Chapter 337: Your Highness, the spectacle is ruining the country!
King Yan does not need Yang Feng to worry about his ambitions, since he has no truly powerful opponents in front of him anyway.
The Golden Horde fought against each other.
Tokhtamysh supported by Lithuania, Kudulut supported by Timur, and Yedigai, a non-golden family who served as supervisor for Timur but controlled the Nogai grassland...
It's very messy.
There is also the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which is still very weak and is still a vassal of the Golden Horde.
Although they did defeat the Golden Horde under the leadership of Dmitry Donskoi, they only had the right to bargain with the latter. In fact, they still surrender to the latter. The Grand Duke at this time is
The former's son Vasily I, his main enemy was not the Golden Horde. In fact, unlike his father, he used bribes to resolve the Golden Horde's interference in his expansion.
Anyway, the latter was in civil strife and had no interest in bringing justice to other grand dukes who were dependent on the Golden Horde. Basil I gave him some bribes, and then the Golden Horde acquiesced to his annexation of other grand duchies.
It's a bit like the wild boar skin that before the rebellion continued to annex the surrounding Jurchen tribes while bowing to the Ming Emperor...
Before the rebellion, Boarhide was the most diligent in paying tribute among all the chiefs in the entire Northeast.
In the thirty-fifth year of Wanli's reign, he was specially rewarded with official uniforms and boots worth several hundred taels of silver.
Just like a loyal dog.
Currently, the strongest force is Lithuania.
One of the future three idiots of Poland was still very strong at this time, and was under the rule of Vytautas, the strongest monarch in their history. But in theory, Lithuania and Poland share the same monarch, and the former Grand Duke of Lithuania was also his cousin who married Poland.
The queen thus became the King of Poland, and he went through a series of armed battles and finally reconciled with his cousin. Then his cousin lent him the position of the Grand Duke of Lithuania. He ruled Lithuania as the Grand Duke, but it needed to be returned after his death.
Of course, the main reason is that he doesn't have a son either.
The reason why his cousin agreed to this was because his wife died, and his status as King of Poland was because his wife was the queen, so his authority in Poland declined.
According to the agreement between the two parties, if he died and Vytautas was still alive, the latter would have the right to participate in the election of the new King of Poland.
In addition, he was the father-in-law of Grand Duke Vasily I of Moscow.
The latter married his only daughter.
So this old guy is also very playful. When he has a bad relationship with his cousin and needs to be frightened, he can hook up with his son-in-law.
The Orthodox Church calls itself the protector.
At the same time, he also became a supporter of Tokhtamysh, the self-proclaimed Great Khan of the Golden Horde.
Old Yan Baichuan.
In short, King Yan of the Ming Dynasty will be like Batu back then, commanding the Western Expedition Army like a natural disaster army into this troubled world.
He will crush all forces.
After all, none of these forces can defeat him.
As long as he can withstand the cold.
But this shouldn't be a big problem, after all, he has been fighting in Huining for many years, and he has also survived the severe cold in the Mongolian plateau.
As for the imperial court, Her Royal Highness the ruling princess is still losing herself in the praises of the Holy Lord Mingjun from the ministers, and continues to develop towards the likes of Weiwei, Shubao, and Ayu. She has spent huge sums of money in the capital at the beginning of spring.
Birthday wishes to the Queen Mother...
To be precise, it was a carnival for herself.
In order to give the capital a new look, not only all the main streets were hardened, but also street lights were installed on these streets. Although they were only fuel-fired, they still had glass windshields and burned kerosene. As for the source of kerosene, of course it was Yumen, Shaanxi
Crude oil from these places in the north. In order to turn the capital into a city that never sleeps, countless merchants traveled thousands of miles to these remote places, transported food to these places, and even opened up wasteland in these places, and then exchanged them for oil.
Just like the Yanyin of the salt industry, crude oil cannot be transported without this.
And it is even more ruthless than Yanyin. After all, Yanyin cannot completely stop illegal salt sales. As long as there is demand among the people, they will take risks.
But there really is no such thing as private bidding in Youyin.
Because there is no demand for crude oil among the people at all. This stuff can only be collected by the refinery under the name of the little princess. Businessmen who traffic in crude oil have only this place to sell it, and in these places there must be oil to collect it. And this is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River.
The refinery on the north shore uses earthen refining kettles to refine crude oil. The kerosene is used to burn street lights in the capital, coastal dock lighthouses, and city defense lighting in various places. The gasoline is used to make incendiary bottles for the army for battlefield use. Diesel is used as fuel, and the final asphalt is used for anti-corrosion sealing in shipyards.
In fact, diesel fuel can also be used for anti-corrosion.
It just tastes a bit off.
However, many unscrupulous boat owners in the private sector will also buy it and use it to embalm their boats. After all, even humans can't stand the smell, let alone the moths.
It can completely replace tung oil.
Tung oil is also flammable, while diesel oil is not easy to ignite.
As long as my heart is dark enough, I can completely ignore its shortcomings.
Therefore, this refinery has truly solved the food problem in Gansu and northern Shaanxi.
The former's abundant food also ensured the road to the Western Regions, and merchants did not need to worry about expensive meals in the Hexi Corridor.
Those oil dealers are becoming a scene in the northwest. They transport crude oil to Shaanxi in camel caravans, and then load it onto ships and sail down the Jialing River.
As for indoor lighting, this one has begun to use whale oil.
The Whale Sea Guards, Longquan Guards, and even the guards under the Fusang Commandery Division all have more or less whaling business.
In addition to these, in order to celebrate the birthday of the Queen Mother, the ruler is also working on a new life in the capital, that is, sanitation. For example, there must be sanitation workers, there must be trash cans on the streets, garbage is not allowed to be thrown casually, and horse feces must be cleaned up in time.
In order to make the smell better, all flowers must be planted on both sides, especially pyrethrum and the like, which have begun to be planted in various places. Also for the new style, many clothing taboos have been completely abolished. Except for dragon robes, other clothing can be worn casually, except that Hu Feng is not allowed.
That's all, you can wear shoes freely, boots can be worn casually, gold and silver jewelry and even gemstone jewelry can be worn casually by civilians.
She has her own jewelry store. If she doesn't wear it, who will she sell it to?
She even built public toilets.
Similarly, the building restrictions in Beijing have also been relaxed. If you have money, you can build whatever you want, even mansions, gardens and villas.
Anyway, her own is big enough.
In short, it was not only the court that wanted to spend money like crazy, but also the people who wanted to spend money like crazy. The Ming Dynasty began an era of extravagant competition in advance.
And all the court needs to do is print more banknotes.
Similarly, the output of silver mines in Shijian Yinshan and other places has continued to grow, and the continuous expansion of Huining's soybean planting industry has brought about the continuous expansion of the area of manure in the Jiangnan rice-producing areas. This has ultimately led to a substantial increase in grain production, which has also brought treasure
The value of banknotes is always at an almost constant level. The key to stabilizing this thing is food. As long as the supply of food is sufficient, it is difficult for the currency to depreciate sharply. Once the supply of food is insufficient, no matter what economic policy you have, you will not be able to suppress the depreciation of the currency.
Unless rationing is implemented.
Food is the basis of everything.
An increase in silver will not truly ensure the value of the currency, only an adequate supply of food can truly ensure this.
In the same way, the currency value of treasure banknotes is always stable, which also allows the collusion between the bank and the account department to continue to issue more banknotes, and there is no need to worry about the financial issue at all.
Just spend money.
The army will be reformed and all soldiers will be paid directly.
The yamen increased the number of yamen servants hired and reduced the collection of private corvee.
Local infrastructure construction has increased, bridges have been built in various places, roads have been repaired, rivers have been dredged, small reservoirs where possible have been built, and irrigation canals have been built.
…
Even large-scale projects that would bring wonders to the country were launched.
For example, Yang Feng’s imaginative Yellow River diversion project.
To be precise, it is a project to protect the Tomb of the Ming Dynasty.
According to his plan, starting from Tongwaxiang and heading north on the basis of the old river channel, he would dredge and dig deep, and build river embankments on both sides that extend to Cangzhou. The river embankments should be built wide enough, and even a large amount of water should be used in some places.
Concrete and stone. As for the full employment system of all civilians, the surrounding people will go through the slack time. It will take twenty years to complete according to the plan. Once completed, water can be diverted from the Yellow River to the north, and then the two current south-going rivers will be cut off. This will completely solve the problem.
The siltation of Qingkou has been eliminated, so that the area of Hongze Lake will no longer expand. At the same time, canals can be dug into the sea and irrigated in the Huai'an area. This can also dredge the floods of the Huai River and ultimately completely eliminate the danger that the Sizhou Ancestral Tombs may be submerged at any time.
No one refuted this plan.
After all, the hat is too big.
This is to protect the emperor's ancestral mausoleum, and not only the imperial court itself, but also other feudal princes have to pay for it.
Not even Jianwen dared to object in front of this big hat.
In fact, the little princess was even prepared to give an order to her nephew, asking him to also contribute money.
As for those affected, it is part of the population of the Chief Envoy in Peiping, but this Chief Envoy currently has a total population of only about two million. Only Hejian Prefecture is affected, and it is a very small part of Hejian Prefecture.
A sparsely populated area. Including some of the affected populations in Henan and Shandong, but the actual total population is only a few hundred thousand at most, not more than 500,000, and this is within the scope of river construction. As for the real needs
The total number of relocated people will probably not exceed 50,000.
In addition, people along the line can dig rivers during their leisure time. Not only will they have food to eat, but they can also receive wages.
As for the investment, although it is huge, since the construction period is twenty years, it is not a big deal, as long as the printing of treasure banknotes does not shake the stability of the currency.
In fact, at this time, most people have begun to realize the benefits of this court.
Yang Feng and the little princess do not need Confucian scholars, but the problem is how many Confucian scholars there are in the country. They are less than one percent of the total population. Among these less than one percent, there are a few who dare not do anything except curse a few words.
I'm afraid nine out of ten people, that is to say, at most one out of a thousand people will try to resist. With this ratio, what can they do? As for the landlords, the same is true. The land equalization system hits the landlords, but the problem is that Zhu Yuanzhang laid down an excellent
On the basis of the Ming Dynasty, there are currently few truly super large landowners. Those who can survive Zhu Yuanzhang's butcher's knife are nothing more than small and medium-sized landowners with hundreds of acres or thousands of acres. They have no ability to truly resist.
They are not like those super landowners in the late Ming Dynasty who had countless child servants.
During the Jiajing period, Wuxi Zouwang had five thousand servants.
And he can only be said to be one of the landowners in Jiangnan. Among the landlords in Wuxi alone, there are An Guo and Hua Cha. They can mobilize huge financial resources. Any one of the three can spend more than one million taels.
This financial resource can play a huge role. From officials to bandits, from civilians to the military, and even pirates and Japanese pirates, they can all get it.
It is not a problem for any family to raise hundreds of dead soldiers.
Very simple.
I will take care of your family, give them the best land, send your son to the school I run, and marry your daughter to my clan. From now on, they will not be hungry until our family is destroyed. If we succeed, I will give you one thousand
Two taels of silver is already a lot. One hundred taels is enough to make many people work hard. After all, a pretty little girl is only worth more than a dozen taels of silver.
Death warriors are really not worth mentioning for a family of this level.
Isn’t Wang Wenyan a dead soldier?
A rural eunuch in the south of the Yangtze River hired him as a prisoner and asked him to keep an eye on the court's movements in the capital. Then he endured all kinds of torture in the prison and was beaten until he was no longer human.
Can his descendants be protected by these wealthy families?
But where is this happening now?
Anyone with this kind of ability would have been killed by Zhu Yuanzhang long ago.
The gentry from Dengzhou could not defeat Liu Wen alone, but the gentry from Xiangyang Prefecture were beaten by Li Xin.
Why?
They do not have the ability to resist, they are just forced to resist.
They have no dead soldiers, and at most they collude with a few bandits, and the only thing they can rely on is the clan, but the clan will not sacrifice their lives for them. Li Xin broke up with just a few words. This is the foundation laid by Zhu Yuanzhang, and he has destroyed it long ago.
The landowners' ability to resist is just that of Yang Feng. These are the ones who need to resist. There are not many people nor the ability. The vast majority of people are adapting to this new era. Businessmen feel more free.
The burden on farmers was greatly reduced, soldiers began to receive military pay, craftsmen felt proud, and even the vast majority of students who originally studied Confucianism began to pick up new books.
In the final analysis, Confucianism is just a stepping stone. Now that this stepping stone is useless and a new one needs to be used, of course the smart people will quickly pick up the new one.
Who would fight for a stepping stone?
In the end, those who are really resisting are the so-called Confucian families who have inherited their families, because they throw away this stepping stone and start on the same starting line as others. All their advantages in the past were based on their ancestral Confucianism. They have no regard for the new learning.
They know nothing about it, and are no different from a mud-legged kid who has just become literate in primary school. What they hate is not that Yang Feng abandoned Confucianism, but that Yang Feng put them on the same starting line as the mud-legged kids. Originally, they could almost stand on the finish line with their advantage, watching
The mud-legged people behind me were running desperately but could never catch up with them. Then they took a graceful step, put on their official hats, and said to the crying mud-legged people...
You have to work hard!
If you work harder, you can be like me.
However, Yang Feng ruined everything and forced them to stand on the same starting line as the latter.