With so many things happening in Yingtian Mansion, Zhu Youxiao in Beijing certainly didn't know about it. At this time, he had just finished his New Year's holiday.
In fact, he still had worries in his heart. Although the army and Zhang Shize were there, his premonition was not good.
But as the saying goes, do your best to obey fate. Now that he can't get away to go to Nanjing, he has no choice but to conduct remote control.
The queen's belly was getting bigger day by day. In order to ensure the safety of the queen and the fetus, he lived in Kunning Palace during this period.
He would also take time to see the emperor's eldest daughter born to Concubine Chun every day. The imperial doctor from the imperial hospital would come to the palace to check once every two days to ensure that the emperor's eldest daughter would not have any accidents.
In this era, the so-called miscarriage and neonatal mortality rates are really too high and terrifying.
And among this probability, which one accounts for more, natural or man-made, he can't guess.
He can only try his best to eliminate artificial possibilities and do his best to ensure that his children can thrive and the lives of his concubines are safe.
When the Lantern Festival Party ends, it also means that this short period of quiet and peaceful peace is over.
At the first court meeting of the new year, Ma Xianglin and Xu Xianchun finally lived up to their high expectations and entered the Huangji Palace with the charges and evidence of the Shanxi merchants.
When they announced the crimes committed by Shanxi merchants in the court, many officials had expressions of panic and fear on their faces.
Naturally, their subtle changes could not be hidden from Zhu Youxiao's eyes, but he did not say anything and asked Wang Chaofu to directly announce the results of the decision.
These profiteers who committed many crimes were, without exception, sentenced to beheading. The Fan family and more than a dozen other families were the leaders of the most evil crimes.
He was sentenced to death and cut in half, and was executed in public at Caishikou three days later.
During these three days, the newspapers under the Information Department will naturally publicize it vigorously to let more people know the ugly faces behind them.
After Wang Chaofu made the announcement, several officials from Shanxi Province could not even stand. They collapsed on the ground on the spot, breaking out in cold sweat and trembling with trembling lips.
Zhu Youxiao purged the officials in the court again based on the list confessed by Shanxi merchants, but he was not as ruthless as before. He would investigate deeply and kill a large number of them at every turn.
He didn't want to make this matter too big, because such things happened not only in Shanxi, but also in northwest and Liaodong.
With the information and transportation capabilities of this era, there is simply no way to stop it, we can only change it.
Even in extremely barren places like the Southwest and Guangdong and Guangxi, there will be collusion between government and businessmen and smuggling.
Furthermore, although the current situation is much better than when he succeeded to the throne, what if he really completely banned smuggling and trade exports?
It would be strange if those Mongolians didn't come to him to fight for their lives. They are rightly afraid of you now, but once they can no longer survive, they would rather die on the way to plunder and invade than starve to death on the grassland.
The current military focus is still in Liaodong. Before the old slaves are wiped out, he does not want to start an all-out war with the grasslands and fall into the embarrassing situation of fighting on two fronts.
In order to ensure the stability of the border town and have a stable rear area, he could concentrate on national affairs. He did not want to fight with the civil servants and generals of Shanxi this time.
Even if they ransacked their homes, they wouldn't be able to make much money, and he couldn't guarantee that the people who succeeded them would be better than them.
After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to keep these people for the time being and slowly replace them after his team was fully formed.
Therefore, under his deliberate arrangement, only a dozen officials were punished in this Shanxi merchant case that shocked the government and the public.
There is no doubt that these people are the Shanxi merchants' biggest and most important protective umbrella in the imperial court. They are also the ones with the deepest relationship and the most heavily bound interests.
Zhu Youxiao sentenced them all to having their homes confiscated and exterminated for being traitors to the enemy and deceiving the emperor. Those who were related by blood to them also had their homes confiscated and were sent to Liaodong as slaves.
They used their remaining lives to make one last contribution to the Ming Dynasty, which was to build roads. If you want to get rich, you must first build roads, which is very reasonable.
Zhu Youxiao had the idea of building a straight road for a long time, and originally assigned this task to Chen Qiyu.
It's a pity that he wants to develop with peace of mind, but the old slaves don't let him do that. They come to burn, kill and loot from time to time. How can the common people dare to go to the front line to build roads for you?
Therefore, this arduous and important project was shelved. After Chen Qiyu successfully handled the refugee problem and publicized the government's policy of providing relief for work, he was sent to Shanxi.
And with the repeated defeats of Lao Nu, the two cities of Liao and Shen have been relieved of the crisis of facing invasion at any time.
Therefore, under the overall arrangement of Governor Hong Chengchou, the straight road project was officially implemented two months ago.
According to Zhu Youxiao's vision and arrangement, the first section of the project is to build the Liaoshen Straight Road to strengthen the transportation connection between these two important cities outside the pass.
Liaoyang and Shenyang serve as the capital and the most important military town outside the customs. Their roles are self-evident.
As the most prosperous and important city outside the pass, as long as Zhu Youxiao can strengthen his control over these two cities, it is equivalent to controlling the entire Liaodong.
These two cities will also be the bridgehead for the future when troops are sent to exterminate the old slaves and add this northeastern territory to the territory.
The slave Gandusi during the Yongle period had to restore and rebuild at all costs.
Due to years of war, the people of Liaodong have long been in chaos, but as soon as the work-for-relief policy was introduced, it immediately won the support and cheers of the general public.
In these days, they don't dare to expect too much, as long as they can have a bite to eat and save their lives.
Nearly 200,000 people and workers have gathered on the project road of Liaoshen Straight Road, working non-stop on paving the road.
Because it is just paving a dirt road, it does not require a lot of materials, so the progress of this project can be said to be very smooth.
In just two months, most of the project has been completed, and I believe it will be fully completed in less than two months.
After the construction of the Liaoshen Straight Road is completed, it will be the Jinliao Straight Road and the Shanjin Straight Road. In this way, the travel time for sending troops from Shanhaiguan to Liaoshen will be greatly reduced.
Although there were so many workers, it was difficult for the court's resources to sustain such a large expenditure.
Two hundred thousand people, even three meals of gruel every day, would have to eat nearly a thousand kilo of grain.
That's why Zhu Youxiao took such a risk and asked Li Zhicai to recover money and food in Jiangnan. Although he had tens of millions of gold and silver in his own money, he was really scarce when it came to food.
Naturally, the food in his private treasury cannot be used to assist the people. They are military supplies, and he will only provide them to the army as a last resort.