amaotonovel Chapter 228 Emperor Zhu: Our sister is simply a female Zhuge Liang
Chapter 228 Emperor Zhu: Our sister is simply a female Zhuge Liang
Yang Shaofeng chuckled and looked at Wang Qiong, asking, "Brother Wang, how many qualified craftsmen do you think can be gathered in Ningyang County, for example? Do these craftsmen need to farm? If we make them work on these parts, will it interfere with the farming season?"
"Furthermore, how do we determine the standards for a foot and an inch? Even if we can determine them immediately, won't there be errors when making standard parts? How can we ensure that all the craftsmen make the same standard parts? If we give the craftsmen standard parts that may have errors, won't the final parts they make have more errors?"
"How much effort would it take to connect all of these, from the Central Secretariat to the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Revenue, and then to the provincial and county-level administrative divisions, and all sorts of workshops?"
"Furthermore, distributing all the parts to workshops in various locations involves issues such as supervision and transportation. How do we communicate with all parties involved? If problems arise, who will bear the responsibility?"
"..."
As Yang Shaofeng's mouth opened and closed, Wang Qiong couldn't help but feel conflicted.
As Yang Shaofeng said, these messy problems are obvious.
In particular, there are too many government departments involved, such as the Central Secretariat, the Provincial Secretariat, the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Works, the Craftsmen's Office, the Prefectural Government, the State Government, and the County Government. It also involves merchants, workshops, and the common people working in the workshops. If you are not careful, it is easy to make a mistake.
After a long silence, Wang Qiong sighed and said, "In your opinion, Brother Yang, how should these matters be resolved?"
Yang Shaofeng spread his hands and sighed, "I really can't solve this problem—in the end, it will involve countless prefectures and counties. Just coordinating between the workshops in each prefecture and county is already beyond my capabilities."
Wang Qiong nodded slightly, remained silent for a while, then stood up and cupped his hands in a salute to Yang Shaofeng: "Then this humble official will return to the capital first and report this matter to His Majesty and His Highness the Crown Prince."
……
Emperor Zhu once again experienced the pain of having a bright future but having his way out blocked by glass.
The solution is there, but to implement it, all the civil and military officials in the Ming Dynasty court, along with local officials, must work together as one.
The question is, how is that even possible?
Every official in the imperial court has their own interests. Some officials are backed by gentry who are mainly engaged in land, while others are backed by gentry who are mainly engaged in maritime trade. These people's interests are not aligned, and they often quarrel with each other. How can you expect them to work together to build a harvester?
Of course, these officials also had their moments of agreement, namely when they were extracting benefits and land from the people.
The harvester is supposed to be a service that benefits the people, and even though these officials themselves will also benefit from it, it hurts them more than cutting off their own flesh to benefit the people.
After pondering for a long time with a dark expression but still unable to figure it out, Emperor Zhu Chongba simply went to the Kunning Palace where Empress Ma was staying, grabbed her hand, and began to complain.
"Why is this so difficult?"
After explaining Yang Shaofeng's solution, Emperor Zhu said with a worried look, "Tell me, why is it so difficult to make the people feel at ease?"
However, to Emperor Zhu's surprise, Empress Ma did not comfort him as usual this time. Instead, she reached out her finger, smiled, and tapped Zhu Chongba's forehead, saying, "You, you, you are just too close to the situation to see clearly."
Emperor Zhu was slightly taken aback. "Those involved are often confused?"
Empress Ma hummed in agreement and smiled, "If it had been a few months earlier, this matter might not have been so easy to resolve. If it had dragged on until next year, it probably still wouldn't have been able to be resolved. But right now..."
"What's going on right now?" Emperor Zhu asked, staring intently at Empress Ma. "Can this matter be resolved right now?"
Empress Ma nodded and smiled as she looked towards the direction outside the palace: "Now that Bo Ren is in the capital, he has five thousand iron cavalry under his command. Can these five thousand iron cavalry handle the matter of communicating between the imperial court and local officials?"
Emperor Zhu was stunned by Empress Ma's words.
If it were Xu Da's five thousand iron cavalry, Emperor Zhu felt that this matter might not have succeeded.
However, if it were Chang Yuchun's five thousand iron cavalry, there was still a sliver of hope.
Although both Chang Yuchun's five thousand cavalry and Xu Da's five thousand cavalry came from poor backgrounds, Chang Yuchun's five thousand cavalry had sworn an oath in Ningyang County before setting out for war, and had also passed through Ningyang County on their return journey.
Despite this slight difference, the two cavalry units possessed completely different spirit and morale.
As an emperor who had led troops into battle for many years, Emperor Zhu always felt that the cavalry under Chang Yuchun seemed more reliable than the cavalry under Xu Da.
Emperor Zhu had a vague feeling that Xu Da's cavalry might collapse when they suffered heavy casualties, but Chang Yuchun's cavalry might be able to withstand even greater casualties.
Of course, if it were just this small difference, Emperor Zhu could explain it by saying that Chang Yuchun was better at leading troops. However, the most important difference is that Xu Da's army needed to be disciplined by military discipline. Without strict military discipline, they were very likely to do things like robbing the people. But Chang Yuchun's five thousand cavalrymen could not do the same thing.
Emperor Zhu couldn't understand why a single oath-taking ceremony before the expedition and a banquet upon their return could cause such a drastic change in these cavalrymen. Moreover, he lacked sufficient evidence to suggest that this change was related to Ningyang County. He could only deduce that the two cavalry units had previously been identical, and that the change occurred in Ningyang County. However, Emperor Zhu trusted his intuition, believing that Chang Yuchun's cavalrymen seemed to treat the common people more kindly.
After careful consideration, Emperor Zhu looked at Empress Ma and asked, "What about the officials in the court?"
Empress Ma smiled and said, "The problem in the court right now is that the officials own different amounts of land. Those who own more land will naturally support the harvester, while those who don't own that much land will naturally oppose it, so..."
Emperor Zhu chuckled and said, "So, as long as we let them also have a lot of land, they will support the harvester project?"
Empress Ma smiled and nodded. "So, in the end, there's only one problem to solve, and that's the local officials—but don't you think about it? When the officials in the court are all united, do you still need to worry about them?"
"As for those gentry and merchants, with Bo Ren and his five thousand iron cavalry, officials in the imperial court, and local officials, how much trouble can those gentry and merchants stir up?"
"Don't forget, you, Zhu Chongba, once said that at worst you would just completely destroy the whole world and start over."
As soon as Empress Ma finished speaking, Emperor Zhu burst into laughter and said, "It has to be our sister, she's practically a female Zhuge Liang!"
Empress Ma couldn't help but roll her eyes and said sarcastically, "Oh, so now isn't the time for you to have the 'Admonitions for Women' revised and forbid the harem from interfering in politics?"