First Prince of Ming Dynasty

  Chapter 54 People's livelihood is difficult

Zhu Biao then comforted Zhu Yuanzhang: "After Han Gaozu won the world, the country was also difficult, and there was even the siege of Baideng. Before Tang Taizong's Zhenguan rule, there was still the shame of Weishui! And under your leadership, I, Ming, oppressed foreigners. , Sweep away foreign troubles!"

   "Compared to the previous dynasties, my family business is just a bit more difficult, and my father has also ordered to lighten the tax and pay less for the people's self-cultivation. Under your governance, the world will return to prosperity in less than 20 years!"

  Zhu Yuanzhang felt relieved a lot after listening to his son's consolation. These days, not only did he see the difficulties of the people's livelihood, but also the local officials kept reporting.

   "Xuzhou is covered with bones, and the grass is overwhelming, and there are often foxes and mice in the ruins and grass!"

  The counties and counties north of the Yellow River "are blocked by roads and cut off from human habitation." There is little vitality.

  The Dongting Lake Basin in Huguang was originally a rich and rich land, but now "the land is sparsely populated, with few cultivators and many desolate ones."

  Sichuan and Shu were originally known as Tianfu, but after decades of war, it is full of wormwood. Tens of thousands of acres of fertile land are barren, and the old scene of historical prosperity is hard to find.

  Zhu Yuanzhang read a sentence, "The prosperity of the people is suffering, and the death of the people is suffering!"

   Then he cheered up and began to review the memorial, and Zhu Biao also picked up the memorial and thought about it carefully.

  At the beginning of December, finally arrived at Yangzhou City, and Zhu Biao finally saw with his own eyes what this once prosperous city now looks like. Most of the city wall collapsed, and it was almost impossible to see where the streets were and where the houses were. All the houses seemed to have been hit by an earthquake, and there were stones everywhere except for a few black pillars.

Standing on the carriage frame, most of Yangzhou can be seen at a glance. There is no tall house anymore. There are dozens of people kneeling on the side of the road, dressed in ragged and emaciated clothes. The leader is wearing a worn official robe and kneels when he sees Zhu Yuanzhang Climbed over: "Your Majesty is ashamed! You are guilty! You are guilty! You have failed to manage Yangzhou well for more than a year!"

  Zhu Yuanzhang pulled him up and almost couldn't recognize him: "Lu Mingyi? How did you become like this! How can you be a magistrate...

  The magistrate of Yangzhou looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with tears in his eyes and said, "I...you are really a clever woman who can't cook without rice!"

   This person is also the one who has been chasing Zhu Yuanzhang for many years. Zhu Yuanzhang knows who he is, so he came to Yangzhou in person, but he really didn't expect that all the prefects would be like this.

  Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at the dozens of people and asked the prefect of Yangzhou: "Is there only this few people in the whole city of Yangzhou?"

   Then Zhu Yuanzhang walked to the front of the crowd in person. When the crowd saw the emperor coming, they put their heads on the ground and said, "Long live the emperor, long live, long live!"

  Zhu Yuanzhang personally helped up an old man, asked them to stand up, pulled the old man to sit on a stone beside him and asked, "Brother, why are there so many people in Yangzhou City!"

  The old man stared at the cloudy eyes and said sadly: "Emperor... Your Majesty the Emperor, everyone has run away, and we are the only ones left who can't run."

  The little granddaughter of the old man glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang and asked her grandfather in a low voice, "Is this the Emperor Zhu?"

  The old man almost fainted from fright, but Zhu Yuanzhang patted his hand, and said to the emaciated girl, "Yes! We are your Emperor Zhu! Emperor Zhu will feed you all in the future!"

  Zhu Yuanzhang turned his head and told Yang Xian: "Go and let the guards settle on the spot and prepare some meals!"

   Yang Xian took the order to go, and Zhu Yuanzhang asked the old man some questions, but unfortunately he couldn't answer some of them. He only knew that the war and taxes forced them to nowhere.

  The magistrate of Yangzhou on the side calmed down and said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "The war is endless, and a large number of people have fled. Even if there is land, they can't cultivate it."

  Zhu Yuanzhang felt very surprised. What is the reason for having land but not planting it?

  Beside him, Lu Chang, who was an official in the Yuan Dynasty, replied: "The military disasters have caused the fields to be barren; the Yuan army has repeatedly passed through Yangzhou, and the chickens and dogs are restless; the people of Yangzhou are in exile; the harsh government makes the people unwilling to farm."

   "How bad is the tyranny? One mu of land can produce two loads of grain, and all kinds of taxes add up to receive three loads. The more industrious the people, the poorer they become, and they will not want to farm over time."

"Later, fifty years after the tax was received, the tax was actually received by an adult's grandson. Field mu tax, dog tax, beheading tax, autumn tax, winter tax, labor tax, utensil tax, five animal tax, etc. Wait, there are more than 30 types of taxes on the surface."

"The imperial court issued a decree to ask the common people to hand in fifty qian per household, and the state government, government offices, counties and townships added levies, and finally collected thousands of qian, and the imperial court collected less than one-twelfth of it, and the rest went into the hands of corrupt officials. Under the tyrannical government, there are no honest officials."

  Because the imperial court cut off the salaries of officials, if they are not corrupt officials, they will starve to death.

  In the city of Yangzhou, the people had nothing to satisfy their hunger, so they dug wild vegetables, ate tree bark, and even ate seeds.

  Hearing about this situation, even a hero like Zhu Yuanzhang who came out of the sea of ​​corpses and blood couldn't help but burst into tears.

  Yang Xian walked back, seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's state, but dared not speak, Zhu Biao called him back and asked what was going on.

Yang Xian is Zhan Shicheng from the Prince's East Palace, who is also Zhu Biao's person. Yang Xian cupped his hands and said to Zhu Biao: "His Royal Highness, it just snowed in Yangzhou City yesterday, and the weather is cold and the firewood is wet. I can't light the fireworks now. I'm afraid it will take a while to cook."

  Zhu Biao said: "These people seem to have been hungry for a long time, let's dismantle the frame of the palace! Cook for the people first, and the palace will squeeze with other princes later."

  Yang Xiangang wanted to say where to dismantle the prince's frame, if you want to dismantle it, it's better to dismantle his! But seeing Zhu Biao's calm eyes, he closed his mouth.

  Zhu Di heard it and walked up to Zhu Biao and said, "Brother, please dismantle my frame! I will take a ride with my third brother later!"

  Zhu Biao patted him on the head, and Yang Xian saw that Zhu Biao had made up his mind and went down to tear it down.

  Zhu Biao glanced at the emaciated crowd again, and said to Zhu Di: "Go and take out all the meat, except leave some for the emperor, and make broth for these common people."

  Zhu Di also left in response, Zhu Biao sighed, a little depressed in his heart, seeing the text in the memorial and seeing it with his own eyes are indeed two different feelings.

  He ordered the removal of his frame to show his benevolence, but he did feel sorry for these people. He is the prince of the country, and these people are also his subjects!

  Zhu Biao now really hopes that his people can have food and clothes!

  The wood on the Prince's frame is excellent, and it's not so wet that it ignites a fire after a while.

  Liu Bowen walked up to Zhu Biao and asked, "How does Your Highness feel now?"

   It was the first time for Zhu Biao to talk to Liu Bowen. He glanced at his prince guests and said, "My heart hurts! I wish they could have enough food, warm clothes, and shelter from the wind and rain."

  Liu Bowen glanced at the frowning young man: "Your Highness can think so, that is the luck of the world!"

  Zhu Biao asked: "It is said that the master has the talents of the world, but there is a way to quickly restore people's livelihood in Ming Dynasty!"

  Liu Bowen shook his head and said: "I will not be stingy if I have a way, but as the magistrate of Yangzhou said, a clever woman can't cook without rice, and Yangzhou can easily solve it!"

   "The Holy Majesty has seen the situation here, and will definitely arrange manpower and material resources to help Yangzhou after returning, but what about other counties? There are only so many materials in the world now, and it is impossible to support the whole world."

  Zhu Biao also sighed, the reality is like this, he can't conjure up food, he knows high-yield crops such as corn and sweet potatoes, but these are all overseas, and the current situation in Daming is simply unable to explore.

  The materials needed to build a large seagoing ship are terrifying, and Daming can't afford them at all now, and it's impossible for Zhu Yuanzhang to let him waste resources like this just based on his words.

   What's more, the sea is extremely dangerous. Even modern times cannot guarantee that navigation is safe, and no one can guarantee that they will be able to find corn and sweet potato seeds.

  …………

   I didn’t expect that I would add another chapter today, huh (~_~;)

   In fact, four chapters were updated today and one chapter is reserved for tomorrow (▽｀)

   There will be almost 100,000 words tomorrow ()

   A little excited

  (end of this chapter)