jdhmnovel Chapter 703 Oh, so you, Zhu Chongba, know how to scheme?
Chapter 703 Oh, so you, Zhu Chongba, know how to scheme?
Emperor Zhu was constantly calculating the large number of people in the population.
In the first year of the Hongwu reign, the Ming Dynasty had a population of just over 50 million.
In the second year of the Hongwu reign, after all those unregistered households and slaves were inventoried and registered as civilians, the population of the Ming Dynasty soared to 60 million.
By the end of the fourth year of the Hongwu reign, the Ministry of Revenue had tallied a total population of over 67 million, heading straight for 70 million.
If this growth continues, by the tenth year of the Hongwu reign, the population of our Great Ming Dynasty will exceed ninety million or even ten million.
Empress Ma simply smiled at Emperor Zhu's beautiful vision and said, "The increase in population is only one aspect. The most important thing is that after the community schools are established, our Great Ming will never lack scholars again. You, as the emperor, will no longer have to worry about not having enough scholars, nor will you need to make some officials work in shackles."
Emperor Zhu nodded repeatedly and replied, "Yes, my sister is right. These words really hit the nail on the head."
"Damn it, they all rely on the fact that they've had a few years of education. Either they're unwilling to serve as officials, or they're corrupt and harm the people when they are in office."
"Once our Great Ming Dynasty no longer lacks scholars, let's see if they can still laugh!"
At this point, Emperor Zhu suddenly stopped talking, staring blankly at Empress Ma, and said, "Oh no!"
Empress Ma was slightly taken aback and asked, "What's broken?"
Emperor Zhu smacked his lips and sighed, "Didn't your good son-in-law go to Huai'an Prefecture to investigate the child case and the ironware case before?"
Empress Ma nodded slightly, and Emperor Zhu continued, "Back then, our Biao'er wrote a letter saying that he wanted to send all the Jinshi graduates from the special imperial examination of the fifth year of Hongwu to Huai'an so that they could study under your good son-in-law for a while. But your good son-in-law abandoned Huai'an Prefecture and ran back to Ningyang County..."
As Emperor Zhu finished speaking, Empress Ma couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.
Good grief, the case is only half-solved.
No one cared about the three hundred scholars who passed the imperial examinations.
The problem is that we can't send that bastard to Huai'an Prefecture yet.
At the very least, people should not be driven away until the problem with the steam engine is solved.
After pondering for a moment, Empress Ma's eyes suddenly lit up, and she smiled, "Isn't this a coincidence?"
"Biao'er said that the three hundred scholars who passed the imperial examinations should study under your good son-in-law for a period of time, but he didn't say what they should study."
"In my opinion, it would be better to bring those three hundred imperial examination graduates to Ningyang County and put them directly under his command."
"As for what they can learn, whether they will become officials, be tricked into going to Dengzhou University, or be sent to Dengzhou Market by him, there is no need to care."
"After all, the most important thing right now is to deal with this drought."
Emperor Zhu clicked his tongue, complaining with great dissatisfaction: "That's true, but it's too lenient on that scoundrel..."
Before he could finish speaking, Erhu rushed over and handed a letter to Emperor Zhu, bowing and saying, "Your Majesty, this is a letter sent by His Highness the Crown Prince on horseback."
"The Ministry of Works has already sent people to search for coal and iron mines."
"The Cabinet and the Ministry of Works have already discussed matters concerning the manufacture and promotion of water presses."
"Take this opportunity to change the Pacification Commissioner's Office and the Pacification and Consolation Commissioner's Office into prefect
Zhu Biao wrote very little in his letter, but Emperor Zhu couldn't help but laugh after reading it.
"Girl, look at this, it has to be our Biao'er."
Emperor Zhu handed the letter to Empress Ma, his old face beaming with a smile as bright as a blooming chrysanthemum: "None of us thought of taking advantage of the drought to change the Xuanfu Division and Xuanwei Division into prefectures and counties, but our Biao'er did. Good, he's better than his father."
"Especially the last paragraph, which connects the water pump with the land reclamation project and then entrusts this matter to that bastard."
Emperor Zhu clicked his tongue and said with a smile, "This time he won't be thinking about going to Japan again, will he?"
Empress Ma nodded slightly, smiled meaningfully, and said, "Entrusting this matter to your good son-in-law is indeed a good idea, but once your good son-in-law is free..."
Emperor Zhu chuckled dryly twice and said, "This was caused by Biao'er, what does it have to do with us?"
After unhesitatingly shifting the blame onto Zhu Biao, Emperor Zhu said with a smile, "We have a plan that can make that scoundrel go and implement the policy of replacing local chieftains with centrally appointed officials."
Seeing Emperor Zhu's shrewd yet somewhat clueless expression, Empress Ma almost burst out laughing.
Do you have another plan?
Oh, so you, Zhu Chongba, are also good at stratagems?
……
Emperor Zhu has been very busy lately.
On one side was a water pump, and on the other was a steam engine. Emperor Zhu would spend almost every morning watching people install water pumps for the people, and then in the afternoon he would go to the ironworks to watch the development of the steam engine.
The problem was that Emperor Zhu not only had to go and see it himself, but he also often had to bring Yang Shaofeng along.
After being dragged by Emperor Zhu to watch the development of the steam engine for several days in a row, Yang Shaofeng finally snapped and lost his temper.
"I just noticed the kettle lid being pushed up when it boils, so I wondered if it could be used to connect to a water pump. I really don't understand how this broken thing is made!"
"If you like to read it, then go ahead and read it yourself. I haven't even finished writing my own memorial yet."
Emperor Zhu was not angry at all. Instead, he asked with a smile, "Memorial? What is it about?"
Yang Shaofeng rolled his eyes and said, "It's a memorial about whether the Censorate should be reformed, and it mainly concerns whether local officials should still be able to hear cases in the future."
Emperor Zhu was somewhat bewildered by Yang Shaofeng's words.
Will local officials still be allowed to adjudicate cases in the future?
What does this mean?
If local officials don't handle cases, are you expecting the prefectural government to do it?
That won't do, damn it.
It would be one thing to hand over murder cases and major cases to the state government for trial, but the problem is that out of every hundred cases in the countryside, more than ninety are trivial matters, like Zhang stealing two chickens from Li or Wang stealing two coins from Zhao. Letting the state government handle these cases is pure nonsense!
Besides, their salaries include the part for adjudicating cases. If they don't even have to adjudicate cases in the future, shouldn't we reduce their salaries?
Seeing Emperor Zhu's bewildered expression, Yang Shaofeng continued, "I think that whether it's county magistrates, prefects, or governors, these officials usually have days for filing complaints and days for settling disputes, and they often make muddle-headed judgments. It would be better to let the Censorate handle the cases directly."
Emperor Zhu nodded slightly, about to echo the sentiment, but then remembered the important matter at hand.
"Well, there's no rush with the memorial. You can take your time."
Emperor Zhu chuckled twice and said, "The most important thing right now is the water pump. This is a major issue concerning the stability of our Ming Dynasty, the livelihood of our people, and also a major issue concerning the replacement of the chieftains with centrally appointed officials."
After a slight pause, Emperor Zhu looked at Yang Shaofeng again and asked, "Do you know how many Tusi (chieftains) there are in our Great Ming Dynasty?"
Yang Shaofeng shook his head directly.
Emperor Zhu sighed slightly and said, "More than two thousand chieftains, more than two thousand."
PS: Regarding the population data, the data in the Veritable Records and the History of Ming are quite interesting. They are almost all over 50 million and 60 million people, and this is the case every year, which is completely inconsistent with the normal population growth pattern.