Chongzhen's conversation with Huang Liji and Guo Yunhou took an hour, and finally the two of them reluctantly accepted the policies he introduced at the merchants' congress.

The cabinet members delayed for nearly one hour than in the past before the cabinet secretary Lang Yao Shihengchuan convened a meeting.

Regarding the fact that the emperor had a secret discussion with Huang Liji and Guo Yunhou for a long time, several cabinet members could roughly guess what they were talking about secretly. Regarding the emperor's speech at the congress of merchants, they also received.

When the cabinet members entered the conference room and saw Huang Liji and Guo Yunhou with calm faces, most of them knew that they had already negotiated with the emperor.

There was not a lot of discussion at today's cabinet meeting, and the emperor, who had always liked to express his opinions at the meeting, did not speak much today.

As a result, the meeting ended before noon, albeit with some delays. However, just before the meeting ended, Chongzhen suddenly stopped everyone.

After Zhu Youzhen asked Wang Chengen to read Xu Congzhi's plea to everyone, he announced his leniency for Xu Congzhi and the two.

Wang Chengen only read the abbreviated version, omitting the land reform plan proposed by Xu Congzhi, and only reading the part about the petition for guilt.

Therefore, the cabinet members did not express their opposition to the emperor's leniency, and some people felt that the emperor was too soft-hearted, and a simple plea made him soft-hearted.

Naturally, the punishment orders issued by the Cabinet should also be revoked through the Cabinet. After Zhu Youzhen fulfilled his wish to re-dispose of Xu Congzhi and others, he took out the "Concise History of China" that he had cursorely read last night.

"The history books here that Mr. Qian and Sun Hanlin presided over the compilation, I have already read them roughly last night, and the compilation is very good.

I decided to use this book as a textbook for the history of the King James Dynasty, and from next year, I will have to take a random test from the children's examination to the palace examination.

Also, now there are many Xiucai and Juren in the Ming Dynasty, and some people use the identities of Xiucai and Juren to take over lawsuits and oppress the township, which is really insulting.

As for some local scholars, they did not correct this phenomenon, but acquiesced in and connived at it, which really failed the great trust of the imperial court.

Therefore, I decided to set up the post of inspector and patrol the provinces, dismiss unqualified talents, raise people, and dismiss inactive scholars. ”

Li Tianjing, who was in charge of education in the cabinet, was the first to respond and support the emperor's adjustment of education.

Zhang Ruitu thought about it and recommended his fellow villager Yang Jingchen to supervise the work of the provincial school officials. Shi Fenglai thought for a while and chose to support Zhang Ruitu's proposal.

Chongzhen agreed with Zhang Ruitu's opinion and proposed to let Men Chen Xin serve as Yang Jingchen's deputy to assist in the implementation of this work.

After that, Zhang Ruitu raised a question to Chongzhen, that is, the Ministry of War and the General Staff of the Governor's Office of the Fifth Army proposed to set up the Southwest Governor's Office, unify the military administration of Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, and appoint Qin Liangyu, the Shizhu Tusi, to take charge of the Southwest Governor's Office.

Zhu Youzhen said casually: "Yes, this is to quell the rebellion of luxury as soon as possible." Previously, the two provinces each responded to the rebellion of the two Tusi in Hao'an, and the lack of cooperation with each other led to the defeat of Lu Qin's army and suicide. I don't want this situation to happen again, so I want to unite the military and government of the two provinces and work together to deal with the rebellious Tusi. ”

Zhang Ruitu said with some urgency: "But Your Majesty, although Qin Liangyu is loyal to the imperial court, he is still a stone pillar toast after all. With a toast official to lead the military and government of the two provinces, wouldn't it be plain to let the stone pillar toast become bigger? Even if the rebellion of Lu'an is quelled this time, the southwest may not be able to maintain peace and stability for a long time. ”

Zhu Youzhen touched his chin and said: "Shizhu Tusi has shed enough blood for my Ming Dynasty in Liaodong, we should no longer treat Shizhu Tusi as an outsider."

Therefore, I decided to give preferential treatment to Shizhu Tusi, give a certain number of students and lifters to Shizhu Hall every year, and set up 12 primary schools in Shizhu Hall.

In addition, I decided to allocate 20,000 taels of silver from the Inner Treasury every year for the bereavement of the families and orphans of the soldiers who died in the bloody battle of the Hunhe River.

In addition, another 10,000 taels of silver are allocated from the inner treasury every year for the education of Jinhua and Shizhu Hall. In recognition of the sacrifices and contributions made by the people of both places to defend the country. ”

The emperor used his own money to pay for the bereaved families of the martyrs, and naturally no one in the cabinet would come forward to oppose it. Moreover, the emperor's funding for the education of the Shizhu Hall was obviously conducive to the reform of the land and the return of the land advocated by the civil officials.

And the bloody battle of the Hunhe River proposed by Chongzhen made Zhang Ruitu's doubts about Shizhu Tusi's loyalty gradually disintegrate.

Seeing that the cabinet members began to lean towards the emperor's proposition, Huang Liji coughed, and finally spoke: "Your Majesty, even if the current Shizhu Tusi Qin Liangyu is loyal to the Ming Dynasty, it does not mean that the future Shizhu Tusi will always be loyal to the Ming Dynasty."

The Banzhou Yang family, the Yongning luxury family, and the Shuixian clan were all loyal to my Ming Dynasty at the beginning. ”

When Zhu Youzhen saw that the cabinet members who originally supported him became hesitant again, he immediately said: "If you want to ensure the loyalty of the Tusi of the southwestern provinces to the Ming Dynasty, I think that it is useless to rely on vigilance and suspicion.

The more we watch out for them, the more we remind them that there is a difference between them and us Han Chinese. If I want to make the southwestern Tusi fully integrate into the Ming Dynasty, I think that the three means of military, political, and cultural must be used, and the lack of one of the three may make these Tusi unable to integrate into the Ming Dynasty. ”

"What are the three means of military, political, and cultural that Your Majesty is talking about?" Huang Liji blinked his cloudy eyes and asked tentatively.

"I have the understanding that all changes occur under the combined action of internal and external causes. Internal causes are the root of the development and change of things, and external causes are the important conditions for the development and change of internal factors.

For example, when a seed sprouts, only with the right temperature and moisture will a seed change and germinate into a plant. This is a universal law of nature, and I think it also applies to political affairs.

If you want the people of the southwest Tusi to identify themselves as a member of the Ming people, first of all, you must have a sense of identity with Chinese culture, and secondly, cultivate their loyalty to the Ming country. This is the internal response that has contributed to the transformation of the Tusi in the southwest and returned to the stream.

Second, the imperial court must have an overwhelming military power over these Tusi to deter dissenting Tusi leaders or careerists who want to divide China.

Politically, the court had to sever the relationship between the Tusi tribes and prevent them from uniting against the imperial court's rule.

Finally, we should not only focus on the upper echelons of these Tusi tribes, but also really contact the middle and bottom people of these Tusi tribes.

Mencius said that the people are precious, and the monarch is light. As long as the middle and lower class people of the Tusi tribes are of the same mind as the imperial court, then even if a few Tusi leaders want to rebel against the imperial court, they will not be able to set off any big storms.

Maintain strong military pressure, divide by political means, and then actively spread culture and education, then the imperial court will be able to turn them into real Ming people, tribe by tribe. ”

Chongzhen's proposal to reform the land and return it to the stream is essentially no different from the ideas of the civilian clique. However, Chongzhen's method of maintaining external pressure and prompting change within the Tusi tribe is quite refreshing.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the emperors and civil officials of the past dynasties have been advancing, and the Xuanfu Department of the southwestern provinces has been included in the system of liuguan.

However, although the civil officials adhered to this concept, they did not form a truly effective work of reforming the land and returning the toasts in the southwest.

Basically, each generation of civil officials has their own ideas of reforming the land and returning to the stream, some like to use the military, some hope for indoctrination, and some want to betray by bribing Xiao Tusi.

It is precisely because there is no consistent way of working that the effect of changing the land in the southwest is always repeated.

However, with the strong military strength and population advantage of the Ming Dynasty, the Tusi of the southwest were finally forced to abandon the rich plains and retreat into the deep mountains and old forests.

The imperial court's rule in the southwest region expanded, but the contradictions between the Tusi people and the Han people who migrated later became fierce.

By the time Chongzhen ascended the throne, the declining Ming Dynasty finally aroused the ambitions of these southwestern Tusi leaders. The Rebellion of Lu'an was the counterattack of the Southwest Tusi against the Ming Dynasty's policy of changing land and returning to the river in the southwestern provinces for more than 200 years.

It's just that the rebellion Tusi in the southwest can't be compared with the Jurchens in the northeast Jianzhou because there are many contradictions between the Tusi in the southwest, and there is no leader who unifies the Tusi in the southwest. Moreover, the land occupied by these Tusi is mainly composed of mountains and forests, and only a small part of the flat land cannot accumulate a large amount of military funds.

Finally, the Tusi system from the Song Dynasty onwards ensured the Tusi chieftain's control over the territory and could be used to resist the direct rule of the central court.

However, this Tusi system also bound these Tusi leaders, uniting the Tusi in the southwest to form an independent separatist regime.

Regarding the disadvantages of the southwest Tusi system, the ministers in the court saw it very clearly. Therefore, although the rebellion of the Ming Dynasty was huge, the cabinet never sent an important minister to sit in the southwest to quell the rebellion, but always focused on the northeast.

Although Sichuan and Guizhou are not far from the fundamental wealth of the Ming Dynasty, along the Yangtze River are the land of Huguang and Jiangxi. But the reinforcements sent by the imperial court were only the troops of Shaanxi.

Chongzhen's new policy of resolving the contradictions between the imperial court and the southwestern Tusi made Huang Liji see that he could quell the rebellion of Lu'an and completely solve the troubles of the rebellion of the southwestern Tusi from time to time.

Huang Liji thought about it for a long time, and still spoke out in favor of Chongzhen's new policy on the southwest toasts, but he was still worried about the southwest governor's mansion.

"Your Majesty, the Southwest Governor's Office is in charge of the armies of the two provinces, and now let a military general preside over it, and the old minister thinks it's still inappropriate. Even if Qin Liangyu is loyal and reliable to the imperial court, His Majesty still needs to beware of the emergence of feudal towns in the army.

And Sichuan and Guizhou are both places with high mountains and dense forests, and they are places with inconvenient transportation. If there is a feudal town in the army, as long as the road into Sichuan is blocked, it can entrench in Sichuan and become a country of its own. In the past, Han Gaozu, Liu Bei and others were all like this, so the minister hoped that His Majesty would think twice..."