The emperor was sitting on a chair, with his legs directly on the table, and he was rubbing a kitten in his hand. It was plump and very cute.
In front of him, six princes stood respectfully, their legs trembling uncontrollably.
The power accumulated over the years can be said to be extremely powerful.
"Yes." King Liao resisted the urge to tremble. Now that he is the oldest and has the highest rank, he should take the lead, and it can only be decided by him:
"Guocun and Zhaocun have had a feud for hundreds of years, and the patrol battalion was dispatched several times, but it was of no avail."
"The only solution now is to migrate."
The emperor's eyes were fixed on the kitten, and he listened to King Liao's words, but he did not react for a while.
At this time, he was also thinking in his mind that there would be no solution to such a feuding clan unless one party perishes.
For ordinary people, resolving conflicts naturally requires the minimum cost, and it is best to get the best of both worlds.
But for the court, a simple and easy-to-operate method is the best. As for whether it will damage the interests of the two villages, it is naturally not considered.
The King of Liao's relocation strategy was straightforward.
It's really a good idea.
In other words, the King of Liao already had the mindset of a statesman.
However, I didn’t think deeply enough.
"It's not enough to just move Guojiacun."
Zhu Yixi chuckled and looked at King Liao with more admiration: "Move Zhaojia Village too."
"Since it's a blood feud, naturally the farther away the better."
"Zhaocun, let's go to Jilin!"
"Everything is not about scarcity but about inequality. After Guojiacun learned about this, he would be relieved and no longer resent the court."
The future of thousands of families was decided between the emperor's lips.
This is the power of authority.
Even if he is dissatisfied, he can move the entire Jinghai County to the Northeast or the Liao Kingdom.
With that said, Zhu Yixi began to deal with the aftermath: "I will give each household in Jilin and Zhao Village 100 acres of land and ten silver coins."
"The same goes for going to Guojia Village in Yue State."
"The remaining land in the two villages should be saved to build an imperial village as an annual contribution to the Liao Palace!"
"Yes!" Liu Afu looked up at King Liao and agreed crisply.
The King of Liao was overjoyed, this was a divine grace.
After so many years of being a son, my father finally saw his shining point.
His face was trembling with excitement.
After a few people left, Zhu Yixi shook his head.
In a sense, they are just twenty-year-old young people. Even after more than ten years of education, they still cannot change their immaturity.
The underlying reason is none other than stress.
The princes of the Ming Dynasty are the least stressed.
The crown prince was confirmed, but he couldn't fight for it again and again, so he could only live in wealth and honor for the rest of his life.
"You don't need to be a genius, even if you are above average, you will be left behind."
Zhu Yixi murmured, making up her mind.
He wanted to say that these princes, like the princes, were placed in local places to hone their skills, and the effect of the eight departments of observing politics had reached its peak.
Only through theory and practice can true knowledge be gained.
Having said that, when the emperor went out in fish clothes and asked the princes to accompany him, the princes were instantly dumbfounded.
Fortunately, the emperor also knew that it would not be easy, so he took a seat at the top of the restaurant and looked at the entire Tianjin city.
Economic prosperity promotes the development of productivity.
In the past, four-story restaurants in Tianjin were already outstanding, but now they are seven stories high.
Even if the top floor is only about ten square meters, it is still an improvement.
Although I don’t know the origin of this tall building, it must be related to steel production.
The wooden structure is equipped with steel, which is not an improvement.
“There are less machine noises in Tianjin.”
The emperor watched for a long time.
Tianjin has not been rebuilt like Beijing, so the spacious streets are occupied by vendors like many ancient cities, but the excitement is no less than in Beijing.
After a long time, he finally spoke.
"Father, almost all the weaving factories in Tianjin have been moved to the outer city. The inner city is mostly populated by shop dwellers, which is quite orderly."
The bearded Zhu Yi explained softly from the side:
"There are so many people in the weaving field and it can only be done in the outer city."
"Yeah." Zhu Yixi snorted and said casually: "How many people are there in Tianjin?"
Of course Zhu Yi understood that this did not refer to Tianjin Mansion, but to Tianjin City.
"About three hundred thousand."
Zhu Yi thought for a while and said casually: "Due to the large number of weaving fields, there is a mixed crowd here, with tens of thousands of people coming in and out every day."
"The second city in the north." Zhu Yixi sighed softly: "It's not bad."
His eyes turned to the harbor in the distance.
In today's era, if you want to support a city of more than 100,000 people, the materials required are immeasurable.
The city of Beijing occupies neither the sea nor the river, so it relies on nothing more than its political status.
Tianjin, on the other hand, relies on ports.
The grain from Liaodong, the cloth from Jiangnan, and almost all the needs of Beijing were supplied by Tianjin, which was enough for its development.
The gradual popularization of maritime transportation led to the increasingly prosperous coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, making it easier to build big and giant cities.
Suzhou and Songjiang are like this.
Zhu Yixi glanced at the King of Liao and saw that he was cautious and showed no complacency. He couldn't help but asked: "Fourth brother, why do you think Tianjin is prosperous?"
"Father, Tianjin is firstly connected to the canal, secondly connected to the sea, and thirdly connected to Beijing."
The King of Liao thought for a while and immediately cleared the way.
"That's right."
Zhu Yixi smiled: "Food for millions of people in Beijing has to pass through Tianjin. Just a tiny bit of it is enough to make the people of Tianjin comfortable."
"However, this is just an appearance."
The King of Liao looked puzzled.
The same is true for several other princes.
These three reasons were all thought out by a few people yesterday and they all thought they were perfect.
"It's all about business."
Zhu Yixi said earnestly: "You have to understand that the growth of population is unlimited, but land is limited. At a certain time, coupled with land annexation, the poor will definitely have no place to stand."
"In the early years of Shaowu, the total population of the country was about 10 million. Now, it is 20 million, which has doubled. In another twenty years, it will be 40 million."
"Today's food and clothing will lead to famine twenty years later, and people will die thousands of miles away from hunger."
"Without land, no food to eat, plus natural and man-made disasters, what is that?"
"Intruder——" King Liao took a deep breath.
A group of princes also turned pale.
"If you don't have swords and guns, you can use wood as a weapon; if you don't have armor, you can use paper as armor."
Zhu Yixi spoke word by word, as if he was talking about an ordinary thing: "In the forty years of Wanli in the past, there were only 200,000 people with jade certificates, and in the early years of Shaowu, there were only 8,000."
"One out of ten can't be saved! How tragic."
"Then Father, how can we solve this matter?" The King of Yue had just entered the feudal vassal, and he immediately felt the same way.
Although Ezochi is vast, the population will inevitably increase as time goes by, and by then the country of Yue will be in danger.
"Pioneering and promoting business."
The emperor did not hesitate to instill his own ideas in his sons:
"Either expand and relocate the people from the land, thereby alleviating the population problem."
"The other one is to promote business."
"One acre of land can only feed one person, but one acre of weaving farm can house dozens or hundreds of weavers, giving them money to buy food, clothes, and support their families."
"Where did the food come from?"
King Fu broke the casserole and asked the truth.
"There are naturally places that produce a lot of grain, such as Qin and India."
Zhu Yixi said earnestly: "Of course, the cost of collecting taxes is the simplest for merchants. If you get stuck at the pass and find a shop, you can get a lot of taxes."
"And I don't know how many people it will cost to go to the countryside to collect taxes."
"As a monarch, you must have money and food in your hands, so that your waist will be strong."
"At the same time, we must have an army."
"You have to grasp it with both hands, and you have to be strong with both hands."
On this day, the princes were indoctrinated by the emperor, and their minds were constantly filled with thoughts and they were deeply inspired.
After staying in Tianjin for a few days, the emperor returned to Beijing in a blink of an eye.
Soon, the city of Beijing tried out the Dingpai system.
That is, every male who reaches the age of twelve must have a ID card issued by the government, which contains his name, birth date, appearance, place of origin, and parents.
It's like a small account number.
It must be replaced every five years.
Good guy, even if only men are designated, the demand of hundreds of thousands of people is enough to make the entire Shuntian Mansion busy.
It can be said with certainty that after the completion of Beijing City, Shuntian Prefecture, Tianjin Prefecture and other places will definitely implement it.
When the time comes, everything will be done and the road guide will be abolished.
It is estimated that without two or three years of hard work, Shuntianfu will not be popularized at all.
As for the entire Ming Dynasty, it will take at least ten years.
You have to believe in the speed of bureaucracy. Things without benefits are always so slow.
…
At this time, Arctic City is on the busiest street of the year.
When the city was changed from Nurgan to North Pole, there was no dissatisfaction in the whole city, and they enthusiastically followed the governor Zhu Dong to build the city.
Whether it is construction or land reclamation, a large amount of labor is required.
The nearby Haixi Jurchens, seduced by money and grain, began to join in the construction of the city.
There are more than a thousand people running around every day.
Some Jurchens work for one day, some work for ten days, some work for a month, and some even keep working.
Zhu Cunqu didn't care about this, and still distributed one pound of grain per day, no matter whether it was one or two days.
But privately, he was paying attention to those big men who were capable or strong.
These people are all his bribery targets.
In the current situation where Heilongjiang General Mansion is so short of people, the Jurchens are naturally an indispensable labor force.
On the surface, building a city and opening up wasteland are just trivial matters, but to the prince, who has served in the army and stayed in the capital camp for several months, the more trivial things are, the more profound they are.
For example, this group of Jurchens who were rations had to succumb to his power and were forced to divide into groups of ten to establish fragile affiliations.
And once obedience becomes a habit, it is inevitable that you will be hired under your command in the future.
At the same time, if the Haixi Jurchens find that their one month's labor force is enough to fill their wives and children's stomachs, they will inevitably be inclined to do so.
Fishing and hunting are not as stable as farming.
Even the unruly people yearn for peace deep in their hearts.
After several months of work and thousands of grains of food dispersed, Zhu Cunqu established a good reputation within a radius of 500 miles of Arctic City.
At the same time, due to contacts, friendships were established with more than a dozen Haixi Jurchen tribes.
Trade began naturally.
Zhu Cunqu is different from those bureaucrats. What he pursues is not wealth, but stability and power.
So in Arctic City, he established a low-price bottom-up model and set the lowest price.
That is to say, merchants must abide by the minimum price when exchanging mink skins, deer skins and other goods, and the transaction must not be lower than this.
In this way, although the price increase was not much and the interests of the merchants were sacrificed, it made him, the governor, completely win over people's hearts.
"City Lord, with so many Jurchens coming now, it seems that the construction of Arctic City will be completed before winter."
Zhou Zude ran over panting. There were Jurchens working everywhere along the way. His face was full of novelty.
"What's wrong?"
Zhu Cunqu glanced at him and said casually.
This businessman who once wanted to deceive him has now become his personal subordinate, specializing in the trade between Arctic City and Heilongjiang City and earning a lot of money.
In just a few months, the profit exceeded 5,000 yuan, which is extremely high.
This made the prince's purse quite rich.
"City Lord, a ship came back yesterday and brought new news."
Zhou Zude said softly.
"Oh? What news will make you rich?"
Zhu Cunqu said disapprovingly.
"The ship was blown north by strong winds, drifting and losing its way. As a result, it encountered a string of small islands, and then it was a piece of land."
"Land?" Zhu Cunqu frowned.
Suddenly, the picture of Kun Yu and Ten Thousand Kingdoms that the emperor once gave him appeared in his mind. It was painted by those Western missionaries, and it was called Matteo Ricci.
It was dedicated to Emperor Wanli, and was cherished by the emperor forever. It was directly turned into a screen and can be viewed everywhere.
Important events such as the establishment of Chongqing as a province and the branching of Huguang into provinces were planned in front of this screen.
So much so that there was a time when the cabinet was frightened when they saw the screen.
They were afraid that the emperor would point to a place on the screen and say that he wanted to expand the territory.
The land there should refer to the so-called North America!
"Yes, it's a large piece of land. Although much of it is frozen soil, that group of people discovered a lot of placer gold at an estuary."
"There's even a big nugget of gold."
Zhou Zude whispered: "This is really more gold than the legendary gold mines in Arctic City. I also saw the gold nugget, which is as big as a baby's head."
"There must be a big gold mine up here, and it's open-air. It's worth a lot of money."
"Gold mine——" Zhu Cunqu looked like he was thinking.
Was North America discovered so quickly?
And there are gold mines.
Is that map of Kun Yu and Ten Thousand Kingdoms real?
Isn’t it Xiyi who deceived people?
Zhu Cunqu shuddered when he thought of such a vast land above.
It turns out that Ming Dynasty is really in a corner.
"We must keep the secret strictly." Zhu Cunqu whispered:
"If Heilongjiang finds out about this, the consequences will be disastrous."
"As for the gold mine, I'll wait until I have a plan before mining it. I'm afraid it's not something you and I can take..."
Back in the city, Zhu Cunqu couldn't wait to spread out his paper and pen, and began to report the discoveries in North America to the emperor.
I'm afraid this will make the emperor very excited!