Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 495 His Majesty is very happy!

With the end of the Huai'an War, the waterway from the Yangtze River into the Huanghuai River was completely opened.

At this point, the Ming army's inland fleet could not only advance along the Yellow River to Xuzhou and Kaifeng, but also advance along the Huai River to Hefei and Xiangyang.

Under such circumstances, not to mention Lianghuai and Nanyang, even the four provinces of Shanhe have to be on guard against the arrival of the Ming army at all times.

However, after gaining this strategic initiative, Zhu Cilang did not launch attacks from all sides. He only ordered the left and right armies of the imperial guards to advance towards Xiangyang and Hefei respectively and did not take any other action.

This is not to say that he has no interest in recovering lost territory, but the financial situation is a little tight.

The wider your business, the more you know what it means to spend money like water.

At the beginning, he only had Yingtian and Hangzhou. The more than one million taels of silver seized from Zhao Zhilong's mansion were enough to support the army and complete the battle in the south of the Yangtze River. Now he had half of the country in his hands, but the nearly ten million taels of silver he had looted from everywhere could not even last half a year.

It costs money to build roads, it costs money to run factories, it costs money to settle refugees, it costs money to send troops to the north, and if you add the loans to Spain and the normal expenses of the court, if it weren't for the spring tax in the second year of Jingwu, I'm afraid Zhu Cilang would have given the local gentry another opportunity to make trouble.

But then again, money is a good thing after all. Wherever you spend it, there will be an immediate reaction.

Take road construction as an example. After receiving funding from the imperial court, several governors in the southwest began to survey the ancient Tea-Horse Road with the assistance of personnel sent by the Ministry of Works, and on the other hand, they began to prepare by recruiting laborers.

In the past, the corvée labor assigned by the government could destroy a family that had just enough food and clothing, but this time the court not only paid wages to the people who participated in opening the road, but Zhu Cilang also specially sent people from the Jinyiwei, the Advisory Council, and the Censorate to the local area at the same time.

Of course, with power in hand, it is inevitable that some local officials will act recklessly in the name of clearing the way, but with the separate investigations of these three yamen, it can be said that one person investigates one person and one family is destroyed.

By this time, the road-building project in the southwest was proceeding vigorously, and the number of officials and gentry who had been severely punished had already exceeded two dozen.

Under such circumstances, although this huge project involving three provinces mobilized millions of militiamen, it not only did not cause public outrage, but in the eyes of the people, it was still the emperor who found a way out for everyone.

You should know that most of this road is in Yunnan and Guizhou, and about 80% of the militiamen were recruited from these two provinces. The people in these two provinces could only live miserably on the small piece of land in peaceful times, and when the war was about to end, they were even at the point where they had no food to eat.

If it had been in the earlier years, they would have been unable to make it, and no one would have cared about their lives. But this time, the court not only gave them a job that could feed them, but also paid them a salary based on the length of time they worked.

In comparison between the two, everyone has no idea who is truly good to him, and the emperor has become a true king and father.

It is worth mentioning that while the court's influence gradually penetrated into every corner of the three southwestern provinces through this project, Zhu Cilang had some tricks up his sleeve regarding the replacement of officials.

He issued an order before the construction started, stating that any malpractices found during the road construction process would be severely punished, but rewards would also be given if there were meritorious services.

As a result of this imperial edict, seven or eight county magistrates in the southwest have been replaced by clerks, which marks another small step forward in the reform of the official system.

"It's troublesome to transport gunpowder back and forth. Why don't we allocate some manpower from you to build another workshop in Chongqing?"

After carefully reading the road construction information summarized by the cabinet, Zhu Cilang thought for a moment and said something to Li Yongmao, but to his surprise, the other party's face changed drastically after hearing this, and then he knelt on the ground.

"Your Majesty, you are wise! Gunpowder is an important military supply. If its production is concentrated in one place, it can be controlled. But if it is placed in the southwest."

Li Yongmao did not finish the rest of his words, but Zhu Cilang knew what he had not yet said.

To put it bluntly, at this time, the firearms of the Ming Dynasty already had the ability to replace cold weapons. If the production of gunpowder was controlled by the central government, even if there was a military rebellion, it would not cause much trouble.

Faced with the advice of this important official, Zhu Cilang did not insist. After he nodded slowly, he changed the subject.

"How much has been shipped to Spain?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, we have already transported away various military supplies worth 1.76 million taels. The remaining 240,000 taels should be produced within a few months."

Earlier, Spain had used Luzon as collateral in exchange for military supplies worth two million ounces of silver from the Ming Dynasty.

If the Ming Dynasty set the price of a flintlock rifle at 17 taels of silver according to the Europa price, then the factory would have to produce nearly 120,000 flintlock rifles to complete the transaction.

Based on the current output of the Yingtian factory, it would take more than a year to switch entirely to the production of flintlock rifles.

But then again, military supplies aren’t just muskets.

Cotton cloth, gunpowder, salt, and sugar are all indispensable materials in war. If all of them were used to pay off the debt, two million taels of silver would only cost a few dozen ships. At this point, I have to mention that although Europe no longer regarded sugar as an extremely precious thing like it did hundreds of years ago, its source still depended on the sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean.

With such a foundation, even if Philip IV was reluctant to use it on ordinary soldiers, he could still make huge profits by selling it to inland Europe.

Under such circumstances, Zhu Cilang added a large amount of sugar to the military aid shipped to Spain without any psychological burden.

The goods worth two million taels of silver were easily gathered.

"Well, let's take this opportunity to let the apprentices practice. They can just operate the hand drill, so it won't cause any harm."

Having said this, Zhu Cilang paused for a moment, then started flipping through the pile of question books as if he had thought of something.

Seeing this, Li Yongmao, who was already accustomed to His Majesty's style, naturally understood that the matter concerning him had been settled, and immediately stepped back to give up the front position.

"Zhou Quan, how is Zhao Deyu doing? Why haven't I seen his notebook?"

Sure enough, after flipping through the book for a while, Zhu Cilang asked Zhou Quan about the Weaving Bureau. However, Zhao Deyu belonged to the inner court after all, so how could his book be mixed in with the book of questions sent by the cabinet?
"Your Majesty, Zhao Deyu's notebook is not here."

As he spoke, Zhou Quan took out a memorial from the other side of the table. He carefully presented it to his Majesty before he quietly stepped aside.

On the other hand, Zhu Cilang did not get too emotional about this omission. He started reading it carefully as soon as he opened it.

Zhao Deyu was a flatterer, but at the same time he had to admit that this man fully understood Zhu Cilang's intentions.

In this memorial, he detailed how the Weaving Bureau served as a bridge between merchants and factories to improve production efficiency, and how it persuaded merchants to dump their products in New Spain at low prices, destroying the local textile industry in the shortest possible time.

If it were just that, it would be fine. After all, these were all arranged by Zhu Cilang. The most important thing was that at the end of the memorial, he specifically mentioned that some merchants treated workers harshly and hoped that the court would punish them.

Zhu Cilang knew very well that a person like this would never care about the lives of the workers, and the essence of his behavior was just speculation.

It was said that the King of Chu liked thin waists, and many people starved to death.

Although Zhu Cilang used various methods to punish local gentry, he was extremely generous to the people. This kind of situation was naturally considered a stepping stone for advancement in the eyes of speculators. Zhao Deyu's special mention of this matter was naturally another way of flattering the emperor.

But then again, this kind of flattery is what Zhu Cilang needs.

No matter what anyone thinks in his heart, as long as he takes the lives of the people into consideration when doing things, it will be of great benefit to the stability of the Ming Dynasty, and the world will not be in chaos.

With this thought in mind, it was not difficult to imagine what would happen next. After asking Li Yongmao about the loom, he sighed.

"I didn't expect that Zhao Deyu is still a useful person."

As soon as the words were spoken, everyone said a few words to flatter him. However, who would have thought that before anyone finished speaking, a burst of extremely joyful shouts came from outside the hall.

"Great joy! Great joy!"

Overjoyed?

Could it be that the battles in Hefei and Xiangyang have already ended?
No, the military order was issued only a few days ago. Even if the local Qing troops surrendered at the sight of the enemy, they would not have surrendered so quickly.

What great joy would that be?
As his thoughts turned over and over in his mind, Zhu Cilang's brows gradually furrowed at the sound of the good news.

Having been in power for so long, he increasingly disliked the feeling that things were out of his control, whether good or bad.

This is not difficult to understand. Just like the accounts, whether it is a mistake of one cent or one ounce, it means that there is an error in the account. In the power center of the Ming Dynasty, no matter what unexpected things happen, it means that he, the emperor, has lost control of this aspect.

A moment later, a young eunuch with a joyful face appeared outside the warm room. After performing some formal greetings, he spoke out a piece of news that made Zhu Cilang stunned.

"Your Majesty is so happy! The Queen is pregnant!"

(End of this chapter)