Wandering the Heavens

Zhu Qiyu suddenly remembered that he seemed to have never been to the Governor's Office. Over the years, he had only been stamping on memorials, such as which general was promoted, which general was arrested for corruption and occupation of military land, how much money was needed to replenish supplies in which place, etc. Because they reported specific data and facts without any roundabout words of saints, he had never paid attention to what was going on inside.

This was Zhu Qiyu's first time to visit the Five Military Governor's Office. The defense here was tighter than that of the Forbidden City. Even the eunuch Xing'an, who was Zhu Qiyu's personal attendant, was turned away. Only the emperor was allowed to enter. The soldiers guarding the Governor's Office did not even give the emperor face.

Zhu Qiyu could only enter the yamen alone under the guidance of the military officer. As soon as he entered, he found that the guards here were extremely strict. There was a guard post at each door, and the corresponding passwords were different.

When he arrived outside the lobby of the Governor's Mansion, he found that this lobby was different from other buildings. It was made entirely of bluestone, and there were some cloth bags piled up in the corners of the wall, and no one knew what they were used for. It was more like a fortress than a lobby.

"I will see you, Your Majesty!"

After the officer who led him in exchanged the last password, Zhu Qiyu was finally able to enter the fortress. On the wall facing the gate, there were no extra words or decorations except the eight characters "loyal to the imperial power, loyal to the Ming Dynasty". In front of the eight characters was a round table, in the middle of which was the seal of the Five Commanders-in-Chief, and seven chairs were lined up at the foot of the wall.

The left and right walls are covered with stone maps, one side is a detailed map of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, and the other side is a rough map of the Ming Dynasty and the various vassal states.

In the middle of the hall is a huge sand table, which represents the current territory of the Ming Dynasty. Mountains, rivers, plateaus and plains can all be seen. It turns out that this is what the Ming Dynasty looked like.

"Everyone is safe!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"I recently received a memorial saying that the Left General was leading a fleet to enforce the maritime ban issued by Emperor Taizu Gao at sea. It suddenly occurred to me that although Xuanwu Bo has served as the Left General since the 14th year of Zhengtong, he has been away fighting most of the time. So I wanted to come to the Governor's Office to see how it operates when he is away." Zhu Qiyu looked at the seven people standing in the front and said slowly.

"Your Majesty, after the Earl of Xuanwu took over the Governor's Office, he established the General Military Affairs Office, which is composed of the Logistics Department, the Strategy Department, the Training Department, the Operations Department, the Military Constitutional Department, and the Intelligence Department. There are a total of 500 military staff, and they are assigned to be in charge of the three departments and three bureaus mentioned above according to the weight of the current situation. Finally, the proposals are drafted and handed over to the seven of us including me for discussion. The results of the discussion will be stamped with the five great seals and reported to the emperor!" The general standing in the first position stepped forward to explain.

"You guys are great!"

Zhu Qiyu looked at the military advisor who was speaking with full of energy, and felt a sense of weakness rising from the bottom of his heart. He did not expect that the Duke of Xuanwu would reorganize the Governor's Office into such a form, and it could operate normally even without the chief officer.

"Tell me, what are you doing now?"

"Your Majesty, please move." The military staff officer led Zhu Qiyu to the sand table and took over a thin pole, pointing to an area with alternating yellow and white colors.

"Your Majesty, the Tatars and the Oirat tribes are currently at war, and the Ming army is taking the opportunity to stabilize the Hexi Corridor. They are now opening up a road from Lanzhou to Jiayuguan. The plan is to march west through Jiayuguan to recapture the Western Regions after all the Mongols have been naturalized. The Intelligence Department has already infiltrated the Western Regions and is drawing detailed maps and gathering information on the population, city distribution, water sources, and people's customs and religions."

"How many troops are needed for such a large piece of land?" Zhu Qiyu sighed as he looked at the area.

"Your Majesty, how many troops are needed? At present, the General Military Affairs Office is unable to calculate it due to incomplete intelligence." The combat staff replied honestly.

"I don't know how much production will be delayed for the people if we resort to war."

Zhu Qiyu obviously had no interest in the Western Regions. That place was far away and no taxes could be collected there. Moreover, he would have to pay money to go there. So why take it back?

“Your Majesty, please rest assured. According to the current calculations of the Strategic Department, it will not be possible to recover the Western Regions militarily within ten years. Before that, it is only necessary to upgrade the pipelines in the Hexi Corridor, which will not delay people’s production. On the contrary, the Lanzhou to Jiayuguan Highway, which was supervised by the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Works, was built entirely by recruited Mongolians. People along the way criticized why corvée labor was not imposed locally.” The military staff informed Zhu Qiyu of the progress of the implementation of this strategic layout.

"Why?" Zhu Qiyu never expected that one day the people of the Ming Dynasty would have objections to not levying corvee labor.

Corvée labor was a hurdle that every citizen of the Ming Dynasty had to face. If one was truly unable to perform physical labor, then one could redeem the corvée labor by paying an equivalent amount of silver to the government.

After Yu Qian entered the cabinet, he began to gradually stop the large-scale levy of corvee labor. Now the only levies are small local projects, such as road repairs and water conservancy facilities maintenance in the county, and there are strict restrictions. The project volume must be reported to the Ministry of Works for calculation, and then submitted to the Ministry of Households for funding. The corvee must be responsible for the food, living and safety of the people during the corvee.

For projects like repairing large rivers, funds were directly allocated to the river government to recruit workers. In fact, the money was given to the water transport government, because only the water transport workers in the water transport government could organize so many people.

"I and others infer that it is because of the difficult living conditions along the way and the changes in the corvée system of the imperial court that they want to solve the problem of food and clothing for their families by joining the corvée." Speaking of this military adviser, he felt a little disappointed.

"So that's how it is." Zhu Qiyu nodded in agreement.

There were only a few prosperous places in the Ming Dynasty, and the city of Beijing depended on the canal transportation for survival. Just because the capital was here, life was not bad when it was Yanfan. However, after the Fengtian Jingnan, the King of Sai was abolished, and the court's support for the border was greatly weakened, making the already difficult border even worse.

Zhu Qiyu's idea was to ask the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works of the Cabinet to formulate some corresponding policies for these poor areas to provide some protection.

After visiting the Western Regions, Zhu Qiyu looked at other places. This sand table and the two maps on the wall brought great shock to him who had grown up in the deep palace. The Ming Dynasty became concrete. These were things that the teachers who taught him to read since childhood had never mentioned. He couldn't help but envy Zhu Jianshen who was taken outside by Yu Xian.

This is the world of the Ming Dynasty! I am the master of this world! But I can only stay in the Forbidden City and cannot go out to walk on the street as I please...

After leaving the Governor's Office, Zhu Qiyu returned to the Forbidden City and looked at the pile of memorials. What the hell are they? Either they are asking for Zhu Jianshen's reinstatement, or they are asking for him to be reinstated. It's fine for officials in Beijing to do such things, but why are local officials joining in the fun? Don't papers cost money? Don't post stations and postmen cost money?

Look at the Governor's Office. They say directly what they want to do. It is much more straightforward than these memorials that are so vague and confusing to read!

"Xing'an, take all these things and burn them. I'm getting angry just looking at them!"

"The slaves obey the order."

Xing'an was also angry. As the emperor's personal eunuch, he did not expect to be turned away at the Governor's Mansion today. Before going in, the emperor was planning to vent his anger, but after coming out, he no longer had this idea. As a senior eunuch, he also had to find a place to vent his anger.

Then a spectacular scene appeared at the entrance of the hall. Emperor Zhu Qiyu stood in front of the brazier and threw the memorials he had selected into the brazier one by one, watching with his own eyes these glaring words turn into a pile of ashes in the flames.

He felt relieved, but the Jinyiwei were ready to put out the fire at any time, carrying dozens of buckets of water as if they were facing a formidable enemy.

This childish revenge left the important officials dumbfounded, but no one took it seriously and continued to submit petitions. They would not stop until the issue of the successor was resolved.

The quarrel lasted for a whole year. By the seventh year of Jingtai, the issue of succession had not yet been resolved, and Zhu Qiyu's health was visibly weakening.

By the end of the year, I was seriously ill!