First Prince of Ming Dynasty

Therefore, after the founding of the country, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that a part of the official and private fields should be planted to grow cotton. As a result, when the cotton planting order was first implemented, it was met with resistance from many people. of.

After all, no matter what you grow, you have to pay land taxes, not to mention that you have to eat enough and you have to wear warm clothes. For various reasons, even though the people are forced by the government to plant cotton, they don’t take care of it seriously. on food.

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang gave an order to plant cotton flowers and pay them taxes!

The effect of this order was immediate, and the hearts of the people in the Jiangnan area became active. Although growing food can fill their stomachs, it costs money to pay taxes, and there is no tax to grow cotton. They only need to sell a little effort, and the cotton harvested in the next year, If you sell the cotton for money, you can buy grain again.

The common people's thinking is so simple and simple. Of course, the gentry and landlords will not let go of the preferential policies of the court. They are not short of food, so they are more ruthless than the common people in planting cotton.

It's just a person who is full of gaudy clothes, not a silkworm farmer...

Cotton is extremely comfortable whether it is used to make clothes or bed quilts, so the price is not low. Too many people grow it at home and are reluctant to use it for themselves.

This is still the case in the south where there are many kinds of cotton, let alone the north. The biggest beneficiaries of Lao Zhu's promotion of cotton are the people with more than enough food and clothing. The lives of the poor people have not changed much. Output is still dwarfed by the required population.

Thinking about it, it will take more than ten or twenty years for cotton output to increase, and the price drop can really benefit the world, but this is also common sense, even the coal studied by the Ministry of Industry is the same. Those who can't afford it are the ones who need it the most...

But things still have to be done. For example, cotton has been introduced to the country for an unknown how long, but the wise kings and ministers of the previous dynasties have never promoted it.

The same is true for coal. Coke and iron smelting have already begun in the Song Dynasty. This is a very important and epoch-making invention in the history of metallurgy. Compared with Europe, China is several hundred years earlier.

China has never lacked innovation, but it seldom serves the people at the bottom. The ignorant and weak people are more in line with the needs of the ruling class, but now, the times are about to change.

The world is about to be connected, and the era of sticking to one acre of land is gone forever. Even if the country can be closed for a period of time, the general trend of the world is vast, and those who follow it will prosper, and those who go against it will perish!

Facing the mighty situation with nowhere to hide, then you should take the initiative to invest in it and take advantage of the situation, like a golden carp, follow the torrent of the times and cross the dragon gate, and once again become the leader of the world.

Zhu Biao thought so and did so, otherwise he could have asked the Ministry of Industry to study those luxury goods first and make a good fortune, but those things are not beneficial to the country or the people.

If Zhu Biao was just a common people businessman or even an honorable lord, then he wouldn't care so much, and he wouldn't bother to plan, he would only make money with peace of mind. It's all messy, and it's not difficult for someone with money to get an autonomous territory for themselves.

But he is the prince of the country, so his roots are here, and he can't give up, so he makes plans day after day, year after year, because he knows that if he only cares about the flood after his death The outrageous thought of having fun for the rest of his life, he will definitely regret it when the time comes.

People always have to be responsible when they live, and Yu Guoyu's family will be responsible to Daming. As soon as Zhu Biao stopped thinking, he saw that his father had already ordered someone to open the Wulong Gongzhu incense burner burning incense. , took out the half-burned smoke material inside, and put the black coal into it with great interest.

After ordering the eunuch to light it, he looked at it cheerfully, and after looking at it for a long time, he said: Those coal mountains are all owned by the imperial court, and the cost is negligible. Let's sell them at a lower price to the common people.

Zhu Biao shook his head and said, It's already low enough. If it goes any lower, it will be a huge blow to other merchants who sell coal for a living. What's more, there are not many that can be sold to the common people this year. After all, what the northern frontier army needs is a big one. number.

Zhu Yuanzhang calmed down a little when he heard the words, and nodded, Yes, there have been several wars on the grassland in the past few days. Although it did not affect my Daming, such a trend has to be guarded against. The coal is given priority to the frontier army.

Zhu Biaoying said: Even if you go to the coal mine to open a factory, the money invested in the early stage is indispensable. Just now, the Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce said that you will spend 50,000 taels from the Ministry of Households...

Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the main seat and said, Yes, but the Ministry of Industry must arrange coal production as soon as possible. It's already autumn, so we can't procrastinate.

After finishing speaking, Lao Zhu smiled wryly and said: The silver was only put into the treasury yesterday, and all the ministries sent memorials asking for money early this morning. The Ministry of War alone needs 100,000 taels, the rest of the official ministries want 50,000 taels, and the Ministry of Rites wants 20,000 taels. Two, the Ministry of Household Affairs said that it wanted to keep one hundred thousand taels for itself, but it was all a lion's mouth.

Zhu Biao also replied helplessly when he heard the words: It's rare that a big piece of fat suddenly fell from the sky. All the ministries probably thought that their mouths were fast and slow, and there was no last soup.

The father and son casually said a few words to no avail, then Lao Zhu looked at the burning incense burner and said, You are going to meet a lot of people tonight, what are your plans?

Zhu Biao nodded and said: I didn't think too much when I invited yesterday, I just wanted to take advantage of the situation to see the relatives far and near. I didn't expect this situation to be made this morning. Let's see Hu Weiyong's plan tonight.

Zhu Yuanzhang was a little unclear about the situation in the early dynasty, so it is said that he just wanted to take down the local officials who broke the law, and didn't mean to involve the capital and the northern frontier army.

After all, he has a plan in both aspects, and he only needs to wait for the time to close the net. It is not worth the loss to frighten the snake first, but Hu Weiyong's actions have a posture of killing the fish and breaking the net.

Zhu Biao went on to say: Hu Weiyong is a smart man, he should be just probing, things really got serious, the father's plan is messed up, but he is really going to lose his head, I guess tonight He should take the initiative to bow his head.

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned. Hu Weiyong's reckless temptation was really not in line with his usual style of behavior. After fighting with Yang Xian, Hu Weiyong has become very stable and mature, with the air of a prime minister.

It can be seen from his easy and freehand fight against Wang Guangyang that he has completely walked out of the influence of Li Shanchang, and it can be said that he has established himself. The six yamen of Zhongshu Province and even some noble generals respect him quite a lot.

Such a smart person would not be so reckless, but he just did it, even going into battle himself, which made him think twice.

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