Rebirth of the Ming Dynasty: Sixth Generation of Glory, I don't want it

"Affiliation is one thing, and the land reclamation that the prince just mentioned is also a piece of empty paper."

Zhang Chang talked about this matter openly and didn't want to hide it anymore. His sister married into the royal family, and his family and the royal family were like grasshoppers tied to the same rope.

"Nonsense, aren't these disaster victims you brought here to reclaim land? Once they are reclaimed, they are theirs. I won't deduct anything from them!"

Zhu Di blew his beard and said angrily.

Among all the vassal kings, his border troops lived the best, and he treated the newcomers well.

In other vassal states, border troops have been reclaiming wasteland and no complaints have been heard.

"That's because the prince is kind. The north is also vast and populated."

Zhang Changshun flattered him.

"Your Highness knows something and you don't. What you see is that the soldiers are working hard to open up wasteland, but behind the scenes, they actually rely on your support. For ordinary people, it takes two or three years to prepare for one acre of wasteland with the efforts of the whole family. Once they start, they have to open it up in half a year. The risk is huge."

Monk Daoyan took over the conversation.

"not understand."

Zhu Di heard but didn't understand.

"Let me give you an example."

Zhang Chang exchanged a glance with Monk Daoyan and continued to teach Zhu Di about land reclamation.

For example, a family of ten, after the autumn harvest, plans to reclaim land.

The first is site selection.

The new land cannot be too far from the original family land. If it is too far away, it will be difficult to take care of it. There must be a water source for irrigation. There must be room for development to facilitate future reclamation.

In places where people live, it is not easy to find an unowned piece of wasteland that meets the above conditions.

So, it takes a long time just to choose a location.

The second is to prepare food.

When a family reclaims wasteland, they will consume much more physical energy than when they were farming, and it is very likely that their appetite will be twice as much, which means that the family must have at least twice as much food as stored in previous years.

Originally, the old and young in the family would find some odd jobs after the autumn harvest to earn some money to protect themselves against unexpected events. This money should also be reserved in advance, as there are many accidents that may happen when reclaiming land. Carnivorous beasts that do not hibernate in autumn and winter are more ferocious than anything else.

Again, it’s speed.

In autumn, the land is not yet frozen solid, so we should clear the land quickly. When the land freezes in winter, we can’t clear much land in a day. The whole family may have to work together to pick up stones, remove tree roots, and remove grass roots. The land must be cleared before spring. Otherwise, when the spring wind blows and the spring rain comes, snakes, insects, rats, ants, weeds, and trees will come out overnight. The whole winter’s work will be in vain.

Therefore, a family of ten must at least tighten their belts and save for one to two years before they dare to start reclaiming wasteland.

This is still an ideal situation, as most people don't have that many people in their homes.

If there are few strong laborers in the family and they are forced to do corvée labor by the government, the land reclamation will basically be abandoned halfway, and all the previous investment will go down the drain.

After reclaiming wasteland, you still have to take care of the land, carry water for irrigation, add fertilizer, and sow seeds and cultivate the land.

The input and output in the first year are not proportional.

Although there is no need to pay land tax for the harvest in the next two years, accidents and natural disasters may make the harvest unsatisfactory.

This has led to ordinary people not daring to open up wasteland easily.

"So the border troops can open up wasteland because they don't have too many worries?"

Zhu Di now understood everything completely.

He had previously thought that it was easy to reclaim wasteland in the garrison, and he had always believed that the people were just lazy, complaining about being poor and not having enough food to eat every day. Even though they were allowed to reclaim wasteland, they just refused to do it.

Is it laziness? No, being diligent may actually lead to wasting money.

It's because my father's benevolent policies are not down-to-earth.

"Yes, Your Highness. Actually, when it comes to the reclamation of wasteland by the people, there is indeed some, a lot of it, but it is not included in the Fish Scale Book. The same is true for the population. In Yongcheng, my father said that the number of people has increased by more than 20%, but the numbers in the Yellow Book are still the same."

Zhang Chang sighed.

"Headache!!!"

Zhu Di held his forehead.

Xu told him about the norm in dynastic history:

Generally speaking, the country will prosper during the reign of the founding emperor and when the successors take over. As long as the emperor is not too bad and the court policies are reasonable, the national strength will reach a relative peak within a hundred years.

A hundred years later, the new emperor had grown up in the palace and had been away from the people for too long. It was easy for him to be ignorant of the sufferings of the people or to indulge in pleasure.

The government will be controlled by the literati, which will lead to corruption, people's livelihood will decline, and eventually the dynasty will be overthrown.

The Ming Dynasty has only been established for 30 years and it is like this?

Doesn't that fully demonstrate that there are big problems with the national policies drafted by one's own father?

If Zhu Yunwen continued to follow his father's path, would the Ming Dynasty be in good shape?

It’s possible that it will collapse before a hundred years.

"It's not something that can be done overnight, Your Majesty, don't worry too much."

Monk Daoyan comforted him.

"I'm not worried, I'm just concerned and frustrated!"

Although Zhu Di made many contingency plans for possible events after his father's death, he would not take action until the enemy took action.

As long as Zhu Yunwen allowed him to run the Yan area well, he would take root and flourish there.

Now that my dad is gone, there is no such thing as going home.

It’s fine for us to just keep a distant relationship as king and subject, since the emperor is far away anyway.

From now on, the place where only Xu was was his home.

Xu never let him worry about family affairs, and his sons grew up smoothly. The family is now harmonious and everyone works together. Even the Crown Prince's wife is a capable woman, and his second son's wife is pregnant.

His family is harmonious and Yan is developing smoothly. What else can he ask for?

He was a little worried about his three sons in the capital, but he didn't think it was necessary because they were all descendants of the Zhu family.

As long as Zhu Yunwen does not act recklessly, in a few years he will be able to request to reduce the power of the princes.

Monk Daoyan said that he had some dragon energy or something, but he still felt that it was not right to ask him to kick someone's stool.

He only made various arrangements to maintain his position in a certain corner, or even to establish himself as king.

But after hearing what Zhang Chang said, it was obvious that his father had been led astray by this group of scholars in his early years. The so-called ancestral teachings and national policies were all in favor of the scholars.

Even my father, who is so independent-minded, was led astray. What about Zhu Yunwen?

He will definitely be led astray by those people, and there is a greater possibility that he will be fooled and lose his way!

The Zhu family conquered the world through fighting, and many military officers and generals died.

His father was disabled, and all of these older princes had scars on their bodies.

The literati reaped the rewards without spending a single drop of blood or sweat.

I, the prince who guards the frontier, have become a conquering general for those pedantic literati.

This really won’t work.

"Captain Zhang!"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Choose two thousand men and form a guard. Call it the Yanshan Queen Guard."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

[Small science: Before Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, started his rebellion, he controlled three guards, namely the Central Guard of Yanshan, the Left Guard and the Right Guard, collectively known as the Three Guards of Yanshan. The guards in the article are fictitious.]