First Minister of Ming Dynasty

Zhang Ximeng realized the crux of the matter, he stood up suddenly, and went to see Zhu Yuanzhang.

As long as there is enough food, Yangzhou can be taken!

Chapter 127 Mantou Can Break the City

"My lord, we are now facing a very important transformation!" Zhang Ximeng's tone was deep and his expression was solemn.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very relaxed. This time only Zhang Ximeng was with the army, and the rest of the civil servants were not there. Old Zhu even put his foot on the table and didn't see him at all.

"Sir, if you have anything to say, just tell us. What you say makes sense, so let's just listen. If there is any difficulty, let's find a solution together. Is it possible that the husband still doubts us?"

Zhang Ximeng quickly waved his hand, "My lord, this matter is complicated. The complicated thing is that my lord has to make a choice. Do you want the countryside, or do you want both the countryside and the city?"

"What do you mean?" Old Zhu said with a smile: "Sir, what you said is so unreasonable, you must ask, we can only say three words - all of them!"

"That's good! Since the lord wants to have everything, we need to be prepared. We need to establish a set of methods to manage the city. Yangzhou is different from Chuzhou. It requires more than ten times the energy! Of course, if the management is good, we will get a lot of money." The benefits are a hundredfold!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's brows gradually frowned, he owed his buttocks, and leaned his upper body slightly, "Sir, tell me carefully."

"My lord, if you only want to be in the countryside, our fiscal and taxation system is naturally based on land tax... This is also the most common practice for thousands of years. Farming and paying grain, royal grain and national tax are justified. But if you want to enter the city, you have to be in the city. To use brains on business and taxation, and to fully manage a large city with tens of thousands of people, the number of officials needed will increase by more than ten times compared to now, and the price paid will be hundreds of times, a thousand times!"

Zhu Yuanzhang took a deep breath, thought over and over again, and asked: "Sir, what can we get?"

"You can get a huge set of workshops, which can provide tens of thousands of armors, thousands of cannons, hundreds of thousands of firecrackers, and you can get millions of dollars of wealth, as well as food, clothing, housing, transportation, and all kinds of luggage. You can have whatever you want!"

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled suddenly, "Sir, you know us, we are not afraid of hardships! As long as the harvest is big enough, we will work hard!"

Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's affirmative answer, Zhang Ximeng smiled from the bottom of his heart.

He finally changed Zhu Yuanzhang!

Lao Zhu was criticized a lot by later generations for his conservatism in finance and taxation, and even retrogression.

In fact, if we only look at Lao Zhu's era, this problem is not a big one.

After the war, the greatest need is to recuperate, suppress commerce, farm honestly, produce food, weave cloth, accumulate social wealth, and restore the vitality of the population.

Lao Zhu's choice is undoubtedly appropriate, but after decades of development, business has re-prospered, and at that time the Ming Dynasty continued to inherit the system left by Lao Zhu, and the country's source of taxation was still land tax. .

Apart from the Ministry of Households, there is actually no organization that specifically collects commercial taxes, and there is no preparation within the Ministry of Accounts. Even if you want to collect commercial taxes, you have no way to start.

As a result, Zhang Juzheng, the so-called regent, had worked hard for ten years, but he only made plans on the land, and he didn't dare to do business and taxation at all.Zhang Juzheng is certainly not ignorant of the importance of business taxes, but I’m sorry, even if it took ten years in the Ming Dynasty at that time, he might not have figured out how to collect business taxes, who should be arranged to implement them, and what institutions should be set up in the court , How to divide the power of finance and taxation... There is no other way but to choose the easiest and most traditional land tax, other than that, there is no other way.

Zhang Ximeng really hopes to make up for this shortcoming, so when he entered Chuzhou, he made a lot of preparations... Now that he has arrived in Yangzhou, it is time to show his talents.

In fact, the economy itself is complementary between urban and rural areas.

The countryside has food and various raw materials, and the city has markets and production capacity. The countryside provides food and agricultural and animal husbandry products to the cities to support the people in the cities.The people in the city make various tools and provide commodities to the countryside... As long as the two communicate smoothly, they can benefit.

Yangzhou's current predicament is that it is a huge city. Due to the war, it has lost contact with the countryside that it used to work closely with. It is like a person whose limbs have been cut off, and he is not far from death.

So the first step if you want to swallow Yangzhou is to restore Yangzhou's vitality and provide enough food for Yangzhou city!

The reason is so simple, but looking at all the heroes in the world, except Zhu Yuanzhang, no one has the confidence to support the huge Yangzhou.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang was also under pressure. Fortunately, Zhang Ximeng was by his side to encourage, and Lao Zhu gritted his teeth.

It's done!

Lao Zhu immediately ordered to transfer [-] shi of grain from Liuhe, and at the same time ordered Chuzhou and Dingyuan to allocate grain, and even the grain bank took action.

If it can successfully enter Yangzhou and allow these 80 people to accept market coupons, the Grain Bank may become the largest bank in the world, and the profit will be hundreds of times!

In short, this pair of monarchs and ministers decided to fight!

Then I saw a very funny and famous scene. After the army approached Yangzhou and set up the camp, Zhu Yuanzhang did not launch an attack immediately. Jun's noodles, start steaming buns!

That's right, steamed buns!

The best white noodles, add water before the battle, knead the noodles, let the people in the city watch, put them in the pot, and steam the steamed buns... Soon the heat rises, and with the northwest wind, the tempting fragrance floats into Yangzhou City .

The Yuan army guarding the top of the city couldn't help swallowing their saliva!

How can it be so fragrant?

It was fatal!

This gang of red thieves is so vicious, they are greedy for us!

Just when the defenders at the top of the city were so angry that they were about to curse, the soldiers of Zhu's army put the soft steamed buns into bamboo baskets, carried them on their arms, and approached the city wall. At a distance of more than 100 steps, they stopped and took He took out a fist-sized steamed bun, still steaming, and weighed it in his hand.

"Look at it! What a big steamed bun! It's delicious, eat one and you'll celebrate the Chinese New Year!"

The soldiers yelled loudly, and the Yuan army at the top of the city rolled their eyes angrily, knowing that your steamed buns are good, so there is no need to be angry with us!

"Listen! Don't give your life to the Yuan Tartars, they don't treat you as human beings! There is no food in Yangzhou, and you will starve to death in a short time! Don't be stupid, who is not raised by his parents, hurry up Put down your weapons, go out of the city and surrender, there are big steamed buns here, enough!"

The soldier yelled three times in a row, but there was no response from the city head, so he turned his head and retreated.

At this time, many Yuan soldiers subconsciously swallowed and spit, and their stomachs were gurgling, it was really tormenting!

Unexpectedly, the soldiers of Zhu's army came back not long after they left. This time, he was holding not only steamed buns, but also a large pot, which contained a large pot of stewed meat with yams!

"Brothers in the city, look at it! Not only are there big steamed buns, but also stewed meat! The pigs that have been raised for a full year are as thick as three fingers, and the meat is delicious!"

As he spoke, he actually picked up a large piece of trembling pork belly and put it in his mouth.

There is no need to chew at all, just a little sip, and it turns into a rich and fragrant juice.

The soldier looked intoxicated, and he ate another piece, and then it got even worse. He simply broke open the steamed bun and put it in the basin. Rich and mellow, to the extreme.

Roasted pork is really an amazing delicacy, and the method is different from all over the world. There are some with other ingredients, such as potatoes, yuba, quail eggs, etc., and some with just pork belly.

Anyway, no matter how you do it, as long as you add enough seasoning, master the heat, stew until soft, fat but not greasy, thin but not firewood, it is almost the most difficult dish to overturn.

Zhu Jiajun’s braised pork is added with some yam medicine, which can nourish the spleen and stomach, cure Qi deficiency, and make soldiers walk more vigorously!

A delicacy, with the effect of dietary therapy, delicious and nourishing, too much talk is nonsense.

Just look at the happy and contented appearance of the soldiers.

"Brothers at the top of the city, tell the people in the city that our Zhu family army is not here to fight, but to save the big guys... As long as you leave the city and surrender, steamed buns and roast meat, some of them are delicious! What do you want to do for the emperor? Are you starving?"

The soldier was full of food and drink, full of breath, and yelled for a long time before leaving.

Although there was no reaction from the top of the city, Zhang Ximeng was very satisfied. It was impossible for the people inside not to know that he just needed to persevere, and perhaps Yangzhou City would be within his grasp in a short time.

Zhang Ximeng's guess was correct. The food offensive had indeed worked. The defenders in the four cities were alarmed. Although no one left the city to surrender, more and more soldiers complained.

Look at others, look at you, look at Zhu's army outside the city.

They are also soldiers, why is there such a big difference?

Do you not treat big guys as human beings?

The soldiers were noisy and confused.

The news even reached the ears of King Zhennan, who was so angry when he heard it!

What a group of insidious red thieves, this king wants to kill you!

Polo Puhua immediately ordered to mobilize 5000 troops to go out of the city to fight back.valley

The order went down, and the men and horses also assembled, but the five thousand elites were unwilling to move out!

"My lord, please tell the lord. There is no other meaning. It is just that people outside the city eat white flour steamed buns and yam roast meat. What do we eat? Brown rice and water for washing the pot? There is no oil and water in the stomach, so we can't beat it." If you don’t want the prince to reward us with a meal of meat, the brothers promise to be energetic!”

"Pooh!"

The leader of the army, Wan Hu, spat out in anger. Why did he go outside the city when he had meat to eat?

"Aren't you greedy? Go out of the city and kill the red thief. Their steamed buns and roasted pork are all yours! Isn't that good?"

After Wanhu finished speaking, many soldiers were silent, only one courageous one muttered: "Then he's out of the city, so there's no need to fight, the Red Scarf Army will also eat meat!"

This sentence actually scared Wan Hu into a cold sweat and his face turned pale.

broken!

The morale of the army is shaken!

Let these soldiers leave the city at this time, maybe they will really mutiny. What if they surrender directly and turn around to attack Yangzhou City?

The red thief's move is really too bad!

He didn't dare to punish the soldiers, and ran away in embarrassment.

When Polo Puhua got the report, he was also shocked and dumbfounded.

"What a sinister red thief, don't be afraid of them, I have already sent a letter of help to the prime minister, once the prime minister's army arrives, they will definitely fall apart!"

Wan Hu nodded quickly, but it would take time to dispatch troops, and the prime minister's army hadn't arrived yet, so how could he survive this period of time?

"My lord, I still have to give the big guys a little bit of sweetness to stabilize the morale of the army!"

Polo Puhua snorted heavily, and ordered his subordinates to give the army some meat.

It's okay if this order is not issued, but after it is issued, it will be messed up immediately.

The people in Yangzhou City have been hungry for nine meals in three days.I ate all I could eat.To put it bluntly, even the mouse holes have been dug repeatedly, and sustainability has been exhausted.

Those little guys, elementary school apprentices, lost their income due to the closure of the store, and because of the war, they couldn't return to their hometowns, so they were just trapped in Yangzhou City.

The weak, the sick, many people die every day.

Most of the corpses of these people could not be found, and all of them became the rations of the same kind of people.

It's so miserable that it's impossible to search the common people.

Some big households have some food in reserve, but these big households are good friends with the prince, and many of them are connected to the sky, so they can't move at all.After much deliberation, only the remaining war horses in the city remained.

Slaughter and eat meat!

At this point, no one cares about what is good or bad, let's have a full meal first!

Many soldiers began to kill horses and eat meat, but there were also many soldiers who had no horses to kill, and the problem of not suffering from widowhood but only inequality appeared again.

There was a dispute among many soldiers over a bite of unpalatable horse meat, which turned into a fight with weapons. In one night, dozens of people were beaten to death.

How can you go out of the city to fight when your own people are making such a fuss?

On this night, almost a hundred people came out of the city through the water gate.

The big guy was soaked and trembling, and ran to the Zhu's army camp.

This side did what it said, let them sit by the fire to keep warm first, and then sent them steamed buns.

This group of people grabbed their hands and wept uncontrollably, it can be regarded as food.

So fragrant!

A few days later, there were more than a hundred Yangzhou people on Zhu's army's side. They spoke Yangzhou dialect and shouted at the city... When they arrived at the meal, they took out steamed buns again. It became a stewed goose.

"Brothers, come and eat! It's all ready for you! Don't worry, we treat prisoners preferentially!"

The defenders at the top of the city watched like this, especially those who didn't eat horse meat last night, their stomachs were growling with hunger.

After waiting for a while, the food arrived, but it was just hard black pancakes with bran added, which were as hard as gravel, and when it passed through the throat, it was almost like being tortured, and I had to drink the soup. Send it down.

But the soup was also smelly, and the few vegetables left in it were all rotten.

I can't eat this meal!

Not even pigs and dogs!

Wang Heihu is a hunter. He is very athletic. He has made several military exploits in the Yuan army, but he has not been reused. Even scolding him doesn't piss, look, a Han deserves to eat meat?

Wang Heihu was very angry, today is such food again, why would I work so hard for you?

While people were not paying attention, he sneaked to the crenel, followed himself with the climbing rope, and went down the city wall. It is now the dry season and the moat is not deep. Just run, faster than a rabbit!

Seeing this, the Mongolian generals guarding the city were furious and immediately ordered to shoot arrows to kill the traitor... But no one responded to their orders.

In fact, when Wang Heihu went to the city, someone saw it. The big guy didn't say anything, so he hoped that there would be such a person to test it out!

Wang Heihu ran wildly and arrived at Zhu's army's position, "I, I surrender, give me something to eat!"

After a while, two big steamed buns and a goose leg were delivered to Wang Heihu.

"Eat it!"

This hunter-born man lowered his head, ate a steamed bun in three or two mouthfuls, grabbed the goose leg, and took a hard bite, his face full of intoxication, this is what people eat.

He lay on the ground, banging his head.

"Thank you for the reward, I am alive again!"