On this day, when the spring cold was still there and the flowers and plants were luxuriant, a team came out of the city gate, cleaning the streets, sprinkling water and spreading soil, which can be said to be serious.
Hundreds of cavalry, with their brisk hooves, wearing light leather armor and helmets, looked majestic and majestic, which was very different from the casualness of the past.
The herdsmen coming in and out of the gate of Kulun City were quite surprised.
In the midst of the discussion, Mobei General Xiong Yingjie rode out and walked from the end to the front. His strong body held up his armor, and the armor plates sparkled in the sun, making him look like a great general.
After more than ten miles out of the city, Xiong Yingjie stopped, glanced at the sun, and took a rest.
The soldiers held up the shed to protect him from the biting cold wind.
In the endless flat grasslands, the cold wind is like a murderous knife and can easily take away people's lives. Therefore, the herdsmen wear sheepskin coats morning and night and dare not take them off.
Under the sun, Xiong Yingjie's face, smeared with whale oil, shone brightly.
"General, the team is here!"
At this time, a soldier who was lying on the ground and listening immediately got up and cupped his hands.
"Okay, get ready to greet us!"
In an instant, the shed was demolished and restored to its original state.
A quarter of an hour later, a huge team came slowly, with more than a hundred cavalry leading the way, and a large convoy several miles behind.
The most impressive thing is the elephant train in the middle.
The Ming Dynasty stipulated that the emperor used jade chariots, the prince used gold chariots, and the prince used elephant chariots.
The head of the elephant chariot is in the shape of a dragon's head. There is a chariot pavilion on the car. There is a door in front of the chariot pavilion, and there are lattice windows around it. The top of the chariot is a round lotus cover with three layers of lotus petals and gold shining leaves inserted on it. A pearl is placed on the top. The middle part of the chariot pavilion
There is a wooden armchair-style seat, and there are guardrails, cloisters and steps outside the pavilion.
It can be said that this is a small palace.
Those pulling in front were several strong oxen, which were extremely smooth.
"Your Majesty, the Marquis of Luzhou, General Xiong Yingjie of Mobei, comes to pay homage to His Royal Highness Prince Fu!"
After saying this, he naturally knelt down on one knee and left, and the soldiers on the side were no exception.
According to the Ming Dynasty, the prince is more polite than any other official, so all the civil and military ministers must kneel down to salute the prince when they see him on important occasions.
"Ping Shen!" A clear and slightly gentle voice came from the elephant carriage.
Immediately, a chubby figure walked out. Although he was not wearing a dragon robe, he was wearing a loose and expensive silk dress, which was enough to tell his identity.
Xiong Yingjie raised his eyes and saw that he was in his twenties, pampered, with delicate skin like a rich girl, round face, and a kind and helpless look in his eyes.
This person is the seventh son of the emperor, King Fu Zhu Cunmei.
The King of Qin, King of Qi, King of Liao, King of Yue, and King of Wei in front of him have all established vassal states. The same is true for the King of Zhao and King of Xiang who are behind him. Naturally, the old Seven Lucky Kings cannot stay in the capital for a long time and enjoy their blessings.
Already.
Therefore, not long after the New Year, King Fu was driven out of the capital and was forced to become a vassal.
Unlike other princes whose vassal states were thousands of miles away and had to travel by month, King Fu's vassal state was in the Mobei region, which was the Chechen Khan tribe, one of the three Khalkha tribes.
That is, the Chechen Khanate in the middle reaches of the Kurulun River.
The Kurulun River flows eastward into Hulun Lake, where there is no shortage of water and grass.
Among the three Khalkha tribes, it is the closest to Beijing.
Likewise, considering the vastness of the Mongolian Plateau and the inability of the Mobei General Mansion, the Fu Kingdom was established in the Modong region.
Similarly, the Zasak Tuhan tribe, the source of the rebellion, was also established in the imperial court's plan as the Liang Kingdom, a vassal state of the Liang King Zhu Cunyu, the tenth son of the emperor.
Compared with the Liang Kingdom in the future, the construction of Fugu has lasted for nearly two years. A city no smaller than Kulun stands on the grassland and is the center of the Modong Grassland.
Considering that the country cannot live without a king for a day, and the difficulty of maintaining the Mobei General Palace, King Fu can no longer be ignored and has to be a vassal.
The reason why we came to Cullen in the first place was the complete inn system and the abundant resources in Cullen City.
King Fu had a good impression of Xiong Yingjie who came out of the city to greet him. This kind of respect was very comforting.
"General, you're welcome." Prince Fu squinted his eyes and said with a smile, "I'm just passing by Culun, why do you need to make such a big noise!"
Xiong Yingjie naturally flattered him politely, and the relationship between the two instantly became much closer.
When arriving at the city of Kulun, the elephant carriage entered the city directly without any intention of stopping.
At the same time, the three thousand cavalry escorting him were stationed outside the city.
After giving the mansion to King Fu, Xiong Yingjie invited Jebtsundamba to accompany him.
Although he only had a vegetarian meal, King Fu was not picky. Instead, he showed great respect to the great lama during the banquet.
Jebtsundamba was also happy and said bluntly that he would warn believers to cooperate with King Fu's rule.
After the banquet, Xiong Yingjie and King Fu truthfully described the situation of Fu Country:
"This city was named Dongyang by His Highness, so it is named Dongyang. The city is three feet and seven inches high, twenty miles long, and two feet thick. It has an urn city and two gates..."
"Now there are ten thousand residents, and two thousand border troops are stationed!"
"Only ten thousand people?" King Fu said in frustration, "What does this care about?"
"Your Highness, Dongyang City took a year and seven months to build and was only completed in the Mid-Autumn Festival last year. It cost tens of thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of money and food. It can be said to be a big city, even if it is not inferior to some prefectural cities in China."
Seeing Prince Fu like this, and thinking about his years of pampering, Xiong Yingjie was afraid that this man would stay in Kulun City, so he immediately flattered him:
"In just a few months, tens of thousands of people have gathered, while my Cullen has only been able to reach 40 to 50 million in many years. Dongyang City has a lot to do."
"With His Highness as your backbone, are you still worried about having no one else?"
"Although what you said makes some sense, I feel that Dongyang is still not as good as Cullen."
King Fu shook his head and said seriously: "Besides, let alone Dongyang City and so on, how did you build my palace?"
For the construction of Dongyang City, Beihai and Mobei were responsible for the ordinary manpower, while the imperial court transferred most of the money, grain, and craftsmen to build Dongyang in a short time.
However, compared to making bricks in a kiln and having a well-planned city wall, a complicated palace is naturally a hundred or a thousand times more troublesome.
The manpower and material resources consumed are even more incomparable to those in Japan.
In this way, it took two years for Fuwang Palace to build part of the front hall, that is, one third of the Duchengyun Hall, with only thirty rooms.
The area where ground has been broken only accounts for one-fifth of the planned area.
In other words, I can barely live there.
"Your Highness, the vassalage is a stipulation of the imperial court. You must arrive on time."
Xiong Yingjie said in a deep voice: "Kulun City's money and food, every drink and every peck, are rationed. You will be punished in the end..."
"I know!" King Fu sighed after hearing this, and then said angrily: "Those literati in the court are afraid that if I stay in the capital for too long, they will push me every day!"
"If they have the ability, they come to the east of the desert to blow the wind and smell the sheep dung?"
"They are not the ones suffering the co-authorship!"
Regarding Xiong Yingjie, King Fu didn't make things difficult for him, and said bluntly: "I won't hide it from you. Although King Fu's palace can be lived in, it is very cramped. There is a lot of wood in Beihai. You sent people from Mobei to take it to Dongyang City.
"
"In addition, the imperial court will send money and food one after another. These are all fixed amounts. If you don't have enough, you will get good results!"
"I don't dare to be humble!" Xiong Yingjie immediately bowed and said: "If there is such a big rat, I will kill him directly."
"That's good!"
King Fu nodded.
He couldn't help but be so serious.
In order to improve the entire Dongyang City and King Fu, the imperial court supported 200,000 shi of grain and a large amount of supplies at one time.
The inner city was even more direct and sent half a million silver dollars directly.
Today, Dongyang City is still deserted, and only Kulun City has established commerce.
When a large amount of supplies will pass through Cullen, who wouldn't be jealous?
The geese are plucking their feathers.
It is necessary to lay an ambush in advance.
Are civil servants corrupt?
This is a joke.
In the three hundred years before the Ming Dynasty, how many lower-level clan members starved to death, and how many feudal lordships were owed to princes? These are all too numerous to count.
"Oh, how come the good days go by so fast?"
King Fu rubbed his face. He felt that after more than two months of traveling, he had lost weight.
The cold wind that was everywhere made him feel cold from the bones.
Thinking about spending most of his life here, he felt that he had no love in life.
"Kuye, why did this happen to me?"
"Your Highness, the sergeants have already set up camp. We are running short of food, salt and other supplies. Do we need to purchase some supplies?"
At this time, Chang Shi came over to report the work.
"Buy it!" King Fu said casually: "We have to stay here for ten days and a half, take your time, don't buy it too hastily, otherwise profiteers will benefit."
"Yes!" Chang Shi responded hurriedly.
On this trip to the vassal, King Fu brought dozens of officials from the palace, their families, and the most important three thousand cavalry.
These are the elites selected from the Beijing camp, the border army, Horqin, and Chahar. They not only bear the important task of protecting him, but will also be his most trusted army.
They are the main force in this huge blessed country.
After a while, another servant came to report: "Your Highness, the Prime Minister has sent someone to see you!"
"Let him in!" King Fu was surprised, how did he know his whereabouts?
But then I thought about it, they had already arranged for someone to wait for me in Cullen City, this was really normal.
Although Fuguo is small, it has all five internal organs.
It is divided into two major systems: inner court and outer court.
Among them, the royal officials, private ministers, and slaves constituted the inner court system. For example, the march of the troops along the way was arranged by the long history, and they were the inner ministers.
As for the current governance of Dongyang City, it is managed by the prime minister arranged by the imperial court.
The establishment of Dongyang City and the planning of Fuguo were actually handled by the Prime Minister.
The state has maintained the feudal status for three years. This has been a rule for many years and will not be broken easily.
Even the feudal lord of King Fu now has to wait another year before he can fully take over the power.
When the melon ripens and the stems fall, and he personally picks the fruits, the prime minister will usually return to the country and be promoted to an important position.
As an unspoken rule, the vassal kings would grant the ministers the title of Duke or Duke as a token of appreciation.
In order to ensure the authority of the vassal kings, the prime minister would not stay there after accepting the title, but would let a son inherit the title and settle in the vassal country in the future.
After all, the Prime Minister has been with the country for several years and has great prestige, so it would be best for him to leave.
"The Prime Minister sends his regards to you!"
The official kowtowed, and then said cautiously: "The news of His Highness's vassalship came, and the whole Fu country rejoiced. The Prime Minister even had two more bowls of rice."
"Don't praise me!" King Fu said with a bitter smile: "What's the current situation of Fu Country? How many people are there?"
"Your Majesty, Fuguo is an area of the Chechen Khanate. It was plundered by slaves in the early years, and the population is sparse. Although it has gradually recovered over the years, it only has more than 30,000 tents, which is less than half of Mobei..."
"That's enough!" King Fu showed a smile: "If there are more, it will be difficult to manage."
How can it be so comfortable for hundreds of thousands of herdsmen grazing on such a huge grassland?
In this way, there will be fewer conflicts between man and land, which will be more convenient for the rule of Fuguo.
Lu Bo, the king of Fu, stopped in Kulun for twenty days before reluctantly heading east.
It doesn't look that far away, but Kulun is thousands of miles away from Dongyang City.
It took Lu Bo only sixteen days to arrive at Dongyang City.
Compared with Cullen, the ceremony is more grand.
Hundreds of people below the prime minister's rank, including leaders and nobles of various tribes, all knelt down.
From today onwards, these are the true kings and ministers.
Looking up at Dongyang City, its tall and thick walls really make people feel safe.
But when we entered the capital, we saw how desolate it was.
Houses were so scarce that the city was empty, like a wilderness. Only the royal palace located in the center of the city was majestic.
With a wry smile, King Fu moved into his palace.
The dust on the ground bored him, so he left the palace and held talks with the Prime Minister and other ministers at the Prime Minister's Office.
At this time, Fuguo did not have ministries or other institutions. It purely relied on the Prime Minister's Office to govern the country.
The Prime Minister Wu Tingyu was a Jinshi, and the former chief envoy to the General's Mansion in Mobei was only fifty-four years old.
It can be said that after serving as Prime Minister, his future will be bright when he returns to Ming Dynasty.
The dark-red face, bright eyes, and prominent cheekbones all show the hard work of this prime minister.
For this, Zhu Cunmei naturally expressed his gratitude.
Wu Tingyu was noncommittal. He said without being humble or arrogant:
"Your Highness, there are currently 38,000 tents in Fuguo, of which only about 10,000 tents belong to the imperial court. They are distributed around Dongyang City to graze and enjoy the fertile land."
"After I came here, I immediately recruited herdsmen and taught them to open up wasteland for farming. In the first year, I got 5,000 acres, and in the second year, I got 20,000 acres."
"This year, Fuguo will reclaim more than 70,000 acres, bringing the total cultivated land to 100,000 acres."
Wu Tingyu said in a deep voice: "But even so, Dongyang City is still unable to be self-sufficient in food, and has to rely on Kulun's transportation..."
“If you want to be self-sufficient, how much land do you need?”
King Fu couldn't help but ask.
"Although there is no shortage of water in the Modong area, the land is a little barren, also called cold, and does not have the blessings of the North Sea. Therefore, the barley and wheat planted can only yield about 150 kilograms per acre."
"If there are 30,000 people in Dongyang City, they will need at least 200,000 acres of land to support them."
"Two hundred thousand acres!" Prince Fu murmured: "This requires at least ten thousand farmers. The grasslands are full of herdsmen. Are there so many people who can cultivate the land??"
"I don't want to be nomadic all year round and change pastures!"