Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 365 Conference

During the reign of Chongzhen, natural disasters occurred in the north, resulting in a large number of refugees, who in turn transformed into bandits. In order to survive, the bandits had no choice but to destroy the local area, which in turn reduced the taxes that the Ming court could collect. The court could only levy additional taxes on the people who could still receive taxes normally, which in turn created new refugees, creating a vicious cycle.

Speaking of which, Chongzhen was really unlucky. After becoming emperor, it seemed as if God was against him.

The climate was abnormal for seventeen years after he ascended the throne. However, after Chongzhen hanged himself on Coal Hill, the climate basically recovered, and the country began to have good weather and harvests, and even the locust plague disappeared. Don’t you think this is infuriating? No wonder some surrendered ministers used this as an excuse to say that the Ming Dynasty had ended and the Qing Dynasty inherited the Mandate of Heaven.

The Qing court controlled a large area in the north. What was different from Meng Jun was that many places under the Qing court had vast land and sparse population, while Meng Jun, who occupied the rich land in the south of the Yangtze River, had a large population and little land.

The world today is just like the end of the Han Dynasty. After decades of fighting, heroes have fallen one after another. Compared with the time when heroes were competing for supremacy, it is now the time when there are no great generals in Shu and Liao Hua has become the vanguard.

At this time, there are few people who have left their names in history and are famous all over the world. Since Sun Kewang fled from Nanning to Ganzhou to surrender to Meng Jun, Meng Jun was also willing to surrender.

The civil war between Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo ended with Sun Kewang's surrender to Meng Jun. In the great war in the south, Li Dingguo was naturally the first winner. Emperor Yongli could also be considered a winner. Li Chengdong also took the opportunity to seize half of Guangxi. Only Meng Jun and Zheng Chenggong basically stayed out of it. However, the Zheng family was not like Meng Jun. They always focused on internal strength. Zheng Chenggong was busy competing with the Dutch and Spaniards for maritime hegemony at sea.

Only Meng Jun had not mobilized his troops since the end of the war, but the time for war was not far away. Jiang Xiang repeatedly sent people to ask for help. Although Jiang Xiang claimed to have an army of more than 200,000 and relied on the brave general Wang Fuchen to climb the city wall and capture Taiyuan first, but with the return of Baiyintu, Dorgon mobilized all the Eight Banners sons in Beijing, even those who were twelve or thirteen years old.

He gathered 60,000 troops from Baiyintu's army and all the troops in the capital, totaling 100,000 troops, to attack Shanxi. This battle was related to the survival of the Qing court. This was not like Wu Sangui's rule over Nanyang. Shanxi was very close to the capital. Once Jiang Xiang gained a foothold, Meng Jun would launch a northern expedition. Shanxi, which was controlled by Jiang Xiang, would be like a thorn in the throat of the Qing court.

Meng Jun in Jinling was also not living a peaceful life. With the current strength of the Zhou army, it was still beyond his ability to unify the world.

Therefore, Meng Jun summoned the heads of various prefectures and counties in Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Huguang, Jiangnan, Huai'an Prefecture, and officials in Jinling City to prepare for a conference. One of the reasons for this was that Meng Jun had never met many of the prefecture and county officials in person, so he took this opportunity to meet with officials at all levels and appease the people.

About half a month later, officials from various states and counties came to Jinling one after another. For a time, a large number of officials entered Jinling, making the post station overcrowded.

A large number of officials gathered in Jinling, causing the people of Jinling to talk about it. They didn't know what the reason for the arrival of so many officials was. Rumors were flying everywhere, but the most reliable news was that the king was preparing to ascend the throne and these officials came to Jinling to attend the coronation ceremony.

It was not until the newspapers began to publish long articles about the king summoning governors from all states and counties to hold a conference that the gossip gradually died down.

Meng Jun felt that if he wanted to develop now, he must innovate in all aspects including military, economy, education, agriculture, and industry.

To achieve this goal, although decrees could be issued and local officials could be asked to implement them, Meng Jun felt that this would be like a monk with a crooked mouth reciting the wrong scriptures. Therefore, Meng Jun decided to summon the governors of each state and explain to them face to face what to do. This would inevitably have a different effect from issuing decrees.

But now that so many officials have been summoned, there is no suitable venue in Jinling City. Only the imperial palace is more suitable. He just agreed to Lu Zhenfei's suggestion to recruit craftsmen to repair the palace. Meng Jun personally went around the palace and found that only Wenhua Palace was suitable.

On September 20th, early in the morning, the autumn weather was clear and crisp.

Under the organization and arrangement of the shogunate officials, officials from all over the country and officials in Beijing, totaling more than 300 people, entered the palace one after another.

When many officials entered the imperial palace in Jinling City for the first time and saw the three main halls burned down by the fire, they all showed anger on their faces. After all, hearing is not as shocking as seeing with one's own eyes.

When Ningbo prefect Yao Dingzhong stepped into the imperial palace for the first time, he saw broken walls and ruins, with only vague glimpses of its former grandeur. He couldn't help but feel sad, his eyes welled up, and tears were about to roll down.

Yao Dingzhong sighed: "The dignity of the empire has been humiliated like this!"

The officials walked in a line to the Wenhua Hall on the right side of the main hall. In the square outside the main hall, rows of tables and chairs had been set up. Beijing officials and local officials from various prefectures had their own areas. They only needed to sit down according to their areas, and there was no confusion.

After everyone was seated, about half a quarter of an hour later, Meng Jun led Yang En, Gu Yanwu, Du Yinxi, Lu Zhenfei, Wu Tai and others over.

All the officials present stopped talking and stood up to greet him respectfully.

Meng Jun, wearing a green robe and a Yishan crown on his head, walked straight to the table outside the hall. Yang En, Gu Yanwu and others sat on both sides of Meng Jun.

Meng Jun waved his hand and said loudly, "Everyone, sit down."

"Thank you, Your Majesty"

When many officials saw this scene, they couldn't help but think of the scene of the emperor and his ministers discussing philosophy long ago.

"This year, I led my army to the west, defeated Duoduo, captured Wuchang, and controlled half of Huguang. Although our army is powerful, I have been dealing with government affairs for several months, and various problems have emerged one after another. The safety of the country depends on the soldiers and generals. Only when the armor is strong and the soldiers are sharp can the country be stable. But how can we train strong soldiers without money and food support!"

The officials at home were stunned. Money and grain? The king controls Jiangnan and Huguang, is he still worried about money and grain?

Meng Jun stopped talking halfway, took another sip of water, took out the document he had prepared long ago, and said loudly: "In the next three years, this king intends to fully develop industry and commerce."

Many people quickly picked up the paper and pen that had been prepared on the table and wrote down Meng Jun's words.

"In industry, we need to increase investment in shipyards and build more warships and merchant ships, which will inevitably produce more craftsmen, the development of logging, tung oil, lacquer and other industries, and the scale of firearms manufacturing should be increased. In future wars, firearms will be very popular. We should also continue to build water conservancy projects, roads, and river embankments. Secondary schools should be built in all prefectures and primary schools in all counties. If we recruit civilians for these constructions, we should pay them on a daily basis. We should let the people earn money so that they can buy food and cloth, and the economy can develop in a circular manner..."

Meng Jun spoke a lot in a very eloquent manner. It had been a long time since he had spoken such a long speech. After taking a big sip of tea, Meng Jun gave a general explanation.

Many officials understood some of what they heard, but not others. When they were officials in the past, they did not need to consider these issues. They only had to ensure that taxes were paid, maintain public order, and handle some cases. Basically, they just had to rule by doing nothing.

(I wish all my friends a happy Mid-Autumn Festival. I have been playing all day and I am tired. I feel sleepy even when typing at nightπ_π)