Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 1086: Patrol incognito
"Old Fifth, what do you think of these people?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked Zhu Su in a testing tone.

"What else can we do? They are so bold that they have teamed up with the remnants of the Japanese rebels to assassinate the king."

"If we don't kill them all, how can we demonstrate the majesty of the court?"

Old Zhu laughed, and his attitude towards this matter was nonchalant. He turned to Xu Da and said, "Look, look, your son-in-law has led troops frequently in recent years, and he has become much more decisive in killing."

Xu Da also laughed. He had been a prime minister when the country was first founded. Now he was balancing the grassland situation in Helin, and his ability to handle government affairs was even more refined, like an old fox.

He smiled at Zhu Su and said:

"It's just those people who took action... They lost their interests and their official positions. But what those people represent is the general trend of this world."

"Killing one or two people won't cause any harm, but if you are determined to track them down, it will involve too many people."

"You can do it?"

Zhu Su sneered and said, "Father-in-law, even if this didn't happen, I would still persuade my father and my elder brother to discipline these people."

"Our Ming Dynasty has been developing for more than 30 years, and has accumulated too many scumbags!"

"If we don't kill or maim these bastards, believe it or not, the livelihoods we have created for the people will eventually be plundered by them and become their money for squandering."

"Now they haven't reacted yet, and they just think that our king and ministers want to cut off their survival, so they resorted to this desperate measure."

"When they realize this, hmph! That's when they'll plot to seize the fruits of our hard work."

Ever since he learned the reasons for the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang has been trying every possible way to suppress these landlords from annexing land over the past few decades.

In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, there was a large population and a large land area, and conflicts were not acute. The landlords enclosed their lands, and the court divided up its lands.

Later, when the population of the Ming Dynasty gradually increased and the distribution of land became saturated, the landlords began to follow the old methods, preparing to take advantage of natural disasters or lending money to exploit the labor of self-cultivating farmers, swallow up their land, and make them tenants.

But they suddenly discovered that they could no longer swallow up the farmers' land.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao, who had long known the tragedy of the Ming Dynasty in the future, worked tirelessly over the past few decades to govern the country and introduced many targeted measures.

Famine in a disaster year? The Ming Dynasty promoted new crops from Fengmingzhou, which increased production and income. Now almost every farmer has some surplus food, and the threat of famine to farmers has been greatly reduced.

The Ming Dynasty also improved the grain chief system of the early Ming Dynasty and transformed it into mutual aid farm organizations similar to the production groups of later generations.

This greatly enhanced the farmers' ability to respond to sudden disasters. Even if there were still disasters that the farmers were unable to cope with, the Ming Dynasty's overseas strategy provided farmers with a better way out than selling land and becoming tenants.

When they really couldn't survive, the people would often choose to send a male from the family to go out to sea with the imperial fleet to make a living.

The demand for Han people overseas can be said to be a bottomless pit, and there is gold everywhere overseas. The imperial court, vassal states, and even imperial merchants with connections to the court are all happy to hire Han people to go out to sea with high salaries.

This salary can help the families who have suffered from the disaster to get through the hardship temporarily. When these Han people who go to sea to work come back, they often bring a huge income to their families.

In addition, there are various policies, such as the treasure note loans provided by the Ming Bank, the immigration plan led by the court, and so on.

Want to annex land? Want to hoard goods in times of disaster? Naive.

This pushed the landlords into a dead end. Gradually, they found that they could not maintain their high status simply by hoarding land.

Even the land that the family had hoarded was not cultivated by many tenants, so they could only hire poor people from Japan or Goryeo to cultivate it. But that was only a drop in the bucket.

Unfortunately, the imperial court abolished the tax-free policy. They owned a large amount of land, but had no tenants to cultivate it, and had to pay high grain taxes...

Moreover, the landlords had the habit of burying gold and silver. The gold ingots and silver winter melons they hid in the cellars were depreciating day by day because of the continuous shipment of gold and silver from Japan and Fengmingzhou.

However, the common people used copper coins and banknotes in their daily lives and were not affected much.

This led to the repeated erosion of the interests of the landlords, who were originally the foundation of feudal society. Moreover, Zhu Su's new learning became the prominent learning in the Ming Dynasty, and they could not even cultivate spokespersons in the court.

They naturally couldn't stand it. The more stable the Ming Dynasty was, the greater the damage to their interests would be.

However, if they evolve a little more and start to get involved in business, they will become the most terrible capitalists in Ming Dynasty... Most of the merchants who have overseas permits in Ming Dynasty still do not have their own absolute foundation. The power of life and death is still in the hands of the court.

If the small peasant mentality of these old landlords changes to that of businessmen, they will become the most terrifying capitalists.

Now they have not started to change their minds, but some people have chosen to wait for an opportunity to assassinate Zhu and stir up trouble in the Ming Dynasty. This is a good excuse to give them a good beating.

The accumulation of capital can stimulate national development, but capital that loses state control will in turn try to control the country...The early Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty in history are both lessons from the past.

Old Zhu seemed to have made up his mind long ago. He drank another glass of wine and then said with a burp, "These people, send a letter to Yingtian and give it to Biaoer to investigate."

"We should take precautions and take this opportunity to arrest and kill some of these people."

"We don't see any signs of this happening yet. Those gentry may not give up their land and start doing business properly."

"However, what you said makes sense. Since you have an idea, I'll leave it to you."

"When they realize that trading has become easy and profitable, they will surely become restless."

"We have already forced them to the point of assassinating us. It is obvious that they are getting desperate. It would be better to give them a beating first."

Zhu Su nodded.

Tang He said: "Compared to these rebels, what I care more about are those Japanese rebels."

"Among the Japanese in the East China Sea, the Yuan people in the north, and the natives in the south, there are always some who will rebel," said Tang He.

"Although it is just a minor illness, it is enough to show that our Ming Dynasty is still far from having complete control over the newly acquired territories."

"It's okay. The court will give more assistance to you vassals to help you gain a firm foothold in your fiefdom." Old Zhu waved his sleeves.

"Once we, the Ming Dynasty, have taken over the land, there is no reason for us to spit it out."

"Then I feel relieved." Tang He got what he wanted and sat back in his chair contentedly.

After reporting, Zhu Su bowed and left, returning to the cabin where Zhu Di, Zhu Chong and others were drinking. Several people asked Zhu Su what he was going to do, and Zhu Su told them about his and Lao Zhu's plan and how to lure these rebels to attack the ironclad ship at night.

Several people immediately turned pale, as they had the courage to come and kill the king. Zhu Di said, "These traitors are really ruthless."

"There are quite a few Yuan Ting rebels on the grassland... This time when I go back, I will plow the grassland a few more times. If I don't kill all these rebels, I will take their surname!"

Zhu Gang also had a gloomy expression on his face. He asked, "Who is the guy who colluded with the Japanese? Have you found out?"

"The Jinyiwei are already following the clues. However, the old man wants to make a bigger fuss. Let big brother use the power of the court to investigate the matter first, and then I will step in." Zhu Su sat down and poured himself a glass of wine.

"The main offender will be beheaded, and all his clans will be exiled to Liaodong, Jiaozhou and other places for labor reform. No matter who is involved, no matter what prominent family they are, they will all be severely punished and all evil will be eradicated."

"In addition, we will also clean up the local hooligans and thugs in each province. Those who have committed serious crimes and can be killed or not, will all be killed!"

"Those who can be exiled or not, shall all be exiled! Punish them severely and strictly!"

"Anyone with a bad record in the past, regardless of their family background, will be sent to the frontier agricultural reclamation corps, supervised by the army, to open up wasteland and reform."

"It can be considered as making good use of waste. Anyone who dares to shield and obstruct will be charged with the same crime and punished even more severely!"

Zhu Gang frowned and said, "Such a wide range of people are implicated. If this continues, your reputation will be completely ruined."

"So what if it's destroyed?" Zhu Su said, looking like a dead pig that is not afraid of boiling water. "After accompanying the old man to tour the world, I will pat my butt and go to Fengmingzhou."

"This tour of the country is intended to clear up the deep-rooted problems of the world. The Ming Dynasty has developed too fast in the past thirty years, and there are always some residual hidden dangers in some corners."

"To be able to accomplish something like this is a great achievement for the present and will benefit future generations."

"That's true." Zhu Gang nodded and agreed with Zhu Su's statement.

After accompanying the old man on his journey across the land of the Ming Dynasty, they will each go to their own fiefdoms.

In the future, when we go our separate ways, there is really no need to worry about this so-called bad reputation.

"You are worthy of heaven and earth, and you will be praised and criticized in due course... Lao Wu, your tolerance is somewhat like that of the ancient saints."

"I am a saint and the founder of a new school of thought..." Zhu Su said with a bit of arrogance.

Zhu Gang then scolded Zhu Su with a smile, and then the few of them started chatting and laughing again, skipping the topic of the assassination.

The Ming Dynasty has reached its current level. This matter can be considered a big deal, but it can also be considered a small deal.

After all, even if the Ming Dynasty wants to uproot the landlord class, it now has the strength to do so.

After thirty years of operation, the Ming Dynasty's control over China has far surpassed that of all other dynasties.

Backed by abundant overseas resources and possessing the foresight gained from time travelers, the Ming Dynasty already had the capital to strike back at these feudal landlords.

……

The assassination episode passed quickly, and under the interrogation of the Jinyiwei, the landlords who participated in the assassination were soon confessed. Led by Prince Zhou Zhu Su and tacitly approved by Emperor Yiwen Zhu Biao, a very bloody collective punishment and revenge was launched against these people.

All of a sudden, all the big landlords in half of Jiangnan were in danger, and many long-standing landlord families were uprooted.

At the same time, an imperial edict was sent to Wakoku, and the Ouchi family, the umbrella of the rebellious samurai far away in Wakoku, also suffered a devastating blow.

Old Zhu and Zhu Su used this tour as bait and successfully eliminated a hidden danger for the Ming Dynasty.

But at the time of this turmoil, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Su and their companions had already arrived in the Zhongdu Fengyang, and began their tour as if they had nothing to do with these things.

Fengyang City is the temporary capital of Zhongdu.

In the early years of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang spent a lot of effort to build Zhongdu. He not only sent his trusted generals such as Mu Ying and Li Wenzhong to supervise the construction of Zhongdu, but also moved many wealthy families and common people to enrich the not-so-developed Fengyang City.

After all, this is Lao Zhu's hometown. As the saying goes, if you don't return home when you are rich and powerful, it's like traveling at night in a luxurious outfit. Lao Zhu was very extravagant when it came to Fengyang.
Therefore, the scale of the royal palace in Zhongdu Fengyang was comparable to that of the imperial city in Yingtianfu.

At this time, Zhongdu was warm as spring and filled with laughter.

"Grandpa Emperor, you have become a wealthy landlord!"

Seeing Old Zhu changing into that extravagant purple official uniform, Zhu Youdun, Zhu Su's good son who had just learned to walk, stood beside Old Zhu and spoke curiously.

Beside him, Zhu Su, Zhu Chong, Zhu Gang, Zhu Di, as well as the twenty or so princes' sons and grandsons brought by Old Zhu, all looked at Old Zhu with curiosity.

Zhu Di, a naughty kid who has been naughty all his life, couldn't hold back his laughter. He looked like a professional who couldn't help laughing, and he really deserved a beating.

Old Zhu kindly picked up Zhu Youdun, pinched his little face, and said, "Grandpa Emperor deliberately dressed like this."

"After dressing like this, can Youdun still recognize Grandpa Huang?"

"I recognize him! The Emperor has always been the Emperor, of course Youdun recognizes him." Zhu Youdun said in a baby voice.

Old Zhu laughed loudly, then glanced at Zhu Di and said, "Old Four."

"Ah?" Zhu Di hurriedly said, "Dad, what's wrong?"

"You are smiling so happily, I guess you don't like wearing this dress either?"

"Erhu, go get some servant's clothes and put them on Lao Si."

"Everyone else, hurry up and change your clothes. Today, I will take you to have a good tour of Fengyang City."

The children had never seen such a novel scene before. They all cheered and changed their clothes with the help of the palace maids and eunuchs.

Zhu Di looked like an eggplant hit by frost, with a look of having eaten a fly, because the clothes that other people got were the clothes of the sons and relatives of the landlords.

But I can only wear the clothes of a servant.

A wealthy landlord took a large group of his descendants out for a stroll, but he himself was the only one wearing the clothes of a servant... What kind of thing is this?
Zhu Su patted Zhu Laosi's shoulder to comfort him, and then Zhu Chong, Zhu Gang, and Zhu Zhen took turns patting his shoulder and went to change their clothes.

Zhu Di could only put on a bitter face and change into the clothes of a servant under the teasing gaze of Old Zhu.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan was completely humiliated.

(End of this chapter)