I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 486: A Capable Minister in Governing the Country

Fei Xinliang stared blankly at the paper on the table. He couldn't help but pick up the paper on the table and put it in front of his eyes to read it carefully.
He carefully estimated the size of the highlighted area in his mind and compared it with the original territory of the Ming Dynasty below. From a visual point of view, the highlighted area was not much smaller than the original territory of the Ming Dynasty, which meant that
Your Majesty, the territory you have conquered in the past six years is almost as large as that of the Ming Dynasty?

Fei Xinliang had an idea in his mind that he himself felt was very absurd.
But he looked at the seven pictures again and felt that this idea made sense.

Before seeing this piece of paper, he knew that expanding territory by 3,000 miles was a lot, but he had never had a quantitative standard in his mind. However, after reading this set of maps, he suddenly had a very intuitive understanding of Zhu Houzhao's achievements in the past six years.
Thinking of this, he could not help but look at the pictures again, reciting the words in his mind. His blood began to boil, and his impression of Zhu Houzhao became much better. He even thought to himself, "A real man should be like this."
"It seems that Brother Xinliang also found fun in this!" Yu Chengxun's voice suddenly came to Fei Xinliang's ears.

Fei Xinliang turned around quickly and saw that Yu Chengxun had returned without him noticing and was looking at him with a half-smile.
He couldn't help but look embarrassed, as if he had been caught by the teacher for doing something bad.
Then he thought of his expression and actions just now, and felt like a country bumpkin coming to the city, so he felt even more embarrassed.
Yu Chengxun also noticed Fei Xinliang's embarrassment and quickly said, "Brother Xinliang, there is no need to be like this. When this set of pictures first came out, the whole city was also very shocked!"

Fei Xinliang felt a little better at this point and said, "I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Brother Chengxun."

"Brother Xinliang, you don't have to take it so seriously. When I first saw this picture, my reaction was not much better than yours!" Yu Chengxun sighed.

Fei Xinliang nodded, then looked at the group of pictures again, and sighed: "Six years! In just six short years, Your Majesty has accomplished such a great thing without realizing it, and has conquered a territory that is almost as large as the original Ming Dynasty. No wonder he is regarded as the Heavenly Khan by all the nations of the world."

The reason why they felt this way was not because Zhu Houxuan deliberately tampered with the map and deliberately expanded the territory conquered by Zhu Houzhao, but that was the fact.
The territory actually controlled by the Ming Dynasty at that time was the Eighteen Han Provinces in later generations, with a total area of ​​more than four million square kilometers. The territory conquered by Zhu Houzhao was equivalent to Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia, plus part of the Northeast region, and part of Russian territory according to the administrative divisions of later generations.

The area of ​​Inner Mongolia is 118 million square kilometers, Outer Mongolia is 156 million square kilometers, and together with other places, the total area exceeds three million square kilometers, so this is not their illusion, but the fact.
"Yes! We were also shocked when we discovered this." Yu Chengxun said with a smile.

Fei Xinliang looked at the paper in his hand again and couldn't help asking, "This map of the territory of the Ming Dynasty is also considered confidential, right? Isn't it a bad idea to print it out and distribute it everywhere?"

Yu Chengxun picked up the wine pot and gently poured a glass of wine for Fei Xinliang, then said: "His Royal Highness Prince Jing must know about this matter. As long as His Royal Highness Prince Jing permits, these are no longer secrets."

The two raised their glasses, clinked them, and drank them all.
"Your Highness, Prince of Jing." Fei Xinliang looked a little strange, and couldn't help but say, "I have been in Jiangnan for a long time, and I don't know much about the things in the capital. My brother has been in the central government for a long time. I wonder what my brother thinks of His Highness, Prince of Jing?"

Yu Chengxun was stumped by this question. He didn't know where to start for a moment, so he smiled and said, "What do the scholars in Jiangnan think of His Royal Highness the Prince of Jing?"

Fei Xinliang took another sip of wine and said hesitantly, "In Jiangnan, people say that His Royal Highness the King of Jing is a capable minister who can govern the country."

Yu Chengxun's body paused for a moment, but soon returned to normal, listening to the words and listening to the music. The story of the Three Kingdoms was widely circulated in the Ming Dynasty. This comment on Cao Cao, "a capable minister in a peaceful era and a hero in a chaotic era", was well known to everyone. Cao Cao was not well regarded in the feudal era.
Yu Chengxun also understands why the scholars in Jiangnan would evaluate Zhu Houxuan in this way, because Zhu Houxuan is the biggest bug in the current system, and this bug makes many people uncomfortable.
Yu Chengxun hesitated for a moment and said, "It is not easy for me to evaluate His Royal Highness the Prince of Jing, but His Royal Highness's ability is far beyond that of a capable minister."

Fei Xinliang saw Yu Chengxun's hesitation, and immediately raised his glass to smooth things over, saying, "Don't talk about state affairs, don't talk about state affairs. Today we meet, let's just reminisce about the past."

So the two of them started drinking and talking happily.
After three rounds of drinks, Fei Xinliang picked up the paper and said, "Coming to Beijing today, I really feel like a countryman entering the city. The changes in Beijing are so great that I can't believe this is Beijing. The train is so convenient. People used to say that there are southern ships and northern horses, but I think this sentence should be changed to southern ships and northern cars in the future."

Yu Chengxun smiled but said nothing after hearing this.

Fei Xinliang continued, "In the past, the Jiangnan style led the trend of the Ming Dynasty. New things first came from Jiangnan and then became popular in other parts of the Ming Dynasty. The situation has changed in recent years. New things are emerging in the capital, and the Jiangnan area has fallen behind."

Fei Xinliang tapped his finger on the paper and said, "This thing is very interesting. Both the picture content and the printing technique are quite fresh. It's just that the text on it is too simple and can be made more condensed."

"Brother Xinliang, you don't know this. The reason why these words are so simple and plain is because the Royal Group has always been like this, and also because this is a special request from His Royal Highness the Prince of Jing. His Royal Highness requires that written language should be in vernacular as much as possible," said Yu Chengxun.

"Vernacular?" Fei Xinliang frowned. "This will lose a lot of the beauty of the text, and it will cause endless harm!"

"But by using vernacular, these texts can be understood by more people and can be circulated more widely. This is also the purpose of the Royal Group printing these promotional leaflets," Yu Chengxun said, shaking his head.

The Ming Dynasty had the highest literacy rate, reaching over 30% or even 40% overall.

As we all know, three of the four great classics came from the Ming Dynasty. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were countless vernacular novels, such as "Jin Ping Mei", "Du Shiniang's Wrath and Sinking of the Treasure Box", "Investiture of the Gods", etc., all of which were aimed at ordinary citizens without exception!

First chapter



(End of this chapter)