ushernet Chapter 718 The Princess of the Ming Dynasty (1)
Chapter 718 The Princess of the Ming Dynasty (1)
But here comes the crucial point: Zhu Yuanzhang was definitely afraid that Zhu Yunwen wouldn't be able to control the senior officials in the court and would take them away beforehand.
This resulted in a lack of capable people in the country. In addition, her fourth brother, Zhu Di, had both military power and strategists, so he was likely to stand out.
But thinking about these things is too far ahead. With her father's health, he should be able to live for at least another ten years or so.
Wangyou was seriously considering a question: should she prevent her elder brother from dying young, or should she also develop her own power and eventually conquer the world, perhaps even becoming an empress?
But being an emperor isn't easy. You have to get up earlier than the rooster and go to bed later than the dog. Besides having absolute power, there doesn't seem to be much fun in it.
Sigh, after thinking about it, it's all because her father, Zhu Yuanzhang, was too biased. In his eyes, only Zhu Biao was a treasure, while his other children were just weeds.
No, that's not right. At least sons are granted titles and land, but daughters have nothing. They just wait to be married off when they reach marriageable age.
To say that Zhu Yuanzhang loved his mother is an exaggeration. If he loved his mother, he would have ignored his daughters.
To be honest, sometimes I really want to rebel.
After much thought, Wangyou concluded that the palace was not a good place. Being confined to the inner palace was bad enough, but even going out for a stroll was inconvenient. The worst part was that she might be sold off at any time.
So Wangyou fell ill, and became very ill. One imperial physician after another came, but all to no avail. Then Zhu Biao came up with a good idea: he found a fortune teller who said that the princess was too young and needed to be moved outside the palace to recuperate.
Perhaps because Wangyou was his daughter born late in life, or perhaps because Zhu Yuanzhang felt a pang of guilt, he granted her request and even granted her a fiefdom. It wasn't large, just a prefecture, but it was enough.
Wangyou used the excuse that her days were numbered to move directly to her fiefdom of Qingzhou.
Upon seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and declared that the taxes and other taxes from Qingzhou would not need to be turned over to the national treasury in the future, and the seventh princess would handle them herself. He also gave her a title, Chang'an.
And so, Wangyou fooled everyone, and then happily went to Qingzhou with all her confidants. As for what happened in the capital, that had nothing to do with her anymore.
However, considering that her elder brother Zhu Biao had helped her, Wangyou left him a letter, telling him to exercise more and see the imperial physician more often.
Whether Zhu Biao listens or not is up to him.
Qingzhou is a large but desolate city. Although it is far from the capital, it is still a border city, so the people can only make ends meet and are certainly not wealthy.
When they arrived at the princess's residence, they found that it was built to a decent standard, much more spacious than the palace. Although Zhu Yuanzhang did not value his daughters highly, he would not mistreat them either. After all, they were royal children, and they deserved the respect due to them.
Now that Qingzhou is her fiefdom, it is now her domain. She will clean up what needs to be cleaned up and take control of what needs to be taken control of. She doesn't want any troublesome people disturbing her peace of mind on her territory.
So, during his first month in Qingzhou, Wangyouguang rectified the situation, and the results were significant. At least there were no more people committing crimes or bullying the market within Qingzhou.
This greatly improved the security in Qingzhou, and as a princess, she was entitled to have her own guards, so Wangyou felt free to recruit people.
"Princess Chang'an's residence is recruiting soldiers. The monthly salary is ten taels of silver, and there are additional rewards for good performance!"
Forget about rewards, even a monthly salary of ten taels of silver was a sum that an ordinary person could never save in a lifetime. Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely stingy with the monthly salaries of officials in various regions, but if someone was caught embezzling, their entire family would be wiped out, which made many officials so poor that they wanted to cry.
Although Wangyou didn't open any profitable shops in the capital, she participated in many gambling games of all sizes. Over the years, she has accumulated a total of nine million taels of silver. Once Qingzhou is developed, her income will only increase.
Moreover, Qingzhou is located by the sea, so she can organize a fleet to go overseas and dig for more gold.
But there's no rush, everything takes time.
Wangyou first bought wool from nearby herders at an extremely low price, then organized people to wash it and make it into warm clothes.
Then, arrangements were made for the soldiers of Qingzhou first, and then people were sent to introduce them to passing merchants.
Who wouldn't like lightweight yet warm clothes? Plus, they're cheaper than fur coats. With winter approaching, if these could be shipped to Beijing, they'd definitely sell like hotcakes!
So, one by one, the businessmen signed the agreement.
The princess's residence began recruiting female workers, and a textile factory was built. However, every worker had to sign a relevant agreement, and those who violated the agreement would be punished with caning to death or even their entire family.
Wangyou disliked Zhu Yuanzhang's indiscriminate killing of innocent people, but she had to admit that sometimes using killing to stop killing was quite effective.
In addition, Qingzhou recruited migrant workers to build cement roads. It was really unbearable to go out and see yellow dust everywhere.
In addition, Wangyou also provided a batch of high-yield, high-quality seeds, which the people of Qingzhou planted while he organized a fleet to search overseas, striving to exchange cheap goods for maximum profit.
The people Wangyou trained were just like her—they wouldn't act until they saw something good. On their first voyage back from the sea, they brought back quite a few good things.
Besides wool products, Wangyou also produced all sorts of down products, including duck down and goose down. She even remembered to send a gift to her elderly father, brothers, and sisters in the capital.
Of course, the person Wangyou sent to deliver the message was also very eloquent, which made Zhu Yuanzhang feel extremely guilty. He sent Wangyou many more good things and told her to take good care of her health and not to worry too much.
Wangyou was naturally very moved to receive the gift, and wrote a heartfelt letter to Lao Zhu. But feelings are just an act.
Winters in Qingzhou are not easy to get through; they are extremely cold. At this time, heated brick beds already exist, but they are not widespread. So, how people survive the winter depends mainly on how tough they are.
Wangyou sent people to teach them how to build heated kang beds, and the kang beds quickly became popular, especially in the countryside, where almost every household had one.
People in the countryside have no shortage of strength. With a heated kang (a traditional Chinese bed-stove), and if the whole family works hard, they can easily chop enough firewood for the whole family without having to worry about freezing to death.
However, Wangyou also made a promise beforehand: for every tree that each household cuts down in winter, a batch must be planted next spring so that life can continue.
In October, the farmland of Wangyou harvested high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn planted in June, with an astonishing yield.
The "Forget-Worry" method instructed people to properly store the seeds and distribute them the following year. This way, after paying taxes, the common people would not know that they were living in extreme poverty, and with more seeds available in the future, they would not starve to death.
At the same time, Qingzhou also recruited all kinds of talents, those who could farm, carpent, blacksmith, and arithmetic, etc., basically anyone who was useful.