Li Hongzhang, who was waiting quietly outside the gate, felt a little bitter in his heart.
According to his opinion, he didn't want to come this time.
But there was no way. The Hongwu Emperor put a knife on his neck and persuaded him with emotion and reason, so he had to come.
When he comes, even if nothing happens, he alone will die. If he doesn't come, the whole family will die.
This choice is not difficult to make.
"Master Li, the Queen Mother please come in!" The guard who went in to announce the situation finally came out.
Hearing these words, Li Hongzhang couldn't help but look down at his tattered clothes, took a deep breath, and strode into the door.
It’s time to show off your real acting skills….
"Queen Mother, I finally see you!"
"The slave managed to escape from the hands of Fake Ming with great difficulty!"
"Slave...Slave, I feel so miserable!" As soon as Li Hongzhang saw Empress Dowager Cixi, he knelt on the ground, covered his face and burst into tears.
Empress Dowager Cixi: “……!”
Her hopes of surrendering to the Ming Dynasty seemed to have been dashed.
Li Hongzhang, who cried a few times, saw that Cixi remained silent and looked very unhappy.
He thought about it in his mind and quickly guessed what this person was thinking.
It is estimated that when this person saw that the situation was over, he also thought of surrendering.
It's a pity that Emperor Hongwu doesn't want you to surrender!
Li Hongzhang sighed in his heart and pretended to wipe away his tears, straightened up and said with excitement: "Queen Mother, I have great news for you this time!"
"Um?"
"What good news?" Empress Dowager Cixi was stunned when she heard this and became a little interested.
"Your Majesty, this slave has already contacted twenty-three gentry and wealthy families on his way north this time. They are all pure and good ministers who cannot bear the oppression of the hypocritical Ming Dynasty and want to welcome me back to the Qing Dynasty."
"As long as the Queen Mother follows her ministers, whether they go to Shaanxi or Shandong, she can recruit tens of thousands of people in an instant. When the Queen Mother and Your Majesty are around, they will definitely be able to gather countless brave warriors to fight for the country!" Li Hongzhang said in a deep voice.
Cixi was stunned, this was a path she had never imagined.
"But the false Ming Dynasty is so powerful, how can we be its opponent?"
"If we could defeat him, we wouldn't have lost the city of Peking before!" Cixi was not stupid and quickly raised questions.
"The Queen Mother probably doesn't know that this time she pretended to mobilize 200,000 troops to destroy the Qing Dynasty. It was just incidental. They wanted to fight Tsarist Russia further north."
"Do you think...that Tsarist Russia is easy to deal with? I heard that Tsarist Russia is even bigger than me when the Qing Dynasty's territory was at its most extensive!"
"Moreover, it's bitterly cold in the north, and the pseudo-Ming soldiers are basically from the south, and they absolutely cannot adapt to the northern climate."
"Even if they are undefeated, they will definitely be dragged north, and this is our chance!"
"Those gentry now lack a flag that can unite them, and this flag must be the Queen Mother or the Emperor!" Li Hongzhang knelt on the ground again, with a sincere look on his face.
"This...!" Empress Dowager Cixi was a little moved, but she felt something was wrong.
But she couldn't figure it out for a while.
"Queen Mother!"
"Time waits for no one, I will escort you out of the city now!"
"If we wait for the Puppet Ming Dynasty to conquer Shenyang, it will be too late to seize the city gate." Li Hongzhang looked anxious.
"well!"
"Let's leave now!"
When she heard about running away, Empress Dowager Cixi immediately realized that nothing else was important, her life was the most important.
As for whether or not to go against Fake Ming... we can decide after we go out!
Soon, Li Hongzhang escaped from Shenyang with the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Tongzhi who had made some disguises.
"Master Li, I see that the driver outside looks very nervous. Who is that?" Sitting in the carriage, Empress Dowager Cixi became more and more aware that something was wrong and couldn't help but ask.
"Those are the people recruited by Weichen. They are all trustworthy!" Li Hongzhang said.
"Then where are we going next?" Empress Dowager Cixi heard something was wrong in Li Hongzhang's tone and couldn't help but tighten her arms around Emperor Tongzhi and asked.
“Go to Shanxi!”
"The Queen Mother just needs to sit back and relax, and all the affairs below will be arranged by the ministers!" Li Hongzhang said.
Empress Dowager Cixi understood.
She has also read history and knows what it means to coerce the emperor to command the princes. Now she and the six-year-old Emperor Tongzhi in her arms are such emperors, and the Li Hongzhang in front of her is Cao Cao.
If Li Hongzhang knew what she was thinking, he would definitely spit out a mouthful of old blood.
Is he also considered Cao Cao?
He is just bait, the real Cao Cao is sitting in Beiping City!
They want to plow the court and clear out the holes. Taking advantage of the army's Northern Expedition and the lack of troops in the Central Plains, a Jiang Taigong fisherman is willing to take the bait and catch all the restless gentry in the Central Plains!
If anyone really can't withstand the temptation and wants to rebel because he has the reputation of being the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, he will definitely die an ugly death.
time flies.
In the blink of an eye, one year has passed since Xu Da's army embarked on the Northern Expedition.
This year, the whole of North China has been undercurrent.
Countless gossips spread freely among the people, saying that the false Northern Expedition army was completely destroyed by the Tsarist Russians, and that the Tsarist Russians had already reached the northeast.
There are even more outrageous ones.
For example, one of the most ferocious rumors circulating today is that the fake Zhu Hongwu is actually the zombie king who has lived from the early Ming Dynasty to the present. He goes on a rampage and eats people every full moon night. People in Peiping City have been eaten by him. Half done!
Some of these messages were posted by Zhu Yuanzhang at the request of Jin Yiwei, but many more were deliberately spread by people taking advantage of troubled waters.
As for why such news was released, Zhu Yuanzhang knew it well.
The various policies he has been promoting, such as land inventory and re-determination of taxes, have touched the interests of too many people. Some people don't want to make it easier for Ming Dynasty!
And it just so happened that he didn't want those people to have an easy time either.
He also wants to introduce more stimulating policies.
"Land belongs to the public and distributed equally!"
Zhu Yuanzhang said these eight words in the late Ming Dynasty, but at that time he only talked about it and did not make great efforts to implement it.
One is because he doesn't have enough time.
Second, it was also because the country had not industrialized in the late Ming Dynasty and had no ability to manage, supervise and maintain the implementation of this policy.
Even if it is proposed, it will probably be in vain within a few years.
He is very aware of the ability of those gentry and bureaucrats to take advantage of loopholes.
But it's different now.
When the Industrial Revolution was going on in the early Ming Dynasty, it was also going on in the late Qing Dynasty, and the progress here was even faster.
Because there is a larger population here, and there are already some industrial bases along the coast.
In addition, 90% of these built factories were state-led as in the early Ming Dynasty, which allowed Zhu Yuanzhang to hold a lot of money in his hands.
With money, Zhu Yuanzhang naturally had to solve the food problem in reverse.
Zhu Yuanzhang knew very well that industry must be developed, but agriculture cannot be left behind, because agriculture is the lifeblood of a country.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, China had a population of 40 million. If these 40 million people did not have food, it would be in vain no matter how many industrial products you had.
So that everyone can afford food, this is the purpose of Zhu Yuanzhang's policy today.
Take the land back into the hands of the government. All land belongs to the government, and then distribute it equally to all people for farming!
People only have the right to cultivate land, but not the right to sell it. Selling land privately is illegal.
At the same time, they must pay grain to the state in accordance with the law.
This is the policy that Zhu Yuanzhang will implement.
Next to him, Hu Weiyong listened to Zhu Yuanzhang put forward these policies one by one. Even though he had known for a long time that Zhu Yuanzhang was going to do this, and he had been improving administrative institutions in various places to prepare for it in the past two years, but the day came when he really wanted to do it.
, he still couldn't help but feel frightened.
Because this is about digging up the ancestral graves of all the gentry in the world!
In this era, land is the lifeblood. If you want to touch the land of the gentry, you are threatening their life. How could they not fight for it!
Although Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian now implement such a policy, that is because Zhu Yuanzhang almost killed the local gentry by banning smoking.
But the provinces that were captured later, especially those in the north that were not close to the sea, were still ruled by the gentry.
Because Zhu Yuanzhang advanced too quickly later, and the Manchus were too inexperienced, they were directly bulldozed by him in two years, and there was no time to rectify these gentry.
Moreover, compared with those in coastal provinces, the gentry in these inland provinces are more conservative and value land more.
It's okay to change the emperor.
The Ming Dynasty is gone, and the Manchu and Qing Dynasties have taken over, but they still live the same way. Now that the Ming Dynasty has come back and drove the Manchu Qing away, they still live the same way.
Guarding the land, as long as there is food in the land, they will have no worries about eating and drinking from generation to generation.
No matter how powerful the emperor is, can I still control them?
But obviously, Emperor Zhu is really in charge of them now.
When this policy was spread throughout the world, half of China was completely in a state of excitement.
Overnight, civil unrest broke out and beacon smoke was everywhere.
After all, from the old Manchu bureaucrats, to the local gentry and large landowners, to the small landowners in various villages and towns, almost everyone who has the right to speak locally is a landlord, and their interests were violated by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Even some of the officers and soldiers recruited by Zhu Yuanzhang in this era were like this.
Especially those generals who merged from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have now basically become big landowners.
Now that Zhu Yuanzhang wants to infringe on their interests, of course they will not agree.
Regarding these riots, Zhu Yuanzhang only gave one opinion: "Kill!"
"Anyone who dares to resist will be killed without mercy!"
"Anyone who refuses to cooperate will be killed without mercy!"
At this moment, Xu Da and Li Wenzhong's Northern Expeditionary Army had quietly returned and were stationed in various places.
In addition, Hu Weiyong had been sorting out the civil service system for three years and had already sorted it out. There were also Empress Dowager Cixi and Li Hongzhang lurking among the enemies as undercover agents.
Zhu Yuanzhang had done all the preparations properly and everything was flawless.
Although I know there will definitely be bloodshed and chaos if I do this.
But long-term pain is not as good as short-term pain. Scraping the bones to treat the poison is to cure the disease.
If we don't get this done now, it will only become more and more difficult to solve in the future.
During this period, some people came to Zhu Yuanzhang to plead for mercy, even Shi Dakai came.
But Zhu Yuanzhang did not meet anyone.
At this moment, he was cold and iron-blooded.
Because Zhu Yuanzhang knew very well that for this country with a population of 40 million, this was the only way to release productivity and make the country quickly become rich and powerful, surpassing the Westerners.
Likewise, he also understands that this is also a prerequisite for him to be able to complete system tasks.
What matters in war is logistics, and a prosperous country that can be completely controlled by him is the most powerful guarantee for logistics.
He didn't want to have another food crisis in the country when he led his fleet to conquer the world in the future, and he didn't want him to transfer food here from the early Ming Dynasty.
That would be funny.
Moreover, conquering the world cannot only be achieved by winning one or two battles. He must have despairing national strength.
Only when China's strength far exceeds that of any country in the world, can those countries surrender willingly.
Liberating land and liberating the population is the first step for a country to become prosperous and strong.
If he cannot even complete this first step, then even though he has fifteen or sixteen years, his hope of completing this task will be slim.
Time passed quietly again.
In the blink of an eye, another two years have passed.
After two years of killing, the new country finally regained its peace.
Those old bureaucrats and gentry who were rebellious had been killed by Zhu Yuanzhang. As for those who knew how to advance and retreat but did not take action at the last moment, Zhu Yuanzhang did not question them too much.
However, after they handed over all the land, if there was no new livelihood, they would just sit back and have nothing.
This forced these gentry with a large amount of money to begin to gather in coastal areas to find new ways to make money. As a result, industry and commerce once again ushered in a wave of prosperity.
At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang also began to promote the treasure banknotes of the early Ming Dynasty here.
The same policy, the same process as in the early Ming Dynasty, and even the entire promotion process of treasure banknotes was personally handled by Shen Wansan, the president of the Royal Bank of the Ming Dynasty who has now been promoted to the second rank.
"Your Majesty, I came here this time. Under the orders of His Highness the Crown Prince, I also brought a treasure that can help Your Majesty unify the world!"
Nowadays, Shen Wansan is still habitually cautious when meeting Zhu Yuanzhang, but when he met an official casually as a businessman, the feeling of trepidation and precariousness that he felt when he met an official has become much lighter.
"With such a strong tone, we need to see what kind of treasure it is?" Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly became interested when he heard that Zhu Biao asked Shen Wansan to bring it.
Shen Wansan took out something from his arms and placed it in front of Zhu Yuanzhang.
This was an earthy yellow bead with exquisite patterns carved on it. At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang felt a faint trace of spiritual energy remaining on it.
"What is this?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked suspiciously.
"His Royal Highness calls him Holy Pearl!"
"There is a trace of spiritual energy remaining on it. If you soak it in water and drink tea, it can have a refreshing effect in two to three months!"
"Even if you are sick, drinking the water soaked in this holy bead can alleviate some of the symptoms!"
"Of course, once the spiritual energy within the period is exhausted, it will be useless!" Shen Wansan explained in detail.