Daming: Brother, there is no future for monks, let's rebel

Chapter 506 Lao Zhu’s Sculpture

Zhu Yuanzhang turned his head and looked to the other side. As a result, the other driver also disappeared without a trace.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt a little disappointed, but he really liked these two people.

Although he talks endlessly, it's still a bit annoying.

However, he was able to collect a lot of useful information from these two people.

Now, he knows that a brand new yamen has been established in Yanjing to take charge of transportation matters here.

Moreover, this yamen was completely different from the yamen he had understood before.

However, after knowing most of the responsibilities of this yamen, Zhu Yuanzhang breathed a sigh of relief.

The smile crept back on her face, and she proudly said to Queen Ma, who was riding a donkey behind her: "We knew Qi Wu would not let us down."

Zhu Yuanzhang is not picking you up, Zhu Han has other ideas.

If he really had it, the position of emperor could have been given to him long ago.

It's just that in such a large court, everything must be done in a systematic way.

If Zhu Han didn't even notify him, he would just build a brand new yamen in Yanjing.

Then what he did was a little too much.

"After all, he is your brother. Qiwu knows what's appropriate." Queen Ma said with a gentle smile.

The two people moved forward slowly and soon saw the cause of the traffic jam.

The situation was similar to what the coachman they met before said.

Another carriage must have broken down, blocking most of the road.

If it were before, even if it was blocked, it wouldn't be a big problem. You could just go around it.

But in Yanjing now, there are too many carriages entering and leaving the city.

With most of the road blocked, the impact will be huge.

Now, the broken carriage has been carried to the side of the road.

When passing by, Zhu Yuanzhang also saw people wearing official uniforms repairing cars there.

Although strictly speaking, these people are not officials and can only be regarded as minor officials.

But even so, Zhu Yuanzhang had never seen many cases where petty officials worked so hard for ordinary people.

I can’t help but sigh with emotion: “Yanjing is indeed a good place with simple folk customs.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a man sitting on a carriage, who happened to stick his head out to check the situation. The richly dressed man said disdainfully: "What kind of simple folk customs?"

"It's just because the King of England performs what is called skin beating in the traffic police brigade."

"If these guys do a lot of things and complete them well, when it's time to pay them a salary, they will be given more money. I heard it's called a bonus."

"So, the most fundamental reason why they work so hard is just for money."

"The majestic prince puts his money where his mouth is all the time. My Ming Dynasty's face has been completely humiliated by such a person."

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know this man, but he sneered at his words.

If it is true that all the civil and military officials in the dynasty can work so hard just by giving out money, then Zhu Yuanzhang is really not stingy with money.

In history, the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang seems so stingy.

In fact, one of the biggest reasons is that Zhu Yuanzhang looked down on officials from the bottom of his heart.

I think they are all a bunch of greedy guys who can't afford the profit.

Such people cannot give them much.Are they allowed to have enough food and drink to harm the common people?

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang's salary was maintained at a level that was not enough for these officials to starve to death.

But Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect that the country's economy would develop over time.

The seemingly reasonable salary he set made it difficult to support the officials themselves in the later period, let alone support a large family.

This has led to the fact that in the Ming Dynasty, all truly honest and honest officials will have a very hard life.

The same thing happened, such as Bing Jing and Tan Jing, which were basically bribes, but everyone turned a blind eye.

Even the emperors of later generations turned a blind eye to these things.

There is no way, they cannot blatantly increase the salaries of officials, but they also need to make these officials' lives bearable.

All we can do is let this happen.

After the person who complained to Zhu Yuanzhang just left, Zhu Yuanzhang waved.

A master responsible for protecting Zhu Yuanzhang quietly walked through the crowd and came to Zhu Yuanzhang's side.

Seemingly walking past Zhu Yuanzhang inadvertently, he was actually following Zhu Yuanzhang's orders.

"Go and find out who this guy is."

Although Zhu Yuanzhang didn't understand what the skin-opening thing was.

However, as the emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang knew very well that Zhu Han's actions would definitely have a huge promoting effect on those low-level officials.

The guy in front of him, who criticized his younger brother like this, must not be a good person.

"As ordered."

The expert who protected Zhu Yuanzhang agreed and quickly disappeared into the crowd.

From the time he appeared to the time he left, almost no one noticed his presence.

It was as if he had never appeared.

"Chongba, this person might just be angry for a moment and just complain a few words." Queen Ma's voice sounded from behind Zhu Yuanzhang.

If others don't understand Zhu Yuanzhang, how can they understand Empress Ma, the one who sleeps with him?
If this person was complaining about Zhu Yuanzhang, Lao Zhu might not care so much.

However, this guy was so stubborn that he spoke ill of Zhu Han in front of Zhu Yuanzhang.

With Zhu Yuanzhang's temper, I'm afraid he won't let this guy go easily.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled when he heard this: "Don't worry, Queen, we are too lazy to argue with such a villain now."

Immediately afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang changed the subject and said: "However, we always have to see who are the people who say these things."

After hearing what Zhu Yuanzhang said, Queen Ma stopped talking.

Regardless of whether what Zhu Yuanzhang said is true or false, she has already done her duty by bringing it up here.

If I continue talking, I will be suspected of the harem interfering in government affairs.

The reason why Queen Ma has been able to have such a good relationship with Zhu Yuanzhang for so many years.

Except because, when Zhu Yuanzhang had not grown up, Queen Ma gave Zhu Yuanzhang a lot of help and tried her best to help Zhu Yuanzhang.

The most important point is that he will never really interfere with Zhu Yuanzhang's decision.

Just try to persuade Zhu Yuanzhang to change his mind if conditions permit.

The two of them walked forward not far before an intermittent whistle sounded.

It turns out that there is a huge intersection ahead.

Two broad roads cross and converge here.

Although these roads have been built to be quite wide, compared with the number of carriages now, this road is obviously not wide enough.

Right in the center of this intersection, there was a traffic policeman directing traffic.

Their clothes are different from the official uniforms of the imperial court. Once you take a look at them, it is impossible to forget them.The surrounding carriages were all very obedient, listening to the instructions of the traffic police brigade.

The other party's command gestures were very simple. Just by looking at the movements of those carriages, I roughly understood the meaning.

"This gesture is a bit interesting." Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but praise.

The so-called layman looks at the excitement and the insider looks at the doorway.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang is not a time traveler like Zhu Han who knows everything.

However, as a general who has commanded troops for many years, Lao Zhu is extremely familiar with things on the battlefield.

Not to mention anything else, this gesture combined with the whistle can command so many people in an orderly manner with just a few simple movements.

The most important thing is that even people who don't understand anything can understand the meaning of these gestures as long as they follow the movements of the carriages around them.

Based on this alone, this thing can play a huge role in military command.

Just as I was thinking about it, I felt that everyone around me was moving forward.

Zhu Yuanzhang also hurriedly crossed the road with the crowd.

When he got here, Zhu Yuanzhang discovered that a huge statue was being built here.

This statue is as high as two stories high. Because we have just started working on it, we still can’t see clearly who the person on it is.

"This guy really doesn't care about money when he builds such a big statue."

Zhu Yuanzhang felt a little sour in his heart.

Empress Ma smiled: "Chongba, but I can see that there are some shadows of you in the clothes and figure of this statue."

"This Yanjing City will be the capital of our Ming Dynasty from now on, so it's impossible to put other people's statues, right?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned when he heard this, and suddenly felt that Queen Ma's words were very reasonable.

If it were his own statue, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly felt that it would be pretty good.

Anyway, the money to make the statue came from Japan.

In other words, I didn’t spend a penny.

Noticing Empress Ma's half-smiling look, Zhu Yuanzhang said with some embarrassment: "Look at the way this statue was made, it's totally incomprehensible."

"Why are we standing on a ball under our feet?"

This involves Empress Ma's blind spot. She hesitated for a while and said vaguely: "Qi Wu must have his own meaning."

"There's not a single statue to look at. Let's go into the city and find a place to stay."

The main destination of Zhu Yuanzhang's trip was Datong Mansion, and Yanjing just stopped by to take a look.

But I didn't expect that the changes here would be so drastic.

After entering Yanjing City, Zhu Yuanzhang's first impression was that there were so many people.

There were so many people here, it was as if everyone in the world had gathered here.

Along the way, Zhu Yuanzhang saw nothing but people.

Compared with the people here on Yingtianfu Street, they pale into insignificance.

Over at Yingtian Mansion, there might only be so many people during the Chinese New Year or the Ghost Festival Lantern Festival.

Moreover, the people who could come out at that time were basically from relatively wealthy families.

Unlike here, the people walking on the street are all dressed in ordinary clothes, and many of them look like ordinary people engaged in manual labor.

Some people even had patches on their clothes.

This scene reminded Zhu Yuanzhang of what he saw when he went to Zhu Han's territory before.

Although the current Yanjing is not as good as Zhu Han's territory.

However, there is already a shadow over there.

At least the people here are getting better.

what?
You asked Zhu Yuanzhang why he knew that the people here lived better?

Because just now, when Zhu Yuanzhang passed by a bun shop, a man with patches on his clothes looked like the most ordinary lower-class people buying buns.

"Boss, how do you sell this bun?"

"One with vegetarian filling costs five cents, and one with meat filling costs ten cents."

Hearing this price, Zhu Yuanzhang wondered whether this guy was also a profiteer.

The meat buns in Yanjing only cost eight cents in ordinary street shops, but they cost ten cents here?

What shocked Zhu Yuanzhang even more was that he originally thought that the common people who were not well-dressed would think that the buns were too expensive and give up.

After all, in the past, the annual income of ordinary people was only about twenty taels. The income of an adult per month was enough to have three taels of silver.

A steamed bun costs ten cents, which is a bit too extravagant.

However, that ordinary citizen who didn't look very wealthy said without blinking: "Pack me six meat buns."

The bun seller is extremely skilled, wrapping the buns in lotus leaves and handing them to the bun buyers.

Zhu Yuanzhang originally thought that this situation was just an exception.

Maybe even though that guy is not well-dressed, he is not a money-hungry person.

But along the way, there are a variety of snack stalls, and the prices are not particularly cheap.

Most of the prices are not much different from those in Yingtian Mansion, and some items are even more expensive than those in Shuntian Mansion.

However, the business of these food stalls is not bad.

And Zhu Yuanzhang could also see it clearly.

The main people spending money at these stalls are not the servants of wealthy people.

They are all the most ordinary people.

After walking for a while, Zhu Yuanzhang simply found a soup stall and bought two bowls of soup cakes.

While eating, he pretended to casually ask the snack vendor: "Excuse me, this is our first time coming to Yanjing City. Are there always so many people in our Yanjing City?"

The stall owner was also a talkative person. He laughed loudly after hearing this: "If this is really the case, then I will wake up laughing in my dreams."

"Unfortunately, that's not the case. It's just that today happens to be a day off, so more people came out."

"Rest?" Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned. Officials had holidays, but ordinary people in the past never took a break.

After all, even if they work non-stop throughout the year, ordinary people can barely fill their stomachs, and there is no time to rest.

This was the first time Zhu Yuanzhang heard that a holiday was given to ordinary people.

At that moment, Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said: "Are we businessmen in Yanjing all good people? I used to be in Yingtian Mansion, but I have never heard of any businessman giving holidays to ordinary people."

The boss selling soup cakes smiled awkwardly.

After all, he is now considered a businessman.

Although he knew that the dignified old man in front of him was talking about those big businessmen, he had nothing to do with small businesses like them.

But as simple as he was, he still felt a little guilty for no reason.

"Those businessmen naturally want the workers to work every day. But His Royal Highness the King of England has issued a fatal order that there must be at least three paid holidays every month. Today is a holiday, so there are so many people."

(End of this chapter)