Chapter 1345: The People of Sichuan Are All About to Be Fooled!

Is this how a wise ruler is supposed to behave?

Deceiving the common people when you need their support, and then ignoring them once you're done with them?

Isn't this wise ruler of yours being far too irresponsible? Once the common people realize they've been tricked, won't they rise up in revolt? What will you do then? Send troops to suppress them?

After hearing Zhu Cilang's "secret manual for wise rulers," Zhu Hexing was somewhat stunned. He had always assumed wise rulers were sages; he never imagined they were all swindlers!

And he considered himself an honest gentleman — and gentlemen are not much good at lying — so what was he supposed to do once he became emperor?

The Crown Prince suddenly thought of something else, turned his head to look at Ding Yuying, and thought to himself: You don't look like much of a good girl — are you very cunning? Did Imperial Father see through your cunning and that's why he made you Crown Princess?

Ding Yuying felt a little unnerved by Zhu Hexing's stare, but she still worked hard to conceal that flicker of panic, put on a solemn and dignified expression, and said to Zhu Cilang: "Imperial Father is acting with great benevolence and righteousness, for the long-term welfare of the people of Sichuan, deceiving them only for a time. If he did not deceive them, then leaving aside everything else, this war in Sichuan would drag on indefinitely, and no one knows how many Sichuan people would lose their lives because of it. Although Your Majesty has deceived the Sichuan people for a time, he has saved the lives of countless Sichuan people — truly a benevolent ruler rarely seen from ancient times to the present!"

Zhu Cilang nodded approvingly, thinking to himself: This is a fine daughter-in-law! We truly did not choose the wrong person. Very well then, We shall grant you one chance to avoid a grand funeral!

"Yuying is absolutely right!" Zhu Cilang glanced at his son, then continued, "A ruler must value great benevolence and great righteousness, not petty benevolence and petty righteousness — and still less should he pursue benevolence and righteousness that cannot be achieved. The three things Confucius spoke of — that where wealth is evenly distributed there is no poverty, where harmony prevails there is no scarcity, and where stability prevails there is no danger of overthrow — for the Great Ming of today, these cannot be achieved! Do not force what cannot be done! Do you understand?"

"Your son understands!" Zhu Hexing nodded repeatedly as well, thinking to himself: If someone as sagely wise as you cannot achieve even distribution of wealth, harmony without scarcity, and stability without overthrow, then I had better not go flailing about in the future.

Zhu Cilang nodded: "It seems you and Yuying did learn a thing or two in Shizhu. Now that Yuying's belly is growing bigger by the day and she has difficulty getting around, there is no need for her to serve as Vice Prefect of Shizhu. Stay in Fengdu and serve as County Magistrate!"

Zhu Hexing hurriedly rose and performed a bow: "Your son will certainly do his utmost and not disappoint Imperial Father!"

Zhu Cilang glanced at Ding Yuying again. "Yuying, what about you?"

What? Zhu Hexing was taken aback — why is Yuying involved in this too? Who exactly is going to be the Fengdu County Magistrate? Me or Yuying?

Ding Yuying said: "Your daughter-in-law will certainly do her best to assist the Crown Prince and not disappoint Imperial Father!"

"Good, good!" Zhu Cilang nodded with a smile. "The two of you do your best. Yuying, you need not leave Fengdu city and roam about. Just help the Crown Prince handle official documents and account books, and preside over the meetings of the six county commandants together with him."

"Your daughter-in-law understands." Ding Yuying also rose and performed a curtsy.

Zhu Cilang smiled: "That will be all for today. The two of you rest well tonight. Starting tomorrow, you are the County Magistrates of Fengdu. How to be a county magistrate — you should already know. We will add one more point, and you must remember it: you must go and deceive the people thoroughly for Us!"

You want us to go and deceive people thoroughly... Zhu Hexing thought to himself: Can't you, Imperial Father, teach the two of us anything decent?

Just as Zhu Hexing and Ding Yuying began earnestly deceiving the people of Fengdu, Emperor Zhu began earnestly deceiving all the common people of Sichuan!

This is a blessing for the people of Sichuan!

"The ruler is the boat; the common people are the water; the water can carry the boat, and the water can overturn the boat! In the past, when the roving bandits entered Sichuan, they used equal distribution of land to win the people's hearts, so that the common people of Sichuan all became water carrying the boat of the roving bandits! But the land in Sichuan is limited, while the bandits' garrison troops grew day by day and night by night, swelling to more than 600,000. Even if all the land in Sichuan were measured out, it would be hard to satisfy the desires of the garrison troops, and all the common people of Sichuan became tenant farmers. Therefore the Sichuan people must turn from water carrying the bandits' boat into water carrying our Great Ming's boat! We must also seize this opportunity to implement more benevolent policies, so that the Sichuan people carry the Great Ming's boat and overturn the roving bandits' vessel!"

In the temporary palace at Fengdu, above the great hall, the one expounding at length on the great principle of "the water carrying and overturning the boat" was, of course, Zhu Cilang in his guise as benevolent ruler.

All along the road from Yong'an to Fengdu, Emperor Zhu had received a warm welcome from the people of Sichuan! It truly was a case of baskets of food and pots of drink to welcome the royal army!

One might guess that when Li Guo entered Sichuan back then, he received roughly the same treatment.

Shi Kefa, Minister of Rites and second-in-command of the Grand Secretariat, heard Emperor Zhu's words and immediately rose to respond: "May I ask what benevolent policies Your Majesty intends to implement in order to win the hearts of the Sichuan people?"

Zhu Cilang said: "First, of course, is to hold trial civil service examinations in each prefecture and county — this has already been discussed before. Second is the equal distribution of land: every prefecture and county that has properly carried out the examinations must conduct a household census and equalize the fields! We intend to distribute all the land of Kuizhou and Chongqing to the toiling masses!"

"Your Majesty," Shi Kefa said, feeling that the method of household census and land equalization was somewhat problematic, "part of the farmland in Sichuan belongs to its former owners. Many of the officers and soldiers under the Governor-General of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan are themselves landowners in Sichuan. Your Majesty has already issued them land certificates... Now you intend to distribute all the land to the poor households of Sichuan. Then what about the officers and soldiers who hold land certificates?"

Zhu Cilang frowned and glanced at Shi Kefa, thinking to himself: Shi Kefa, how can you be so honest? You're already the Duke of Kenan — how is it you still haven't learned to improve?

Emperor Zhu said in a deep voice: "What We said was to distribute the land of Kuizhou and Chongqing to the toiling masses! We did not say We would distribute all the farmland of Sichuan to the poor!"

What? Only two prefectures? Then what about the other prefectures?

"Your Majesty, the other prefectures..." Shi Kefa was still asking.

Zhu Cilang shook his head: "Right now Li Laiheng is in Chongqing! Once We take Chongqing, will the roving bandits still have a foothold in Sichuan?"

Ah... Isn't this just deceiving people?

Shi Kefa understood — Emperor Zhu was going to deceive again.

Without giving Shi Kefa a chance to say more, Zhu Cilang continued: "Third is the large-scale establishment of local militia. At the same time as equalizing households and fields, every prefecture and county must establish local militia. Those who serve in the militia shall have their families allotted good farmland.

Fourth is to firmly control the routes in and out of Sichuan, so that cloth, gold, silver, copper coins, and the like from outside Sichuan cannot flow in in large quantities and harm the interests of the Sichuan people!"

"Your Majesty!" Zheng Sen, Minister of Works, stepped out from the ranks and addressed the throne. "Are you intending to cut off the trade routes into Sichuan?"

This Zheng Sen is meddling too. His family are maritime merchants, with no business in Sichuan and Huguang. Whether the trade routes into Sichuan are sealed or not — what does it have to do with him?

Zhu Cilang frowned and said: "Exactly! For the past twenty years, Sichuan has emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce, forbidding the people from engaging in two occupations. As a result, all the handicraft industries of Sichuan have been severely suppressed, and they simply cannot produce goods that can compete with southeastern commodities. If we do not prohibit southeastern merchants from shipping goods into Sichuan, it will not be long before the Sichuan people turn against Us!"

What Zhu Cilang wanted to prohibit was not only southeastern cloth, but also southeastern gold, silver, and copper coins!

Because he did not want severe inflation to appear in the "Ming-controlled zone" of Sichuan, and at the same time he wanted to maintain the purchasing power of hemp cloth — the gold and silver seized from Burma and the copper coins mined in Yunnan had once driven Sichuan prices sky-high, but that wave of inflation had already ended with the transfer of the Shun garrison troops, because when they withdrew, they had carried off most of the gold, silver, and copper coins with them.

Hemp cloth had now become hard currency again!

Now they certainly could not allow copper coins and silver to flow in in large quantities and seize the market from hemp cloth... They needed to keep the economic model of men plowing and women weaving going for a while longer.

"But..." Zheng Sen still did not quite understand. "But sealing the trade routes is not a long-term solution, is it? How long can Your Majesty seal them? Even before our Great Ming's heavenly troops entered Sichuan, southeastern goods had routes into Sichuan!"

Zhu Cilang smiled: "How long We can seal them — that is a question for Li Laiheng! The day he flees in panic from Chongqing Prefecture is the day We open the trade routes!"

Zheng Sen breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought Emperor Zhu was going to take the path of suppressing commerce! So it turned out he was only deceiving the Sichuan people... The Sichuan people were pitiful indeed — first deceived by the roving bandits, and now deceived by Emperor Zhu. Who knew when it would ever end!

What Zheng Sen did not know was that whether it was the Shun roving bandits or Zhu Cilang, both were actually good people... Because in the history without them, the people of Sichuan had been killed off until almost none remained.

Now they were still alive and well, and could still be deceived and taken in...

The old group is exploding again — welcome, everyone, to join this book's new group. Group number: 635667889

(End of Chapter)