"Your Majesty, the market in Beijing has been a bit sluggish in the past two years..."
"Yes, Beijing's population is shrinking and business is difficult to do. If we continue to impose strict business taxes, I'm afraid..."
"Long live my lord, you haven't been back to Beijing for a long time. I wonder what kind of depression the city of Beijing is now? Recently, many noble families who have received excellent scholarships are busy moving again. After the New Year, they will probably lose tens of thousands. .....”
The ministers and ministers rarely reached an agreement and unanimously opposed the strict imposition of commercial taxes. The reason seems quite convincing - Beijing's population has dropped sharply in the past two years, and the market has become increasingly depressed. If business taxes are strictly imposed, Beijing will become even more depressed.
How shameless is it that the most virtuous place at the feet of the Emperor is so deserted?
But when Zhu Youjian heard such a report, he was very satisfied. He nodded repeatedly: "The population is small? The market is depressed? Okay, okay... This is good! Although Beijing is the best place in the world, but At the same time, it is also within the country.
Moreover, the land around Beijing is barren, with drought and little rain, and the products are not rich. There are six towns ahead, including Xuan, Da, Yan, Ning, Ji, and Liao, which need support. Therefore, a large amount of money, grain and materials must be transported from the south via the canal every year. Transportation is difficult and the cost is huge... Therefore, gathering millions of people who have nothing to do with the military in Beijing is really not worth the gain, and it is almost impossible to support it! It would be good for the country to reduce it a bit. "
In fact, Zhu Youjian had no good impression of the common people at the emperor's feet at all! Who sang the song "Welcome the King of Chuang" in the previous life and ushered Li Zicheng's army into Beijing?
These people of the Son of Heaven are simply unreliable. Why do we need them?
In addition, the consumption of Beijing city was also a huge burden for the Ming Dynasty! There are at least 700,000 to 800,000 people in Beijing, and each person has three shi of white rice per year, which is more than 2 million shi! Moreover, some people are very good at eating, some people still want to eat well, some people also raise animals that need food, and many people also drink alcohol... The actual consumption is more than four million dan. ah!
These four million stones are not a problem in Nanjing. Yingtianfu can supply them locally. If it is not enough, the Yangtze River water transport can supply them.
But getting four million shi in Beijing is too problematic!
The surrounding area of Beijing is barren, and six military towns have to be supplied. How can there be any spare energy to feed Beijing? So it can only be transported northward through that fateful canal.
The canal was actually a good waterway before the Yellow River changed its course to the south. But after the Yellow River changed its course, the problem became bigger...because the Yellow River brought too much sediment. If it intersected with the canal, the intersection would be silted up in a few years, and the Yellow River channel would be high. In the canal channel - the Yellow River will become a wall cutting off the canal!
Therefore, since the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing, in order to ensure the absolute security of food supply in the densely populated Beijing city, the Ming Dynasty adopted the policy of "abandoning the Huaihe River and ensuring transportation" to ensure that the Yellow River enters the Huaihe River and does not allow the Yellow River to cross the canal. Entering the sea from somewhere in Huaibei.
As a result, sediment from the Yellow River entered the Huaihe River every year. Over time, the Huaihe River channel rose and its mouth was silted up. Later, in order to alleviate the flooding of the Huaihe River, the Gaojiayan Dam had to be built in Huai'an Prefecture, forming Hongze Lake. This Hongze Lake has become a "hanging lake" due to the continuous swallowing of sediment from the Huaihe River. Once the embankment overflows and the dam breaks, the Huai and Yang prefectures will be reduced to Zeguo!
Even if the Gaojiayan Dam fails, it can only save the Huainan part of Huai'an Prefecture and Yangzhou Prefecture. Fengyang, Xuzhou and the Huaibei part of Huai'an Prefecture will still be flooded every two or three years!
The price is staggeringly high!
If there had not been a long-term drought in the north...the people of Huaihe and Huaihe would have considered themselves unlucky!
However, once a seven-year drought occurs in the north of the Ming Dynasty, the farmland in Huainan and Huaibei will be very valuable. Because the Yellow River and the Huaihe River converge in this area, there is no shortage of water even if there is less rainfall. The main problem is the flooding of the Yellow and Huaihe Rivers.
If the Huanghuai River can be diverted, a new Yellow River can be opened into the sea. Then tens of millions of acres of fields in the north and south of the Huaihe River can stabilize and increase production... Even if an increase of 10 million dan per year is achieved, millions of people can survive in a disaster year!
Now Zhu Youjian is no longer afraid of Huang Taiji, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong - Huang Taiji has been defeated by him twice, Li Zicheng is Zhu Youjian's cousin-in-law, and Zhang Xianzhong is still taking care of the children of the Ming Dynasty in Xi'an... ...These three are no longer a problem. But the seven-year "Chongzhen Drought" is still a huge crisis!
From the ten years of drought in Chongzhen to the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the disasters spread all over Beizhili, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, Shaanxi and other places. In parts of Henan and Shaanxi where the drought is the most severe, much of the land has turned into desert... Looking at history books, it is probably difficult to compare with natural disasters.
Although Zhu Youjian is much stronger now than in his previous life, with soldiers, generals and territory... he still doesn't know how to survive this severe drought.
What the Central Plains region lacks is not just a few million stones, but tens of thousands of stones!
Therefore, the grain production in Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers must be increased, and the population in Shaanxi and Beijing must be reduced as much as possible... Between one entry and one exit, there is an annual supply of 10 to 20 million dan of grain!
Zhu Youjian wanted to send all the people in Beijing who couldn't fight to Huguang to open up wasteland and cultivate land... If there was no food to eat, what kind of industry and commerce could be done?
In addition to the problem of food, Beijing also had a major disaster - the plague in the 14th and 15th years of Chongzhen's reign!
This plague killed 200,000 people in Beijing in a very short period of time... Although there are still hundreds of thousands of people in Beijing, they have survived years of drought, famine, war and this great epidemic. Those who came down felt a desperate feeling of "the end is coming", which had a huge impact on the morale of the Ming army. That's why Li Zicheng could break into Beijing so easily!
To alleviate the plague, according to the medical knowledge Zhu Youjian mastered when he was the emperor in Nanjing, it seems that there are only three ways to keep more cats, restrict population movement and avoid excessive population gathering... So hundreds of people in Beijing With a population of 10,000, we still need to divert as much as possible to the south. If there are only 200,000 people left in Beijing by then, it will be easy to prevent the plague.
Therefore, the Beijing household registration must be subtracted...
"Long live the Lord, if you feel that the rice and grain transportation by water is not enough, we can transport it by sea!" The Donglin Party behind Sun Chengzong has been promoting sea transportation as an alternative to water transportation. Now, looking at the opportunity, it hastily promoted sea transportation. "Last year, it was raised by Kai Zhongfa Ji Liao's grain and wages are transported northward by sea... The cost is low, the transportation volume is large, and the losses on the way are also small. Beijing's one million people consume up to 4 million shi a year, and it is nothing to transport it by sea. What a problem!”
"Your Majesty, I second the proposal." Xu Guangqi, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, also supported the use of sea instead of canal. "The large ships of the Red Hair Country, Franconia Country, Portugal and other countries in the West can travel across 100,000 miles... Even if we transport grain from Guangdong to the north, it is only 6,000 miles away. As long as we are willing to work hard, it can be done. Moreover, we can also take advantage of the opportunity of replacing canals with seas to build several seaports along the coast to develop sea trade and collect tariffs. "
"Yes, yes, we need to open a seaport," Zhu Youjian nodded repeatedly, "We can open a Tianjin port in North Zhili, a Dengzhou port in Shandong, a Huai'an port in South Zhili, and a Shanghai port... ...It's right in your hometown, Mr. Xuge! Zhejiang opened Ningbo, Fujian opened Quanzhou, and Guangdong opened Guangzhou, a total of seven ports for trade!
In the future, water transportation will no longer be needed. All grain from the south will be transported north by sea...not only from Shanghai and Huai'an, but also from Guangdong to Beijing! "
As soon as Zhu Youjian's words came out, the officials present were all surprised. Is this too big a step? Not to mention the opening of Qikou, water transportation will be abolished, sea transportation will be opened, and sea transportation will be fully replaced by canal transportation. There will not even be a buffer!
"Your Majesty, no!" Wang Zaijin, Minister of War, reminded repeatedly, "Water transportation is of great importance. There are more than a million people in the states and counties along the Cao River who depend on the canal. Even the imperial court's grain transport army has as many as 120,000... .If water transportation fails, how will these millions of people survive?"
Zhu Youjian turned to look at Wang Zaijin: "The canal will not be completely abandoned, but the north of the Huaihe River will no longer be open to navigation, so that the Ministry of Water Resources can dig a way for the Yellow River to enter the sea... The floods in the Huaihe River will be greatly alleviated! Although there are many problems along the canal, The people and the grain transportation army will suffer some losses, but compared with the gains, the gains are still more than enough to compensate for the losses. Now my decision has been made, and you don’t need to discuss it any further!
If someone wants to rebel...then I will be the best soldier in front of the account and go to suppress it personally! "
