Gao Qiqian said anxiously: "I'm not too young for an old slave."
Chongzhen said earnestly and thoughtfully: "Gao Banban, our Ming Dynasty currently spends a lot of money, and I really can't give you more money to reward you. I haven't bought new clothes in two years."
"There are also King Ding and King Yong who haven't bought new clothes for two years."
Speaking of this meal, Chongzhen said again: "I really wish I could break a tael of silver into two halves."
"Long live Lord, you are so harsh on yourself and His Highness Yong Wang, Prince Ding." Gao Qiqian wiped his tears and said, "I don't want the ten taels of silver, so I will use it to buy you a new robe, Long live Lord."
Bar."
"That's not necessary." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "As long as you don't think the reward is too small."
"It's not too little, old slave, it's not too little." Gao Qiqian said repeatedly, "Ten taels of silver is quite a lot."
"Ten taels of silver is indeed a lot." Chongzhen said, "The town soldiers, new troops, cavalry and Yiding who participated in this battle only have five taels of silver each. Oh, and each of them also has a sheep!"
"There are also those women who were kidnapped by the rebels."
"If there are still relatives alive, let them go back. If there are no relatives alive, then find a suitable marriage for them among the soldiers in Xuzhou. It can be considered a good home."
"We need to tell Xu Yingwei to handle this matter as soon as possible."
"Old slave, take the order." Gao Qiqian turned and left.
But the state of mind has become completely different.
Gao Qi concentrated on having a sense of mission for no reason.
What sense of mission? The sense of mission of ZTE Daming.
…
At this time, there was a military camp outside the city.
Yang Ponu and several town soldiers sat by the campfire, warming themselves and chatting.
"The traitor, your escape was in vain this time." Wang Laoshi said angrily, "These rebels are too cowardly, and they were dealt with by the new army before we arrived."
"No, I probably won't get the reward this time."
"Come on, we haven't fought a single battle, and you still want to get rewarded?"
"Don't even think about the reward. I just want to go back as soon as possible."
"Yes, yes, it's already past the Waking of Insects, so don't miss the farming season."
While they were talking, a Qinwang scholar came over and said, "Yang Ponu, what are you talking about?"
"Zhuang Xiucai, there is nothing to talk about." Yang Ponu and a dozen other soldiers quickly stood up to greet him, and then said, "We are just chatting, guessing when we can go home."
Zhuang Xiucai said: "The Holy Father has issued an edict, and you can go home tomorrow."
"Can you go home tomorrow?" Yang Ponu and other soldiers suddenly said with great joy, "Now we don't have to miss the farming season. We were worried about missing the farming season."
"I can't miss it." Zhuang Xiucai smiled and said, "In addition, the reward is also confirmed."
"Reward?" Yang Ponu and a dozen other soldiers were really overjoyed, "Do we also have a reward?"
"All." Zhuang Xiucai said, "The Holy One has said that all those who participate in this war, whether they are soldiers, recruits or barbarians, generals or soldiers, will all be rewarded with five taels of silver plus a piece of fat.
sheep!"
"Long live!" Yang Ponu, Wang Laoshi and other town soldiers cheered after hearing this for a while.
Zhuang Xiucai smiled and said to Wang Honest: "Wang Honest, you are not married yet, are you?"
"No." Wang Laoshi scratched his head in embarrassment, "I tried matchmaking several times, but it didn't work out."
"Then come with me." After Zhuang Xiucai said that, he turned and left.
Wang Laoshi said in astonishment: "Is something wrong?"
"A good thing?" Wang Laoshi quickly followed, "What a good thing."
"Choose a wife." Zhuang Xiucai said, "With your military exploits and qualifications, I guess you can be chosen first."
"Are you really looking for a wife?" Wang Laoshi said happily, "Then I have to choose someone with a big and round butt. My mother said that a big and round butt is good for fertility and specializes in giving birth to sons!"
Wang Laoshi followed happily.
…
The time comes to early March of the 19th year of Chongzhen (1646).
Chongzhen appeared in Huarong County, Yuezhou Prefecture, escorted by eight hundred Yiding and a small number of new troops.
A group of more than a thousand people rode in the fields. Looking up, they saw green wheat fields on both sides of the road. Almost all the wheat seedlings had entered the heading stage.
After the heading stage is the grain filling stage.
Wheat ripens soon after the grain-filling period.
Since the Song Dynasty, wheat has been promoted on a large scale across China, and is cultivated on a large scale not only in Huguang, but also in Guangdong and Guangxi.
Because winter wheat has unique advantages over rice.
That is, winter wheat can mature before entering the flood season. In other words, when planting winter wheat, you don’t have to rely on the sky to provide food. Instead, you can steadily harvest one season of wheat, and then sow rice. If you are lucky, you can harvest another season of rice. If you are not lucky, you can harvest another season of rice.
Well, the rice fields are likely to be submerged by floods.
Because of this, wheat is also grown on a large scale in Huguang.
Looking at the green wheat fields, Chongzhen couldn't help but feel in a good mood and casually chanted: "The lanterns in the first month, the harriers in the second month, and the wheat pipes called the whistles in the third month. The wheat is growing well this year, and it is probably a good year."
Gao Qiqian continued in a joking manner: "Long live Lord, the past two years have been pretty good. There have been no floods, no severe droughts, and no locust plagues. This shows that our Ming Dynasty has turned around, and ZTE can be expected to do so."
!”
These words were so beautifully said that even Chongzhen felt happy after hearing them and couldn't help but laugh.
Just as an old farmer came out of the wheat field carrying a hoe, Chongzhen greeted him directly: "My father-in-law, my father-in-law?"
"Old man Wu," Gao Qiqian immediately rode forward and shouted, "Long live the Lord is calling you. Are you deaf?"
The old farmer looked at Gao Qiqian with a blank expression, unable to understand what Gao Qiqian said, because Gao Qiqian was talking about Hongwu Zhengyun adapted from Zhongyuan Yayin.
"Gao Qiqian, what are you doing?" Chongzhen was furious.
Chongzhen's previous life was similar to that of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. Perhaps because he was from a lower-class background, he particularly hated the domineering behavior of the privileged class.
Gao Qiqian was so frightened that he didn't dare to say anything more.
In his previous life, Chongzhen was actually half Hunanese and could speak a few words of Hunan dialect.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! At that moment, Chongzhen got off his horse and asked in dialect: "Old man, does this wheat field belong to your family?"
"Well, they all belong to my little hometown." When talking about this wheat field, the old farmer's expression suddenly became vivid, and he said happily, "This is all the kindness of the current Long Live Lord, who gave me more than 20 acres of land."
"Have the fields been divided?" Chongzhen asked with a smile, "The masters in the clan didn't interfere?"
"Why don't you stand in the way? Mr. Zhao insists on saying that tens of thousands of acres of official land belongs to his family, but it's useless." The old farmer waved his hand and said, "The soldiers of Long Live Lord suppressed him and cut down several trees.
Ten heads.”
Chongzhen smiled and asked again: "The wheat is growing well. I think we can harvest a lot of wheat."
Hearing this, the old farmer nodded repeatedly and said: "That's right, my little hometown is expected to harvest forty shi of wheat this year! Even if there is no rice harvest next season, the whole family will not be hungry."
"How come there is no rice harvest?" Chongzhen asked, "Didn't Yuezhou Prefecture repair the lake embankment?"
"It has been repaired, but it is no different from not repairing it." The old farmer waved his hand and said, "They are all caused by Hu Nong people. They can't handle the problem at all. They will definitely be washed away when the flood season comes."
When Chongzhen heard this, his face immediately fell.
The bad habits of the Ming Dynasty officialdom are really a long-standing problem.
Zhang Kuang clearly collected more than 800,000 taels of silver from the Ministry of Household Affairs and distributed it to six prefectures around the lake or along the river. Each prefecture was allocated almost 100,000 taels of silver, specifically for the construction of water conservancy projects.
But it is obvious that Yuezhou Mansion's money has been wiped out.
In this way, the official voice of Li Jiaozheng, the prefect of Yuezhou, is also false, and what he hears is false.
The old farmer added: "If you don't believe me, you can go to the lake and have a look. It's not far anyway."
Chongzhen no longer had the interest to understand the sentiments of the people, so he took Zhu Cijiong, Wang Chengen, Gao Qiqian and Yi Ding off the road and came to Dongting Lake.
On the surface, the lake embankment looks quite similar.
But as we got closer, we saw a problem.
One is that there is no masonry, and the other is that there are no wooden piles!
However, the earth embankment was tamped anyway.
Such lake embankments may not cause problems in a short period of time, but they will slowly collapse if the lake water soaks them for a long time. In fact, some lake embankments have already collapsed, although the area is very small.
Zhu Cijiong said: "Father, this is the shoddy project you often call it."
Gao Qiqian also said: "Long live my Lord, I will lead a group of barbarians to arrest the Yuezhou magistrate. This dog official even dares to embezzle money for repairing the lake embankment. He is tired of living."
Wang Chengen next to him couldn't help but sigh secretly.
I thought to myself that Eunuch Gao really didn’t forget to eat but not to fight.
Sure enough, Chongzhen's face fell and he asked: "Gao Banban, when did you enter the cabinet to pay homage to the prime minister?"
"Entering the pavilion to pay homage to the prime minister?" Gao Qiqian was stunned when he heard this, and said blankly, "Long live my Lord, I didn't come to the pavilion."
"So you also know that you are not in the cabinet?" Chongzhen shouted with a dark face, "Then what authority do you have to lead troops to arrest the Yuezhou magistrate? This is the power that only the cabinet and the Chief Envoy of Huguang have!"
"Uh..." Gao Qiqian was speechless and said the wrong thing again.
While he was talking, a group of officials hurriedly came to the official road ahead.
The leader was an official in scarlet robes, followed by a group of green robes and green robes.
When they arrived at the bottom of the lake embankment, they were stopped by the Yiding, preventing them from getting any closer.
Chongzhen snorted coldly and said, "Hu Guozhu, just let them come."
Hu Guozhu then ordered Yi Ding to get out of the way and let the officials come to the lake embankment.
"Your Majesty, Li Jiaozheng, the magistrate of Yuezhou, leads the magistrates of the magistrate, recommends officials and other colleagues to pay homage to the Holy One."
After Fei Pao official Li Jiaozheng, the prefect of Yuezhou, finished speaking, more than a dozen officials bowed down at the same time: "May the Holy Spirit be blessed with peace and prosperity."
"Wanfu Jin'an?" Chongzhen pointed at the lake embankment and sneered, "Master Li, there is such a lake embankment in Yuezhou, and the Ming Dynasty has a magistrate like you, how can I get ten thousand blessings and gold safety?"
Li Jiaozheng, however, said without fear: "Reporting to your Majesty, I have done my best in building the lake embankment."
"You tried your best?" Chongzhen said, "Tell me, how did you try your best to build the embankment?"
Li Jiaozheng said: "The lake embankment in Yuezhou Prefecture stretches for six to seven hundred miles. The 80,000 taels of silver allocated by the feudal lord's office is simply a drop in the bucket. If we can repair the lake according to the standards set by the Ministry of Works, we will have enough labor and materials."
One mile of embankment requires five thousand taels of silver for work, food and materials, and six hundred miles of lake embankment requires at least three million taels of expenditure!"
Li Jiaozheng's words actually made Chongzhen speechless.
After a long while, Chongzhen stretched out his hand to point to the lake embankment and asked again: "Is this the lake embankment you spent 80,000 taels of silver to build? Is this what you said you have done your best?"
"Back to the Holy Spirit, the cost of this lake embankment is not 80,000 taels."
Li Jiaozheng responded in a neither arrogant nor humble manner: "It's one hundred and eleven thousand taels."
"And it's not easy to build the lake embankment like this with 110,000 taels of silver."
"If your Majesty doesn't believe it, you can go and see the lake embankment in Changde Mansion or Changsha Mansion."
"If the lake embankments in Changde Prefecture or Changsha Prefecture are built stronger and stronger than those in Yuezhou Prefecture, I'll leave it to my discretion."
"Oh, really?" Chongzhen said with a smile, "This is quite new. I've only heard of local officials draining away the money allocated by the court. This is the first time I've heard of local officials paying money backwards."
After saying this, Chongzhen asked again: "Where did the extra thirty thousand taels come from?"
"I begged for it." Li Jiaozheng said, "I went to the Jin gentry door to door to ask for it. Because after repairing the lake embankment, thousands of hectares of fertile land around the lake can be protected from flooding, so every Jin gentry is willing to spare money."
Chongzhen stared at Li Jiaozheng for a long time, and Li Jiaozheng also looked at Chongzhen indifferently.
At this point, Li Jiao's image in Chongzhen's eyes once again overlapped with the official voice.
In fact, all the information Chongzhen got along the way said that Li Jiao was an upright and good official, and he almost never heard of the bad side.
After a long while, Chongzhen asked again: "If we follow the standards set by the Ministry of Works, with sufficient work and materials, how much money will it cost to repair the Dongting Lake embankment?"
Li Jiaozheng said: "At least 10 million!"
After saying this, Li Jiaozheng added: "After the lake embankment is repaired, there will be no lake troubles for at least fifty years. And as long as the Yangtze River does not have a flood that occurs once in fifty years or a hundred years, all the prefectures around the lake will be able to do so every year."
With two good harvests of wheat and rice, Yuezhou alone can harvest more than 10 million dan of grain!"
When Chongzhen heard this, he couldn't help but feel excited.
Food security cannot be overemphasized. Without agriculture, there will be no stability!
As the great granary of the Ming Dynasty, Huguang’s water conservancy project cannot be overemphasized.
After pondering for a moment, Chongzhen suddenly said: "Li Jiaozheng, if I recommend to the cabinet that you also serve as the censor of water control, I will raise 20 million taels of silver for you specifically to repair the Dongting Lake embankment, the Yangtze River embankment, the Xiang River and the Yuan River embankment.
Wait, if we ask for no more floods within fifty years, how confident are you?"
Hearing this, Zuo Guan behind Li Jiaozheng was stunned.
What do you mean? Originally, I came to apologize to the Holy Spirit, but instead I came here to ask for forgiveness like this?
Li Jiaozheng said without hesitation: "If the 20 million taels can be fully allocated and one tael is not lost, then I can build the Dongting Lake embankment and the Yangtze River embankment to be impregnable, let alone fifty years."
This is a once-in-a-century flood, which is enough to protect more than 90 million acres of Huguang Province."
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"You don't have to worry about floating away." Chongzhen waved his hand.
"The money for water control is withdrawn from the Wuchang branch of the royal silver bank and does not go through the feudal lord."
