Chapter 1472: What a Familiar Routine!

"Your daughter-in-law respectfully greets Imperial Father and wishes him peace, and respectfully greets Imperial Mother and wishes her peace."

The one paying respects to Zhu Cilang and Zheng Chagu was the "Eight-Faced Guanyin" Wu Ahuan, daughter-in-law of the tycoon king. She had not followed the tycoon king to Xinzhou to take up his fief, but had stayed in the Great Ming raising her "chubby little son" Zhu Yibu while studying at Jinling Women's University. It truly had not been easy for her!

But now she could finally go to Xinzhou and reunite with her husband. Today she had come to bid farewell to Zhu Cilang and Zheng Chagu. However, her son, "Fatty King" Zhu Yibu, was still too young and probably could not endure the tossing of a ten-thousand-li sea voyage, so he could only remain in the Great Ming to be raised by Zhu Cilang and Zheng Chagu.

This time Wu Ahuan had "gained her husband but lost her son." Her heart was full of reluctance, yet she could not keep staying in Yingtian and never go to Xinzhou. So last night she had held "Fatty King" and wept the whole night through, and now her eyes were red and swollen—just looking at her made one's heart ache!

"Get up quickly," Zhu Cilang said with a smile, pointing to an embroidered stool placed opposite him. "Ahuan, sit."

"I thank Imperial Father for granting me a seat."

Wu Ahuan thanked him, then rose from the floor and seated herself on the embroidered stool.

"Ahuan," Zheng Chagu said, looking at her daughter-in-law with a smile, "the little fatty will be looked after by me and His Majesty, so you may set your mind at ease. Nothing will go wrong. I am very good at raising children—I have borne and raised eight children for His Majesty, and every one of them is thriving!"

In this age, it was not easy for women to give birth—it was practically circling before the gates of hell! And raising small children to adulthood was even harder; one moment of carelessness and they would die young.

In order to let women give birth safely, let children grow up healthy, and also let himself be emperor in health and happiness, Zhu Cilang had put some thought into these matters over the years.

His thoughts had first gone into reforming the Imperial Medical Academy. After the situation in the southeast had largely stabilized, the reform of the Imperial Medical Academy had been placed by Emperor Zhu in an important position—this matter concerned the very lives of Zhu Cilang himself and his family, so of course it had to be pressed forward quickly. One must not die from some minor ailment. No one who became emperor wished to ascend to heaven on a dragon chariot early!

The reform of the Imperial Medical Academy had three key points: first, establishing government-run medical institutions and medical colleges; second, preventing and controlling infectious diseases; third, promoting disinfection techniques and methods.

Among these, the methods for preventing and controlling infectious diseases were honestly not many—basically just two. One was inoculation, that is, inoculating with human smallpox to prevent smallpox; the other was carrying out quarantine and prevention work for infectious diseases.

As for the disinfection techniques and methods promoted by the Imperial Medical Academy, they were actually very simple too: boiling medical supplies in water and wiping with strong liquor (mainly wiping the hands)—just those two tricks.

The above measures could not be called brilliant, but they were extremely effective! At the very least, they effectively reduced the maternal and infant mortality rates in Yingtian Prefecture, especially at Laoshan Palace and Pukou City. Although they could not prevent these two tragedies one hundred percent of the time, the probability had been lowered considerably.

Because Zheng Chagu had money, she had also brought a group of maidservants into the palace, and her management ability was very strong as well. All the prevention and disinfection work around her was carried out extremely well. In addition, the children she had borne for Zhu Cilang all had good constitutions, so not one of them had died young.

"With Imperial Mother looking after him, your daughter-in-law is of course at ease." Wu Ahuan was not at ease in her heart, but she still had to thank Zheng Chagu with her lips.

Zhu Cilang, standing to the side, said with a smile: "Ahuan, just leave the little fatty to us. After all, you are the queen of the United States of Xinzhou—you must go to Xinzhou to assist the tycoon lad!"

"And now that a great battle is approaching over in Xinzhou, the tycoon lad needs you even more. In addition, We want you to carry a message to the tycoon lad, concerning how to contend for the great plains of North Xinzhou."

"These past few days, We and the important ministers of the two governments have been discussing this matter, and now we finally have some idea of it. But after all, We are not the king of the United States, and there are some matters We cannot decide for the tycoon lad."

Wu Ahuan understood in her heart already—the old man was going to settle accounts clearly with the tycoon brother, father and son though they were...

Zhu Cilang glanced at his daughter-in-law and saw that she was already listening with rapt attention, and he was quite satisfied in his heart.

This showed that Wu Ahuan had indeed learned something at Jinling Women's University.

He said: "We and the important ministers of the two governments have worked out a method of using nomadic chiliarchies plus river-mouth fortresses to seize territory on the great plains."

"Nomadic chiliarchies?" Wu Ahuan was startled. "Does Imperial Father intend to recruit Mongols from the grasslands to go to the United States of Xinzhou?"

"We do intend to recruit some Mongols," Zhu Cilang said. "We also plan to gather some surplus men from the border armies. Do you think that will work?"

Emperor Zhu was not asking casually—this was a very pointed question.

Wu Ahuan's father, Wu Guogui, had originally been a great general under Wu Sangui and had always held office in the border-army military provinces; now he had even become a military governor.

She had seen and heard these things since childhood, and she understood the affairs of military households in the border garrisons better than anyone.

Moreover, she was no stranger to Mongol affairs either. Within the territories of the Hexi and Anxi armies there were also some Mongol tribes, and at the same time they bordered the Khoshut and Tumed tribes.

Now, hearing that Zhu Cilang wanted to recruit surplus border-army men and Mongols to go nomadize on the great plains of North Xinzhou, her pair of delicate brows furrowed slightly. "Imperial Father, recruiting surplus border-army men and Mongols is not difficult. The border armies are poor and the Mongols are impoverished—never mind the surplus men, even the regular soldiers have no good prospects. But they may not be able to muster much enthusiasm for serving as military households. If you spent money to recruit them as paid soldiers, their interest might be higher. As military households—and military households who must cross the ocean at that—I fear..."

Zhu Cilang smiled: "Paid soldiers have guaranteed income come drought or flood, while military households must bear their own profits and losses, is that it?"

"Imperial Father is wise." Wu Ahuan nodded. "So in recent years the two western garrisons of Hexi and Anxi have no longer mustered military households, but have instead switched to recruiting long-campaign stalwarts from among the registered military households."

The problem of military households losing money by serving as soldiers had always been difficult to solve, and the better capitalist agriculture developed, the more serious the problem of military households losing money became.

But fortunately, the military provinces of the Ming dynasty now had a relatively high degree of autonomy, and they did not greatly restrict the personal freedom of military households either (not that there was no restriction at all). So some of the military provinces had carried out reforms, changing military service from being tied to military households to being tied to land, and they also allowed payment of money in lieu of service. After receiving the exemption money, the military provinces then hired men to serve as soldiers—in practice, they had also moved onto the route of hired soldiers.

Zhu Cilang said with a smile: "We know of this matter. All the garrisons that carried out military-household reform have submitted memorials about it. But the nomadic chiliarchies of North Xinzhou cannot be done this way! After all, nomadic chiliarchies cannot be detached from production—they must be both herders and soldiers."

Wu Ahuan shook her head. "Your Majesty, I fear it will be difficult to recruit men for military households of this sort!"

"Let us try it and see," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "We can give a sum of settling-in silver, and then draw them a big, round pie."

Wu Ahuan thought to herself: Imperial Father's meaning seems to be—just swindle them!

"Imperial Father is sagely wise!" Wu Ahuan offered a flattering phrase, then continued, "If the settling-in silver is sufficient, we should be able to recruit surplus men from military households. As for this drawn pie..."

Zhu Cilang said with a smile: "If there is no drawn pie, the silver will have to be increased, and even if the military households take the silver, they may not truly be willing to stake their lives. So the pie must still be drawn—we must make them think that on the great plains of North Xinzhou they are fighting to win a realm for their own families!"

"We and the ministers of the two governments discussed it back and forth, and finally worked out a military-household shareholding system! We must make the military households all become shareholders of the nomadic chiliarchies—each household holding at least one share. This one share can, in the future, after a prefecture's worth of territory has been secured on the great plains of North Xinzhou and the chiliarchy is converted into a prefecture, be exchanged for land in that prefecture—one share exchanged for 1,000 mu! Of course, the shares may also be sold or transferred at that time."

It was still the employee-shareholding, list-on-the-market-and-cash-out routine. One thousand mu of land on the great plains of North America, if the situation were relatively stable, would be worth at least 1,000 taels of silver no matter what.

Wu Ahuan sized up the great Emperor Zhu, and could not help feeling that this father of the tycoon king was still holding back some mischief!

"Imperial Father, is there more?" Wu Ahuan asked in a low voice.

"There is!" Zhu Cilang nodded. "We intend to establish two chiliarchies. The cost of recruiting military households, the shipping expenses, and the expense of purchasing supplies, cattle, and sheep from the Great Ming homeland—no matter how one calculates it, it will cost eight to ten million taels of silver! This money We can advance, and it can also be counted as Our investment in these two chiliarchies!"

Wu Ahuan let out a breath of relief: "Your daughter-in-law thanks Imperial Father..."

"Wait!" Zhu Cilang waved a hand, cutting Wu Ahuan off. "Ahuan, Our investment requires a return!"

"Imperial Father, rest assured, as long as the territory in North Xinzhou can be won—"

Zhu Cilang interrupted Wu Ahuan once again, saying with a smile: "We need a guaranteed commitment from the parliamentary government of the United States of Xinzhou. When these two chiliarchies have been established for a full ten years, We shall have the right to sell all the shares We hold in the two chiliarchies, at a premium of 88%, in one lump sum, to the United States of Xinzhou. We shall also have the right, based on the share value after the 88% premium, to convert all these shares into land at the standard of one tael for one mu!"

(End of Chapter)