and he actually comes!

Originally, according to Emperor Jingning's wishes, he wanted to be buried richly.

But because his eldest brother still had a throne edict in hand, King Su was so angry that he reduced the compensation collection by half. If the mausoleum had not been built long ago, he even wanted to reduce the size of his father's mausoleum by half.

He is simply a bad old man who wastes money and people!

~

In June, members of the royal family no longer wear linen and mourning, but their clothing should still be mainly plain colors.

Song Qingyue is still thinking about recruiting female students to the Medical College of Gynecology!

I kneel in the mourning hall every day, thinking about this in my mind.

After thinking about it for more than a month, she finally came up with a trick: She asked His Highness Prince Su to help post a royal list, saying that she had a hidden disease and wanted to be seen by a skilled medical woman. Anyone who could cure the disease would be rewarded a hundred taels!

When the time comes, people will come, circle them around, and force them to enroll in school!

King Su looked at his eldest daughter-in-law's innocent and well-behaved appearance, and laughed so hard that he almost lost his temper.

"Boss, wife, aren't you afraid that others will spread rumors about you?"

Song Qingyue snorted indifferently, what can you say to her?

It's just that she is infertile and anxious because she can't have a child.

What is she afraid of about this little bit of gossip?

As long as she can achieve her goal, she never cares about the process. Science students like the simplest and most direct way!

It doesn't matter if it's rough.

Li Zhao folded his arms and shook his head. He was powerless to stop what the lady wanted to do. As for Prince Su, his temperament was actually similar to Song Qingyue's.

Appetite!

Putting aside the interests, His Royal Highness Prince Su now really likes his eldest daughter-in-law personally.

The imperial list was posted on the second day after Song Qingyue proposed it.

In less than half a month, more than fifty people who came to see Song Qingyue gathered in the lobby of the Gynecology Hospital next to Taiyuan Hospital.

Among them, there are those who claim to have secret recipes handed down from their ancestors, birth mothers, midwives, and even nuns and female Taoist priests!

However, after they arrived, they would definitely not be able to see Song Qingyue who was pretending to be ill. First, Aunt Bai would check whether they could write.

Those who could read and write were taken by the chamberlains to live as guests in the palace, while those who couldn't write were let go directly.

The Medical College of Gynecology is not responsible for teaching people how to read.

Then, Aunt Bai went back to meet these people and asked insinuatingly if they had a secret recipe or if they were here to dance with the gods.

If you are planning to come here and dance, then go back to where you came from.

The Medical College of Gynecology does not accept magicians.

There was an old Taoist nun who came over confidently with elixirs. After drinking tea with Aunt Bai, she was told by Mo Zhu that she could pack it up and go back. She was so angry that she immediately jumped up and loudly demanded to see the Crown Princess.

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To be continued...