When Peng was standing by, Liu Dingzhi laughed loudly and said: "Your Majesty, don't be surprised, this is a good wine." After that, Zhang Zijun lost no time and quickly brought a plate of snacks. Zhu Jian took a closer look and his eyes lit up. It was a plate of cakes.

Cut it into small pieces, grabbed it quickly, and ate it all in one breath. The official beside him shouted, Your Majesty, your Majesty will "reward the meal" first. The name "reward the meal" is actually a poison test. Shang Ren came out and said:

"Your Majesty, Shidu Zhang has made such a great contribution and should be commended."

Liu Dingzhi said: "I believe that no matter how much honor I give to Zhang Shidu, it is not too much. Zhang Shidu is an honest man, straightforward in words and deeds, without pretense, and deserves to be rewarded for his merits."

Zhu Jianshen was eating the cake at this time. He looked around and said, "Zhang Aiqing, the taste of this cake is getting better and better. I will bring some back to the palace later. Zhen'er hasn't eaten it in a long time and I miss it very much."

Zhang Zijun curled his lips and said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, I am also thinking about the imperial concubine and have already prepared it."

Only then did Zhu Jianshen turn around with satisfaction and said: "What Liu Aiqing said is that your cabinet will discuss and come up with a charter. Zhang Aiqing has contributed a lot and his hard work has made him great. Please reward him well."

The left minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs and the doctor of the Ministry of Industry all bowed down and said: "I request your majesty to promote the new grain to the ten counties and three prefectures of the capital, and then to the whole country.

Zhang Zijun said on the side: "My dear ministers, there is no problem in promoting new grains, but we need to cultivate grain seeds first. The grain varieties in Xiaguan's family are limited. It is best to allocate a land for breeding outside the city in the suburbs, so that we can slowly promote them.

Wei Han, the supervisory censor, came out and said: "Your Majesty, what Zhang Shidu said makes sense. We must first allocate fields for breeding."

Zhao Rong, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, came out and said: "Your Majesty thinks that Tongzhou Huangzhuang in the east of the capital can be allocated for breeding. The soil there is fertile, the transportation is convenient, and the water conservancy is convenient."

This land was established by Zhu Jianshen in the second year of Chenghua. He confiscated the eunuch Cao Jixiang's fields in Tongzhou and Shunyi and set it as "Huangzhuang". At first, the ministers opposed the emperor's establishment of "Huangzhuang". Now they just found an excuse to transfer Tongzhou to

This land was taken back.

The first person to react was Peng Shi, who also echoed: "I second the proposal." Then many ministers seconded the proposal.

When Zhu Jianshen saw this posture, he choked for a long time before he could say the word "quasi".

In fact, it was a stutter. Zhu Jianshen stuttered when he was nervous, spoke less, and often only answered one word.

The land in Tongzhou was sixty hectares. Zhu Jianshen was so heartbroken that he had to move out of an imperial estate. Feeling annoyed, he returned to the palace.

This time, Zhang Zijun took out real materials from time travel, and they were three kinds of high-yielding grains that were "big killers". Even those who had not dealt with Zhang Zijun before had to nod their heads.

Witnessing the high-yielding new grains, the Ministry of Industry first and the Ministry of Household moved particularly quickly. The two departments were afraid of falling behind and being taken advantage of by the other, so they quickly formed a breeding and promotion leading group, all personally led by the Minister, and led a large number of agricultural workers.

Personnel settled in Tongzhou Huangzhuang.

Just kidding, this is planting money. There are rumors in the market that the imperial court will plant silver in the fields in Tongzhou, and one acre of field can produce thousands of taels of silver in a year. Then it is rumored that the way to make money from this kind of money is through the fields.

Spiritual energy produces silver from the ground.

The first person to be currying favor with in all this is Zhang Zijun. There is a huge area of ​​people asking for credit for Zhang Zijun. The Ministry of Statistics, Industry and Household Affairs are the most important. Some people in the cabinet are not able to do anything even if they want to block it. This is

If you want to offend the public, why not take advantage of the situation? Under Peng Shi's auspices, he applied for the title of "Ping'an Bo" for Zhang Zijun, and was promoted to a bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion.

This means that Zhang Zijun will become a member of the cabinet. In the Ming Dynasty, there were a total of 6 bachelor titles, namely "Four Halls" and "Two Pavilions". The fourth hall, Zhongji Hall (originally known as Huagai Hall), built

Jidian Grand Scholar (originally known as Jinshen Palace), Wenhua Palace Grand Scholar, and Wuyingdian Grand Scholar. The two cabinets are Wenyuange Grand Scholar and Dongge Grand Scholar. They are collectively referred to as Diange Grand Scholars and are generally composed of cabinet members.

He held concurrent posts, so he was also regarded as an auxiliary minister by Cheng. The position of a bachelor was not as high as the fifth rank, but he was often held by a member of the cabinet, so it had a particularly high gold content and was the most noble official position.

The first person to object was Wan'an, who had just entered the cabinet. Wan'an was a minister of etiquette and a bachelor of Hanlin. If Zhang Zijun entered the cabinet again with a bachelor of Wenyuange, he would definitely be squeezed out of the cabinet, so he contacted

The adopted son of the palace official Yongchang and his fellow Jinshi Li Tai were opposed together. Zhang Zijun was not interested in promotion or anything like that. He mainly used the support of the courtiers of this high-yield food production to establish a separate Ministry of Science and Technology for the iron-making workshop.

Foreshadowing. Therefore, the cabinet submitted a letter to Zhang Zijun's request to establish the Ministry of Science and Technology, apply for the title of "Ping'an Bo", and increase his official position to Wenyuange Bachelor, and sent it to the inner court for Zhu Jianshen's approval.

What was originally a settled matter ended up being fruitless due to the intrigues of internal official Yongchang and several back-and-forth pushbacks from the cabinet.

After getting no results, the first and most anxious people were the courtiers. On the contrary, Zhang Zijun had already said that it didn't matter what title or official position he was granted. The important thing was to think about the Ming Dynasty and let the people have food. What a down-to-earth words, what a

A true gentleman is one who has noble personal ethics and does not do it for himself or for the sake of his reputation after his death.

But when the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household Affairs asked Zhang Zijun to ask for grain seeds, Zhang Zijun said: "There are traitors and sycophants in the court, and the wind and rain are not favorable. If you give them seeds, I am afraid that they will anger the gods and cause even greater disasters."

Watch it and be careful."

Anyway, I am not in a hurry. My demands have not been met. From the emperor to the courtiers, if the Ming Dynasty refuses the most needed high-yielding grains and does nothing, it will prove that there is no need to continue. Zhang Zijun hurriedly went to find a safe place.

You can live in a peaceful place, take your wife and children, and live a good life. There is no need to stay in such a place and compete with the ancients for power and profit.

Time passed quickly, and almost everyone had forgotten about the recent high grain yield, because the imperial court was now focusing its energy on conquering the Tatars. Tens of thousands of Tatars invaded from Shuangshan Fort in five groups. Zhu Jianshen ordered Funing

Hou Zhu Yongpei, Pinglu general Yin Chong, is the chief military officer, the governor Liu Yu and Liu Ju are the deputy commander-in-chief on the left and right, the eunuch Fu Gong and Gu Heng are in charge of the army, and the right deputy capital censor Wang Yue is the counselor of military affairs. There are 10,000 soldiers in Beijing and 5,000 soldiers in Xuanfu Datong.

He went to Yansui to conquer the Tatars, and ordered Yansui, Ningxia's commander-in-chief, governor and other officials to listen to Zhu Yong's instructions.

Unexpectedly, floods occurred in several counties in southern Zhili. In May, there was a severe drought in the capital, Shandong, and Henan. There was no summer wheat harvest and autumn grain could not be sown. In June, Shuntian, Hejian, and Yongping were flooded again, resulting in such droughts and floods.

When they are connected, the food and vegetation of the people are almost gone.

In August, Zhu Jianshen issued an edict to the world, ordering the disaster-stricken areas to waive taxes on grain, horses, grains, salt and various miscellaneous labor, pardon the prisoners, and ordered officials in various places to do their best to provide relief to avoid trouble.

In addition, in May, there was a severe drought in the capital, and in June, there were floods in Shuntian and other prefectures. The combination of drought and flood caused a serious shortage of food in the capital. Until September, the great scholar Peng Shizhuo requested the warehouse to distribute 500,000 shipingbao.

It was a very serious famine. The hungry people gathered in huge numbers, adding another three hundred thousand dan, which was a drop in the bucket. To no avail, many people starved to death. The imperial court ordered corpse pits to be dug outside the city and buried, and the sick people were ordered to be buried in pits outside the city.

The commissioned officials collected the pension, and the remaining army craftsmen were adopted by their relatives, and the rest were sent to the nursing home for care. Hundreds of Imperial College students were twice sent back to their hometowns, and monks traveling in Beijing were expelled.

Zhang Zijun saw that the imperial court only responded passively. In order to reduce the pressure on the capital on food, he even thought of ways to dismiss the Imperial College students and monks traveling in the capital.

Immediately, the four prefectures of Shuntian, Henan, Zhending, and Baoding were flooded. After the drought, the price of rice soared. The famine was especially severe in other states. For four or five days in the village, people did not set off fireworks and stayed behind closed doors to wait for food.

Those who died of bark, grass roots, and diseases due to famine and epidemics, as well as widows and husbands who sold their sons and daughters.

Zhang Zijun has learned what famine is. I watched Feng Xiaogang’s movie 1942 Henan Famine. It was weak in comparison. This famine became more and more severe. In the end, hundreds of thousands of victims died outside the city gate every day.

, and all the city gates had been closed long ago, and until the end, famine was everywhere in the city, and no less than a hundred corpses were transported out of the city every day. Zhang Zijun regretted seeing all this. If he had sown the high-yielding grains bred in Tongzhou earlier last year,

At least I could harvest food for one season, but what I saw next made me very angry.

Famine was everywhere outside the city, and the extravagance among the honorable relatives and officials in the city was getting worse. But the root cause was that Zhu Jianshen doted on concubine Wan Guifei. Liang Fang, a middle-ranking official, Chen Xi competed for prostitution, and the traitor Tu Zongzong offered precious gems to his descendants every day. Zhu Jianshen

He was often rewarded with generous gifts, and some even got official positions because of this, and some idle people rushed to imitate him.

Qiu Hong couldn't stand what was going on, so he contacted many censors, and the common people went to court to discuss his crime, asking him to return the reward, arrest Zongshun, and confiscate his property to help the hungry people.

Zhu Jianshen didn't allow it, but he listened to it to some extent. He only stated that the agreement was prohibited and violators would be punished, so it couldn't be prohibited after all.

At that time, there was a severe drought in the capital and the harvest was poor. Tens of thousands of wandering monks from all over the country gathered in the capital. These wandering monks did not engage in production and consumed money and food for no reason. Qiu Hong asked Qiu Hong to expel him to save food.

Qinghe Temple bred rare birds and animals to save unnecessary expenses. However, Zhu Jianshen remained unmoved, and his extravagance became more prevalent.

In addition to the extravagant style, Wan'an in the DPRK also provoked the struggle between the north and the south, formed cliques with the southerners, and the northerners' party led by cabinet Liu Jue, Shangshu Yin Min, Wang Yue, etc., fought against each other, creating a mess.

Zhang Zijun is also very helpless. Although there is no shortage of food at home, the home-grown corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes have been piled up in the granary in recent years. After the famine in the past few months, a lot has been consumed, mainly for some poor people.
Chapter completed!