Late spring of the tenth year of the Apocalypse.
Although a year has passed, according to Shaanxi Governor Ma Maocai, the severe drought is still continuing.
There are even signs of locust infestation in some places.
However, because Zhu Youxiao had ordered Ma Maocai to organize a locust hunting team last year, raised a large number of ducks, and ate a lot of locusts in advance, the locust plague in many places in Shaanxi has not yet occurred on a large scale.
In addition, the Ming Dynasty, which had been governed by Zhu Youxiao for ten years, had established government-run medical clinics in various places due to the strong financial resources of the imperial court. Therefore, Zhu Youxiao ordered medical clinics in various places to bury the people who died of starvation and bury them in various places. After sprinkling lime everywhere, and even killing rats and mosquitoes, the plague in Shaanxi has not appeared on a large scale due to drought.
In addition, many people in Shaanxi have actually not felt the impact of the drought.
Some of them have begun to participate in water conservancy construction organized by the government and have become workers.
Most of them traveled across the ocean with their families and came to the Rodan area located in the northern Bay of Bengal, and began to participate in the land enclosure movement organized by the Ming Dynasty Ocean Development Company.
"boom!"
A wisp of white smoke rose.
Zhang Xianzhong looked at the dead native landowner in front of him and the native soldiers who fled in panic. He raised the corners of his mouth slightly, put the three-eyed gun on his shoulder, and then took out the wine bag from his waist and took a sip of strong wine.
Three-eyed blunderbuss and strong liquor are now the favorite items of the old Qin people who were assigned to Ruodan when they carried out the task of enclosing the land.
Because the three-eyed gun can be used as a firearm to kill natives, or it can be used as an iron bone to hit people directly.
As for spirits, they are naturally invigorating.
Zhang Xianzhong now likes this kind of life. With a three-eyed gun, a pot of strong wine, and a horse, he can open up hundreds of miles of land for the Ming Dynasty in one day.
These lands will become Zhang Xianzhong's farm, and his relatives and friends, except those who fight with him, will farm on his farm.
Moreover, Zhang Xianzhong only needs to pay a relatively low public salary to the company to be recognized by the company and protected by the company's standing armed forces.
However, someone like Zhang Xianzhong who knew how to fight was already the owner of a relatively large manor here, and he had a group of native slaves who could be used for farming, and his relatives and friends had become managers of his farm.
Just like in history, when the Manchus entered the customs, some Eight Banners nobles would enclose their lands and even plunder Han people to make clothes.
Zhang Xianzhong is doing this kind of work now.
Li Hongji was no worse than him. He led the entire Li family village, including his nephew Li Guo, and soon became a powerful manor owner in this area.
In short, in order to avoid large-scale peasant uprisings due to continuous droughts, and to avoid the government's financial crisis due to continuous disaster relief, Zhu Youxiao began to transfer the impact of natural disasters to the Ming Empire to other regions. On the body.
After all, who makes the current Ming Empire a super empire in this era?
The Ming Empire suffered a disaster, and other countries had a difficult time.
"Although Shaanxi is now thousands of miles away, it is no longer starving everywhere. After a large number of people were hired in batches by the Ocean Development Company, they were shipped overseas. However, according to Governor Ma Maocai, Shaanxi is now empty. After a large amount of farmland is idle, instead Weeds have become overgrown, and weeds have appeared on many roads except the official road."
Zhu Youxiao has now returned to Beijing, and at this time, Yuan Keli reported to him the latest situation in Shaanxi.
"The edict was given to Ma Maocai, asking him to organize those who stayed in Shaanxi to turn idle farmland into forest land as much as possible, and plant more trees to stabilize water and soil. The worsening drought may be related to the reduction of forests and the intensification of loess in that area. In addition, take this opportunity to build Water conservancy, dredging river channels to minimize the impact of drought.”
Zhu Youxiao said.
"Your Majesty, according to reports from the Ministry of Industry, there are quite a lot of coal mines in Shaanxi. Therefore, the Ministry of Industry suggests that coal mines can be opened to solve the food problem of the people affected by the disaster in Shaanxi without having to ship large quantities of coal overseas to expand the land."
Xu Guangqi played another incident here.
After hearing this, Zhu Youxiao could not tell them directly that coal was a non-renewable resource. He only said on the grounds that it would not affect the Dragon Vein Feng Shui: "If it is not necessary, try not to open the mines in the pass, so as not to affect our Chinese Dragon Vein. Open the mines and turn them on and off as much as possible." Those from outside and overseas should be kept first. These mines within the customs are like ancestral property. They should not be mined or used unless absolutely necessary. People affected by the disaster should try their best to move to arable lands overseas."
"yes!"
Xu Guangqi replied.
"Now that I have mentioned this, I have heard that many local gentry or wealthy families are opening mines privately. Logically speaking, mines are the private property of the emperor, so we must tell the world clearly that no mining is allowed privately. Once discovered, the mines will be sealed and the houses confiscated and punished!"
Zhu Youxiao continued.
"According to the order!"
…
"How is the development of the steam locomotive now? How is it going with the dissolution and inflation experiments of the rubber I asked you to get from Nanyang? Now various types of steam engines have begun to appear. These cars and new wheels conceived by me , it must appear as soon as possible to facilitate longer-distance transportation in the future. After the Ming Dynasty emigrated a large number of people overseas due to natural disasters in the future, the area it ruled will naturally become larger and larger. By then, it will naturally be needed. A better car will do.”
At this time, Zhu Youxiao suddenly asked about the progress of steam locomotives and rubber tire manufacturing.
Xu Guangqi replied: "At present, the locomotive has been manufactured with a speed of one hour and twenty miles, but the rails designed by His Majesty have not yet been laid. Therefore, the locomotive has not yet been moved to the rails for testing. It is expected that in order to truly realize what Your Majesty wants, As said, we have to wait a little longer, but it's coming soon; as for the rubber experiment, pneumatic tires have been manufactured and used on horse-drawn carriages. The shock-absorbing system is indeed good. In addition, the Academy of Sciences has already produced The bicycle designed by His Majesty is now equipped with pneumatic tires and is about to be presented."
Zhu Youxiao was quite surprised after hearing this and asked: "Really? The bicycle wheel wire is difficult to pull. How did you make it?"
"Back to Your Majesty, since Song Yingxing and others followed your instructions and promoted converter steelmaking on the basis of crucible steelmaking, they have tried to add some other metal elements. Now they have obtained a kind of iron wire that is easier to draw into wire, but the cost is just that Not cheap."
Xu Guangqi replied.
Zhu Youxiao nodded: "Send it to the palace quickly. I want to take a closer look. In addition, since the iron wire can be pulled out, the cost should be reduced as soon as possible. In the future, these iron wires will be used in many places, such as when defending against Tatars in border towns. , you can first arrange a circle of barbed wire with bells around the perimeter, which is faster and easier to detect than building a wall!"
"What your Majesty is saying is that with the emergence of these new things, the imperial court's demand for coal and iron will surge in the future. Since mining cannot be done within the customs, we must continue to explore for more mineral lands outside the customs."
Xu Guangqi replied.
"Not only is the demand for coal and iron increasing, but in the future, the number of troops will also have to increase. Not only the victims of the disaster, but also the workers who have lost their jobs due to the emergence of various steam engines. With so many soldiers, it is time to launch a large-scale war. To wipe out the Eastern Barbarians, all the Tatar tribes are nomadic tribes, it is difficult to wipe them all out, and it is difficult to cause a serious disaster. The Eastern Barbarians must be completely wiped out."
As Zhu Youxiao spoke, he looked at Zhu Xieyuan, the new cabinet minister in charge of the Ministry of War, and said: "The Ministry of War needs to set up recruitment offices in each prefecture and county to recruit all the young and strong people who have not yet had workers. First, focus on training. It must be strict, and in addition, new students in each school must also undergo a month of combat training."
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