Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

PS: [Important reminder (there is no charge for this content)] Chapters 316 to 356 are about the rectification of officialdom and the suppression of rebellions in Jiangnan. They do not contain any theoretical knowledge. They are all practical content. If you are not interested, you can jump directly to Chapter 366. "Class" will contain theoretical knowledge content from now on.

Grain Rain season.

Emperor Yongle officially issued an order, and the national counselor Jiang Xinghuo was responsible for the relief work of Chang, Su, Song, Jia, and Hu prefectures. Song Li, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, and Chen Xuan, the Pingjiang Bo, were responsible for flood control. The second prince Zhu Gaoxu led the tax guards to fight. Practice and quell civil unrest.

Here, for civil and military officials, the last two appointments are easy to understand. Song Li and Chen Xuan are good at water conservancy, and Zhu Gaoxu is good at killing people. But only the first one has caused confusion among many people.

Not only others were puzzled, but Song Li was also puzzled.

It was March, dawn was breaking, and a group of people were walking on the muddy official road.

The mountains and rivers in the distance are dimly colored, and the forests on both sides are full of birdsong after the heavy rain. A gust of wind blows, and the air is filled with a wet smell.

Song Li and Jiang Xinghuo walked side by side, and Song Li finally couldn't help but ask.

"Master Imperial Master, why?"

"You ride well."

Jiang Xinghuo looked up and saw that he was riding a simple little gray horse and Song Li was riding a handsome white horse.

The white horse was given to him by Zhu Gaoxu, but Jiang Xinghuo didn't want to ride it.

Although "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" had already been written by Luo Guanzhong at this time, it was a pity that the story of Lu and Feng Chu was not widely known yet.

"That's not what you're asking about."

Song Li was startled and said, "Why does the Imperial Master go to the disaster relief in person?"

In the distance, a small puddle formed by the diversion of a tributary of Baihe River (an important river in Zhenjiang Prefecture) due to heavy rain blocked the official road. The sentinels who were exploring the road had already turned in. The group could not move forward, so they had to stop where they were and wait for the accompanying sergeant to build a pontoon bridge.

Not far away is Xiaohe Village on the border of Changzhou Prefecture, which is equivalent to entering their mission target area. In this case, no one is in a hurry.

The noisy wind is mixed with the chirping of insects in the water, blowing the wheatgrass in the distance.

In this beautiful and deserted corner, Jiang Xinghuo pondered for a moment and answered Song Li's doubts.

"You all think I shouldn't go."

Song Li nodded. You must know that Jiang Xinghuo is a popular person around the emperor, and he has two new achievements in Taiping Street and the Great Sacrifice Altar. Logically speaking, he does not need to wade into this muddy water to avoid making people jealous. He is a mediocre person. It means that someone gossips and just brushes it off as a fart. There is no need to take the cause and effect on himself.

The sour nonsense of "the imperial master's prayers for rain caused floods in the south of the Yangtze River" is just a fool's errand. If you think about it with some normal logic, you will know that the floods in the south of the Yangtze River are something that only happened this year?

Of course Lord Gonggun knew this, so if they were Jiang Xinghuo, they would definitely not be so courageous in doing things.

As soon as the matter is pushed forward, the ears are closed, and after a while there will be no sound.

The worst case scenario is to send out troops and let Emperor Yongle bear the bad reputation. Anyway, Zhu Di has long been a traitor who usurped the throne and killed the king. "Yan Ni" has been scolded for four years, so he is not afraid of this bad reputation.

Now they are sent to a place like this where a civil uprising has just occurred to provide disaster relief, especially since this is the power of the Jiangnan gentry. How deep-rooted is the deepest place? Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that people from Songjiang Prefecture could not be the chief officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

If a larger-scale civil uprising broke out, or if someone jumped over the wall and resorted to some dirty tricks, it would be like working with their head tied to their belt!

This kind of thing with high risks and high responsibilities, with a lot of effort and little gain, is quite a loss no matter how you calculate it.

What's more, he was also the vice-principal of the Ming Dynasty Royal Military Academy. The military academy had just started operating, so it was simply too willful for him to leave Beijing quietly like this.

However, no matter how much the outside world talks about it, Jiang Xinghuo always looks calm and calm.

On the contrary, Song Li became more and more curious as to whether there was any secret hidden from him.

——This is not possible!

Especially now that he was about to enter Changzhou Mansion, Song Li was even more eager to figure this out.

"Do you think the Jiangnan gentry can provide disaster relief on their own?"

Facing the question about Jiang Xinghuo's soul, Song Li thought for a while and answered.

"Tough."

This was a very pertinent evaluation, and Jiang Xinghuo nodded.

As early as when he "won the reputation of being a brothel" on the Qinhuai River, as the largest gathering place of gossip in a sense in the entire Ming Dynasty, Jiang Xinghuo already knew the virtues of the Jiangnan gentry in the Ming Dynasty.

During the Jingnan Campaign, these people were extremely disappointed with the low level of organization of Jiangnan's manpower and material resources, and their shocking squandering of government power and responsibilities.

At the end of the Battle of Jingnan, the complete war machine that Zhu Yuanzhang left to Zhu Yunwen, the largest in the world, was shredded into pieces by the Jiangnan gentry who were addicted to food, and a lot of resources were wasted on the way. , there are deserters and exiled civilians everywhere. The front line is obviously losing consecutive battles, but the squandering in the rear is becoming more and more shocking.

Originally, Jiang Xinghuo thought that Zhu Di's successful accession to the throne was due to luck, and divine wind helped him in every battle, but now it seems that it was entirely due to the help of the Jiangnan gentry represented by Qitai Huang Zicheng.

Moreover, the performance of the Jiangnan gentry in recent years has completely proved that they have no intention of governing the country and the country, and they do not even pay attention to the safety of floods on their own land.

"Why bother?"

Song Li was startled by this question.

This means that Song Li was not a gentry from the south of the Yangtze River.

He was a native of Yongning, Henan Province. He entered the official career as a supervisor of the Imperial Academy, and then continued to serve abroad. His important resume is that he served as the chief inspector of Shanxi Province during the Hongwu Dynasty, the chief inspector of Shaanxi Province during the Jianwen Dynasty, and Song Li served as a capital official. The time was very short, which is why he was able to write a letter to Emperor Yongle "Indignation" and recommended himself to the reform faction as an undercover agent.

"Because they don't want to provide disaster relief."

Jiang Xinghuo got off his horse and found a shady place covered by trees. He took off his water bag and drank a mouthful of cold water before talking to Song Li simply.

Seeing that Song Li still didn't quite understand the thinking of the Jiangnan gentry, Jiang Xinghuo knew that the other party was good at doing things and had ambitions for an official career, but he was probably not good at buying family properties, so he gave some advice.

"If there were no floods, how long would it take to go from one thousand acres to ten thousand acres?"

They are all smart people, and with just this little hint, Song Li came to his senses.

In fact, this is the same as Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, where every financial crisis was a feast for the giants. The reason is the same. Moreover, the gentry of this era have lower debt ratios and more abundant cash flow.

The Jiangnan gentry with strong family backgrounds were not afraid of floods in one or two years. Floods would only bankrupt ordinary farmers, which would then help the gentry quickly acquire land.

"So the Imperial Master feels that if we continue to let it go, it will harm the whole Jiangnan that has just been initially implemented. That's why he took the initiative to invite Ying to go to the Five Prefectures, hoping to use his own efforts to bring this catastrophe to the people to an end. drop to lowest!"

Song Li looked at Jiang Xinghuo with admiration.

Just when Jiang Xinghuo was about to say something, Wang Bin suddenly came to report.

"National Master, due to continuous heavy rains, the section of Baihe River between Lucheng Town and Benniu Town was diverted directly into the abandoned canal, and then rushed out of the ancient canal road, destroying the ferry in Xiaohe Town. There is currently no boat. The road is blocked."

Jiang Xinghuo took out the map and looked at it, frowning and said, "Does that mean there is no way past this swamp?"

"Yes." Wang Bin was also a little helpless.

At present, land transportation in Jiangnan has been seriously affected by floods and river diversions caused by heavy rains.

Although the rain has stopped temporarily, the situation has not improved at all.

Originally, they could have taken the water route in batches like the tax guards, but one person was really stubborn and insisted on inspecting the customs and customs along the way, so even if he had complaints in his heart, he did not dare to express them.

"Is there any other way around?"

"Yes, there is, but it's a bit far. It takes about forty or fifty miles more."

This means it takes an extra day and a half to travel.

"Let's go."

After discussion, the group decided to take a longer route and continue walking eastward.

There are hundreds of elite soldiers escorting them, so there is nothing wrong with it. After all, judging from the current situation, only the hilly area in the south is relatively flat, and the east is in the direction of Changzhou Prefecture. As long as you can cross the hills, you can walk another hundred In about 10 miles, you should reach Wujin City in Changzhou Prefecture.

Perhaps to modern people, forty or fifty miles is nothing at all. Just step on the accelerator and you'll be there in a moment.

But it's different here. This is the early Ming Dynasty. After leaving the official road, the road we took is not called a "road" at all, and the ground is muddy and slippery due to bad weather.

Normally it wouldn't be a problem if a person walks alone, but in this situation, it is a mixed team of infantry and cavalry, and the soldiers are not like what Jiang Xinghuo played in the TV series in his previous life. They have to wear armor throughout the march, usually one-third to four points. One of them was rotated to prepare for unexpected emergencies, and the armor of others was placed on baggage vehicles or mules and horses.

Even this group of soldiers wearing armor can easily get wind from removing their armor in such weather, not to mention that the path is not easy to walk. If they are not careful, they will fall down or even be injured.

After walking for half a day, the team that had been on the official road with clear banners actually lost the feeling of despair that Prime Minister Cao had been defeated and walked to Huarong Road.

Go around the foot of a mountain.

"There is a quite big village ahead." Wang Bin pointed from a distance.

Jiang Xinghuo, who was planning to conduct an on-the-spot investigation on the disaster relief situation in these areas, was delighted when he heard this. Without on-the-spot investigation on disaster relief matters, it would be easy for the prefects to deceive them. Isn't the reason why he didn't take the ordinary route just to see the truest side of the people?

"You guys are waiting here for now. Wang Bin will pick a few people who are not wearing armor and have knives wrapped around them and come in with me. Mr. Song will come with him."

Song Li had served as the inspector of Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, so he knew nothing about the sufferings of the people, so he readily agreed.

Several people entered the village and saw that the thatched roofs of many houses had collapsed due to the hot weather and the erosion of rain.

There were no pedestrians on the dirt road. The villagers who occasionally saw them hid in their homes. The village seemed quite desolate at the moment.

However, the strange thing is that under the big locust tree in the center of the village, there is a large porridge shed, and many people are eating porridge.

"Is this disaster relief? Or charity porridge?"

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the green-skinned rogue in the porridge shed with some surprise.

Before anyone could be sent to inquire, a child suddenly ran out of the thatched house next to him with his head buried in tears.

"I will not eat!"