Ruyang County belongs to Shangxian County, with a population of nearly 150,000, and its commerce is relatively developed.

However, 40,000 troops were camped just a few miles outside the city, which put a lot of pressure on Ruyang County.

The county government office.

Several people, including the county magistrate, gathered together to discuss matters outside the city.

The official establishment of the county government is basically arranged in the order of chief officials, assistant and secondary officials, subordinate officials, teaching posts, miscellaneous duties, official canons, and servants.

Zuo Erguan is the county magistrate and chief bookkeeper, responsible for grain affairs, water conservancy, river defense and other matters.

At this time, in addition to the county magistrate, chief registrar, county magistrate and others, the officials as subordinate officials are also among them.

"Master Yuan, it is said that the person leading the army outside is His Highness Changsun. I don't know how His Highness Changsun came to us with such a distinguished status."

"They said they came here because of the plague." Ruyang County Magistrate asked the magistrate with some doubts.

Upon hearing this, Magistrate Yuan raised his brows slightly, but did not answer the county magistrate's words.

The surname Yuan is a common surname in Ruyang, and the ancestors can be traced back to Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao in the late Three Kingdoms period.

The position of Yuan Zhixian as a county magistrate was not achieved through fame, but also through recommendation.

There are only so many candidates and scholars in a year. A large number of officials in the Ming Dynasty basically became officials through recommendation.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang was able to have such prestige that even the Ming Dynasty, which was in the middle and later generations, could still maintain it even if it was rotten to the core, and he was very popular among the people.

It is inseparable from the recommendation system adopted by Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang's recommendation system can be seen as mainly wooing local wealthy people.

In the sixth year of Hongwu's reign, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict, saying: "If a talented person is not prepared, he will not be able to govern."

Recommended subjects for recommending talented people include: smart and upright, virtuous and upright, filial brother Litian, Confucian scholar, filial piety and integrity, scholar, talented person, senior citizen, etc.

During the Hongwu period, the scope of recommendations was very wide, mainly to encourage people to improve themselves morally, and the commendation for filial sons was very good.

For example, Li Decheng, a citizen of Laishui County, Yizhou, braved the severe cold to "lying on the ice to beg for his mother's corpse". He was promoted as a filial piety and honest man, and was appointed to an official position by the court, and later became the chief envoy.

Judging from the recommendation system, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang paid more attention to a person's character rather than his ability. He wanted to use this move to bring the social atmosphere to a positive side and cultivate a group of loyal and patriotic officials.

Zhu Yuanzhang implemented a recommendation system and even directly selected officials from wealthy people.

It can be said that no effort was spared in wooing the landlord class.

For example, in the 30th year of Hongwu, the Ming government investigated the chief secretaries of Zhejiang and other nine regions, as well as the landowners of eighteen prefectures and prefectures in Nanjing with more than 700 acres of land, a total of 14,241 households, and compiled a roster.

Summoned in batches and hired directly.

With the support of the landlord class, the Ming Dynasty was naturally extremely stable. Especially the landlords who supported it highly advocated the idea of ​​loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, and they were considered a positive force.

It is not difficult to imagine Zhu Yuanzhang's prestige among the people. Of course they will say good things about Zhu Yuanzhang.

For example, poor peasants basically have to rely on rich people to make a living. Rich people who can be elected as officials must have a good reputation in the local area and have the support of the local poor people.

At least when there is any disaster, they usually set an example and come out to help everyone.

Therefore, the poor peasants also supported Zhu Yuanzhang in the same way, thinking that he was a truly good emperor.

Wherever there is co-optation, there is pressure.

Zhu Yuanzhang naturally responded with a smile to the landlord class who supported the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

For those who do not support or cooperate, or even the local landlords and literati with a bad reputation, it is called a decisive attack.

For example, Suzhou talents Yao Run and Wang Mo were not able to be conquered, so they were all killed and moved to their families.

For example, those landlords who are more powerful must be more ruthless.

The powerful landlords in the south of the Yangtze River are the most powerful. These powerful landlords own a large amount of land and exploit the common people. They even hide the population and land and transfer the burden of taxes and servitude to the peasants, so that the rule of the court does not extend to the grassroots. Occasionally, there will be an uprising or something.

These are the people behind it.

Zhu Yuanzhang ordered several times to move all the powerful Jiangnan landowners such as Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, Fang Guozhen, and those loyal to the Yuan Dynasty to Fengyang.

It is far away from home and has no foundation. In addition to being easy to control, it can also develop Fengyang's hometown.

Some of the larger ones were moved to Nanjing and lived under the nose of Zhu Yuanzhang, euphemistically called: to strengthen the capital.

It was such a combination of strength and softness that could lay the foundation for the Ming Dynasty for nearly three hundred years.

Otherwise, those weird emperors in the middle and late Ming Dynasty would have finished the Ming Dynasty long ago.

Later, Zhu Di personally conquered the country three times, which made the Ming Dynasty completely impoverished. It was only because of the support of the landlord class that the foundation of the rule was not shaken.

Yuan Zhixian was a member of this landlord class, so he was extremely supportive of the imperial court, especially Zhu Yuanzhang.

Henan has spent a lot of money and food on disaster relief.

Hearing this, Magistrate Yuan did not answer immediately, but after pondering for a while, he said: "His Royal Highness Changsun is able to come to our Ruyang because he attaches great importance to Ruyang."

"Since His Highness Changsun is here, we in Ruyang must show our sincerity."

When the county magistrate below heard this, he replied with a somewhat sad look on his face: "But Your Highness, your Highness did not respond today. Instead, he told us to look at it tomorrow to see if His Highness has any opinions on us."

Yuan Zhixian shook his head and said: "Don't speculate on His Highness Changsun's thoughts. I heard that Your Majesty has decided to hold the canonization of the grandson in September. His Highness Changsun's coming here at this moment must be to deal with the plague.

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Even the important officials in the imperial court were almost unaware of Zhu Xiongying's existence, and even those in the palace who were not of the older generation were not aware of it either.

So Yuan Zhixian subconsciously thought that it was Zhu Yunwen.

After Yuan Zhixian finished speaking, several officials nodded in agreement, and the official said: "Master Zhixian, His Highness Changsun is here. We must organize the big families in the county to express our sincerity."

County magistrate Yuan remained silent, while other officials spoke out in agreement.

As a subordinate official of the county magistrate, the magistrate would naturally have to do some service if the magistrate did not ask for help.

Obviously, this magistrate is very knowledgeable, and Yuan Zhixian also cast a look of approval.

This reflects the sincerity. In Yuan Zhixian's opinion, the bigger the better.

This is His Majesty the Grand Sun in the near future, the future Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. If I can be lucky enough to make him have a somewhat good impression of me, I will worry about the different official career in the future.

In Yuan Zhixian's view, the arrival of His Highness Changsun is simply the biggest opportunity in his life.

So when His Highness Changsun arrived yesterday, he couldn't help but want to visit.

Now that I think about it, I feel a little bit arrogant.

However, since His Highness did not explicitly refuse, there must be something going on. Looking at the situation, His Highness Changsun should stay for more than a day or two.

"Sir, what is the scope of this sincerity?"

The chief clerk asked hesitantly.

To be able to be the chief clerk, he certainly has enough emotional intelligence.

The chief clerk is not a native of Ruyang and has little foundation here, but he has been working there for more than seven years.

Different from the recommendation of Yuan Zhixian, the Chief Registrar was selected as an official by the Imperial College in addition to recommendation and imperial examination.

Belongs to college promotion.

Recommendation, imperial examination, and Imperial College are the three ways to become an official in the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, the principal's background was not considered wealthy, and his parents were once farmers.

In the Yuan Dynasty, tenant farmers were considered to be dependent on the landlord, and they were also masters and servants. The laws of the Yuan Dynasty stipulated that tenant farmers should treat the landlord as a master and servant.

This is not much different from being a slave.

After Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty, he issued an edict stipulating: "When tenants meet their landowners, regardless of their seniority, they should treat them with the courtesy of a relative. If they are relatives, they should treat them with the courtesy of relatives regardless of the owner of the land."

The relationship between tenants and landlords changed from a master-servant relationship in the Yuan Dynasty to a young-adult relationship in the Ming Dynasty, and their status improved a lot.

What is even more valuable is that because of the continuous wars in the late Yuan Dynasty, the people were in dire straits, and many people even sold themselves into slavery when they fled famine.

In response to this, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict: "Anyone who is weak, isolated or poor and unable to survive on his own during the war, and who is a slave in the home of the common people, will be released as soon as the edict is issued."

On this basis, it was further decided that the imperial court would provide money to redeem the freedom of those enslaved due to famine.

In the nineteenth year of Hongwu, the Chief Secretary of Henan alone redeemed 274 men and women who had been sold into slavery.

To put it mildly, this is raising the status of the poor at the bottom.

To put it more broadly, this is the emancipation of slaves.

By now, in the 25th year of Hongwu, there are no more slaves in the Ming Dynasty.

All these measures were taken by the landlord class and the poor class, especially those issued directly from Zhu Yuanzhang.

Coupled with the content of the edict in plain English, the people who did not understand Yawen not only understood it clearly, but also felt a great sense of intimacy.

Zhu Yuanzhang's identity as a former farmer gave the majority of farmers a strong sense of identity.

Killing corrupt officials is becoming more and more the case.

And you must know that 80% of the Ming Dynasty's army today are field soldiers, who usually do the same work as farmers.

Therefore, the personal worship of Zhu Yuanzhang penetrated into all strata of the Ming Dynasty, not to mention the dignitaries of the upper class.

These various aspects are the important structure that makes Zhu Yuanzhang such a deterrent.
To be continued...