The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Qi Jiguang's letter does not contain much content, but it is very important.

It mainly talks about the current situation of the Jurchens in Liaodong. Since Wang Gao's death, the deterrence of the Jurchen tribes has indeed been achieved.

Other Jurchen tribes no longer dare to disobey the imperial edict of the Ming Dynasty, and they all cooperate with it.

Even if there are those who are unwilling, they dare not make trouble.

However, in the past six months, the situation has slightly changed, and the reason is still Wang Gao's son.

After Wang Gao's death, his eldest son Ata occupied Hongli Village, and his second son Ahai occupied Shaji City. They recruited troops and kept contacting the Jurchen tribes to persuade them to rebel against the Ming Dynasty.

Yes, Wang Gao's family seems to be at odds with the Ming Dynasty, and they will never stop until they die.

Not only that, Ata and Ahai also strengthened their ties with the Mongolian Tuman tribe, and often used the power of the Mongols to oppress the tribes that stood on the side of the Ming Dynasty.

After all, except for the wild Jurchens in the north, the division of power among the other Jurchen tribes is very clear. If they want to expand their own strength, they can only dig into the corners of other Jurchen tribes, weaken others and strengthen themselves.

And Atai and Ahai are extremely eager to grow stronger and avenge their dead father.

After more than a year of dormancy, with the growth of their strength, Atai and Ahai have become unable to hold back and are ready to move again.

The main purpose of Qi Jiguang's letter was naturally to launch an expedition against Hongli Village and Shaji City.

However, when Qi Jiguang talked about his idea with Zhang Xueyan, the Right Censor-in-Chief and Liaodong Governor, he was opposed.

Yes, the reason for Zhang Xueyan's opposition was naturally the news he saw in the court newspaper. Now the Ming Dynasty is in the midst of war in the southeast and southwest, and Liaodong must not have war at this time.

For some reasons, the court did not release the news of obtaining half of Luzon's land, but only said that the South China Sea Navy entered Luzon to encircle and suppress pirates.

Such a statement would naturally be supported by the court.

After all, during those years when the Japanese pirates were rampant, the hatred of the whole Ming Dynasty towards the Japanese pirates reached its peak, and they wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible.

Now that the Ming Dynasty’s military force is sharp, it is naturally time to cut the grass and root it out.

As for Yunnan, the news of Myanmar’s rebellion was naturally revealed in the court reports before.

And now Myanmar has openly raised the flag of rebellion, and the troops have entered Yunnan. It is naturally inappropriate to continue hiding it.

Revealing these is naturally for the purpose of passing the buck.

Whether it is Zhang Juzheng or Wei Guangde, they definitely have no intention of covering up for their predecessors.

Because now there are rumors in the court that Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde, two Jinshi from military households, are warlike, so after they have firmly sat on the throne of the first and second assistants of the cabinet, they have continuously launched wars to provoke wars.

Of course, the main target of the verbal attack is still Zhang Juzheng, who told him that his performance evaluation system offended almost all officials in the world.

To be honest, except for the war that Zhang Juzheng took the initiative to launch in Liaodong, the others were forced, although Wei Guangde played the most important role in it.

In all honesty, the war was not initiated by the Ming Dynasty. Their role was more to prick the pus and release the pus.

But these situations naturally changed when they were heard by some officials with ulterior motives.

In addition to the historical trend, Li Chengliang took the initiative to expand the territory northward by repairing the six forts in Kuandian, which triggered a war with the Jianzhou Jurchen Wang Gao. The war in Yunnan was actually just to expand the scale of the war and advance it by a few years.

After the Ming court turned a deaf ear and dumb for decades, it eventually backfired on itself.

After the tenth year of Wanli, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Myanmar became extremely tense. In the end, they met in battle and a war involving hundreds of thousands of people still broke out.

The advance of time is naturally good for the Ming Dynasty.

After all, Mang Yinglong had less time to sort out the results of annexation in recent years, and the Ming Dynasty was more prepared for the war.

But no matter what, after entering the Wanli period, it is an indisputable fact that the Ming Dynasty has fought wars in Liaodong, Southeast and Southwest in the past two years. This cannot be washed away.

Those officials of the Ming Dynasty court would naturally talk about this in private.

Even if Zhang Juzheng didn't mention it to him, Wei Guangde had his own information channels.

What Qi Jiguang said in the letter might be what Zhang Xueyan and others mentioned in their letters, so he chose to cease fire in Liaodong at this time.

"Hongli Village, Shaji City."

Wei Guangde put down the letter and murmured.

He didn't expect that killing Wang Gao would deter the Jurchens for more than ten years, but only two years later, it seemed that the Jurchens in Liaodong began to be restless again.

"Does it really have to change the natives in Liaodong to the flow to fundamentally solve the Jurchens' major concern?"

Wei Guangde thought silently in his heart.

"Or, raise the butcher knife in Liaodong again, and do another Chenghua Liting, kill the Jurchens and greatly reduce their population, in order to exchange for decades of stability?"

Changing the natives to the flow means abolishing the native chieftain system in various ethnic minority areas, and replacing it with direct rule by officials appointed by the central government, and implementing the same local administrative system as in the interior.

The reform of abolishing the chieftain system and establishing officials to govern was actually implemented during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. The reform was implemented in the six provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Hubei in the southwest.

Since the Yongzheng period, the Qing government has implemented the policy of "reforming the chieftain system" on a large scale in the southwest, gradually abolishing the hereditary chieftain system, appointing officials with a fixed term and who can be transferred, and then conducting household registration, measuring land, verifying taxes and other work.

The policy of changing the natives into officials strengthened the Qing government's management of ethnic groups in the southwest, broke the ethnic restrictions of the original chieftain system of "barbarians cannot leave the cave, and Han people cannot enter the country", promoted ethnic integration and local economic development and social progress, and was an important policy for the governance, territorial expansion and consolidation of a unified multi-ethnic feudal state.

The Ming Dynasty never implemented it and maintained the chieftain system, which was also the reason for the constant rebellion in the southwest in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

The Jurchen tribes in Liaodong were essentially the same as the chieftain system in the southwest. The tribal leaders had the final say and had actual control.

After all, when the Jurchen tribes migrated south, they were only attached to the Ming Dynasty in the border areas, not incorporated into the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty never checked the population of the Jurchens, issued household stickers, compiled fish scale yellow books and other signs of substantive rule.

Wei Guangde was not familiar with history, but he still knew some historical terms, and changing the natives into officials was one of them.

After all, he had watched most of the TV series "Yongzheng Dynasty" at the time, so he naturally had some impression.

However, the TV show was very one-sided after all. Although it mentioned the reform of the native system, it rarely involved the whole process, and did not show the cruelty of the implementation.

In the past, Wei Guangde would not have thought of it, but now he is in a different position and knows more about the situation, so he thought that once the reform of the native system was implemented in the Ming Dynasty, there must be a general in charge to deter the scoundrels, otherwise it would definitely be another rebellion.

"Zhang Xueyan, hum."

Wei Guangde continued to eat, but he also made up his mind that when he went to the cabinet today, he would give Qi Jiguang's letter to Zhang Juzheng to see.

Zhang Xueyan is Zhang Juzheng's man. As long as he can persuade Lao Zhang, Liaodong will be easy to deal with.

As long as he finds a reason, Qi Jiguang will lead his troops to pacify Honglizhai and Shajicheng again.

Treating it as an accidental incident is a passive response made by the border generals based on the Jurchen raid, rather than an action planned by Liaodong and the court.

Wei Guangde believes that Zhang Juzheng will understand the benefits of doing so after assessing the situation.

After all, keeping Wang Gao's two sons will cause trouble in Liaodong sooner or later.

It is the best policy to eliminate them as soon as possible, otherwise once they are ready, they will join forces with the Mongolian Tuman tribe to start an uprising, and Liaodong will be in trouble.

After breakfast, Wei Guangde went out to the yard next door and met his relatives from Liaodong before leaving.

I came back late and didn't see anyone yesterday in Beijing. This reason is sufficient, but it is a bit unreasonable if I still don't see anyone the next day.

If it gets out, people will say that Wei Guangde has become successful and looks down on his poor relatives.

At that time, this matter may be impeached by the censors with bad intentions, disgusting him.

Although Wei Guangde is kind to others in the court, he is not gold or silver, and it is impossible for everyone to like him.

Moreover, likes and dislikes are often beyond people's control.

The court of the Ming Dynasty prohibits cliques, but in fact, there is a clear distinction, that is, the township clique, and a group of people connected by the teacher-student relationship.

Although the censors knew they could not defeat the cabinet ministers, they would still come up to make a report if they found something reasonable.

They could not hurt anyone, but disgusted people, which also reflected their value and added points to their own evaluation.

In this regard, Yan Song and Xu Jie in the past, and Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde now, all had no way to protect themselves as much as possible to avoid being caught.

After all, they had not yet reached the Censorate, and Ge Shouli would not give them face.

They were all trivial matters that did not hurt or itch, and it was not worth making a big fuss.

After leaving the mansion and sitting in the sedan chair, the interior had been cleaned up, and there was no remnant of yesterday.

Wei Guangde lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and looked at the prosperous streets and crowded crowds in the capital along the way.

The current Ming Dynasty is still prosperous in business.

Ordinary people do not earn much, but the prices in the Ming Dynasty are not high. Although ordinary people in the capital cannot eat meat every meal, they can still eat twice a month.

It’s just that once you leave the capital, you have to look at the local area.

If the weather is good, the local people can live a good life.

But if the weather is not as people wish and a disaster occurs, it is true that the people's ability to resist disasters is also weak. After all, the gentry above them are not good men and women, and they will not be soft-hearted.

"As long as there is no war in the Central Plains, the people of Daming can live a good life."

Wei Guangde sighed in his heart, and when he was in a good mood, a foul smell suddenly came into his nose.

Wei Guangde hurriedly lowered the curtains, picked up the sachet on one side and put it under his nose to sniff, and then it felt better.

Just like what was said on the Internet in later generations, don't be fooled by the clean and tidy capital in TV dramas. At this time, the city was dirty and messy.

But think about it, there are cows, horses, donkeys and carts running on the streets every day. These animals don't go to the toilet, but they poop while walking, so it would be strange if they could feel it on the streets.

Of course, people wouldn't defecate in the street, but because no one cared about the sanitation, in the words of later generations, the infrastructure was not enough, so except for the streets near the concentrated official residences, most of the streets were smelly and messy.

Especially when it rained heavily, many places were really not walkable.

You didn't know what you stepped on when you stepped on it.

Suddenly, Wei Guangde was stunned.

Although Beijing was considered a good city in the Ming Dynasty at that time, after all, there were many people who made this a career and could pull manure carts out of the city every day, but sometimes it was still unbearable for Wei Guangde.

"Urban management and infrastructure."

Wei Guangde was thinking in his heart that he planned to discuss with Zhang Juzheng and let Shuntian Prefecture summon the county magistrates of Daxing and Wanping, and together with the Wucheng Bingmasi, to plan and do a good job in the sanitation of the 49 cities.

As the face of the Ming Dynasty court, the sanitation of Beijing City must be taken care of.

Wei Guangde heard in his early years that the urban sanitation problem in the West during this period seemed to be more serious than that of the Ming Dynasty.

They did not know how to compost, so they just dumped feces and urine randomly. It is said that the feces and urine in Paris were piled up as high as the city walls.

In the Ming Dynasty, it can also be used as farmyard manure, so it will not accumulate for years. This is why foreigners at this time thought that China's sanitation was very good after coming to China.

Thinking about the role of the Wucheng Bingmasi, Wei Guangde had a general idea.

The Wucheng Bingmasi was a public security management agency established in Beijing by the Ming Dynasty, responsible for urban public security, fire bans, and dredging ditches and streets.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Beijing only had two military command offices in the south and north. Later, in the 23rd year of Hongwu, reforms were carried out, and the capital was divided into five cities: East, West, South, North, and Central. A military command office was set up in each city, forming a system of five-city military command offices.

These military command offices were responsible for the public security management of their respective urban areas, including catching thieves, night patrols, and firefighting.

The drainage ditches and sanitation of Beijing City seemed to be included in the five-city military command offices, which were responsible for hiring people to clean up the garbage in the city and arranging people to transport it out of the city with manure carts.

The county government offices of Daxing and Wanping asked the officers to patrol the streets and deal with problems in a timely manner.

The sanitation workers of later generations also had to be used, otherwise the road surface would be dirty and smelly after the cattle and horses passed by on the street.

As for the expenses, Wei Guangde thought about it and decided to let the people of Wucheng Bingmasi collect sanitation fees from those shops along the street, charging according to the opening of the shop.

Wei Guangde was still thinking about this problem, when he suddenly felt the sedan stopped, and a long servant outside the sedan whispered: "Master, we are here."

As the sedan was lifted up, Wei Guangde bent down and got out of the sedan.

It is still better to be in the imperial city. There are not as many smells as in the city nearby.

Wei Guangde couldn't help but take a few deep breaths, and then strode into Chengtian Gate.

Entering the cabinet, passing by a Zhongshu, Wei Guangde casually asked: "Has the Prime Minister arrived?"

The Zhongshu was standing respectfully by the side. When he heard Wei Guangde's question, he immediately replied: "Report to Wei Gelao, Prime Minister Zhang has not come yet."

"Well, I know, you are busy."

Wei Guangde smiled and nodded at him, and then went straight to his duty room.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty was definitely a superpower in this era. Even if Spain had American gold and silver, that is, it was a little richer, but its comprehensive national strength was definitely not comparable to that of the Ming Dynasty.

Wei Guangde thought to himself, since it is a big country, it must have the bearing of a big country.

First, we should improve the sanitation work in Beijing, and then promote it to all prefectures and counties across the country.

When Li Zicheng attacked Beijing in the late Ming Dynasty, I heard that there was a plague in the city. (End of this chapter)