Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 228 Hmm. I have a bit of a people-pleasing personality

Although Duoduo's army had withdrawn to Jiangbei at this time, there were still many scattered Qing troops left in Suzhou.

According to common sense, these Qing troops were already doomed. As long as the Ming army continued to blockade them with the advantage of its navy, it was unlikely that even the large group hiding in Suzhou City would cause any trouble under the heavy siege.

But the reality did not leave Zhu Cilang so much time.

The sooner we clear out the enemy in Jiangnan, the sooner we can focus on internal rectification. The sooner we exercise actual control over Jiangnan, the sooner we can launch a counterattack against the Qing army in Jiangxi.

At a time when the southwestern and southeastern provinces still had ambiguous attitudes, the sooner the connection with Hunan could be established, the sooner the influence of the small court could be spread.

Therefore, in Zhu Cilang's original plan, he only planned to stay in Hangzhou for one or two days, and then go to Suzhou and Songjiang in order to eliminate the remaining Qing troops as soon as possible.

Under such circumstances, it would be unlikely for him to return to Yingtian within a few months, so it was particularly necessary for him to meet with the several officials who were about to take office in Hangzhou.

Of course, there are differences between seeing and seeing.

For example, Zhu Cilang and the cabinet ministers had already reached a tacit understanding on the major government affairs of the court, so the inquiries to Zhu Datian were naturally just routine matters.

The city of Hangzhou is a well-deserved logistics center. Although its local power was damaged at the hands of Ruan Dacheng, it was not completely controlled by Zhu Cilang. Therefore, the instructions to Zhu Guobi and Zhang Yinli carried a deeper meaning.

Everyone had actually guessed this in their minds a long time ago, but when His Royal Highness the Crown Prince passed over the Minister of Works Li Yongmao and left him alone, both Zhu Guobi, who had been dealing with Zhu Cilang for several months, and Zhu Dadian, who had only met His Royal Highness the Crown Prince a few times, were surprised.

Since the establishment of the Ministry of Works, the duties of this office have been limited to construction and supervision.

In times of peace, the imperial court had extra money. Although the Ministry of Works could not change its position at the bottom of the six ministries, at least a large amount of money flowed through it, so its situation was not embarrassing.

But now?

It is said that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has collected a lot of money through various means, but whether it is the reward money for the soldiers or the resettlement and relief of the refugees, there are huge gaps to be made.

After all these are settled, the money in His Highness's hands will probably be just enough for the Ministry of Works to manufacture armor and weapons and repair the damaged city. But is there any reason to leave Li Yongmao alone?
Such doubts appeared in everyone's mind, but since His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had no intention of mentioning it to them, everyone said goodbye and left after talking about the relevant matters.

"Do you know why I left you alone?"

After everyone left and there were only two people left in the hall, the Crown Prince's words finally reached the ears of Li Yongmao, who was filled with trepidation.

"Your Highness, I am a dull and incompetent minister."

After hearing what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said, Li Yongmao first bowed in greeting, and then expressed his doubts without any reservation.

To be honest, although he felt a little disappointed when he learned that he would be appointed Minister of Works, he still did his homework in a proper manner.

After all, although he nominally followed the Crown Prince to defend Hangzhou during the Battle of Suzhou and Songjiang, it was actually Fang Guoan's troops who had been fighting against the Tartars.

In this light, he was promoted to a second-rank official in the imperial court despite being a criminal who had lost most of his jurisdiction. Apart from being grateful for the grace from heaven, there was probably not much else he could say.

"It's not about whether you are stupid or not," Zhu Cilang said, waving his hand, obviously disagreeing with his humble words: "In your opinion, which is more powerful, firearms or crossbows?"

"Naturally, firearms are more powerful."

"Then why were our soldiers, almost all of whom were armed with weapons, forced into this state by the Tartars?"

"This"

Li Yongmao dragged out the sound, as if this question was extremely difficult for him to answer. However, given the state of the Ming Dynasty, ordinary people might have attributed it to one or two incompetent rulers and treacherous ministers. But how could a figure like Li Yongmao, who was a third or second-rank official in the court, look at the problem from a superficial perspective?

More than a year had passed since the fall of Beijing. With Li Yongmao's talent and experience, he could not have written a 100,000-word paper, but to say that he would be stumped by such a question was a bit misleading.

To put it bluntly, the reason why he was so hesitant was just to buy a moment to make final preparations in his mind.

"There are only two of us here, so just speak your mind. Don't try to follow their tricks of guessing what's going on."

"Your Highness, in my opinion, the reason why the Ming Dynasty retreated to Jiangnan is nothing more than the factional struggles in the court and the empty treasury."

"Oh? What do you mean by factional strife in the court? What do you mean by an empty treasury?"

Originally, Zhu Cilang wanted to use that question to lead Li Yongmao somewhere else, but when Li Yongmao actually told him the two major shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty in detail, he couldn't help but want to hear what the real "locals" would think.

After a long while, Li Yongmao finally told all his opinions, while Zhu Cilang sat in the main seat with a frown on his face, not saying a word. He seemed to be in deep thought, or as if he had forgotten to react because of shock.

Most of his understanding of this period of history came from later historians. Although many materials about the Ming Dynasty at that time were distorted beyond recognition due to the deliberate tampering of some people, in the years when people's wisdom was greatly broadened, they were still able to restore the truth to a certain extent through clues.

The reason why Zhu Cilang was so surprised that he forgot to react was precisely because Li Yongmao's statement was very similar to the cognition of later generations.

In Li Butang's view, the essence of the party struggles was that various places attempted to exclude dissidents and monopolize the government because of the economic dominance of Jiangsu and Zhejiang; the empty national treasury was caused by Zhang Juzheng's emphasis on silver and abolition of currency.

Of course, due to the limitations of the times, Li Yongmao could not say things like the bourgeoisie was seizing power, and he himself did not know what it meant to hand over the right to mint coins to others.

But this did not prevent Zhu Cilang from understanding what he meant, and because of his words, he changed his opinion of this hesitant and indecisive provincial governor.

"Listening to your words is worth ten years of reading. What Li Butang said is really to the point."

Huh~~~~~~~~.

Hearing the Crown Prince's generous praise, Li Yongmao finally breathed a sigh of relief.

To be able to say this, Li Yongmao took a huge risk. But if he had no confidence in His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, how could he risk the ruin of his entire family by saying this in such an occasion?
Indeed, in the first few days after he arrived in Hangzhou with his troops, he did feel a little resentful because of the Crown Prince's neglect. After all, at that time, those who were sent by the Crown Prince to encircle and suppress Nikan's troops were considered to be confidants, while those who were left in Hangzhou to fool around like him were more or less cautious.

However, Li Yongmao was not like those people in Donglin who would plot revenge if they failed. Although he felt that the Crown Prince was somewhat distant from him, he still did his best to complete the task of assisting Fang Guoan's troops to defend Hangzhou.

But when His Royal Highness the Crown Prince entrusted such an important task to me that night, everything changed.

The previous deliberate alienation became a protection to a certain extent, and the subsequent entrusting of the task of defending Hangzhou was a clear expression of trust.

In fact, Li Yongmao had analyzed the internal causes of this series of changes in his mind these days. After thinking about it for a while, he finally believed that the root of all this was that he had been a subordinate of Ma Shiying.

Just imagine, at that time, how could His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, whose own strength was not superior to that of Hangzhou, really rely on potential enemies?

After figuring this out, although Li Yongmao didn't know when His Royal Highness the Crown Prince confirmed his loyalty, he still believed that a gentleman would die for his friend. His Royal Highness had entrusted him with important tasks many times, so how could he lie to him out of concern for his own safety?

But to his surprise, after hearing these heartfelt words, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince only pondered for a moment and then changed the subject, with no intention of continuing the conversation any further.

Such a situation made Li Yongmao, who had already prepared himself mentally, feel like he had punched nothing.

"If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your weapons. Our dynasty's firearms have many drawbacks. It's not enough to fire only one or two in battle. Many soldiers were injured by the explosion of their own firearms. How can the soldiers fight with peace of mind in such a situation?"

"Your Highness, do you mean to order me to put an end to these abuses?"

After hearing what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said, although Li Yongmao was still a little breathless from the previous few sentences, he still understood the main idea.

In fact, as a vassal who had led troops, he was not completely ignorant of these things. It was just that in his opinion, the soldiers' fear of risking their lives in battle and the crudely cast firearms and military equipment were all superficial, so he had not mentioned any of them in his previous answer.

"This is just a minor detail. If that's all, we can just send some imperial messengers to keep an eye on it. How can we use your talent?"

Seeing Li Yongmao's reaction, Zhu Cilang couldn't guess what he was really thinking, but it wasn't difficult to figure out three or four points. When he focused all his attention on himself again, he slowly said, "Everyone knows that the pre-Qin dynasty won the world with its sharp weapons, but no one knows where this sharpness came from."

Taking the examples from the pre-Qin period as an example, Zhu Cilang explained the concepts of modular production and assembly line operation to Li Yongmao in detail.

To be honest, he knew what the so-called industrialization could bring to the Ming Dynasty, but he had no idea about its specific implementation.

In the novels he had read in the past, it seemed that if a craftsman was taught the principles of the steam engine, that epoch-making thing would easily appear on this land like mushrooms after rain.

But as a person with rich practical experience, he knew that things would never be that simple.

Were the warships that Zheng He used to sail to the West advanced?
But it had no soil to survive in a completely self-sufficient place like the Ming Dynasty. Once the emperor who loved it passed away, the thing would be put aside like a children's toy and no one would care about it anymore.

Take the steam engine for example.

People in later generations all say that Chinese science lags behind that of the West, but they don’t know the real reason why this thing did not appear in China first.

According to research, the first steam engines were used to pump water in mines. However, the labor cost in China was extremely cheap, and there was no motivation to use machinery to replace manual labor, so there was naturally no need to design such an object.

Otherwise, with China's thousands of years of history of utilizing the power of nature, if it really felt necessary to use a machine to replace manual labor, it would only take 20 to 30 years to accomplish. How could it really allow a group of talented and civilized generals to come to the front?

Therefore, in Zhu Cilang's view, the real difficulty in making the Ming Dynasty change its ways does not lie in those simple technologies that are easy to understand, but in how to cultivate a soil suitable for the growth of mechanical civilization.

Otherwise, when he was alive, his subordinates would follow his likes and it would not be difficult for them to develop some strange and lewd skills. But if he passed away one day, who can say for sure whether those things that were not of much use in the eyes of scholars would be put aside like the warships that sailed to the West?
After a while, Zhu Cilang was already talking till his mouth was dry, while Li Yongmao had a dazed look on his face, as if His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had taught him the method of becoming an immortal.

Although Zhu Cilang, as a second generation human, felt somewhat helpless about this reaction, he also knew that it was impossible for humans to imagine things they had never seen with their own eyes. How could he expect Li Yongmao to understand these things after just listening once?

"Well, you must remember what I said, but you must not... Li Butang, Li Butang? Li Yongmao!"

"Ah! Your Highness, please forgive me, my lord."

"It doesn't matter."

After shouting several times, Li Yongmao, whose mind was already a mess, finally came to his senses. When he was about to apologize for his distraction, he saw that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince just waved his hand without showing any intention of blaming him.

"I know this is difficult for you, but this matter concerns China's national destiny for hundreds of years to come. If we cannot accomplish it in our lifetime, then future generations will have to make thousands of times more sacrifices and efforts. The so-called merits and demerits are in this generation, while the benefits will be for thousands of years. Do you understand?"

"Bright"

Hearing the Crown Prince's question, Li Yongmao instinctively wanted to respond, but he only uttered the word "Ming" and paused because of doubt in his heart.

According to the description of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, as long as his Ministry of Works does all the miscellaneous tasks well, then in the near future, the people of the Ming Dynasty will be able to live a well-fed and warmly clothed life, and the court will have endless money to spend.

By then, not to mention the little red-haired devils and the Portuguese, even the Jiannu, who almost pushed the Ming Dynasty into a desperate situation, will surely return to the rule of the king.

If the time really comes as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said, to establish a mind for heaven and earth, to establish a destiny for the people, to carry on the unique knowledge of the ancient sages, and to bring peace to the world for all generations, it will not be just empty words in the books of sages, and Li Yongmao, as an important minister who assisted the king in achieving this, should also leave a strong mark in the history books.

Can.
Is this really possible?

With this in mind, Li Yongmao couldn't help but glance at the Crown Prince's face. When the conspicuous scar appeared in his field of vision, his mood gradually calmed down.

"Bai! I will definitely assist your majesty in achieving unparalleled achievements!"

I suddenly realized one thing: in pursuit of rationality, we must do enough work on the preliminary preparation, but if we do enough preparation, the subsequent specific process will be dull as water, and I prefer to use a grand plan. This is really too difficult to grasp.

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(End of this chapter)